Exhibitions featuring new sculpture and installation commissions, paintings from world-renowned artists, and large-scale ceramics debut this fall at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at the University of California, Davis.

Phillip Byrne, Beatriz Cortez, Kang Seung Lee, Candice Lin: Entangled Writing opened Aug. 8. Four California artists working in sculpture and installation each present a new installation — the largest group of works the Manetti Shrem Museum has commissioned to date. The exhibition explores the way that people and objects move across time and space, allowing for multiple potentialities to exist. (The exhibition ends Dec. 29.)

Light into Density: Abstract Encounters 1920s–1960s is the museum’s first student-curated and student-designed exhibition. Most of the 15 paintings — including profound and exhilarating works by Francis Bacon, Salvador Dalí, Vassily Kandinsky and Joan Miró — are shown together for the first time. The works come from the collection of art lovers and philanthropists Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem, and are a shared gift between the Manetti Shrem Museum and SFMOMA. (On view Sept. 19, 2024–May 5, 2025)

Ritual Clay: Cathy Lu, Paz G, Maryam Yousif features three contemporary Bay Area ceramicists with a shared interest in clay who explore how their identities and experiences intersect with themes of immigration, ethnicity, race and gender in 21st century America. For Cathy Lu, Paz G and Maryam Yousif, clay is a link to the past and a conduit of cultural knowledge. (On view Sept. 19–Dec. 29)