SF Art Events: Week of 02.1.26
THING ONE: Peer Pressure
February 12 - March 14, 2026
Jonathan Carver Moore is thrilled to present a solo exhibition by the gallery’s fifth artist-in-residence Alvin Armstrong, opening February 12th.
Alvin Armstrong (b. 1982, San Diego, CA) is a painter whose work is a tribute to humanity at large with a focus on honoring the beauty and power of the Black American community. The artist's commitment to authenticity urges him to confront life’s complexities head-on. While acknowledging that challenges and difficulties arise, Armstrong rejects confining his creative expression solely to narratives of trauma and negativity. Instead, he seeks to encompass the full spectrum of human experience, infusing his work with honesty, resilience, and dignity.
LOCATION: Jonathan Carver Moore, 966 Market Street, San Francisco, CA (map)
HOURS: Thursday – Friday: 12 pm to 6 pm, Saturday: 12 pm to 4 pm, or by appointment
THING TWO: Miguel Arzabe: Sin Contar Cincuenta
Ongoing - March 21st
Johansson Projects presents an exhibition of new weavings by Miguel Arzabe. Finding what he terms a 'productive confrontation' between Andean weaving traditions and mid-century gestural abstraction, his woven paintings unify his Bolivian heritage with modern and contemporary art. His process begins by painting two separate canvases reminiscent of abstract expressionist works, then cutting them into strips to form the warp and weft of intricate, hand-woven compositions that draw from ancient Andean symbology and techniques of the oldest active textile tradition in the world. Arzabe capitalizes on the aesthetic synergies between Andean iconography and modern abstraction to create dynamic, often sprawling works that lack clear delineation between figure and ground, form and pattern. Within his work, contradiction becomes complementary, as Arzabe navigates the complex interactions of culture, family, and inheritance while maintaining a deep care for indigenous practices.
LOCATION: Johansson Projects, 2300 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA (map)
HOURS: Thursday - Saturday 1-5 pm
Miguel Arzabe
Recortejidos VII, 2025
Acrylic on canvas, kite string
20 x 16 in
THING THREE: Trevor Paglen: The Horizon Waved, and Nothing Was Certain: 2006-2026
Ongoing - February 28, 2026
The show titled “The Horizon Waved, and Nothing Was Certain: 2006-2026,” features previously unseen landscapes and skyscapes that investigate computer vision, drone surveillance, secret military bases, and unidentified objects in Earth’s orbit. These pictures are the final ones to emerge from the series that established Paglen as the unrivaled exemplar of the “techno sublime.” As philosopher Brian Holmes explains, Paglen transforms art into “a crossroads of critical analysis and cosmic experience… creating encounters with currently invisible realities." Put simply: imagine Philip K. Dick meets J.M.W. Turner in Mountain View, CA.
The works in “The Horizon Waved, and Nothing Was Certain” examine how different ways of seeing produce distinct visions of the world, each with its own emotional associations and potential for empowerment. CLOUD #395 (2025) depicts a celestial sky with patches of blue, hints of golden light, and both fluffy white and dark, ominous clouds. At first glance, the image suggests that heaven waits for those who avoid the lure of the storm. When viewed in person at its full scale of 4 feet high and over 5 feet wide, the skyscape reveals the linear and blotchy marks of two confused algorithms. By inscribing the motifs of classical computer vision on clouds, Paglen does more than make a clever pun about data centers and their "cloud" services. Indeed, he depicts our new world order, warning us not to mistake artificial intelligence for a god-like intelligence, even if the “Singularity” has arrived and technological growth has sped past human control. With CLOUD #395 and several other works in the show, such as The Watzmann (2018/2025) and Bloom (2021/2025), Paglen advocates for the higher power of nature, as witnessed by the human eye, if not the naked eye.
LOCATION: Jessica Silverman Gallery, 621 Grant Ave, San Francisco, CA (map)
HOURS: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 AM-6 PM
