The contemporary art department was established in 2017 to deepen SFMOMA’s commitment to exhibit and collect the art of our time. The program and collection support living artists across all media who explore contemporary issues from local, national, and international perspectives.

The department organizes temporary, traveling, and permanent collection exhibitions, performances, and public programs, including screenings and symposia.

The contemporary collection is dedicated to works by practitioners from around the world that reflect key issues, modalities, and formal concerns of our times. Its holdings include works in installation, video, photography, sculpture, and painting by artists living in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Vietnam, and other countries. Significant acquisitions by artists not previously represented in the collection are featured here, contributing to the complexity of the history of art that SFMOMA will be able to tell today, and in the future.

Header image: New Work: Rodney McMillian, In This Land, 2019 (installation view, SFMOMA); photo: Katherine Du Tiel