Bay Area Then
August 1, 2025–January 25, 2026
Group Exhibition
Curated by Eungie Joo
Image: Installation View Bay Area Then. YBCA, San Francisco.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA)
701 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
+1-415-978-2787
YBCA Website
YBCA Instagram
YBCA Hours
| Monday | Closed |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | Closed |
| Wednesday | 11:00 am – 5:00 pm |
| Thursday | 11:00 am – 5:00 pm |
| Friday | 11:00 am – 5:00 pm |
| Saturday | 11:00 am – 5:00 pm |
| Sunday | 11:00 am – 5:00 pm |
Today’s LOVE LETTER TO ART focuses on YBCA’s current exhibition, Bay Area Then, curated by Eungie Joo—a reflective, deeply Bay Area show that looks back to a moment when artists transformed adversity into creative force.
Drawing parallels between the cultural vitality of the 1990s and today’s urgent need for radical imagination, the exhibition brings together artists whose practices emerged amid some of the region’s defining moments of crisis and renewal—from the AIDS epidemic to social unrest and natural disaster.
Featuring works by Ajax Oakford, Alicia McCarthy, Arnold J. Kemp, Barry McGee, Beatrix Fowler, Bill Daniel, Carolyn Castaño, Chris Johanson, Eamon Ore-Giron, Gina Osterloh, Josh Lazcano, Johanna Jackson, Margaret Kilgallen, Manuel Ocampo, Mike “DREAM” Francisco, Nao Bustamante, Rigo 23, Ruby Neri, and Sergio De La Torre with Chris Treggiari, Bay Area Then honors a generation that rejected despair and instead built community through art, collaboration, and possibility—often within artist-run and alternative spaces.
Overview
Preview of Bay Area Then. YBCA, San Francisco.
Shown here:
1) Bay Area Then at YBCA looks back to the 1990s/early 2000s when local artists responded to crisis by building community—and asks what that kind of radical imagination could mean today.
2) Curator Eugie Joo with Arnold Joseph Kemp’s State Sculpture
3) Raised around East Bay skate culture, the show takes me back to the 1990s/early 2000s, when the Bay Area still felt DIY-art-skate-punk rock in spirit.
4) Bill Daniel’s Bike Messenger Portraits
5) Rigo 23’s Terra Nullius
6) Paintings by Ruby Neri
7) Alicia McCarthy Mural
8) Chris Johanson’s & Ajax Oakford’s Art Maze
9) Margaret Kilgallen’s Main Drag
10) Nao Bustamante’s Vagnasium
11) Sanctuary City Project by Sergio De La Torre & Chris Treggiari
12) YBCA’s CEO Mari Robles & Friends
13) V. Vale (right) & Friend
14) The Barry McGee “Cluster” Room is a treasure trove, perfectly capturing Bay Area counterculture from the 1990s onward.
15) Unity Skateboarding Deck Painted by Jeffrey Cheung
Bay Area Then feels like the happier prequel to 2024’s controversial Bay Area Now 9 exhibition (read A LOVE LETTER TO ART’s review of the show HERE), which accused the museum of censorship after an artist-led protest in favor of an Israel–Hamas ceasefire resulted in altered works, threats of removal, the interim CEO’s resignation, and the museum closing for a month while artists and YBCA negotiated the exhibition’s future. In the end, the works remained.
My absolute FAVORITE part of the show is the Barry McGee “cluster” room toward the back of the lobby. This treasure trove of collected works—his own alongside pieces by others—is such a great representation of the 1990s/2000s counterculture of the Bay Area. I grew up amongst a crew of East Bay skaters, so yes, this was a very nostalgic walk down memory lane for me.
To try to describe what skate culture was (and I don’t know if it still entails this today): when I was growing up thirty years ago in the East Bay, it was a bunch of kids—not unlike those depicted in Larry Clark’s 1995 film, which we went to see on opening night—from different ethnic backgrounds who didn’t have a lot of money and didn’t really fit in—many from broken homes—who found a sense of belonging through skateboarding, music, and adolescent partying.
Bay Area Then takes me back to when I was a young woman in the late 1990s and early 2000s, giving strong vibes of YBCA’s INFAMOUS Beautiful Losers exhibition, curated by Aaron Rose and Christian Strike from 2004. (I don’t have any photos unfortunately, but it was one of the MOST EXCITING contemporary art exhibitions I’ve ever been to.) Shepard Fairey hadn’t yet gone fully mainstream, skate culture hadn’t aged out and circled back, and the exhibition even included a built-in bowl that visitors were encouraged to skate.
I miss those pre–social media days, when the Bay Area still felt a bit DIY-art-skate-punk rock in spirit. You’ll definitely get some of that energy from Bay Area Then, though, honestly, you kind of had to be here at the time to fully understand how it felt.
