“Comical and Cynical,” an exhibition of contemporary Japanese photography.

BERKELEY — Kala Art Institute will present a talk by photography critic and curator Mika Kobayashi on Tuesday, Sept. 23, at 7 p.m.

Kobayashi is currently a Patterson Curatorial Fellow at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She is working in the Bay Area on a research project that focuses on works by Japanese photographers in SFMOMA’s permanent collection.

One of Kobayashi’s recent curatorial projects, “Heavy Light: Recent Photography and Video from Japan,” was presented at International Center for Photography in New York. She also garnered much attention for “Comical & Cynical,” an exhibition of contemporary Japanese photography that was presented in an indoor swimming pool in Osaka.

Kobayashi presented a lecture about postwar Japanese photography at SFMOMA in September.

As always, the Kala Gallery talks are free of charge and open to the public. The institute is located at 1060 Heinz Ave. in Berkeley. For more information call (510) 549-2977, or visit www.kala.org.