Art on Market Street Program

WALKING TOUR: APRIL 15, at 1 PM
with artist Abner Nolan and San Francisco historian Eileen Keremitsis, who leads local walking tours through the San Francisco City Guides Program.

Before and After the Earthquake: A poster exhibition by Abner Nolan

“Before and After the Earthquake,” by Abner Nolan

Exhibition Dates: February 13 to May 11, 2006

Poster Locations: Pedestrian side of 24 triangular kiosks on Market Street between Van Ness and the Embarcadero.

Artist Abner Nolan has collaged historic photographs taken shortly after the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco with San Francisco newspaper headlines taken a few days prior to the earthquake. The posters, which will be installed on the pedestrian side of 24 kiosks on Market Street from February 13 to May 11, 2006, are part of San Francisco Rising: 1906 Earthquake and Fire Commemoration.

In these posters, Abner Nolan alludes to the disconnection of daily life from the impact of unexpected catastrophic events, both natural and otherwise, on individual lives. The headlines in the posters chronicle the more mundane occurrences of San Francisco citizens as they engaged in their daily routines in April of 1906, unaware of the impending disaster.

All earthquake photographs included in the posters are courtesy of the California Historical Society.

Abner Nolan was a resident at the McDowell Colony in New Hampshire in 2002, and the recipient of a Trillium Fund Award from Trillium Press in 2003. He received his MFA from the California College of the Arts in Oakland, CA in 1998.  Working most recently with found photographs, he has been included in exhibitions at the Nelson Gallery at UC Davis, the Daniel Azouley Gallery in Miami, FL, and was in Bay Area Now 3 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco in 2002.

The poster series is the first exhibition in the Art on Market Street 2006 Kiosk Poster Series. The three subsequent Art on Market Street Poster Series are:

May 15 to August 10: Virginia Hopkins and Victoria Carlson, Endangered Seeds
August 14 to November 10: Mark Brest van Kempen, An Ecological Study of Market Street
November 13, 2006, to February 8, 2007: Jennifer Durrant, Personal Landmarks on Market Street

The San Francisco Arts Commission’s Art on Market Street Program brings contemporary artwork by Bay Area artists year round to workers, shoppers and visitors on Market Street.

The Art on Market Street Program is funded in part by the
Municipal Transportation Agency and CBS Outdoor.