San José Museum of Art

San José Museum of Art SJMA nurtures empathy and connection by engaging communities with socially relevant contemporary art.
(331)

The San Jose Museum of Art celebrates new ideas, stimulates creativity, and inspires connections with every visit. Welcoming and thought-provoking, the Museum rejects stuffiness and delights visitors with its surprising and playful perspective on the art and artists of our time.

SJMA is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition "Calder: at home, among friends” opening on Friday, September 6. Dra...
07/23/2024

SJMA is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition "Calder: at home, among friends” opening on Friday, September 6.

Drawn primarily from the Museum’s collection, the exhibition highlights the intimate side of the innovative and revered artist, featuring works and small objects that filled his home and were shared with close family and friends.

“Calder: at home, among friends” features 28 works by Alexander Calder including mobiles, works on paper, and a selection of recent gifts of handcrafted jewelry, personal adornments, and household objects.

Photo: Alexander Calder. “Baby rattle with bells,” 1920. Brass wire and bells, 9 ¼ x 4 ½ x ½ inches. Collection of San José Museum of Art. Gift of Megan L. Hayes and Reed Zars in Memory of Margaret Calder Hayes and Kenneth and Janet Gray Hayes, 2022.16.06. © 2024 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Johnna Arnold, Impart Photography.

⭐️ Meet the honorees for this year's Gala + Auction. ⭐️SJMA announces Chitra Ganesh as this year's honoree for the upcom...
07/18/2024

⭐️ Meet the honorees for this year's Gala + Auction. ⭐️

SJMA announces Chitra Ganesh as this year's honoree for the upcoming 2024 Gala + Auction on September 21. Across a twenty-five-year practice that spans South Asia, North America, and Europe, Ganesh has developed an expansive body of work rooted in drawing and painting, encompassing comics, animation, wall murals, collage, video, and sculpture.

Also at the 2024 Gala + Auction, SJMA is privileged to present Glenda Dorchak with the inaugural SJMA Visionary Award in recognition of her unwavering leadership and dedication to the Museum.

Learn more about them and the 2024 Gala + Auction at sjmusart.org/2024gala

Left image: Chitra Ganesh; Photo by Raul Irani.
Right: Glenda Dorchak; Photo by Drew Altizer.

SJMA mourns the loss of Bill Viola, a visionary new media artist whose pioneering work "made video art ask the biggest, ...
07/16/2024

SJMA mourns the loss of Bill Viola, a visionary new media artist whose pioneering work "made video art ask the biggest, most universal questions."

Viola's video installation "Memoria" (2000) was last on view in SJMA's exhibition, "Almost Human: Digital Art from the Collection." In the video, a ghostly image of a man's face is projected onto a silk screen, slowly manifesting and disintegrating on an endless loop. The work itself was an exploration of the artist's ideas of presence and absence. With Viola's "Memoria," it comforts us to know that even in his absence—and through his art—his presence is still felt.

Quote: Jonathan Jones. "Bill Viola made video art ask the biggest, most universal questions," "The Guardian." July 15, 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/article/2024/jul/15/bill-viola-appreciation.

Images: Bill Viola performing "The Talking Drum" (1979), Buffalo, New York, July 1982. © Bill Viola. Photograph © Kira Perov, courtesy Bill Viola Studio. Video still from Bill Viola, "Memoria," 2000. Projection on silk, 24 x 30 x 60 inches. San José Museum of Art. Museum purchase with funds contributed by Ann Marie and Averill Mix and from the Lipman Family Foundation, 2001.17. © Bill Viola.

☀️ Don't forget to water your plants during this heatwave! Kelly Akashi's "Cultivator" was cast from the artist's own ha...
07/12/2024

☀️ Don't forget to water your plants during this heatwave!

Kelly Akashi's "Cultivator" was cast from the artist's own hand, which gently supports glass-blown flowers modeled after endangered California species. Native plants live in the planter and are cared for by SJMA staff.

See "Cultivator" now on view in the sculpture court and enjoy the cool galleries.

Picture yourself here. 📷Did you know you can join SJMA Educator Ruby Morales on a Spanish-language tour of the landmark ...
07/11/2024

Picture yourself here. 📷

Did you know you can join SJMA Educator Ruby Morales on a Spanish-language tour of the landmark exhibition "Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures?" Open to native and new speakers, the tour offers an immersive experience that weaves together engaging interpretation activities and a hands-on art project inspired by the exhibition. The tours are free to the public, and pre-registration is encouraged.

