Editor’s Pick

“History is reexamined within the brick walls of Fort Point, the Civil War-era fortress tucked beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. Seventeen artists and collectives reckon with California’s buried Black histories, transforming the site into a portal, linking 19th-century figures like Mary Ellen Pleasant and Charles Young to contemporary art grappling with resistance, memory, and myth-making. With over twenty five new commissions by Akea Brionne, Demetri Broxton, Adrian L. Burrell, and many others, Black Gold reclaims the past as a space of creative power and invites the viewers to join the discourse.”

-Inga Bard

About the Exhibition

Featuring the work of 17 contemporary artists and collectives and including many new commissions, Black Gold: Stories Untold illuminates the experiences of African Americans who lived in California from the Gold Rush to the Reconstruction period following the Civil War (c. 1848–1877), highlighting the transformative impact of Black communities on the state’s cultural, social, and political environs. Black Gold was inspired in part by Gold Chains: The Hidden History of Slavery in California, a public education campaign produced by the ACLU of Northern California, one of FOR-SITE’s community partners. The exhibition is presented in partnership with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. An expansive, full-color catalogue from Radius Books accompanies the exhibition.