CLOSE TO HOME: CREATIVITY IN CRISIS

Close to Home: Creativity in Crisis brings together deeply personal responses of seven Bay Area artists—Carolyn Drake, Rodney Ewing, Andres Gonzalez, James Gouldthorpe, Klea McKenna, Tucker Nichols and Woody De Othello—to the COVID-19 pandemic and the shelter-in-place order, expressed in a variety of media. Some projects sprang from the curtailing of daily life: disrupted routines and inaccessibility of studios or materials, uncertain employment and the delicate balancing of family and work. Others wrestle with the emotional impact of the virus, responding to overwhelming feelings of isolation, helplessness, anxiety and loss. On May 25, several months into the pandemic, George Floyd was murdered by the Minneapolis police, sparking a furious nationwide outcry against police brutality and systemic racism. The convergence of these crises prompted renewed self-inquiry about the role the artists envisioned for their own work: some looked inward to find solace, while others felt compelled to tackle the outside world head on.

Seen individually, the seven projects demonstrate a startlingly wide range of artistic, emotional and political responses, a reminder of just how differently this moment of collective crisis has affected each of us. Taken together, the work emphasizes the experience of this period as a shared wound and a communal grieving, and issues a call for empathy and understanding as well as connecting through art.

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The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the United States and a thriving cultural center for the Bay Area. Our remarkable collection of painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, design and media arts is housed in an LEED Gold-certified building designed by the global architects Snøhetta and Mario Botta. In addition to our seven gallery floors, SFMOMA offers 45,000 square feet of free, art-filled public space open to all.

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