San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art

I came here on a Tuesday for their Jim Campbell exibit. The place was fairly easy to find and finding street parking was a breeze. The exibit was breathtaking, so worth seeing in person. The people who worked there are super nice and helpful. Going to definitely check back to this place whenever I’m in town!
This is a nice, small museum to look into. It’s also free! You pay for street parking, but you can get in and out 20 minutes easily. That’s roughly 50 cents or so!

Saw a fantastic show and a magnificent talk (given by the incomparable art critic Shana Dambrot). Educational, fun, and entertaining. I’ll be back!

Teeny tiny two-​room museum. Staff was friendly. I brought a stroller and they actually suggested I bring it inside (a break from the usual stroller eye-​rolling many places). The surrounding area is basically fine but a little rough. I felt safe because it was early in the morning and no-​one was awake yet to
loiter around. Donation suggested but not mandatory. Art was interesting, just not much because of size.

Came here for free for the first time last night on a First Friday event and was not disappointed.
Though not a huge gallery, it has 2 big rooms filled with various art exhibits. Right now they have an entire room devoted to an artist’s recreation of every luggage tag from the Japanese Internment camps. They flow from ceiling to floor, with stories from various people affected on the walls. It’s a very powerful piece, even those not artistically inclined feel moved by the gravity of names.
They also quite a few docents meandering around the exhibits so art could be explained, which I think is nice. There’s a small back room that seemed to be devoted to participating in some of the artwork and a small gift shop in the front across from the reception desk.

A very small modern art museum. The exhibit I saw wasn’t to my taste, so that is clouding my judgement.

The ICA has cool exhibits. One time, they had an exhibit filled with rejection letters. One wall was covered with rejection letters all sent to ONE guy (I can’t remember if they were rejection letters for books he was trying to publish or a song or an art portfolio, but either way, rejection stinks). There was one table that had a binder full of rejection letters, from colleges, from companies people had applied to work at, etc. It was fascinating.
Another exhibit they had a while back was artifacts dug up from Chinatown SJ. And more recently, I got to check out the ICA and see an exhibit and it looked like the entire room was filled with paper clouds! It was so cool! On South First Fridays I always like to make sure to come to ICA because they have such cool exhibits on display. They are at the very far end of all the museums and galleries that participate for South First Fridays, but it’s not that far and it’s worth going. Also, if you «Give a Buck About Art» donate a $ 1 and get a sticker that says that very same slogan!
Give a Buck About Art! Give a Buck About Art!!!

They have a BEAUTIFUL photography exhibit right now. I love the space and how it flows from one room to another! It’s not just a big room, but it’s sectioned off in a way that I like.

I am not the most adept at the fine arts so I did not know what to expect at this place. But it was actually a very pleasant experience. Even though the art pieces were beyond your typical painting, they were well explained either by curator or wall descriptions so I did not feel left out.
They had a small section of mezzotint art (black magic) which was my favorite out of the gallery and to be surprise, they even had a small workshop where you can make your own mezzotints (hard to describe, google is your friend?)
There were plenty of supplies to make your own mezzotints (for a fee), and the instructor was very easy going.
I recommend this place for a nice quick date/​activities place. You can probably go in and out of the this place within 90mins.
TIP: they are open to the public for free on the first Friday of every month.

I went here today with my close friend, since we were looking for an inexpensive way to spend time together. We enjoyed coming by here, and also were able to refill our water bottles due to the super hot day.
Bathrooms are very clean and orderly, and the art is worth the trip.

Just checked the website, wow, super fast, all the exhibits I saw in early May are gone!
Yay for free admission, loved that. The location was a bit strange I didn’t expect it to be in the middle of warehouses and such. I totally thought it’d be closer to the SJMA. Oh wells I guess I don’t know San Jose that well after all!
When I visited they had an exhibit put together using office supplies. They literally created full-​fledged sculptures using cutouts from graph paper and other printer papers offices tend to use. It was pretty cool how they had a copier running and water dispensers moving so it was like a chorus of office sounds as well. Definitely added more to the exhibit with both visual and audio stimuli.
The other exhibit they had during my visit was a spacey canvas looking art exhibit, I thought it was okay but not really up my alley.
I guess this museum is a hit or miss depending on what type of art you’re looking for and what you tend to enjoy viewing.

