For a second year in a row visitors and residents in San Francisco may experience four days saturated with art at three wildly different settings. 

ArtPadSF May 17 – 20


Emerging and contemporary art from the Bay area and beyond will be featured within the legendary and iconic Phoenix Hotel along with screenings, panels, performances, and more.  Move throughout guest suites unrecognizably transformed into over 40 notable art galleries and lounges.  Attend San Francisco’s own City Arts & Lectures, as they host a Pop-Up featuring internationally renowned artist and designer of The Bay Lights, Leo Villareal, in conversation with co-founder of Wired and president of TCHO Chocolate, Jane Metcalfe.

If you’re feeling philanthropic be certain to attend one of the two benefit events as part of ArtPadSF.  Opening night will launch with an exclusive preview show benefiting SFMOMA's 2012/13 SECA (Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art) Art Award.  Friday’s activities benefit Black Rock Arts Foundation (BRAF) and support their ongoing efforts to inspire action and build community through art. 

The San Francisco Fine Art Fair (SFFAF) May 17 – 20


Taking place at the historic Fort Mason and identified through a Selection Committee’s discriminating eyes, SFFAF will offer visitors a broad spectrum of media from 1950 to present displayed by the 73 exhibiting galleries.  Expect the best in post-war and contemporary art and experience a most carefully selected collection of galleries.  The Fair will feature 5,000 significant works of art from 400 respected artists all presented by 70+ prominent galleries worldwide. The treasures you can acquire range from paintings, works on paper, drawings, and printed editions to fine art photography, indoor and outdoor sculpture, and glass art. Prices ranged from $1,000 to $1 million.  Preview events benefit the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

artMRKT San Francisco


artMRKT San Francisco, returns for a second year to the Concourse Exhibition Center in SoMA.   This contemporary and modern art fair allows everyone to experience it in their own way.  The Opening Night Party, benefitting the de Young and Legion of Honor will be the most festive of the four day event and previews the works on display before opening to the public.  Among other events throughout artMRKT, rare off-site tours, featuring private and non-profit collections throughout San Francisco, have been arranged.  Emerging markets, aesthetics and interior design are a few of the topics included in scheduled discussions and keynote artist Richard Misrach and Aperture Foundation will present Misrach’s haunting photographic record of Louisiana’s Chemical Corridor, accompanied by landscape architect Kate Orff’s Ecological Atlas—a series of “speculative drawings” developed through research and mapping of data from the region.

Not to be lost in the events, 70 global and highly reputable galleries will feature some of the world’s most intriguing artists all in the spirit of exploration and acquisition of art.

Transportation


ArtPadSF & artMRKT ticket holders may travel for free on Saturday, May 19 from 12pm–7pm and Sunday, May 20 from 12pm–6pm between ArtPadSF at the Phoenix Hotel and artMRKT San Francisco at the Concourse Exhibition Center, with a stop in between at the Asian Art Museum to view Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past.  Buses will operate in both directions, with stops at each location every 20-25 minutes (approx.) during designated shuttle hours.