Lauren McKeon’s ‘Humanity Spectrum’ Welcomes You to a Well-Made World
Some of the works in Lauren McKeon’s installation at Oakland’s LAND AND SEA are so sly that during the opening, I mistook a denim-wrapped pipe as a possible piece of art. But upon second glance, I...
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Tales of Basquiat’s Teenage Years Told by Downtown Glitterati
You won’t hear the young Basquiat say a word in Sara Driver’s new documentary. Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat circles the young artist in a nonlinear collage of found...
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Energy in the Brush: Contemporary Chinese Ink Paintings at Cantor
What do you think of when you think of traditional Chinese ink painting? To start with, ink on paper and silk. Then, century upon century of graceful, languid calligraphy and dreamy landscapes and...
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With Art, Bay Area Brujas Honor Ancestors and Heal Themselves
When I talk to the dead, sometimes I talk to people I know, like my grandmother. Other times I talk to women who I don’t want forgotten, like the immigrants who didn’t make it across the border, or the...
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What are Those Weird Images on Top of the Salesforce Tower?
The top of the Salesforce Tower has some weird things going on—you might have noticed. Here, I preempt some of the questions you might have about San Francisco-based artist Jim Campbell’s installation...
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Artist Robert Indiana Dies at 89: The Story Behind ‘LOVE’
Fifty years after his LOVE painting made Robert Indiana a sensation, the artist has died at the age of 89. Indiana’s two-row rendering of the word, with its tilted “O,” became one of the most...
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The 7 Most Instagrammable Public Art Spots in the Bay Area
In the Bay Area, art is all around you; it’s simply a matter of knowing where to look. While galleries and museums rightfully boast about their summer shows, you don’t necessarily have to step foot in...
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Brandi Chastain’s Hall of Fame Plaque Looks Like Basically Anyone But Her
It was supposed to be an honor. In a ceremony Monday night at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, U.S. soccer great Brandi Chastain was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame. She...
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No Laughing Matter: Magritte’s ‘Fifth Season’ is Beautiful, Serious Stuff
Step right up, step right up! For just an extra $8 on top of your $25 museum ticket, you too can secure timed entry to the René Magritte exhibition The Fifth Season! Wind your way in line through a...
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René Yañez, Revered Chicano Artist and Gallery Founder, Dies
René Yañez, the Chicano artist who helped introduce the United States to Dia de Los Muertos and the work of Frida Kahlo, died Tuesday morning from cancer. He was 75. Yañez’s son Rio announced his...
View ArticlePrince, Before the Fame, Shown in New Photo Exhibition
Prince recorded his debut album For You over 40 years ago at the Record Plant in Sausalito. By all accounts, he clashed with the producer hired by the record label throughout the recording and...
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San Francisco to Unveil Public Art Celebrating Relationship with Israeli City
San Francisco officials will unveil a new public art installation Thursday morning that celebrates the city’s sister relationship with Haifa, the third largest city in Israel. The ceremony is scheduled...
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In Their Versions of the West, the Landscapes Are Never Empty
From 1954 to 1999, Marlboro cigarette advertisements featured a hypermasculine cowboy riding a horse against the backdrop of a Southwestern or Rocky Mountain scene. The images projected a sense of...
View ArticleOakland Library Wins Grant to Digitize Unused Footage of the Black Panther Party
The African American Museum & Library at Oakland (AAMLO) announced this week that it won an almost-$20,000 grant to digitize and preserve donated archival footage of the Black Panther Party. The...
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This Room is Thought to Have Been Michelangelo’s Secret Hideaway
It was an art historian’s chance discovery of a lifetime. Over 40 years ago, a museum director in Florence, Italy, found a hidden room whose walls were covered in drawings believed to be the work of...
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How a Grassroots Arts Program Shaped the SF Art Scene, 50 Years On
“The N.A.P. was going like a house afire.” When interviewed in Susan Wels’ 2013 book San Francisco: Arts for the City – Civic Art and Urban Change, 1932-2012, former San Francisco Arts Commission...
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Enrique Chagoya Packs Elusive Meaning and Acerbic Humor into Wild Pastiche
It’s difficult to write about Enrique Chagoya’s art. Much of the San Francisco–based artist’s work is seemingly narrative, and Chagoya’s rich imagery and text provide numerous jumping-off points. But...
View ArticleRock Papers Scissors Taking Applications for Ara Jo Memorial Fund
Oakland-based art collective Rock Paper Scissors announced this week that it is accepting applications for a new arts fund that honors the memory of an artist lost in the Ghost Ship Fire. Through July...
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Nine New Murals To See in Oakland This Summer
After last month’s Oakland Mural Festival, Oakland’s already-rich street art scene gained nine more stunning surfaces coated with public art. KQED Arts takes you on a tour to find out more about the...
View ArticleCelebrating Bobby Castro, Photographer of San Francisco’s Punkest Moments
Bobby Castro, the photographer who documented San Francisco’s wilder side in the 1970s and ’80s, died Monday. He was 66. Although mostly unrecognized outside of the Bay Area, Castro photographed...
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