Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco presents 'Bay Area Then,' an exhibition running from August 1, 2025, to January 25, 2026, that surveys the Northern California art scene between 1990 and 2005. Guest curated by Eungie Joo, the show features works by nineteen artists or collaborations, including Manuel Ocampo, Margaret Kilgallen, Bill Daniel, Ruby Neri, and Carolyn Castaño, mixing historical pieces with recent productions by artists who emerged during that era.
The exhibition matters because it attempts to reassess a pivotal period when the region's DIY ethos gave way to the dot-com boom, yet the review criticizes it as unfocused and premature, lacking explanatory text and suffering from debatable inclusions and omissions. The show highlights how artists of that generation resisted collective narratives, instead creating art for intimate communities, and it raises questions about how to properly historicize recent artistic movements.