YBCA Announces Bold Fall Season Celebrating Bay Area Art, Resistance, and Cultural Legacy
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YBCA Announces Bold Fall Season Celebrating Bay Area Art, Resistance, and Cultural Legacy
Two new powerful exhibitions—Bay Area Then and MAKIBAKA: A Living Legacy— open honoring Bay Area legends and the legacy of Filipino resilience in SoMa
June 17, 2025 – San Francisco, CA: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) proudly announces its Fall 2025 season, a dynamic lineup of exhibitions, performances, and community events. Opening August 1, Bay Area Then and MAKIBAKA: A Living Legacy headline the season, each spotlighting the region’s creativity, activism, and restless imagination.
Bay Area Then showcases work by 21 artists who forged a new creative legacy for the Bay Area in the 1990s. With monumental wall installations, stunning photographic portraiture, and a labyrinthine passage that culminates in an outdoor stage, the exhibition pulses with the electrifying energy of the era.
Including both new and historical works by artists whose influence is still notable today, Bay Area Then features Nao Bustamante, Carolyn Castaño, Bill Daniel, Sergio De La Torre and Chris Treggiari, Beatrix Fowler, Mike “Dream” Francisco, Johanna Jackson, Chris Johanson with Ajax Oakford, Arnold Kemp, Margaret Kilgallen, Josh Lazcano, Alicia McCarthy, Barry McGee, Ruby Neri, Manuel Ocampo, Eamon Ore-Giron, Gina Osterloh, Rigo 23, Spie One, and others. The exhibition is organized by guest curator Eungie Joo, who has worked with many of these artists since the late 1990s, and was recently honored as an Art Basel Awards Medalist for her rich curatorial practice.
“Bay Area Then is a stirring and timely reminder that the Bay Area has always revived and regenerated itself,” said Mari Robles, CEO of YBCA. “This region is home to artists who push culture, and I can’t wait to gather such legendary San Francisco artists in our galleries, especially since many launched their careers at YBCA.”
Opening concurrently, MAKIBAKA: A Living Legacy boldly celebrates the culture, contributions, and presence of the Filipino community in the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood and Bay Area. Presented by SOMA Pilipinas in collaboration with YBCA, and inspired by the Filipino term for collective resistance, MAKIBAKA brings together contemporary artworks alongside community-held objects, memories, and movements.
“MAKIBAKA: A Living Legacy is a reclaiming of our shared story, one woven from generations of defiance, of holding ground, and building home in the face of racism and displacement. It honors the beauty and resilience of our culture and lineage of resistance. In this moment of rising authoritarianism, it stands as both a celebration and a call—to remember, to resist, and to keep creating and fighting for the future we deserve,” said Raquel Redondiez, SOMA Pilipinas Director.
The exhibition showcases remarkable intergenerational creative expression which defies easy categorization. The exhibition is timed to coincide with beloved community festivals, Pistahan and the Parol Lantern Festival, both returning to YBCA this fall. MAKIBAKA, co-curated by SOMA Pilipinas and Trisha Lagaso Goldberg, features artists including Erina Alejo, Kimberly Acebo Arteche, England Hidalgo, Johanna Poethig, Weston Teruya, Lucille Tenazas, Jenifer Wofford and more.
“I am thrilled to present these powerful exhibitions at YBCA,” said Robles. “I’m so proud to continue our partnership with SOMA Pilipinas, hosting their show alongside annual events Pistahan and the Parol Lantern Festival this fall. Both MAKIBAKA and Bay Area Then demonstrate YBCA’s commitment to supporting the Bay Area’s artistic communities and its fierce creative voice.”
YBCA’s fall season will also feature an exciting lineup of performances at the Blue Shield of California Theater at YBCA. Acclaimed companies such as Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Diaspora Arts Connection, Lamplighters Music Theatre, ODC/Dance Company, and Smuin Contemporary Ballet will return to the stage at YBCA. Public programs and artist talks tied to the exhibitions will be announced soon.
YBCA programs are made possible in part by Blue Shield of California, the City and County of San Francisco, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, James R. Lilienthal Trust, California Arts Council, Yerba Buena Partnership, Meridee Moore, Beard Family Foundation, Schwab Charitable Fund, Gaia Fund, David and Carla Crane Foundation, Andrew Skillman and Lydia Choy Charitable Fund, Amy and Hannah Eliot, Maria Kim, Tides Foundation, Wayee Chu and Ethan Beard, Amanda Minami, Klau Family Fund, Peter Rigano and Cody Hicks, Harvey and Leslie Wagner Foundation, Robert and Junko Kenmotsu, The San Francisco Foundation, and YBCA Members.
For more information visit www.ybca.org.
About YBCA:
Opened to the public in 1993, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) was founded as the cultural anchor of San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens neighborhood. Our work spans the realms of contemporary art, performance, film, civic engagement, and public life. By centering artists as essential to social and cultural movement, YBCA is reimagining the role an arts institution can play in the communities it serves. For more information, visit ybca.org.
YBCA is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11:00am to 5:00pm. General admission is $10, and $5 for students and seniors. Tickets can be purchased in person or reserved in advance at ybca.org. Admission is free every Wednesday and on the second Sunday of each month.
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Arnold J. Kemp
Stage, 2024
cut and sanded plywood, 40 parts
variable dimensions
Ruby Neri
The White Mare, 2024
acrylic on canvas
84 x 72 x 1 1/4 inches
(213.4 x 182.9 x 3.2 cm)
(RN 24.009)
Photo: Jeff McLane
Courtesy of the Artist and David Kordansky Gallery
Carolyn Castaño
Chondua (Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta), 2023