Shows opening soon
- “Bouquets to Art” at the Legion of Honor and the de Young museums runs from June 3 to June 8, nearly a week in which visitors will see the galleries transformed with floral arrangements based on artwork in the museums.
- In mid-June 500 Capp Street will reopen with “Mildred Howard Collaborating with the Muses Part 2″.”
Shows closing soon
- The 2024 SECA Art Award exhibition closes on May 26, 2025.
- “Project Dastaan,” exploring the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan, is up through June 2.
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.
At the museums
SFMOMA
A film screening at SFMOMA, Sunday, May 25 of short films co-sponsored by the Latin American Studies Association Congress.
Photography should figure big in 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.
This should not be missed. And on Thursday, June 5, at 6 p.m. (a free Thursday for Bay Area residents), there will be a panel discussion about the group that includes Erin O’Toole, the curator of photography, as well as three artists featured in the exhibition, Janet Delaney, Zig Jackson, and Ray Potes. You can register here. Below are some of the photos included in the show.
Zig Jackson, Painted Ladies (Alamo Park), from the series “Indian Man in San Francisco,” 1994. Photo by Tenari Tuatagaloa. 
Dorothea Lange, “White Angel Breadline,” Photo by Don Ross. 
Janet Delaney, “Flag Makers, Natoma at Third Street,” from the series South of Market, 1978-1986, Courtesy the artist. 
P. Douglas Anderson, “A Corner in Chinatown S.F., ca. 1923.” Photo by Don Ross 
Catherine Opie, Flipper, Tanya, Chloe, & Harriet, San Francisco, California, from the series “Domestic, Photo” by Katherine Du Tiel.
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 review
Some slides from the show.
Portrait of Japanese American artist sculptor Ruth Asawa as she sketches a design, 1954; image: Nat Farbman/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock; artwork: © 2025 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc.. Courtesy David Zwirner 
Ruth Asawa, Valentine Bouquet from Adam (PF.555), 1991; private collection; © 2025 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc., courtesy David Zwirner. Photo by James Paonessa 
Ruth Asawa, Untitled (WC.187, Two Watermelons), 1960s; Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland; © 2025 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc., courtesy David Zwirner. Photo: James Paonessa 
Ruth Asawa, Untitled (S.451, Wall-Mounted Tied-Wire, Open-Center, Six-Branched Form Based on Nature), ca. 1965; private collection; © 2025 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc., courtesy David Zwirner. Photo courtesy David Zwirner
“Kunié Sugiura: Photopainting” is on. From the website: “The exhibition charts the arc of Sugiura’s long career, beginning with undergraduate work from her “Cko” series that reflects her sense of isolation as a foreign student in Chicago. Prints made after her move to New York in 1967 demonstrate her use of canvas as a support and new process of working on a large scale.” The work is mesmerizing.
In its venture into AI, the museum has “New Work: Samson Young,” a multimedia installation using generative AI that looks at the relationship between love and memory. Here is an interview with the Hong Kong-based artist, who originally trained as a composer.
And there is also 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, ” closing at the end of May, features nearly 100-year-old tableware, flatware and drinkware. The exhibit explores the dining experiences across different cultures.
The 2024 SECA Art Award exhibition, which closes on May 26, celebrates local artists Rose D’Amato, Angela Hennessy, and Rupy C. Tut.
Here is some of their work.
Rupy C. Tut, “The Dreamweaver ਸੁਫ਼ਨੇਕਾਰ (sufnekaar),” 2024, courtesy the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco. Photo by Phillip Maisel. 
Angela Hennessy, “Wake Work,” 2024 (installation view, SFMOMA); Photo by Don Ross. 
Rose D’Amato, “Chevrolet Six I, II,” 2024, “Sunshine Drive-In,” 2024, and “Roadtest and Multicheck (From the Chevrolet Six Construction Site),” 2024 (installation view, SFMOMA). Photo by Don Ross.
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.
Institute for Contemporary Art
“Midnight March” by Masako Miki and “stay, take your time, my love” by David Antonio Cruz are now open. You may know Miki’s work from her whimsical installations at the Uber headquarters. Cruz’s exhibit includes newly commissioned work “created in response to the queer histories of San Francisco.”
