First Fridays ArtWalk SJ February 6th, 5pm–9pm
SoFA District + Historic District + Martha Gardens District
Join us as we kick off our 20th year of FIRST FRIDAYS Artwalk in downtown San Jose!
First Fridays ArtWalk SJ returns on February 6th with galleries, museums, and creative spaces kicking off 2026 with new exhibitions, live performances, and artist talks.
All venues are free and open to all ages, so bring your friends and family, explore the downtown art scene, and connect with amazing artists, inspiring art venues, and our creative community.
SoFA District
ANNO DOMINI // the second coming of Art & Design – 366 S. First St. map
Artist’s reception: Endless Draft
ZEZÃO (São Paulo, Brazil) solo exhibition
The exhibition “Endless Draft” presents a collection of works that emerge from a state in which the notion of completion becomes imprecise. It is not an unfinished work, but an open work. A work that seems to have no end. The drawing remains active, even when the work is already suspended on the wall. The moment when a work is said to be “finished” happens more as a gesture of surrender than as a definitive conclusion a conscious pause in something that could continue. This decision is intimate, silent, and does not need to be perceived by the viewer. Today, these layers cease to be merely physical and begin to exist as mental structures, as systems of thought, as logic. The subterranean becomes internal.
At this point in my practice, the work increasingly approaches drawing as a central language. More than the support– be it canvas, cardboard, or found frames– the focus is on the line as a code. The materials are necessary as a field of inscription, but what truly structures the work are the signs; graphic symbols that operate as open systems, capable of being continued, rewritten, and retranscribed.
These drawings function as expanding visual codes. They do not represent specific places or closed narratives. They suggest mental states, flows of thought, a creative mind in constant motion. They are forms that do not seek an end, but the possibility of continuity. Each line carries the idea that another line could still exist.
This series reflects a moment in which the process merges with the work itself. A time when creating does not mean concluding, but sustaining an open field of possibilities. What is seen is only a momentary interruption of the gesture. Drawing remains active like a living, infinite language, in a permanent state of construction.
Endless Draft is ZEZÃO’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.
KALEID Gallery – 320 S. First St. map
Artist’s reception: Misprints
Andrew Irvine solo exhibition
“Misprints” marks a new chapter in Andrew Irvine’s ongoing exploration of uncertainty, following his previous solo exhibitions at KALEID Gallery “Atomic Number 92” and “Quantum Foundations.” While earlier work examined uncertainty through chemistry and physics, this exhibition turns toward process itself as the central subject.
The work brings together clay 3D printing, hand-building, and raku glazing, processes that promise control yet consistently resist it. Digital models initiate the forms, but gravity, moisture, heat, and chance ultimately shape the outcome. Layer shifts, visible seams, collapses, tears, and unpredictable glaze effects are left intact, not as mistakes, but as records of how each piece came into being.
These objects reflect the tension between intention and outcome, where the artist can define conditions but cannot dictate results. Misprints embraces imperfection as an essential part of making and as a reflection of the human experience, suggesting that meaning and connection emerge not from enforcing an ideal vision, but from remaining open to uncertainty.
MACLA Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana – 510 S. First St. map
From Their Hands to Ours
MACLA presents, in partnership with Montalvo Arts Center, From Their Hands to Ours our new exhibition highlighting how ancestral wisdom and childhood experiences shape identity.
Debuting new work by Estefania Ajcip, Miguel Arzabe, rafa esparza, Edra Soto, and Arleene Correa Valencia, the exhibition weaves together stories of tradition, trauma, and growth through painting, sculpture, textile art, and video.
Los Calderones will perform at 6:30pm and 7:30pm.
Opera San José at California Theater – 345 S. First St. map
Join us for the First Fridays ArtWalk on February 6th!
Get ready for an unforgettable evening of music, adventure, and community at Opera San José.
Beginning at 5:30 PM, opera singers will sing live outside under the California Theatre marquee. Wander inside to discover live opera performances beginning at 7:00pm. Listen to the historic Mighty Wurlitzer organ, played by Jerry Nagano at 6:00pm and again at 7:30 pm.
