About Us
Press Releases
POSTERS EXPLORING MARKET STREET URBAN ECOLOGY
POSTER SERIES: An Ecological Study of Market Street, a poster series by artist Mark Brest van Kempen
POSTER LOCATIONS: The posters are installed in the pedestrian side of 24 triangular kiosks on Market Street between Van Ness and the Embarcadero.
POSTER INSTALLATION DATES: Monday, August 7 to Thursday, November 9, 2006
PUBLIC WALKING TOUR: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2006 AT 1 PM, TO BEGIN AT THE SOUTHEAST CORNER OF MARKET AND THIRD STREETS IN DOWNTOWN SAN FRANCISCO. VISIT THE SIX POSTER DESIGNS ON MARKET STREET WITH THE ARTIST AND FRIENDS TO DISCUSS THE LIFE FORMS THAT CONTINUE TO SURVIVE IN DOWNTOWN SAN FRANCISCO.
The urban ecology of downtown San Francisco supports not only human beings, but continues to be a viable habitat for plants, birds, animals and insects, as well. A Peregrine Falcon uses a building ledge on Mission Street as a cliff on which to hatch its young and hunt pigeons on the street below. Plants manage to grow downtown, not only in landscaped areas but also in cracks in the concrete. Inspired by this easily overlooked reality, artist Mark Brest van Kempen has created posters of six life forms surviving in the downtown Market Street neighborhood, including, with a Peregrine Falcon, a moth, a hornet, moss and stunted grasses, a rat and a cowbird.
Artist Mark Brest van Kempen is a graduate of the San Francisco Arts Institute. He has received a California Arts Council Fellowship, a Creative Work Fund Grant Award from the Haas Foundation, and was an Artist in Residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts. His most recent work, which often focuses on environmental issues, includes a watershed wall at the Youth Science Institute in Los Gatos, CA; as well a multi-phased Ravenna Creek Project in Seattle, WA; and an environmental sign project at six locations in San Francisco.
A project of the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Art on Market Street Program, which brings contemporary artwork by Bay Area artists year-round to San Francisco’s main thoroughfare.
The Art on Market Street Program is funded in part by
the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency and CBS Outdoor.