David Antonio Cruz, “canyoustaywithmetonight_causeyouarehere,youarehere,andweareherewithyou,” 2021. 
David Antonio Cruz, “yourenotbymyside_wontyouremember,” 2025. 
David Antonio Cruz. “thefogwillrise,theclaydry,andallcoveredindew.ButI’llseeyouwhenthesunsets_causewehavelivingghosts,” 2024 
Masako Miki, “Ancient Tree Witness,” 2023, Wool on XPS foam, walnut wood. Photo: Steve Ferrera, Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman. 
Masako Miki, “Revealing Mirror Shapeshifter,” 2022. Photo: Steve Ferrera, Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman. 
Masako Miki, “Midnight March (Blue and Red Violet),” 2025. Photo: Phillip Maisel, Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman.
Museum of Craft and Design (MCD)
“Buttons On,” is the first retrospective for Beau McCall, who has had a 40-year career creating art with buttons. It is pretty crazy and wonderful what can happen when a particular child sees a jar of buttons collected by his mom. The NewsHour did a piece on the artist:
Also on: “A Roadmap to Stardust.” The museum’s website calls it “a modern inquiry into the cosmos and humankind’s eagerness to explore distant planets.”
Legion of Honor
The museum has a Free Saturday campaign.
“Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art,” 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.
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.
de Young Museum
“Isaac Julien: I Dream a World,” is open at the de Young Museum. The first U.S. retrospective of the London-born video artists features 10 major video installations, exploring various themes, including migration and the appropriation of African artists by museums.
Teresa Moore reviewed the show for Mission Local, calling it akin to being in a poem that “explodes with the power of visual metaphors, surprising angles, historical and cultural allusions, and that moment of recognition or discovery when one’s own mind completes an artist’s intimations.”
Read our Review
Here is also a Q&A with the artist posted on the museum’s website.
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.
The Letterform Archive
The Letterform Archive is our latest addition to the list. It is a nonprofit arts center focused on graphic design. In late April, it opened a 10-year anniversary exhibit, “10 × 10 for 10: Ten years of Letterform Archive. One hundred objects of typographic design.” It will run through October 12, 2025, and features 100 objects from the collection.
The Chinese Historical Society of America
“Challenging a White-Washed History: Chinese Laundries in the U.S.” is on. Mission Local’s Junyou Yang wrote about the exhibit here.
Also at the museum: “We are Bruce Lee: Under the Sky, one family,” and “Living in Chinatown: Memories in Miniature,” sculptures by Frank Wong, who attended Galileo High School, became a set designer and now lives in Chinatown.
Asian Art Museum
“Project Dastaan,” exploring the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan, is up through June 2.
“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.
There is also birdwatching at the museum with “Beautiful, Bountiful, Boisterous Birds,” and also in the Japanese galleries, “Shinoda Toko: Abstract Calligraphy” Toko moved from copying calligraphy to creating abstractions. The work is exquisite.
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.
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.
In the Coastal Communities installation of marine mammals, there is everything from a humpback whale skull to a sea otter skeleton. California: State of Nature exhibition 5.24.24 © California Academy of Sciences 
One of California’s last grizzly bears, Monarch, 100 years after the grizzly bear extinction in California. He serves as both a warning and call to conserve habitats. California: State of Nature exhibition 5.24.24 © California Academy of Sciences 
A cross-section redwood, part of the Forests and Fires secton of the exhibit where you can also learn abouyt Indigenous fire practices. The bronze bird expands its wings over visitors and releases bird calls. California: State of Nature exhibition 5.24.24 © California Academy of Sciences
The Tenderloin Museum
“Lady Harriet Sebastian: The Bridgemen,” is on view. 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.
The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts
See the center’s website for offerings.
500 Capp St.
David Ireland’s former residence is closed through June 19 for an installation. It will reopen with “Mildred Howard Collaborating with the Muses Part 2″
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
“The Only Door I Can Open: Women Exposing Prison through Art” is a multimedia exhibition in which eight currently and formerly incarcerated artists reflect on their relationship to their bed.
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.
Thank you! This list is very useful and helped me catch exhibits before they closed previously.
Great list! Most helpful to find in one place.