What’s on now at San Francisco museums, April 16 to 23

Shows opening soon

• “Buttons On!” the first-ever retrospective for artist Beau McCall at the Museum of Craft and Design, opens May 11.

Shows closing soon

• “Rug Life” at the Museum of Craft and Design through April 20.
• “Spirit Gleaning,” site-specific work by Bay Area-based, Iranian-born artist Minoosh Zomorodinia, through April 19.
• “Dress Rehearsal: The Art of Theatrical Design”  at the Legion of Honor will close May 11.

The gallery scene

Ashley Voss at Voss Gallery, on the corner of 24th and Bartlett streets, developed a local gallery guide that she updates weekly. Check out the guide’s Instagram account and website.

And, now the museums:

Asian Art Museum

“Yuan Goang-Ming: Everyday War” features works from the video artist’s show representing Taiwan at the 60th Venice Biennale. It is the artist’s first North American solo show.

The Art Newspaper listed it as one of the must-see shows at the 2024 Biennale. We look forward to visiting it. Abby Chen, curator of contemporary art at the Asian Art Museum, curated the exhibition here and at the Biennale. She will be in conversation on opening night (April 16) with Yuan Goang-Ming.

The museum also has a series, “Take Out Tuesdays,” where you can meet online to talk about a piece of art with docents and others. 

General admission is free on the first Sunday of every month, and the special exhibitions are discounted. Here is more information for free and reduced-cost admission. 

SFMOMA

The museum’s “Ruth Asawa: Retrospective” is open, and Mission Local contributor Teresa Moore calls it “astonishing.” The exhibit, Moore writes, illustrates that “there was no line between living a full life and making astonishing art, no limits on inspiration, no place that wasn’t a good place for creation and appreciation.” 

The exhibit, which includes more than 300 works, follows a loose chronology, from Asawa’s student years at Black Mountain College through her later years raising a family in Noe Valley. Read our full review here.

Upcoming events:

Sunday, April 27, 2 p.m.

Talk: “Imprints: Asawa and Friends.” RSVP here.

Thursday, May 1, 4–8 p.m.

Free First Thursday: Create and Connect

Inspired by Ruth Asawa’s dedication to using art as a means of collaboration and community building, this First Thursday event, curated by Ruth’s Table, invites visitors to take part in one of Asawa’s signature hands-on art making activities. Led by SCRAP and Asawa’s daughter Aiko Cuneo.

The evening also features a special performance by Nobuko Miyamoto, created as an offering to Asawa. Event details here.

Photography should figure big into your museum visit. The photography of Group f.64, a collective dedicated to “true” photography, rejected photos that mimicked painting. The collective included Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Edward Weston and contemporaries like Hiromu Kira. It will be up until July 2025. 

The SFMOMA is also displaying Kara Walker’s “Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine),” an installation that touches on power dynamics and the exploitation of race and sexuality. In its review, The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the concepts “feel ambitious and epic, yet the ability to get close to it lends the piece an intimate quality.”  I found it more perplexing.

The New York Times reviews the installation here, writing that Walker “is highlighting the superhuman capabilities of A.I. as only she can.”  

“Table Manners” features nearly 100-year-old tableware, flatware and drinkware. The exhibit explores the dining experiences across different cultures.

The 2024 SECA Art Award exhibition celebrates local artists Rose D’Amato, Angela Hennessy, and Rupy C. Tut.

Here is some of their work.

Admission is free on the first Thursday of every month for Bay Area residents, although it is recommended you reserve your ticket in advance. Here is information for free and reduced-price admission. 

de Young Museum

“Isaac Julien: I Dream a World,” is open at the de Young Museum. A review on KQED calls the show “thrilling.” The first U.S. retrospective of the London-born video artists features 10 major video installations and explores various themes, including migration and museum appropriation of African artists.

A show of Paul McCartney’s photographs opened on March 1. It includes photographs from December 1963 through February 1964, a period that covers the beginning of the Beatles’ journey from Liverpool, England, to their arrival in the United States and their guest appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. The show will be on through July 6, 2025.

Henri Matisse’s “Jazz Unbound” celebrates the museum’s 2024 acquisition of “Jazz,” the artist’s 1947 artist book on the circus and theater. The exhibit includes 20 color stencil prints and will be up until July 6, 2025.

Legion of Honor

The museum is showing “Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art,” which includes some 60 pieces from his six-decade career, focusing on his “passionate engagement with art history.”  Open through Aug. 17, 2025.

It offers an eye into Thiebaud’s influences, including Edouard Manet, Giorgio Morandi and Richard Diebenkorn. Guess what paintings inspired each of these from Thiebaud?

