Having recently passed the midpoint of a defining decade, we’re just becoming aware of The Great Reordering’s cascading collective traumas. The retail experience transitioned from shopping bags to cardboard boxes. Campuses with movie nights, lecture series, gyms and celebrity chefs were swallowed by Zoom meetings. Empty offices hollowed our cities and flattened urban social culture.
Countervailing dynamics inevitably come into play, and the oversupply of commercial space has one silver lining. It can be seen in the renaissance of culture at micro-galleries and pop-ups. From Gilroy to Japantown and Downtown San Jose, storefronts are being filled with art and activity.
History suggests this is a moment in time worth savoring. Central district art booms are transitional and self-displacing—both a driver for and precursor to gentrification. The post-millennium explosion of art spaces in DTLA was priced out by amenities and luxury housing.
Embedded in each megatrend are innumerable personal journeys, and one that illustrates the current Zeitgeist might be Alfredo Muccino’s. A few years ago he was designing employment documents for Walmart as a highly sought-after creative director. This week on Thursday he unveils a pop-up exhibit that expresses the “mortality of dreams and the erosion of ideals, ambitions and hopes in a world that seems increasingly detached from its own humanity.” Wow.
As the longtime creative lead at Liquid Agency, Muccino worked in Downtown San Jose’s SoFA District for several decades. After leaving the agency and his comfortable Willow Glen suburban existence, he embraced a semi-nomadic lifestyle, spending time in Italy, Morocco, Brooklyn, Black Rock City and rural enclaves off the highways of the Western states. Eventually, he returned to downtown San Jose, where he owns a small restored historic building that once housed, during SoFA’s red-light days, an adult book and novelty store.
In New York City, where he established Solid Branding and shared an office with the late graphic design pioneer Milton Glaser, he saw established galleries untethering themselves to real estate. “Some of the larger ones have been shutting down their permanent locations, opting to instead have pop up-galleries throughout the year in conjunction with major shows, which gives them the flexibility of being in different locations within the city and introducing themselves to different communities.
“It’s more intimate and can create a different experience for people and, of course, from an economic perspective, they don’t have to carry the overhead of those large spaces all the time. It creates a sense of celebrating a moment as opposed to being there all the time, too.”
The virtualization that consumed static workspaces and retail venues upended the art world as well, in a different way. Once known for low single-digit storefront vacancy rates, New York City’s government breathlessly announced a year ago that unoccupied spaces had dropped to 11 percent, while identifying “a long-term shift toward food, drink, entertainment and other ‘experiential’ storefront businesses, and away from ‘dry goods’ retail like clothing, electronics and home goods.”
“It feels almost like people are seeing all these vacant spaces and saying what should we do with them? So let’s do something with them,” Muccino says.
The artist said he was inspired by the “Wallflowers” pop-up gallery established for five days in March by San Jose commercial realtor and art enthusiast Alexandra Stein—and by the three-month Morgan Trumbull Projects space at 445 S. First St., which will be open through Nov. 22.
Citing Picasso, Matisse, Schiele, DeChirico, Morandi and Hockney as influences, Muccino painted for enjoyment while in the thick of creating 200-page brand identity manuals for big multinational corporations. Silicon Valley technology eventually disrupted the industry itself, giving Muccino an opening to reflect, through his art, on his personal journey.
Alfredo Muccino: ‘Behind the Curtain’
Opening Celebration
Nov. 7, 5-9pm
447 S. First St., San Jose
Exhibit runs through Nov. 21, 2025
Zheng Chongbin
The Field of Shui Mo
鄭重賓：水墨的場域
Silicon Valley Asian Art Center
150 E. Santa Clara St., Suite B, San Jose
Runs through Nov. 17, 2025
Note: This article was updated to remove a reference to the Institute of Contemporary Art being at 447 S. 1st St. It was next door, in a space later occupied by Liquid Agency.
Thanks for this article Dan, and recognizing Alfredo. And thanks to Morgann Trumbull for also activating this space with exhibits. One small correction: the building that housed Institute of Contemporary Art, and later Works/San José, and then leased as part of Liquid Agency, is next door to Alfredo’s property at 451 South First St. That property, which is in the state historic registry, was owned by then First Street Associates Two, led by Mark Zamudio and David Sandlin who presently have it up for sale.
You are correct, Joe, thanks. We have updated the article.