Enjoy complimentary popcorn & hot cocoa and take part in a Scavenger Hunt Adventure that leads you through hidden corners of the theatre, each clue revealing its history.
Bring your friends, family, and curiosity for a night of music and discovery. We can’t wait to celebrate South First Fridays with you!
Phantom Galleries at The Pierce Apts. Lobby Gallery – 2 Pierce Ave. map
Artist’s reception: Intuitive Abstraction
Anna Gelman solo exhibition
I call my style “abstract intuitive.” The process is guided entirely by intuition, emotion, and the subconscious rather than a predetermined plan or sketch, focused on the act of creation itself as the primary subject.
It is a conversation between the artist and the canvas. Each mark informs the next move in a continuous flow of response.
I use two general principles in my paintings: the spontaneous inner impulse and professional control over the painting as a whole. The strokes and colors are controlled instruments to express inner impulses and feelings. The shapes are often derived from landscapes and recognizable motifs, but they go beyond those elements.
Painting is the way to explore the inner world and express the intuitive sense of beauty. It is a passionate way to explore the unknown, inventing a new and a different reality.
San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art– 560 S. First St. map
My Body Was A River Once by Anoushka Mirchandani
“My Body Was A River Once” is the debut institutional exhibition by India-born, San Francisco–based artist Anoushka Mirchandani, curated by Zoë Latzer.
Featuring an entirely new body of work, the exhibition engages the senses—sight, sound, and smell—to explore memory, matrilineage, and the ways migration and place shape identity and agency. For nearly a decade, Mirchandani has developed a distinctive visual language centered on translucent, introspective female figures often situated within domestic interiors. In “My Body Was A River Once,” these figures break free from built environments, merging with waterfalls, flora, stones, and tree bark in fluid metamorphoses that blur the boundaries between body and landscape. Drawing inspiration from the Apsaras—celestial beings in South Asian mythology whose name translates to “one who moves flowingly in the waters”—Mirchandani reimagines these mythic figures as vessels of intergenerational movement, carrying ancestral stories across terrains both real and imagined. Expanding her practice beyond painting, she incorporates diaphanous silks, sculpted wooden thorns, and subtle aromas to create a multisensory environment. Together, these works form a living archive that reflects on belonging, inheritance, and transformation through the lens of mythmaking and migration.
Data Trust by Stephanie Dinkins
The ICA San José is pleased to debut “Data Trust,” a participatory, AI-based, immersive experience considering notions of land, memory, storytelling, and our shared futures as they intersect with the potential of emergent technologies, as part of Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions. Immersive projections, animated by real-time generative AI processing of collected oral histories, create a living narrative spanning around the walls of the gallery.
Encapsulated Okra and California black oak trees grow in genetically modified soil enriched with the encoded DNA that houses shared stories into their own cellular makeup. Intentionally designed seating invites gathering, fosters intimacy, and promotes active engagement between visitors. While signaling interconnectedness and community ritual through their design, these architectural elements dissolve into the background, nurturing spontaneous dialogue and fostering an atmosphere of openness and vulnerability where participants can feel seen and that their stories are valued. Stephanie Dinkins questions the current paradigms of AI development and forges paths toward more equitable and inclusive technological futures. “Data Trust” fuses artificial intelligence, DNA, and social practice to pursue a simple goal: to honor and preserve multigenerational stories in ways that are poetic, enduring, and technologically bold.
Director-led tour of “Data Trust”: 6pm–7pm.
San Jose Jazz – 310 South First St. map
SJZ Break Room
Jazz Jam featuring Karl Perazzo
San Jose Jazz presents free live music programming in conjunction with South First Fridays. Following sets by our SJZ U19s and the Michael Webster Quartet, our all-ages jazz jam features the legendary band Santana’s longtime timbalero, special guest Karl Perazzo.
Eight-time Grammy Award winner Karl Perazzo’s rapid-fire timbale work and fearless confidence have powered Santana’s latin grooves since 1991, most notably on the multi-platinum Supernatural. A childhood prodigy who played with Cal Tjader, Malo and Prince by age 12, he’s also performed with Mariah Carey, Dizzy Gillespie and Phish.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Perazzo dreamed of playing with Santana from an early age. His life-long aspiration became reality when he joined the band to play timbales, bringing blistering patterns that take the music and audiences to new highs. He recorded Another Day in the Park with Santana percussion partner Raul Rekow, showcasing their powerful chemistry. Beyond performing, Perazzo teaches percussion and starred in LP’s instructional video From Afro-Cuban to Rock, breaking down complex Cuban rhythms with an infectious teaching style.
