San Francisco Beautiful announced the top 10 finalists for the Muni Art Project this week and two Mission residents as well as three artists with Mission roots were on the list.
The project is a partnership with SFMTA to promote local artists by displaying their work in Muni buses.
It’s in now up to the public to decide which five of the ten will be chosen to display their work to more than 700,000 daily Muni riders this fall.
Each of the five artists will have 10 Muni buses to use as a canvas. The artist with the most public votes will receive $2,000 and the remaining four $1,250.
The concept that the artists had to base their work around was the “spirit of San Francisco.” Finalists were chosen on the basis of quality of diversity, expression, and overall concept.
The Mission Finalists
Cameron Camer1 Moberg:
Camer1, is a self-taught artist currently living in the Mission District with his wife and two sons. His main objective when creating his work is to bring hope. He specializes in murals, canvases and graffiti.
Camer1 has been in partnership with San Francisco Arts Commission on multiple projects for over six years, as well as participated with the Where Arts Lives program as a coordinator. He also teaches students art in a way to help them respect public spaces.
His project for San Francisco Beautiful is called “Take Flight,” which captures what he calls the freedom and spirit of San Francisco through the portrait of birds encompassing various San Francisco landmarks and with a wide array of bright colors and patterns.
You can vote for it here.
Creativity Explored:
Creativity Explored is a non-profit art studio located on 16th Street. Their mission is to allow “all people have the ability to create, and that visual artistic expression is a viable means to enhance personal identity and growth,” according to their website.
The non-profit was created in 1983 by Florence Ludins-Katz and Elias Katz with the reach to provide adults with severe disabilities the chance to create visual and remarkable art.
Their collective group piece called, “Greetings from Creativity Explored – drawings from local artists with developmental disabilities” displays work from four different artists: James Miles, John Patrick McKenzie, Kate Thompson, and Lance Rivers.
Vote for it here.
Ariel Dunitz Johnson:
Ariel Dunitz-Johnson was the previous curator for The Lexington Club from 2006-20011, with other freelance projects including work from The Bold Italic. She has been selected as a finalist in the San Francisco Beautiful Muni Project for her collection of illustrated pieces called “Sway- Contemporary Queer Portraiture”.
You can vote for it here.
Reynaldo Cayentano Jr.:
Reynaldo Cayentano Jr. is a self-taught film photographer specializing in black and white photography as well as photojournalism who graduated from Mission High School in 2005. His piece for San Francisco Beautiful is called “Nostalgia- An Awakening of Monochromatic Interpretation” and is composed of black and white film photography as the base with colorful, painted visual art as the top layer. This collection provokes feelings of inspiration, creativity and identity to those who view it.
You can vote for it here.
Todd Berman:
Todd Berman is an artist who moved to San Francisco in 1998 and is also a substitute teacher in the Mission District. His collaborative project for San Francisco Beautiful is called “City Of Awesome,” which presents various drawings from citizens of San Francisco submitted to Berman and then collaged into one work of art. Berman wrote that his role in this project was to rally others into creating themselves doing something awesome, and then chaotically combining it all into one collaborative work.
You can vote for it here.
All other finalists can be found here on San Francisco Beautiful’s website.
I think they are all aweful.