Elevate Art Menlo Park continues to add engaging contemporary art on the exterior walls of buildings in Downtown Menlo Park. The latest one, Untitled (Morning Glory, Nasturtium, and Gardening Tools), was installed on October 27, 2025.
Artist
Kija Lucas is an artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She uses photography to explore ideas of home, heritage, and inheritance, examining how these are passed on and how seemingly inconsequential moments can create lasting generational change. In this piece, she highlights two misplaced botanical specimens found throughout the Bay Area – one beloved and one maligned – to ask how we decide what is beautiful or useful. Alongside the morning glory and nasturtium, she includes gardening tools as a reminder of the labor involved in plant propagation.
The Installation
Description: Photography + Digital Art (13’ x 5’)
Installation Date: October 2025
Business Sponsor: Menlo Hardware
Location: Chestnut Street-side of 714 Santa Cruz Avenue
Artist’s Prior Exhibitions
Kija’s work has been exhibited at Oakland Museum of California, Anglim Gilbert Gallery, Headlands Center for the Arts, San Francsico Arts Commission Galleries, California Institute of Integral Studies, Palo Alto Arts Center, Intersection for the Arts, Mission Cultural Center, and Root Division, as well as Venice Arts in Los Angeles, CA, La Sala d’Ercole/Hercules Hall in Bologna Italy, and Casa Escorsa in Guadalajara, Mexico. Lucas has been an Artist in Residence at Montalvo Center for the Arts, Grin City Collective, and The Wassaic Artist Residency. Lucas received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and her MFA from Mills College.
Enjoy more works by this artist at her website.
The Downtown Menlo Park Art Walk
“Enriches our community and lifts everyone’s spirits!”
Elevate Art Menlo Park is building a unique public art walk in Downtown Menlo Park with a growing collection of contemporary art installed on the exterior walls of local businesses. We partner with retailers, restaurants, and building owners; commission artworks by Bay Area artists; and fully manage all aspects of the art installations. Elevate Art Menlo Park is an all-volunteer nonprofit funded by tax-deductible private donations. An online map is available for self-guided tours.
Contact Elevate Art Menlo Park to learn how to help us enhance Downtown Menlo Park with amazing art.
