Closing soon
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The gallery scene
Ashley Voss updates a local gallery guide weekly. Check out the guide’s Instagram account and website.
At the Museums
As you can see, lots of great exhibits close at the end of today, so it is time to make it a Sunday of museums.
To artists: the city is launching its competition for the 2027 Art on Market Street Poster Series. From the city’s website: ” The 2027 Program will feature the work of four artists/artist teams with each series on view for a period of three months…” You can learn more here.
To art supporters, there are donations to be made and fêtes to attend:
It’s a difficult time for many of the city’s museums and cultural centers. The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts has suspended operations. City Hall promises action, but in the meantime, it’s a significant loss of children’s programming, exhibits, and events. You can donate here.
Tuesday to Sunday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.
This is the last day to see “Manet and Morisot.” On Monday, it will be gone!
Julie Zigoris writes that the exhibit “will give museum-goers the opportunity for the first time to understand how deeply the two French painters were in conversation with one another.”
It’s a wonderful exhibit. Paintings that make you want to get closer.
Berthe Morisot
“Intérieur,” 1872
Oil on canvas, 23 5/8 x 28 11/16 in. (59.944 x 72.898 cm)
Private Collection
Photograph by Randy Dodson, courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Édouard Manet
“The Balcony,” 1868-69
Oil on canvas, 66 15/16 x 49 3/16 in., (170 x 125 cm)
Musée d’Orsay
© RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY
Édouard Manet, The Exposition Universelle
, 1867.
Installation view of “Manet & Morisot” at the de Young Museum, San Francisco, 2025. Photograph by Gary Sexton. Image courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Berthe Morisot
“Reading,” 1873
Oil on fabric,
18 1/8 x 28 1/4 in. (46 x 71.8 cm)
Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Hanna Fund, 1950.89
“Drawn to Venice” opened and will be on until Aug. 2, 2026. The exhibition is designed to be “in dialogue with Monet and Venice, on view March 21, 2026–July 26, 2026 at the de Young.”
Bust of a Girl Holding an Apple. Drawing. Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (Italian, 1682-1754). Museum purchase, Bruno and Sadie Adriani, Ludwig A. Emge, Ruth Haas Lilienthal, Roscoe and Margaret Oakes Income Fund, and Lucie Stern Fund.
Portrait of a Lady as Diana. Drawing. Rosalba Giovanna Carriera (Italian, 1671-1757). Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Prentis Cobb Hale Jr.
The exhibit includes 30 drawings and prints from 16th-century Venice – landscapes and figure studies – from such artists as Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696–1770), Rosalba Carriera (1673–1757) and Canaletto (1697–1768).
“Ferlinghetti for San Francisco” draws from the museum’s collection of prints, etchings and lithographs. Here is a 2012 profile from SFGate of the poet, artist, activist and founder of City Lights Book Store. The show is open until July 19, 2026.
Ferlinghetti died in 2021, but what a life. Even before arriving in San Francisco, he had earned a master’s degree from Columbia University and a doctorate from the Sorbonne.
If you get into Ferlinghetti‘s history, visit the Counter Culture Museum, City Lights Book Store and the Beat Museum.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
You can view the Legion of Honor’s full list of exhibitions here.
The museum offers Free Saturdays to residents of the Bay Area’s nine counties.
Open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
A friend just saw “The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot” and loved it. It is at the museum’s venue at 835 Larkin St and runs every Friday and Saturday at 7:00 p.m. You can get tickets here. Chris Carlsson writes about the 1966 riots and resistance on FoundSF, a great resource for history.
The San Francisco Chronicle wrote about the Tenderloin Museums’ planned expansion to 10,000 square feet from 3,000, adding a room for San Francisco’s neon history, including a sign from Hunt’s Donuts, once based in the Mission District and known as the “epicenter of crime.”
There is a lot more going on at the Tenderloin Museum, including the permanent collection that explores the neighborhood’s history and upcoming events, such as a walking tour focused on the area’s LGBTQIA+ history. Other walking tours are listed here.
“Echoes in the Small Mountain: Park Dae-sung and the West Coast” is open until July 26.
Dae-sung (b. 1945) is “credited with reinventing the techniques of traditional Korean ink painting,” according to the museum’s website. The paintings are based on California landscapes and are spectacular.
“Jitish Kallat: Covering Letter (Terranum Nuncius)” invites visitors to reflect on the things that unite humanity.
