Overview

Opening Reception: Saturday, August 9, 1 to 3 p.m.

Exhibition dates: August 9 – September 4, 2025. 

Regular gallery hours: Tuesday – Thursday, noon – 4 p.m.

Beads & Belonging explores the ways beadwork and beads are common means of expression across cultures. Guest curated by Kristina Singleton, this exhibition features works by Demetri Broxton, Taraneh Hemami, Chelsea Kaiah, John Paul Morabito, Gabrielle Severson, Charlene Tan and Nico Williams. 

Patterns, connections, and narratives come to life bead by bead. Through means of trade, adornment, and cultural signifiers, beads have become visual and physical communicators globally. Despite the legacies of colonialism tied to the histories of beads, the act of beading allows for connections to ancestors, those who came before; while also making meaning of the present. Beadwork allows for reclamation of identity and becomes an act of resistance through the preservation of personal and cultural narratives. The artists in this exhibition challenge what defines “fine art” by bringing to the conversation the role beadwork has in transforming this definition. Using beads of all kinds to reveal personal narratives and the histories connected to beads, this exhibition will explore beadwork as a common means of expression across cultures

This exhibition is made possible with the support of the Zellerbach Family Foundation.

Join us for a closing reception at the Guardhouse. This will be a rare opportunity to enter the Guardhouse and see the artwork up close and speak directly to the artist about his work and inspiration.

Demetri Broxton’s installation at The Guardhouse, Just Beyond the Waters (2025), reveals how family members, whether named or unknown, become stewards of ancestral knowledge. Through intricate craft and profound intention, Broxton’s work reclaims the past as an active force that reshapes the present and empowers futures defined by liberation, connection, and ancestral power.

This installation is linked to the themes explored in FOR-SITE’s exhibition Black Gold: Stories Untold at Fort Point National Historic Site from June 6 to November 2, 2025.

Demetri Broxton at The Guardhouse is made possible thanks to generous support from the ARB Fund with presentation support from Wayee Chu and Ethan Beard, Jill Cowan Davis, Corinne Dixon, Paul Henderson, and Clara Kamunde.

Join a selection of artists featured in Black Gold: Stories Untold for a special day filled with art activities and entertainment. Artist Demetri Broxton will conduct a live beading demonstration and the first 50 attendees will be given a free bead embroidery kit featuring an original design by the artist.

FOR-SITE’s highly anticipated exhibition Black Gold: Stories Untold invites 17 contemporary artists and collectives to reflect on the resilience, struggles, and triumphs of African Americans who lived in California from the Gold Rush to the Reconstruction period following the Civil War (c. 1849–1877). Through newly commissioned and recent artworks, the exhibition highlights important but lesser-known figures and narratives from California’s history, exploring the presence of slavery and the struggle for legal rights within this “free” state, the successes of Black entrepreneurs, and the experiences of African American Army regiments known as the Buffalo Soldiers. More broadly, Black Gold illuminates the role that Black communities played in the state’s cultural, social, and political environs of the time.

Black Gold was inspired in part by Gold Chains: The Hidden History of Slavery in California, a public education campaign produced by the ACLU of Northern California, one of FOR-SITE’s community partners. The exhibition is presented in partnership with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.