Search #cultured on See Saw Gallery Guide anytime to add CULTURED’s picks to your custom map. Our San Francisco selections will also be available as a local art guide.
“The Poetics of Dimensions”
Where: ICA San Francisco
When: Through March 16
Why It’s Worth A Look: Through his collaborations with visionary artists like Steve McQueen, Firelei Báez, and Judy Chicago, Larry Ossei-Mensah has established himself as a curator who amplifies diverse voices and defies artistic conventions. This exhibition continues in that tradition with each work on view serving as "an homage to overlooked histories."
Know Before You Go: The show brings 12 artists together who transform everyday materials—durags, shoelaces, felt, leather, and single-use plastic—into cohesive artworks that challenge perceptions of commonplace objects. Work by Sonia Gomes, Nengi Omuku, Nari Ward, and more will be on view.
“Makeshift Memorials, Small Revolutions”
Where: Kadist
When: Through February 15
Why It’s Worth A Look: With a new president, natural disasters, and the recent pandemic, this timely exhibition centers mutual aid and collective resilience as powerful antidotes to our era's unprecedented challenges. Beyond documenting pandemic-era upheaval and showcasing how artists have responded, the show reveals the profound ways communities have woven together networks of care and support throughout time.
Know Before You Go: This is a dual-city exhibition with a concurrent show at Houston's Blaffer Art Museum. At Kadist alone, over 40 artists are participating.
"American Sublime" by Amy Sherald
Where: SFMOMA
When: Through March 9
Why It’s Worth A Look: "American Sublime" features over 50 of Amy Sherald’s works, her biggest show to date. The acclaimed artist, recognized for her indelible portraits of Michelle Obama and Breonna Taylor (both on view), presents both new and previously unseen works in this comprehensive showcase.
Know Before You Go: Sherald's work, which sees her figures rendered in grayscale across vibrant backgrounds, directly addresses the historical omission of Black subjects in portraiture. "I really have this deep belief that images can change the world," she said in a statement.
"We Have a History" by Leilah Babirye
Where: de Young
When: Through October 26
Why It’s Worth A Look: In her first museum solo Stateside, Leilah Babirye constructs portraits of her LGBTQ+ community at home in New York and her native Uganda. The display circles themes of reclamation, rediscovery, and redefinition as she employs ceramic and wood-carving techniques native to western and central Africa, before adorning the sculptures with found materials like bike chains and inner tubes.
Know Before You Go: The exhibition, part of the museum's Contemporary African Art program, features everything from towering totemic forms to busts, talismans, and masks.
“Beyond the Bodies’ Edge” by Didier William
Where: Altman Siegel
When: Through February 22
Why It’s Worth A Look: As a Haitian immigrant who grew up in Miami and now lives in Philadelphia, Didier William uses both wildlife and landscapes of his own construction to explore complex narratives of cultural belonging. Populating the pieces are the artist's signature shadowy figures, just human-like enough to reflect our own feelings and behaviors.
Know Before You Go: In one piece, William goes a different direction by inscribing text into wood. Steel yourself, as it reads, was crafted shortly after the 2024 presidential election.
“Peter Halley”
Where: Berggruen
When: Through February 27
Why It’s Worth A Look: Known for his work as a major figure in the Neo-Conceptualist movement, Peter Halley takes Cubism to new heights by turning simple squares into wall-spanning constructions with a vibrant use of fluorescent colors and industrial materials like Roll-a-Tex.
Know Before You Go: Halley’s work has its own jargon, with his "cells" and "conduits" in the paintings representing elements of contemporary life and the networks and systems that link isolated spaces to one another, particularly in our technological age.
“A Serious Celebration” by Davina Semo
Where: Jessica Silverman
When: Through February 22
Why It’s Worth A Look: "A Serious Celebration" adds a new dimension to the white cube, featuring hanging bells that have been a part of Davina Semo’s practice since 2017. The pieces produce different tones and sounds when they come together and were crafted in a traditional bell foundry.
Know Before You Go: You might have already interacted with Semo’s work when walking through Brooklyn Bridge Park in 2020 and 2021. In an installation commissioned by the Public Art Fund, named Reverberation, five of Semo’s bronze bells were placed along the park and stood so pedestrians could ring them.
“John Duff”
Where: Micki Meng
When: January 23 - March 8
Why It’s Worth A Look: John Duff’s work is rooted in unpredictability. This survey traces his history of keeping viewers on their toes. In Orange Concatenation, for example, a precise geometric form playfully breaks free into something unexpected. Green Stripe appears from a distance to be a single colorful line along the wall. Up close, viewers can take in the additional dimensions.
Know Before You Go: Early in his artistic career, Duff lived at 76 Jefferson Street in New York, which housed an all-star lineup of artists including Janet Fish, Robert Lobe, Richard Kalina, Ed Shostak, and more. There, he and others became part of the city's post-Minimalist movement.
“Ariel Pt. II”
Where: House of Seiko
When: Through January 26
Why It’s Worth A Look: This is the second installment of House of Seiko's showcase for the work of late Bay Area artist Ariel Reynolds Parkinson, a mainstay of the area's bohemian bent. The artist fused contemporary themes with a undercurrent of dark Art Nouveau and grotesquerie, which she called "the posture of cruel joy."
Know Before You Go: The artist was deeply involved with the Berkeley Bunch of the 1940s, then the hippies and beatniks. She even attended the famous “Human Be-In,” of 1967 with American poet Allen Ginsburg.
“Infinite Hope”
Where: Jenkins Johnson Gallery
When: January 21 - March 1
Why It’s Worth A Look: “Infinite Hope” unites four legendary Black photographers: Gordon Parks, Kwame Brathwaite, Ming Smith, and Renée Cox. Their pioneering images captured pivotal junctures in Black American life, from Parks's civil rights documentation to Brathwaite's "Black is Beautiful" series.
Know Before You Go: Opening the day after Martin Luther King Day, and on view through Black History Month, the show's name is derived from a speech Dr. King gave months before his assassination. The full quote reads, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
“Carrie Mae Weems”
Where: Fraenkel Gallery
When: Through February 22
Why It’s Worth A Look: Through Carrie Mae Weems’s lens, simple architectural subjects, from boarded-up storefronts to museum architecture, become powerful markers of our current sociopolitical standing. This showing places new works, depicting San Francisco landmarks, alongside selections from her most prominent series.
Know Before You Go: The artist has been photographing herself standing in front of major art institutions in her "Museum Series" for nearly 20 years. This show has two new photographs located in the city's own Legion of Honor, including one where Weems comes face to face with Rodin's renowned sculpture, The Thinker.
