Tag: Public art

  • Art Retreat: Los Angeles

    Art Retreat: Los Angeles

    This is so much more than an art tour.
    It’s a focused art experience with a small group of collectors, enthusiasts, and artists.

    Starting with Los Angeles. 
    The new LACMA galleries and the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Curated gallery visits through the best contemporary art spaces in the city. Intimate studio visits with Los Angeles based artists.


    Narrative Art Museum
    Museum of Narrative Art

    LA Art Retreat, October 19–23 2026: The Shape of the Week

    Monday: Travel and arrival. Check in, Proper Hotel Downtown LA then a tour of the hotel art collection. A toast to the week.

    Tuesday: LACMA. New galleries that change the way art is exhibited.

    Wednesday: Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Brand New and incredible both inside and out.

    Thursday: Contemporary galleries and artist studio visits. An understanding of the LA art scene from the gallerists and artists themselves. A final dinner and night out to close our time together.

    Friday: One last breakfast together, then transfer to the airport. You’ll leave with more art inspiration than can be anticipated.


    Surprise moments woven throughout that are personal, unexpected, and genuinely memorable. This is the part I do not put in writing. You will understand when it happens. That’s the fun part.

    LACMA new galleries

    Intimate and personal.
    The experience is designed to change how you see art and the world you bring it into.

    Everything is included.
    Two major art institutions newly opened. Gallery visits through the best contemporary art spaces. Intimate studio visits with local artists. Flights from San Francisco, boutique hotel, all meals, all ground transportation. And surprise moments woven throughout that you will still be talking about years from now.

    If you are building a collection,
    deepening your relationship with contemporary art, or simply ready for an experience that feels genuinely different from anything you have done before, this is for you.

    To reserve your spot or learn more about sliding scale pricing contact Nate directly at nate@natemahoney.com, text (415)238-7743, or schedule a call at this link.


    LACMA new galleries
    LACMA Interior

    LACMA: The new David Geffen Galleries are designed to encourage wandering, let your curiosity be your compass.

    The installation of art is inspired by four major bodies of water. The Pacific, Indian, Atlantic Oceans, and Mediterranean Sea, and the coastlines and inland cultures that are connected by them.

    Works of art accrue meaning through exchange, transit, time, and translation. Considering art and history as a dynamic, oceanic flow can prompt deeper understandings of cultural intersections, differences, and continuities.

    The artworks you’ll encounter here span time and geography. Their diversity mirrors the vibrancy and variety of Los Angeles itself.

    Details
    Experience art with a small intimate group of collectors, enthusiasts, and artists. Every detail is handled before you arrive so the only thing you have to do is attend and experience art.

    Travel
    Round trip flights from San Francisco to the destination city included. Private ground transportation throughout the entire retreat. No logistics, no thinking. You are picked up and dropped off at every door.

    Hotel
    Proper Hotel Downtown LA, a boutique design hotel accommodation at the center of downtown LA art and culture. Your room is yours. Rest when you need to. The itinerary breathes.

    Proper Hotel Rooftop

    Meals
    Every meal is considered and included with reservations planned in advance. Breakfast at the hotel, lunches and dinners at restaurants selected for atmosphere, quality, and the kind of conversation they inspire. Dietary needs and preferences accommodated personally in advance.

    Personalization
    Before each retreat Nate connects personally with every guest to understand what you are curious about, what you are building, and what would make this experience meaningful specifically for you. The itinerary is designed around the group and adjusted for each person in it.

    Proper Hotel Rooftop

    Your Wellbeing
    Fitness routines including yoga and meditation will be part of the itenary. This retreat is about being rested, grounded, and fully present as you move through the galleries and artist studios. Your wellbeing is simply part of how we care for each other, so that all you need to do is experience and take in art.

    Proper Hotel Rooftop

    Museum of Narrative Art: The museum is conceived as a sculptural, organic form shaped by light, clouds, and the surrounding tree canopy. Rising from Exposition Park, it feels both grounded and ethereal, embodying the museum’s belief in imagination as a shared public resource.

    Lifted above the ground, the museum engages with the street on a human scale, encouraging social interaction while preserving views of Exposition Park. 


    To reserve your spot or learn more contact Nate directly at nate@natemahoney.com, text (415)238-7743, or schedule a call at this link.


    Checklist

    What to consider when making your decision.

    • Dates: October 19-23 2026
    • LA right now, a special moment with two new architecture masterpieces designed for art.
    • Pricing flexibility on our first retreat. Let me know if you have a special situation.
    • Designed to be a small group retreat to be inspired by a transformative art experience.
    • Art community building, for the long term, with support between events.
    • Full service, different than current expectations for travel. Flexible and thoughtful.
    • Know that I want this to be an exceptional art experience for you.

