Category: All of SAN FRANCISCO
-
Geneses I at Moscone Center
Christine Corday was born in 1970 in Maryland. Before receiving her B.A. in Communication Arts (1992), she wrote an original research paper which led to an Astrophysics internship at NASA Ames Research Center. She went on to do graduate work in Cultural Anthropology and the works as a graphic and structural designer for advertising companies. Corday…
-
Wall Art #1012 on Mission
1400 Mission Street This artwork is part of San Francisco’s 1% for Art Program. The piece covers the façade at the corner of 10th Street and Jessie Street and is the height of the ground story, and spans approximately 66 linear feet of the facade along 10th Street and 27 linear feet along Jessie…
-
New Life at 77 Van Ness
77 Van Ness San Francisco Paul Gibson, born in Los Angeles in 1957, was educated at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, California, in Architecture, and received his BFA from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Following his passion for arts, he decided to move to New York City and received…
-
Words Fly Away
Ocean View Branch Library 345 Randolph Street This is a fabulous piece for a library. John Wehrle imagined the library interior as a metaphor for a book. He covered the library in jumbled letters, words and pictures. According to the artist’s website: Created in 2004, Worlds Fly Away is a complete installation – floor to…
-
Art at Bernal Heights Branch Library
Bernal Branch Library 500 Cortland Avenue Reuben Rude of Precita Eyes Murals was chosen for this project. It was a difficult decision, as it replaced a mural that had been on the walls of the library for years. A recent renovation required the removal of the old mural which the current mural attempting to pay…
-
Full Circles
Visitation Branch Library 201 Leland Avenue This piece consists of interlocking steel hoops embellished with recycled bicycle gears and, according to Grieve, is intended to evoke a “universe of possibilities.” Mark Grieve (1965-) is a contemporary American artist. He studied painting and drawing at the San Francisco Art Institute and the College of Marin and apprenticed…
-
WPA Map of San Francisco
January to May 2019 At San Francisco’s Public Libraries This exhibit is something after my own heart. A WPA map of San Francisco combines my love of the projects that stemmed from the WPA and the history of San Francisco. This exhibit is called Take Part and more information about the locations of the parts…
-
WPA Map of San Francisco Part 3 – Golden Gate Valley, Marina and Presidio Branch Libraries
Golden Gate Valley Branch Library Marina Branch Library Presidio Branch Library This is installment three of the pieces of the WPA map that are being displayed as part of the joint program, Take Part, between SFMOMA and the San Francisco Library. You can read the first two installments here. I apologize for the poor quality of…
-
WPA Map of San Francisco – Part 2 – SFMOMA, Mission, Noe Valley and Eureka Valley Branch Libraries
SFMOMA Mission Branch Library Noe Valley Library Eureka Valley Library This is the second post in a series covering the joint SF Library system and SFMOMA project Take Part showing the map of San Francisco built by the WPA. Click here for Part 1 SFMOMA The hub of the San Francisco commuter bus and Greyhound…
-
Paul Selinger piece is gone
This piece once stood in the Broderick and Bush Mini Park In 2010 the SFAC de-accessed this piece due to damage, one can assume it was destroyed. “Civic Art Collection Senior Registrar Allison Cummings informed the Committee of the need to remove Paul Selinger’s sculpture Untitled, 1971 (Accession #1971.44) from its current location at Broderick…
-
Secret Garden
Transbay Terminal Second and Folsom Julie Chang is a San Francisco-based artist who, at the time of her selection, coincidentally lived within blocks of the Transbay Transit Center. Chang received her MFA at Stanford University in 2007. She also received an MFA Studio Award from the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito in 2007.…
-
Bus Jet Fountain
Transbay Terminal 2nd and Folsom Bay Area artist Ned Kahn has been in this site before. He lived in San Francisco for over 20 years, many of which were spent designing educational exhibits at the Exploratorium. He recently moved to Sebastopol in Sonoma County to expand his studies and laboratory space. Mr. Kahn’s work is…
-
The Art of the French Hospital
Kaiser Permanente French Campus 4131 Geary Boulevard Inner Richmond This stunning mosaic sits in the front entry way to 4131 Geary, which is a building tucked behind the main hospital wing. It is presently half covered by an extremely large concrete pot. It was donated by the woman’s auxilary in memory of Dorothy Hagar Rogers,…
-
Tiled Walls
Laguna Honda Hospital 375 Laguna Honda Boulevard Foresthill In the aqua therapy center there are two pools surrounded by walls covered in geometric patterns of ceramic tile designed by Cheonae Kim. Cheonae Kim was born in Ichon, Korea in 1952. She graduated from Ewha Women’s University in Seoul and then went on to Southern Illinois University…
-
Ocean Avenue History Staircase
Unity Plaza Opened in 2016 Unity Plaza features a new pedestrian path that stretches from the north side of Ocean Avenue to the City College campus. The path, created in partnership with City College, features an integrated landscape and this stairway that features a collage of historic photographs of the neighborhood laid out on the…
