Two classic cars have become canvases for centuries of Pueblo pottery tradition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, and the result is one of the most joyful surprises in Golden Gate Park. Rose B. Simpson: LEXICON fills Wilsey Court with color, pattern and pride through February 7, 2027, and entry is included with general admission.
Simpson, a mixed-media artist from Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico, first made headlines in 2014 with Maria, a 1985 Chevy El Camino she refurbished and painted with a black-on-black Tewa pottery motif. The car honors renowned potter Maria Martinez of San Ildefonso Pueblo, who popularized that distinctive black-on-black style, and it turns a beloved lowrider silhouette into a rolling work of ceramic art.
Ten years later, Simpson created a companion piece, Bosque, a 1964 Buick Riviera painted in vibrant polychrome, and LEXICON presents both cars together for the first time in this setting. They sit against an expansive geometric design inspired by the Southwest, so Wilsey Court itself becomes part of the artwork.
For Simpson, that meeting of ancestral craft and contemporary car culture creates a new visual vocabulary – a lexicon – that celebrates cultural heritage and its continuity. It is a happy, family-friendly stop that invites visitors to look closely, take photos and rethink where fine art can appear. Happy City News recommends making it the colorful start to a de Young day.
Photo: Kate Russell, courtesy of the artist and the de Young Museum