    Packing list

    Suggestions for what to pack.

    • Three daytime outfits: two for museum days, one for gallery and studio visits. Comfortable, put together, ready to be on your feet all day. If you’re up for it, bring a few dinner outfits too, we’ll be going out.
    • Something to move in and something to sit still in: one yoga outfit, one meditation outfit.
    • Always pack a swimsuit when traveling. Our hotel has a rooftop pool!
    • An outfit for Thursday night. We’re going out, possibly dancing.
    • Something easy and comfortable for the trip home.
    • Your usual toiletries, plus whatever small things make you feel like yourself while traveling.
    • A copy of your ID and any important documents, just in case the originals go missing.
    • A backup phone, if you have one. Losing your only phone mid trip can turn into a real problem fast.
    • That’s it. Pack light, leave room to bring something home.

    What’s Next

    Los Angeles is the first stop.

    If LA fills before you’re ready, or isn’t the right city for you, just let me know. I’m building a list of Art Retreats for what comes next. Art retreats in the top international art capitals of the world.

    • New York
    • Rome
    • Paris
    • London
    • Madrid
    • Santa Fe
    • Mexico City
    • Tokyo
    • More locations in the planning…

  • Rooftop Journey

    Rooftop Journey

    A private experience, above the city.

    There’s a version of San Francisco most people never see. The one that opens up when you have a guide leading the way. That’s where your adventure starts.

    The Rooftop Journey is a personalized sensory experience through the city’s rooftops, built around you and your celebration. Part art tour, part adventure, part quiet reflection above the noise of the streets. It’s for milestones worth marking with something real.

    3 hours · personal · fully tailored

    To reserve your spot or learn more contact Nate directly at nate@natemahoney.com, text (415)238-7743, or schedule a call at this link.


    Curated and Hosted by a local Artist.

    I’m not a tour company. This isn’t a script. Every Rooftop Journey is designed by me, an artist who loves this city as only a local can. I’m also the one who walks you through it, rooftop by rooftop, moment by moment.

    That means no two journeys look the same. Before we meet, I want to know what this occasion means to you. What you’re celebrating, who’s with you, what kind of adventure will actually feel like yours. Then I build the journey around you.


    SF Rooftops. Five Senses. One Story.

    The Journey moves through curated rooftop moments across downtown San Francisco. Each one is built around a different sense and a different face of the city, sight, sound, taste, touch, scent, woven together in a way that unfolds as you go.

    I won’t give away all the surprises here. Part of the experience is not knowing what’s next, and letting each rooftop arrive on its own terms.

    Each stop is its own small meditative art experience. Together, they tell a story about the city, and about what you are celebrating.


    Built for the Occasion, Not the Itinerary

    I curate all details, the rooftops, the pacing, the sensory choices, the small surprises, around the specific occasion you’re marking. A birthday calls for something different than an IPO. A retirement moves at its own rhythm. I design around that.

    You bring the occasion. I bring the city rooftops, shaped into something that you’ll remember.


    About Nate Mahoney Studio

    I’m a San Francisco based artist and curator. My studio builds intimate art experiences and community around art: workshops, artist dinners, gallery tours, retreats, and shows. The Rooftop Journey is one part of that world, a downtown journey built with the same care I bring to everything I curate.


    A Limited Offering

    I host every Journey myself, so I only host a limited number of guests each month. This isn’t built to scale. It’s bespoke, deliberate, and made by hand, the way art is.

    The Investment

    • Let’s talk about pricing that makes sense for your community.

    The Journey designed, and hosted entirely around what you’re celebrating.

    To reserve your spot or learn more contact Nate directly at nate@natemahoney.com, text (415)238-7743, or schedule a call at this link.


    The Rooftop Journey. A private, sensory art experience across downtown San Francisco’s rooftops, crafted and hosted by the artist behind it. Proposal PDF.

    Photo by Veronica

  • Open call for art. Urban Romance: A Love Letter to city life.

    Open call for art. Urban Romance: A Love Letter to city life.

    CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

    Urban Romance: A Love Letter to city life

    Opening February 5, 2026

    Urban Romance is a public love letter to city living told through art, music, and collective expression.

    Set inside the underground Union Square Muni transit station, this show explores what it means to love in cities, with them and through them.

    We’re seeking original visual work that captures the emotional landscape of city life:

    – Where do you find softness in the noise?


    – Where do you see beauty hiding in plain sight?


    – What about the city makes you swoon?

    • Original artwork ready for hanging (any 2D medium, not heavy, ideally smaller than 16×20″)
    • A short artist bio or statement (2–4 sentences)
    • A short statement about how your entry relates to the group show theme. (1 paragraph)
    • A high-res digital file (300ppi) of your piece to be included in a postcard series for sale in the kiosks.

