Southern Exposure

The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill


Art really ties the room together at nonprofit arts center Southern Exposure, where works are carefully crafted not just with paint and canvas, but a sense of community. Past projects featured science fiction visions of a near future imagined by artists of color, and 24 artists making artworks according to other artists' instructions. Don't miss SoEx's annual auction, where major Bay Area artists create installations and the audience snaps up museum-worthy bargains.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill attractions

1. Aesthetic Union

0.21 MILES

Upgrade from kitten posters to frame-worthy original SF artworks hand-printed in this working printmakers' studio. Watch prints pulled from a vintage…

2. 24th & York Mini Park

0.46 MILES

Take a ride on dazzling mosaic serpent-god Quetzalcoatl, who raises his fierce head from the rubberized ground of this pioneering pocket park…

3. Jack Fischer Gallery

0.49 MILES

Strange fascination is showcased at Jack Fischer Gallery – for example, sketches made by Agelio Batle's graphite skeleton as it jitters across a lab table…

4. Hosfelt Gallery

0.5 MILES

Trancelike states are often induced by Hosfelt, where visitors step from gritty sidewalks into dreamy, finely detailed interior worlds. Close inspection…

5. Balmy Alley

0.51 MILES

Since at least the 1980s, if you stroll through San Francisco's Mission District you've likely noticed the neighborhood's profusion of colorful murals and…

6. Catharine Clark Gallery

0.51 MILES

Art revolutions are instigated at Catharine Clark, a showcase for such gorgeous provocations as Masami Teraoka's paintings of superheroine geishas and…

7. 826 Valencia

0.56 MILES

Avast, ye scurvy scallywags! If ye be shipwrecked without yer eye patch or McSweeney's literary anthology, lay down ye doubloons and claim yer booty at…

8. Clarion Alley

0.57 MILES

The Mission District has a long history of street art and muralismo – an oft-political school of public art prevalent throughout South and Central America…