Learning to swim at Sutro Baths. Working amusement park carnival booths next to Ocean Beach. Joining fellow hippies in a Haight-Ashbury commune. Smoking a joint with the Grateful Dead. Talking to Frank Sinatra, Joe DiMaggio and Liberace while busboying in Fisherman’s Wharf. It feels like a San Francisco fever dream – but for Richmond-district resident painter and musician Joe Mirante, now 76, this was simply his reality.
You can’t separate the art from the artist. With Nigerian painter and humanitarian Nengi Omuku, that is a really good thing, as opposed to infamous misogynist Pablo Picasso, pedophile and bigamist Paul Gauguin and murderous pimp Caravaggio (born Michelangelo Merisi).
Trailblazing comedian Margaret Cho has always made sure her brazen stand-up material aligns with her feminist, politically progressive and all-inclusive views on sexuality. What is radically different about the 57-year-old San Francisco native is that her once chaotic, dangerous life has gradually evolved into that of a serene homebody, who surrounds herself with animal and plant life.
The new exhibition at the Legion of Honor Museum, “The Etruscans: From the Heart of Ancient Italy,” which opened May 2 and continues through Sept. 20, seeks to enlighten curious visitors on the innovative and artistic contributions of the largely overlooked Etruscans, an indigenous society with a one-off language, who thrived in the central Italy peninsula from the ninth century to the first century B.C., in the period preceding the Roman Empire.
Ben Frombgen, the owner of Birdhouse Gallery at 31st Avenue and Judah Street, is the kind of yes-man who inspires emergent magic and collaborative creation rather than maintaining the status quo.
France’s Claude Monet (1840-1926), the founder of Impressionism and the movement’s most prolific painter, reluctantly visited Venice, Italy, in October of 1908. At the time, he had grown disenchanted with the way his “Water Lilies” paintings were progressing. His dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, rejected the work, leading Monet to cancel the show at the Paris gallery and to destroy many of the paintings in the series.
On weekday afternoons in the Outer Sunset District, the rooms in Sunset Media Wave feel unusually calm. Students drift in and out, clicking away at monitors flashing with film or reviewing large paintings for modifications. Smiles are exchanged and creative conversations flow easily. The environment is intentional.
More than 100 of Northern California’s top floral designers are donating their talents, time and materials to the 42nd annual Bouquets to Art (BTA) exhibition at the de Young and the Legion of Honor museums. Approximately 50,000 people will visit the museums to tour the enhanced galleries during the exhibition fundraiser from March 3 to 8.
Dark clouds looming over the City threatened to dampen the spirits of eager participants and spectators hoping to gather at Ocean Beach to create sand art on New Year’s Day.
Mark Simmons stands on a lawn at Mountain Lake Park, pen in hand, eyes fixed on a towering eucalyptus tree. Within minutes, the 55-year-old artist has captured not just the tree’s shape but its character – the way its crown spreads to claim sunlight, the texture of its bark, the shadows it casts. This is how Simmons, a Richmond District resident of 25 years, sees the world.
Larry Letofsky has been making pottery in his Outer Sunset garage for 30 years. At first, his house, where he has lived since 1974, appears to be like any other. A closer look, however, reveals an artist’s sanctuary, accompanied by a mural painted on the front porch of a pair of hands shaping a piece of clay.
Westside artist Marc Hayashi has been a storyteller all his life. He was a founding member of the Asian American Theater Company, a pioneering local theater performance company. He went on to star in the cult classic film “Chan is Missing” (1982) set in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and he had roles in various other Hollywood films including “The Karate Kid Part II” (1986).
Manga has a rich past, an impactful present and a transformative future. The Fine Arts Museums of San Franciso recognize the current zeitgeist by presenting the “Art of Manga,” the largest manga exhibition ever staged in North America.
Manga has a rich past, a phenomenal present and perhaps, a transformative future. The Fine Arts Museums of San Franciso recognize the current zeitgeist by presenting the “Art of Manga,” the largest manga exhibition ever staged in North America.
Artist Rose B. Simpson is more than a little preoccupied with vessels. She views pottery, cars, her figurative sculptures, the womb and clay – a material she most often uses in her creations – as vessels.