    Apply before midnight on January 15, 2026.

    To apply, fill out this form.


    Pop Up Gallery Opening
    February 5, 2026, 5-9PM at the kiosks inside the Union Square MUNI station.

    Curated by Ariana Wolf
    Hosted by Nate Mahoney, The Urbanist.
    In collaboration with Flight Design Co.

  • Serendipity. The art of intuition and iteration.

    Serendipity. The art of intuition and iteration.

    Serendipity in the City: The Spark Behind My Curated Retail project.

    In starting The Urbanist, I was motivated by solid intuition, and the city itself conspired to give me a nudge. My curated retail pop-up venture, focused on helping people slow down and truly appreciate San Francisco, was born out of moments of pure serendipity.

    Serendipity and the power of community recently played a role. I joined The Kindredly, a community of entrepreneurs co-organized by good friends, Ariana and Luisa. At their recent event hosted by Mae, I met Tarita who introduced me to Cathy, the host of walking tours in the Castro. Kathy invited me to take her Cruising the Castro walking tour on the Saturday after black Friday.

    Cathy telling the story of the AIDS quilt.

    On Cathy’s Cruising the Castro walking tour, I met Heiko and Nicole visiting from southern Germany, currently, on a sabbatical year to explore the world. We admired the activist history of the neighborhood together, and then went our separate ways. Or so I thought.

    Later that very day, I was stationed at my pop-up kiosk at the Union Square Muni station, my kiosk business was barely a day old, when I looked up to see Heiko and Nicole. We laughed at the coincidence, and we all had the pink rose crystals from the Pink Triangle Park, which commemorates LGBTQ+ history in such a moving way. We even snapped a photo to send to Cathy, connecting the threads of our serendipitous meetings.

    We all had the crystals from our Castro walking tour that morning. Yana’s design for the SF walking map.

    As if the universe wasn’t done weaving the story, the couple booked my Downtown rooftop adventure tour for Monday morning. That tour turned into another magical moment, Yana, the brilliant designer behind the San Francisco walking map, that we just finished printing at Colpa Press by Luca in the Mission, joined us just before our meeting to discuss plans for our New York City map design. I found myself guiding new friends from across the globe through hidden rooftops while collaborating with a local creative talent I deeply admire. It just so happened that the couple’s next stop was to visit New York!

    That’s the heart of why I started this retail art project, The Urbanist: to create opportunities for spontaneous connection, discovery, and appreciation of the city. San Francisco is full of moments like this, glimpses of beauty and community, if we simply slow down to notice.

    If my first week in business at the kiosk was any sign, serendipity is not just a theme for my business, it’s at the core of my artist lifestyle, and the ethos for the experiences I hope to share with every curious person who engages in community with me.

    Yana, Heiko, and Nicole on my POPOS walking tour.

  • Kiosk in the Union Square Muni Station.

    Kiosk in the Union Square Muni Station.

    There’s something magical about Thanksgiving morning in the city. It’s quiet with many having traveled to the suburbs for turkey prep.

    However, this year instead of cooking, I had a last minute morning meeting with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, (SFMTA, better known as the iconic worm logo, MUNI) to finally get kiosk keys for the Union Square Muni Station.

    Autobus Worm, (2025) acrylic on canvas, 10” x 8” x 1” Nate Mahoney.

    This morning I was clutching a fresh set of keys that jingled like music for the holiday season!

    Today is about food, friends, and family for sure, but it’s a complex holiday that carries both joy and reflection. Embracing both sides of Thanksgiving allows us to celebrate family and food while honoring the truths of the past.

    This year was very special for me, it was about getting the keys to be ready for opening day, this Black Friday for theurbanist.com kiosk!

    I had been working behind the scenes with the city on permitting and with collaborators for months. Designing goods and services to help everyone enjoy the city like a local. We crafted our best welcoming urban conversation starters with welcome kits, walking maps, and our walking tours.

    Travelers and shoppers are about to rush through the station this Friday. I am ready to join the Black Friday buzz. There’s a unique thrill in opening the kiosk for business for the first time.

    I’m excited to be rolling up the shutters for the first time this Friday. The metallic click, click, click will feel like unlocking a tiny stage where personal, people-focused community building can happen.

    By the time the post-turkey crowds head to downtown for Black Friday, I’ll be right in the heart of it all. Union Square is already shimmering with lights, an ice skating rink, and the energy is contagious.

    Whether you’re a commuter, a holiday shopper, or just passing through, swing by our new kiosk. We’ve got Urbanist flair to share. You might even find a city-themed surprise or two in our just released 2026 Walking map design!

