Welcome to the New Year, Tomatoes. In 2024 we find the ramping up of the arts scene in the bay. Fog Design + Art returns, The Institute of Contemporary Art has incredible installations, Museum of Craft and Design showcases “Mr. Roboto” and The Minnesota Street Project features a fabulous female driven project. In the dance and theatre arenas, the offerings are just as prolific. Time to step out of our comfort zones and head to lesser-known venues to experience the new and mind-expanding offerings. Cheers to 2024!

Jan. 13-21. San Francisco Art Week

This month, San Francisco Art Week becomes an official brand with a centralized schedule and group of participating arts institutions spanning the Bay Area. The annual Fog Design + Art Fair anchors the week and returns with a brand-new program, Fog Focus, highlighting emerging artists and galleries. https://sfartweek.com/

Jan. 18-21. Fog Art + Design

Taking place at Fort Mason Center this event brings together an international roster of leading contemporary design and art galleries. FOG Design+Art 2024 presents 55 prominent exhibitors and FOG Fair offers visitors the opportunity to experience the best of art and design from around the world, all in one place. The event has expanded into both Piers 2 and 3 (Gateway Pavilion and Festival Pavilion). The Gateway Pavilion (Pier 2) hosts the FOG FOCUS invitational, which showcases art by emerging artists. FOG FOCUS features 10 exhibitors, as well as art installations, activations, and performances on-site. Get the details.

Jan 16 – April 21. The Institute of Contemporary Art in SF

Claudia Wieser, Forum, 2018, Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, CA. Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco.

The institute is hosting Iraqi born artist Hayv Kahraman with her largest solo museum exhibition to date with a show that will premiere new large-scale installations and address issues like the refugee experience, the colonial gaze and pushing against erasure. Bay area artist in his first solo exhibit, “Cost of Living” will feature a mixed-media installation using materials associated with gentrification such as construction fencing, semiprivate mesh and barbed wire that will explore the shifting realities of shelter in the Bay Area. Both installations are from. https://www.icasf.org/

Jan. 16-March 24. “Mr. Roboto”

This series at the Museum of Craft and Design is guest-curated by two esteemed women, Virginia San Fratello and Eleanor Pries, and will showcase a series of design activities and experiments that were created to test the creative possibilities of human collaboration with robots .This timely exhibition will include media spanning calligraphy, photography, 3D light painting, 3D printing and stop-motion animation. https://sfmcd.org/

In her first U.S. exhibition, media artist Rohini Devasher will present the San Francisco chapter of her three-country exhibition “one hundred Thousand Suns” at The Minnesota Street Project Foundation. The work chronicles a decade of her practice as an eclipse follower and astronomer and includes a four-channel video, large-scale tapestry installation and copper plate paintings.https://minnesotastreetproject.com/

Jan. 19-20. “Blooming flowers and the Full Moon”

Choreographer Natasha Adorlee presents her first full-length work. After her success with a passionate duet inspired by her parents’ love story, she has expanded the original “Blooming flowers and the Full Moon” into an hour-long multimedia production that promises to combine her visceral movement style with 3D projections and the music of Roberta Flack, Son Lux and Hua Hao Yue. 401 Alabama St. SF. https://joegoode.org/

February 8 – 11. Flamenco

San Francisco’s oldest Flamenco company has undertaken some daring experiments with electronic music and trumpet since the troupe’s triumphant post – Covid return last spring. Special guests include modern dancers and well-known guitarists. Live musicians round out this incredible art form that is a must see. The footwork alone is mesmerizing. https://www.theatreflamenco.org/

Feb 9 – 17.  Fresh Festival

Founded by a bold contemporary dancer in 2009, Kathleen Hermesdorf, Fresh Festival draws dancers from around the world for 10 days of experimental performance, workshops, film screenings and parties. Its weekend performances are electric, vulnerable, thought-provoking counter-cultural shows. Why not?https://www.freshfestival.org/

January 13 – February 4. Ashby Stage, Berkeley

It appears that theatre is ready to experiment again with new and under-the-radar plays. In that vein, Shotgun Players presents a world premiere, “Babes in Ho-lland”. In Deneen Reynolds-Knott’s play, set in Pittsburgh in 1996, Ciara’s just been forced to consider out loud whether Taryn wants to me more than friends. Now is her chance to decide whether to try taking their dorm-room sanctuary, as women of color in a predominately white college, to the next level.https://shotgunplayers.org/

February 15 – March 10. Big Data

“Big Data” is a world premier about AI – what could be timelier? The opening flourish brilliantly theatricalizes the insidious way algorithms have taken over our lives. The technology is embodied as a human who worms his way into your house and won’t leave. https://www.act-sf.org/