San Francisco is known for its vibrant arts scene, often considered one of the world’s best cities for art lovers. It’s pretty obvious why when walking through the Mission or Golden Gate Park, but lesser noticed are the arts scattered around the city’s periphery. Painters, muralists and sculptors have left their mark on Ocean Avenue, the main street Lick-Wilmerding High School sits on.
photo by Naomi Taxay
Across from LWHS, on Howth Street and Ocean, sits one of ten colorful utility boxes sprinkled around the area. The boxes were wrapped in vinyl designed by teenagers at the Youth Art Exchange in 2018. The program, a nonprofit that pairs public school students with professional artists, was then located at 29 Howth Street, LWHS’ current business office.
At the time, the Ocean Avenue Association (OAA) was looking to “beautify” the neighborhood. Utility boxes used by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) were chosen along the avenue for the art students to showcase their work.
Together, photography and printmaking students studied Ocean Avenue to incorporate both the street’s history and physical makeup into the art. Under the mentorship of photographers Autumn Swisher and Brisa Aceves, photography students walked along Ocean, taking black and white film portraits of community members. The film was developed, then given to the printmaking students to silkscreen. Local printmakers Hyeyoon Song and Paul Mullowney worked with the students to overlay the portraits with colorful designs including the area’s native plants.
photo by Naomi Taxay
The final designs were laid out by former Executive Director of the Youth Art Exchange, Reed Davaz McGowan, then sent out to a wrapping company. Clean Slate Group put the designs up on the boxes in anti-graffiti vinyl for easy maintenance.
Davaz McGowan appreciated the interdisciplinary nature of the process, and the final contrast of humans and nature with the urban environment. She commented that people are recognized from their portraits all the time, and the artwork has played an active role in creating connections in the neighborhood.
Those art-inspired connections are what drive landscape painter and mixed media artist Shrey Purohit to continue producing art. Originally from Mumbai, Purohit came to San Francisco to be an illustrator. He spent much of his time during the pandemic outdoors and pivoted to painting landscapes, notably around the Ingleside neighborhood.
photo courtesy of Shrey Purohit
His creative process includes sitting at the same location for around two hours and talking to the people walking by while he paints. “They’re as equally a part of the painting as I am. And especially because I’m not from this neighborhood, I like hearing the stories of the locations,” he said.
Purohit opened a gallery on Ocean Avenue after his first pop-up was successful. He painted 15 locations on Ocean Avenue at dusk. “Ingleside is so foggy that maybe once a week you can see a sunset,” he said. He wants to show that even when it’s foggy, the sunset exists and it is beautiful.
One of his favorite paintings he has done is KT, Looking down Ocean Ave and Ashton, which highlights the That’s Amore pizzeria and a mural he did for them in 2021 that reads, “Make Food and friends.”
This year, Purohit had to close down Ingleside Gallery on Ocean, where he once displayed his own art along with that of other local artists. He loved having a gallery to connect with the neighborhood and showcase local artists, but he also commented that “art is really best experienced without a price tag.”
Now, he showcases his art at coffee shops around San Francisco, including Philz on Ocean. He also posts his art on Instagram. “People who are thinking of being an artist can really go for it in this new world of social media. They should follow their passions, we finally have the privilege and opportunity to do so,” he said.
In 2016, the SFMTA developed Unity Plaza adjacent to Philz, which includes a path connecting Ocean Avenue to City College up the Ocean Avenue History Stairscape. The staircase, created by Wowhaus Studios, features a “ceramic enamel photomontage composed of historic photographs,” according to a plaque at the site.
The studio sourced images from community members and library archives, attempting to capture the “rich cultural history and significant architectural landmarks of the Ocean Merced Ingleside Neighborhood.” The images include City College in 1973, the historic El Rey Theater and another remarkable art installation of the area, the Ingleside Terrace Sundial.
The largest image on the staircase, the Ingleside Presbyterian Church on the corner of Ocean and Grenada, is also featured on the Auto 280 Mural by Plymouth Avenue. Although not functioning today, the auto repair shop had been in business for 25 years when the OAA commissioned Amos Goldbaum to “beautify” the storefront in 2018.
A wall separated by a garage door in the center, Goldbaum had two canvases to work with. “I was drawn to the way that Ingleside has Ocean Avenue in the middle and hills on either side that go up. It’s kind of like a little valley,” he said.
He decided to depict one side of Ocean Avenue on each wall, naming his work, Ocean Avenue North & South. In the forefront he painted various landmarks, and in the background he painted the hilly neighborhoods of San Francisco. He went to the opposite hills to take bird’s eye view photos then combined them with street level views of the blocks for reference.
Before Goldbaum’s mural, Auto 280 was painted with a colorful street scene featuring Gary Ng, the owner of the shop, and Rev. Roland Gordon of Ingleside Presbyterian Church. The mural had deteriorated beyond the point of repair, and the previous artist wasn’t practicing art anymore.
Although the old mural was going to be painted over either way, Goldbaum felt bad about covering the work with his own. He decided to include a simplified version of the old mural in his. “It’s kind of like an Easter egg,” he said.
Goldbaum commented on the personal relationship he felt he created with the neighborhood. He enjoyed talking to locals that stopped by and connecting with the community, which has always been one of his favorite aspects of public art.
Similar to Purohit’s view of the sunset, mosaicist Laurel True took inspiration from the gray Ingleside weather for her art. When commissioned to do a series on the crossroads of Ocean, Miramar Avenue and Grenada Avenue, True wanted to bring some sun into the area.
Her Sun Spheres, three mosaic sculptures ranging in size from 3’ to 5’ in diameter, are made of foam, steel, concrete and fiberglass. True first laid out the mirrored swirls and colored accent lines, then the pod-like designs, filling the space with hand-cut square ceramic tiles.
“I wanted to contrast the squares with the organic, feminine quality of silver mirrored swirls,” True said. “They reflect movement. Even though the forms are static, one of the reasons I wanted to make them round is so people can walk completely around them, and the light and their body and traffic are being reflected in the mirror, so it seems like it’s moving.”
Art can be found throughout Ocean Avenue in obvious places, like the Welcome to Ocean Avenue mural by LWHS, and hidden in plain sight, like the green gate by the Ingleside Branch Library that doubles as a magnificent sculpture. Every piece has a history and a future impact. Take a walk down the street and look at what else can be seen.
