Rigo 23’s ‘Terra Nullius,’ which connects San Francisco’s tech industry to the destruction of Gaza, is a powerful highlight of ‘Bay Area Then,’ on view through Jan. 25, 2026 at YBCA. (Nastia Voynovskaya/KQED)

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts ’ new exhibition Bay Area Then offers a glimpse of San Francisco in the ’90s, before tech and its hyper-driven version of capitalism overtook the city, and when rents were low enough for artists to thrive. Working-class young people could not only afford to live here — they also had the time and energy to run weird, experimental galleries and participate in revolutionary organizing.

Smartly curated by Eungie Joo, Bay Area Then surveys the vibrant cultures that emerged from the AIDS crisis, the LAPD beating of Rodney King and the first Gulf War

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