Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Category: All of SAN FRANCISCO

  • Mission, Norm’s Market

    Mission District 20th and Bryant San Francisco Sirron Norris Across from the Deli-up Cafe with its work by Sirron  is this at Norm’s market. Here are all the photos for your enjoyment.        

  • SOMA – Tuloy po Kayo

    SOMA Filipino Education Center 824 Harrison Street Tuloy po Kayo, is Filipino for “welcome.” The mural was designed by internationally-acclaimed muralist Cece Carpio, and painted with Miguel Bounce Perez and other volunteer artists, the mural represents the Filipino community’s shared experiences, history, and culture. To prepare for this mural, Carpio led an arts workshop with…

  • SOMA – Victor Reyes

    SOMA 1420 Harrison Street This magnificent and show stopping mural is by Victor Reyes. Reyes has been painting since the early 90s, and has shown extensively around the world in cities and countries such as Bosnia, Germany, Switzerland, Taipei, Japan, and Miami. Reyes is inspired by his peers, including a community of new California artists…

  • SOMA – Youth Art Project

    SOMA 501 Minna Street at 6th       This set of small mosaic murals are part of the ArtSpan’s South of Market Youth and Public Art Project. Lead artist, Johanna Poethig who has been in this site numerous times is director for the Inner City Public Art Projects for Youth, a program of San Francisco’s South…

  • SOMA – Mac Dre

    SOMA Langton Street This Mural has been painted over (6/2012) Mac Dre was a rapper, born in Oakland, lived in Vallejo, convicted of conspiracy to commit robbery and killed by a bullet from a passing car in Kansas City.  His bio on Wikipedia is really rather interesting.  If you are interested in his music style…

  • SOMA – One Tree

    SOMA 10th and Bryant This mural is by Rigo.  This piece was done in 1996.  Rigo has been in this website many times before.  He was born and raised on the Portuguese island of Madeira. He later established himself as an artist in San Francisco, earning a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 1991…

  • SOMA’s Fun Creatures

    354 5th Street This work is by Sirron Norris. Born in Cleveland, Ohio he graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, eventually settling down in San Francisco in 1997. Sirron worked as a production artist in the video game industry while he perfected his skill set as a fine artist.  In 1999, Sirron quickly gained…

  • Lango on Jessie

    SOMA 6th Street and Jessie This series of murals is by Lango.  Lango has been in this website many times, and I am a big fan of his work.  You can more of his work here.  This is a rough part of town, so I am not sure how or why this wall was chosen, but…

  • Parkside – Taraval Police Station

    Taraval Police Station 2345 24th Avenue Parkside Neighborhood, San Francisco This gorgeous building is the Taraval Police Station.  It was built in 1924 and designed by Martin Rist.  1996 brought a complete restoration and renovation. This piece is over the door to the community room at the police station.  It is by Scott Donahue.  Scott…

  • Ocean View Branch Library

    Ocean View Public Library 345 Randolph, San Francisco The front of the Ocean View library is adorned with two marvelous sculptures on either side of the door.  It was done out of cast Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete with integral color. The left panel shows a young tree, with landmarks of the old Oceanview District, some…

  • CCSF – Up Tight

    Ingleside San Francisco City College Ocean Avenue This is titled Up-Tight #1 by Jaques Overhoff.  Mr. Overhoff has been in this blog before with a piece on SF City College campus.  Up-Tight #1 is painted concrete.  The name was to symbolize the stabilizing effects of the tension cables.  That made absolutely no sense to me…

  • CCSF – Sentinels

    Ingleside San Francisco City College Ocean Avenue Campus * * Sentinels by Aristides Demetrios This one piece is titled Sentinels.  It is by Aristides Demetrios who has been in this site before with his aeolian harp.   This piece of welded bronze plates is titled sentinels and was done in 1973.   The piece is on…

  • SOMA – Large Pieces of Marble

    631 Folsom Street SOMA These giant pieces of carrara marble are by Richard Deutsch are titled Frammenti.  Deutsch has been in this site before and I recommend you visit his website.  He is a very accomplished artist with work all over the world. This piece is titled Fragmented.  The day I was there the fountain was…

  • Tenderloin – NBC Radio City Building

    Tenderloin 420 Taylor Street Mural by C.J. Fitzgerald Diane Winters is a tile restoration artist.  She recently emailed me about this mural that she was instrumental in restoring.  I had never seen it before, and was thrilled to get a chance to photograph it and learn a little bit of San Francisco history, I was…

  • SOMA – Annular Eclipse

    SOMA 560 Mission Street Annular Eclipse George Rickey George Rickey (1907 -2002)  built his career combining fundamental elements of nature and physics in the creation of his sculpture. His works include a broad vocabulary of geometric shapes and multiple devices for moving the elements in his sculpture, such as gimbals, pendulums and rotors.  Ricky constantly…

  • SOMA – Waterwall

    SOMA 100 First Street 2nd Floor Scattered across downtown San Francisco are almost seventy semi-secret spaces, privately owned but open to the public. Subject to the fine print of a little-known pact between the city and business, these POPOS (Privately Owned Public Open Spaces) allow alluring vistas of San Francisco and access to its intimate…

  • Potrero Hill – Snake Mural

    Potrero Hill 17th and Alabama Sometimes murals catch you, not for their quality but for their whimsy.  Take a look at the close up pictures.  This mural is by Javier Manrique, a multidisciplinary artist who has shown all over the world. This mural is on the wall of Project Artaud where Manrique lives.

