JUSTIN CAGUIAT and Rafael Delacruz
The Tramp

June 10 – November 21, 2026
CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts

145 Hooper Street
San Francisco, CA 94107

Justin Caguiat and Rafael Delacruz collaborate on an exhibition at the Wattis Institute titled The Tramp, bringing together newly commissioned film, installation, painting, and prints. At the heart of the exhibition is Caguiat and Delacruz’s film, which follows two characters Wesely (and his dog Chips) and Hiroko, as they wander the streets of Oakland and fields of Half Moon Bay dressed in baggy pants, snug jacket, and bowler hat. As a point of reference, the artists use Charlie Chaplin’s beloved character “The Tramp,” who appeared in the 1915 silent film with the same name, shot and produced by Essanay Studios in Fremont, 35 miles south of San Francisco. A mischievous vagrant living on the margins, the Tramp reappears in many of Chaplin's films and became the everyman’s hero. His playful antics helped him elude authority figures and trick the elite to survive in a modernizing society.

This exhibition is Justin Caguiat’s and Rafael Delacruz’s first institutional exhibition on the West Coast.

Justin Caguiat and Rafael Delacruz: The Tramp is curated by Daisy Nam, director and chief curator, and Diego Villalobos, former associate curator.

To learn more, visit the Wattis' website.