Your Guide to

San Francisco's Museums and Galleries This Fall

200 Larkin Street

Mountains of the Mind: A Chinese Landscape Journey

Looking to get away from it all? This selection of idyllic landscapes by famed Chinese ink painters, past and present, offers a perfect opportunity to escape the hectic pace of city life in the digital age. Included with general admission. On display through October 26, 2026.

Al-An deSouza: Table Settings

This ambitious watercolor project connects the museum collection to moments of beauty in overlooked places, starting with the ground beneath our feet. On display through November 2, 2026.

Art from Contemporary Cambodia

This exhibition spotlights works by Sopheap Pich and Leang Seckon, two of Cambodia’s most internationally prominent artists. Born in the 1970s, both lived through the Khmer Rouge genocide and emerged in the early 2000s as key figures in the country’s artistic revival. On display through January 25, 2027.

Kim Minwook: On Carving, Bending, and Binding Wood

A self-taught craftsman, Kim discovered his passion for woodturning in 2013 and earned swift recognition. Kim continues to reimagine contemporary craft through a practice grounded in listening to material, time, and the quiet narratives held within wood. Included with general admission. On display through March 29, 2027.

Ha Chong-Hyun: Retrospective

Pioneering artist Ha Chong-Hyun’s work prizes the interaction of his materials: using pressure, gravity, and tools ranging from torches to everyday utensils, he transforms the surfaces of canvases up to eight feet tall into a treasure trove of texture and physicality. This retrospective, his first museum exhibition in North America, should not be missed! On display from September 25, 2026 to January 25, 2027.

One Hundred Plays of the Noh Theater by Tsukioka Kogyo

Famed characters from the world’s longest-running theatrical art form take center stage in colorful woodblock prints. Kogyo’s highly detailed portraits could double as a master class in costuming. Elaborately layered garments combine with wigs, headdresses, masks, fans, and other props to symbolically convey each character’s identity while radiating visual appeal. Included with general admission. Ongoing.

Venom: Fanges, Stingers, and Spines

Discover how often-feared yet biologically important animals like spiders, scorpions, jellyfish, and snakes sting, suck, bite, and stun while using venom to capture prey and provide deadly defense against predators. Plus, learn how scientists are studying venom to harness compounds that could hold the key to curing human diseases.

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NightLife

Every Thursday, the California Academy of Science invites visitors (21+) to a vibrant evening of dancing and musical performances, participating in thought-provoking talks and presentations. And to ensure you're having a fabulous night, the café and bars at NightLife serve pizzas, pastas, specialty cocktails, craft beer, and delicious wines.

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The Children's Creativity Museum is the perfect place to spend time with the children in your life! Visitors can explore two floors of multimedia exhibits and activities designed to guide children of all ages through self-discovery while building creative confidence and collaboration skills.

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50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive

Contemporary Painting in Papua New Guinea: Mathias Kauage and His Family

This exhibition features four paintings by Mathias and his family, on view for the first time. During his lifetime, Mathias experienced dramatic societal shifts—not only during the decades under colonial Australian administration but also after Papua New Guinea achieved independence in 1975. Both periods are a focus of his work. On display through December 6, 2026.

Rooted in Place: California Native Art

This installation explores the interconnections between art, ceremony, and the land in the Karuk, Yurok, Hupa, Tolowa, Tsnungwe, and Wiyot communities of northwestern California. On display through December 6, 2026.

Treasures of the Pharaohs

This exhibition brings the world of the pharaohs to life through 130 exquisite works spanning 3,000 years of history. From towering stone statues to gilded masks to intricate gold jewelry, these objects reveal the power, beauty, and beliefs of the ancient Egyptians. On display through January 31, 2027. 

Rose B. Simpson: LEXICON

This exhibition brings together two seemingly distinct art forms: Pueblo pottery and classic cars. Through this use of scale and space, creator Rose B. Simpson forges connections between the ancestral and contemporary, and forms a new visual vocabulary, or lexicon. On display through February 7, 2027.

