FOG: A Mural for San Francisco by Alvaro Verduzco
October 28, 2024–May 4, 2025
Alvaro Verduzco Exhibition
Curated by Christo Oropeza
Image: Entrance to FOG: A Mural for San Francisco by Álvaro Verduzco. Incline Gallery, San Francisco.
Incline Gallery
766 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Incline Gallery Website
Incline Gallery Instagram
Incline Gallery Hours
*The gallery is open by appointment as well.
| Monday | Closed |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | Closed |
| Wednesday | Closed |
| Thursday | Closed |
| Friday | Closed |
| Saturday | 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm |
| Sunday | 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm |
Overview
Today’s LOVE LETTER TO ART feature’s Incline Gallery’s latest show, FOG: A Mural for San Francisco by Álvaro Verduzco.
“FOG is an invitation of remembering as a form of imaginative mental travel through drawings of iconic-like memories.
The processes of memory and drawing are crucial for understanding our knowledge of the world and our relationships with others. Remembering and drawing allow us to explore our individual identities as well as those of others by combining the internal and external traces of memory.
Álvaro Verduzco (Mexico City, 1977) works between these two concepts of remembrance by directly drawing onto the slanting walls of Incline gallery, turning them into a foggy canvas.
In the tradition of Modern Mexican muralism, Verduzco’s graphite mural is meant to open our understanding of what large-scale work can do. He does this by abandoning the didactic spirit and dogmatic strategies that the traditional muralists followed, whose work had a definitive message. Instead, in the slow evolving mural of Fog, Verduzco embraces the hazy and opaque atmosphere that surges when individual and collective memories meet the imagination of each.”
Preview of FOG: A Mural for San Francisco by Alvaro Verduzco. Incline Gallery, San Francisco.
“In addition to the mural, there are two books of drawings (available for purchase) made just for this exhibition. The first offers the idea of internal memory travel, marked by the artist’s numbered pages in his 17 year-long visual diary of more than 6,000+ drawings. Then, Verduzco pairs seventy-eight historical Bay Area dates, and matches them with the numbered drawings in the visual diary used to create corresponding book of City Traces. This mashup of historical dates (i.e.1988, the date Google was founded) and the number assigned to each drawing in Alvaro’s diary match and playfully lead to unexpected coincidences, and new meanings that people see on their own. Verduzco offers a way of showing his personal practice of daily drawing as a way of looking at the history of places, in this case the Bay Area.
The second book of drawings is Verduzco’s journal for the imagining, designing, and creating of FOG: A Mural for San Francisco. In this series of drawings, the artist’s own private life is reflected meandering through the process of preliminary sketches of the exhibition space, notes on the intended viewer experience, along with 10 images chosen by Christo Oropeza from his personal daily journal drawings. These drawings connect his local travels in Mexico’s beaches and deserts, along with their counterparts in his previous travels to the Bay Area and its coast. Images of beach scenes, rocks, shells, trees, wildfires, and ending with a drawing of the iconic tiles of Mission Street.”
FOG is like a portal into a vast, abstract world—it is a warzone, it is a playground? The foggy appearance of this work obscures its narrative, just as fog IRL creates visual ambiguity.
At first glance, you might miss the tiny, intricate details in Verduzco’s wall drawings—which is why sets of binoculars are included alongside the mural. In this fragmented world, you may encounter stone-faced sculptures, perhaps a homage to its heroes or gods, and faceless men caught in various moments of action.
Verduzco’s FOG gives you permission to be in limbo—to not know exactly what’s happening—to be a gentle observer, where you might stumble upon a precious surprise or a dark mystery.
🗓 Alvaro Verduzco’s FOG: A Mural for San Francisco is on view until May 4, 2025 at Incline Gallery in San Francisco’s Mission District.
Incline Gallery was founded in 2010 by Brian Perrin, Christo Oropeza, Shirin Makaremi, and Mary Powers. It is currently owned and operated by Christo Oropeza. You might know Oropeza’s work from his Fort Mason mural, Aun así, pienso en ti, which was featured on A LOVE LETTER TO ART in 2023.
