KADIST, the art gallery at 20th and Folsom streets known for its video and modern art, is shutting its Mission District outpost after 14 years. Instead the organization will continue to shift focus to international collaborations curating and connecting artists with museums.

Most Mission residents may know the gallery best for its rotating window displays overlooking Folsom Street — a neon green marijuana leaf for a few months gives way to another neon sign exhibition by artist Mungo Thomson. The gallery itself is often closed, or at least it gives such an impression. KADIST, however, hosts two large shows a year lasting a combined seven months with about eight public programs in that span of time.

But KADIST is an international institution with its headquarters in Paris. The nonprofit owns a collection of 2,400 artworks from 120 counties, and its operations are funded privately by a French family. The organization stated that it does not plan on laying anyone off following the shuttering of its San Francisco outlet. 

“Over the last 10 years, we’ve shifted more and more of our attention and work to international collaborations with museums in different parts of the Americas and the world, so while we are closing this venue, KADIST is continuing,” said Joseph Del Pesco, the gallery’s Americas director. The gallery has another outpost in Paris, and Del Pesco said the closure has nothing to do with lack of funding.

The San Francisco branch is hosting a “Farewell in Four Parts” event on Saturday at its space at 3295 20th St. at Folsom featuring a “musical interpretation of historical paintings,” a book reading, and the artwork of more than a dozen artists from Paul Kos to René Magritte.

KADIST’s most recent tax form, from 2023, shows $18,492,971 in summary of direct charitable activities. This is a far higher figure than in 2022, when it was only $1,329,224. A representative from the organization could not immediately explain the surge in direct charitable activities.

The nonprofit is currently working with artists and museums in China, Chile, Canada, Brazil, Morocco and India, just to name a few, curating and organizing art exhibits. And building those relationships with museums and curators last between one to three years, said Del Pesco. 

KADIST also hosts two shows a year for three and a half months each time. It has four people in San Francisco. 

“Yeah, it’s a lot to do,” said program director Lindsay Albert. 

KADIST will also continue to work in connecting artists from the Bay Area in events it organizes at different museums nationally and internationally. The organization is already in conversation with two local institutions to bring exhibits to San Francisco soon.

“Feels bittersweet. I think we’ve definitely put an imprint on the city. We’ve done a lot with the local arts community,” said Albert. “But I think expanding KADIST globally and bringing those voices here too is a great next step for us.”   

KADIST was founded in Paris during a family dinner in the Parisian neighborhood of Montmartre, where Pablo Picasso lived in the early 1900s and where he painted Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and unveiled it in 1907. Co-founder Sandra Terdjman, who had just graduated from curatorial studies in London, wanted to start an art project dedicated to artistic and curatorial experimentation and replicate the collaborative art scene she had experienced while living in London. 

While having dinner at her family’s favorite restaurant in 2001, Terdjman made a proposal to her uncle and co-founder Vincent Worms, who lived in San Francisco at the time and was in the field of venture capitalism. She scribbled a note, reading “How about starting an art project together?” and passed it under the table.

“I don’t know exactly what she means,[about the art project] but perhaps under the euphoric influence of the bottle of Bordeaux, I scribble back, ‘Why not?’ wrote Worms in a book about KADIST.

Five years later, in 2006, KADIST was born with a gallery in Paris. Five years after that, its second outpost opened in San Francisco. 

Many dozens of artists, local and international, have come through KADIST’s doors in its 14 years in the Mission District: Ryan Gander, Danh Vo, Hank Williams Thomas, Roman Ondàk, Dora García and Indira Allegra, among others.

“I’ve had really positive experiences with KADIST. I feel like the folks who have moved through their curatorial team are really supportive of big ideas and aren’t afraid of a big pitch,” said Indira Allegra, a performance artist whose latest collaboration with KADIST was taken to the Blaffer Art Museum in Houston back in January. 

“KADIST is a very experimental space and they really give you the freedom, and encourage you to really try new things. I really respect them for that,” said Richard T. Walker, a San Francisco-based artist who collaborated with KADIST first in 2013 when he presented his piece Security of Impossibility, a sound installation. It is now part of KADIST’s collection.

“It’s a great space where you can experiment and work with ideas that maybe weren’t fully formulated until you’re actually there doing it, and the ability to be able to do that in front of an audience and with such a professional kind of context is really special.”

KADIST’s style of working with artists is something that Lynn Hershman Leeson, a San Francisco-based artist and filmmaker, also appreciates.

“I enjoyed the experience of collaborating with them,” said Hershman Leeson. “I think it’s an essential place for the city, there’s nobody else doing the kinds of things and taking the chances that they do.”

KADIST acquired Hershman Leeson’s 2010 !Women Art Revolution, a documentary about women breaking down barriers in the art world and society. 

“It’s a shame they’re leaving,” said Hershman Leeson. “It’s a loss to the city.”