941 Geary is pleased to present The City We Love, a large-scale group exhibition of works from artists living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. The show is co-curated by Justin Giarla and local graffiti practitioner APEX, and features new work from artists actively engaged in San Francisco’s graffiti and street art culture. The opening reception is on Saturday, August 13, 2011 from 6-9 pm, and the exhibition is free and open to the public for viewing through September 3.

Justin and APEX came together to organize this exhibition, with the shared motivation of wanting to show what’s going on right here, right now. The resulting exhibition is a modest sampling of what’s happening in the streets and studios of San Francisco, including work by locals APEX, Casey Gray, Chad Hasegawa, Chor Boogie, David Ball, D Young V, EZRA, Hugh Leeman, John Felix Arnold, Luke Todd, NEON, Siloette, Teen Witch and Vogue.  With backgrounds as diverse as their respective artistic styles, the collection of works featured by this group of artists are as entrenched in conversation with each other in the gallery space as they are in the streets. 941 Geary’s expansive space serves as an ideal backdrop to the work: bold, graphic, daring, surprising and as unique as the city itself.

From the curators:

“I just felt that it was time to focus on doing a show with just San Francisco artists, there’s a stronger community in San Francisco than people realize. The artists that we work with are here because they love it, they could easily make it in Los Angeles or New York, but they (just like us) choose to be here.” – Justin Giarla

“There are always lots of (San Francisco-based) artists that get picked up and taken out of the city, you know, to play on the international street art scene. But this is the place they call home, and just from a street art perspective – we’re getting some locals together to see just what’s happening here in our streets, right now. It just seemed like something we need to do.”  -APEX