After a long, rainy summer, the Bay Area art scene is beginning to thaw out, with galleries returning from summer vacation and museums kicking off the fall. The country seems to be spiraling ever further towards authoritarian chaos, but a small flame of resistance burns bright in our cultural spaces. This season’s lineup of exhibitions brings together artists and activists across generations, at large institutions and small art spaces alike, offering modes of resistance and community through art. Be it a celebration of local Filipino artists, the newly renovated Museum of the African Diaspora’s exhibition on Blackness and the cosmos, the formal experimentations of Jim Melchert, or Suzanne Jackson’s diaphanous hanging paintings, we are reminded that art itself is a radical act. Mike Henderson: Truth, Love, and CuriosityHaines Gallery, 2 Marina Boulevard, Building C, San Francisco, CaliforniaThrough October 25Mike Henderson, “No Hands on the Clock” (2017), oil on canvas (photo by Shaun Roberts, courtesy the artist and Haines Gallery)Mike Henderson is a force. At 82 years old, the pioneering Bay Area painter’s work remains as fresh and innovative as ever. His solo show at Haines Gallery features 16mm films from the 1970s and ’80s and brand-new paintings, alongside pieces from the ’90s and early 2000s that result from persistent, exploratory revision, earning them the nickname “worry paintings.” On view for the first time, the abstract compositions in Truth, Love, and Curiosity are both explosive and measured, exhibiting Henderson at his most experimental and exacting.Julio César Morales: OJO and My AmericaGallery Wendi Norris, 436 Jackson Street, San Francisco, CaliforniaSeptember 19–November 1Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, 254 Old Davis Road, Davis, CaliforniaThrough November 29Julio César Morales, “Gemelos #7” (2025), watercolor, graphite, and ink on paper (image courtesy the artist and Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco)Returning to his full-time art practice after several years as a curator and museum director in Arizona, Julio César Morales debuts two concurrent exhibitions in the Bay Area: OJO and My America. In both shows, the Mexican-born artist tackles themes of human trafficking and immigration on his own terms. A neon sign heralding “tomorrow is for those who can hear it coming” resonates with intimate watercolors of figures hiding in desperate modes of transportation — perhaps seeking that tomorrow. Auudi Dorsey: What’s Left, Never LeftJonathan Carver Moore, 966 Market Street, San Francisco, CaliforniaOctober 9–December 20Auudi Dorsey, “Soul Cap #2 (2025) (photo by Jeffrey Johnston)Following a six-week residency at the gallery, New Orleans-based painter Auudi Dorsey will open his first solo exhibition at Jonathan Carver Moore. His new body of figurative work imagines scenes from the now-defunct Lincoln Beach amusement park in New Orleans, which was a hub of Black community during Jim Crow-era segregation. Here, Dorsey paints into the absent documentation of this landmark of Black joy and leisure.Jim Melchert: Where the Boundaries Aredi Rosa SF, 1150 25th Street, San Francisco, CaliforniaOctober 18–January 3, 2026Jim Melchert, “2 Seconds” (2007), broken and fired porcelain tile with glaze (image courtesy di Rosa SF)The first major retrospective dedicated to late artist Jim Melchert, this exhibition mines the continuum of conceptual ceramic art in the Bay Area. Accompanied by the work of contemporary artists carrying on his legacy, Melchert’s geometric abstractions tangle with photography and performance. With a brand of experimentation deeply rooted in materiality, Melchert had his head in the clouds and his hands in the mud.MAKIBAKA: A Living LegacyYerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street, San Francisco, CaliforniaThrough January 4, 2026England Hidalgo, “Gran Oriente Filipino” (2020) (photo by Charlie Villyard, courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco)Organized with the SOMA Pilipinas cultural organization, MAKIBAKA celebrates the history and legacy of San Francisco’s Filipino community through works ranging from fine art to protest posters. The show takes its title from the Tagalog word meaning to struggle, resist, and defy and features work by over 20 artists and collectives, including Cherisse Alcantara’s luminous paintings of light and shadow in urban scenes and England Hidalgo’s palimpsestic homages to historic Filipino spaces in the city.Suzanne Jackson: What is LoveSan Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third Street, San Francisco, CaliforniaSeptember 29–March 1, 2026Suzanne Jackson, “deepest ocean, what we do not know, we might see?” (2021) (© Suzanne Jackson; photo by Patrick Jameson, courtesy Ortuzar, New York)What is Love marks the first museum retrospective to explore the many facets of the formidable Suzanne Jackson’s career. From paintings blending figuration and abstraction to touring as a ballet dancer, writing poetry, working on theatrical set design, and owning an art gallery, this exhibition gives us a complete portrait of the artist. Jackson’s gentle landscapes and surreal figures mesh with her signature hanging sculptures, often composed primarily of acrylic paint and gel exploding with playful color and form.Black Spaces: Remain & ReclaimOakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak Street, Oakland, CaliforniaThrough March 1, 2026Adrian Burrell’s presentation in Black Spaces (photo by Kiki King, courtesy the Oakland Museum of California)The Bay Area’s Black community has a long history of facing displacement, from the so-called “urban renewal” project that wiped out the Fillmore District, known in the 1940s and ’50s as the “Harlem of the West,” to the continual redlining and gentrification. The art and ephemera in Black Spaces: Remain and Reclaim examines these stories while revealing modes of resistance and flourishing through three responses by artist Adrian Burrell, architect June Grant with the firm blink!LAB, and the Archive of Urban Futures alongside the advocacy organization Moms 4 Housing. Here, joy is the greatest signifier of home.Ferlinghetti for San FranciscoLegion of Honor, 100 34th Avenue, San Francisco, CaliforniaThrough July 19, 2026Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Edward Sanders (author), “Allen, Allen” (2000), offset lithograph (© 2025 Estate of Lawrence Ferlinghetti / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; photo by Jorge Bachmann, courtesy the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco)This exhibition shines a light on the visual work of the late, legendary poet and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Ferlinghetti’s paintings, drawings, and prints include pictures of Allen Ginsberg and Sigmund Freud, characters drifting in sailboats, and letterpress broadsheets of his own poems. It’s a special chance to see an artist in his less-known, but no less powerful, element.Unbound: Art, Blackness & the UniverseMuseum of the African Diaspora, 685 Mission Street, San Francisco, CaliforniaOctober 1–August 16, 2026Rashaad Newsome, “JOY!” (2022), collage on paper in custom mahogany and resin artist frame with automotive paint and crystals (image courtesy the artist)Unbound: Art, Blackness & the Universe imagines Blackness as infinite. After a year of renovations, the Museum of the African Diaspora reopens next month with this sprawling exhibition, including work by luminaries like Lorna Simpson and Rashaad Newsome. The show acts as a kickoff for Nexus: SF/Bay Area Black Art Week from October 1 to 5, offering multiple ways to engage with Black art in the region.Rooted in Placede Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, CaliforniaThrough December 6, 2026Installation view of Rooted in Place in the Arts of Indigenous America section at the de Young Museum, San Francisco (photo by Gary Sexton, image courtesy the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco)Rooted in Place is the first exhibition in the de Young Museum’s re-hang of its Indigenous America galleries, highlighting the artistry of the Karuk, Yurok, Hupa, Tolowa, Tsnungwe, and Wiyot communities. Here, Indigenous artists from across the last century explore and expand traditional practices of pottery, weaving, and beading, carrying the torch into the future, from a 1915 basket by Wiyot master basket weaver Elizabeth Hickox to a vivid 2024 weaving by Melissa Cody (Diné).