Category: All of SAN FRANCISCO
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Domestic Seating in Bronze
Duboce and Church Castro Titled Domestic Seating these bronze chairs are by Primitivo Suarez. They are on the corners of the intersection of Duboce and Church where there are several muni stops as well as Mona Caron’s Bicycle Coalition Mural. Fortunately the SFAC has placed plaques explaining the murals on the corners as well, something…
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Where the Wild Things Gnar
20th and Mission The Mission This mural by Nosego is titled “Where the Wild Things Gnar”. Yis “Nosego” Goodwin is a Philadelphia-based artist with a passion for illustration and media arts. He mixes fine art with a contemporary style to deliver highly energetic work. His designs feature an assemblage of patterns, vibrant colors and characters derived…
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San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers
100 JFK Boulevard Golden Gate Park The oldest extant structure in Golden Gate Park is also its most beloved: the Conservatory of Flowers. This beautiful, white-washed structure is the oldest wood-and-glass conservatory in America. It is believed that James Lick, a prominent and wealthy San Franciscan, purchased the conservatory as a kit from Ireland for $2050…
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The Beaded Quilt
214 Van Ness Avenue Civic Center This “Beaded Quilt” sits on the outside of the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired building on Van Ness Avenue. According to the Please Touch Garden Site this mural is part of a LightHouse community arts initiative created by dozens of blind San Franciscans. The mural is created out…
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Kinetic Sculpture in Dolores Park
Mission Dolores Park The Mission District Mission Dolores underwent a $17+ million, much-needed and beautiful transformation in 2011 and 2012. Part of the renovation was this kinetic sculpture. The sculpture, by Lymon Whitaker is 23 feet tall. Lyman has been a practicing sculptor for over 40 years, with a unique knowledge of materials and their…
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The Art of the Jessie Street Substation
The Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Substation 222-226 Jessie Street Market Street/Yerba Buena Gardens Tucked away in a dead-end alley between Market and Mission, is one of San Francisco’s few great examples of the architectural possibilities of the brick facade. Originally built in 1881, and subsequently enlarged twice, the substation was damaged in a fire…
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The Winged Lion that Holds Court in a Traffic Circle
8th and Townsend SOMA This winged lion sits in the traffic circle at 8th and Townsend. The lion was a gift from a former Galleria showroom owner, Jack Shears. (Shears and Windows) The Design Center placed the lion in the traffic circle in 1988, then installed a sprinkler system and planted the lawn. The Design…
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2 Bears in the Haight
226 Filmore between Haight and Waller The Haight These two bears are by Bologna based, Italian artist Ericailcane, whose website is so delightful it is worth a visit. Ericailcane makes etchings, graphic art, street art (most notably in collaboration with street artist Blu), animations, sculptures, installations, tattoos and loads of drawings. Inspired by Victorian children’s illustrations,…
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Fort Point the Best Vantage Point to View the Golden Gate Bridge
It took 116 years for Fort Point to become a National Historic Site, and its life along that road was a bumpy one. Construction on Fort Point began in 1854. Thanks to the California Gold Rush, commerce was booming in San Francisco, and it was important that the portal through which valuable cargo flowed, the…
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Presidio’s Arguello Gate
Arguello and Pacific Entry to the Presidio The Arguello Gate was built by the Army in 1896. The designer was architect J.B. Whittemore. The gate was commissioned in 1895 and installed between 1896 and 1897. Over the decades, it experienced much wear and tear, including being hit by a truck in 1996. This collision knocked…
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Rattlecan Blasters go back in Time
1340 York Street Mission District This mural is part of the SF StreetSmARTS program. Painted by Rattlecan Blasters in 2011. Rattlecan Blasters consists of graffiti artists, Cameron Moberg (aka Camer1 from San Francisco) and Aaron Vickery (aka Fasm from Modesto). The duo teams up frequently to paint church youth rooms and exhibit in art shows. They…
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Zoe Ani and the SF StreetSmARTS program
2840 San Bruno Excelsior District M.K. Zoe Ani’s work ranges from representational to abstract landscapes. Her perspective is enriched by her Hawaiian and American Indian heritage. Her experience is one of a dichotomy of two cultures separated not only by a vast ocean, but also a mindset that is reflective of the dissemination of each…
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Wes Wong and the Phoenix Hotel
601 Eddy The Tenderloin This long series is part of the San Francisco StreetSmARTS program. The artist is Wes Wong, he is part of the Fresh Paint Crew. Fresh Paint, a San Francisco Mural painting crew aims to defy assumptions of what is possible with a spray can. The group is comprised of and collaborates…
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San Francisco’s Civic Center the Heart of the City Beautiful Movement
San Francisco’s 1906 fire and earthquake not only destroyed much of San Francisco, it also destroyed the dream of many to bring the City Beautiful Movement to large sections of San Francisco. The City Beautiful Movement began with the “White City,” also known as the 1893 World Columbian Exposition. The Exposition took place in Chicago and…
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Beautification of a Utility Box by Malik Seneferu