Next Spanish Language Tour Dates:
- Saturday, July 20 at 12pm (RSVP at sjmusart.org/jul20)
- Friday, August 2 at 7pm (RSVP at sjmusart.org/aug2)

We have good news to share! SJMA Assistant Curator Juan Omar Rodriguez received a Curatorial Research Fellowship Grant f...
07/09/2024

We have good news to share! SJMA Assistant Curator Juan Omar Rodriguez received a Curatorial Research Fellowship Grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts! 🥳

For his curatorial research, Juan Omar will forge an intergenerational and transnational network of artists, curators, and scholars to explore the intersections of cultural production and q***r politics in contemporary art from the West Coast to Latin America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Using cruising as a point of departure, this research project will examine interrelated questions of visibility and perception, architecture, public space, non-normative desire, nationalism, imperialism, globalization, migration, diaspora, and power.

In accordance with Andy Warhol’s will, the mission of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts is the advancement of the visual arts. The foundation manages a dynamic grants program while also preserving Warhol’s legacy through creative and responsible licensing policies and extensive scholarly research for ongoing catalogue raisonné projects. To date, the foundation has given nearly $300 million in cash grants to over 1,000 arts organizations around the country and abroad and has donated 52,786 works of art to 322 institutions worldwide.

Image: Juan Omar Rodriguez, assistant curator. Photo by Liza Voll Photography.

Do you want to hear our tip to beat the heat? 🔥Cool down in the galleries of SJMA this weekend! This week, we're open Fr...
07/03/2024

Do you want to hear our tip to beat the heat? 🔥

Cool down in the galleries of SJMA this weekend! This week, we're open Friday from 11am to 9pm and Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 6pm.

Swipe to see what's happening.

For over a decade, Bay Area museums have marched together in the San Francisco Pride Parade. Museums with Pride celebrat...
07/01/2024

For over a decade, Bay Area museums have marched together in the San Francisco Pride Parade. Museums with Pride celebrate LGTBQIA+ voices in arts, culture, and science. Today, San José Museum of Art continued the tradition, marching with



📷 Thank you to everyone who came out to   at SJMA! 👉 Swipe to see a quick recap of performances by  and ,  and@eestarrio...
06/29/2024

📷 Thank you to everyone who came out to at SJMA!

👉 Swipe to see a quick recap of performances by and , and@eestarrious, and a grand finale by with , and .

🎨 For the 2023–24 school year, SJMA's Let's Look at Art (LLAA) docents provided a total of 24,394 student experiences ac...
06/26/2024

🎨 For the 2023–24 school year, SJMA's Let's Look at Art (LLAA) docents provided a total of 24,394 student experiences across Santa Clara County!

🖼️ Thank you to the incredible team of volunteers for providing free art presentations in the South Bay region.

📚 During the school year, Let's Look at Art presentations lead exciting discovery processes for students in Santa Clara County. Using Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) that support the Common Core State Standards, a trained docent leads a free 30–45 minute art presentation for your classroom. All art selections are carefully researched and presented with a specific set of curriculum objectives and represent the cultural diversity of the Bay Area.

Photos by Heather Kettmann, Frederick Liang, and Elizabeth Greer.

06/18/2024

We are currently exhibiting the “Seeing Through Stone” exhibit from now till June 31st, which features both local and international artists from San Quentin Prison to Jenin, Palestine. This is part of a multi-sited exhibition featured at the Institute of Arts and Sciences, Barrios Unidos, and the San Jose Museum of Art, including different artists and artwork surrounding the same theme of abolition. The Seeing through Stone exhibit is open every Friday-Saturday 12pm - 5pm, located at Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos 1817 Soquel Ave, Santa Cruz 95062

“[Brett] is doing better work at fourteen than I did at thirty. To have someone close to me, working so excellently, wit...
06/16/2024

“[Brett] is doing better work at fourteen than I did at thirty. To have someone close to me, working so excellently, with an assured future, is a happiness hardly expected.” —

This Father's Day, we highlight the work of , the second son of acclaimed photographer Edward Weston. Weston became his father's apprentice at the age of thirteen and traveled with him to Mexico in 1925. Living in Mexico, he was surrounded by some of the revolutionary artists of the day, including Tina Modotti, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Jean Charlot, and José Clemente Orozco, and began making photographs there with a small Graflex 3 1/4" x 4 1/4" camera given to him by his father.

Image: Brett Weston, "Mono Lake, California," 1966. Gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 inches. Gift from the Christian Keesee Collection, 2020.14.48.

