While most markets have come and gone as we draw nearer to Christmas there are still a few you can check out this weekend Read on for Bay Area Christmas markets with homemade pastries, decorations, and small-business products Or holiday craft fairs with all the handmade jewelry Check out the new ICA SF building at their holiday market which will feature artisanal items from local artists including ceramics View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ocean Avenue Association (@sfoceanave) Ocean Avenue will host an adorable holiday celebration on the Saturday before Christmas Enjoy a mini winter wonderland complete with Santa pictures 📅 Dates: Dec. 21, 2024 from 3-6pm 📍 Location: Unity Plaza, 1002-1040 Ocean Ave, San Francisco, CA 94112 🎁 Learn more: @sfoceanave on Instagram View this post on Instagram A post shared by Scents by the Bay (@scents.by.the.bay) 📅 Dates: Dec. 21-24, 2024 (11am-6pm) 📍 Location: 1980 Allston Way between Maritn Luther King and Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA 🎁 Learn more: Telegraph Ave Street Fair “The Bay’s Cutest Marketplace” is back in the Bay with themed food Pick up exclusive handcrafted merch and try to get there early because they’re giving free merch to the first 50-150 guests 📅 Dates: Dec. 21, 2024 (10am-4pm) 📍 Location: Aquarian Plants, 1149 1st Street, Benicia, CA 94510 🎁 Learn more: @aquarianplants on Instagram A special holiday market devoted to occult products including antique items Enchant takes over PayPal Park with massive glittering light displays, an ice skating trail You can shop artisan gifts at the Village while snacking on gourmet s’mores and sipping seasonal drinks 📅 Dates: Nov. 22 – Dec. 29, 2024 📍 Location: PayPal Park, 123 Coleman Ave, San Jose, CA 🎁 Learn more: Enchant San Jose The Great Dickens Christmas Fair and Victorian Holiday Party is a bucket-list seasonal experience in Daly City every year See Victorian London brought to life by old-timey shops 📅 Dates: Weekends Nov. 23 – Dec. 22, 2024 (10am-6pm) 📍 Location: Cow Palace Exhibition Halls, 2600 Geneva Avenue, Daly City, CA 🎁 Learn more: Dickens Christmas Fair 📅 Dates: Open now 📍 Location: Cesar Chavez Plaza, Downtown San Jose, 1 Paseo de San Antonio, San Jose, CA 🎁 Learn more: Christmas in the Park Print If you happened to be wandering through the crowded sidewalks around the arcades of Santee Alley on a recent Saturday you may have encountered a most unusual procession in the heart of downtown L.A There was a woman in a blue ball gown accompanied by a pack of demons in shades of cobalt blue Two red devils appeared in three-quarter-length gloves and chiffon skirts Then there was the slow-moving performer who swayed gently through arcades decked out in yellow dish gloves and a ball gown crafted from industrial mop heads The spectacle was led by Los Angeles artist Rafa Esparza — who was decked out in a noisy necklace of mechanical toy dogs for the occasion — and who is the subject of an exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles. The show, “de la Calle,” meaning “of the street,” is as much about bringing elements of the outdoors into the museum — say a floor covered in a slab of cracked adobe — as it is about taking some of the museum’s contents into the surrounding streets of downtown Los Angeles Hence the Santee Alley performance — titled “a la calle” or “to the street” — a guerrilla affair whose time and location was disseminated only via word of mouth I bumped into a friend at Santee Alley I only ever see at a nightclub ‘Ohhh.’ This is where a lot of us shop for our looks the exhibition and the performance have been a bit of a homecoming Not that he has been entirely absent from Los Angeles: In January, he collaborated with sculptor Beatriz Cortez on an installation that explored ideas about gardens in a show at the Koreatown art space Commonwealth and Council lined with arcades that run parallel to Santee Street from Olympic Boulevard to 12th Street offered a much different panorama from some of the white-box settings he has been working in recently The crowded fashion district arcades are bustling with vendors — of clothing churros and scented oils named for celebrities like Rihanna which included drag performer Kiki Xtravaganza multimedia artist Gabriela Ruiz (known as Leather Papi) who was accompanied by the aforementioned blue demons as well as models wearing pieces by the designer Tanya Melendez (otherwise known as Nena Soul Fly) Esparza discusses the chance encounter that helped inspire the performance the continuing evolution of his adobe installations and what it’s like to face a Santee Alley security guard while wearing a mound of barking mechanical puppies What inspired you to take to the streets of Santee Alley for a performance?This is an idea I’ve had for years I initially was thinking of downtown because I used to live off of 7th and Spring I saw a lot of shops that were owned by Latinx families that were disappearing — quickly Then I started having a conversation with [ICA curator] Jamillah [James] and it became more apparent and more important to me to bring this idea to life One day I bumped into a friend there at Santee Alley — a friend I only ever see at a nightclub “Ohhh.” This is where a lot of us shop for our looks because it’s cheap and because it’s great fashion So many people who are thinking about fashion [and] who are queer have a specific relationship to the callejones [arcades] And what’s great about the Alley is seeing the people there A lot of the materials we used were made from materials pulled from the callejones It turns out that Santee Alley is privately owned go ahead.” And she started to go with her vacuum — she was doing this performance where she was using a vacuum to clean through the alley — and this gentleman told her “You can’t go in.” She came and got me and said “We can’t go in.” So I go to the security guy and I say But I’m wearing this hoodie with a couple of dozen barking puppies and I’m trying to have this serious conversation [Laughs.] And I just realized that I needed to be lighthearted about this “We need to find parts for this vacuum.” I felt like the security guard just needed to be validated Gabby [Gabriela Ruiz — Leather Papi] was the second to last person and she had this platform and it had wheels on it “You can’t come in.” So Gabby’s crew [the blue demons] just walked around the block and joined the rest of the group a third of the way in It still happened — it just happened differently Performer Moe Guinevere dressed in a blue gown designed by Gabriela Ruiz Miranda / Los Angeles Times ) A slab of adobe is on the floor of the ICA installation It’s also a staging area for performances such as this How has your adobe work evolved?I don’t have a studio so spaces like the ICA become where I experiment I had a really wonderful time building up a space — being in this brown rotunda with everyone I invited I was using the adobe as a building material But [for the ICA] I wanted to pull away from building a container I wanted to use it as more of a vehicle to drive these experimental collaborations I wanted this to be an exhibition space and a work space — where artists I invite can come and make garments and make looks and make their work And the things that they made would be used for the performance that we were all working toward in Santee Alley The gallery version of “a la calle”: A detail from Rafa Esparza’s room-sized “de la calle” (“of the street”)installation at ICA LA Miranda / Los Angeles Times ) What was the crowd’s response to the parade?There was everything There was someone saying we were going to hell Gabby said that she overheard this little girl telling her parents I just saw these two devils and a bunch of blue people with horns and a guy was wearing puppies on his hoodie!” And she was so excited It’s so much in those moments — these fleeting three-second glimpses of extraordinary things we see in the world Artist Noé Olivas does not go unnoticed at Santee Alley in a gown made from mops Miranda / Los Angeles Times ) There were many wild sights during the performance Which are the ones you will remember the most?There were so many I’m still thinking about Noé Olivas [dressed in the gown made from mops] There was this kind of varying degrees of spectacle as Noé performed There was a quietness that was so powerful and that has so many layers — it speaks to labor That he could be so quiet with such an extravagant gown in such a place And then Kiki being one of the main inspirations for this performance it felt like such an honor to have this living legend join us in this processional performance Kiki [who was wearing a pair of clear exotic dancer heels a mask and a blond wig] was in the streets but we have room in the back!” And she jumped in and her legs were kicking She was being so vivacious and fearless and playful That kind of improvisation is the riskiest and the most challenging kind of performance work There was this moment when we were walking back and I put my arm around her waist and I said Where: Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles Info: theicala.org Artist Rafa Esparza is using 5,000 adobe bricks to make a building-inside-a-building in Hollywood From a motorcycle obstacle course to experimental vocals: Latino performance art coming to L.A. in 2018 What the dismantling of the Berlin Wall can teach us as Trump tries to build his wall A new U.S.-Mexico border? At the Venice Biennale, imagining a binational region called MEXUS Sign up for our weekly Essential Arts & Culture newsletter » carolina.miranda@latimes.com @cmonstah Carolina A. Miranda is a former Los Angeles Times columnist who focused on art and design, with regular forays into other areas of culture, including performance, books and digital life. Entertainment & Arts Hollywood Inc. Travel & Experiences Television Music Subscribe for unlimited access Site Map