The Arts Are Back With These 6 Stunning Exhibitions

Wangechi Mutu: I Am Speaking, Are You Listening?

Legion of Honor, San Francisco, through November 7
In a sprawling new exhibit, the artist, who calls both Nairobi and New York home, creates a new mythology of powerful female characters, hybrid beings and fantastical landscapes that is both inspiring and intimidating. 

Nam June Paik

SFMOMA, San Francisco, through October 3
After his debut of television experiments in 1963, Nam June Paik continued to wow the art world with his playful take on music, art and technology and how they intersect. This major retrospective of his work explores the importance of mass media and new technologies and can only be seen at SFMOMA (and streamed through its website). 

Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI

de Young Museum, San Francisco, through June 27
This exhibit uses contemporary art from 14 artists and collectives to examine what it means to be human in a world where artificial intelligence tracks, collects and analyzes our data. 

Cool Outside

Marin Art and Garden Center, Ross, June 24–August 22
Landscape architect JC Miller curates this exhibit that looks at the work of Robert Royston, a notable Bay Area landscape architect who helped define and establish the California modernism style in the postwar period. Royston’s innovative playground, Pixie Park, remains a feature at MAGC.

Communion

American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco, through June 27
This live, world-premiere event created exclusively for A.C.T. will be presented virtually and to limited live audiences. Obie Award–winning Bay Area playwright Christopher Chen’s play is part docudrama, part mystery and part confessional. 

San Francisco Symphony

San Francisco, June 24–25
Esa-Pekka Salonen returns to the Davies Symphony Hall podium to lead the San Francisco Symphony in Richard Strauss’ masterpiece Metamorphosen, Jessie Montgomery’s Strum and the opening movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 11 in F minor (in a string orchestra arrangement by Gustav Mahler).