20,000 / San Francisco, California

In San Francisco, during the period after the 1906 earthquake and until the 1950’s, there were dozens of amazing theaters, most of them in central Market Street area (Strand, Unique, Embassy, Rialto, Granada, Regal, Imperia, Pantages, Tivoli, Hub, State, Egyptian, and others) 20,000 is an estimation of the cumulative capacity of the now empty or lost theater seats that once populated Market Street. The loss of those remarkable single screen theaters is not unique to San Francisco. Those 20,000 missing seats on Market Street and all those in theaters like them worldwide are gone forever… yet they are still alive in our collective memories. Let’s go see a movie at one of San Francisco’s remaining single screen theaters such as the Vogue, Bridge, Clay, Balboa, Castro, Roxie, Empire, and 4Star.

20,000 missing seats

20,000 Missing Seats

Rafael Landea

Rafael Landea Artista Visual

A visual artist, Rafael Landea creates paintings and drawings in both traditional and digital media. His artistic style was greatly influenced by an early job as a theater stage designer resulting in artistic interpretations which are deeply narrative and inspired by historical facts, literature, theater, films, music and architecture.
His work has been recognized by institutions such as the San Francisco Arts Commission, Artery Project and Center for Cultural Innovation, plus was featured at Our Radar by Creative Capital New York.

He has shown his paintings at venues worldwide, including:

  • San Francisco, California: The Exploratorium, Grace Cathedral Gallery, Gensler Design.
  • Buenos Aires: Holocaust Museum, Malvinas Museum, Art and Memory Museum and Centro Cultural Haroldo Conti.
  • Participated in collective exhibitions in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and Cuba.

Rafael’s murals can be seen today in Buenos Aires, La Plata and San Francisco. He was lead artistic collaborator on Munú Actis Goretta’s mosaic murals near Turin and in Genoa, Italy.

Rafael has developed illustrations media and publishers in Argentina including Anfibia, Malisia, EME Ediciones B and Universities.

Rafael received his MFA at La Plata University, Argentina and developed his professional career between Buenos Aires and San Francisco. Rafael moved to Catalonia, Spain in 2024

He is developing a digital series inspired by the lives of two Native American men from opposite regions in north and south America, whose stories and destinies present surprising similarities.