Clik here to view.
How Bay Area Art Galleries Are Confronting Their Role in the Climate Crisis
Most Bay Area residents will never forget that eerie September day in 2020 when the sky turned an apocalyptic orange from wildfire smoke—a wildfire caused and made worse by climate change. Deeply...
View ArticleClik here to view.
At MoAD, David Huffman’s ‘Terra Incognita’ Explores Black Trauma Among the Stars
David Huffman’s ‘Treehuggers #4,’2008, is part of a large survey at San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora, spanning three decades of the artists’ work. (Courtesy of the artist) When we think...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A 415 Day Lineup of San Francisco Rap Connects the Culture’s History With its...
Area codes have always been a thing in rap. (Just ask Ludacris.) But in 1991, Bay Area area code representation got a little murky. That’s the year the East Bay ceded its 415 area code to the West Bay...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Guo Pei’s Fashion at the Legion of Honor Dazzles in a Merger of East and West
The first word that comes to mind when entering the Legion of Honor’s Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy exhibition is “extravagance.” The Chinese designer’s exquisite silk “Da Jin,” for example, inspired by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Deeper Look at Jim Henson, the Man Behind the Muppets, and His Unbridled...
“As children, we all live in a world of imagination, of fantasy, and for some of us that world of make-believe continues into adulthood.” These are the words of legendary puppeteer, actor and filmmaker...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Kelly Inouye’s Giant Watercolors Recall the Power of ’80s MTV
The first time I stood in a room with the outsized icons of Kelly Inouye’s MTV Generation, a show of large-scale watercolor paintings, I was immediately transported back to my childhood. Back to 1983...
View ArticleClik here to view.
San Francisco Has a New Gallery For Trans Artists, By Trans Artists
Over the past two years, the City has hemorrhaged thousands of residents seeking more affordable housing or a break from urban living during a pandemic. But some San Franciscans have used that time to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Spellbound Sculptures Fill ‘Compost Problems’ with Witchy Beauty
There are days when it’s really good to be alone with art. When it’s good to be away, for even half an hour, from the internet and the news. In the best instances, time with art is time spent with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Indigenous Enterprise Brings Powwow Dancing to the World Stage
Kenneth Shirley, a Diné champion Fancy War dancer from Phoenix, Arizona, grew up immersed in Native culture. He took pride in being from a region that recognized 22 Native tribes. So when he founded...
View ArticleClik here to view.
At Legion of Honor, Life in Pompeii—And Bread—Preserved For Millennia
Thank goodness the food items in Last Supper in Pompeii: From the Table to the Grave were already well-preserved. The exhibition had originally been scheduled to open at the Legion of Honor in April...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Oakland is Unaffordable—Meet the Hustlers Securing Spaces for Artists
Editor’s note: Two years into the pandemic, artists are charting new paths forward. Across the Bay Area, they’re advocating for better pay, sharing resources and looking out for their communities’...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Society’s Cage’ Conveys the Oppressive Weight of America’s Racism
Randolph Belle stands in front of ‘Society’s Cage,’ an art installation currently at Oakland City Hall. (Pendarvis Harshaw/KQED) After police officers killed George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Your Guide to This Summer’s Don’t-Miss Visual Art Shows
The Bay Area exhibition schedule is back in full force! It’s a good thing the majority of the 12 recommendations below have long runs, allowing you ample time to flit from North Bay to South Bay to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Señor Gigio Brings His Galaxies to Ours
Señor Gigio holds up his comic book and shows off his pins as he sits at Club Mallard in Albany. (Pendarvis Harshaw/KQED) To escape the news headlines about mass shootings, the surging cost of living,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lindy Hop Dancers Bring Back the Roots of this Black American Dance
The jazz band is swinging hard as two Black dancers Charleston in the middle of a jam. The crowd roars as one kicks wildly in every direction and then drops into a jazz split. This isn’t 1922—it’s May...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In Ari Bird’s World, Oddly Satisfying Everyday Objects Become Oversized Art
Imagine your everyday household objects: an abandoned crusty tube sock, a single earring, the bread clip that holds a bag together. For Oakland and San Diego-based visual artist Ari Bird, these banal...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Driving Transports You in Gwenaël Rattke’s Collage Show at Romer Young
For many of us, freeways are a means to get from point A to point B, quickly. We don’t often consider the structure of the thing we’re zooming across (or by) unless we find ourselves stopped on it,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In ‘Helina Metaferia: All Put Together,’ Headdresses Reflect Women’s Power
Around the world and throughout history, humans have worn headdresses to reflect social status, amplify distinctive characteristics and pay tribute to personal and social history. In Helina Metaferia:...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Faith Ringgold’s Art Was Never Squashed by the Reality of America
When an artist has been creating work in various forms for six decades, that work becomes known to different audiences in different ways. For 91-year-old Faith Ringgold, the breadth and volume of her...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sucka Free History with Dregs One
San Francisco lyricist and graffiti writer Dregs One is making sure Bay Area hip-hop culture is properly documented, and at the same time he’s becoming a recognized historian. In a series of videos he...
View Article