San Francisco’s well known for its enduring art scene, and an event on the horizon will specifically highlight the incredible work created by Black artists in the Bay Area: the Nexus: SF/Bay Area Black Art Week.
Presented by the Museum of the African Diaspora from October 1 through 6, this inaugural celebration will showcase the richness of the Black artist community in the Bay Area. Watch for galleries and creative spaces to host shows, conversations and community building opportunities. The event is tied to MoAD’s upcoming 20th anniversary in 2025.
Monetta White, MoAD’s executive director and CEO, said in a statement that it’s time “to awaken the Bay Area and bring our incredible creative talent to the forefront of national and international recognition.” She explained that Nexus is not just an event—it’s “a movement to change the narrative about the art scene and to cultivate the economic and creative sectors that attract people to our region’s cities.”
The week will entail curated experiences that allow visitors to connect with Black artists from the region, attend artist talks, panels and conversations about the significance of Black art and culture, as well as the chance to attend receptions and opening exhibitions in San Francisco, Oakland and the rest of the Bay Area to make supportive connections with artists, curators, collectors and art enthusiasts.
An impressive variety of events are already listed on the Nexus website, including the opening event on October 1, a preview night for MoAD’s upcoming contemporary art and design show, “Liberatory Living: Protective Interiors & Radical Black Joy.”
Also of special interest will be Kara Walker’s concurrent show at the SFMoMA, “Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine),” which began July 1 and will show until spring 2026. Walker, whose work looks at race, gender, sexuality and power, gained acclaim for her incredible silhouettes as well as the 2014 sphinx-like colossal figure made of sugar. This piece at the SFMoMA features automatons on a volcanic glass field enacting ritual and struggle, while the namesake figure Fortuna gives each visitor a choreographed gesture and a printed fortune from her mouth. This is the first site-specific piece installed within the museum’s admission-free zone. (As someone lucky enough to catch Walker’s 2013–14 show at Sacramento’s Crocker Art Museum, “Emancipating the Past: Kara Walker’s Tales of Slavery and Power,” we’re excited to see this new installation.)
Ramekon O’Arwisters will be hosting an open studio during the week, as will Rashaad Newsome. Key Jo Lee and Michael Bennett will give a curator and artist talk, and the Karen Jenkins Johnson Gallery will host a reception. The Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco presents “The Poetics of Dimensions,” curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah. Many other galleries and artists will be participating, including the Oakland Museum of California, the de Young, the African American Art & Culture Complex in the Fillmore neighborhood, the Fraenkel Gallery and more.
Perhaps most spectacular will be the Afropolitan Ball on October 5 at the San Francisco Design Center Galleria, a nighttime fundraising gala that’ll celebrate Black art with 600 global changemakers who support the arts. Buy your ticket before they sell out here.