In San Francisco, it’s easy to spot public art underfoot, say stencil graffiti on a sidewalk or a mural on a street. But it takes a careful eye to locate the new ground-level art that’s ‘invading’ neighborhoods on the city’s 4 x 4-inch-square drain covers.
The small artworks are the calling cards of San Francisco artist DraINvader, who’s on a mission to cover sewer drain holes with something worth noticing.
“The idea is, every piece solves a real problem while adding something beautiful,” he said.
For the past several months, DraINvader has been steadily installing his pieces on city sidewalks. Each customized square plate features a 3-D printed image, such as a butterfly, a Day of the Dead skull or Star Wars’ R2-D2.
The majority of his drain covers are in Alamo Square, Duboce Triangle and the Lower Haight, with several on Divisadero Street and cross streets like Page and Waller.
These neighborhoods are close to where he lives, but are also where he ends up finding a lot of drains in need of covers.
“I am very deliberate in only installing over places where the cover is missing,” he explained. “Occasionally, I’ve attached a cover to the top of an existing one, but I’ll never remove them. That’s part of the ethos of it — to just be additive.”
The DraINvader moniker keeps the focus on his art, and it’s also a nod to the French street artist Invader, known for his pixelated mosaics. Invader’s “Space Invader” project features installations in cities throughout Europe.
“I had spent some time in Paris recently and really kind of fell off the wagon exploring and finding a lot of the mosaics that he had installed,” DraINvader said. “I was really excited by just the breadth of things that one can create with individual pixels.”
That experience abroad evolved into a personal mission to repair often-overlooked city infrastructure with pixelated art of his own. As a playful tribute to the French artist’s work, many of his drain covers feature invaders — those little creatures from the “Space Invaders” video game.
Other drain covers showcase Pac-Man throwbacks and anime characters based on the work of Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese animator, director and manga artist. DraINvader sees these personal interests and tributes as something that will resonate with others.
Some of DraINvader’s artwork depicts Japanese anime characters, such as No-Face (seen here) from the film, “Spirited Away.” Photo by JL Odom
DraInvader is a fan of the work of Hayao Miyazaki, a Japanese animator, filmmaker and manga artist. The creature on this drain cover, named Totoro, is from the film “My Neighbor Totoro.” Photo by JL Odom
“They lend themselves well to being expressed and are also something that I think can spark joy in people,” he said.
In other cases, what’s nearby influences what he ends up designing. Take, for example, his flamingo drain cover in proximity to a front yard full to the brim with decorations of the pink bird.
“I was walking one day, and I saw the flamingos, and I thought, ‘Oh, this would be great,’” he said.
There are also sight-specific pairings with local artists’ work. A few feet away from a Jeremy Novy’s koi fish mural on Scott Street is DraINvader’s mini-replica of one of Novy’s signature white, orange, and black aquatic vertebrates. In front of 712 Steiner St., aka the Pink Painted Lady, is a drain cover with a pint-sized honey bear. It marks the address where the “fnnch Museum,” a retrospective of over 100 honey bear paintings by the street artist fnnch, was open to the public from July to October 2025.
Several of DraINvader’s drain covers are site-specific, including his flamingo one on the corner of Waller and Castro Streets. Photo by JL Odom
DraINvader’s odes to local artists, such as Jeremy Novy’s koi fish murals, are thoughtful and intricate. He shared that each plate design takes anywhere from 30 minutes to a few days. The 3D-printing, depending on the complexity of the design, ranges from 3 to 10 hours. Photo by JL Odom
A handful of DraINvader’s creations complement San Francisco street artists’ pieces, including fnnch’s honey bears. Photo by JL Odom
“It’s, overall, about trying to create a dialogue with culture, from global nostalgia to local references to things that honor local artists or speak to the identity of the neighborhood,” said DraINvader.
He had installed another fnnch-inspired drain cover in front of a garage mural of a rubber duck on Fell Street. As of December, fnnch’s yellow duck is still there, but its small square counterpart has disappeared.
DraINvader said his perspective on how to respond to instances of theft or damage is still developing. Sometimes he’ll recreate the exact cover and place it where it had been; other times, he’ll move it to another location.
While he usually scopes out neighborhoods on his own to assess where covers are needed, he’s also started crowdsourcing via an online request page. On a city map, people can pinpoint a location and chime in about a design idea.
“It’s something where I’m always happy to have people participate and invite artwork into their space,” he said.
One person asked for an Ongo drain cover (“I deeply miss seeing Danny Devito/Ongo Gablogian on the drain outside of The Page on Page St.”). Another sought a design to complement a disco ball and skeleton in the window of a Divisadero Street home (“Disco skelly needs a friend”).
The requests branch out to neighborhoods like Noe Valley and the Outer Sunset. His goal is to eventually fulfill all of them, one drain cover at a time.
“The more that I’ve done this, the more I’ve been met with gratitude,” he said. “For the most part, people are very grateful when you’re out there fixing this problem.”
He’s given thought to expanding the project to other cities, like NYC, and doing more with the drain covers themselves — making them interactive in some way, adding features of some sort.
The possibilities are literally everywhere, as there’s no shortage of uncovered drain holes.
”I’m having a ton of fun doing this and hope that people enjoy it and start to notice,” DraINvader said. “Literally, by not looking up, you can sometimes find this little gem that’s a reminder that it’s worth doing simple acts of kindness for the city and creating art where there is no art.”