As a child growing up in the Richmond District, Walden Wong spent his days biking around the neighborhood and meeting kids at the Cabrillo Playground on 38th Avenue for baseball and football games.
If you spend time around Golden Gate Park’s Conservatory of Flowers on sunny weekends, there is a good chance you might have met Sunset resident Sage Kitamorn. If his name does not ring a bell, you might identify him as the man in a crocheted bear hat handing out his puzzle sheets and “Cozy Cubs Puzzle Club” branded pens.
One foggy Sunday afternoon in July, Anna Boyarsky and her two children were biking west along John F. Kennedy (JFK) Promenade in Golden Gate Park when they rounded the bend past the whale tail and spotted something gleaming through the trees ahead. As they got closer, they began to see a teal serpentine sculpture – a 100-foot-long sea serpent. They stopped, craning their necks to take in all the details of the 25-foot-tall sculpture towering over them.
At just 23 years old, newlywed photographer Richard Sexton drove a U-Haul packed with furniture and darkroom gear from Georgia to San Francisco. It was 1977, and Sexton had just enrolled in the San Francisco Art Institute, drawn by the City’s dramatic landscape, rich architecture and cultural diversity.
Poet and visual artist Andrew Hoyem is no stranger to artistic communities in San Francisco.
Two pieces of art at the Sunset Dunes on the Upper Great Highway were vandalized early June 14, according to The Friends of Sunset Dunes.
Calling someone an “icon” is often an overused sentiment. However, when it comes to the late multi-hyphenate Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021), the moniker is appropriate, especially in San Francisco, where he thrived artistically and socially since his arrival in 1951.
Last month, author Eddie Ahn appeared before a standing-room-only audience at the Richmond Branch of the San Francisco Public Library to discuss his new book, “Advocate: A Graphic Memoir of Family, Community, and the Fight for Environmental Justice.”
Chances are high that Richmond residents have seen the fruits of Harry Nordlinger’s labor. The Outer Richmond-based artist has worked as the Balboa Theater’s sole film projectionist since 2022, and he draws many of the flyers and posters for its screenings. Recently, he produced a poster promoting the theater’s upcoming 16-millimeter film screening of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” scheduled for June 3 and 4.
The workday is over and a painting crew is dismantling scaffolding in front of a multi-unit stucco building at 43rd Avenue and Judah Street. They might not notice a collection of seven modern, miminalist sculptures sprinkled along the sidewalk across the street. The public art project by Jesse Schlesinger titled, “Pacific Transit,” includes three more pieces six blocks closer to the ocean, at the N-Judah streetcar turnaround.
“Big and Vast and Full of Wonders,” an art installation by students from the Inner Sunset’s Independence High School, now on display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), introduces museum visitors to the world of some creative young people whose work has traditionally not been displayed in an art museum.
The 90-year-old Outer Richmond resident never set out to be an artist. Born and raised in San Diego in 1934, Hudson said he was not the typical well-behaved child. He described himself as a “pretty bad juvenile delinquent” during this early period of his life.
This spring, several new businesses celebrated their debut in the Inner Sunset.
Building a foundation for his dream, Hanneman spent more than three-and-a-half years studying art, graphic design and business at Monterey Peninsula College, all the while never forgetting the joy he felt customizing his friends’ shoes. In 2014, he launched his own brand of wearable art. He named it “Engrafft.” The title says it all for Hanneman.
Watching the 28-minute, 10-screen film/art installation, “Lessons of the Hour,” by British artist/filmmaker Sir Issac Julien, is not as overwhelming as one might think. In fact, the flood of images, sounds and words dedicated to the life of writer, orator, philosopher and social justice activist Fredrick Douglass (1818-1895), a former slave, allows the viewer to absorb and interpret the immersive experience in their own way.
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 