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Monique Deschaines, Interim Executive Director | executivedirector@sfcamerawork.org

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SF CAMERAWORK TO OPEN NEW SPACE IN FORT MASON CENTER
Inaugural Exhibition Will Feature Work
by Bay Area-Based Photographer Kija Lucas

Tuesday, August 23, 2022 (San Francisco, CA) - SF Camerawork is pleased to announce it will open a new space at Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture (FMCAC) this September. The 1,900-square-foot space features a large ground-floor gallery and a mezzanine dedicated to the organization’s administrative offices. Previously located on Market Street, the opening at Fort Mason Center reflects the organization’s ongoing commitment to being an integral part of the San Francisco arts community, and to introducing new audiences to thought-provoking and boundary-pushing photography. 

Located in Fort Mason Center’s historic Landmark Building A and featuring panoramic views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the new headquarters for SF Camerawork will allow the organization to further its engagement with photographic artists and arts community members, highlighting the long history of San Francisco and the surrounding areas as an essential place for photography. With more space dedicated to exhibitions, the organization will be able to work with a wider range of artists, and to deepen its impact by showing the work of emerging and early-career Bay Area artists. SF Camerawork will open its new location on September 17, with a solo exhibition by Bay Area-based artist Kija Lucas. KIJA LUCAS, A Taxonomy of Belonging will feature work from Lucas’s nine-year project In Search of Home, a series that explores the emigration patterns of her family using photographs of plant clippings, rocks, and other objects.

“Our purpose is to provoke discovery, experimentation, and exchange through photographic exhibitions and experiences,” said SF Camerawork Board President Michelle Branch. “Opening with Kija Lucas’s exhibition speaks to our particular interest in engaging with the work of local, emerging artists who use photographic practice and technique to address timely and complex socio-political issues. As an organization committed to education, we are especially excited to be a part of the vibrant arts ecosystem at Fort Mason Center, and to have access to state-of-the-art educational facilities where we can invite in our communities for seminars and public events, in addition to our exhibition programming.”

The inaugural exhibition, A Taxonomy of Belonging features a collection of photographs that Lucas created in opposition to Carl Linnaeus’s racial taxonomy. Traveling through thirteen states, Lucas gathered cultivated plants, weeds, rocks, and other found natural objects that relate to her family’s history and emigration pattern and created photographic scans. Questioning how we choose what is considered “natural,” “beautiful,” and “useful,” Lucas treated the cultivated plants, weeds, native, and non-native species she gathered equally, challenging the scientific framework society has inherited from Linnaeus. Extrapolating from her work with the natural world, Lucas interrogates the way that the taxonomy passed down by Linnaeus misrepresents Othered communities and continues to perpetuate damaging racist stereotypes. In doing so, she works to situate her family’s personal history in the United States.

“We are delighted to welcome SF Camerawork to the Fort Mason Center campus, where it joins a longstanding creative community of arts and cultural organizations dedicated to artistic excellence and public access to the product of that excellence,” said Mike Buhler, President and CEO, FMCAC. “For 45 years, SF Camerawork has advanced creative boundaries in its exhibitions and support of artists, and we look forward to seeing what develops here in their new permanent home, a place that has served as fertile ground for creative expression for nearly 50 years.”

From its pre-colonial use by the Ramaytush Ohlone people to its role as a major military port of embarkation to its current life as an arts and cultural hub, FMCAC has long been a gathering place for cultural, intellectual, and political exchange. Its 13-acre campus – designated as a National Historic Landmark District and part of the Golden Gate Recreational Area – is home to more than two dozen arts, cultural, culinary, educational, and retail entities, which benefit from affordable long- and short-term rental spaces, stunning waterfront views, and proximity to other San Francisco waterfront landmarks and attractions. SF Camerawork joins a coterie of acclaimed arts and cultural residents at FMCAC including the For-Site Foundation, Haines Gallery, Magic Theatre, and the American Indian Cultural District.

SF Camerawork is supported by The Joy of Giving Something Foundation, San Francisco Grants for the Arts, Yellow Chair Foundation, and by individual donors and members. Taxonomy of Belonging is supported by a San Francisco Arts Commission grant received by the artist and by individual donors. 

General Information:
KIJA LUCAS, A Taxonomy of Belonging
September 17 - December 17, 2022
Opening Reception with the artist: Saturday October 1, 2022, 3 - 7pm
Artist Talk: Saturday October 22, 2022, Noon - 1:30pm

SF Camerawork
2 Marina Boulevard, Building A
San Francisco, CA, 94123
415-487-1011

Open hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from Noon - 6pm, Friday from Noon - 8pm, Saturday from 10am - 6pm. SF Camerawork is free and open to the public.

About SF Camerawork

SF Camerawork is a long-standing leader in the San Francisco arts milieu, committed to provoking discovery, experimentation, and exchange through exhibitions and experiences for all who value new ideas in photography. The organization was founded in 1974 by a collective of artists who welcomed experimental photography, unconventional techniques, and sociopolitical themes and who fostered a range of alternative styles and approaches. The essence of the founders’ vision remains at the core of SF Camerawork even as the organization has adapted to the changing scope of photography and surrounding cultural landscape. 

For more than 45 years, SF Camerawork has provided a launching pad for many artists' careers, supplying invaluable financial support, exhibition space, curation, and patronage. In its early years, SF Camerawork was the first organization in the Bay Area to host exhibitions and lectures by controversial but ultimately highly influential artists such as Sally Mann, Robert Mapplethorpe, Susan Meiselas, and Joel-Peter Witkin. More recently, the organization has presented the first West Coast exhibitions for artists including John Chiara, Binh Danh, Erica Deeman, Jennifer Karady, Jason Lazurus, Chris McCaw, Wang Ning De, and Meghann Riepenhoff—artists who have emerged as leaders of a new generation gaining international prominence.

About Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture

A decommissioned military installation converted into a nonprofit cultural center, FMCAC hosts a lively mix of arts, educational, and cultural programming. Each year FMCAC provides more than $2 million in support to local arts organizations, enabling groups to produce diverse and innovative artworks at its historic waterfront campus. With a five-decade history as an arts and culture destination, FMCAC is focused on reinvigorating its programming and amenities to better engage the evolving Bay Area creative community. Central to this vision is the commissioning and presentation of adventurous and unconventional artworks best realized in nontraditional or historic settings. For more information, visit fortmason.org.

About Kija Lucas

Kija Lucas is an artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She uses photography to explore ideas of home, heritage and inheritance. She is interested in how ideas are passed down and seemingly inconsequential moments create changes that last generations.

Her work has been exhibited at Oakland Museum of California, Anglim Gilbert Gallery, Headlands Center for the Arts, San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries, California Institute of Integral Studies, Palo Alto Arts Center, Intersection for the Arts, Mission Cultural Center, and Root Division, as well as Venice Arts in Los Angeles, CA, La Sala d’Ercole/Hercules Hall in Bologna Italy, and Casa Escorsa in Guadalajara, Mexico. Lucas has been an Artist in Residence at Montalvo Center for the Arts, Grin City Collective, and The Wassaic Artist Residency. Lucas received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and her MFA from Mills College.