    2026 San Francisco Walking Map

    Here’s to starting the season by rolling up the gates at our new kiosk, with a smile, and to bring a whole lot of excitement for what’s ahead.

    Happy Thanksgiving and see you in person at the Kiosk!

    220 Geary Street San Francisco CA 94102. The kiosk is inside the Union Square Muni station.

    Land Acknowledgment. We acknowledge that this project takes place on the ancestral lands of Native Peoples. We acknowledge this not only in thanks to the Indigenous communities who have held a relationship with this land and stewarded it for generations, but also in recognition of the historical challenges. Additionally, we make this acknowledgement as a point of reflection for us all as we address these wrongs in an effort to heal our relationship with Native Peoples.

    Open 11 am to 6 pm for Black Friday, 2025.

    Open 24/7 at theurbanist.com

  • CCA Art Fair.

    CCA Art Fair.

    Participating in the California College of Arts, CCA art fair was an exciting opportunity to promote my small business, theurbanist.com Setting up my table with unique designs and pieces for sale was an engaging experience, allowing me to connect with art, craft, and design enthusiasts.

    My wallet collaboration with Manikgrl, crafted with maps of San Francisco was a top seller!

    The fair provided a vibrant location to showcase my work, engage with the community, and share the story behind my small business theurbanist.com. It was a rewarding day filled with conversations, sales, and valuable connections that will undoubtedly benefit my business for the future.

    Photo by Zefania

    I also received helpful feedback from customers who completed my survey. Please feel free to fill out the survey at this link. If you’re a small business owner, I highly recommend participating in local art fairs to expand your reach and engage with community in person.

    theurbanist.com

    All of my links are here. https://linktr.ee/natemahoney

    Follow along on Instagram for my latest art and city adventures! @natemahoney @theurbanistsf

    Here’s the link to sign up for my email newsletter.

  • Art gallery tours.

    Art gallery tours.

    Just launched on Airbnb!

    I’m hosting art gallery tours in downtown San Francisco to share the latest in contemporary art with you.

    Here’s the link. Please share it with your friends and family! I’m excited to share the latest in contemporary art with you. See you in person on a tour soon.

    http://airbnb.com/x/sf-art-galleries

  • Fall Artists’ Dinner.

    Fall Artists’ Dinner.

    We had such a fantastic artists’ dinner at Ruth’s Table!

    It was a memorable evening at Ruth’s Table for our fall Artists’ Dinner bringing together San Francisco’s vibrant artist community. Grateful for the creativity, connection, and support that filled the room. 🌟🎨 #ArtistsSupportingArtists #SanFranciscoArt #RuthsTable

  • AI Prototyping.

    AI Prototyping.

    Thanks to Diane and Kate for leading a fun AI playground workshop.

    I’m using AI tools to create new products and services.

    For my art practice:

    1. AI Coffee: Scan a QR code sticker to order your coffee

    For my small business, The Urbanist.

    1. The Urbanist: Text Advice for how to use public transportation, food recommendations, and for city tips.
    2. The Urbanist. Safe Streets: Text message supportive advice for confidently navigating the city.

    Tool or Tools utilized: Figma Make, Twillio, Terminal, Python, Flask, Claude, Chat GPT. 

    What worked well: Figma make went very well for generating a prototype. Setting up an account and verifying phone numbers on Twillio was easy. 

    What didn’t: Getting python running on terminal was tricky, I’m new to coding so learning a lot asking Chat GPT how to get it to work 

    Next steps: Prototyping and coding this so it actually works with a phone number ported to Twillio. 

    Links: 

  • Retail inspiration.

    Retail inspiration.

    Walking into a retail store in person is still an inspirational experience for me.

    There you are, innocently looking for dish soap, and suddenly you’re holding a panini press you didn’t know you needed, imagining all the grilled cheese glory your future holds.

    IRL Retail has this magical way of telling you stories about the life you could lead, usually one with fresher breath, cooler sneakers, and at least three throw pillows more than you currently own.

    The beauty of it is that retail isn’t pretending to be high art. It’s basically a friendly neighbor who says, “Hey, want to see something cool?” and then hands you a vacuum that can also talk to your phone.

    It’s not sophisticated, but it is sneaky. One minute, you’re thinking about new running shoes; the next, you’re signing up for a half marathon you didn’t even know existed.

    What makes retail inspiring is its casual belief in your potential. Every aisle whispers tiny pep talks: “With this blender, you will love kale smoothies!” or “These pens will finally make you that organized person you always wanted to be.”

    It’s a low-stakes, high-impact theater of possibility. Sure, you might leave with a glow-in-the-dark dog leash and no dog, but isn’t that the kind of optimism life needs?