SFGH – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Nature of Medicine

Posted by Cindy on September 9, 2017

Sep 092017

San Francisco General Hospital
1001 Potrero Avenue
Potrero Hill
Main Lobby of the New Wing

Image by Arla Escontrias for SFGHF

When you enter the lobby of the new wing you are overwhelmed by color. The two glass mosaics and the terrazzo floor are all done by Oakland artist, Rupert Garcia, done in 2015 they are titled Nature of Medicine.

The floor art piece measures 88 feet by 52 feet. The mosaic mural above the reception desk is 190 inches by 359-1/2 inches and the mural above the stairs measures 252-7/8 inches by 305 inches

Tile mosaic in the stairwell leading to the second floor

Rupert García, born in French Camp, California, is a Chicano artist who works in poster paint, oils and pastels. He studied painting and received numerous student honors from Stockton Junior College and San Francisco State University (SFSU), where he was influenced by Photo Realism.

Rupert Garcia has a piece at the San Francisco International airport that you can read about here.

This installation was part of a $7million budget and is the responsibility of the San Francisco Art Commission.

River of Time

Posted by Cindy on August 8, 2017

Aug 082017

San Francisco General Hospital
1001 Potrero Avenue
Potrero Hill
Acute Care Building
7th Floor

This piece, titled River of Time, is in three pieces. The above piece is at the end of a short hallway on the 7th floor. The other two, however, are behind locked doors. I was able to snap a photo of the others when the doors were opened by a staff member.

River of Time consists of a curved glass wall 98-2/8 inches by 97-3/8 inches and the two glass light-well walls in a corridor that measure 93-5/8 inches by 246 inches. All are stained glass panels. The artist’s concept is budding tree branches suspended above a calm riverbed in mostly blue hues.

Alan Masaoka was raised in San Francisco, California, and has been working with glass since 1975. He attended Pilchuck Glass School in the state of Washington.

Masaoka began his first glass business, Architectural Glass Design, in Seattle in 1975. In 1980 Masaoka moved to the Monterey Peninsula and established Masaoka Glass Design. He moved his studio to the Carmel Valley in 1998.

Masaoka is known for his unique signature style of contemporary leaded glasswork, incorporating bevels and hand-blown German art glass. His work also includes etched glass, reverse glass painting, kiln cast and fused glass techniques.

These were commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission for $144,579.

Ethereal Bodies

Posted by Cindy on July 15, 2017

Jul 152017

San Francisco General Hospital
1001 Potrero Avenue
Potrero Hill
Parking entry on 22nd Street

Titled Ethereal Bodies, this piece, done in 2015, is by Cliff Garten. It consists of nine undulating stainless steel sculptures lit by multicolored LED lights. The installation’s stainless steel rods range in height from 14 to 22 feet tall. The surface of each is finely worked to achieve the most interesting interaction with sunlight and the LED lights at night.

Garten received a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Master of Landscape Architecture with Distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, his studios are in Venice, California.

Photo courtesy of CliffGartenStudio.com

Cliff Garten has another piece in Mission Bay of San Francisco that you can view here.

Healing Hearts

Posted by Cindy on July 15, 2017

Jul 152017

San Francisco General Hospital
1001 Potrero Avenue
Potrero Hill

The plaque that accompanies these pieces reads: San Francisco General Hospital is known as the “heart of the city” and the phrase inspired this series of sculptures. Mother with Children in the entry pavilion and the smaller Hearts figures sited along the walkway celebrate the crucial role the hospital plays in preserving and maintaining the community’s health and well-being

The pieces were all created by sculptor Tom Otterness who was born 1952 in Wichita, Kansas. He is a prolific public art sculptor who has been creating whimsical satirical pieces since the 1970s.

Otterness employs the “lost wax” process to cast his bronze figures, which range from monumental to palm-sized. About his sculptures, the artist says, “I try to make work that speaks a common language that people understand, a visual language that doesn’t intimidate them.”

The sculptures are part of the San Francisco Art Commission Collection and cost $700,000. Otterness has other pieces on a building in the Union Square area that you can see here.

SFGH Healing Garden

Posted by Cindy on March 28, 2013

Mar 282013

1001 Potrero
San Francisco General Hospital

The artist designed this small garden, in 1993, as an extension to an existing hospital memorial garden and as a place to provide seating sheltered from the wind. A red gravel walkway, edged in white granite city-surplus curbstones, forms a double helix, which is symbolic of life. The seating is made from salvaged granite.

Look closely, you can see the double helix in the planter on the left.

Benny Bufano’s Madonna graces the back of the garden.

Peter Richards is a long-term Artist in Residence at the Exploratorium (an innovative science museum in San Francisco, California) Peter shares his enthusiasm for nature and the elements through his work. His engaging outdoor public sculptures and immersive landscaped environments bring such phenomena as wind and tidal movement into a larger cultural context. Peter is responsible for the Wave Organ in the bay, and the Philosophers Walk at McClaren Park. He holds an MFA from the Rinehart School of Sculpture in Baltimore, Maryland and a BA in Art from Colorado College.

The garden is part of the SFAC collection.