Suzanne Lacy: We Are Here

YBCA and SFMOMA, San Francisco

NOW CLOSED

Inevitable Associations (1976), Suzanne Lacy, performance at the Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, 1976. Photo: Raúl Vega; © Suzanne Lacy

Since her emergence in Los Angeles in the early 1970s, Suzanne Lacy has explored how art can be used as a tool to enact social change – in 1991 she coined the term ‘new genre public art’ to define work taking the form of activism and community engagement as opposed to sculpture. Her first large-scale museum retrospective, which takes place across the Yerba Buener Center for Arts and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, highlights projects on issues from gender inequality to labour rights, including The Oakland Projects (1991–2001) – a series of installations, performances and other interventions aimed at empowering youth in Oakland, California. Find out more from SFMOMA and YBCA’s website.

Preview the exhibition below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here

Anatomy Lesson #4: Swimming (detail; 1977), Suzanne Lacy. Photo: Rob Blalack; © Suzanne Lacy

Three Weeks in May (detail; 1977), Suzanne Lacy Photo: Grant Mumford; © Suzanne Lacy

Cleaning Conditions (2013), Suzanne Lacy, performance at Manchester Art Gallery in 2013. Photo: Alan Seabright; © Suzanne Lacy

Code 33: Emergency, Clear the Air!, 1997–99 from The Oakland Projects (1991–2001), Suzanne Lacy, Julio César Morales, and Unique Holland. Photo: Kelli Yon; © Suzanne Lacy

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