Guide toSan Francisco's Museums and Galleries This Winter
Explore inspiring exhibitions from esteemed creators of the past and present at these San Francisco institutions.
San Francisco is home to dozens of must-see museums and acclaimed art galleries. Need help deciding which to visit during your stay? No problem! We’ve gathered the goods on the most exciting exhibitions on display across the city this fall. Keep reading to learn more and buy your tickets.
Asian Art Museum
200 Larkin St.
Qi Baishi: Inspiration in Ink
Reaching new heights with its influential style and staggering auction prices, the work of Qi Baishi (Chinese, 1864–1957) inspires audiences worldwide. Blending expertly minimal brushwork with passages of abstraction, Qi changed the course of traditional Chinese painting. His ink paintings capture everyday scenes and familiar moments, evoking the essential beauty of nature and the joy of life’s simple pleasures. On through April 7, 2025.
Hallyu! The Korean Wave
Splash-landing on September 27, 2024, Hallyu! The Korean Wave celebrates the irresistible charm of the Korean TV series "Hallyu," which became an unprecedented global pop culture phenomenon. This exhibition brings together close to 200 objects and artworks animating and illustrating Hallyu’s many dimensions, complemented by dynamic digital displays and interactive experiences. On display September 27, 2024 - January 26, 2025.
California Academy of Sciences
55 Music Concourse Dr.
NightLife
Every Thursday, the California Academy of Science invites visitors (21+) to a vibrant evening of dancing and musical performances, participating in thought-provoking talks and presentations, and a visit with Claude, the resident albino alligator. And to ensure you're having a fabulous night, the café and bars at NightLife serve pizzas, pastas, specialty cocktails, craft beer, and delicious wines.
Twilight Zone: Deep Reefs Revealed
After an exhibit refresh, the captivating journey into the ocean's depths is back. In Twilight Zone: Deep Reefs Revealed, encounter new and rare species, many never before shown in a public aquarium. Join Cal Academy scientists as they explore the mysteries of these uncharted areas and their potential to aid the survival of the world's coral reefs.
California: State of Nature
Through hands-on interactives, multi-sensory displays, stunning specimens, and captivating media, find out how Academy research, Indigenous partnerships, and community science are restoring and regenerating California’s forests, urban habitats, coast, and deserts—and how you can get involved.
Children's Creativity Museum
221 Fourth St.
Art & Design Intertwined
In this exhibition, the entire family can discover innovative ways to engage with others through art and design. It aims to facilitate exploration and connection in three interactive spaces. At ArtLab, visitors can collaborate on creating artwork and explore diverse forms of expression. DesignIt! Studio offers challenges to solve and opportunities to prototype with various materials. Lastly, the Community Garden allows visitors of all ages to contribute to a digital flower garden, fostering a shared creative environment for everyone.
The de Young Museum
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr.
Tamara de Lempicka
With works that exuded cool elegance and transgressive sensuality, Tamara de Lempicka helped define Art Deco. Her paintings captured the glamour and vitality of postwar Paris and the cosmopolitan sheen of Hollywood celebrity. This exhibition, the first major museum retrospective of Lempicka in the United States, explores the artist’s distinctive style and unconventional life. On display October 12, 2024 - February 9, 2025.
The Exploratorium
Pier 15, Embarcadero
Glow
Exploratorium's annual winter exhibition invites artists to illuminate Pier 15 with stunning light sculptures. Get ready to discover luminous artworks that dazzle and surprise, including engaging new works and seasonal favorites. On display from to
Look Up: Eclipse, Moon, and Mars
Get ready to be amazed by the stunning natural phenomena in outer space! Expand your knowledge of the universe—and your place in it—through astonishing visuals and immersive experiences. On display from February 15 to April 27, 2025.
Edge of the Square
800 Grant Ave.
Walking Stories
The exhibition, Walking Stories, contemplates the storied nature of human behavior and how individuals may be perceived as embodied "walking stories".
The Legion of Honor
100 34th Ave.
Mary Cassat at Work
The first North American retrospective of Mary Cassatt’s work in 25 years, this exhibition presents her as a fiercely professional artist who helped shape the French Impressionist movement and transformed the course of modern art. Juxtaposing paintings, pastels, and prints, Mary Cassatt at Work will explore the artist’s activity across media, revealing the daring, iterative methods she used to give form to her ideas. On display October 5, 2024 - January 26, 2025.
Museum of the African Diaspora
685 Mission St.
What We Carry To set Ourselves Free
Helina Metaferia’s solo project, What We Carry to Set Ourselves Free, is part of her ongoing By Way of Revolution series. This project highlights the often-ignored contributions of BIPOC women and gender-marginalized people to social justice movements, both historically and today. On display October 2, 2024 to March 2, 2025
Liberatory Living: Protective Interiors and Radical Black Joy
Liberatory Living: Protective Interiors and Radical Black Joy features designs, artworks, and environments dedicated to the global necessity for Black people to cultivate domestic interiors not only as spaces of revolutionary action, but also of radical joy and revolutionary rest. On display through March 2, 2025.