*Fun Fact: The gallery’s angled walkway was meant for wheeling gurneys originally, as the space was part of a mortuary!
💌 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: INCLINE GALLERY
⭐ LOCATION: Incline Gallery is located at 766 Valencia (rear of building). It is a 9 minute walk from the 16th Street BART Station in San Francisco’s Mission District. Closest MUNI bus line is the 33 stop at Valencia and 18th Street, around the corner from the gallery.
⭐ HOURS: Open Saturday and Sunday 1:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m. and by appointment.
⭐ NEARBY ART:
- 500 Capp Street (museum/gallery) | A landmark of conceptual art set within the historic home of the late David Ireland. UPCOMING: Mildred Howard: Collaborating With the Muses: Part Two (Opens June 19, 2025) | 7 min walk/3 min drive
- Ruth’s Table | ON VIEW: Rooted features 50+ AANHPI artists whose work explores memory, migration, heritage, and identity. (Closes June 6, 2025) | 9 min walk/3 min drive
- Ruth Asawa’s Growth mosaic at Bethany Center | 10 min walk/3 min drive
- Creativity Explored | ON VIEW: Main Characters is a group show featuring ceramic works from Creativity Explored’s archive. (Closes June 14, 2025). | 10 min walk/2 min drive
- Kadist (gallery) | UPCOMING: Convulsiones Planetarias / Planetary Convulsions feat. video installations by Naomi Rincón Gallardo. (May 3–Aug 2, 2025) | 12 min walk /4 min drive
- Gray Area (gallery/performance space) | ON VIEW: Missing Objects Library: Carbonivore feat. works by Asma Kazmi and Jill Miller. (Closes July 20, 2025) | 12 min walk /4 min drive
- House of Seiko (gallery) | UPCOMING: Quintessa Matranga: Water Sign (May 11–June 15, 2025) | 13 min walk/4 min drive
- Et al (gallery) | ON VIEW: Mattea Perrotta: The Forgetting of Air (Closes May 17, 2025); Nick Gorham: Sun Turn (Closes May 31, 2025).
| 16 min walk/5 min drive - Anälog (gallery) | UPCOMING: TBD. | 17 min walk/6 min drive
⭐ NEARBY SHOPPING:
- Landline Home | TERRIFIC vintage home goods store. | 5 min walk/4 min drive
A LOVE LETTER TO ART’S CHEAP & CHEERFUL DINING PICKS
- Taqueria El Buen Sabor | Get the crunchy and shrimp tacos! | 2 min walk/1 min drive
A LOVE LETTER TO ART’S CASUAL DINING PICKS
- Tartine Bakery | My go-tos are the lemon cream tart, and then a country loaf to take home! | 5 min walk/2 min drive
- Ritual (cafe) | Drip and pour-over coffees in a bright, bustling, WiFi-free setting. | 6 min walk/2 min drive
- The Beehive (cocktail bar + bites) | Channel your inner mod in this retro-themed cocktail lounge. | 2 min walk/3 min drive
- Buddy (cocktail bar + cafe + wine club) | A casually chic bar and eatery next door to House of Seiko. | 13 min walk/5 min drive
A LOVE LETTER TO ART’S ROMANTIC DINING PICKS
- Foreign Cinema/Laszlo | Outdoor film screenings + California cuisine—still the perfect date, 26 years later. Start with a drink at their FANTASTIC sister bar, Laszlo, or order from the same menu and dine right at the bar. | 9 min walk/3 min drive
💌 More nearby suggestions are always welcome. Feel free to add in the comments!
A LOVE LETTER TO ART RECOMMENDS
NEARBY ART
NEARBY SHOPPING
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A LOVE LETTER TO ART’S CHEAP & CHEERFUL DINING PICKS
A LOVE LETTER TO ART’S CASUAL DINING PICKS
A LOVE LETTER TO ART’S ROMANTIC DINING PICKS
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