Outdoor Sculpture Department: Metal repair and repainting
Invocation, 2004, by Pepe Ozan, after treatment.
Our longtime partner San Francisco Arts Commission is a public agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community. The Civic Art Collection, managed by SFAC, comprises over 4,000 objects that include historic monuments, memorials, gifts to the city, and more recently, hundreds of contemporary artworks commissioned through the city's 2%-for-art program. SFAC’s mission to integrate artwork into the fabric of daily life can be found throughout San Francisco, including public spaces like hospitals, libraries, courthouses, parks, playgrounds, libraries, the airport, and others.
Urbano Pepe Ozan (1940-2013) was an Argentinian artist known for his large-scale performance art sculptures, typically unveiled during the annual Burning Man festival in Nevada. His work “Invocation” was commissioned in 2004 by SFAC. The perforated steel sculpture depicts a majestic mythical part-bird, part-human creature, posed with arms and wings outstretched to honor the Indigenous people of the Bay Area.
The sculpture was installed at the junction of Vermont and Cesar Chavez in San Francisco until it was severely damaged by a falling tree in 2023. The sculpture was bent at the feet and ankles but remained firmly attached to the base with additional damage at the proper right shoulder to the head, feathers, and knees from the impact. Our first step was to deinstall and move the sculpture into storage, undertaken by our partners at Atthowe Fine Art Services. The complex treatment included rigging the sculpture into its original position with metal repairs to the ankles, head, and feathers. The piece was then repainted with new industrial paint system to recreate the custom artist-applied metal flake finish and will be reinstalled in San Francisco at a future date.
Before treatment.
During rigging.
After final painting.