Image: Jitish Kallat, Covering Letter (Terranum Nuncius) (2018–2021), detail and installation view. 116 stereoscopic parallax prints on Plexiglas, programmed LED panels, frames, wooden shelves and bench, 4 horn speakers, video projection. Image courtesy of the artist and Ishara Art Foundation. Photography by Ismail Noor / Seeing Things.
Chandigarh-based artist Gurjeet Singh’s show “When Words Hurt” is open through March 23, 2026.
Pricky Words, 2024. by Gurjeet Singh. Photo courtesy of the Asian Art Museum
You will also see cutting-edge claywork from Japan in “New Japanese Clay.”
The museum has a series, “Takeout Tuesdays,” where you can meet online to talk about a piece of art with docents and others.
General admission is free on the first Sunday of every month – yes, today– and the special exhibitions are discounted. Here is more information for free and reduced-cost admission. The museum also hosts a robust list of events.
I love the outdoor murals along Hyde Street by artist and activist Kayan Cheung-Miaw. “This Asian American Life” shows scenes from Chinatown from the POV of a child. It is part of a public-art series on Chinatown’s mothers, workers and tenants.
This Asian American Life, 2025, by Kayan Cheung-Miaw. Commissioned by the Asian Art Museum. Photo by David Armstrong.
“Tabi Tabi Po: Come Out with the Spirits!” featuring the works of artist and muralist Cece Carpio is open and on view until March 29.
Cece Carpio
Anagolay
Acrylic on canvas
2019
Cece Carpio
Gumeng at Mula’s White Lies
Acrylic on wood
2025
Cece Carpio
Ylang at Ylang
Acrylic on Canvas
2025
Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m; Wednesday, closed; Thursday, noon to 8 p.m.
“Suzanne Jackson: What is Love,” on view through March 1, features 80 paintings and drawings, marking the first retrospective of her career. Teresa Moore writes in Mission Local that it “a fitting show for a phenomenal artist.”
Suzanne Jackson, El Paradiso, 1981–84; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee Fund purchase, by exchange, through a gift of Michael D. Abrams
Suzanne Jackson, High Frost, 1982; the Joyner/Giuffrida Collection
Suzanne Jackson, a history drawing-cracked wall, 2016–19; collection George and Keren Davis
Portrait of Suzanne Jackson, 2025
The museum announced its finalists for the SECA awards: Sholeh Asgar, Windy Chien, CrossLypka, Soleé Darrell, Hughen/Starkweather, Xandra Ibarra, Em Kettner, Charles H. Lee, Yameng Lee Thorp, Aspen Mays, Adia Millett, Lorena Molina, Tricia Rainwater, Chanell Stone, Livien Yin, Jes Young.
The winners will be announced in April and a show of their work will go up in December. The award highlights Bay Area artists who have yet to receive “substantial recognition from a major institution.” It’s interesting to look at their work. Any favorites? I’m partial to Livien Yin and her big oils of everyday life.
“Rose B Simpson: Behold,” is on view on SFMOMA’s fourth-floor terrace a bronze sculpture visible from multiple locations. And good news! It has been extended through February 7, 2027.
Also new: “Samia Halaby: Kinetic paintings,” four new works in SFMOMA’s Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Atrium.
Samia Halaby, Fold 2, 1988 (still); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee purchase, by exchange, through a gift of Michael D. Abrams; courtesy the artist and Sfeir-Semler Gallery Beirut/Hamburg; © Samia Halaby
“Alejandro Cartagena: Ground Rules” is on view until April 19.
Alejandro Cartagena, Rivers of Power #71, from the series Rivers of Power, 2010–16© Alejandro Cartagena, courtesy the artist
Alejandro Cartagena, Suburban Bus #56, from the series Suburban Bus, 2016; © Alejandro Cartagena, courtesy the artist
Alejandro Cartagena, Invisible Line DAUGHTER #34, from the series Invisible Line, 2010–17; © Alejandro Cartagena, courtesy the artist
Alejandro Cartagena, Carpoolers #21, from the series Carpoolers, 2011–12; © Alejandro Cartagena, courtesy the artist
Mission Local’s Marina Newman went to Cartagena’s talk in November, to discover that the photographer has moved away from photography.
