Corner of Washington and Davis Golden Gateway Center This sculpture is titled Cloud Portal and is by Ned Kahn. Kahn has several sculptures around San Francisco Mist periodically emerges from the central void of a sculpture constructed out of stacked horizontal sheets of stainless steel. The mist alternately reveals and obscurs the view of the urban landscape that is framed by the sculpture. A collaboration with RHAA landscape architects the sculpture was completed in 2011.
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 I feel should be done with all of our public art. The plaques read: Inspired by the discarded furniture commonly seen on city sidewalks, Domestic Seating evokes intimate interior spaces and unexpectedly transforms this intersection into a shared experience. The collection of seating replicated in Continue Reading
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 from his imagination and his surrounding environment. The South Philly native started honing his talent as child, taking classes at Fleisher Art Memorial and attending the High School of Creative and Performing Arts. His fine-art training is detectable in almost all of his paintings—whether Continue Reading
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 and had it shipped to his estate on the Peninsula. However, it is also thought that portions of the original building contained California redwood. Upon Lick’s death in 1876, The Society of California Pioneers found themselves the owners. They chose to sell it to a Continue Reading
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 of 150,000 colored beads. As part of the Please Touch Community Garden, artist Gk Callahan envisioned the “Beaded Quilt” mural as a social arts project and enlisted clients from his art classes plus blind staff and volunteers at the LightHouse to assemble the 576 beaded squares that make up Continue Reading
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 application. The past 19 years have primarily been focused on creating Wind Sculptures, which are all produced by hand. The Wind Sculptures are innovative and artistic with a high degree of mechanical integrity. Lyman feels that by placing the sculptures in settings dependent on natural Continue Reading
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 in February, 1906, and almost destroyed in the earthquake and fire of April, 1906. Rebuilt in 1907, the building owes its present character to Willis Polk, at that time head of the San Francisco office of D. H. Burnham and Company, the Chicago firm that Continue Reading
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 Center has maintained the traffic circle since then. The lion, purchased from Haddonstone, was designed as the center piece for a fountain, with plumbing lines running internally within the piece. Wouldn’t it be nice if someday the fountain is completed. Update: As you can see Continue Reading
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, the works are often macabre but never sad. They depict animals dressed like humans in surreal situations
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 San Francisco Bay, was protected. The Fort, as it is configured today, is how it was originally envisioned. In 1857 a reporter for the Daily Alta California described the workmanship at Fort Point as “solid masonry of more than ordinary artistic skill which meets the eye at Continue Reading
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 off one of the beautifully carved sandstone capstones. Additionally, one of the large piers upon which the capstones sit had a crack so sizable that a passerby could see through to the other side. In 2008, the Presidio Trust worked with master carver Oleg Lobykin, Continue Reading
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 have traveled to several states to use their rattlecan skills on commissioned murals. They have several other murals around San Francisco. In this are JW for Justin Werely, a friend of Camer1 whose name is on the right. The blue letters above say AMP which Continue Reading
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 indigenous group. She developed her skills in drawing during her travels and forged a unique art education by pursuing opportunities to learn and work in alternative settings. Zoe began drawing as a teenager in southern Oregon. She began painting at The Art Students League in Continue Reading
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 with some of the best aerosol painters from the Bay Area and beyond, creating innovative murals in San Francisco. Concepts vary in aesthetic tone from photorealistic to illustrative, utilizing the large pool of artistic backgrounds within the crew. They produce murals that fit with their Continue Reading
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 was an exercise in light, order and forward thinking. The shimmering “White City” was a model of early city planning and architectural cohesion. In the Court of Honor all of the buildings had uniform heights, were decorated roughly in the same manner, and painted bright Continue Reading
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 has hung in many different professional arenas throughout the world, such as galleries, museums, magazines, and newspapers. While growing up in the 1970s and 80s, Malik saw his peers going to jail and getting killed. Living a life of crime did not appeal to him, Continue Reading
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 has been the main focus of her works of art. “Color is an extremely powerful tool. Its impact is strong and far reaching. It promotes health, well being, vitality and peace.” One of Ms. Berger’s goals is to have her rich color palettes beautify walls Continue Reading
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 of 16, along with her family, was interned in Rohwer camp in Rohwer, Arkansas at a time when it was feared the people of Japanese descent on the West Coast would commit acts of sabotage. It was the first step on a journey into the art Continue Reading
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 at The Luggage Store, this new six-month-long pop-up shop includes an itsy-bitsy parklet of purchasable seedlings from the Tenderloin National Forest, mouth-watering pastries and sips by the folks at Farm:Table, art installations, and a denim-dominated workspace-slash-store managed by Holy Stitch! Denim Social Club. This is the back of the Continue Reading
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 the Great Depression. Art Deco is commonly divided into three related design trends: Streamline Moderne, Classical Moderne and Zigzag Moderne. Zigzag, represented by angular patterns and stylized geometry, flourished in large cities and was primarily used for public and commercial buildings. The Mayan Revival (also Continue Reading
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 or speech). Characteristics or elements combined and expressed in a particular (often unique) and consistent manner. Derived from ‘stylus,’ the Latin word for a sharp instrument for making relatively permanent marks. Style Writing is the art form and culture I am MOST passionate about. Writing exemplifies the highest expression of my creative abilities. If there Continue Reading
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 the City of San Francisco and became the charge of the San Francisco Art Commission. There are two other sculptures that were part of this grouping. The Frog and The Seal are still at Aquatic Park. * * * * * * This collection of statuary is by Continue Reading
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. Nobuho had this to say on ArtNet My work ranges from site-specific projects to installations and public art. I create an interactive space that is informed by the actual place — its history, people and spatial narrative. This approach requires detective-like investigation and quasi-archeological research, Continue Reading
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 high wall of the drum, you will notice HH which represents the Grand Hyatt on Union Square. Everything to the south of Union Square is to the left, everything north is to the right. The Ocean is the top boundary, the bay is at the Continue Reading
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 the ground before my bed is spread the bright moonlight, but I take it for frost, when I wake up at the first light. Then I look up at the bright full moon in the sky suddenly homesickness strikes me as I bow my head Continue Reading
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 higher power than myself. I have submitted unapologetically to the call of putting this work out there. However, I am also doing this with unconditional love for Life, Humanity, the Most High and that ONENESS in the universe.” – Refa One For well over two Continue Reading
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 and punished for following our beliefs. The California Rancheria Act of 1958 was the final blow in a long series of government actions designed to kill us off and gain control of our land. Over the next 40 years we found the strength to organize Continue Reading
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 built in the 1940’s as a means to house military personnel and their families, it was later bought by the city of San Francisco and converted to a low-income housing project. The Housing Authority was created in 1938 to help poor families build better lives Continue Reading
Balboa Park Bart Station Ocean and San Jose Avenue Transverse and Column by Carroll Barnes – 1977 Corten Steel 9’H x 8’W x 19’L * Carroll Barnes was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1906. He attended Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC and was awarded a national scholarship to study with Carl Milles at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills Michigan. He was awarded the California Cultural Citation from Governor Earl Warren. Carol Barnes and his artist wife Evangel Barnes discovered the town of Three Rivers when they decided to honeymoon in Sequoia National Park, fell in Continue Reading
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, California as a conceptual artist and project coordinator. Her current endeavors include yet are not limited to achieving an MA in Integral Arts Therapy and teaching public artwork within the Bay Area. For the last decade Spendlove has painted or promoted at multicultural events in Continue Reading