I often wonder if I romanticize my feelings about a better Bay Area from times past, but when I think about it objectively, my answer is no. Perhaps it’s because we lived in a more hopeful society twenty years ago, or because there was more funding for the arts in the Bay Area at that time—or maybe, before the internet took over, there was simply more wonder in the world, and more space to nurture curiosity.
Skaters, graffiti lovers, and anyone craving a little nostalgia for “weird” San Francisco—go see this show!
🗓 Bay Area Then runs until January 25, 2026 at YBCA in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood. It runs alongside P. Staff’s The Prince of Homburg, which closes June 14, 2026.
💌 Did you see the show(s) or try any of our recommendations? What did you think? Let us know in the comments (in the Reviews section located on the second tab at the top of the page).
QUICK GUIDE: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA)
⭐ EXHIBITIONS:
- ON VIEW: Bay Area Then features 20+ artists who shaped the Bay Area art scene in the 90s-2000s. Runs Aug. 1–Jan. 25, 2026.
- ON VIEW: P. Staff’s The Prince of Homburg features a 23-minute video installation and sculptural works examining freedom, state control, and the pressures placed on queer and trans bodies today. Runs Jan. 17–June 14, 2026.
⭐ HOURS: Open Wednesday–Sunday 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Closed Monday–Tuesday.
⭐ ADMISSION: General Admission Tickets Adults $10; Seniors 65+, Students, Educator $5; Accessibility caregiver and 17 & Under FREE. Membership starts at $165.
- FREE WEDNESDAYS & 2ND SUNDAYS
- Museums for All (show your EBT or Medi-Cal card/ID)
- FREE Admission for Military Personnel
- FREE Admission for Museum employees + 1 guest w/current valid staff ID
- PURCHASE TICKETS ONLINE ($35): End Point | Open Time: Liss Fain Dance on Jan. 23, 2026, 7:30 p.m.; Jan. 24, 2:00 p.m.; Jan. 24, 7:30 p.m. (Blue Shield Theater)
- FREE with Registration: The Body as a Site of Resistance: A Panel Discussion with P. Staff, Mel Y. Chen, and Mara Hassan, moderated by Jeanne Gerrity followed by a tour of The Prince of Homburg with artist P. Staff on Jan. 24, 2026, 12:00 p.m.
- Free Art Workshop: Sanctuary City Print Shop on Jan. 25, 2026 from 12:00–4:00 p.m. (For its final activation as part of Bay Area Then, Sanctuary City Project will collaborate with Refugee and Immigrant Transitions to design, print, and sell 100 tote bags emblazoned with the message “I AM AN IMMIGRANT.”)
⭐NEARBY ART:
- PUBLIC ART: Revelation, the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial fountain and several others at Yerba Buena Gardens (see LINK for additional works at Yerba Buena Gardens) | 1-min walk
- MUSEUM: SFMOMA: ON VIEW: *Jenifer K Wofford: VMD/Vicki Manalo Draves mural (Floor 3) | Closes Sept. 2026. Suzanne Jackson: What is Love | Surveys six decades of the artist’s visionary career, highlighting her innovative paintings, interdisciplinary practice, and enduring themes of beauty, connection, and nature. *Post to follow soon. (Floor 7) | Closes March 1, 2026. KAWS: FAMILY | Presents the artist’s first major West Coast survey, showcasing three decades of paintings, sculptures, collaborations, and iconic characters that blend pop culture with themes of kinship, emotion, and shared experience. *Post to follow soon. (Floor 4) | Closes May 3, 2026. FREE Kara Walker’s Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine) *Post to follow soon. | Closes June 7, 2026. UPCOMING: RM x SFMOMA | This landmark exhibition curated by RM of BTS with SFMOMA curators, brings together 200 rarely seen works from RM’s personal collection and SFMOMA to place modern Korean art in dialogue with contemporary art from around the world. | Oct. 2026–Feb. 2027 | 1-min walk
- MUSEUM: MoAD: Continuum: MoAD Over Time marks the Museum of the African Diaspora’s 20th anniversary, looking back at its foundational role in the Bay Area while pointing toward its evolving future as a global platform for art of the African Diaspora. | Closes March 1, 2026. UNBOUND: Art, Blackness & the Universe invites visitors to reimagine Blackness not as fixed or earthbound, but as infinite—expansive, unknowable, and cosmically rich | Closes March 1, 2026 | 2-min walk