A Gallery of Their Own: Women Artists from the Carr and Goldblum Gift

Featuring photographs, prints, and drawings exclusively by women artists, A Gallery of Their Own reveals the important role women artists have played in expanding the boundaries of art. On display through February 14, 2027.

Superficial Matters: Artists from the Svane Gift and Beyond

This exhibition is the third in a series highlighting contemporary artists with close ties to the Bay Area, including Maria A. Guzmán Capron, Ruby Neri, and Lorna Simpson. The works on view play with distinctions between the ornamental and the authentic, the deep and the superficial. On display through April 11, 2027.

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4127 18th Street

The GLBT Historical Society Museum, located in the heart of San Francisco’s Castro District, is the first stand-alone museum of queer history and culture in the United States. General admission costs just $10, with students (age 13-17) and seniors (age 65+) getting a discount and children 12 and under entering for free. The museum is open from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and from 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.

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100 34th Avenue 

The Etruscans: From the Heart of Ancient Italy

Drawing on the latest archaeological discoveries and cutting-edge scholarship, this is the most comprehensive exhibition on Etruscan culture in the United States to date. Over 150 exquisitely crafted and well-preserved examples of bronze and terracotta sculpture, gold jewelry, ceramics, and architectural features, as well as the longest-surviving piece of Etruscan writing, reveal a legacy that continues to captivate today. On display through September 20, 2026. 

Eternal Paris: Photographing the City of Light

Featuring nearly 50 photographs, this exhibition traces how photography captured Paris's past and its transformation into a modern metropolis. On display through April 4, 2027.

Miró: Proof Against All

This exhibition explores À toute épreuve, considered the pinnacle of Mirò’s work as a book illustrator, within the artist’s broader career in artistic publishing. Tracing his intricate work across printmaking processes and the constellation of people involved in such projects highlights the deeply collaborative nature of artist book production. On display through July 25, 2027.

Azzedine Alaïa: Sculpting Fashion

This is the first major U.S. retrospective of Azzedine Alaïa, one of fashion’s most celebrated couturiers. Alaïa trained as a sculptor before working in fashion. He became famous for his ability to shape and mold fabric into clothes that made women feel both powerful and beautiful. He was beloved by supermodels, including Naomi Campbell, Stephanie Seymour, and Christy Turlington, and performers such as Tina Turner and Grace Jones. On display from November 21, 2026 to April 11, 2027.

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655 Mission Street

NEXUS SF / Bay Area Black Art Week

Nexus has grown into a regional cultural movement with more than 58 arts organizations, galleries, and creative hubs, alongside more than 70 Black artists and cultural leaders. Together, they have presented more than 140 exhibitions, open studios, events, programs, and immersive experiences celebrating the impact of Black art and culture throughout the Bay Area. See what's being offered for this year's celebrations! September 30, 2026 - October 4, 2026.

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Calling All Cats!

Local artist Dorian Reid takes a simple black cat, long a symbol of suspicion and fear, and uses it to dismantle viewers' prejudices and preconceived notions. Her work has been described as "joyful, intimate, politically alive, and gloriously its own". On display from September 30, 2026 through December 6, 2026.

After the Island: Ornament and Ceramic Practice in the Jamaican Diaspora

This landmark exhibition explores Caribbean history, memory, and cultural transformation through works by PJ Anderson, Jacqueline Bishop, and Sharon Norwood. On display from September 30, 2026 through May 30, 2027.

Dewey Crumpler: Sonic Lineages

Bringing together paintings from multiple periods with newly commissioned kinetic works, the exhibition traces an artist whose deepest questions have remained alive, changing shape as the world around them changes. It asks what becomes visible when we give art, and ourselves, the time to keep looking. On display from September 30, 2026 to May 30, 2027.

The Light We Carry Forward

This is an exhibition about the politics of survival, care, and illumination within Black womanhood. They position care as self-defense, rest as revolt, and light as a scar that glows instead of fading. On display December 16, 2026 to March 7, 2027.

