Five must-see San Francisco art shows this spring

San Francisco’s museums and galleries are springing into action this season with a slate of exhibitions you won’t want to miss.

Whether it’s local history, contemporary superstars or The City’s second major art fair of the year, there’s plenty to see. Here are The Examiner’s critic’s picks for navigating your art-filled spring.

Historical Bay Area Painters

Bay Area art has always been defined by defiance. In the 1950s, when the New York art world went all in on abstract expressionism, a cadre of determined Bay Area artists planted the flag of figurative painting on the West Coast.

This exhibition at Berggruen Gallery highlights members of the Bay Area figurative school, including Elmer Bischoff, Joan Brown, Richard Diebenkorn, Manuel Neri, Nathan Oliveira, David Park and Paul Wonner, offering a glimpse into the development of one of the Bay Area’s signature artistic movements.

By including recognizable subject matter such as figures and landscapes, the Bay Area figurative artists produced a body of work with a generous personal vision of the region and its residents. The impressionistic choices of bold colors and visceral compositions evoke a familiar romanticism of Northern California that still rings true today, a love letter to the Bay Area from years gone by.