Sunday Read No. 8: Bay Area Writers and Artists
Today's Sunday Read focuses on bay area writers and artists. We'll explore the works of Soleil Ho, Liz Hernández, and Taylor Smalls this week.
✍️ Soleil Ho, Restaurant Critic and Writer
Since 2019, Soleil Ho (they/them) has been The Chronicle’s Restaurant Critic, spearheading Bay Area restaurant recommendations through the flagship Top Restaurants series. In 2022, they won a Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award from the James Beard Foundation.
Ho also writes features and cultural commentary, specializing in how our food reflects our lives.
Soleil Ho's Writing on the San Francisco Chronicle
Soleil Ho frequently writes in the SF Chronicle about people, food, and the latest restaurants to try in San Francisco.
You can access their reviews below:
Restaurants
Soleil Ho's Extra Spicy Podcast
If you prefer podcasts, Soleil Ho hosts a weekly podcast by the San Francisco Chronicle called Extra Spicy. They dismantle diet culture and angry chefs, cover the restaurant apocalypse and pandemic pivots, and dish out advice you didn't know you needed. Extra Spicy will stimulate your mind and your appetite.
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Soleil Ho Profile on San Francisco Edible
You can read San Francisco's Edible profile below:
John Birdsall
🎨 Liz Hernández
Liz Hernández (b. 1993) is a Mexican artist based in Oakland, California. Her art practice - which includes painting, drawing, sculpture, and writing - is deeply influenced by her memories and surroundings of Mexico City: buildings covered with handmade signs, chaotic trips to markets, visits to temples and churches, and her grandmother's house where she grew up.
The subjects that she addresses are in a constant state of flux, but an element that is always present in her practice is the search for something that breaks the normalcy of everyday life. Hernández addresses this desire in multiple ways, from finding greater meaning in domestic objects and scenes to using supernatural elements and symbolism to address themes of modern life.
Her work, partially autobiographical, has led to collaboration with her family in the shape of very personal research. This inquiry results in constant learning about her environment, family, and herself.
She has exhibited in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Paris and Mexico City. (
Liz Hernández's Conjuro para la sanación de nuestro futuro (A spell for the healing of our future) (2020)
Conjuro para la sanación de nuestro futuro (A spell for the healing of our future) (2020), Hernández brings forth symbols and icons from milagros, or miracle charms, to summon a higher power for our community’s health and future and remind us that we are all connected.
This is one of my favorite murals at SF MoMA's exhibition and the first work I saw by Liz Hernández.
View more of Liz Hernández's art
Website
https://www.instagram.com/spellofmyself/
🎨 Taylor Smalls
Taylor Smalls is a contemporary palette knife painter based in Oakland, California. Her work studies the kaleidoscopic depth of Black and Brown skin through the layering of highly pigmented color. It celebrates the endless nuances of melanated womxn by amplifying and exaggerating the underlying tones in colored skins that are often depicted dulled down or neglected, much like the people who inhabit them.
Smalls has been working as a gynocentric painter since 2012, and continues to do so out of her west oakland studio.
Taylor Small's Portfolio
View of Taylor Small's Art
Portfolio
https://www.instagram.com/taylor.smalls/
Additional Reads
- 6 Black Oakland Artists to Know and Collect Now - 7x7
- Calamity Fair’s Top 10 Bay Area Artists To Follow in 2022 - MothBelly
- Bay Area Artists - SF Mercantile
- 10 Must-Know Artists From San Francisco - Culture Trip
- 6 Bay Area Artists to watch - Broke ass Stuart
If you have other artists or links you'd like me to add, feel free to comment below or email me.