<\/p>\n
Installation view of\u00a0\u201cRose\u00a0B. Simpson: LEXICON, \u201d at\u00a0the de\u00a0Young Museum.<\/p>\n
Gary Sexton\/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco<\/p>\n
As the United States continues to celebrate its 250th anniversary, a deeper reckoning with national identity is unfolding.<\/p>\n
\u201dWhat is America?\u201d \u2014 the question newly foregrounded by the nation\u2019s milestone \u2014 resonates across Bay Area museums and galleries as contemporary Native American art challenges old narratives. For patrons who recall these institutions displaying stolen Native artifacts as relics of a bygone civilization, the answer feels both overdue and striking.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Local museums have responded by dismantling\u00a0 their Native art wings that had long depicted Indigenous people through an anthropological lens, while galleries are offering solo shows to highlight today\u2019s most compelling Native artists.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Here are four must-see exhibitions and works showing how that shift is taking shape across the region.<\/p>\n
\u2018Rose B Simpson: Lexicon\u2019<\/p>\n
Tewa sculptor Rose B. Simpson\u2019s refurbished ceramic low-rider car dyad has generated more selfies at the de Young Museum than any other artwork in the institution\u2019s history, according to Hillary Olcott, curator for Arts of the Americas at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which also includes the Legion of Honor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n
Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Each car has its own identity. \u201cMaria,\u201d a 1985 Chevy El Camino, is a hot rod Simpson began transforming in 2014 and continues to refine. It features a black-on-black pottery-inspired design associated with iconic San Ildefonso Pueblo potter Maria Martinez.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Rose B Simpson working on her 1964 Buick Riviera, Bosque.<\/p>\n Kate Russell\/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Jessica Silverman, San Francisco and Jack Shainman, New York<\/p>\n Meanwhile, \u201cBosque,\u201d a 1964 Buick Riviera, is a true lowrider equipped with hydraulics. It incorporates polychrome Tewa pottery patterns in cream, black and terracotta.\u00a0<\/p>\n A practical descendant of matrilineal Southwestern Native potters, Simpson collaborated with Olcott, on the vehicles\u2019 installation at the de Young. They are intentionally displayed against a geometric, warmly colored backdrop to emulate her New Mexican homelands, from which the vehicles were driven to San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese are mobile vessels to bring her and her loved ones to different places and to protect them as they embody these spaces,\u201d Olcott said.\u00a0<\/p>\n 9:30 a.m.-5:15 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Through Feb 7. $11-$20; free for children 17 and younger. De Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, S.F. www.famsf.org<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Rose B\u00a0Simpson\u2019s \u201cBehold\u201d at\u00a0San Francisco Museum of\u00a0Modern\u00a0Art.<\/p>\n Don Ross\/San Francisco Museum of\u00a0Modern Art<\/p>\n \u2018Rose B Simpson: Behold\u2019<\/p>\n Simpson appears again at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, this time in the shape of a sentinel-like maternal figure holding a child.\u00a0<\/p>\n The 24-foot-tall sculpture titled \u201cBehold<\/a>,\u201d stands in the museum\u2019s upstairs courtyard, watching over the city, telegraphing a soothing calm to viewers and the at times dysfunctional surrounding streets.<\/p>\n Originally designed in clay, using a millennia-old tradition passed down through matrilineal lines, the maquette was sent off to be recast in bronze, a material tenacious enough to survive the peninsula\u2019s fog.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Rose B\u00a0Simpson\u2019s \u201cBehold\u201d at\u00a0San Francisco Museum of\u00a0Modern\u00a0Art.<\/p>\n Don Ross\/San Francisco Museum of\u00a0Modern Art<\/p>\n In January, SFMOMA announced<\/a> the acquisition of 85 works created by contemporary Native artists, including \u201cBehold\u201d and\u00a0 Brad Kahlhamer\u2019s metal dreamcatcher \u201cSupercatcher\u201d(2014)<\/a>. This marked a significant departure for SFMOMA, which had never featured contemporary Native art in its permanent collection or acknowledged it narratively in its exhibitions as foundational to abstraction and American modernism.\u00a0<\/p>\n That erasure appears especially stark when compared to other Bay Area museums quickly reconstituting their collections to include contemporary Native artists in advance of the U.S.\u2019s 250th anniversary.\u00a0<\/p>\n SFMOMA declined to provide data on how many Native artists are in their permanent collection or what share of the collection they represent, citing incomplete self-reported data. But the institution announced in2024 that it holds more than 50,000 works. With the addition of the 85 newly acquired works by contemporary Native artists, such works now account for at least 0.17% of the collection.\u00a0<\/p>\n 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Tuesday and Friday-Sunday; noon-8 p.m. $23-$30; free for children under 12 years old. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third Street, S.F. www.sfmoma.org<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Shoshoni Gensaw-Hostler (Yurok, b. 1982)\u00a0\u201cHolding Prayer, \u201d 2024.\u00a0Dentalium shells, clamshells, mother of\u00a0pearl, sinew, fabric, 10\u00d740 in. (25.4\u00d7101.6 cm)<\/p>\n Randy Dodson\/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco<\/p>\n \u2018Rooted in Place: California Native Art\u2019<\/p>\n Centering mostly living Native artists hailing from across the state of California, \u201cRooted in Place\u201d features a striking work by Karuk artist Brian D. Tripp titled \u201cSomeday You Might Have to Fight for What You Believe In\u201d (1999).\u00a0<\/p>\n The graphic, yellow-and-black abstract figurative portrait depicts an all-black geometric figure flanked by black and rich yellow triangles. The figures stand beneath a gray-and-black concentric moon opposite a swirling yellow sun embellished by red and black triangles. This composition embodies the spiritual and political core of both the exhibition and the de Young Museum\u2019s revamped Arts of Indigenous America wing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brian D. Tripp (Karuk, 1945-2022) Randy Dodson\/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco<\/p>\n \u201cRooted in Place\u201d also offers something for fashion enthusiasts: a sculptural white mantle named \u201cHolding Prayer\u201d(2026) by Yurok artist Shoshone Genshaw-Hostler. Constructed with dentalium shells, clam shells, mother of pearl, sinew and fabric, the work\u2019s inclusion isn\u2019t a surprise to Native viewers but intentionally challenges others\u2019 preconceived ideas about fine art.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In the adjacent Arts of Indigenous Americas gallery,\u00a0 Rumsen Ohlone basketweaver Linda Yamane\u2019s \u201cOhlone Feathered Basket\u201d(2025) serves as a land acknowledgement. The vibrant basket incorporates fire-colored feathers, reinforcing a theme seen across the Bay Area and increasingly embedded into Californians\u2019 consciousness.\u00a0<\/p>\n 9:30 a.m.-5:15 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Through Dec. 6. $11-$20; free for children 17 and younger. De Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, S.F. www.famsf.org<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThis Burning World\u201d (2026), vinyl facade on\u00a0the Mission Street side of\u00a0the former\u00a0Bloomingdale\u2019s building at\u00a0the San Francisco Centre.<\/p>\n Henrik Lam\/ICA SF<\/p>\n \u2018This Burning World\u2019<\/p>\n Along Market Street in San Francisco, the economic dead zone is revived by Mississippi Choctaw-Cherokee painter Jeffrey Gibson\u2019s digital landscape,\u201cThis Burning World,\u201d commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco and projected onto the former Bloomingdale\u2019s edifice.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Someday You Might Have to\u00a0Fight for What You Believe In, \u201d 1999
Acrylic on\u00a0canvas, Overall: 69\u00d745 in. (175.26\u00d7114.3 cm)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n