Best Five Art galleries in San Jose California

Here are San Jose California’s best five Art galleries! Discover the finest in local design, highlighting their exceptional expertise, creativity, and innovative flair that set them apart. Let’s delve into the best of Art galleries excellence in San Jose.

1. Anno Domini

Anno Domini, also known as Gallery A.D.,  is a contemporary art gallery in San Jose, California, focusing on emerging and International artists in the genres of street art, zine culture and tattoo art.

Anno Domini was started by graphic designers, Cherri Lakey and Brian Eder.  The name of the gallery is inspired by the term for denoting years of the current era, Anno Domini, which is Latin for in the year of the Lord. Promoting zine culture, elevating graffiti and tattoo artists, and bringing attention to new and international artists has been a focus of the gallery programming. Historically Anno Domini has been active in First Friday and Street Mrkt events.

Many artists have shown their work at Anno Domini, often in the emerging stages of their career, including Titus Kaphar,  David Choe, Joseph Loughborough. The gallery has featured art groups including Guerrilla News Network (in 2003);[10] “Perpetual Motion Roadshow” (2012), and the collaborative work, “The FriendMakers” (in 2004) by the artists Don Pendleton, Craig Metzger, and Michael Sieben.

2. Japanese American Museum of San Jose

The Japanese American Museum of San Jose showcases a unique collection of permanent and rotating exhibits chronicling more than a century of Japanese American history. Visitors will learn about early immigration of Japanese to America, their leadership in the agricultural community, their incarceration during World War II and the challenges they faced, while adapting and contributing to West Coast communities. JAMsj provides a historical forum that stimulates present day discussions on civil liberties, race relations, discrimination, and American identity.

The mission of the Japanese American Museum of San Jose is to collect, preserve and share Japanese American history, culture and art with a focus on the Greater Bay Area.

Established in November of 1987, JAMsj grew out of a 1984-86 research project on Japanese American farmers in the Santa Clara Valley. The farming project collected family histories, historical photographs, private memoirs and other unpublished documents and led to the development of a curriculum package on Japanese American history, which was adopted for use by the San Jose Unified and Eastside Union High School Districts. JAMsj’s workshop on developing family histories provided documentary materials and photos included in the award-winning book Japanese Legacy: Farming and Community Life in California’s Santa Clara Valley (1985) co-authored by Timothy J. Lukes, Ph.D. and Gary Y. Okihiro, Ph.D.

The museum started in an upstairs room of the historic Issei Memorial Building, formerly the Kuwabara Hospital. In 2002, the name changed from Japanese American Resource Center/Museum (JARC/M) to Japanese American Museum of San Jose (JAMsj) to better reflect the museum’s archival focus. JAMsj now occupies the former residence of Tokio Ishikawa, M.D. two doors south on North Fifth Street.

In October, 2010, the museum reopened after an ambitious remodeling and expansion project. The museum now occupies over 6400 square feet and allows JAMsj to display many more exhibit artifacts from its extensive collection and to present educational programs to the public.

3. San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles

The mission of the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles is to preserve, celebrate, and promote knowledge about quilts and textiles, their creation, their beauty, and their relationship to human culture and expression.

In 1977, a group of dedicated quilters and arts enthusiasts from the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association founded the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. We are the first Museum in the United States to feature quilts and textiles as its sole focus. In 2005, in partnership with the City of San Jose, we purchased our current home, a 13,000 square foot building in the SoFA area of San Jose. Over the years, we have partnered with multiple local nonprofits to bring one-of-a-kind exhibition and community programming to San Jose, including MACLA, Institute of Contemporary Art, Veggielution, School of Arts and Culture, and SOMOS Mayfair.

4. Institute of Contemporary Art

Founded in 1980, the ICA is a vital member of the many arts groups that make up the cultural fabric of San José, engaging audiences through innovative visual art exhibitions and public programs. Our exhibitions are designed to build community – to provide a space in which artists can access the resources needed to express their creative spirit and the public may experience a rich range of artistic expression.

In April 2006, the ICA made the ultimate commitment to downtown San José by purchasing a 7,500-square-foot building located at 560 South First Street. With the opening of our new facility in June 2007, we greatly expanded our programming. Annually, we originate 8 – 12 exhibitions in all media, including our Sandbox Projects – ambitious, large-scale site-specific installations.

First Friday events activate the galleries each month and Facade includes installations that illuminate the front windows after dark. Public programs include panel discussions, artist presentations, art demos, performances, and portfolio reviews. Located in SoFA, San José’s arts and entertainment district, the ICA attracts nearly 20,000 visitors each year.

5. The San José Museum of Art (SJMA)

The San José Museum of Art (SJMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum in downtown San Jose, California, United States. Founded in 1969, the museum holds a permanent collection with an emphasis on West Coast artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. It is located at Circle of Palms Plaza, beside Plaza de César Chávez. A member of North American Reciprocal Museums, SJMA has received several awards from the American Alliance of Museums.

The San José Museum of Art is the largest provider of arts education in Santa Clara County, serving over 45,000 children per year.[1] The permanent collection focuses on contemporary art by US West Coast artists, with a growing emphasis on art of the Pacific Rim. The collection includes more than 2,600 artworks[2] in a variety of media including sculpture, paintings, prints, digital media, photographs, and drawings.

Founded in 1969 by a group of artists, the art museum was first known as the Civic Art Gallery.[2] Ann Marie Mix and Susan Hammer were co-founding trustees of the museum.[2][3] The group sought to save a historic structure slated for demolition and to revitalize it as a community art gallery. The early arts organization was referred to as a “gallery” prior to the establishment of a permanent collection of artwork.[3]

In 1974, it was renamed the San Jose Museum of Art.

The museum established a partnership with the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1994.[5] Information about each exhibition was published for visitors in English, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese, reflecting the diversity of patrons in San Jose in the 1990s.

By 1997, the museum had acquired a collection of approximately one thousand pieces of contemporary art, mostly works on paper.

Susan Krane, executive director from 2008 through January 2017, continued to grow the collection in size and stature.[6][7] Krane was succeeded by Susan Sayre Batton as executive director in April 2017.

By 2019, after 50 years of operation, the SJMA had acquired a permanent collection with 2,600 objects.[8]