{"id":202816,"date":"2026-03-03T22:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T22:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/202816\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T22:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T22:05:09","slug":"bay-area-artist-brings-year-of-the-horse-statue-to-life-for-golden-state-warriors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/202816\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay Area artist brings Year of the Horse statue to life for Golden State Warriors"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The Lunar New Year ushers in a new zodiac cycle, and this is the Year of the Horse. To celebrate, we introduce you to a local artist who has been working to make this year’s mascot, “Maverick,” memorable.<\/p>\n

Inside Pier 90 on San Francisco’s waterfront, artists are hard at work. For Robin Zhao, that means preparing for the 2026 San Francisco Lunar New Year Parade.<\/p>\n

RELATED: How to watch San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade<\/a><\/p>\n

“This is where we paint, build, and construct decorative floats for the Chinese New Year Parade, Pride celebrations, and many other events. I’m an artist and designer who painted a marble statue at Thrive City. The entire process took about a month – from sculpting and sanding to priming, layering, and the final paint process,” said Zhao.<\/p>\n

After a weeks of planning, Zhao dove into creating one of the city’s most iconic statues celebrating the Lunar New Year.<\/p>\n

The finished piece is now on display at the Warriors’ arena in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood.<\/p>\n

VIDEO: Meet the 2026 San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade mascot, Maverick<\/a><\/p>\n

Maverick has been revealed as the 2026 mascot for San Francisco’s Chinese New Year Parade for the Year of the Fire Horse.<\/p>\n

“I have to plan everything in my head – which color to lay down first – and make sure we meet a tight deadline. How do we make everything perfect, but also work quickly? I come from a family of artists, so it means a lot to me to continue my family’s artistic legacy. It’s also important for the community because San Francisco is a very artfocused city with a large Chinese population,” said Zhao.<\/p>\n

The Year of the Horse is believed to bring success, good fortune, and blessings to the community.<\/p>\n

“It means a lot to me because I came to America when I was nine years old, and I felt very disconnected from where I came from. Being part of the Chinese community – especially working on the parade – helps me reconnect with my culture and my community,” Zhao said. “When people see my artwork, I hope it brings them joy and happiness and helps them leap smoothly into the Year of the Horse.”<\/p>\n

\"Now<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The Lunar New Year ushers in a new zodiac cycle, and this is the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[94098,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-202816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-94098","9":"tag-san-francisco","10":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","11":"tag-san-francisco-news","12":"tag-sf","13":"tag-sf-headlines","14":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}