KAWS: Family is open until May 3, 2026. The exhibit features more than 100 artworks created over three decades. KAWS (Brian Donnelly) began painting graffiti in Jersey City and Manhattan, but in 1996 received his BFA in illustration from the School of Visual Arts.
We sent Charles Lewis III to take a look.
“In his younger days, Donnelly would snatch subway advertisements, integrate his own characters and then replace the advertisements, making it seem as if his designs were always a part of the image,” Lewis writes. In the new show, he writes “for KAWS, family is about the art of marketing.”
The New York Times has a 2021 profile of KAWS here. He’s controversial, to say the least.
The exhibit includes a 36-foot-tall inflatable sculpture on SFMOMA’s rooftop.
KAWS. Courtesy of SFMOMA.
The photo exhibit, “(Re)Constructing History” fills three rooms on the third floor. The title plays on Carrie Mae Weems’ featured series “Constructing History,” asking viewers to consider “the layers of history we encounter through a seemingly fixed image.” A contemporary Black artist — including Nona Faustine, Carla Williams, and Dawoud Bey — anchors each room.
Carrie Mae Weems, The Tragedy of Hiroshima, from the series Constructing History, 2008; promised gift of Paul Sack to the Sack Photographic Trust; © Carrie Mae Weems.
Nona Faustine, From Her Body Came Their Greatest Wealth, Wall St, NYC, 2013; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, purchase through a gift of Ty Ahmad-Taylor and Accessions Committee purchase, by exchange, through a gift of Michael D. Abrams; © Nona Faustine.
Rephotographic Survey Project, Rick Dingus for the Rephotographic Survey Project, 1978. Witches Rocks, Weber Valley, Utah., 1977–79; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Rephotographic Survey Project.
Dawoud Bey, Untitled #17 (Forest), from the series Night Coming Tenderly, Black, 2017; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Dawoud Bey.
Carla Williams, Side, from the series How to Read Character, 1990, printed 2024; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee purchase, by exchange, through a gift of Michael D. Abrams; © Carla Williams.
Carlos Villa; image: courtesy SFAI Legacy Foundation and Archives
“People Make This Place: SFAI Stories” is open through July 5, 2026, at SFMOMA. The exhibit looks at the the San Francisco Art Institute’s importance to the local arts eco-system and includes work from 50 alumni and former faculty in the museum’s collection.
“New Work: Sheila Hicks” on the fourth floor illustrates how Hicks turns fiber into sculpture.
Museum of the African Diaspora
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, noon to 8 p.m.
The Museum of the African Diaspora has reopened and has two new exhibitions, “Unbound: Art, Blackness and the Universe,” which opened Oct. 1 and runs through Aug. 16, 2026 and “Continuum: MoAD Over Time, which also opened October 1 and will run through March 1, 2026.
Chester Higgins. Courtesy of MoAD. 
Lava Thomas. Courtesy of MoAD
Ramekon. Courtesy of MoAD.
Teresa Moore reviews “Unbound” this week writing, “Over three floors, she (curatorial chief Key Jo Lee) presents an African diaspora that is “unbound” from earthly and chronological conceptions of diaspora.”
Didier William Dark Shores,2024. Courtesy of the artist and Altman Siegel
Rodney Ewing. Light Years: A Cenotaph for a Better Place,2025. Courtesy of Rena Bransten Gallery, SF and the artist.
Oasa DuVerney BLACK POWER WAVE as Bodhisattva Manjushri Sankofa, 2023, Courtesy of the artist and Welancora Gallery
Tuesday to Sunday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.
Saturdays are free for residents of the Bay Area’s nine counties.
There is a lot happening at the de Young.
In connection with the Bouquets to Art exhibit, there is a talk on photography by artist Kija Lucas on March 7. Tickets are here.
“Boom and Bust: Photographing Northern California,” featuring photographs of “San Francisco before and after the 1906 earthquake and fire, the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge, and the development of San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood.”
Janet Delaney, “Mercantile Building, Mission and 3rd Street,” 1980.. Photograph by Jorge Bachmann, courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Arnold Genthe, “The Street of Painted Balconies, from the Chinatown Series,” ca. 1896 
Daniel Postaer, “San Francisco, Fillmore Street,” 2012
Willard E. Worden, “An Awe-Inspiring View of the Burning City from a Hastily Improvised Campsite West of Van Ness Avenue and Fort Mason, in the District Now Known as the Marina,” 1906
Willard E. Worden, “The Cliff House (Low Tide),” 1904
San Francisco General Hospital Buildings 80 and 90 circa 1937. Photo courtesy UCSF, San Francisco General Hospital archives.
