SF Art Events: Week of 05.31.26
Immersive installation view: Two Home Countries
THING ONE: Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries
Through July 20th (Special Exhibition Ticket is Required)
Two Home Countries is the first solo museum exhibition in the Bay Area by Chiharu Shiota, best known for large-scale installations that fill spaces with densely woven webs of colored fibers. Featuring works from throughout Shiota’s career spanning installation, sculpture, video, drawing, and stage design, the exhibition offers a timely meditation on belonging, impermanence, and living with “in-betweenness.”
In the monumental installation Diary, the Osaka-born, Berlin-based artist explores themes of nationality, identity, and memory through her distinctive visual language, reflecting on her own experiences of her “two home countries.” Strands of red yarn stretch across the 88-foot length of the Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Pavilion, creating a spectacular structure that surrounds audiences as they pass through; overhead, handwritten pages from the journals of Japanese soldiers and postwar German civilians hang suspended in the dreamlike web.
“Shiota is interested in what remains after a person is gone,” says Dr. Robert Mintz, Chief Curator at the Asian Art Museum. “In Diary, the voices of individuals who never met are brought into conversation. The installation makes history feel personal, fragmented, and profoundly present.”
As Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries unfolds, audiences accompany the artist on a journey that is both deeply personal and universally relatable. Navigating an existence suspended between Japan and Germany, absence and presence, isolation and belonging, Shiota explores the threads of memory, history, and identity that make up the complex fabric of our shared reality.
Two Home Countries, the installation from which the show derives its title, evokes what Shiota calls the “in-between sensation” of bicultural identity: a red dress unravels into a sea of cascading red cords, stretching to fill the metal frames of two houses while restlessly climbing the gallery wall.
Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries also features sketches, concept drawings, and video highlights offering a behind-the-scenes look at Shiota’s work as a stage designer for KINKAKUJI (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion), a theatrical production commissioned by the Japan Society in New York.
Later sections of the exhibition feature sculptures, performance videos, and works on paper in which the artist confronts her own body as a home that offers neither comfort nor belonging. As she questions the body’s place in the universe, Shiota finds unexpected beauty in its vulnerable depths.
“Chiharu Shiota’s work resonates because it makes emotional states visible,” says Soyoung Lee, The Barbara Bass Bakar Director and CEO of the Asian Art Museum. “Her installations speak to the experience of living between places, histories, and identities — an experience that feels increasingly familiar to many people today.”
LOCATION: Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA (map)
HOURS: Thurs: 1 PM–8 PM, Fri–Mon: 10 AM–5 PM, Tue–Wed: Closed
Images from The Continuing Story of Life on Earth: 25 Years of Hamburger Eyes
THING TWO: The Continuing Story of Life on Earth: 25 Years of Hamburger Eyes
23 April - 24 September 2026
Founded in 2001 by Ray Potes in collaboration with his brother, David, and friend, Stefan Simikich, Hamburger Eyes has blazed a trail in documentary photo publishing and created a style that is simultaneously raw and profound. With distinct black-and-white photos that capture vignettes of everyday life, Hamburger Eyes encompasses the pendulum swing of human emotion, showcasing moments ranging from urban distress to childlike wonder.
To date, Hamburger Eyes has produced over 200 titles of zines, magazines, and books alongside countless exhibitions, commissions, and collaborations. Most recently, Ray published Hamburger Eyes - The First 25 Years, celebrating the magazine’s 25th anniversary, which coincides with this exhibition.
83 photographers are represented in the exhibition: Ricky Adam, Mathieu Van Assche, Holly Bailey, Tamas Bernath, Martina Borsche, Valerie Bower, Bryan Bowie, Bill Burke, Zack Canepari, Rafael Cardenas, Sandy Carson, David Catalano, Yu Chang, Stevie Dacanay, Ryan Dan, Todd R. Darling, Cosimo Fanciullacci, Ryan Florig, Guido Gazzilli, Brandon Getty, Dave Glass, Zane Grant, Nikki Greene, Michelle Groskopf, Michael Hernandez, Sal Hernandez, Alex Herzog, John Oliver Hodges, Troy Holden, Kingsley Ifill, Nick Jones, Casey Jones, Manu Jougla, Christian Kage, Kappy, Thatcher Keats, Sandy Kim, John Brian King, Kristan Klimczak, Andrea Lavezzaro, Chris Leskovsek, Grant Lewandowski, Samuel Liebert, Auston Marek, Alex Martinez, Dennis McGrath, Luis Mendoza, Oscar Mendoza, Alessandro Mitola, Mark Murrmann, Sinna Nasseri, Kevin Novales, Joshua Olley, Lima Joao Pedro Lima, Joe Plonsker, Arthur Pollock, David Potes, Ray Potes, Ted Pushinsky, Reuben Radding, Christopher Radney, Adam Roberts, Jason Robert Roberts, David Root, Zach Rubin, Dan Ryan, Johnny Salas, Maximilian Schneller, Matthew Shaw, Stefan Simikich, Nick Slobin, Andrea Sonnenberg, Tom Souzer, Don Standing, Brian David Stevens, Jai Tanju, Pierre Terdjman, Joshua Terris, Elmo Tide, Vaclav Tvaruzka, Dave Uzzardi, Simon Vansteenwinckel, xiouping, and Tobin Yelland.
The Continuing Story of Life on Earth: 25 Years of Hamburger Eyes was made possible through funding by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library and the contributions of Ray Potes and photographers whose names are featured throughout this gallery. The exhibition was co-curated by Ray Potes and Megan Merritt in collaboration with Julie Giles and the Library’s Exhibition Team.
LEARN MORE
LOCATION: SF Main Public Library, 100 Larkin St., San Francisco, CA (map)
HOURS: Monday 9 am - 6 pm, Tuesday - Thursday 9 am - 8 pm, Saturday 10 am - 6 pm, Sunday 12 pm - 6 pm
THING THREE: The Portrait Show 14: Masquerade
Edith Lebeau, Her Happy Place
June 4, 2026-July 26, 2026
Opening Reception: June 4, 6-9 PM @sffirstthursdays
Modern Eden Gallery proudly presents The Portrait Show 14: Masquerade, our annual portrait show and a yearly tradition celebrating the many forms of contemporary portraiture. This year’s theme explores the power of what we reveal and what we conceal. A mask can protect, transform, seduce, or liberate, hiding the face while exposing something deeper beneath. Through disguise, performance, ritual, and self-invention, artists examine identity as something fluid, layered, and unstable. From ceremonial masks and theatrical personas to alter egos, private selves, and imagined identities, Masquerade considers the tension between who we are and who we choose to present. These portraits move beyond likeness, embracing the figure as a site of transformation that is elegant, uncanny, fractured, defiant, and beautifully artificial, revealing the many selves we carry behind the face.
LOCATION: Modern Eden, 1100 Sutter St, San Francisco, CA (map)
HOURS: Saturday & Sunday, 12–5 pm, Weekdays by appointment
