Challenges continue for Bay Area artists—institutional barriers and an unchecked cost of living, among other things, continue to take their toll. At times, the pressures of being an artist here seem commensurate with the pressures underlying the very topography of this place, its 30-some-odd fault lines thrumming beneath unceded Ohlone land, the explosive boom and bust cycles of its economy, wave after wave of countercultural history churning at its ragged edges.
So it’s cause for jubilation when new artistic formations peak through the all the psychosocial tectonics. The 465 Collective, a coalition of Bay Area artists based around cooperatively run space 465 South Van Ness, has begun hosting a wide variety of happenings, many free to the public. Upcoming open house event on Sat/14, 2pm-6pm, celebrates their revitalization of the legacy San Francisco arts space near the corner of 16th Street, two blocks from the BART station.
Collective members Madison Young, Beth Stephens, Maria Judice, Scott Sessions, Ginger Yifan Chen,
and Jason Wyman aim to introduce the building as a co-working space in 2025. While most of the 465 members work in film, photo, and multimedia, the collective intention hopes the space will germinate community organizing, skill-sharing, and informal conversations about change-making that reverberate throughout the city and beyond.
465 has released an open call for art to immigrant/queer artists, soliciting pre-existing artworks suitable for printing on 8.5″ x 11″ paper, which will be displayed in an exhibit called “Nothing New” to be held at the space in February. A catalogue will be developed and made digitally available to all participating artists, and uploaded to the Internet Archive for preservation, with all artists’ names being indexed as keywords so that future generations can access the works. The deadline for submissions is December 31, and submissions can be sent via this Google Form, which requires a Google account.
Check out some of the key members’ profiles below:
Madison Young
An artist, author, filmmaker, and sexual revolutionary, Young is the founder and artistic director of Alchemy Film Foundation. They formerly founded the landmark Femina Potens art gallery and performance space in 2000, dedicated to showcasing work by women and trans artists, which operated from 2002 to 2007 in the same space the collective now calls their home base. For more than two decades, Young has collaborated across multiple mediums and platforms, including several critically acclaimed books, off-Broadway show “Reveal All Fear Nothing,” and documentary television series “Submission Possible.” They’ve directed and produced a feature film adaptation of their memoir entitled By the Roots, starring Emily Robinson (“Transparent,” “The Year Between”) with performances by Margaret Cho and Ally Sheedy.
Beth Stephens
An artist and educator working as a professor in the Art Department at University of California, Santa Cruz, Stephens is a co-founder of Earthlab in collaboration with her wife, Annie Sprinkle. Earthlab works to expand prevailing notions of environmental art, sustainability, gender, sexuality, and race through collaborative, multidisciplinary art projects that envision the Earth and all living beings as worthy of care and beauty. Together Stephens and Sprinkle are also responsible for the feminist art movement known as Ecosexuality. This philosophy espouses ideals of sensual connection with the Earth-body via seeking pleasure within our own bodies and our relations with the environment and each other. Stephens has shown work at Documenta 14 and the Guggenheim.
Maria Judice
A cultural organizer and visual storyteller, born and raised in the Mission and operating in cinema, Judice’s work focuses on storytelling through a radical lens, aimed at fostering both hyperlocal and international engagement by hosting screenings and educational programming in San Francisco and via virtual platforms open to global participants as part of BlackMaria Microcinema. Judice, who holds an MFA from CalArts, produced groundbreaking film Neptune Frost, directed by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman, and Palm Trees Down 3rd St, which won the Adrienne Shelly Award and was hailed as “a masterpiece” by Film Threat.
Scott Sessions
During the COVID lockdowns of 2020, Sessions founded Queer Bedtime Stories as a digital space for queer creatives to connect. It has since evolved into a bi-monthly series of open events inviting 2SLGBTQIA+ creatives to present their works, including poetry, shortform writing, music, and performance art in a relaxed atmosphere reminiscent of slumber parties. Events take place on the first Thursday of every month at Queer A.F., 575 Castro Street, and third Thursdays at The Dreamery in Oakland, 2517 San Pablo Avenue. Their next events take place December 19 in Oakland, and January 9th in the Castro. Details can be found in their Linktree.
Ginger Yifan Chen
Chen is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, director, and filmmaker whose work prioritizes a focus on eco-centric science fiction, mythology, complex immigrant narratives, nonbinary-ness, and liminal spaces. They are also involved with Adobe Books & Art Cooperative on 3130 24th Street in San Francisco, a largely volunteer-run space which sells used books and operates as a community venue for residents of the Mission. They also host the Bay Area Filmmaker Meetup.
Jason Wyman
Also known as Queerly Complex, Jason practices the art of relating to one’s self, each other, and the cosmos. They plan to host supportive community events aimed at providing artists with practical skills, such as Queer Artist Survival Salons with Beth Stephens, forthcoming in early 2025. Wyman is also involved in the Culture Tending Commons, an online portal to conversation and community dedicated to co-creating antidotes to white supremacy culture, co-founded by Wendy Martinez-Morroquin and Vanessa Rodriguez Minero (AllThrive Education), and Crystal Mason (who, along with Wyman, is one half of Tree of Change). Wyman/QC will continue producing art, installations, gatherings, co-working sessions, and online resources throughout 2025. Sign up for their newsletter at www.queerlycomplex.com.
