Zanele Muholi, “Faniswa, Seapoint, Cape Town”, from the series “Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness)”, 2016, black and white photograph. Image courtesy of SFMOMA.
Ongoing to August 11 — Zanele Muholi: Eye Me at SFMOMA: A self-described visual activist, Zanele Muholi uses the camera to explore issues of gender identity, representation, and race within their own body and members of their LGBTQ+ community in South Africa. This first major exhibition of Muholi’s work on the West Coast provides the opportunity for Bay Area audiences to delve into the artist’s expansive activism project highlighting Blackness, gender expression, and resilience. SFMOMA is located at 151 3rd St in San Francisco.
Lee Mingwei, “Guernica in Sand”, 2006-present, mixed media interactive installation, sand, wooden island, and lighting. Image courtesy of deYoung Museum.
Ongoing to July 7 — Lee Mingwei: Rituals of Care at deYoung Museum: Considering how art can encourage social connection and healing in a time of extensive trauma and loss, Lee Mingwei’s Rituals of Care features projects made between 1995 and 2024 that place the visitor at the center of radical acts of generosity and care. Interactive installations and performances include The Letter Writing Project (1998–present), The Mending Project (2009–present), Sonic Blossom (2013–present), Guernica in Sand (2006–present), Peaceable Kingdom (2020–present), and Chaque souffle une danse (Each Breath a Dance, 2024). deYoung Museum is located at 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr in San Francisco.
Mark Bradford, “20 minutes from any bus stop”, 2002, acrylic, end papers, and Xerox collage on canvas. Julia Scher, “Security by Julia uniform (detail)”, 1998, pink shirt with “Security by Julia” embroidery. Images courtesy of Cantor Arts Center.
March 6 to July 21 — Day Jobs at Cantor Arts Center: Success for artists is often measured by their ability to quit a day job and focus full time on their practice. Yet, these jobs can often spur creative growth by providing artists with new materials and methods, hands-on knowledge, or structure that enables unpredictable ideas. Day Jobs features works by California-based artists such as Margaret Kilgallen, Jay Lynn Gomez, Barbara Kruger, Ahree Lee, Jim Campbell, Narsiso Martinez, and Sandy Rodriguez, and is comprised of more than 90 works by 36 artists based in the United States. This exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with commissioned essays and interviews from 24 pioneering artists such as Larry Bell, Mark Bradford, Tishan Hsu, Howardena Pindell, and Julia Scher. Cantor Arts Center is located at 328 Lomita Dr in Stanford.
Ruth Laskey, “Twill Series (Loops 5)”, 2023, hand-woven and hand-dyed linen. Image courtesy of Altman Siegel Gallery.
March 7 to April 20 — Loops & Circles at Altman Siegel Gallery: Evocative of gesture and movement, Ruth Laskey’s minimalist, abstract weavings are characterized by precise geometry and the colorful flow of curving lines within gridded patterns. In this debut exhibition, Laskey reveals the process of creating tactile, intentional work with quiet elegance. Altman Siegel Gallery is located at 1150 25th St in San Francisco.
Stephanie Syjuco, “RAIDERS”, 2011, digital archival photo prints mounted onto lasercut wood, hardware, and crates. Image courtesy of Catherine Clark Gallery.
March 9 to May 4 — Stephanie Syjuco: Dodge + Burn at Catherine Clark Gallery: This dynamic survey exhibition reveals over 20 years of work by the acclaimed cross-disciplinary artist. Working in photography, sculpture, and installation, Stephanie Syjuco moves from handmade and craft-inspired mediums to digital editing and archive excavations to investigate issues of economies and empire. For the first time, projects such as Dodge and Burn (Visible Storage) (2019) and Double Vision (2021) are being presented on the West Coast. Catherine Clark Gallery is located at 248 Utah St in San Francisco.
Ranu Mukherjee, “Passage”, 2020, pigment, cristalina, UV inkjet, silk, and cotton sari fabric on linen. Image courtesy of ICA San José.
March 23 to August 11 — P L A C E: Reckonings by Asian American Artists at ICA San José: The ICA San José and Montalvo Arts Center jointly present this exhibition intending to honor and uplift the diverse voices of contemporary artists of East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian, and Pacific Islander ancestries. In three thematic parts, artists consider their complex relationship and their own agency and belonging in association with the spaces that they have inhabited, embedded with histories of exclusion or violence. Showcased artists include Adrienne Pao, Robin Lasser, Phung Huynh, Ranu Mukherjee, Wanxin Zhang, Mail Order Brides/M.O.B. (Eliza O. Barrios, Reanne Estrada, and Jenifer K. Wofford), Namita Paul, Related Tactics (Michele Carlson, Weston Teruya, and Nate Watson), Bruce Yonemoto, Stephanie Syjuco, Valerie Soe, Christy Chan, and Christine Wong Yap. ICA San José is located at 560 S 1st St in San José.
Morel Doucet, “Black Maiden in Veil of Midnight”, 2022, slip-casted white earthenware. Image courtesy of MoAD.
March 27 to September 1 — Unruly Navigations at MoAD: Unruly Navigations testifies to the urgent, disorderly, rebellious, and nonlinear movements of people, cultures, ideas, religions, and aesthetics that define diaspora. This exhibition’s more than 40 artworks and 4 site-specific installations capture multidimensional trajectories through time, across geographies, and through complex spiritual landscapes to reevaluate conventional accounts of diasporic experience. These artworks rewrite the historically misrepresented, mischaracterized, and misplaced stories from the perspective of the enslaved, the forcibly displaced, or otherwise disenfranchised. Showcased artists include Nafis M. White, Nadine Natalie Hall, M. Scott Johnson, Winfred Rembert, Myrlande Constant, Vanessa German, Morel Doucet, Oluseye, and Anina Major. MoAD is located at 685 Mission St in San Francisco.