Thank you Rangefinder for including "Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures" on this summer's US Photo Exhibits Road Tr...
06/12/2024

Thank you Rangefinder for including "Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures" on this summer's US Photo Exhibits Road Trip!

Cruise to SJMA and see this hotly anticipated landmark exhibition presenting the work of Christina Fernandez, whose photographs and installations explore migration, labor, gender, and her Mexican American identity. On view now through September 22, 2024.

Ready for a summer road trip? Set these photo exhibits as your destinations. It’s photo festival season, too!

"I am grateful to my father Ramon for teaching me this way of working with land and to my family that so proudly holds o...
06/12/2024

"I am grateful to my father Ramon for teaching me this way of working with land and to my family that so proudly holds our traditions with much high esteem.”—

+ : rafa esparza began working with adobe as a way of "finding a relationship to the land" and to improve his relationship with his father, Ramon Esparza, who made adobe bricks back in Mexico. His father, who was still coming to terms with his q***rness, taught him how to make traditional adobe bricks, and the pair made stacks of bricks for the artist's performances. Since then, the father and son's relationship improved, and the artist regularly called on his father to help him construct his performance and installation pieces.

Visitors can see rafa esparaza's "Yosi con Abuela" (2021) in "Evergreen: Art from the Collection," on view now through August 4, 2024.

Quotes:
rafa esparza (). 2024. "In my painting an economy of image vs material is a careful consideration I make given that the adobe space informs a paradigm where land becomes body and body comes land." Instagram, February 17, 2024. https://www.instagram.com/p/C3d821cvRHz/?img_index=1

Carolina A. Miranda. "Artist Rafa Esparza is using 5,000 adobe bricks to make a building-inside-a-building in Hollywood," "Los Angeles Times." July 23, 2015. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/miranda/la-et-cam-rafa-esparza-uses-5000-adobe-bricks-to-construct-a-building-inside-a-building-at-lace-in-hollywood-20150722-column.html

Image: rafa esparza, "Yosi con Abuela," 2021. Acrylic on adobe, 72 x 57 inches. Museum purchase with funds provided by the Acquisitions Committee. 2021.12.

We're so excited to kick off   with our friends at 19 other museums and cultural organizations from around the Bay Area ...
06/09/2024

We're so excited to kick off with our friends at 19 other museums and cultural organizations from around the Bay Area in the alliance this year! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

Come give us a wave at the 54th annual Parade on June 30, and visit our friends below to check out ways you can celebrate all month.




















Today, SJMA recognized the vital service and contributions of the Museum's dedicated family of volunteers!This year in 2...
05/30/2024

Today, SJMA recognized the vital service and contributions of the Museum's dedicated family of volunteers!

This year in 2024, we celebrate and thank the following volunteers for their years of service:
- In the Museum Store, we thank Pat Caporal (Anderson), 15 years.
- For Let's Look at Art, we thank Suman Ganapathy, 5 years; Mary Perry, 5 years; Louise Persson, 5 years; Sherry Tsai, 5 years; Lotte Van De Wall, 5 years; Karen Harrington, 10 years; Beth Herner, 10 years; Susan Curtin, 10 years; Lisa Gallo, 10 years; and Cathy Fraser, 15 years.
- For the Docent Council, we thank Lisa Gallo, 10 years; Ellen Tafeen, 10 years; and Jeanne Torre, 30 years.

Thu, May 30 at 7pm (Free): Join us for the a conversation with artist, activist, and architect  led by “Seeing through S...
05/24/2024

Thu, May 30 at 7pm (Free): Join us for the a conversation with artist, activist, and architect led by “Seeing through Stone” co-curators Gina Dent, Dean of Humanities for DEI and Associate Professor at , and Rachel Nelson, director and chief curator of . They will touch on the imprisonment of Karim’s uncle, the renowned Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam, and how it led to her approach to architecture as a language of struggle and resistance.

We got the grant! 🙌SJMA received a Grants for Arts Projects award of $60,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts (N...
05/16/2024

We got the grant! 🙌

SJMA received a Grants for Arts Projects award of $60,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)! This grant will support SJMA's presentation of "Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures," opening June 7, 2024. This landmark exhibition presents the work of Christina Fernandez, whose photographs and installations explore migration, labor, gender, and her Mexican American identity. Learn more about the exhibition at sjmusart.org/exposures.

"Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures" is organized by UCR ARTS and is curated by Joanna Szupinska, senior curator at the California Museum of Photography. The presentation of this exhibition at SJMA is organized by Juan Omar Rodriguez, assistant curator.

