Market Street Mysteries Solved!

SAN FRANCISCO – For the San Francisco Arts Commission’s latest Art on Market Street Poster Series, Bay Area artist Kate Rhoades illustrates the City’s best-known urban legends in an attempt to capture and preserve the City’s legendary “weirdness”.

“Kate Rhoades is an artist who infuses her artwork with extraordinary humor and wit,” says Director of Cultural Affairs Tom DeCaigny. “Viewers will love her Market Street Mysteries poster series, because it reminds us why we love this City and all of its wonderful wackiness.”

On view on Market Street between the Embarcadero and 8^th Street through July 31, Market Street Mysteries tackles the origin story of the famous flock of parrots, the cow swallowed by the street in the 1906 earthquake and the lost ships of the Gold Rush. Each myth is illustrated in a bold dramatic color palette over two posters, like pages of a comic book. Rhoades met with local San Francisco historian Chris Carlson and plumbed the archives at FoundSF to develop the series.   

“There are elements of fantasy in the work, but these are put into a context where the viewer is shown that not everything they’re seeing is strictly empirical fact,” states Rhoades, “This contrast between the familiar and the nonsensical is what I love about urban legends. This project celebrates local folklore while facilitating critical thinking and fostering an appreciation for what’s still deliciously weird in San Francisco.”

The San Francisco Arts Commission is the City agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy.