Double Horizon by Sarah Sze

 Posted by on May 14, 2023
May 142023
 

Yerba Buena Center Bridge

Double Horizon is a 5,500-pound boulder split open like a geode. The split sculpture is embedded with tiles to create pixelated color images of the sky at different times of the day.

Sze was born in Boston in 1969 and lives in New York. She received a BA in Architecture and Painting from Yale University in 1991 and an MFA from New York’s School of Visual Arts in 1997.  Sze builds her installations and intricate sculptures from the minutiae of everyday life.

Sze was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2003 and a Radcliffe Fellowship in 2005. In 2013, she represented the United States at the Venice Biennale. Her work is exhibited in museums worldwide and held in the permanent collections of prominent institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art, New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and The Tate Modern. Sze has created many public works, including pieces for the Seattle Opera House, The Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York, and The High Line in New York.

Sarah Sze San Francisco Public Art

*Sarah Sze

Node by Roxy Paine

 Posted by on May 14, 2023
May 142023
 
Node by Roxy Paine

Yerba Buena/Moscone Muni Station Node is by New York artist Roxy Paine. Paine describes the eight-ton sculpture as an “enormous bio-industrial rhizomatic organism” and “an elegant line connecting earth to sky, people to underground systems and sculpture to city.” I have been a huge fan of Roxy Paine’s and have seen many of his sculptures throughout the US, including Dendroids in Philadelphia.  It is time San Francisco has a representation of his work. Paine is a contemporary American artist best known for his tree-like structures he calls Dendroids. “I’m interested in taking entities that are organic and outside of the Continue Reading

Oche Wat Te Ou

 Posted by on March 21, 2018
Mar 212018
 
Oche Wat Te Ou

Yerba Buena Gardens Oche Wat Te Ou – Reflections is by Jaune Quick-to-see Smith and James Luna. It sits in Yerba Buena Gardens and was installed in 1993. This tribute to the native Ohlone Indians, created by artists Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and James Luna, takes form in a semicircular wood wall patterned with Ohlone basket designs. Standing behind a crescent-shaped pool and a circle of moss covered rocks, it’s a contemplative environment, set beside a redwood grove with a single live oak tree nearby. The artists intended the piece to serve as a performance area for poetry, storytelling, and other events Continue Reading

Swimming through Jessie Square

 Posted by on April 22, 2013
Apr 222013
 
Swimming through Jessie Square

Site of the future Mexican Museum 706 Mission District Museum Row SOMA This is titled Exploring New Territory and is by Henry Lipkis.  This wall is the edge of the construction site for the forthcoming Mexican Museum, so the piece will be temporary. This is from Henry’s blog: “Back in October I painted my first big public mural in San Francisco. It started back in July when I applied to do an interactive mural as a performance piece for Yerba Buena Night, a cultural art happening in Jessie Square. At first I was going to get a big roll of Continue Reading

Yerba Buena Gardens

 Posted by on April 9, 2013
Apr 092013
 
Yerba Buena Gardens

Yerba Buena Gardens SOMA South of 5th Street Yerba Buena Gardens is a two-block public park that anchors the three sides of the Yerba Buena Center (YBC). The area got its name in 1835 for the “good herb”-mint-growing in the area. YBC is officially in the South of Market Area (SOMA). Jack London first called this area “south of the slot,” in reference to the cable-car tracks that ran down the center of Market Street. In 1847 when the city fathers laid out the SOMA, it was partitioned into lots twice the size of those in the north of market area. Continue Reading

Martin Luther King Memorial

 Posted by on January 21, 2013
Jan 212013
 
Martin Luther King Memorial

Yerba Buena Center Gardens The United States’ second largest Martin Luther King Memorial, titled Revelation, was built in San Francisco in 1993. It sits behind a 50’ x 20’ foot wall of cascading water. Located in the Yerba Buena Gardens, the memorial is a lovely walkway constructed under a 120,000-gallon reflecting pool. The reflective pool spills over large pieces of Sierra granite, giving the visitor a roaring background noise that blocks out the city sounds and allows a moment for peace and contemplation. A photo of Dr. King anchors the west entrance to the fountain. This is mirrored to the east with Continue Reading

The Art of the Jessie Street Substation

 Posted by on January 9, 2013
Jan 092013
 
The Art of the Jessie Street Substation

The Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Substation 222-226 Jessie Street Market Street/Yerba Buena Gardens Tucked away in a dead-end alley between Market and Mission, is one of San Francisco’s few great examples of the architectural possibilities of the brick facade. Originally built in 1881, and subsequently enlarged twice, the substation was damaged in a fire in February, 1906, and almost destroyed in the earthquake and fire of April, 1906. Rebuilt in 1907, the building owes its present character to Willis Polk, at that time head of the San Francisco office of D. H. Burnham and Company, the Chicago firm that Continue Reading

Driving Me Up A Wall

 Posted by on November 17, 2012
Nov 172012
 
Driving Me Up A Wall

255 Third Street SOMA * * These three paintings are on the 3rd, 4th and 5th floors near the elevators of the Moscone Center Garage.  Painted by Dan Rice in 1982 they convey the artist’s impression of motorized existence and depict the frenzy and banality of the daily commute. * * * Autoscape #3, Twin Spin, Driving Me Up a Wall by Dan Rice Dan Rice who received his MFA from UC San Diego said this about the paintings in 1982: ” “My paintings reflect my perceptions of the contemporary american way of life,’ Rice said. ‘They deal with symbols abstracted from our Continue Reading

Hidden Sea near Moscone Center

 Posted by on September 22, 2012
Sep 222012
 
Hidden Sea near Moscone Center

321 Clementina SOMA Hidden Sea by Ned Kahn 2000 Recipient Organization: Tenants and Owners Development Corporation In late 1999, artist Ned Kahn collaborated with the staff of the Tenants and Owners Development Corporation (TODCO) and the residents of their housing projects to create a public artwork for the exterior wall of Ceatrice Polite apartment building at Fourth and Clementina Streets. The apartment is in the Yerba Buena redevelopment area. Ned Kahn’s public artworks encourage people to observe and interact with natural processes. Upon talking with the advisory group, his concept for this project became to create a piece that captures Continue Reading

Yerba Buena Gardens – Urge

 Posted by on January 10, 2012
Jan 102012
 
Yerba Buena Gardens - Urge

Yerba Buena Gardens Childrens Museum side of Howard Street  Urge by Chico Macmurtrie This has always been one of my favorite sculptures in San Francisco.  There is something so lifelike and yet so robotic about the figure.  The sculptor works in a team that he formed in 1992, called Amorphic Robot Works.  They are a group of artists, engineers and technicians.  Some of their work is based on the concept of moving robotic figures, and yet other pieces are haunting and so diverse to belay any attempt to categorize it. This piece also gives credit to others – Engineer: Dave Continue Reading

Jan 092012
 
Yerba Buena Gardens - Deep Gradient/Suspect Terrain

Yerba Buena Center San Francisco  Deep Gradient/Suspect Terrain (Seasons of the Sea ‘Adrift) John Roloff with NGA Industries and Wes-Co Industries 1993 * The accompanying plaque says: This glass ship is an art work that refers to the natural and geological history of California.  Sediment gathered from the ocean floor four miles off the coast of San Francisco was placed inside in 1993.  This sediment contains diverse mineral and organic matter extracted from the landscape by the rivers that flow to the sea through the Golden Gate.  The greenhouse environment of the ship interacts subtly with these materials producing ongoing Continue Reading

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