The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) has announced its upcoming season of exhibitions and programs for 2026. The program includes artists exploring politics, social transformation, and personal histories. Included are a newly commissioned work by Dread Scott, a comprehensive exhibition by Bay Area architecture studio Rael San Fratello, the first major U.S. institutional exhibition for surrealist painter GaHee Park, and a one-woman show by celebrated poet Denice Frohman.
Denice Frohman: Esto No Tiene Nombre
Esto No Tiene Nombre, (This Is Outrageous), a one-woman show by poet Denice Frohman, will premiere from July 11–19. Frohman is a former Woman of the World Poetry Slam champion and has performed on stages as diverse as the Apollo and the White House. Based on interviews gathered for I See My Light Shining: Oral Histories of Our Elders, Frohman’s tender, humorous oral histories of Latina lesbian elders bring the past to life, placing herself and the audience inside their stories. Esto No Tiene Nombre features during the final months of Conjuring Power: Roots and Futures of Queer and Trans Movements.
Gahee Park: ‘Behind the Curtain’
Opening Aug. 7, Gahee Park: Behind the Curtain opens on Aug. 7 and presents paintings that explore sexuality, morality, fantasy, identity and alienation. Woman with Shadow and Ants (2024) is a nod to early 20th-century paintings and the artist’s Surrealist roots. A resting figure is rendered in flattened color, half of her expressionless face revealing itself through an elongated hand with dark, sharp nails. Ambiguous and unsettling, her works invert the interior world to the exterior. Accompanying the exhibit will be a film series of classic, contemporary, and international films that explore voyeurism, surreality, and the politics of desire.
Two major exhibitions: Rael San Fratello and Dread Scott
On Sept. 29, YBCA will open two major exhibitions curated by Rene Morales. Rael San Fratello: Prototypes and Provocations delves into the work of the design studio founded by Virginia San Fratello and Ronald Rael. Their design studio operates at the intersection of poetics and utility, architecture and social practice. Design is approached without standard assumptions, and results in a more vibrant, interactive approach to functional creativity. The exhibition presents more than two decades of production evolving from their early experiments in wearable housing to a series of projects centered on the U.S.–Mexico border. Sanctuary (2026), a centerpiece of the exhibition, is a large-scale commissioned structure made of adobe bricks and solar rods. The state-of-the-art combines with the traditional to propose ecologically sound building techniques and a meditative space for visitors.
Dread Scott: The Body Politic shines a light on the conflicts between American patriotism, political issues and the role of radicalism to transform power imbalances. Dread Scott, born Scott W. Tyler in 1965, adopted his professional name as a nod to Dred Scott, the enslaved African American made famous by the landmark 1857 U.S. Supreme Court case Dred Scott v. Sandford. Scott’s new commissions include a monumental work made up of dozens of ethereal body prints and a durational performance piece in which a uniformed guard protects a U.S. flag. Fight the Power (2023) is an example of inked body prints — a collection of arms, unified by raised fists, (the universal symbol of the Black Power movement), representing solidarity and resistance against systemic oppression. Scott shows us that art and radical social transformation are inseparable. As a companion to the exhibition, a related series of films will be presented by the author, programmer, and Criterion Collection Curatorial Director Ashley Clark. Drawing from Clark’s new book, The World of Black Film: A Journey Through Cinematic Blackness in 100 Films, the series includes films from the ’60s through the ’80s, representing a diverse period in global Black cinema.
YBCA’s exhibitions, performances, and programs in the second half of 2026 are closely tied to the times we live in. “Each of the artists in our summer and fall seasons are driven by relentless creative inquiry into the moment in which we live,” said Mari Robles, CEO of YBCA. “From compelling climate solutions, to urgent reflections on our political environment, to stunning meditations on what makes us human, each offers a unique lens on our contemporary landscape.”
Tickets for Esto No Tiene Nombre at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts are currently on sale here.