Cosmic Ceremony
In Cosmic Ceremony, Soleé Darrell’s paintings evoke distant galaxies, star formations, and supernovae to describe the inner worlds to which she hopes to draw us ever nearer. On display through February 2, 2025.
Museum of Craft and Design
2569 Third St.
Ruglife
Rugs and carpets have shaped spaces since ancient times, with the earliest Persian rugs dating back nearly 2500 years. Learn about their rich history, linked to religion, culture, and nature, and how they inspire contemporary artists. While some explore formal aspects, others critique cultural, racial, and gender stereotypes, transforming decorative objects into compelling art. On display through April 20, 2025.
Rebecca Camacho Presents
526 Washington St.
Julia Haft-Candell: Hold
Julia Haft-Candell: Hold is Haft-Candell’s first exhibition with Rebecca Camacho Presents. Haft-Candell works across media, but her practice is rooted in clay-based sculpture. She incorporates multi-layered glazes often with bronze and gold flourishes into sculptural objects whose forms are derived from the artist’s visual lexicon, comprising specific symbols and motifs such as combs, hands, chains, and infinity loops. On display from January 9 through February 22, 2025.
Claire Oswalt: Moon Math
Claire Oswalt: Moon Math is Oswalt’s third exhibition with Rebecca Camacho Presents and includes a suite of new paintings and preparatory studies. The exhibition title refers to the artist’s ongoing interest in the systems and structures – both science and metaphysics – that provide us with a possible mapping, choreography, and visualizations to both understand and attempt to comprehend the world around us. On display from January 9 through February 22, 2025.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)
151 Third St.
Get in the Game
SFMOMA presents Get in the Game, exploring the powerful—and sometimes contentious—place of athletics in our communities. This will be the museum’s most expansive presentation dedicated to a subject to date, covering over 15,000 square feet with paintings, sculptures, photographs, video and interactive installations by some of today’s most important artists, together with design breakthroughs in sports gear, gaming and apparel. Audiences will also encounter artists and designers inspired by athletes advancing conversations about gender, race and identity, as well as artworks responding to the remarkable achievements of sports figures such as Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Colin Kaepernick, Diana Nyad, Venus Williams and Zinedine Zidane. On display October 19, 2024 - February 18, 2025.
Kara Walker
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art will feature artist Kara Walker's first site-specific installation in its admission-free Roberts Family Gallery this July. Known for her examination of power dynamics and exploitation of race and sexuality, Walker's work blends fantasy with sharp humor to challenge established narratives. Walker's latest project will prompt visitors to contemplate how they remember trauma and to consider the goals of technology.
Amy Sherald: American Sublime
Amy Sherald: American Sublime invites you to breathe. Come and be taken in by the colors, shapes, and forms painted by one of America’s defining contemporary portraitists. This exhibition presents nearly 50 of Amy Sherald’s luminous paintings, including her iconic portraits of Michelle Obama and Breonna Taylor, poetic early works, and new works on view for the first time. On display through March 9, 2025.
New Work: Samson Young
Widely recognized for his singular approach towards sound and new technologies, Samson Young (born 1979, Hong Kong; based in Hong Kong) utilizes performance, video, and installation to rigorously examine the cultural, political, and historical contexts of sound. On display through June 22, 2025
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
701 Mission St.
Nicky Nodjoumi & Nahid Hagigat
Distinct solo exhibitions with a shared history, Nicky Nodjoumi: The Personal is Political and Nahid Hagigat: Etched in Time, together tell the story of a family of artists whose lives become inextricably linked to political revolution. Explore these distinct bodies of work, from Nodjoumi’s kaleidoscopic paintings to Hagigat’s evocative etchings. YBCA is also pleased to present A Revolution on Canvas, an accompanying HBO documentary produced by their daughter Sara Nodjoumi and her partner Till Schauder. The film examines the international controversy of 120 missing artworks in Tehran, which irreversibly changed this family’s life forever. On display through March 23, 2025.
The Only Door I Can Open: Women Exposing Prison Through Art
Curated from within prison, The Only Door I Can Open: Women Exposing Prison through Art explores truths about women and incarceration. For this immersive multimedia exhibition, co-curators Tomiekia Johnson and Chantell-Jeannette Black asked eight currently and formerly incarcerated artists to reflect on their relationship to their bed. Opening February 1, 2025.
Lucas Mittenentzwei is a digital project and content consultant. Originally from Germany, he has lived in California since 2010, calling San Francisco his home for several years. Lucas started in the hospitality industry before joining Visit California in its mission to inspire the world to visit the Golden State. He is passionate about all aspects of the travel experience, but trying new restaurants (or tried-and-true classics) is at the top of his list.
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