Hearts in San Francisco is an annual public art installation started in 2004 by the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation for the purpose of fundraising. The project is inspired by the international CowParade exhibit, in which cow sculptures are painted by various artists and installed in various cities throughout the world. The choice of hearts is inspired by the Tony Bennett song "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." [1]
Each year, uniform heart sculptures are painted by different artists and installed at locations throughout San Francisco, including Union Square. The heart sculptures are auctioned off at the end of each year's installation with the proceeds going to the foundation. Many of the previous years' sculptures are exhibited in various locations, including San Francisco City Hall, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco International Airport, AT&T Park (inside the Public House pub), Pier 39, the Lyon Street Steps, Moscone Center, and the Cartoon Art Museum. [2] As of 2024 [update] , over $38 million has been raised for the foundation. [3]
Notable contributing artists have included Mark Adams, Don Asmussen, Tony Bennett, Squeak Carnwath, Alan Chin, Roy De Forest, Linda Fleming, Phil Frank, Tim Gaskin, Mildred Howard, Norman Korpi, Jon Langford, Hung Liu, Kara Maria, Silvia Poloto, Stan Dann, Precita Eyes Muralists, Rex Ray, Rigo 23, Bill Russell, [4] Monika Steiner, Laurel True, and Eric Zener.
Chico MacMurtrie was born in New Mexico in 1961. MacMurtrie received his M.F.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and is internationally recognized as a media artist exploring the intersection of robotic sculpture, installation, and performance. In 1991 MacMurtrie formed Amorphic Robot Works, a group of artists and engineers working together to create robotic art performances and installations. Throughout the 1990s, Chico MacMurtrie / Amorphic Robot Works created a body of work composed of hundreds of kinetic, at times percussive or musical metal sculptures which have been exhibited in different configurations mostly throughout Europe, Asia, and Latin America. In 2004, MacMurtrie operated a material shift from working with metal to creating his sculptures out of high tensile fabric. The inflatable sculptures or Inflatable Architectural Bodies are concerned with organic form and the expression of transient qualities of human or animal movement embodied through abstract robotic form.
Robert Walter Irwin was an American installation artist who explored perception and the conditional in art, often through site-specific, architectural interventions that alter the physical, sensory and temporal experience of space.
Félix González-Torres or Felix Gonzalez-Torres was a Cuban-born American visual artist. He lived and worked primarily in New York City between 1979 and 1995 after attending university in Puerto Rico. González-Torres’s practice incorporates a minimalist visual vocabulary and certain artworks that are composed of everyday materials such as strings of light bulbs, paired wall clocks, stacks of paper, and individually wrapped candies. González-Torres is known for having made significant contributions to the field of conceptual art in the 1980s and 1990s. His practice continues to influence and be influenced by present-day cultural discourses. González-Torres died in Miami in 1996 from AIDS-related illness.
Alice Aycock is an American sculptor and installation artist. She was an early artist in the land art movement in the 1970s, and has created many large-scale metal sculptures around the world. Aycock's drawings and sculptures of architectural and mechanical fantasies combine logic, imagination, magical thinking and science.
Joan Brown was an American figurative painter who lived and worked in Northern California. She was a member of the "second generation" of the Bay Area Figurative Movement.
Janet Echelman is an American sculptor and fiber artist. Her sculptures have been displayed as public art, often as site-specific installations.
Zhao, Suikang (赵穗康) is a Chinese-American artist who works on different media and genres including painting, sculpture, site-specific installation, interdisciplinary art and monumental public art projects.
The Cass Sculpture Foundation was a charitable commissioning body based in Goodwood, Sussex, England. The Foundation's 26-acre grounds were home to an ever-changing display of 80 monumental sculptures, all of which were available for sale with the proceeds going directly to artists. The Foundation was a self-sufficient body reliant on sales of commissioned sculpture and visitor entrance fees.
Felipe Dulzaides is a Cuban-born American contemporary artist. His practice includes installation, photography, video, drawing, sculpture and performance. Two important cities of reference of his works are San Francisco, California and Havana, Cuba.
Jim Campbell is a contemporary San Francisco based artist who is known for his LED light works. Campbell began his artistic career in film making but switched to electronic sculpture in 1990 and started making his iconic LED matrix works in 2000. His current work combines film, sound, and LED light installations.
Inspiration is a public artwork by American artist Ethan Kerber, located at a commercial building at the intersection of 5th St NW & K St NW in the Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States. Inspiration was created through DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
John Wehrle is an American artist currently living in Richmond, California. Wehrle is best known as a muralist and site-specific installation artist, predominantly active in California. Proficient in painting, sculpture and photography, his work is in public and private collections. Several of his exterior mural works, Fall of Icarus, Positively Fourth Street, and Galileo Jupiter Apollo achieved underground iconic status during their existence. Wehrle's interior murals and surviving installations have been internationally collected.
Tau, by American sculptor Tony Smith, was designed in the early 1960s. It is 14’ high x 12’ wide x 12’ deep, and made from black painted steel. Its title refers to the Greek letter Τ (tau), which also describes the shape of the sculpture. Fascinated by mathematics, biology and crystals, Smith designed Tau with geometry at its root. There are two extant versions of the large sculpture: Tau (AP), and Tau (1/3).
Ten Thousand Ripples (TTR) is a collaborative public art, civic engagement and peace project. It uses art as a catalyst to foster dialogue about peace and non-violence, and create innovative solutions to address contemporary social issues. Through TTR, artists, neighborhood leaders, and residents are at the heart of community-driven planning and public involvement efforts. At the center of TTR are 100 fiberglass and resin Buddha sculptures, each weighed down with a few hundred pounds of concrete, designed by Indira Johnson and installed in sites in 10 Chicago area neighborhoods.
The Qatar Museums (QM) Public Art Department is responsible for overseeing the installation of artwork by renowned artists in the public realm in Qatar, creating an artist residency program for young local artists to help them develop their skills and horizons, organizing exhibitions featuring international artists and developing an online community of creative talent in Qatar and beyond. The QM has an ambitious plan that aims to make Qatar a world class cultural destination, notably in modern and contemporary art.
Sopheap Pich is a Cambodian American contemporary artist. His sculptures utilize traditional Cambodian materials, which reflect the history of the nation and the artist's relation to his identity.
Mark Nelson is an artist whose work is exhibited internationally. Nelson's style has been described as "socially critical, prolific, and satirically expressive."
Sinem Banna is a Turkish-American artist currently living and working in both San Francisco, California, and her home town of Istanbul, Turkey and exhibits internationally.
Sirron Norris is an American illustrator, muralist, and arts educator. He is known for his work on the FOX animated television show Bob's Burgers and for numerous cartoon-style public murals, including ones at Balmy Alley, Clarion Alley, and Mission Dolores Park, and galleries around San Francisco. His murals often include political messages, local themes, and his signature blue bear. He has worked with several local non-profits, including SPUR and El Tecolote.
Wandering Rocks is a 1967 steel sculpture by Tony Smith, made in an edition of five plus one artist's proof. The Minimalist work comprises five different polyhedral elements painted black.