- GALLERIES: Berggruen Gallery ON VIEW: Lucy Williams: Radiant City; Jane Hammond: Chocolate Cosmos: String of Pearls; Interiors | Closes Jan. 8, 2026. UPCOMING: Heather Day: Blue Distance | Closes Feb. 26, 2026. Women in Abstraction and Editions and Works on Paper | Closes March 5, 2026 | 4-min walk
- ART FAIR: Creativity Explored X Open Invitational ART FAIR (215 Fremont Street) from Jan. 23–25, 2026 | 12-min walk // 7 min-drive
⭐ NEARBY DINING
- Tropisueño | Casual taqueria vibes by day and a full-service restaurant and bar by night. | 2-min walk
- Delarosa | Pizza and pasta. BOOK DELAROSA ON OPEN TABLE HERE | 2-min walk
- Amber India | Upscale Indian food w/ *Mon–Fri LUNCH SPECIALS starting at $18 & $32 Lunch Buffet! BOOK AMBER INDIA ON OPEN TABLE HERE | 4-min walk
- Metreon Food Hall | Budget-friendly assortment of food vendors i.e. burgers, salads, poke bowls, wraps, ramen. | 4-min walk
- The Harlequin | Cocktail bar w/Brooklyn vibes serving lunch (Thurs., Sat., Sun.) and dinner. *Check out their FABULOUS HAPPY HOUR 4:00–6:00 p.m. daily featuring $2 oysters and $11 cocktails. BOOK THE HARLEQUIN ON OPEN TABLE HERE | 4-min walk
A LOVE LETTER TO ART’S CASUAL DINING PICKS
- Jane on Third at SFMOMA | Amanda Michael’s local café chain named for her daughter, serves housemade baked goods, breakfast, sandwiches, and salads—perfect for a quick snack or leisurely lunch. Open to the public, MUSEUM ADMISSION NOT REQUIRED. | 1-min walk
- Ippudo | Cozy, modern ramen restaurant with a full bar. *Check out their DAILY HAPPY HOUR from 3:00–6:00 p.m. | 3-min walk
- Oren’s Hummus | Delicious Israeli food in a casual friendly setting. *Check out their AMAZING HAPPY HOUR Mon–Thurs 3:00–5:00 p.m. | 3-min walk
- Fang | Cantonese cuisine from the Fang family of House of Nanking. As seen on Chef Dynasty: House of Fang (oh, I like that Peter Fang!), chefs Kathy and Peter Fang blend tradition with charm. BOOK FANG ON OPEN TABLE HERE | 4-min walk
💖 A LOVE LETTER TO ART’S ROMANTIC DINING PICKS
- The Pied Piper | Old world bar + food + Maxfield Parrish’s Pied Piper painting in SF’s historic Palace Hotel. BOOK THE PIED PIPER ON OPEN TABLE HERE | 6-min walk
- The Cavalier | I love the English hunting lodge meets chic gastropub vibes, thanks to the vision of designer extraordinaire Ken Fulk. *CHECK OUT THEIR FANTASTIC HAPPY HOURS: Mon–Sat 4:00–6:00 p.m.; Fri & Sat 9:00–10:00 p.m. Includes $10 Cocktails & Apps under $20! The MARLOWE BURGER is a SF classic. BOOK THE CAVALIER ON OPEN TABLE HERE | 7-min walk
More nearby suggestions are always welcome. Feel free to add in the comments!
A LOVE LETTER TO ART RECOMMENDS
SEE MORE ART AT YERBA BUENA GARDENS
🦋 FREE: There also are quite a few public artworks on display at Yerba Buena Gardens (750 Howard Street | map | 2 min walk), including the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial fountain, Revelation, a powerful work by sculptor Houston Conwill, poet Estella Conwill Majoza (great interview with her in the link), and architect Joseph DePace.
DINING AT YERBA BUENA GARDENS
🌳TIP: I really enjoy just chilling out and having a bite to eat in Yerba Buena Gardens, where you can either sit on the benches, grass, or on the Metreon’s Dining Terrace (tables and chairs available seasonally). *For kids, I would recommend grabbing takeout from one of inexpensive restaurants in the Metreon (the steps from Yerba Buena Gardens lead right into the food court). The park hosts FREE LIVE MUSIC AND PERFORMANCES on many weekends of the year, which is really FANTASTIC in the spring and summer. Such great vibes!!
ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS AT YERBA BUENA GARDENS
Activities for kids at Yerba Buena Gardens include: Yerba Buena Gardens, Yerba Buena Gardens Children’s Creativity Museum and the LeRoy King Carousel, the Yerba Buena Children’s Garden playground, and the Yerba Buena Ice Skating and Bowling Center.
NEARYBY ART
NEARBY DINING
RELATED POSTS
RELATED FILMS
Clip of YBCA’s Beautiful Losers Exhibition, 2004 from Beautiful Losers, 2008 by Aaron Rose and Joshua Leonard.
Trailer for Beautiful Losers, 2008 by Aaron Rose and Joshua Leonard.
Trailer for Kids, 1995 by Larry Clark and Harmony Korine
Author: ALoveLettertoArt
