Artist George McCalman is preparing to launch his interactive exhibition “A March Through Time” on November 22 at Pier 29 in San Francisco. The exhibition is housed within a curtained-off section of the 122,000-square-foot pier, which McCalman describes as a timeworn space that reflects his belief that the past and present are intertwined. He has worked for nine years from a studio in an Outer Sunset home, a stripped-down, weathered building owned by architect Douglas Jacuzzi and ceramicist Georgia Hodges, which embodies a philosophy of material purity and reverence for process. The studio itself is filled with projects in various stages, including the 155 portraits of Black pioneers that make up his book “Illustrated Black History.”
This article matters because it highlights how an artist uses historic, battered spaces as creative incubators, connecting the physical wear of a building to the layered narratives of history and identity. McCalman’s work at Pier 29 and his studio underscores a growing trend in the art world of site-specific, interactive exhibitions that engage with urban decay and memory. It also spotlights McCalman’s broader influence as a designer and author, with his firm McCalman.Co working on major museum exhibitions, including shows at the Museum of the African Diaspora and the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, positioning him as a significant figure in contemporary visual culture.