The Hidden Street Art and Graffiti of San Francisco – a Gallery
The world has come to know San Francisco as an epicenter for creative and individualistic expression. A city rooted in ambition —the mid-19th century gold rush; strife— the 1906 earthquake that destroyed much of the town; and equality— the 1960s “Summer of Love”, where arts and culture became institutions that represented free will, protest, opportunity, advocacy and change.
Today, San Francisco’s expansive history and culture is illustrated through Street Art. The art, in its many forms, represents social expression and human instinct at its finest, and its worst. It connects the populous as equals in an encompassing community: diverse, colorful, complex and subjective. The art, like the city itself, reminds us that the sum of San Francisco is greater than its parts — an appreciation for the spectrum of colors and textures and temperaments. It makes you believe that San Francisco, like its streets, is art.
I recently took a self-guided tour through the many alleys that connect San Francisco’s historic Mission district. Walls, fences, garage doors, cement streets and even the trees themselves serve as blank canvas. Artists create new projects on top of weathered visuals, while more symbolic and historic art retains its form, color and message thanks to a consortium of individuals dedicated to the institution.
The art tells stories of civil rights, equality and opportunity. It’s as personal as it is encompassing of the community’s ethos. Most notably, the art represents a community of divided interests —spanning the plights of multi-generation natives to the rise of a transient workforce of technologists and culturists.
Much of the art offers impressive narratives about the city’s history of inequality and turbulence. Equally, the landscapes illustrate stories of opportunity, freedom and self-expression.
Through it all, San Francisco’s street art is an institution that implies the following:
“We were here. We still matter. We are San Francisco.”