Another wonderful point of light to count the bad mojo. South First Fridays are fun, and I even made an interview with a visiting artist for his sound project. The more people that support great things like this, the more happy, creative women and men get attracted to downtown San Jose, which in turn creates a rejuvenation and greater social awareness resulting in more affordable housing and people on bikes. Sometimes this city can seem clouded with bad vibes, I think it might be the oppressive weight of money and power, and if all the good people could throw a little more life and push things back in balance the world will be a better place!

Please be sure to make the trek down here during South First Fridays! This gallery is spacious, and they utilize that space to showcase so many contemporary artists and their pieces, spanning a variety of media.
One of the greatest perks to this gallery is that certain pieces of art have a phone-​in number and identification code on its placard. By using your mobile and dialing in, you hear a message from the artist about the work you’re seeing. It really adds a personal touch to hear the artist’s statement versus only reading the text (which is fine, too!).

So cool.
Talk about smart art, it is quintessentially modern art. I have been here a few times now and have never been let down. IT is a small and intimate, but they have great installations that range from still art, site specific, and multimedia. Such amazing work in a small space! Love love love!

I came across the ICA while walking the neighborhood of the SoFa District in San Jose. As a fan of Contemporary and Post-​Modern art I had to pay a visit. The gallery has free entry but closes at 5 PM and is closed on Sundays and Mondays.
Their current exhibit has a overarching theme that expores ideas related to scale and size. The exhibit is comprised of three «mini showings» including a sculpture of thorns carved from wood titled urgency, a media short film titled Powers of Ten and a collection of other works in their main gallery titled Size Matters.
I truly appreciated the overarching theme throughout the gallery and thought that each art piece, while different in style, structure and form made for a great cohesive collection of work.
I’m looking forward to the next exhibit and highly encourage all art fans to explore and enjoy the SJ ICA.

Lends credibility to San Jose’s scene. I always save this for last during the South First Fridays art walk, to get that Anno Domini taste out of my mouth.

Years ago when the ICA was next to a *porn* type store, I used to say, «Good luck with to this place, that cool art gallery is gonna go out of business!» I couldn’t believe a place so awesome was next to a porn store. And lo’ and behold! They are still around! (Thank goodness the porn store is gone.) This place has the coolest art found anywhere, and they have a new spot just down the street. I love First Friday’s, the art openings, the ambiance, the people … this place actually puts San Jose on the map! Thank you, once I make a ton of money, I’m going to be one of your biggest contributors! Keep up the great work!

A medium sized gallery, a lot of exhibits going on. Street metered parking. Was my first gallery I hit with the SubZero Fair in June.

They had Sprinkles cupcakes, some savory cheese thing, and pigs in a blanket for food! I think they had wine too — not sure how much, but the food was FREE.
Cool exhibit called «It’s Not Us, It’s You» about rejection in our lives.
I liked the one Chinese artist that made Downtown SJ look cute w/​bunny, hearts, pink, so cute!
There were paintings, sculpture, videos, & multi-​media work.
Cool — Recommended.
Hrs:
Closed Sun & Mon
Tues-​Fri 10 – 5; Sat 12 – 5

My partner-​in-​crime, Anna L., and I came to the First Fridays Art Walk in DTSJ. This was the first gallery that we stepped into. It featured works from SJSU Master of Fine Arts students. One exhibition caught my eye by Brendan Lott titled, «Memories that I’ll Never Have.» He had found images on the internet from Myspace to other popular websites. He sent these images to artists in China where they created a true to life oil painting. It looked like an actual photograph! The exhibits were incredibly creative and visionary that I was just blown away by all the creations. Come on the first Fridays of each month where you have access to all the art galleries, mostly located on 1^st St.

Very cool little gallery within walking distance of many great restaurants and bars. Located in downtown San Jose in the SOFA district, this place is a nice little stop before dinner or on a lunch break.
The display was very creepy when I was there, all art made from or about human hair, including one piece that was colored using the artist’s own blood! This place in totally worth checking out if you are in the area, but probably not worth a trip all by itself as it is rather small. However, it is definitely within walking distance of the big San Jose Museum of Art, as are several other art galleries, so you could make a day of visiting the art galleries of SJ.