The Mission School (sometimes called "New Folk" or "Urban Rustic") is an art movement of the 1990s and 2000s, centered in the Mission District, San Francisco, California.

History and characteristics

This movement is generally considered to have emerged in the early 1990s around a core group of artists who attended (or were associated with)

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

. The term "Mission School", however, was not coined until 2002, in a ''

San Francisco Bay Guardian The ''San Francisco Bay Guardian'' was a free alternative newspaper published weekly in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1966 by Bruce B. Brugmann and his wife, Jean Dibble. The paper was shut down on October 14, 2014. It was relaun ...

'' article by Glen Helfand.Helfand, Glen
"The Mission school"
''

'', October 28, 2002. The Mission School is closely aligned with the larger lowbrow art movement, and can be considered to be a regional expression of that movement. Artists of the Mission School take their inspiration from the urban,

bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Beer * National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst * Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...

, "street" culture of the Mission District and are strongly influenced by mural and graffiti art,

comic a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

and

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

art, and folk art forms such as

sign painting Sign painting is the craft of painting lettered signs on buildings, billboards or signboards, for promoting, announcing, or identifying products, services and events. Sign painting artisans are signwriters. History Signwriters often learned th ...

and hobo art.Modigliani, Leah
"Marketing the Mission: Commodifying San Francisco’s Art, the 'Mission School', and the Problem of Regionalism"
''Stretcher.org'', September 17, 2004. These artists are also noted for use of non-traditional artistic materials, such as house paint, spray paint,

correction fluid A correction fluid is an opaque, usually white fluid applied to paper to mask errors in text. Once dried, it can be handwritten or typed upon. It is typically packaged in small bottles, lids attached to brushes (or triangular pieces of foam) th ...

ballpoint pens A ballpoint pen, also known as a biro (British English), ball pen (Hong Kong, Indian and Philippine English), or dot pen ( Nepali) is a pen that dispenses ink (usually in paste form) over a metal ball at its point, i.e. over a "ball point". ...

, scrapboard, and found objects."The New 'Mission School'"
(panel), '' Commonwealth Club of California'', June 4, 2003. (link to RealAudio file) Gallery work by these artists is often displayed using the "cluster method", in which a number of individual works (sometimes by different artists) are clustered closely together on a gallery wall, rather than the traditional gallery display method of widely separating individual works.

Street art Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art. Street art has evolved from the early forms of defiant graff ...

has always been an important part of the Mission School aesthetic. Several Mission School artists crossed over into San Francisco's burgeoning graffiti art scene of the 1990s, notably Barry McGee (who wrote under the name "Twist"), Ruby Neri (a.k.a. " Reminisce"), Dan "Plasma" Rauch, and Margaret Kilgallen (a.k.a. "Meta").

Artists

Artists considered to be part of the Mission School (past or present) have included:Reader responses to "Marketing the Mission"
Dan Plasma ''Stretcher.org'', January 17, 2005. * Barry McGee * Margaret Kilgallen * Chris Johanson * Alicia McCarthy * Ruby Neri * Rigo 23 *

Clare Rojas Clare E. Rojas (born 1976), also known by stage name Peggy Honeywell, is an American multidisciplinary artist. She is part of the Mission School. Rojas is "known for creating powerful folk-art-inspired tableaus that tackle traditional gender role ...

Thomas Campbell Thomas Campbell may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Thomas Campbell (poet) (1777–1844), Scottish poet * Thomas Campbell (sculptor) (1790–1858), Scottish sculptor * Thomas Campbell (visual artist) (born 1969), California-based visual artist ...

* Scott Williams * Bill Daniel The profiles of these artists were raised by the inclusion of the work of Barry McGee in the 2001 Venice Biennale and the works of Chris Johanson and Margaret Kilgallen in the 2002 Whitney Biennial.

New Mission School

In 2003, not long after the term "Mission School" was coined, a panel at the Commonwealth Club of California named several emerging San Francisco artists as constituting a "New Mission School". These artists included Andrew Schoultz, Dave Warnke,

Sirron Norris 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 ...

, Neonski, Ricardo, Damon Soule, Misk, and NoMe, though many of these artists do not embrace the "Mission School" label.

Criticism

The term ''Mission School'' has been criticized for being too geographically specific (many artists outside of San Francisco share this aesthetic, while others living in the Mission District do not), while at the same time being a vague catch-all, with many artists who are referred to as ''Mission School'' having a hard time seeing how they are part of this "school".Noble, Aaron. "The So Called Mission School" in ''Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo'', Jacoby, Annice, ed. NY: Abrams, 2009.

Galleries and other venues

Galleries, museums, and sites closely associated with the Mission School include: *

Adobe Books Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of ea ...

* Southern Exposure Gallery *

New Langton Arts New Langton Arts (active 1975 – 2009) was a not-for-profit arts organization focusing on contemporary art founded in 1975 and located the South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco, California. Part of the first wave of alternative art spaces ...

* Yerba Buena Center for the Arts * Deitch Projects *

Luggage Store Gallery The Luggage Store Gallery, also known as 509 Cultural Center, is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary arts organization founded in 1987, and has two venues located in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The organization has spon ...

Jack Hanley Gallery Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, ...

References

External links

"ENERGY THAT IS ALL AROUND" exhibition

* Jackson, Stephanie Lee
"Stories – Opinions"
2001-2005. Includes biographical and anecdotal sketches of Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, and Alicia McCarthy
"Spray Can Writers Erupt"
by Timothy W Drescher, ''Shaping San Francisco Digital Library''. * Bonetti, David
"The young at art"
''

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...

'', June 18, 1997. * Smith, Roberta
"Art in Review: 'Widely Unknown'"
'' The New York Times'', December 14, 2001. * Drescher, Timothy W
"Clarion Alley and Post-modernism"
''Shaping San Francisco Digital Library''. * Rapoport, Lynn

''San Francisco Bay Guardian'', October 23, 2002. * Pollack, Barbara
"The New Visionaries"
'' ARTnews'', December 2003. * Chennault, Sam
"Graffiti to Gallery"
'' SF Weekly'', September 1, 2004.
transit gallery
- gallery of Mission street art
Fecal Face Dot Com
– Bay Area arts website focusing on the current generation of Mission School artists {{Authority control Contemporary art movements Culture of San Francisco Artists from California Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area American muralists Mission District, San Francisco Graffiti in the United States