Carleton E. Watkins, “The Golden Gate from Telegraph Hill, San Francisco,” 1868
Artist Rose B. Simpson’s show “LEXICON” will be on until Feb 7, 2027.
Noma Faingold writes in her review, “Coming from a long line of Native American ceramic artists of the Santa Clara Pueblo (Kha’po’oe Ówîngeh), based just south of Española, New Mexico, pottery is in Simpson’s DNA. While she still lives at the pueblo and has her studio close by, she has forged a different creative path, while examining the past, present and future.”
Rose Simpson rebuild of a Buick Riviera, leaving her shop on the Santa Claran Pueblo, loading with Dylan Madri. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Simpson’s exhibit is all part of the opening of four galleries dedicated to Arts of Indigenous America, which draws on the permanent collections, new acquisitions and artists like Simpson.
The New York Times has an excellent piece by Carolina A. Miranda on the development of the Arts of Indigenous America galleries.
“Leilah Babirye: We Have a History” is the Ugandan artist’s first solo show in the United States. It closes May 26, 2026, Babirye creates sculptures in ceramic, wood and discarded objects.
I don’t know her work, but am excited to get to know it. Here is an excellent introductory video with Babirye and the curator of SFMOMA’s African collection, Natasha Becker. Contemporary artists like Babirye are being invited to have their work in conversation with the museum’s excellent permanent collection.
Thursday,1 to 8 p.m. and free to all; Friday to Sunday: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; closed Monday to Wednesday.
On March 14th, there is a 10-year anniversary celebration.
This place looks to have many interesting offerings, including a new portfolio of French sign painters alphabets and a collection ofChinese lettering manuals.
“Piet Zwart: Brand Architect” opened Nov. 8.
From the website: “From the 1920s to the 1960s, Zwart profoundly influenced both the Netherlands and the international graphic design community, and many of his works are celebrated as milestones in design history.”
There are many great examples of his work in this piece by Steven Heller, a former senior art director at The New York Times.
And here is more from the Letterform Archive when it reprinted “Inside NKF: Piet Zwart’s Avant-Garde Catalog for Standard Cables, 1927–1928.” It also publishes his seminal essay, “from old to new typography.”
The new, he writes, “rejects a predetermined formal structure, but builds up forms according to the function … the new typography incorporates active red as a functional element: as a signal, an eye-catcher.” Sounds like an interesting fellow.
See all events and programming here.
“Localization: 15 Years of LetterSeed” opened in mid-August. It explores Korean typography.
A pop-up exhibition co-curated by Chris Hamamoto, Su Hyun Leem, and Jeewoon Jung
The Letterform Archive is a nonprofit arts center focused on graphic design.
California Academy of Sciences
Monday to Saturday, 9:30 a.m to 5 p.m; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m; Thursday, NightLife (21+ with ID): 6 to 10 p.m. (Last entry is always one hour before closing time.)
There’s a lot going on here.
The newly renovated Wilson Family Nature Lab is open with lots of hands-on learning.
WelcomeWinterNight 2024. Courtesy of the California Academy of Science
Nature Lab Opening. Courtesy of the California Academy of Arts
WelcomeWinterNight 2024. Courtesy of the California Academy of Science
WelcomeWinterNight 2024. Courtesy of the California Academy of Science
“Big Picture” competition winners are on view.
Make sure to plan ahead and see the admission and ticketing page for more information. Also, see how you can get a free or reduced rate for your next visit.
Wednesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
We have more museums in town. This one is at the corner of Haight and Ashbury streets with a whole lot of San Francisco history.
I could see a whole weekend, or a couple of weekdays, spent between the Counterculture Museum, the Beat Museum and the “Ferlingetti for San Francisco” show at the Legion of Honor. It would be like a graduate seminar on the late ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.
Thursday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The Beat Museum is at 540 Broadway, across the street from City Lights, the bookstore founded by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
“We are dedicated to carrying on the Beats’ legacy by exposing their work to new audiences, encouraging journeys — both interior and exterior — and being a resource on how one person’s perspective can have meaning to many,” according to a statement from the museum.
This sounds like a great place to visit.