Performance Schedule:
5:30pm: Doors
5:40pm: SJZ U19s
6:20pm: Michael Webster Group
7pm–9pm: Jazz Jam
San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles – 520 South First St. map
The Woven Pixel
This exhibition explores the rise of digital weaving which emerged in the early 2000s. It brings together a variety of work by artists and designers who experiment with digital looms and jacquard software. It pays tribute to two artists in particular, Bhakti Ziek and Alice Schlein, who wrote “The Woven Pixel” (2006), which quickly became something of a bible for weavers in art, design and industry—-and referenced still today. Because every intersection of warp and weft represents a pixel, weaving seamlessly merged with the earliest computer technologies. Today digital weavers are altering the landscape of contemporary art and design using algorithmic painterliness, expressive structures and flexible parametric forms. Curated by Sarah Mills.
Historic District
Chopsticks Alley Gallery – 38 S. 2nd St. map
Opening reception: Bầu Cua Cá Cọp – Gourd Crab Fish Tiger, Chopsticks Alley Art 8th Anniversary Exhibition
Chopsticks Alley Art proudly celebrates eight years of creativity, community, and cultural storytelling. The number eight symbolizes prosperity, harmony, and an unending flow of connection.
Under a theme inspired by the spirit of Bầu Cua Cá Cọp, the beloved Vietnamese game of chance is often played during Tết Lunar New Year. Played with three dice and six iconic symbols: a gourd, crab, fish, deer, rooster, and prawn, the game evokes luck, risk, anticipation, and joyful unpredictability.
Reflecting these qualities, the exhibition showcases artists and artworks that speak to who they are, how they see the world, and the vibrant diversity of creative expression within our community.
Artists’ Introduction at 7pm
Works/San Jose – 38 S. 2nd St. map
Super Hunger Anti-Valentine Bowl Games part LX
This exhibition will be a broad view of sport, violence, love, and the overall state of our society from nearly 100 local and regional artists. In 2026 the South Bay will host the Super Bowl, the World Cup, and a new Hunger Games film will premier. At the time of our bi-annual (Anti) Valentine Show, we reprise our Super Bowl/Anti-Valentine/Hunger Games mashup of ten years ago when the Bay Area previously hosted the big game.
Martha Gardens District
Art Ark Gallery – 1035 S. Sixth St. map
The Last Set Before Dawn
by Lilly Horani
“Step into a world where smoke hangs in the air and every brushstroke swings like a late-night solo. Inspired by the raw emotion and spiritual depth of John Coltrane, this exhibition channels jazz as a feeling, improvisation, gesture, longing, grit, and release. It’s a space to linger, listen with your eyes, and let the music carry you somewhere honest and unforgettable.”
MACHU PICCHU Gallery of the Americas, Est. 1974 – 199 Martha St. map
Amazonian Rainforest Arpillera: Three-Dimensional Cloth Appliques
Women of Perú living in the shanty neighborhoods of Lima create handmade “arpilleras”. The “arpilleras” are colorful, three-dimensional, cloth pictures or appliques often reminiscent of their former village life in the Andes.
These same appliques provide social commentary, story telling or scenes of planting and harvesting. The Andes Mountains are known to produce about 1,000 varieties of potatoes. Other foods include quinoa, blue berries with other fruits and vegetables surrounded by llamas and alpacas.
Unfortunately, the apilleras are slowly disappearing as a folk art. This and others were made with scenes of the rainforest. The testimony and message is to protect the Amazon region of South America, which is the lungs of our sole planet earth.
FIRST FRIDAYS ArtWalk SJ is produced by CURATUS in partnership with the participating galleries, museums and independent creative businesses.
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South FIRST FRIDAYS
366 S 1st Street
San Jose, CA 95113
408-271-5155
info@southfirstfridays.com