I don’t know how all rich people choose to party, but in San Francisco, there is no “fashionably late.” The city’s most prominent galas invite a high-paying set for cocktails and dinner at an early-bird 6 p.m. — and that's well before those of us lower ranks hit up the open bar while donning our finest thrift store selections, DIY couture, and SHEIN knockoffs.
Tickets for the privilege of arriving first begin modestly at around $500 at many galas. At SFMOMA's Art Bash, the highest tier began at $3,500, and their most expensive ticket for 2026 was $100,000.
I have heard several times this party referred to as San Francisco's "biggest art night." It is not. You should look at Art Bash instead as our most prominent night for the city's upper classes to be seen by each other. And attendees pay dearly for that privilege.
It's a clever gambit for a fundraiser. A well-organized gala, to me, is a lot like Pride weekend in the Castro: one sold-out night could fill up cash reserves for a whole year. As SFMOMA put in its marketing, Art Bash raises more than $2.5 million annually. On one night.
But something smelled a little off this year. Early on, it "seemed eerily dead, the overhead lighting aggressively unflattering," according to a pair of Emilys who attended on behalf of SF Standard. One of my freelancers called the party "inoffensively unremarkable," which was perhaps a more accurate take.
I personally remember a line queued around the block when I arrived at 8:30 p.m., but I also heard similar lukewarm reports from other attendees. Two ladies who went to dinner told me it was "fine." Speeches ran long (they always do). There was steak, and they auctioned off 10 art pieces.
Others bemoaned a lack of dancing. For three years prior, the museum's 5th floor featured DJs and drag queen activations, but in 2026, this was replaced by a standing visual display.
The only dance floor I spotted was, again, another gatekept tier. A premium party lounge on the 2nd floor featured fresh strawberries and fluffy desserts, craft cocktails, and DJ heyLove* looking like she was having an amazing time.
Tickets for this private party-in-a-party cost $500 and—like the dinner—they had sold out. In fact, my boyfriend and I wandered inside on accident after we'd escorted a friend down to the first floor.
After waiting for an elevator that would never come, we instead decided to climb a back stairwell that happened to open into this party. I later showed a red wristband to the doorman on my way out of the VIP lounge and asked if I was supposed to be there. He said no, but that my gown elevated the experience anyway.
I'm not saying I hated Art Bash, and in fact the turnout was the biggest I'd seen for this gala. The best part, of course, was the insanely fun fashion.
Gabriel Mullen was definitely this year's look to beat, dressed in head-to-toe industrial tubing that they did by hand. The whole ensemble had metal screw-on caps fitted about four days prior, Gabriel told me. And yes that's me looking like a derp in yet another ballgown, holding an ice cream from KoolFi Creamery & Cafe.
I did not personally spot Oyuki Lopez, pictured above, but she likewise looked fabulous in what could be a $1,400 Hervé Léger gown and wide-brimmed hat.
Lisa and Alejandro Gibes de Gac sported vintage finds from the Pickwick Vintage Show. Literally every piece on point, but I could not stop obsessing over Lisa's skirt that had been quilted from felt pieces. When asked who designed it, she casually said Comme des Garçons. Because of course.
Much fancy, very gay looks on Max Sousa, Taage Storey and Juan Castano looking like they started Folsom Street Fair a little early this year. I loved the rope look on Sousa, who has also mastered a whole suit blazer and shorts fit in a way I've never allowed my boyfriend to do.
I did not get a photo of her, but separately, I loved a woman in a blue fringe short dress who quite clearly hit up Temu before donning said frock. When asked where she got it, she said, "The internet." Exactly the sort of answer I give when anyone asks if my Amazon purse is a $5,800 Judith Leiber clutch.
This was only my fourth year attending Art Bash, and it is impossible to experience the party any one specific way because there are six floors of partying. While my friends were shoveling in hot dogs on the second floor, for example, Zac Posen showed off a new GAP jacket on 'Wonder Woman' star Connie Nielsen.
And there is in fact art to see, lol. Near the end of the night we wandered through walls of Sol LeWitt's graphite and crayon lines. Sitting briefly at a bench, I chatted up Ellie Yoon of WindBorne Systems as we watched people through a window make origami or something. "Are they art?" she asked. "Maybe we're the art and they're watching us," I said.
Soon the people found us from the other side of the wall and said they thought we were an exhibit. Ellie, a recent New York transplant, found it riotously funny that my purse had business cards in it and nothing else. "That's so San Francisco," she said. I can't remember laughing harder at a local gala.
Saul Sugarman is editor-in-chief and owner of The Bold Italic.
The Bold Italic is a not-for-profit media organization, and we publish first-person perspectives about San Francisco and the Bay Area. We operate under a fiscal sponsorship of a 501(c)(3).
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Art Bash 2026 at a glance
- The dinner was designed by artist Jeffrey Gibson, who transformed the Floor 7 galleries into an immersive, multisensorial environment of printed textiles, video, patterns, and texts pulled from his interdisciplinary practice
- Live auction led by Sotheby's auctioneer Phyllis Kao
Auction lots
- Works by Woody De Othello, Derek Fordjour, Rashid Johnson, KAWS, Dana Schutz, Wolfgang Tillmans, Anicka Yi, and Flora Yukhnovich
- A studio experience with Nicolas Party in New York
Musical performances (presented in partnership with Stern Grove Festival)
- Shannon & The Clams — vintage-infused, garage-psych
- Ruby Ibarra — Bay Area Filipina rapper, spoken-word artist, and 2025 NPR Tiny Desk Contest winner for "Bakunawa"
- DJ Wonway Posibul
- Cruise Control — jazz and R&B fusion duo, performed during cocktails in Schwab Hall (Floor 2) from 6–7 p.m.
- DJ heyLove — Premium Party Lounge, Floor 2
Art activations
- Rupy C. Tut (2024 SECA Award winner) — Floor 4, Gina and Stuart Peterson White Box. A shifting landscape of animated paintings cycling from morning sky to firefly-lit night, accompanied by Nava Dance Theatre's two stagings of Resilience, a visual and musical performance co-created with the artist
- Amophonic — immersive soundscape
- Rose D'Amato (2024 SECA Award winner) — Floor 5 pavilion, 8:30–9:30 p.m. An installation blending paintings, film, and windows that revisits the neon and painted signage of San Francisco's Market Street storefronts and trolley cars
- Zenni: The Art of Seeing — interactive photo experience with Zenni gifts
- PremiumShotz Glam Cam — portrait photo booth
