SOMA – Page 4 – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

SOMA – Tuloy po Kayo

Posted by Cindy on December 24, 2011

Dec 242011

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 Bessie Carmichael students, ( the elementary school in the neighborhood) where the children created drawings on themes of self-identity, family, and community. Using the children’s input as her guide, Carpio led a community meeting at the Bayanihan Center (neighboring Filipino Center) to gather more feedback Continue Reading

SOMA – Victor Reyes

Posted by Cindy on December 23, 2011

Dec 232011

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 “The Seventh Letter,” who play an integral role in the development and motivation for his body of work. Reyes, who has no formal art training, moved to San Francisco in 1998 and took a variety of jobs for rent money – he’s a freelance illustrator Continue Reading

SOMA – Youth Art Project

Posted by Cindy on December 22, 2011

Dec 222011

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 of Market Cultural Center and Artspan. They have completed a body of ceramic public art works installed throughout downtown San Francisco These are a result of the Stop, Look, Listen to Me program which operates on $32,000 from the city’s Neighborhood Beautification Fund, and has Continue Reading

SOMA – Mac Dre

Posted by Cindy on December 21, 2011

Dec 212011

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 this is fascinating reading as well. The artists on this mural are ICP Crew (Inner City Phame). “The first graffiti I saw when I was a kid growing up in the Mission was the Chicano writing on our walls,” says Twick, ICP veteran and original Continue Reading

SOMA – One Tree

Posted by Cindy on December 20, 2011

Dec 202011

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 and an MFA from Stanford University in 1997. From 1984-2002, Rigo used the last two digits of the current year as part of his name, finally settling upon “23” in 2003.

SOMA’s Fun Creatures

Posted by Cindy on December 19, 2011

Dec 192011

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 notoriety from his first showing at The Luggage Store. Sirron was the recipient of the prestigious Wattis Artist in Residence from the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in 2002. It was during that residency that he coined the term “Cartoon Literalism” as a description Continue Reading

Lango on Jessie

Posted by Cindy on December 18, 2011

Dec 182011

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 they are really just gorgeous.

SOMA – Large Pieces of Marble

Posted by Cindy on December 12, 2011

Dec 122011

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 not running, but Deutsch’s website has some really gorgeous photos of the fountain while it is working.

SOMA – Annular Eclipse

Posted by Cindy on December 10, 2011

Dec 102011

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 experimented with mechanical systems, but as he wrote in 1991, the drama in his sculpture “is in the movement, not the structure. The means must disappear.” * While I am beginning to find kinetic sculptures over done in the modern landscape, I love the parklet Continue Reading

SOMA – Waterwall

Posted by Cindy on December 9, 2011

Dec 092011

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 interiors. This little gem is up a flight of exterior stairs off Mission Street. * This black granite and glass piece is titled Waterwall by John Luebtow. Over the past 30 years, John Luebtow has become one of the most respected names in contemporary glass Continue Reading

SOMA, San Francisco – October 24, 2011

Posted by Cindy on October 24, 2011

Oct 242011

Fourth and Bryant SOMA These doors have been tagged for years, and finally someone decided murals might keep that from happening. Kemit Aminophis is responsible for these two doors. There are four doors to the auto body shop, so I have to assume that there is more to come. I promise to bring them to you when they are finished. As always, it is hard to shoot building sides when cars block your view of the overall image, but here are some shots for your review. Notice the really fine brush work. This of course is definitely a take on Continue Reading

Ghost Busters in SOMA

Posted by Cindy on October 19, 2011

Oct 192011

SOMA 8th and Bryant This fun mural is essentially the Simpson’s gang in Ghostbusters clothing. While it is not signed, according Live Soma the artist did have permission, even if he wouldn’t give his name. This says Diet, I am sure a message to the Stay Puft monster. The artist did tell Jeremy that he was influenced by Dean Fraser of Springfield Punx, whose work is really very fun and very, very good.

Lango in the Mission and SOMA

Posted by Cindy on October 11, 2011

Oct 112011

SOMA – San Francisco Mary at Howard Streets This piece was done by Lango, a tattoo artist here in San Francisco. I have tried to contact him to ask him about this mural, but according to a friend of his I met the other day he is extremely shy. I respect that, and figure his work speaks for him, it is really spectacular. T This is on the Howard side of the building. This is also by Lango. It was commissioned by an auto repair shop. I had fun chatting with the guys who own the shop. They were rather Continue Reading

San Francisco’s Muni Stops

Posted by Cindy on September 29, 2011

Sep 292011

Cable cars have been synonymous with San Francisco since the 1800’s. We correct people all the time in the vernacular of cable car versus trolly, but, we have trolly lines too. Our muni system is just that. Muni covers much of the city, and many people that visit our town ride the vintage trolly cars along the embarcadero. For twenty years the muni system sought to expand its line from 4th and King streets (one block from our baseball park) along 3rd street to Candlestick park. It finally accomplished this feat. Originally envisioned as a simple rail line with minimal Continue Reading

