It was an especially hazy December day in San Francisco. Except this time, it wasn’t the usual layer of fog that was responsible for the murkiness, but rather a strange weather system that draped the city in a cloud of smog. When I got off the elevator that soared 69 stories with bullet train-like speed to the penthouse of the 181 Fremont building Downtown, I had an insane view of this eerily exquisite weather phenomenon from 700 feet up in the sky. I scanned the sweeping panorama below to see the expanse of the Bay Bridge bisected by Treasure Island, the South Beach Harbor filled with boats, Oracle Park and the comparatively shorter high-rises beneath me. But then, my eyes were quickly drawn to something else: painter Tyler Willis’s stunning Portraits series, which was currently on display in the many chambers of the space I had just walked into, Gallery 181, the highest art gallery in the world.
The 181 Fremont building itself is separated from the more infamous Salesforce Tower by the above ground Salesforce Park. Completed in 2018, 181 Fremont is the building with the unmistakable spire that marks the SF skyline. That this penthouse art gallery exists in a residential building is one of its many unique features. Before Willis, actor Sharon Stone had her artwork on exhibit here. There’s a large bathroom off one of the rooms, with a bathtub by a floor-to-ceiling window that Keanu Reeves bathed in for a scene in Matrix Resurrections. It’s not your typical gallery space.
Gallery 181 hosts a number of pop-up exhibits and events. Artists like famed sculptor Richard Serra and photographer Timothy White have had their work up here before. Gallery 181 has also partnered with heavyweight galleries like New York City’s Lehmann Maupin and the multi-national Sprueth Magers. You have to make an appointment to view the works (Portraits runs through February 28th, 2025), and it’s an art gallery experience unlike any other.
Walking into the gallery’s main room, Willis’s “Fire Dancer” is gorgeously imposing. The 40′ x 40′ acrylic painting of an ornate dancer in motion hangs on a corner wall in-between two of the largest windows in the suite. I spin around and the subjects of “Embrace in Noir” have their gaze fixed on me, almost as if we’re looking out the windows together. “Each piece has its own space to breathe,” Willis says, a statement that really speaks to a cardinal feature of Gallery 181’s layout and locale.
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These shops have your sartorial cravings coveredThere are gold leaf-splattered abstract works in a hallway that leads to another room where the sun pouring in calls to me like a siren. Willis’s “Favela Rhythm” is the star in this one, a square canvas with the diagonal shape of multi-colored ramshackle favelas built into a Brazilian hilltop. It’s inspired by the artist’s Brazilian heritage (something we both share), and the juxtaposition of looking at these makeshift structures within the building in which they’re depicted is striking.
Around the corner, a small closet-like display area with its own views features graphite and charcoal sketches of SZA and Rihanna. Another room has a combination of digital and charcoal portraits of Black music luminaries from Marvin Gaye and Kendrick Lamar to Lil Nas X and The Weeknd — part of the artist’s “One Hour Portrait” series. Behind me, are full color works of Kobe Bryant, The Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac and Chadwick Boseman.
I take a seat to admire Willis’s “Miranda,” a portrait inspired by his cousin, and stare down at the Embarcadero piers. I walk along the walls to admire the granular details of Willis’s work and his brushstrokes. Below me, a ferry boat zips into the bay, and the wake left behind feels like the boat’s own brushstrokes — a duality that could only be experienced in the highest art gallery in the world I suppose.
“It’s pretty surreal up here,” Willis says. “It brings new light to all the pieces. Especially when it’s a really bright day — the walls are white and the floors are light color — you see everything vividly.”
Back in the main room, Willis shows me how some of his paintings have a near field communication (NFC) tag. I approach the tag with my phone, and a web page using Adobe Aero opens up with an augmented reality view of some of his works. On my screen, I see leaves fluttering behind the couple in “Embrace in Noir,” while bubbles surround the subject of “Sunkissed.” Because Willis maps out his works digitally, he has layers and sketches of each. It’s another dynamic to this exhibit and gallery that I didn’t see coming.
As the artwork shifts from room to room, so does the SF cityscape. Because every room in Gallery 181 has its own vantage point, it’s an apt reflection of the city and its many hills, if there ever was one. Together, it’s part of the constant surrealism that’s both in Willis’s work and of simply standing 700 feet in the sky at Gallery 181.
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