3rd and Oakdale Bayview This utility box was painted by Malik Seneferu. Malik is a self-taught and extremely prolific African-American artist that has created more than 1,000 different pieces of artwork, including paintings, murals, and mixed media projects in the past 25 years. Despite the fact that he has no formal college training, Malik’s art…
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April Berger paints the Mission
3300 Block of 18th Mission District * April Berger is an artist who has been living and creating art in San Francisco for thirty years. Her work is primarily non-figurative, which allows the viewer to have an immediate response to the color, texture, pattern, and forms that they are seeing. Her love of color…
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Ruth Asawa at the Parc 55
55 Cyril Magnin Union Square Area Parc 55 Hotel porte-cochere San Francisco Yesterday and Today by Ruth Asawa 1984 – Cast Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete Ruth Asawa used baker’s clay to sculpt these panels. Ms. Asawa has many works around San Francisco. An American artist, who is nationally recognized for her wire sculpture. Ruth, at the age…
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The Apexer and Mona Caron Collaborate on Market Street
1100 Market Street Mid Market This piece is by Ricardo Rickey, also known as the Apexer. The flower is courtesy of Mona Caron. Both Mona Caron and the Apexer have several murals around San Francisco. The mural is on the outside of a pop-up store called the Trailhead. Sprouting from the community-conscious and creatively driven minds…
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450 Sutter, A Mayan Palace
450 Sutter Street is San Francisco’s monument to the Mayan Revival branch of Art Deco. Art Deco draws on a variety of sources including Art Nouveau, Cubism and the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Art Deco celebrates the technological wonders of the early 20th century, the frivolities of the roaring twenties, and the hard times of…
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RESPECT
1601 Lane Bayview/Hunters Point Respect This mural is on the side of the YMCA in the Bayview. It was funded by SF StreetSmARTS program and was done by Senay Dennis, also known as Refa One. Refa’s website had this to say about his calligraphy murals. Style 1: a distinctive manner of expression (as in writing…
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Bufano in Valencia Gardens
Valencia Gardens Housing Project Corner of Maxwell Court and Rosa Parks Way These animal sculptures at Valencia Gardens were sculpted by Beniamino (Benny) Bufano. They were done in the 1930s for the Work Progress Administration Project at Aquatic Park. In the 1940s, when the federal government pulled out of San Francisco the sculptures were given to…
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Liberty Ship at Islais Creek
SFMTA Islais Motor Coach Facility Sitting on Islais Creek in the new Shoreline Park Indiana Street and Ceasar Chavez Bayview This 340′ Long Steel Sculpture is an abstract representation of the old Liberty Ships that were built in the Shipyards of this neighborhood. The sculpture is by Nobuho Nagasawa a New York based artist.…
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San Francisco All Wrapped Up in a Fountain
Union Square Hyatt Hotel 345 Stockton Street This fountain by Ruth Asawa was commissioned by Hyatt in 1970 and completed in 1972, the fountain consists of 41 individual bronzed plaques each about 26X32 inches depicting San Francisco landmarks covering the entire circular wall of the fountain bowl and measuring over 14 feet in diameter. At the center of the…
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Soul Journey
1625 Carroll at Third Street Bayview Titled Soul Journey this mural was done by Precita Eyes in 2000. It was designed by their director, Susan Kelk Cervantes and executed by Ronnie Goodman, Tomashi Red Jackson, “Diallo” John H. Jones, Dan Macchiarini and Mel Simmons. Under the fawn it reads: Home sickness on a quiet night…on…
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Refa One
4546 3rd Street Bayview * These two paintings on roll up doors in the Bayview are part of the StreetSmARTS program. They were painted by Senay Dennis, also known as Refa One. “Writing is the song of my soul and the call of my spirit. This art work has a power – emanating from a…
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The Coast Miwok and California History
350 16th Street and Albion Mission District * * * The Coast Miwok “We lived in harmony with the planet for thousands of years. We respected the earth and were thankful fo all the gifts it gave us With the invasion of the outsiders our lives were shattered. We were imprisoned, forced into slave labor…
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Benny Bufano in the Sunnydale Projects
1654 Sunnydale Visitacion Valley This Beniamino Bufano statue is of a Bear over the Head of Peace. It was done somewhere around 1935-1940 and stands in front of the Community Center at the Sunnydale Projects. Bufano was a prolific sculptor in his time and his work can be found all over San Francisco. Sunnydale was…
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Meagan Spendlove collaborates with Cavalier Design Studio
1035 Post Street Back of the Building on Cedar This mural sits on Cedar Street. It was commissioned by Cavalier Design Studio which resides at 135 Post Street in San Francisco. The artist is Meagan Spendlove, whose work can be found all around San Francisco. Meagan Spendlove, often artistically entitled as “Siloette”currently works in San Francisco,…
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The San Francisco Mint
The United States Mint in San Francisco, affectionately known as the Granite Lady, stands today as a result of the California Gold Rush. When gold was discovered in 1848 at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California, the great gold rush began, and with it, a need for financial institutions. A mint was necessary to convert the miners’…