Two wonderful new photography shows opened at SFMOMA last week: Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century, and Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera since 1870.

"Catholics may confess through a screen in a box, but Jews do it in public - preferably with an audience," write Sarah Lightman and Michael Kaminer, curators of Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women.

’Suggestions of a Life Being Lived’ at SF Camerawork

What to see at the galleries this fall...

Can it be that autumn is already upon us? One perusal of the upcoming exhibition schedule for area museums, and you know that summer is over and it’s time to get serious.

Although many won’t recognize Maira Kalman’s name, they’re likely familiar with her witty covers for The New Yorker magazine; her online, illustrated odysseys for The New York Times such as "Principles of Uncertainty" or "And the Pursuit of Happiness," an

Photographer Daniel Nicoletta discusses his storied career

In his new creative nonfiction book Role Models (Farrar Straus Giroux), independent film director John Waters writes about people who have inspired him in his brilliant career.

If you’ve been looking forward to Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musee d’Orsay, the blockbuster exhibition of nearly 100 paintings that opened at the de Young Museum last week, and you’re expecting an easily digestible parade of familiar, iconic works of Classical Impressionism, you will be in for something of a surprise.

During this brief lull between the wind-up of winter museum shows and the launch of summer blockbuster attractions like the Fisher Collection unveiling at SFMOMA in late June, there’s an assortment of interesting, idiosyncratic gallery shows to tickle the palette. Here’s a small and by no means comprehensive sample itinerary for the adventurously inclined.

Some people talk about diversity. Some people implement it. To my knowledge, San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) has yet to issue press releases about celebrating diversity or being inclusive. Instead, quietly and without fanfare, the museum’s small but stately building on Mission between 3rd & 4th Streets in downtown San Francisco has established itself as a place that’s open and welcoming to all.

Teeming with ideas, artist William T. Wiley’s mind is a crowded intersection where politics, literature and art history meet.

With Shanghai, a much-hyped, rudderless exhibition timed to coincide with San Francisco’s 2010 Sister City celebrations and Shanghai’s hosting of the World Expo in May, the Asian Art Museum steps bravely, if unsteadily, into the 20th and 21st centuries.

American industry takes form in artistic expression this week with the San Francisco debut of fine art photographer Susan Mikula’s American Device: Recent Photographs, opening at the George Lawson Gallery today (Thurs., Feb. 25). The exhibit follows a successful New York exhibit of sic transit, and Bearings, an exhibit of her work in Provincetown, MA, earlier last fall.