Gamelan X and Central Market revelers. Photo by Roxanne Quezada Chartouni

Lined with historic buildings, the Central Market area is home to neighborhood shops, restaurants and other retail, while its residential community and office workers add vitality to the district. A dense and urban neighborhood, Central Market is part of a larger downtown district referred to as South of Market, or SoMa. Concentrated along Market Street, the community includes beloved neighborhood gems, hidden treasures, and new and historical landmarks.

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Central Market is easily accessed by a range of public transportation options, and Market Street itself is arguably the most transit-intensive street on the West Coast. The Central Market community is connected to the rest of the region by two BART stations and to the rest of the city by the MUNI Metro system, both at Civic Center and Powell stations. The Central Market neighborhood is also served by at least 20 bus lines.

Central Market Artists

1155 Market: Trashformation
Madeline Trait is a sculptor and designer who is currently owner of Gilliflower Design, a floral and event design company. She has over eight years professional experience in the architecture and interior design fields and received her Bachelor of Architecture from the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She works with many mediums and genres continually experimenting and thinking of new ways in which to beautify her surroundings.

1127 Market: Central Market Dreamscape
Paz de la Calzada is a native of Madrid, Spain, having moved to the Bay Area after participating in the Djerassi Resident Artist Program in Woodside, CA. She received her BFA at the University of Salamanca, Spain and her MFA was awarded from UNAM, Mexico City. Her work has been exhibited in the United States, Europe, and Mexico.

1112 Market: Displaced/Replaced: A Look at Being Native American in San Francisco
The Indigenous Arts Coalition began as a San Francisco Art Institute student group founded by Nizhoni Ellenwood in 2008. IAC was created in order to foster a voice for those with Indigenous backgrounds living in the Bay Area. A multi-media artist and performer, Ellenwood (Nii Mii Puu/Nez Perce & Apache) was born and raised in the Bay Area and has worked nationally and in Canada. Rye Purvis (Navajo) moved to San Francisco from New Mexico in 2007. Rye currently works as an artist instructor for the Meridian Interns Program. Spencer Keeton Cunningham (Nez Perce) is originally from Portland, Oregon. His artistic practice includes drawing and painting as well as experimental and documentary film. Richard Castaneda (Pima) resides in southern San Francisco and currently teaches photography to Indigenous youth through the Native American Health Center. His work is represented by Togonon Gallery.

1106 Market: The Crystal Bike Blanket
Alexis Arnold recently received her MFA in sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute. Originally from Los Angeles, she has lived and worked in San Francisco for the last four years. Her work has been exhibited at Root Division, The Crucible, Swell Gallery, and the de Young Museum, among others.

1089 Market: Swallowtails & Sycamores
Amber Hasselbring is an ecological artist and budding lepidopterist. In 2007 she founded the Mission Greenbelt project, an ongoing public artwork that builds wildlife gardens in sidewalks spaces in the Mission District, creating small urban habitats for plants and animals. She received her BFA from the Maine College of Art in Portland, ME in 2002. Her work has been exhibited at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, Silverman Gallery, Southern Exposure, and Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois, Chicago. She was also a featured artist of the Angel Island Art & Ecology Festival in 2006.

1066 Market: Dreams on Market
Vanesa Gingold grew up in a small town on the rural Mendocino Coast. She graduated in 2007 from the University of California, Davis with degrees in psychology and art. A recent exhibition of her work at CELLspace Gallery in San Francisco featured abstract and colorful sculptures based on the comfortable nooks and safe places of her childhood. The title of the show, You Can Never Go Back suggested that although you can remember the times and places of your past, you can never fully return to that state of being.

1020 Market: 20,000 Missing Seats
Originally from Argentina, Rafael Landea earned his MFA in painting and set design from the University of La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and he has painted several individual and collective murals around the world, including Brazil, Uruguay, Cuba, and Italy. Landea is currently working on a multi-media project in homage to the comic-strip writer Hector G. Oesterheld, who was killed during the ’76-’82 Argentine dictatorship. The piece was commissioned by the Museum of Art and Memory in Buenos Aires. The artist is also a 2011 recipient of the San Francisco Arts Commission Cultural Equity Individual Artist Grant.

998 Market: Renewed Perspective
San Francisco based artist, Robert D. Harris, formally studied art in San Diego, Australia and Turkey, receiving his BA in Fine Art from San Diego State University in 2006. He returned to the Bay Area to pursue his art career and has exhibited his work at Dada Lounge, Project One Gallery, 111 Minna, among other venues in San Francisco. He recently was appointed a curatorial position at the SFO Museum.

998 Market: Greetings from Central Market
Artist team Vicky Knoop and Beatrice Thomas are collaborating together for the first time on this mural. Thomas received her MFA from the University of Texas, Austin in 2005 and a BA in film and video from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Knoop earned a BA in sculpture and urban studies at San Francisco State University in 2006. She has exhibited her work at Southern Exposure, Garage Door Studio, and Gallerie 25.

55 Taylor: Greetings from Central Market
Cat U-Thasoonthorn is currently pursuing her MFA in painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. She received her BA from St. Mary’s College in Maryland in 2007. Her work has been exhibited in San Francisco at the UCSF Gallery, Root Division, Swell Gallery, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, and Queens Nails Gallery.

55 Taylor: Change Comes From Within
Erik Otto has been working professionally in the arts for almost ten years. His work has been featured nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at White Walls, San Francisco; Charmingwall Gallery, New York; Art Basel, Miami; Katzen Art Center, Washington, DC; and Canteen Gallery, Ottawa, Canada. He received his BFA from San Jose State University in 2005. In 2009, he was invited to be an artist-in-residence at Recology San Francisco.

Other community resources

• Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet: 26 7th Street
• Art Institute of California-San Francisco: 1170 Market Street
• Orpheum Theater: 1192 Market Street
• International Art Museum of America: 1025 Market Street
• Gray Area Foundation for the Arts: 998 Market Street
• the luggage store: 1007 Market Street
• Central City Hospitality House Community Arts Program 1009 Market Street
• Warfield: 998 Market Street
• Blick Art Materials: 979 Market Street