I spent a few weeks abroad this summer, and it was a relief to be away from the United States and its deluge of bad news — but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss San Francisco and its thriving art scene. If you’re similarly playing catch-up, look no further than this list of exhibitions to visit in the coming weeks.
Before summer ends, visit the Ruth Asawa retrospective at SFMOMA — even if it isn’t your first time. “To anyone looking to create a rich and ethical life in the arts,” Alex Paik writes in his recent review, “Ruth Asawa showed us the way.” It was one of the best shows of the summer, a long-overdue celebration of one of the most important artists and activists in San Francisco’s history, and so sprawling that you’re bound to see something new each time. Still, there are a handful of other shows to see in the dog days of summer before the fall season kicks off, packed with plenty more local history, as well as contemporary artists working at the intersection of art and activism.
Service Tension
San Francisco Arts Commission, 401 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 325, San Francisco, California
Through August 23
Service Tension bristles with the erotic energy of friction between flesh. The group show, at the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Main Gallery, features artists interrogating the complexities of queer sexuality, masculinity, and the body. The viewer assumes the role of the voyeur, implicated in this negotiation of power and positionality that pushes the boundaries of art and sex.
Still Burning, Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Ant Farm’s Media Burn
500 Capp Street, 500 Capp Street, San Francisco, California
Through August 23
On July 4, 1975, the experimental art collective Ant Farm drove a car decorated to look like an airplane into a stack of television sets. The performance, titled “Media Burn,” was a satirical critique of mainstream media and politics. Fifty years later, Still Burning, at 500 Capp Street, delves into the documentation and ephemera surrounding the performance, reminding us that issues around media’s role in politics are as pertinent as ever.
Tiffany Sia: No Place
Cantor Arts Center at Stanford, 328 Lomita Drive, Stanford, California
Through August 24
The term “liminal space” gets thrown around a lot in the art world. I prefer “no place,” artist Tiffany Sia’s term for locations that become forgotten or intangible through their troubled histories. The two films on view in Sia’s modest solo show at the Cantor Arts Center tell the story of her childhood journey through such “no places,” from Cold War-era Shanghai to Hong Kong, finding solidity in her passage.
Beautiful, Bountiful, Boisterous Birds
Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin Street, San Francisco, California
Through September 15
Bird-watching takes on new meaning in this show at the Asian Art Museum. The selection of brush paintings on view in the Tateuchi Japanese Galleries ranges from screen paintings to hanging scrolls, incorporating birds as both decorative and symbolic elements. With many of the birds representing seasonal change, this is the perfect show for a foggy summer day in San Francisco.
10 × 10 for 10: Ten years of
Letterform Archive, 2325 3rd Street Floor 4R, San Francisco, California
Through October 12
Read all about it! Letterform Archive celebrates a decade of preserving the history of typographic design with this exhibition drawn from its collection. Growing from 15,000 to 100,000 objects over the last decade, the Archive boasts no shortage of textual delights, from cuneiform to calligraphy to political posters and much more.
Leilah Babirye: We Have a History
de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, California
Through October 26
Leilah Babirye’s first solo museum show in the United States is a celebration of the LGBTQ+ community and the African craft practices that inspire her. Made from ceramic and carved wood, the sculptures are monuments to Black love. Reinterpreting tradition through a contemporary lens, Babirye shows us how to honor where we came from without losing sight of where we’re going.
Black Gold: Stories Untold
Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, 2 Marina Boulevard, Building C, San Francisco, California
Through November 2
Organized by FOR-SITE at San Francisco’s Fort Point, Black Gold delves into the history of Black California through art. The group show includes 17 contemporary artists, many local to the Bay Area. Featuring several special commissions, such as Trina Michelle Robinson’s “Requiem for Charles Young” (2025), which honors the captain of a company of Black soldiers stationed at San Francisco’s Presidio in 1903, the show traces the stories of Black Californians from the Gold Rush through Reconstruction, highlighting their lasting impact.
Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2155 Center Street, Berkeley, California
Through November 30
Featuring over 100 quilts by 80 artists, Routed West is the first exhibition showcasing the major bequest of African-American quilts the Berkeley Art Museum received in 2019. The show reveals the importance of quilt-making to the story of the Second Great Migration, in which Black Americans resettled from Southern states to urban areas in the Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1940 to 1970. The quilts on view come from both the South and California, tracing family threads across the country.
Bay Area Then
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street, San Francisco, California
Through January 25, 2026
Who doesn’t love a throwback? The group show Bay Area Then spotlights artists who came of age between the 1980s and early 2000s in and around San Francisco. From artists grappling with the AIDS crisis to the Mission School’s twist on graffiti to the many artist collectives that fueled the community, Bay Area Then offers a glimpse into the past and guidance for the future.
Students on Strike
Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak Street, Oakland, California
Through May 31, 2026
Beginning with the student strikes of 1968–69 at San Francisco State University and drawing a line to the present, Students on Strike at the Oakland Museum of California paints a vivid picture of Bay Area student activism. The show is packed with posters and photographs documenting student dissent and organizing, from the demand for an Ethnic Studies program in the ’60s to opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Leave inspired with new ways to show up in your community.
