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SFO Mission District Murals:
all the ones you can't miss
UA real open air museum throughout the neighbourhood where hundreds of walls and fences are adorned with colorful works of art featuring themes ranging from cultural heritage to social political statements. Talented anonymous artists and great names of Muralism share a unique stage here, where works change according to time changes and events.
Murals have powerful messages with characters almost coming out of them to shout their ideas at you.
You can't miss visiting Mission District, in just a couple of hours you'll absorb its energy and fill your eyes with amazing works of art.
WHEN
TO GO
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Our itinerary starts from Clarion Alley and then move to the Women’s Building to look at the MaestraPeace on18th Street, not so far. In 20 minutes you'll reach the House of Brakes with its Carnaval Mural and finally get to Balmy Alley in 5 minutes. We'll end our tour with the image of Frida in Infinita Ternura between Lucky Street and 25th St.
VIDEO
House keys, not handcuffs @ Clarion Alley
Mount Fuji – Kenshin Tomoshima @ Clarion Alley
Rene Yanez Tribute (2018) @ Clarion Alley
Born & Raised Mission, Mi vida loca Yucatan @ Clarion Alley
MaestraPeace @ The Women's building at 3543, 18th Street between Valencia and Guerrero
It took 2 years to finish the most ambitious contemporary public art work of SFO and maybe of the world. Painted by seven women (including Susan Cervantes, Miranda Bergman and Juana Alicia) representing more than 100 years of Muralism experience in cooperation with a team of 50 volunteers, all together working to build this impressive work of art on the surface of an entire building. Images of different cultures, gods, women of all races and countries melting down in a color blast you'll never wanted to stop looking at anymore.
Carnaval Mural - Daniel Galvez (1983) @ Above the House of Brakes on 24th Street at Van Ness Ave
A tribute to the 1979 Carnival celebrations of Mission District, now a spring tradition of the neighbourhood. Painted by Daniel Galvez in 1983 who captured the latin essence of it forever.
Naya Bihana @ Balmy Alley
Three generations of Nepalese female farm workers breaking the chains of oppression at the foot of the Himalayas. The artist Martin Travers painted this mural in 2002 in response to the political turmoil in Tibet at the beginning of the new millenium: a powerful message giving voice and freedom the poorest with the revolutionary echo of the Mexican Muralism of Rivera, bold and authentic.
Infinita Ternura – Julia Nada (2014) @ Lucky St & 25th St
The same Diego Rivera has painted several murals in Mission District, that Diego, the elephant of Frida. And that's exactly with Frida that we end our neighbourhood tour, with the murals called Infinita Ternura painted by the artist Julia Nada who captured her with the Mexican singer Chavela Vargas, Frida's friend & lover.
Women play a fundamental role in this neighbourhood Art: murals begin to appear in the 70s here thanks to a group of female artists, the Mujeres Muralistas whose philosophy is perfectly written into one of the founders' words , Patricia Rodriguez:
“The statements that we made were very feminine and we got a lot of criticism because we weren’t doing soldiers with guns, weren’t doing revolutionary figures.
We were painting women. Women in the marketplace, women breastfeeding, women doing art. People got really angry that we were doing that. ‘How could you do this when there’s so much going on?’ but we were saying that being a woman is a revolution in society”.
That's exactly why you should definitely visit this neighbourhood. With a revolutionary spirit, curiosity and love for arts.