SFMOMA: State of Mind

For Vija Celmins, the way to approach a work of art depends on the viewer’s state of mind. Here, she provides a starting point for experiencing her creations.

SFMOMA: Ant Farm and Media Burn

Ant Farm’s satirical event Media Burn (1975) parodied the conventions of a media spectacle. A fictional politician, the “Artist President,” introduced the main event: a sculptural, transformed car crashing through […]

SFMOMA: Vija Celmins

Painter Vija Celmins describes her artistic process and the inspiration she finds in natural surfaces and environmental textures.

SFMOMA: Robert Adams

Robert Adams moved to the Pacific Northwest for peacefulness and natural surroundings. He didn’t anticipate those surroundings to be the catalyst for his next project. Adams shares how he used […]

SFMOMA: Mike Mandel

Mike Mandel’s Baseball Photographer Trading Cards (1975) is more or less a standard set of trading cards, except for one thing: rather than famous athletes, Mandel’s cards feature photographers. For […]

SFMOMA: At Sea

Artist Jason Lazarus discusses the process behind his site-specific installation for SFMOMA, Recordings #3 (At Sea) (2014–16). Having collected found photographs for years, Lazarus describes his fascination with the human […]

SFMOMA: Janet Delaney

Photographer Janet Delaney reflects on capturing another era of San Francisco in her series South of Market (1978–86). She describes what it’s like to revisit the ever-changing neighborhood for her […]

SFMOMA: Daido Moriyama

Photographer Daido Moriyama reflects on the rebellious youth culture of late 1960s Japan, a period when he and his colleagues were working on the avant-garde photography magazine Provoke (1968–69). He […]

SFMOMA: Larry Sultan

Photographer Larry Sultan describes his project Pictures from Home (1983–92), which explores the complexities of family life through photographs, home movies, and ephemera. He describes collaborating with his parents as […]

Artist Cribs: Hung Liu

Chinese-American painter Hung Liu takes us inside her Oakland studio where we get a glimpse at colorful works in progress. She shows us her table of catalogs used to reflect […]