St. Regis Hotel

Posted by Cindy on September 20, 2011

Sep 202011

SOMA St. Regis Hotel 3rd and Mission Streets This is by Raymond Saunders, an American artist born1934 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He lives and works in Oakland, California and is currently a professor of Painting at California College of the Arts, in Oakland. I found this description from a press release put out by the St. Regis: “The southeast façade of the historic Williams Building has been enhanced with an art glass transcription of a work on canvas by Oakland artist Raymond Saunders. An internationally acclaimed artist, Saunders is known for mixed-media paintings that are layered with fragmentary impressions and imbued with Continue Reading

SOMA – Man With Flame

Posted by Cindy on September 17, 2011

Sep 172011

SOMA Convention Plaza 3rd Street Between Howard and Folsom Man With Flame by Stephen de Staebler This little walk way offers a wonderful respite from the hectic goings on inside Moscone Center. There are lots of tables and chairs, wonderful public art, and a Starbuck’s if you are so inclined. I have copied the following directly from his New York Times Obituary. Stephen De Staebler, a sculptor whose fractured, dislocated human figures gave a modern voice and a sense of mystery to traditional realist forms, died on May 13 at his home in Berkeley, Calif. He was 78. The cause Continue Reading

SOMA – Venus with Rope

Posted by Cindy on September 15, 2011

Sep 152011

SOMA Convention Plaza 3rd Street Between Howard and Folsom “Venus with Rope” Jim Dine 1986 Jim Dine has shown up in this site before. In 1962 Dine’s work was included, along with Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Dowd, Phillip Hefferton, Joe Goode, Edward Ruscha, and Wayne Thiebaud, in the historically important and ground-breaking New Painting of Common Objects, curated by Walter Hopps at the Norton Simon Museum. This exhibition is historically considered one of the first “Pop Art” exhibitions in America. These painters started a movement, in a time of social unrest, which shocked America and the Art world and changed Continue Reading

Soma – Pneumatic Dreamer

Posted by Cindy on September 14, 2011

Sep 142011

SOMA W Hotel 3rd and Howard Streets Pneumatic Dreamer Michael Stutz Stutz studied painting at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and York Street College of Art in Belfast, Ireland. He began his career in San Francisco, supporting himself designing merchandise displays for Macy’s. His commitment to public art grew out of work he did in New Orleans, designing and building large scale papier mache figures for the city’s Mardi Gras parades. Later he began using recycled materials to create sculptures that have been shown throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Pneumatic Dreamer is Stutz’s first work in bronze, and Continue Reading

Keith Haring

Posted by Cindy on September 13, 2011

Sep 132011

SOMA Moscone Center Corner of Howard and 3rd Streets This piece has become iconic in the city. It is viewed by anyone that is heading into the Moscone Convention Center. Keith Haring is controversial on his best days. Which is sad because he was a truly gifted artist who was passionate about facing up to discrimination of all types, and gave of himself freely to charitable work, children’s issues and causes he felt powerful about. The first time he had a showing at SFMOMA, this was the sign that stood outside: IMPORTANT PARENTAL ADVISORY:Some of these exhibitions contain artwork of Continue Reading

SOMA – Spider Pelt

Posted by Cindy on September 12, 2011

Sep 122011

SOMA Convention Center 3rd and Clementina Artist Dustin Shuler, who calls himself an “urban hunter of cars” created this work in 1985. Titled “Spider Pelt,” it is a mounted sculpture of a “skinned” red fiat spider. The Los Angeles artist has built his artistic career, on hunting cars, skinning them of their sheet metal exteriors, and arranging them into thin, flat compositions he calls “pelts. “Spider Pelt” created from a 1971 red fiat spider -was commissioned by the Arts Commission for the Moscone Parking Garage. The piece weighs 150-pounds. “Spider Pelt is on the garage’s south wall, where it is Continue Reading

Victoria Manalo Draves Park

Posted by Cindy on September 11, 2011

Sep 112011

SOMA Folsom Street Between 6th and 7th Victoria Manalo Draves Park How many times do we walk by something every day, and forget that, yes it is art. These fence panels are on a park with a fascinating history. Victoria “Vicki” Manalo Draves (December 31, 1924 – April 11, 2010) was an Olympic diver who won gold medals for the United States in both platform and springboard diving in the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. She was born in San Francisco. Born to a Filipino father and an English mother that met and married in San Francisco. She couldn’t afford Continue Reading

SOMA 1:AM Gallery

Posted by Cindy on September 5, 2011

Sep 052011

South of Market 1 AM Gallery Folsom and 6th Street 1 AM Gallery has been in this site before. Their new exhibition is entitled Dark Mater. What I love about the gallery is that they always do graffiti/murals regarding the current exhibit on the side of their building. I love the concept of just using black and white for this. The exhibit explores the darker side of the human psyche. Gathering the voices of eight emerging contemporary artists working across mediums, the aim is to examine and confront the mysterious and sometimes sinister side of human nature.

