ICA San Francisco

Join us this Saturday, July 27, from 4-6pm for Crochet Jam with O’Arwisters! This public art-making event that invites you to think differently about how our histories are woven together. Steeped in the African-American folk art tradition of crocheting, this workshop explores connection, creativity, and liberation. Crochet in community and get inspired by the textiles, techniques, and themes in Suchitra Mattai’s work.

Attendees are encouraged to bring textiles or garments related to their own ancestries or personal experiences to transform into a community art piece.

No previous crochet experience required. This event is free and open to the public. All ages welcome.

This program is part of our Call & Response series, which invites Bay Area artists and culture workers to respond to exhibitions at ICA SF through multidisciplinary workshops, activations, walkthroughs, and performances.

ICA SF is excited to be part of the ’s 20th Anniversary Dogpatch Scavenger Hunt! 🗺️ Grab a map from the museum, and have some fun exploring the Dogpatch neighborhood as you complete each challenge. 

The Dogpatch Scavenger Hunt runs through the summer, culminating with a Summer Party and raffle drawing on September 20 at the . Bring your Scavenger Hunt answers to the Museum of Craft and Design any time during the summer, or fill in your answers online at sfmcd.org/hunt and register for the party!

This tapestry captures the lush, tropical landscape of Guyana. With her back to us (like many figures in this ’s exhibition), the central woman looks out into the distance, or perhaps back into history.

Mattai fragments this tapestry, with pieces of the whole broken off and grounded in a new space—the floor rather than the wall. For Mattai, this fragmentation and reorientation is a powerful metaphor for diaspora.

Images: Suchitra Mattai, and the world swallowed us whole, 2023. Courtesy the artist and Roberts Projects

Join us next Saturday, July 27th for the first in a series of Call & Response programs reacting to and inspired by Suchitra Mattai’s exhibition on view, “she walked in reverse and found their songs.”

These events are free and open to the public. Register at the link in bio.

10am-12pm
🟣Headlands Artist Walkthroughs: , TZ Jiang, Leonard Reidelbach, Oleg Savunov, Samuel Wildman, and Luka Vergoz

🟠 Coffee Pop-Up with Picnic’s Place + Sea2Sea
Enjoy small bites by Headlands Intern Chef Cynthia Le (Sea2Sea), plus a special coffee pop-up by Picnic’s Place, founded and operated by Headlands Director of Facilities Tesar Freeman. This pop-up is inspired by Picnic, the forever dog-in-residence at Headlands.Free while supplies last.

12-1pm
🟢Join ICA SF Assistant Curator Meghan Smith for a curatorial tour of our current exhibitions.

4-6pm
🟡Join San Francisco-based artist for a public art-making event that invites you to think differently about how our histories are woven together. Steeped in the African-American folk art tradition of crocheting, this workshop explores connection, creativity, and liberation. Attendees are encouraged to bring textiles or garments related to their ancestries or personal experiences to transform into a community art piece. No previous crochet experience required.

“the sea wall” imagines the emotional impact of the transatlantic forced migration ’s ancestors endured. Women with their backs to us gaze out at the Atlantic Ocean through a crack in Guyana’s coastline sea wall. This wall acted as a physical and psychological barrier preventing enslaved people and indentured laborers from seeing, or even dreaming of, freedom.

In her imagination here, Mattai breaks the wall. Groupings of women, adorned with halos and other elements of religious iconography borrowed from Christianity and Hinduism, can now envision the distant horizon and imagine unknown futures.

Images: Suchitra Mattai, the sea wall, 2024
Courtesy the artist and Roberts Projects. Photos by

Sunday morning view of ’s “she walked in reverse and found their songs”

Join us this Friday, July 12, from 5-7pm for the opening reception of Counter Cartographies, the 2024 Graduate Fellow Exhibition!

James Corner’s theory of mapping highlights the cartographic sensibility can be traced throughout the work of the 2024 Headlands Graduate Fellow cohort. This exhibition offers up the urban fabric in haunting and delightfully unfamiliar ways. As mappings, the artists’ work defies understandings of the city that would flatten its complexity or sidestep critique. As James Corner notes, cartographies are powerful because they open us up to new ways of thinking with places we think we know. This exhibition of counter cartographies resists ideological representations of the Bay Area as either a crop of data to harvest or an exploited wasteland. Instead, we are invited to be more present to a flux of “previously unseen or unimagined” realities.

Curated by Christian Gonzalez Ho.

Images:
1. reidelbach_l_banner_gunther, cruising into becoming, 2022. Photo: Chris Gunther
2. Dance Doyle, 3AM. Photo courtesy of the artist.
3. Jiang T Slip Hitting Self_2023. Video with Sound, 14:01

Playing with light and reflection, featured artist .elahimehr evokes narratives of flight, movement, and meditation.