Image: Christina Fernandez, "Lavanderia #1," 2002. Archival pigment print, 30 x 40 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Luisotti, Los Angeles.

Happy Mother's Day from SJMA! 💐 : In Christine Sun Kim's "One Week of Lullabies for Roux" (2018), the Deaf artist invite...
05/12/2024

Happy Mother's Day from SJMA! 💐

: In Christine Sun Kim's "One Week of Lullabies for Roux" (2018), the Deaf artist invited seven trusted friends to create sound files, or "sound diets," intended to soothe her baby daughter. The lullabies were based on a conceptual score she developed, which instructed that the songs do not contain lyrics or speech and that an emphasis be placed on lower frequencies.

Image: Christine Sun Kim, "One Week of Lullabies for Roux," 2018. Sound. Seven tracks, various runtimes. Collection of San José Museum of Art. Museum purchase with funds contributed by the Council of 100, 2023.01. Installation view, "Christine Sun Kim: Off the Charts, MIT List Visual Arts Center," 2020. © 2018 Christine Sun Kim. Photo by Peter Harris Studio.

"The two women—great-grandmother and great-granddaughter, the artist and her subject—share a journey back into their Mex...
05/10/2024

"The two women—great-grandmother and great-granddaughter, the artist and her subject—share a journey back into their Mexican pasts, seeking reconciliation."— Chon A. Noriega

In Christina Fernandez's "María’s Great Expedition" (1995–96), the artist re-stages key moments in the life of the artist’s maternal great-grandmother, María Gonzales. In this installation Fernandez poses as her ancestor, creating compositions that recall the history of photography: from Hollywood glamour, to American Depression-era documentary, to the color snapshot.

Visitors can see "María’s Great Expedition" (1995–96) in the upcoming exhibition Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures, which opens at SJMA on Friday, June 7. This extensive survey of Fernandez’s work invites audiences to reconsider history, borders, and the lives that cross and inhabit both.

Image: Christina Fernandez, "1910, Leaving Morelia, Michoacán," from “María’s Great Expedition,” 1995–96. Archival pigment print, 20 x 16 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Luisotti, Los Angeles.

SJMA highlights "Hidden Heritages: San José’s Vietnamese Legacy" for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! On view now ...
05/10/2024

SJMA highlights "Hidden Heritages: San José’s Vietnamese Legacy" for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! On view now in the San José City Hall Tower Lobby, Monday through Friday, 8am–5pm.

Rooted in stories of place, family, journey, identity and—ultimately—home, the exhibition "Hidden Heritages: San José’s Vietnamese Legacy" focuses on individual voices and personal narratives. The latest installment in the ongoing “Hidden Heritages” series, it tells the story of a community, collective resilience, and the legacy they will leave to future generations who call this city home.

Presented as part of City Hall Exhibits, a program of the Public Art Program in the San José Office of Cultural Affairs that was established to provide the temporary display of artwork and artifacts in San José City Hall. The purpose of City Hall Exhibits is to enliven public space in City Hall and to celebrate San José’s history and culture, as well as its creative and diverse community, and to engage the public.

Hidden Heritages: San José’s Vietnamese Legacy is a multi-year partnership among the San José Museum of Art, , and that brings Vietnamese artists and community members together to share, amplify, and artistically present stories that reveal the contributions of Vietnamese Americans to San José, one of California’s most diverse cities. The project consisted of a series of creative learning workshops, an exhibition, and an original performance, demonstrating the power of art to build community and deepen cross-cultural understanding.

Meet your winners.🏅Congratulations to the first and second-place winners of this year's Dr. Jerry Hiura Next Gen Visual ...
05/09/2024

Meet your winners.🏅

Congratulations to the first and second-place winners of this year's Dr. Jerry Hiura Next Gen Visual Artist Award! This year, over 130 high school students in Santa Clara County submitted their original works in response to this year's theme "Embracing identity." Swipe to see the top three winning works and check the link in our bio to see all of the submissions:

1. Jessica Kwandou, "Self-Reflection." (First place winner)

2. Krish Sangani, "Mirror." (Second place winner)

3. Linda Wang, "Interwoven Selves." (Second place winner)

SJMA thanks this year's jurors Vanessa Hatakeyama, acting museum director of the Japanese American Museum of San Jose (JAMsj) and board of director for the Japantown Community Congress of San Jose (JCCsj); Lotte Van De Walle, painter, illustrator, and Let's Look at Art docent; and Cynthia Cao, visual artist, exhibition designer for Chopsticks Alley Art, and art program coordinator for the San José Office of Cultural Affairs.