Banksy in San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on August 17, 2011

Aug 172011

Banksy in San Francisco SOMA 8th Street between Folsom and Harrison Quoting from wikipedia “Banksy is a pseudonymous England based graffiti artist, political activist, film director and painter. His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humour with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique. Such artistic works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world.” ” Banksy’s first film, Exit Through the Gift Shop, billed as “the world’s first street art disaster movie,” made its debut at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. The film was released in the Continue Reading

SOMA & The Haight – EL Mac

Posted by Cindy on August 13, 2011

Aug 132011

SOMA – San Francisco The Haight – San Francisco This is on the corner of Russ and Howard Streets, South of Market. Miles “Mac” McGregor. Goes by The Mac or El Mac. According to his own website El Mac was “born in Los Angeles in 1980 to an engineer and an artist, Mac has been creating and studying art independently since childhood. His primary focus has been the lifelike rendering of human faces and figures. He has drawn inspiration from the surrounding Mexican & Chicano culture of Phoenix and the American Southwest, religious art, pin-up art, graffiti, and a wide range Continue Reading

SOMA – Freeway Prophecy

Posted by Cindy on August 9, 2011

Aug 092011

SOMA – San Francisco Clementina and 8th Street Freeway Prophecy Subtitled “a surrealistic look at the future of transportation” this is another mural by Johanna Poethig sharing “lead artist” credit with Sofie Siegmann. “Freeway Prophecy” was a major coordinated production crediting, besides Siegmann, nine other Artist Collaborators, seventeen Youth Artists and the Writers Corps poet Donna Ho.I am hard pressed to actually understand the definition of this mural, but if you would like a rather ethereal, and complicated description you can find one here on this blog. the trees have grown to cover so much of the mural, but if Continue Reading

SOMA – Tile Buildings

Posted by Cindy on August 6, 2011

Aug 062011

SOMA San Francisco 1235 Mission Street at 8th This building houses the Department of Human Resources offices. * * * From the Architect and Engineer Magazine of 1928: Bliss and Fairweather’s building for Mangrum and Otter Inc…is being favorably commented on for the somewhat daring, but nonetheless effectual, architectural treatment in glazed color tile…Admittedly, it was somewhat of a task to work out a design that would make a dignified front in bright colors. The moorish type was chosen as best suited for such a treatment, and the effect is indeed pleasing. Mangrum and Otter was a wholesaler of tiles, Continue Reading

SOMA – Murals on 6th

Posted by Cindy on August 3, 2011

Aug 032011

6th Street Corridor – San Francisco 6th and Minna Streets 6th Street in San Francisco is not the nicest street in the city. Its overabundance of SRO’s crack dealers, and soup kitchens make it a street many people avoid. I took all these shots while wandering by myself, however, it was broad daylight. The point is, like any city, know your surroundings and keep your eyes open, and life is not all that scary. This mural was painted in 1998 by Precita Eyes. The designer and painter, specifically was William Boler Jr. On the other side of the alley are Continue Reading

SOMA – Gordon Street Murals

Posted by Cindy on August 2, 2011

Aug 022011

SOMA – San Francisco This mural is on Gordon Street, South of Market. Gordon is a dingy dead end alley off of Harrison Streets between 8th and 9th. It is hard to find, and you would have no reason to even be on the alley, but it was a quiet Sunday and no cars or buses were blocking the view which is how I spied it. The mural is titled Zen and is by Kristine Brandt. Kristine studied at the Academy of Art University and the Florence Academy of Art. What I really loved is the incorporation of the mural Continue Reading

SOMA -Art that Disappears when Buildings Do

Posted by Cindy on August 1, 2011

Aug 012011

SOMA -Art that Disappears when Buildings Do

SOMA – San Francisco 260 Fifth Street at Clementina This sign is an anathema to me for several reasons. While hard to read, it states that this building will be demolished and a 9 story building will be put up in its place. Although not highly ornamented, it does have some lovely features. When I see old buildings with history like this arbitrarily being tossed by the wayside so that a non-descript highrise can be built, it makes my blood boil. The unique architecture of any city is what makes it stand out, the more that we have nondescript, inexpensive Continue Reading

SOMA, Tenderloin, Market Street, July 30, 2011

Posted by Cindy on July 30, 2011

Jul 302011

SOMA, Tenderloin, Market Street, July 30, 2011

Bears Around San Francisco A while back I was walking in my own neighborhood, SOMA, (this is Berwick and Heron off of Harrison or 8th Streets) and in this little alley I came across this great big bear. Well as I was wandering The Tenderloin Forest, I came across this guy I knew I had seen this work before and was happy to see another wonderful character. Then last week I was driving through the intersection of Market and 6th Street and what do I see? The artist is Chad Hasegawa. He was born in Hawaii and has quite a repertoire. This Continue Reading

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