This installation adapts the Āina-kāri—a traditional Persian mosaic technique often used within architectural spaces. Elahimehr hand cuts each piece of glass, then strategically pushes each piece at an angle to create undulating geometric landscapes. She invites viewers to engage in a process of self-reflection, to see ourselves and see within ourselves. As the daylight in the bathroom shifts, the mirrors absorb and reflect the energy of the space. The slow “flight” of these glints of light represent Elahimehr’s own migration story from Iran.

Nasib Elahimehr’s “Ephemeral Narratives” on view through September 1.

Photos by

A museum is the perfect place to work it out on the remix…💚🍏❇️

Our summer featured artist Ashley Spencer interrupts the ICA SF bathroom sightlines, forcing the viewer to consider their respect for the Black body.

“DON’T TOUCH MY HAIR” provokes us to either avoid Spencer’s hand-braided synthetic hair and delicate ceramic beads, or disregard the title’s directive.
Curling braids, beads, and sticks stretch out from the corner and dance along the walls. The shapes create a site of comfort and care, like the ritual of braiding itself.

’s “DON’T TOUCH MY HAIR” is on view through September 1.

“Materials play a huge part in my practice. I’m inspired by their histories, their auras, and their use before I found them.“

weaves materials marked by the past into a collective story of migration and gendered labor. In this exhibition Mattai examines the power of memory in the creation of her own stories: sometimes factual, sometimes fantastical, with divergent pieces collapsing and combining into something new.

“she walked in reverse and found their songs” is on view through September 15.

In “to love in silence,” Suchitra Mattai details the twin girl figures using a specific technique of gapping the embroidery to make them seem simultaneously present and absent, slipping in and out of focus. She highlights the domestic nature of this scene by including her own family wedding saris and table runners.

Frequently employing symmetry and then intentionally disrupting it, Mattai engages with tradition while breaking it, making space to repair and rebuild.

“to love in silence” Is featured in ’s exhibition “she walked in reverse and found their songs,” on view through September 15.

Images:to love in silence, 2024. Courtesy the artist and Roberts Projects. Photos by

A very happy to all the fatherly figures in you life! Drop-in today for some fun arts and crafts to kick off your day 🖍️🎨

On view: In collaboration with , ICA SF invited CCA graduate fine arts students and .elahimehr to propose creative exhibitions in the ICA SF bathrooms.

🟠 “Lamentation” by Ashley Spencer is a halo-like mobile hangs from a lovingly hand-braided lock of hair. The mobile spins slowly on its axis, inviting us to look up and in, while the braid roots it into the architecture of the space.

⚪️ Playing with light and reflection, “Ephemeral Narratives“ by Nasib Elahimehr evokes narratives of flight, movement, and meditation. This installation adapts the Āina-kāri—a traditional Persian mosaic technique often used within architectural spaces.

These site-specific installations are on view through September 1st.

Photos by

Thank you to all our visitors, collaborators, and supporters who made the opening of ’s she walked in reverse and found their songs so special!

We welcomed for our first exhibition tour of ’s “she walked in reverse and found their songs”

“The guide” by acts as the portal—inviting guests into her exhibition “she walked in reverse and found their songs”

Join us TONIGHT at the ICA SF, from 7-9pm to celebrate the opening Mattai’s largest exhibition yet! Featuring all new work including major site-specific installations.

This event is Free and open to the public, walk-ins welcome.

In collaboration with California College of the Arts (), the ICA SF invited CCA graduate students to propose creative exhibitions in the ICA SF bathrooms, continuing our mission of supporting the local arts ecosystem and encouraging artists to push the boundaries of their practice. From June 6 - September 1, these spaces will feature site-specific installations by .elahimehr and

Join us this Wednesday, June 5, from 7-9pm for the opening reception alongside the opening of Suchitra Mattai: she walked in reverse and found their songs.

Refreshments provided. Music by DJ . This event is Free and open to the public, walk-ins welcome.

We are closed through June 5. Stay tuned for a behind-the-scenes look as we prepare for our summer exhibition.

In Saif Azzuz’ mixed media painting “Sumud,” carved outlines of plants, fish, and animals peek through whitewashed wood. Bordering them are fragments of the Yurok frog foot pattern and the Palestinian keffiyeh pattern, both of which symbolize deep connections to land and water in the face of attempted erasure.

The Arabic title roughly translates to steadfastness, immovability, or the will to resist. These elements connect the artist’s two cultural intersections, offering a vision of Arab and Native solidarity.

Sumud Is featured in Azzuz’s exhibition Cost of Living, on view through May 19.

Join us this Friday, April 26, for an in-depth conversation between artist , whose major solo exhibition Look Me in the Eyes is on view through May 19th, and ICA SF Founding Director . Learn more about Kahraman’s research process, conceptual inspirations, and techniques!

This program is open to all 901 Club Members. Not a 901 Club Member? Join today at the link in bio.

A historic moment! Congratulations to Jeffrey Gibson () on his exhibition opening at the U.S Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale!

We could not be more grateful to him for being our inaugural artist. Gibson’s exhibition “THIS BURNING WORLD” at ICA SF helped define our commitment to partnering with artists to dream big and push their practice in new directions—to imagine what might be next.