The Dr. Jerry Hiura Next Gen Visual Artist Award honors Dr. Jerry’s passions through a scholarship that celebrates young visionary artists and supports their artistic practice and goals as they pursue higher education.

05/05/2024

Come see our newest exhibition Flora and Fauna. We are open Saturdays and Sundays from 12-4pm.

Opens June 7 at SJMA, "Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures" presents the work of Christina Fernandez, whose photogra...
05/04/2024

Opens June 7 at SJMA, "Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures" presents the work of Christina Fernandez, whose photographs and installations explore migration, labor, gender, and her Mexican American identity. Bringing together the artist’s most important bodies of work for the first time, this landmark exhibition invites us to reconsider history, borders, and the lives that cross and inhabit both.

"Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures" is organized by UCR ARTS and is curated by Joanna Szupinska, Senior Curator at the California Museum of Photography. Chon Noriega, Distinguished Professor of Film, Television, and Digital Media at UCLA, is curatorial advisor. The presentation of this exhibition at the SJMA is organized by Juan Omar Rodriguez, assistant curator.

Christina Fernandez, "Untitled Multiple Exposure #4 (Bravo)," 1999. Gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Luisotti, Los Angeles.

Meet the Francis Experience Quintet. They will be performing the finale of a three-part residency at First Friday: Hip H...
05/01/2024

Meet the Francis Experience Quintet. They will be performing the finale of a three-part residency at First Friday: Hip Hop(e), Jazz & Storytelling—Part 3 (Blue) this Friday, March 3, free for everyone. Doors open at 6:45pm.

Swipe to check out Part 2 (Green) back in April and follow the Francis Experience at .

Part 3 (Blue) features the Francis Experience Quintet
includes Jonathan Borca () and co-founder (drums), and
standout musicians (keys and vocals), (bass), and
(guitar), with special guest .jill (cello) and featured poet .

Thank you everyone who came out to the opening celebration of “Seeing through Stone” at SJMA!The multi-sited exhibition ...
04/30/2024

Thank you everyone who came out to the opening celebration of “Seeing through Stone” at SJMA!

The multi-sited exhibition is now officially open at , , and . On view at all three venues through January 5, 2025.

“Seeing through Stone” brings together artwork by over 80 contemporary artists from around the globe whose work engages with prisons, justice, and freedom, to provide a vision and model of abolition in practice.

Photos by Frederick Liang.

"Seeing through Stone" officially opens tomorrow at SJMA! Friday, April 26, 6–9pm, FREE: You're invited to attend the op...
04/26/2024

"Seeing through Stone" officially opens tomorrow at SJMA!

Friday, April 26, 6–9pm, FREE: You're invited to attend the opening celebration of the exhibition at SJMA! Part of the ongoing Visualizing Abolition series, the multi-sited exhibition brings together artwork by international artists that engages with prisons, justice, and freedom to provide a vision and model of abolition in practice. Galleries are open late. Stop by for a light bite, cash bar, and live music by the Brian Fitzgerald Trio.

6–7pm: Members, join us in the Wendel Education Center for wine and light bites ahead of the opening remarks. Check in at the membership table and pick up your souvenir button.

Address

110 S Market Street
San Jose, CA
95113

Opening Hours

Thursday 4pm - 9pm
Friday 11am - 9pm
Saturday 11am - 6pm
Sunday 11am - 6pm

Telephone

+14082716840

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when San José Museum of Art posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Museum

Send a message to San José Museum of Art:

Videos

Share

Category

History

In 1969—during an era of peace, love, and tie-dye culture—a small group of San Jose citizens gathered together to transform the beautiful old library (threatened with demolition) into a fledgling art gallery. The democratic, grassroots spirit of this community movement has forever shaped the character of the San Jose Museum of Art, which remains dedicated to inclusivity, new thinking, and visionary ideals. In contrast to older museums often founded upon the riches of a few patrons, the soul of the SJMA reflects the hard work and civic pride of multitudes of supporters and volunteers over the years—of its public.

From the days of flower power to the dawn of the digital world, SJMA has continued to evolve with the times. In 1991, a handsome new wing was added to the landmark 19th-century building, making way for a growing permanent art collection, impressive international exhibitions, and an ambitious mission that bridges tradition and innovation. SJMA offers experiences that delight and engage visitors of all ages and backgrounds. Here, art nurtures life: it is a vision that connects minds and hearts.


Other Art Museums in San Jose

Show All

You may also like