Teaching Artists
JD Beltran
JD Beltran is an award-winning artist and filmmaker whose work has been exhibited internationally including at the Walker Art Center, San Francisco MOMA, Ars Electronica, The Getty Institute, and the MIT Media Lab. Her artwork earned recognition as one of the top public artworks in the U.S. and one of the top art + technology artworks in the world. She also has been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Wired, and her pieces are held in museums and private collections worldwide. She’s received grants from Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation, Artadia, and Skowhegan. A longtime educator at San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), Stanford, SFSU, and other institutions, Beltran has served on the San Francisco Arts Commission since 2009 and former Mayor London Breed recognized her longstanding service supporting the arts by declaring December 3, 2018 “JD Beltran Day in San Francisco.”
Ana Teresa Fernández
Ana Teresa Fernández, who speaks five languages, creates “Magical Non-fiction”—transforming unimaginable realities into dreamscapes of possibility. Born in Tampico, Mexico, and based in San Francisco, she uses performance, video, photography, painting, and sculpture to explore borders, identity, and climate through time-based actions and social gestures. Her border erasure work includes painting portions of the Tijuana-San Diego wall sky blue while wearing a tango dress, creating the illusion of openings. Major projects include On The Horizon for the 2021 Lands End exhibition. Featured as a solo booth at the 2022 Armory Show, her work resides in prestigious collections including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Denver Art Museum, and Blanton Museum of Art, among others.
Paul Madonna
Paul Madonna is an award-winning artist and best-selling author whose unique blend of drawing and storytelling has been called an “all new art form.” Creator of the San Francisco Chronicle series All Over Coffee (12 years) and author of seven books including the Emit Hopper Mystery Series, his work has earned multiple honors including the 2011 NCBA Award. His art spans novels, cartoons, and public murals, appearing internationally in galleries, museums, and publications. A Carnegie Mellon BFA graduate and MAD Magazine’s first art intern, he co-founded therumpus.net and teaches creative practice.
Jet Martinez
Oakland-based artist Jet Martinez creates vibrant public art that blends Mexican folk traditions with contemporary aesthetics. Born in Tuxpan, Veracruz and raised in Cuernavaca, he draws inspiration from pottery, weaving, and embroidery to enliven urban architecture with ornate patterns. A San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) BFA graduate, Martinez directed the Clarion Alley Mural Project for nearly a decade. His work has been exhibited at institutions including MACLA and SomArts, with murals commissioned by Facebook, Red Bull, and SF General Hospital. He lives in Oakland with his wife and two children.
George McCalman
George McCalman is an artist, author, and creative director based in San Francisco and founder of the creative agency McCalman.Co. With a background in editorial storytelling and fine art, his work bridges design, narrative, and visual art. His Observed and First Person columns for the San Francisco Chronicle document Bay Area culture. His book Illustrated Black History: Honoring the Iconic and Unseen (Sept 2022) received acclaim and won the 2023 NAACP Award for Outstanding Literary Work. He recently received the James Beard Award for the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award 2025.
Taraneh Hemani
Raised in Tehran and based in the Bay Area for over 40 years, Taraneh Hemami explores displacement, preservation and representation through public and curatorial projects. Her works incorporate historical materials, organizing images and data into patterns and maps as installations, public art, and publications. Hemami’s numerous awards include a Creative Capital grant and San Francisco Arts Commission Artist Award. Her works have been exhibited internationally at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Pergamon Museum, and Sharjah Art Museum, and are in the Victoria and Albert Museum and British Museum collections. She is Associate Professor at California College of the Arts and founder of the Makaan Residency.
Travis Somerville
Born in Atlanta and raised in the American South, Travis Somerville studied at Maryland Institute College of Art before settling in San Francisco, where he attended the San Francisco Art Institute. His large-scale oil paintings on paper incorporate collage elements and feature political and cultural icons from Southern history. Somerville’s work examines the complexities of racism and provides a foundation for discussing American oppression and colonial attitudes globally. His art has been exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Walker Art Center, and Birmingham Museum of Art. His work is in the collections of the SFMOMA and the de Young Museum.
David Wilson
David Wilson is an Oakland-based artist who creates observational drawings from direct landscape experiences and orchestrates site-based gatherings that bring together a wide range of artists, performers, filmmakers, chefs, and artisans into collaborative relationships. He organized the experimental exhibition The Possible at BAMPFA and received SFMOMA’s 2012 SECA Art Award. His work has been exhibited at the SFMOMA and the 2010 CA Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art, and he had a solo MATRIX exhibition at the BAMPFA. He was the inaugural artist in residence at 500 Capp St and has received grants from the Andy Warhol Foundation and the Svane Family Foundation.
Jenifer K Wofford
Jenifer K Wofford is a San Francisco artist and educator whose work explores hybridity, history, and calamity. She is one-third of the Filipina-American artist trio MOB. Wofford has exhibited at the SFMOMA, Asian Art Museum, YBCA, and Silverlens Galleries. A 2025 Artadia Awardee and 2017 Joan Mitchell Foundation grant recipient, she has earned recognition through the YBCA 100 list, a Eureka Fellowship, and grants from Art Matters and the SFAC. Wofford teaches at the University of San Francisco. Born in San Francisco and raised internationally, she holds degrees from SFAI (BFA) and UC Berkeley (MFA). She’s currently developing three major California public art commissions.