Sanctuary City: With Liberty and Justice for Some

The San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries is pleased to announce the first installment of Sanctuary City, a yearlong exhibition and public program series that delves into topics related to San Francisco's immigration policies, immigrant and refugee populations, and the history of our Sanctuary City status.

For this inaugural Sanctuary City presentation, the SFAC Galleries is pleased to partner with Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, to bring their critically acclaimed exhibition With Liberty and Justice for Some. Co-curated by Bay Area artist Monica Lundy, this exhibition features over 125 portraits of immigrants to the United States by 100 artists from Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Conceived in response to the presidential election in November, this show is a statement in response to the current administrations' new executive order that blocks citizens from six Muslim-majority countries (Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen) from getting visas for 90 days, and reinstates a temporary blanket ban refusing admission to all refugees for 120 days.

Curator and artist Monica Lundy and gallerist Walter Maciel invited artists from across the country to make 8 x 8-inch portraits of individuals who came to the United States as immigrants including historic subjects, personal friends, relatives, strangers, and self-portraits. Lundy says, “Several portraits depict individuals that represent multiple politically vulnerable communities, such as African Americans, LGBTQ persons, Mexicans, Muslims, Jews, refugees, and women, thus representing our communities here in the Bay Area being threatened by the Trump administration.”

Notable subjects portrayed in the exhibition include actor Bela Lugosi, entertainer Grace Jones, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, Jamaican political leader Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., Architect I. M. Pei, Province of Pennsylvania founder William Penn, and several established artists such as Hung Liu, David Hockney, Marcel Duchamp, Enrique Chagoya, Wanxin Zhang, and Julie Mehretu.

Participating Artists
Barry Anderson, Evelynn Aponte, Lili Bernard, Libby Black, Garry Brewer, Nyame O. Brown, Brian Caraway, Cece Carpio, Carolyn Castano, Joey Castor, Freddy Chandra, Chenhung Chen, Modesto Covarrubias, Rick Dallago, Bibi Davidson, Leonard De Greco, Yvette Deas, Diane Ding, Colin Doherty, Tim Doud, David Estrada, Diane-Sofia Estrada, Rodney Ewing, Susan Feldman, Chris Finley, Jon Fischer, Erik Flores, Gwen Freeman, Dwora Fried, Dorothy Goode, Joshua Hagler, Diane Andrews Hall, Michael Hall, Adrienne Heloise, Sarah Hirneisen, David Hollier, Phillip Hua, Marlene Iyemura, Cassandra Jones, Kevin Jones, Soad Kader, Amy Kaps, Veda B. Kaya, Dave Kim, Michael Koehle, Melanie Lacy Kusters, Danielle Lawrence, Carrie Lederer, Hung Liu, Sandra Low, Kija Lucas, Monica Lundy, Walter Maciel, Aline Mare, Kara Maria, Michael Massenburg, Randi Matushevitz, Geri Montano, Paul Mullins, Antonio Muniz, Rikki Niehaus, Damien O’Brien, Tim Okamura, Cynthia Ona Innis, Paul Paiement, Maria Pineres, Yulia Pinkusevich, Amy Pleasant, Mel Prest, Linda Price, Calida Rawles, Kate Rhoades, Karrie Ross, Ann Marie Rousseau, Maja Ruznic, Ron Saunders, Sonja Schenk, Nike Schroder, Annie Seaton, Steve Seleska, Christine Shields, Cindy Shih, Sheli Silverio, Jessica Snow, Lisa Solomon, Mike Street, William Swanson, Camilla Taylor, Jessie Thatcher, Lava Thomas, Gina Tuzzi, Linda Vallejo, Lin Wei, Dana Weiser, Rhonda Wheatley, Stephen Whistler, Diane Williams, Sandra Yagi, Andre Yi, Stella Zhang, and Wanxin Zhang.

Artist Statements