The artists we’ve worked with since that first show in October 2022 continue to point to it as inspiration. And Jeffrey Gibson continues to inspire today on the largest global stage.

Coming to ICA SF this June: (b. Georgetown, Guyana) will present her largest museum solo exhibition yet, centered around a new sculptural installation that reimagines Mattai’s family home in Guyana. Woven sari fabric will envelop a large-scale house structure floating from the ceiling, while mixed-media tapestries, site-specific wallpaper, and fantastical found furniture sculptures spill its domestic interior into the gallery space.

Titled “she walked in reverse and found their songs,” this exhibition captures the impenetrability of memory as it slips between past and present, personal and universal, real and imagined.

Images:
Portrait courtesy of the artist

“she walked in reverse and found their songs,” 2024, embroidery floss, beads, bindis, sari, and faux gems. Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects. Photo: Paul Salveson

Day 2 of Spring Weekend is here! Drop-in to the ICA SF and experience one of the coolest neighborhoods in San Francisco with FREE admission to the arts; discounts on activities like bouldering, gaming, paddling, and foiling; delicious dining deals; and unique neighborhood activations all weekend long.⁠
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From the streets to the shore, there’s something for everyone and every age. Explore all Dogpatch has to offer during the Dogpatch Spring Weekend—learn more by tapping the link in our bio.⁠
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Participating Businesses:⁠

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Every material in Saif Azzuz’s exhibition holds a specific legacy of the lands and communities.

Through abstraction, assemblage, and institutional critique, Azzuz recalls both the debris of colonization and the resiliency of Indigenous lifeways, salvaging from the perpetual wake of displacement.

Saif Azzuz’s exhibition “Cost of Living” is on view through May 19.

Botanical studies appear throughout ’s work as a quiet but powerful cipher for colonialism. While researching Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, Kahraman saw the insidious colonial hierarchies he embedded into early European understandings of plant species. The field of botany itself was propelled by the expansion of empire, and grew by extracting and erasing Indigenous knowledge systems, ultimately re-naming species according to nationalistic white European desires.

Hayv Kahraman exhibition “Look Me in the Eyes” is on view through May 19.

Images:
1. Hayv Kahraman, 3eoon, 2023. Courtesy of the artist, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, Pilar Corrias, London, The Third Line, Dubai, and Vielmetter Los Angeles. Photo: Glen Cheriton, Impart Photography

2. Hayv Kahraman, Berbeen, 2023. Courtesy of the artist, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, Pilar Corrias, London, The Third Line, Dubai, and Vielmetter Los Angeles. Photo: Glen Cheriton, Impart Photography

3. Hayv Kahraman, Botnij, 2023. Courtesy of the artist, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, Pilar Corrias, London, The Third Line, Dubai, and Vielmetter Los Angeles. Photo: Glen Cheriton, Impart Photography

4. Hayv Kahraman, Qazwan, 2023. Courtesy of the artist, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, Pilar Corrias, London, The Third Line, Dubai, and Vielmetter Los Angeles. Photo: Glen Cheriton, Impart Photography

“How do I take these pieces and give them new life, or have them tell their own story?”

Artist Saif Azzuz constructed the large assemblage wall, titled Shared Memories, from wood he found throughout Bayview–Hunters Point where his studio is located. As one of the neighborhoods in San Francisco actively fighting gentrification, Bayview–Hunters Point represents strength and resilience. Every material in this exhibition holds a specific legacy of the lands and communities it has encountered. Azzuz sources, repurposes, and recontextualizes these materials to reveal their meanings with care and intention.

Saif Azzuz exhibition “Cost of Living” is on view through May 19.

Artist paints directly onto unprimed canvas, saturating both the front and back of the raw material with acrylic pigments. Referencing varied histories of abstraction, Azzuz creates atmospheric layers of plants, water, ridgelines, and weather events.

Azzuz’s paintings honor the plant life indigenous to the Dogpatch neighborhood. He researched species that are either dormant, or starting to go extinct, because the marshland ecosystems that supported them have been destroyed.

Saif Azzuz’s exhibition “Cost of Living” is on view through May 19.

“The [plant life] paintings in my show depict the past and future of what the Dogpatch area once looked like, and in theory will look like.” — Saif Azzuz

Azzuz’s paintings honor the plant life indigenous to the Dogpatch neighborhood. He researched species that are either dormant, or starting to go extinct, because the marshland ecosystems that supported them have been destroyed.

Saif Azzuz: Cost of Living is on view through May 19.

Images:
Saif Azzuz, Yeah, well give the land back then, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and Anthony Meier, Mill Valley
Photos 1,3,& 4 by
Photo 2 by Johnna Arnold, Impart Photography

🍹🍸🥂Join us this Friday, from 6-9pm for The 901 Lounge, our creative cocktail pop-ups at ICA SF with !

There will be food by .friend.fernando + a curatorial tour at 7pm.

Tickets available at the link in bio, price includes admission and one complimentary cocktail (gratuity included). Free for all 901 Club Members. Not a 901 Club Member? Join today! (Link in bio)