At SFMOMA, a Small Show of Big Sculpture Has Even Bigger Implications
Art needs money. That’s especially true in the case of large public sculptures. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s Cupid’s Span, a giant bow and arrow embedded in the grass at Rincon Park,...
View ArticleCalifornia College of the Arts Will Close in 2027
California College of the Arts, the last nonprofit art and design school in Northern California, announced on Tuesday that it will “wind down its current operations” and close by the end of the...
View ArticleWhat We Will Lose When California College of the Arts Closes
On Tuesday morning at City Hall, Mayor Daniel Lurie made the surprise announcement that Vanderbilt University would open a campus in San Francisco. “Today is a big day for our city,” Lurie said, in his...
View ArticleYour Guide to MLK Day Events Around the Bay Area
This year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day marks the first year the federal holiday is not included on the list of entrance fee-free days to national parks, a choice made by the Trump administration...
View Article‘Who Is America at 250?’ Interrogates the Principles of the Land of the Free
This year marks the United States’ bisesquicentennial, or semiquincentennial, or sestercentennial, depending on what you feel like calling America’s 250th birthday. Whichever word you choose, it’s zero...
View ArticleAn Eclectic, Open-Call Art Show Returns to Works/San José
Hadi Aghaee paints former President Joe Biden with three heads: One as a demonic caricature, another as the Joker, and another as a figure frozen in rage. Biden orders soldiers as he stands atop the...
View ArticleNew Grammy Category Honors Album Covers and the Artists Behind Them
When it came time to decide the cover image for Wet Leg’s sophomore album, the British indie rock band packed items that might provide inspiration — velvet worms sewn by guitarist Hester Chambers, an...
View ArticleSFMOMA Announces 16 Finalists for the 2026 SECA Art Award
Just when the local scene could most use it, we’ve got some good news: The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has named the 16 finalists for the 2026 SECA Art Award. This year’s SECA curators,...
View ArticleIn ICA San José Show, Landscapes Offer a Makeshift Home for Ghostly Figures
Home is a complicated place for Anoushka Mirchandani. The India-born, San Francisco-based painter — currently an artist in residence at Silver Art Projects in New York City — has recently returned to...
View ArticleA New Art Installation Celebrates Oscar Grant’s 40th Birthday
Rev. Wanda Johnson, mother of the late Oscar Grant. (Mohammad Gorjestani) February 27, 2026 will mark Oscar Grant’s 40th birthday. Grant was killed at the age of 22 on New Year’s Day 2009, when he was...
View ArticleNot That Into Football? Try These Super Bowl Alt-Events
Super Bowl week is upon us, and by now you’ve likely heard of all the big-time hotshot corporate parties. Kehlani and Dom Dolla are coming to San José, Illenium is performing at the Cow Palace, and...
View ArticleISO a Patron to Bring Back SFMOMA’s Free First Thursdays
Luck has run out for the budget-conscious arts lover: starting this week, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is pausing its First Thursdays program indefinitely. That four-hour window of free...
View ArticleTime Traveling Through Cece Carpio’s New Exhibition at SOMArts
Cece Carpio. ‘Brass and Copper,’ 2017. (Brandon Robinson) Inside SOMArts gallery, the walls are adorned with sharp machete blades everywhere, and a pair of adorable, covertly embedded dangly earrings....
View ArticleAt BAMPFA, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Eloquent Art Lives On
There are so many words in Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings that it can be a bit daunting to form a written response of one’s own. The retrospective at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film...
View ArticleSOMArts to Gather SF Arts Community During ‘State of Emergency’
In recent months, SOMArts Executive Director Maria Jenson has routinely found herself huddled in small groups, debriefing on street corners. It was always after an arts community meeting organized by...
View ArticleSan Francisco Gets a Brand New Gallery — With a Focus on African Artists
Ayanda Mabulu, ‘The Load,’ 2025. (Courtesy of AOCA ) The first thing you see when you enter Art of Contemporary Africa (AOCA) — a brand new gallery at the Minnesota Street Project — are three stunning,...
View ArticleTracing Her Black Ancestry, Trina Michelle Robinson Apprehends the Past
Trina Michelle Robinson is trying to talk to ghosts. For 10 years, the San Francisco-based artist has been on a journey to uncover and share the stories of her ancestors and the legacies of Black...
View ArticleEmory Douglas on His Iconic Black Panther Art, 60 Years Later
It’s no accident that the Black Panthers remain icons of resistance 60 years after their founding. That’s not only because of their groundbreaking survival programs or armed patrols against police...
View Article