Ingleside’s loss is West Portal’s gain and then some.
The pop-up art project Ingleside Gallery has hit its stride using the walls of West Portal’s Ballast Coffee to show works. Its last show of the year demonstrates its evolution into a must-see attraction for the affluent neighborhood.
“Portal, Puzzle, Pretzel, Pothole” brings SOMArts Cultural Center’s Education Coordinator Matt Goldberg’s five-year-long project to life with 29 collage pieces and four ceramic sculptures that depict Goldberg’s approaches and reactions to working with various materials.
“Collage has become an important way for me to make sense of the world, and has gained serious traction in my studio practice,” Goldberg said. “The pieces on display at Ballast are what I consider among my best.”
Goldberg’s exhibit is the 19th to emerge from Ballast Coffee’s and the Ingleside Gallery’s partnership, a collaboration that started in 2021.
San Francisco-based artist Shrey Purohit started the gallery in September 2021 in several storefronts along Ocean Avenue to showcase local artists and allow them to display their pieces for the first time.
Later, Purohit rented space at the former Ocean Incubators location near Miramar Avenue and Ocean Avenue, where he would host the main, larger pop-ups every week. Simultaneously, he was also hosting satellite shows and smaller pop-ups at non-traditional venues like cafes, including Ballast Coffee.
Purohit had struggled to maintain the opening day momentum week to week, and after bringing in partners and then running out of finances, he made the decision to close the Ingleside space in 2022. He wanted to keep the gallery going in some way and moved showings to Ballast Coffee, which has been the gallery’s home base ever since.
“My goal with Ingleside Gallery is to find artists that are doing cool stuff that I can bring into the West Portal [and] Ingleside neighborhood, but also bringing in other curators and gallerists that can give them other opportunities, and I have seen that blossom really well in the past few years,” Purohit said.
Before Purohit, Ballast Coffee founder Paolo Araneta had organized multiple shows for local artists and students to showcase their pieces, but when balancing the work to run his business and these exhibits became too much to handle, he began looking for help. When he met Purohit through an artist and patron of the cafe, he knew he had found the perfect person to take over the artistic operations.
“Since 2021, I’ve given Shrey full creative freedom to exhibit and show local artists who are passionate about their work,” Araneta said. “Shrey rotates exhibits every two months with a reception for every show, which has both me and my regulars very pleased.”
Artists like San Francisco-based painter Sarah Horowitz have come to admire the synchronicity that’s been created between the Ingleside Gallery and Ballast Coffee.
“The gallery benefits from the natural foot traffic of the café, and café-goers get to experience a revolving selection of thought-provoking, beautiful artwork while they’re in the space,” she said.
Horowitz exhibited “Gaps & Glances,” works that depict scenes from her backyard and highlighted the wage gap between male and female artists, at Ballast Coffee from Aug. 16 to Sept. 30.
Goldberg’s exhibit and a pop-up at People's Barber on Polk Street called “lucid memories, fuzzy dreams” exhibit by artists Lys Yang and Lois, will conclude this year’s showings for the gallery.
Goldberg’s exhibit will also have a reception on Dec. 14 from noon to 1 p.m. for a VIP preview and a general reception from 1 to 3 p.m.
“I'm grateful that I get to share what I've made — especially from a connection that walked so naturally into my studio,” said Goldberg, who met Purohit at SOMArts. “Realistically, many more eyeballs will see this work in a coffee shop than in my studio or even a gallery.”
Purohit already has a lineup for Ballast Coffee’s shows for next year, which will feature four artists and their two-month-long exhibits from February 2026 to January 2027.
“Ingleside has really made me the person I am, so I can represent the neighborhood on such a large scale and continue to do the work that I do citywide,” Purohit said.
