San Francisco just gained a delicious new work of public art. The Asian Art Museum has commissioned Oakland-based graphic novelist and illustrator Thien Pham to create Noodle House, a joyful mural for the Lawrence and Gorretti Lui Hyde Street Art Wall, the museum’s outdoor canvas at 200 Larkin Street that turns an everyday sidewalk into an open-air gallery.
Pham chose a subject everyone can gather around: the humble noodle. “I chose the humble noodle because it reflects the many cultures represented in our community,” the artist says. “Each unique noodle dish carries its own traditions, memories, stories, and sense of home, while this ubiquitous ingredient ties us together.” In his hands, bowls of noodles become a celebration of where we come from, where we are, and the new traditions neighbors create together every day.
The commission is a natural fit. Pham, born in 1975, won wide praise for his graphic memoir Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam, which tells his family’s immigration story through the meals they shared. He is also the illustrator behind KQED’s James Beard Award-nominated food series Midnight Diners, so few artists know their way around a noodle bowl — on the page or on a wall — quite like him.
Best of all, Noodle House is art for everyone: passersby can enjoy it for free from the street, and museum visitors can pair it with a day inside one of the country’s great collections of Asian art. It is a warm reminder that in San Francisco, food is never just food — it is a bridge between past and present, and between all of us.
Photo: Thien Pham, courtesy of the artist / Asian Art Museum
