Best Public Art Pieces in San Francisco

Living in San Francisco, we’re used to viewing art works in galleries or museums, or in private homes. Yet, our city is a treasure trove of art that is not in museums, galleries, homes or offices. They’re out in the public eye all the time, either outdoors or indoors, and are worth a contemplative, appreciative look. SFcurbed has updated its curated online, interactive map of seen-by-public artworks—with only two murals mentioned, as vey good murals are so numerous in our city they have their own interactive map.

The public art ranges from free-standing, larger-scale sculptures to in-motion art like Firefly, moving to the beat of wind and lights up at night in Chinatown. Art Goldsworthy’s 100-foot Spire statue at the Presidio is formed from a melding of 38 cypress trees (end of life cycle) and earth. There’s an origami-inspired fountain of Ruth Asawa’s at the Embarcadero Center. Reminiscent of the obelisks from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, sculptor Richard Serra has produced two free standing steel obelisks that rise 50 feet high, 15 feet wide and a thin few inches deep. The art is called Ballast and stands at the UCSF Mission Bay campus.

Just click on the numbers on the map and you’ll be zoomed to a picture and brief description of the art.

Click here to visit the map.