Friday and Saturday, noon to 5 p.m.: Free self-guided tours. Saturday at 4 p.m.: A guided tour for $20.
500 Capp Street and Root Division are collaborating on Open Your Eyes to Water, a solo exhibition of the work of San Francisco-based visual artist Trina Michelle Robinson that spans both venues.
2. A still from Transposing Landscapes- A Requiem for Charles Young, 2025
Memory Index_ Imagined Family Heirlooms
Trina Michelle Robinson Studio Portrait
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Wednesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; free on Wednesdays and second Sundays.
“The Prince of Homburg: A Solo Exhibition by P. Staff” runs until June 24. From the website: “Loosely inspired by Heinrich von Kleist’s 1810 play of the same name, the work explores exhaustion as a response to structural oppression. The centerpiece of the installation is a 23-minute video…”
Museum of Craft and Design (MCD)
Thursday to Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.
Video Craft is open until August 16. From the website: “Video Craft explores the formal and technical properties that video, film, and early moving image technologies share with more traditional craft media like ceramics, textiles, and glass.”
The images look stunning.
Greg Climer, The Animated Quilt of Nathan and Bryan,
2022. Courtesy of the artist.
Senga Nengudi, Warp Trance, 2007. Installation view,
Another Energy: Power to Continue Challenging—16
Women Artists from around the World, Mori Art Museum,
Tokyo, 2021
Photo by Furukawa Yuya. Photo courtesy of Mori Art
Museum, Tokyo.
Ahree Lee, Bojagi, 2015, Digital video with sound, 15m.
Courtesy of the artist.
Richard Vijgen, Hyperthread, 2024, various yarns. Photo
courtesy of Studio Richard Vijgen.
San Francisco State University’s Fine Arts Gallery
The gallery is open Tuesday to Friday, noon to 4 p.m.
“Slowburn” open is on. “Guest curated by Lorena Molina, slow burn centers how BIPOC artists use slowness as a form of refusal and a way to highlight the systems of oppression that structure their lives,” according to the press release.
Ana Mendieta- Title Untitled (Blood Sign #2/Body Tracks) Video, 1974 (Courtesy of Walker Art Center)
Elaine Nguyen Title: Ngoại ăn, Ngoại có sức khỏe,
Maria Gaspar Title: Disappearance Jail (excerpt series)
Hundreds of perforated Archival Inkjet prints on rice paper, 5 x 7, 2021-Ongoing (Courtesy of the Artist)
Photo documentation credit: Clare Britt
Tesora Garcia. Tesora’s Third Eye
San Francisco State University’s Global Museum
It’s a teaching lab and open to the public during the school year – Oct. through May. 11 a.m. to. 4 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday, and by appointment. Location: Fine Arts Building, Room 203
Now on: “Craft or Commodity?” And “Please Touch!” “Both exhibits focus on themes of responsible stewardship of cultural heritage, decolonizing museum work, and expanding accessible museum experiences,” writes Marley Townsend, a graduate student in Museum Studies.
Thursday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Happiest Place on Earth: The Disneyland Story” is open. The museum described it as a “treasure trove of Disney history” taking “will take “guests behind the scenes of one of the most groundbreaking endeavors of the 20th century—the creation and opening of Disneyland in Anaheim, California.”
The museum is showing rare objects featured in the book “Walt Disney Treasures: Personal Art and Artifacts from The Walt Disney Family Museum.” The objects will change every two months.
Visit the museum’s website for more information on admission costs and reduced ticketing options. The special exhibits are free with a suggested $5 admission fee.
Closed Mondays. Sunday, 10 a.m. to noon (members/donors only); noon to 5 p.m. for everyone. Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, 6 to 10 p.m. for 18+.
Experience After Dark at Pier 15. Every Thursday evening, immerse yourself in more than 700 interactive exhibits. For people 18 and older. The museum advertises a carefree environment with new themes each night. Here is information for reduced admission.
The Chinese Historical Society of America
The museum is closed for renovations, according to its website.
The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts
Closed until further notice.
See the center’s website for offerings.
Institute for Contemporary Art
The Institute is now nomadic and leaving its permanent home. You can read more about the decision here.
The museum closed in December for at least a year as it works out its financial situation. You can learn more here. Laura Waxmann wrote a good piece for the San Francisco Chronicle about the difficulties museums are facing.
Its closure is a reminder to visit our museums.