Mural artist Ricardo Richey collaborated with Intersection for the Arts and other artists to create “First Element,” a multi tiered project exploring the rich history of street art in San Francisco’s Mission District. The partners brought together mural, street, political, hip hop, theater, and graffiti artists to explore the neighborhood’s legacy of Mexican mural painting, surrealism, pop, and conceptualism combined with hip hop, performance, underground comics, spray can arts, stencils, and graffiti. The project’s culmination included multiple public performances at the deYoung Museum and other sites; a bus tour of the Mission and Tenderloin; community collaborations; a gallery exhibition of paintings, sculptures, and a video at Intersection; and an array of interdisciplinary events and workshops.
Richey and Intersection sought “to create an interdisciplinary translation of a movement that simultaneously celebrates historic legacy and challenges the status quo.” Community outreach was key to realizing this goal.
Ricardo Richey, also known as Apex, is a renowned street art innovator who has explored abstract letter-forms for more than a decade. He has curated the ongoing graffiti mural projects on Bluxome Alley and completed a number of street art public pieces, including a half-block-long mural on Market/Turk/Mason Streets in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District.
Established in 1965, Intersection for the Arts has a long history of presenting new and experimental work in the fields of literature, theater, music, dance, and the visual arts. Intersection is known for its commitment to emphasizing the process of art-making and creating time and space for artists and audience members to come together to imagine new cultural experiments that illuminate and transform.