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People are Surfing Under Smoky Orange Skies in San Francisco
When the Bay Area woke up this morning, the skies were deep orange. Some saw it as a sign of the apocalypse and went back to bed. Others played David Bowie or watched Blade Runner 2049. Just about...
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Future Artifacts Gaze Back in Erica Deeman’s ‘Familiar Stranger’
This time last year, I’d just published an annual, obligatory “10 Art Shows to See this Fall”-type story, previewing the exhibitions and events to look forward to in the months ahead. Early September...
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Kija Lucas’ ‘Museum’ Photographs the Reassuring Burden of Sentimental Stuff
The impetus behind Kija Lucas’ ongoing project, Museum of Sentimental Taxonomy was a desire to understand our stubborn attachments to our material surroundings. “I started wondering about why we hold...
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Grand Nationxl: A Wolf Pack of Artists
On my first listen to the nine-track project Twice on Sunday (Season 1) by Grand Nationxl, I knew it was a significant piece of art. I had no idea it was the first shot in a series of blows that the...
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A New Graphic Novel Makes the Stories of Guantánamo Bay Visible
As complicated and multifaceted as it might seem, the story of Guantánamo Bay, “the world’s most infamous prison,” is actually quite straightforward. “What I realized while working on this is there’s...
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The de Young Museum Will Reopen to the Public on Sept. 25
After six months—or six lifetimes, depending on your method of counting—the de Young Museum will reopen to the public on Friday, Sept. 25. (Members can sneak in a few days early, starting Sept. 22.)...
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SFMOMA, Asian Art Museum Announce Reopenings in Early October
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Asian Art Museum have announced their reopening dates after over six months of closure due to COVID-19. The Asian Art Museum will reopen on Saturday, Oct....
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On Being the Only One in Fraenkel Gallery’s ‘I’m Not the Only One’
Anyone who has worked in a gallery or museum can attest to the lasting memory grooves a looped audio or video piece can cut into your brain. One particular animated video from a summer group show has...
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Artists Team up With Critical Resistance to Make Prison Abolition Irresistible
While the idea of prison abolition hit mainstream consciousness only recently as part of the uprising for racial justice in response to the killing of George Floyd, the concept—and the movement for its...
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Interface Marks its Final ‘Threshold’ with an Elegant Two-Person Show
It’s the final days of Interface Gallery, an arts space that for the past nine years has carved out a pocket of defiantly noncommercial experimentation in a Temescal alley otherwise dominated by...
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Bay Area Museums Exhibit Caution in Gradual and Pending Reopenings
After more than six months of closure, museums in parts of the Bay Area are starting to bring visitors back. Visiting San Francisco’s de Young Museum on the first of three member preview days ahead of...
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Robert Bechtle, Photorealist Painter of the Everyday Middle Class, Dies at 88
Robert Bechtle,”61 Pontiac,’ 1968–1969. (©1969 Robert Bechtle/Whitney Museum of American Art) Robert Bechtle, whose paintings of cars, families and intersections transformed the mundane into the...
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If Silicon Valley Were a Sculpture, What Would It Look Like?
What is the structure that will say to the world, “Behold! This is Silicon Valley! Look upon me — and then take a selfie for your social media feeds!” Could it be “Nebula Tower,” shown above? From the...
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Meet the Artist Illustrating COVID-19 Disparities in San Francisco
The past six months have been punctuated by brutality and inequality. The COVID-19 pandemic. Police killing people of color, and the subsequent, ongoing Black Lives Matter protests. Police use of...
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Headlands to End Affiliate Artist Program, Launch Bay Area Fellowships
In the middle of a chaotic and universally terrible year, artist Daniel Southard received the happy news that he had been accepted into Headlands Center for the Arts’ affiliate artist program. It meant...
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The Townfolk Project, Documenting Oakland’s Community
About two years ago photographer Scott La Rockwell started taking photos of longtime Oakland residents and interviewing them about their roots in the Town. He published the pieces online, calling it:...
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What’s On Your Ballot?: Artist Lava Thomas
In 2020, the United States faces an election like no other. Citizens will vote in the midst of a global pandemic, severe climate change, an uprising for racial justice and an administration that has...
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What’s On Your Ballot?: Christy Chan, Artist, Filmmaker and Storyteller
In 2020, the United States faces an election like no other. Citizens will vote in the midst of a global pandemic, severe climate change, an uprising for racial justice and an administration that has...
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Christina Corfield Tells Stories of Past Technologies Through Analog Means
In a world reliant on digital technology, it’s easy to forget the extremely analog materials we use to contain and distribute those high-tech goods to homes all over the world. That is: paper and...
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Frederick Douglass’ ‘Lessons’ Resound in the Contemporary Moment
He was a writer, orator and social reformer, each of those roles shaped by his former status as an enslaved person. Frederick Douglass committed his abundant talents to abolishing slavery, and in doing...
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