March 2 to April 29 – Nan Goldin at Fraenkel Gallery: This exhibition includes still photographs as well as the centerpiece Memory Lost, a slideshow in which Goldin explores the darkness of drug addiction through images and recordings from her extensive archive. Projected in a darkened room, Memory Lost presents a haunting and emotional narrative comprised of outtakes drawn from Goldin’s archive of thousands of slides. Depicting scenes from her life and circle of friends, the 24-minute piece recounts the pain and fleeting moments of beauty in life lived through the lens of addiction. Fraenkel Gallery is located at 49 Geary Street in San Francisco.
March 3 to April 29 –Crossing Lines/Lineas que Cruzamos at SFAC Main Gallery: Curated by photographer, curator, and educator Ann Jastrab, the exhibition features the work of Georgina Reskala and Arleene Correa Valencia, both graduates of CCA, who both live and work in California, and who both have an immigration story to share. Arleene Correa Valencia’s textile works draw heavily from her upbringing and her migration to the United States. Her work explores her identity as a registered “illegal alien” through a thoughtful play portraiture. Georgina Reskala seeks to stop transient moments, creating a record of what slips away from history. Her photography and textile-based work involves folds, layers, cuts, and transformation to reveal hidden images and through that investigates how stories get reshaped and how history is written. Opening Reception: Friday, March 3, 6 – 8 p.m. A special blessing for the exhibition will be offered by Xiuhcoatl Danza Azteca. SFAC Main Gallery is located at 401 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco.
March 4 to April 8 – Rema Ghuloum: 4 is a Rainbow Line at Et al. etc (Mission Street): Ghuloum paints ethereal, atmospheric abstractions that revolve around and evolve through her process. Beginning on the floor, Ghuloum uses squeeze bottles and buckets to pour, flick, and drip diluted acryla-gouche onto the canvases. Once this layer dries, Ghuloum moves the canvases onto the wall and slowly builds up thin glazes of oil paint, working with and against the initial poured layer. Moving geologically, Ghuloum continues to build and subtract from the composition, sanding between each successive layer until the work vibrates with an internal tension. The finished surfaces retain the history of this improvisatory and responsive practice, manifesting a resonance between the works and the viewer. Et al. etc is located at 2831 Mission Street in San Francisco.
March 10 to May 27 – Rituals of Devotion at McEvoy Foundation for the Arts: The artists in this group exhibit use a wide variety of methods to externalize the feelings inherent to the powerful connections we associate with faith, family, and community. Together, the artworks demonstrate the possibility offered by ritual to examine how our predecessors try to make sense of the unknown, while simultaneously defining new methods for sharing knowledge and care in our contemporary moment. Opening Reception, Thursday, March 9th at 6pm. McEvoy Foundation for the Arts is located at 1150 25th Street in San Francisco.
Saturday, March 11, 3 to 7pm – Win Win Eleven at NIAD Art Center in Richmond: NIAD is a progressive art studio for adult artists with developmental disabilities. Through its visual arts studio program, NIAD gives people with disabilities the skills and experience to express themselves, be independent and earn income as an artist. Win Win Eleven is the annual fundraiser and community event. Money raised by this annual fundraiser goes to the NIAD Art Center general operating fund. NIAD Art Center is located at 551 23rd Street in Richmond.
March 18 to October 15 – Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence at the De Young Museum: American artist Kehinde Wiley’s new body of paintings and sculptures confronts the silence surrounding systemic violence against Black people through the visual language of the fallen figure. It expands on his 2008 series, Down — a group of large-scale portraits of young Black men inspired by Hans Holbein the Younger’s The Dead Christ in the Tomb (1521–1522). Wiley investigates the iconography of death and sacrifice in Western art, tracing it across religious, mythological, and historical subjects. In An Archaeology of Silence, the senseless deaths of men and women around the world are transformed into a powerful elegy of resistance. The resulting paintings of figures struck down, wounded, or dead, referencing iconic paintings of mythical heroes, martyrs, and saints, offer a haunting meditation on the legacies of colonialism and systemic racism. A conversation with Kehinde Wiley will be on March 18, 1–2pm. The de Young Museum is located at 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr, in San Francisco.
Ali Dadgar “For Her Hair” 2022, mixed media. Image courtesy of Round Weather Gallery.
March 19 to May 13 – The Other Side of Time at Round Weather Gallery: Round Weather is a nonprofit art gallery committed to alleviating the climate crisis. It directs funds raised through the sale of contemporary art to three organizations selected each year for their effectiveness in climate change mitigation. The Other Side of Time features Iranian-American artists Sholeh Asgary, Ali Dadgar, Taraneh Hemami, and Shirin Towfiq. The Other Side of Time is where individual imagination and voices may move with freedom and as collectives, thus gathering strength to build an infinitely less shadowed world. Round Weather Gallery is located at 951 Aileen Street in Oakland.