And check out the March cake picnic that our reporter Abigail Vân Neely documented.

To celebrate the Legion of Honor’s centennial, “Dress Rehearsal: The Art of Theatrical Design” displays costume and set designs inspired by two themes: The history of theater and dance, and the establishment of the Legion of Honor. It will be open through May 11, 2025.

You can view the Legion of Honor’s full list of exhibitions here.

Admission is free every Saturday for Bay Area residents, and the first Tuesday of every month for everyone.

California Academy of Sciences

It is “Dino Days” at the California Academy of Sciences, with 13 life-size animatronic dinosaurs that you can see here in an Insta post.

And on Friday, the museum opens “Unseen Oceans,” a a traveling exhibition produced by the American Museum of Natural History. One of the coolest offerings: Being able to hop into the “driver’s seat of a submersible with a digital interactive game.”

In the Steinhart Aquarium, the “Venom: Fangs, Stingers, and Spines” exhibit is featured, celebrating the aquarium’s 100th year. See stunning visuals at the Morrison Planetarium, a 75-foot dome that transports viewers to the universe beyond planet earth. The Osher Rainforest features 1,600+ live plants and animals in a rainforest-like dome that stretches 90 feet above ground.

Make sure to plan ahead and see the admission and ticketing page for more information. Also, see how you can get a free or reduced rate for your next visit. 

The Tenderloin Museum

“Lady Harriet Sebastian: The Bridgemen,” will be on view on April 3. It is a single painting done by Sebastian, who lived and worked in the Tenderloin for 25 years.

I did not know about the Tenderloin Museum until the San Francisco Chronicle wrote about its planned expansion to 10,000 square feet from 3,000, adding a room for San Francisco’s neon history, including a sign from Hunt’s Donuts, once based in the Mission District and known as the “epicenter of crime.” I so miss the sign that Prubechu painted over in 2019. It was not neon, but nevertheless history. At any rate, I digress.

We caught up with the museum’s preservation of trans history and culture.

There is a lot more going on at the Tenderloin Museum, including the permanent collection that explores the neighborhood’s history and upcoming events, such as a walking tour focused on the area’s LGBTQIA+ history. Other walking tours are listed here.

The Walt Disney Family Museum

The museum is showing rare objects featured in the book “Walt Disney Treasures: Personal Art and Artifacts from The Walt Disney Family Museum.” The objects will change every two months.

Visit the museum’s website for more information on admission costs and reduced ticketing options. 

Exploratorium

Experience After Dark at Pier 15. Every Thursday evening, immerse yourself in more than 700 interactive exhibits. For people 18 and older. The museum advertises a carefree environment with new themes each night. Here is information for reduced admission.  

Museum of Craft and Design (MCD)

“Rug Life,” which opened in mid-December and will run through April 20, “features the work of 14 contemporary artists from around the world who use the rug as a medium to address cultural issues such as religion, technology, social justice, housing and the environment,” according to the museum’s website. 

The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts

“Solo Mujeres” annual group show at the Mission Cultural Center is on now. See the center’s website for offerings. 

500 Capp St.

David Ireland’s former residence, now a museum, welcomes  “Spirit Gleaning,” an exhibition of new, site-specific work by Bay Area-based, Iranian-born artist Minoosh Zomorodinia. Using smartphone-enabled augmented reality, projections, and multimedia installations, the work is the culmination of Zomorodinia’s extended engagement with The David Ireland House, its archive, and its surroundings, beginning in 2022.

The work will be up through April 19.

The museum is open on Saturdays from 1 to 4 p.m. There are also free self-guided tours.

“Community Building, Walking, Sweets, Tea, Sharing Stories With Makaan”
Saturday, April 5, 2025; Time TBD
1240 Minnesota St, San Francisco, CA 94107

Closing Reception of “Spirit Gleaning”
Saturday, April 19, 2025; 12-6pm

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Nicky Nodjoumi & Nahid Hagigat collaborate to tell the story of a family of artists and their ongoing struggle for freedom. This exhibit features paintings, photographs and archival material. Accompanying their artwork will be an HBO documentary, “A Revolution on Canvas,” produced by their daughter, Sara Nodjoumi, and her partner, Till Sachauder. This film explores an international controversy that involved 20 missing artworks in Tehran. 

Entry to YBCA Galleries is free on Wednesdays and second Sundays.

Museum of the African Diaspora

The Museum of the African Diaspora will be closed until September.

Jewish Contemporary Museum

The museum closed in December for at least a year as it works out its financial situation. You can learn more here. Laura Waxmann wrote a good piece for the San Francisco Chronicle about the difficulties museums are facing.

Its closure is a reminder of how important it is to visit our museums.

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