Bay Area Now 6 -- Shows This Big Don't Come Along Often

We San Franciscans have our pick of blockbuster museum shows this summer, including a huge Picasso exhibit as well as two shows on Gertrude Stein and her family's art collection. Those are great destinations if you want to see famous paintings from the past. For a taste of what is happening in the present, there's Bay Area Now 6, which opens with a party Friday at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Tammy Rae Carland

I'm Dying Up Here No. 9

​Even a glance at the exhibitors showcases the diversity of contemporary art here. Take Tammy Rae Carland -- she of Bikini Kill's "For Tammy Rae" -- who has disseminated queer and feminist culture for decades through her zines and record label. She's now exploring sculpture as a creative output.

Chris Fraser, in contrast, might be considered a relative newcomer, but his impressive installations and videos use light as a medium and are simultaneously meditative and mind-bending.

Robert Minervini

The Rising Tide

​Other names worth noting include Robert Minervini, Sean McFarland, Suzanne Husky, Chris Sollars, Ben Venom (winner of a 2011 SF Weekly Masterminds grant), Allison Smith, and Weston Teruya.

At Friday night's opening, next-big-things Dominant Legs perform their addictive brand of S.F. indie folk pop, DJ oOoOO remains reliably spooky, Silent Storm Sound System beams a so-called silent disco into participants' headsets, and Hayes Valley Farm has "urban farm fashions" in the sculpture court.

The opening party for Bay Area Now 6 starts at 8 p.m. (and the show continues through Sept. 25) at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission (at Third St.). Admission is $12-$15.