-
Robert Reid and the GGIE
Palace of Fine Arts Location now: Unknown In keeping with the mission of this website to catalog all art owned by the San Francisco Art Commission, we would be remiss if we did not include one of the greater pieces of art from the Golden Gate International Exposition, that has been lost. Robert Lewis Reid’s…
-
Mining Exchange
350 Bush Financial District The history of the Mining Exchange can be read here, as this is a follow up post regarding the “historic restoration” of the building that took place in 2018. The City of San Francisco has a policy that allows developers to put up a history vignette in place of actual historical…
-
Fabric Collage
Laguna Honda Hospital 375 Laguna Honda Boulevard Foreshill These collages by Merle Axelrad Serlin are comprised of thousands of small pieces of fabric, fiber, paint and cloth. The fragments are carefully arranged, layered, pinned and sewn together onto a cotton canvas. The artist uses a variety of fabrics including, but not limited to, cotton, linen,…
-
Landscape
Laguna Honda Hospital 375 Laguna Honda Blvd. Foresthill These two pieces, which sit in rooms that are across the hall from each other, are titled Landscape and are made of terracotta. Igarashi sculpted hundreds of clay pieces for these terracotta reliefs creating a textured landscape between the in-dining and living areas. Japanese artist Igarashi has…
-
Bloom by Jonathan Bonner
Laguna Honda Hospital 375 Laguna Honda Boulevard Foresthill Bloom consists of a circular group of five granite lathe-turned elliptical forms with smooth honed finishes. The artist knew that the sculptures would be viewed from above, evoking the concept of a star, a flower or possibly an asterisk. For those that enter the patio area, the pieces…
-
WPA Murals at Laguna Honda Hospital
Laguna Honda Hospital 375 Laguna Honda Boulevard Foresthill Professions by Glen Wessels is one of five murals in the entry to the older wing of Laguna Honda Hospital. These five 8′ x 6′ murals were painted in 1934 with funding from the PWAP (Public Works Art Projects). Glenn Anthony Wessels was born in Cape Town, South…
-
Point of View
Pier 27 Point of View is comprised of two sculptures that resemble lighthouses — one is installed at the Port of San Francisco, and an identical tower is in Haifa, Israel. Viewers look into a periscope-like screen to see a live feed of the other location. The installation is dedicated to San Francisco’s late…
-
Planters
San Francisco Superior Court 850 Bryant Street These two planters sit outside of the front entry of the San Francisco Superior Court, they are by Raymond Sells. Raymond Sells was born in San Francisco in 1931. He studied at the University of California, Santa Barbara and San Francisco State University receiving a BA in 1959…
-
Words in White Light
Transbay Terminal Second and Folsom The largest piece of art in the Transbay Terminal is Jenny Holzer’s digital work “White Light,” which encircles the main atrium with 16-foot-high excerpts from historical and literary texts. All related to the Bay Area, they are spelled out in animated, pulsing LED configurations. Some of these texts are on…
-
Frederick Olmsted at CCSF
CCSF Phelan Campus Hall of Science The Theory of Science is the title of two murals at the west entrance stairs of the Science Hall. The murals show students engaged in various branches of scientific research such as viewing bacteria through a microscope, conducting field research, and excavating dinosaur remains. These were painted in 1941…
-
Dudley Carter the GGIE and CCSF
CCSF Campus Phelan Avenue Diego Rivera Theater and Conlan Hall During the second season (1940) of the Golden Gate International Exposition, organizers began the Art in Action program in the Hall of Fine and Decorative Arts. During the 1939 season, the hall had housed the art collections of European and Pacific cultures. The concept was…
-
North-Shore Pump Station Stained Glass
North Shore Pump Station The intersection of Bay Street and Embarcadero The stained glass window in the North Shore Pump Station was created by Narcissus Quagliata. The piece was commissioned in 1980-81. According to the Arts Commission meeting minutes of July 12, 1982, the total cost for the commission of a 12-panel window was…
-
Authors from Latin American Roots
San Francisco Public Library Grove Street Entrance This art work of charchoal and pastel on paper and canvas is by Enrique Chagoya. It was a gift from the Mexican consulate in San Francisco. Measuring 160 inches square, the mural contains some thirty names of prominent Latino American writers and poets who have made important contributions…
-
Peter VandenBerge at CCSF
Childcare and Development Center CCSF Phelan Campus The building is now Closed This whimsical mural is by ceramic artist Peter VandenBerge. It measures 8′ by 5′ and is made of ceramic tiles. Vandenberge has been on this site before. VandenBerge was part of the legendary group at University of California, Davis, during the 1960s. Working…
-
The Whales of the GGIE
Originally created for the Golden Gate International Exhibition Moved to Steinhart Aquarium Moved to CCSF In Storage These whales were in the San Francisco Building at the Golden Gate International Exhibition and were sculpted by Robert Howards. After the GGIE closed the whales were moved to a prominent place in front of the Steinhart Aquarium…