Art in the Streets of San Francisco

In San Francisco, one can see many wonderful art in the streets - artworks created not only by street artists but by well-established artists as well.

Recently there were quite a few interesting art displays in the Civic Center area, surrounding the City Hall, Opera House and the Symphony Hall.

In front of the Asian Art Museum, facing the City Hall, was a 24-foot red lotus installation, Breathing Flower, as part of the Phantoms of Asia exhibition in the Museum, created by Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa. The Museum described the work as such: "With motorized bright red fabric leaves opening and closing, simulating the movement of a live lotus flower, the installation creates a link between the modern world and one of the most important cosmological symbols in Asia."

The most satisfying aspect regarding this installation was that a viewer could find his own backdrop for this gigantic lotus and became part of the creator of art.







The San Francisco Art Commission Gallery in the same neighborhood often had interesting displays.  In June, the exhibition at the gallery was a cut paper installation by Tahiti Pehrson, an artist based in Nevada City, CA, with strong Bay Area roots - Sea of Love.  The intricate patterns of the large installation was ambitious, intriguing and was lovely to behold.

The Gallery's website stated that: "Veering from his earlier, more figurative and narrative works, Sea of Love features repetitive geometric patterns referencing those found in astrophysics, mathematics and biology. The artist is driven by an interest in the way humans organize information and our environment; and how strong our instinct is to seek out patterns to explain everything in the universe."





There were two fascinating head sculptures in bright colors right in front of San Francisco Opera House - works created by visual artist Jun Kaneko who had designed the sets and costumes for San Francisco Opera's new production of Die Zauberflöte. The production had garnered great reviews for its fantastic and very musical design.  I didn't see the opera but these two large heads below gave me a slight idea of his idiom.









 

Finally, around the Civic Center, many banners of San Francisco Opera's productions graced the streets.  Wonderful banners, even though they featured the controversial figure of Richard Nixon, the title character in a wonderful opera by John Adams - Nixon in China, which finally arrived at San Francisco after its world premiere in Houston twenty-five years ago.