Exhibition

Arthur Tress: The Life Cycle of the Orange Rubber Traffic Cone

March 20 – January 22, 2027

SFO Museum

Photographer Arthur Tress transforms the humble traffic cone into a playful, poetic protagonist, revealing the humor and beauty of everyday life.

A black-and-white photograph of two stacked traffic cones supported by a horizontal pole in the foreground of a skatepark, extending over the edge of a chain-link fence. In the background, a shirtless person rides a skateboard along a concrete ramp, with other ramps and the shadow of a two-armed streetlight visible in the distance.

SFO Museum

200 Domestic Terminals Departures LevelSan Francisco, CA 94128

Enter at the B Gates checkpoint, turn left, walking past Green Apple Books. Gallery 1G is across from SF|EATS.

Cayuga Terrace, Parkmerced, Peninsula, SFO

Monday–Sunday  6 a.m.–11 p.m.

Admission is free, but requires an SFO Gate Explorer pass for post-security access.

Register

ADA Accessible

Since the mid-1950s, San Francisco–based artist Arthur Tress has developed a wide-ranging body of work, from social documentary photographs to boldly experimental and surrealist images. Throughout his career, Tress has looked beyond the obvious, finding inspiration in subjects and situations that invite closer attention. In recent years, he has used his Hasselblad camera to explore the poetry and humor of everyday life, discovering an unlikely muse in the humble traffic cone.

From 2015 to 2018, amid one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s cycles of construction and change, Tress developed an almost encyclopedic approach to the traffic cone through his daily practice of walking and photographing. Rather than simply documenting these cones, Tress uses a 45-degree tilt to create diamond-shaped compositions that are both balanced and disorientating, extending his surrealist imagination into the fabric of contemporary city life.

For Tress, the cone becomes an ever-evolving protagonist. Its shifting states—upright, coupled, in community, toppled, weathered, discarded—suggest an arc mirroring human life: emergence, vitality, connection, decline, and disappearance. Some of Tress’s photographs record scenes he encountered, while others result from his playful, theatrical interventions in the landscape. This body of work sits at the intersection of his lifelong impulses—part observation, part invention—demonstrating his enduring curiosity and drive to expand the possibilities of photographic seeing. His work encourages us to look for beauty and meaning within our ordinary surroundings.

How to Find the Gallery:

The exhibition is located post-security in Harvey Milk Terminal 1. After clearing the TSA checkpoint for the B Gates, turn left and walk past Ritual Coffee and Green Apple Books. Continue ahead to SFO Museum’s Gallery 1G, located directly across from the SF|EATS Food Hall, which includes Napa Valley Farms, Kona’s, and Tony’s Pizza. The gallery entrance is marked and framed by dark stone.

Exhibiting Artists

Arthur Tress

A black-and-white photograph of a traffic cone balanced on the cut end of a tree trunk, overlooking a residential Daly City neighborhood with hills in the distance.
A black-and-white photograph of a small bird standing on a concrete ledge beside three traffic cones marked “GGB,” with the Golden Gate Bridge visible through fog in the background.
A black-and-white photograph of three traffic cones demarcating the edge of a crumbling sinkhole. In the distance, a partial view of a person appears at the edge of the sand, overlooking the water.

Arthur Tress, Traffic Cone atop Trimmed Tree, Daly City, 2017. Archival pigment print. © Arthur Tress Archive LLC, Courtesy of the artist

SFO Museum

Established in 1980 by the San Francisco Airport Commission, SFO Museum’s mission is to elevate the airport experience by connecting the Bay Area to the world, through inspiring stories of culture, aviation history, and art.

Learn More

Things to Do Around Here

Loading map…