Art World 2016

Get ready for an onslaught of new art complexes and renovated and expanded spaces in the first half of this brand new year, along with a plentitude of artworks that will fill them.

There's lots to look forward to, starting this month with the public opening, Jan. 15, of the restored 1886 Edwardian house on 500 Capp Street in the Mission District that was the brainchild, home of three decades, and a living art installation by and tribute to the late San Francisco conceptual artist David Ireland, whose residence and its contents may have been his greatest creation.

The Berkeley Art Museum, which boasts multiple galleries, a view to the street and two state-of-the-art theaters for the Pacific Film Archive, plus an outdoor screen, opens Jan. 31 in its new red, white and stainless steel Art Deco digs on Center Street in downtown Berkeley. The venue, located in the renovated former UC Berkeley printing plant, is still a stone's throw from the campus, but happily, it's now located within a block of the BART station, free of the parking hassles one was once forced to endure near the old building on the upper campus. The inaugural exhibition, "Architecture of Life," curated by the museum's director Lawrence Rinder, is a grab bag of works loosely related to the role of design and architecture. It fills almost the entire facility through May 29, along with a specially commissioned, monumental art wall mural by Chinese artist Qiu Zhijie.

Coming in March: Arts patrons Deborah and Andy Rappaport, co-founders of Minnesota Street Project, have converted a mammoth warehouse into a facility in the city's Dogpatch neighborhood. The over-100,000 sq. ft. complex will ultimately be an affordable home to artist studios, exhibition venues, art-related nonprofits and commercial galleries, a number of which were displaced from their downtown venues. Rena Bransten, Jack Fischer Gallery, Eleanor Harwood, Nancy Toomey Fine Art, and Themes + Projects (formerly Modernbook) are among the confirmed tenants.

Sadly, Robert Tat Gallery, a longtime denizen of 49 Geary, will not be resurfacing in a new location. The gallery's delightful current show Vernacular Vixens, up through Feb. 6, will be its last. Rob's engaging warmth and discerning eye for found and vintage photography will be missed, though he may work out of an office or by appointment in the future. Ciao, Rob!

But the biggest story of 2016 and the winner of the "Finally, we thought it might never happen" award of this fledgling year is the much-anticipated opening of the expanded, Snohetta-designed SFMOMA on May 14. Larger and better, with 10 stories and 460,000 sq. ft., 235,000 more than the existing Botta building, and with three times the previous exhibition space, we're promised the arrival of the Pritzker Center for Photography, a boon to those who love the medium, the display of 260 of some 600 works from the Fishers' postwar art collection, and many more galleries in which to wile away an afternoon.

And here's a sampling of what's coming to museums in 2016:

The Contemporary Jewish Museum continues its interest in the nexus of Judaism and music with "Bill Graham and the Rock & Roll Revolution," a comprehensive retrospective of the life and career of the cranky rock concert impresario that covers his early escape from Nazi persecution and his long and fruitful if somewhat tumultuous association with Bay Area icons Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead and the Fillmore Auditorium. March 17-July 5. Down the line, I'm really looking forward to Stanley Kubrick, a look at the career and completed as well as unfinished projects of the notoriously controlling, reclusive Jewish filmmaker through early photographs, annotated scripts, lenses, cameras, production photography, costumes and props from his films. June 30-Oct. 30.

The Asian Art Museum celebrates its 50th anniversary this year with a major exhibition, "Emperors' Treasures: Chinese Art from the National Palace Museum, Taipei," which explores the identities and contributions of eight rulers who reigned from the early 12th through the early 20th centuries, and the differing styles, subjects and craftsmanship of their respective eras. Nearly 700,000 priceless imperial artworks were whisked away and protected at the Taiwanese institution during China's Civil War/Communist Revolution in 1948. In the ensuing years, some government officials of the People's Republic of China claimed the trove was stolen. For this show, NPM agreed to lend the Asian over 150 objects, 30 of which are rare masterpieces, dating from the Song to the Qing dynasties. June 17-Sept. 18.

Legion of Honor: "Sublime Beauty: Raphael's 'Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn' " focuses on an enigmatic, Italian High Renaissance masterpiece, characterized by the artist's signature eye for beauty; it will be shown in the U.S. for the first time Jan. 9 through May 15. But for my money, the show I'm counting down the days to see is Pierre Bonnard: Painting Arcadia, which arrives here via the Musee d'Orsay. It includes 60 works by this genius of warmth, color, patterning and composition, from his early Nabi paintings and experimentation with photography to the irresistible interior scenes of his late career. Feb. 6-May 15.

de Young Museum : No one does costume shows like the Fine Arts Museums, so hold onto your stylish booties for "Oscar de la Renta: The Retrospective," an overview of a supremely elegant, influential tastemaker and a true gentleman who, as his New York Times obit stated, "clothed stars and became one" (de la Renta died in late 2014.) The exhibition, divided into thematic sections, features 130 ensembles produced over five decades, beginning with his rise to prominence in Franco's Spain. He dressed some of the world's most famous and discriminating women, from First Ladies to Penelope Cruz. If you have any doubt as to his rarified place in the pantheon, consider the coup shortly before his death: Amal Clooney chose him to design the exquisite wedding dress she wore to the altar in Venice. Bravo! March 12-May 30.

Oakland Museum of California : We knew this one was coming, and here it is: "Altered State: Marijuana in California," the first museum exhibition to highlight the controversial cannabis plant and provide perspective on the smoke surrounding its legalization. Inhale, if you must. April 16-Sept. 25.