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2569 Third Street

Objects: USA

One of the most influential craft exhibitions ever staged returns for a new generation! In 1969, the Smithsonian American Art Museum launched OBJECTS: USA, featuring more than 300 artists working across clay, enamel, fiber, glass, metal, mosaic, and wood. This fall, the exhibition returns in reimagined form, bringing historic and contemporary works by leading artists and designers into conversation. This presentation carries particular resonance in California, and especially in the Bay Area, which was central to the development of American studio craft and fostered generations of artists who challenged the prevailing hierarchies of their time. On display through January 17, 2027.

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Matisse's Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal

Experience the moment Matisse used color to break the rules of modern art. In 1905, Henri Matisse sent shockwaves through the art world with Femme au chapeau (Woman with a Hat), a portrait of his wife, Amélie, painted in bold color and loose brushstrokes that defied convention. This exhibition brings the original stakes into focus and explores the enduring impact of one of Matisse’s most iconic works. On display through September 27, 2026. 

Graciela Iturbide: Between Two Worlds

This retrospective spans more than five decades of work by the celebrated photographer, exploring her poetic commitment to finding the extraordinary in the everyday. Iturbide’s photographs reflect a vast spectrum of life in her home country of Mexico, including markets and festivals, cultural traditions, symbols and experiences of birth and death, botanical gardens, self-portraits, and more. On display through November 29, 2026.

RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me

The most hotly anticipated exhibition of the fall, RM x SFMOMA is the first-ever museum exhibition featuring artworks from the personal collection of RM, part of the K-Pop supergroup BTS. More than 200 pieces of modern and contemporary Korean art will be on display, in conversation with other pieces from around the globe—many of which have never been publicly shown in the U.S. You will not want to miss this groundbreaking exhibition! On display from October 3, 2026 to February 7, 2027.

New Work: Raven Chacon

In his first solo West Coast exhibition, Pulitzer Prize-winner Raven Chacon takes visitors on an audio-visual journey through the vast landscapes of the Navajo Nation. A blend of the real and the imagined, the scientific and science-fiction, this exhibition asks visitors to ponder the nature of discovery, colonization, and what it means to declare something "alien". On display from October 24, 2026 to November 7, 2027.

Sarah Sze: Forever is Composed of Nows

Inspired by the ephemerality of images, the fragility of nature, and the passage of time, this site-specific, multi-sensory commission features three new monumental paintings and a dynamic flow of video projections and rhythmic, pulsating soundscapes that create a fully immersive experience. Visitors will be able to experience Sze's work for free in the first floor atrium. On display beginning November 21, 2026.

Feel the Beat: Dance in Photographs

Drawn primarily from SFMOMA’s permanent collection, Feel the Beat: Dance in Photographs traces different ways image makers have represented dance. On display through February 28, 2027.

Klee Behind the Mask

Paul Klee stood at the forefront of a growing fascination with the mask at the turn of the twentieth century. After the horrors of World War I, Klee embraced his abstract work with masks as a cathartic process. Within this shared context, the mask became a powerful tool to imagine the fractures and symbolic qualities of identity. On display through April 18, 2027.

Table Manners

Table Manners brings together tableware, flatware, and drinkware from the SFMOMA collection spanning nearly 100 years. The exhibition celebrates the ways design has shaped our relationship to food, our bodies, and communities, and how dining can be a profound communal and cultural experience. The exhibition includes works by Virgil Abloh, Joe Colombo, Zaha Hadid, and Roberto Lugo, with illustrations and textiles by Lucy Stark. On display through May 9, 2027.

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104 Montgomery Street

Awaking Beauty: The Art of Eyvind Earle

One of the Walt Disney Family Museum's most celebrated exhibitions returns! Awaking Beauty explores the life and work of American artist Eyvind Earle, who worked on such Disney classics as Sleeping Beauty and Lady and the Tramp. Additional artworks will be on display for this revival. Not included in general admission. On display from October 23, 2026 to April 18, 2027.

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