  • The Mission Kid Power Park

    The Mission District Kid Power Park Hoff between 16th and 17th Ethel Siegel Newlin,program liaison at St. John’s Educational Thresholds Center (now Mission Graduates) on 16th Street, is responsible for this wonderful little oasis in the city. Ten years ago, elementary and middle school children in one of Newlin’s programs surveyed the neighborhood and found…

  • The Mission – Kids Power Park

    The Mission District Kid Power Park Hoff Between 16th and 17th Our Children       This huge mosaic mural is by Joseph Norris.  Writing about this mural is difficult.  While I love the smiles on these children, and I think the quality of the mosaic is superior, to say nothing of producing a mosaic…

  • Robert Louis Stevenson in Chinatown

    Chinatown Portsmouth Square San Francisco remembers Robert Louis Stevenson with the first monument to Stevenson in the United States. It sits in Portsmouth Square in Chinatown.  In 1876 Stevenson was at an art colony in France and fell in love Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne, who was not only married with several children, but was 11 years…

  • Potrero Hill – Umbrellas

    Potrero Hill 17th and Florida Muybridge Live Benjy Young The photos of these umbrellas have been on my computer for quite a while.  I did not want to post them until I knew who the artist was, and that task proved elusive.  However, today was one of those days that make it all worth while.…

  • 100 Children

    Chinatown 740 Washington Street 100 Children by Leland Wong This mural is part of the Art in Storefronts project sponsored by the San Francisco Arts Commission.  Leland Wongs  Bai Zi Tu, or 100 children is a traditional Chinese painting, that brings blessing of a complete and healthy family that goes on for generations. Leland, a…

  • Portmouth Square Tot Park

    Chinatown Portsmouth Square Tot Park Untitled by Mary Fuller McChesney and Robert McChesney In researching the artists I found this 2002 article in the San Francisco Chronicle by M. V. Wood.  I loved it so much I thought I would just reproduce it here for all to enjoy. They were hip.   They were young and beautiful. And…

  • Japantown – Origami Fountains

    Japantown These are two of my most favorite fountains in San Francisco.  They are by Ruth Asawa and they reside in the Nihomachi Pedestrian Mall in Japantown. Nihomachi is a term used to designate an historical Japanese community.  Ruth Asawa has been in the site before, and her website shows the wonderful work she does with…

  • The Embarcadero – Rincon Annex Murals

    The Embarcadero Rincon Annex 98 Howard Street Panel #17 Panel #17. “Vigilante Justice Vigilance committees formed during the 1850’s in San Francisco to counteract excessive criminality and a weak city government. These committees handed down verdicts on their own terms. Vigilante justice was also popular in mining towns. This panel depicts vigilante actions in 1856…

  • The Embarcadero – Rincon Annex Murals

    The Embaradero Rincon Annex 98 Howard Street Panel #10 Panel #10. “Raising the Bear Flag The Bear Flag revolt established the Republic of California, one month before the United States won the territory in the Mexican War. John Charles Fremont was a prime force in instigating the revolt and William B. Ide became president of…

  • Rincon Annex Murals

    The Embarcadero Rincon Annex 98 Howard Street Panel #3 The murals in the Rincon Annex Post Office, have lived a long and very controversial life.  In 1941 the WPA held a competition for the murals, it was won by Anton Refregier.  He began work immediately and kept at it until they were finished in 1948,…

  • Rincon Center Rain Column

    The Embarcadero Rincon Annex Post Office 98 Howard Street The word “rincon” means “inside corner” in Spanish. In 1939, architect Gilbert S. Underwood, most famously known for his design of the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite, designed this Art Deco-Moderne structure for the United States Post Office.   In the 1980s the building was put up…

  • The Embarcadero – History of our Street Names

    The Embarcadero Looking Down and Learning History Archetypical Gold Rush San Franciscan, Sam Brannan was first in many achievements.  He arrived in Yerba Buena by sea in 1846, leading two hundred Mormon pioneers, and founding the city’s first newspaper.  He rode through the streets of San Francisco in 1848, announcing the discovery of gold for…

  • Embarcadero – History of Street Names

    The Embarcadero Continuing on our journey of “Looking Down” Quartermaster’s clerk of the Stevenson Regiment of First New York Volunteers, Edward H. Harrison came from an obscure post to occupy a respectable role in the nascent civic affairs of San Francisco, becoming Port Collector in 1848 before returning to the East in 1850.  Harrison typified…