Oriental Art Gallery

The Oriental Art Gallery is akin to a shop you’d probably read about in a Kurt Vonnegut novel, and the realization that a store like this exists in the real world is a completely surreal experience.
That being said, it’s the most wonderfully strange and delightfully eclectic shop I’ve ever been to. You’ll find pins, patches, and collectibles fit for all your favorite friends (or you can keep ‘em for yourself).
The owner is a sweetheart, albeit a bit hard of hearing so you may need to speak up a bit for any questions.

Funkadelic, psychedelic, madness. Find history on a pin in here.

Two words: MUST SEE. It’s a little intimidating, a small cramped (read:messy) space but once you can look past that there are thousands of hidden gems– mostly in the vintage enamel pin form– for you to explore. Every time I looked I saw something I hadn’t seen before. Do yourself a favor and start a chat with the owner. She’s had the place for over 40 years and has a great sense of humor. Prices for pins range from $ 2.99 to $ 5.99, a small price to pay for all that hard to find flare! I ended up spending $ 100 on enamel pins (it adds up quickly) but I will definitely be back on my next trip to SF.
If you’re looking for current emoji pins and what not this is not the place for you.

Pin lady!
She is one of the most friendly persons you will ever interact with. Please help keep an icon of olde San Francisco alive by supporting her. She offers a wide selection of rare iconic enamel lapel pins, and artistic collectibles.
One of the most patient, and accommodating people I have ever dealt with. A special place in my heart for the pin lady.
She is true throwback to the olde San Francisco.

This is one of my favorite stores in the country. They carry enamel novelty pins, small porcelain animals, and regional embroidered patches. That doesn’t sound like enough to keep a store open for 40 years but, if there is any truth left in this world, that’s exactly what happened with this place.
The owner is a doll, the pins are treasures, the hours are worth writing down. Oriental Art Gallery is a beautiful time capsule and it’s not my secret to keep.

recognize

Beautiful art for all to admire and buy.

I bought a ”I LOVE PIZZA” pin. This store has alot of cool shit. The old lady was smiling the whole time and she has pictures of herself along with eddie debartolo, steve young, and other 49ers displayed which I thought was so cool.

About the pins — definitely a must for putting on hats — duck bills, fedoras, hand knits — these pins make even some mass market Goorin hat look unique. Love it.

Also, the last time I was in there she had a bag of crunchy trail mix bits in a bag and offered me some, and kept offering me more and more and more!!! I had like 5 handfuls. she is so nice. and I think it’s only open on Sundays and I work sunday so that’s why I never thought she was open.

I’m from Phoenix, but I spent a morning poking around in Sunset recently and happened on this weird little shop. I passed it in the morning on my way to procure something hot to drink, and was awestruck by the massive display of enamel pins and weird figurines. There are literally thousands of them in the shop window alone. Pinss depicting animals, words, cars, places, obscene slogans, anything you could imagine. My eye was particularly drawn to the dozen or more plastic pins shaped like different automatic weapons. How does someone find something like that? The store wasn’t open, but I made up my mind to come back when it was.
Holy God. This place is nuts. They have thousands more pins inside, as well as patches and various collectibles. The woman who runs it cracked me up, too. She might seem like she might not understand English well, but if you ask about a pin, she always has information for you and can find the box for that pin among her massive inventory in seconds flat. I inquired about a pin depicting an owl, and after indicating the one I meant, she smiled knowingly and said, «Ah! The Professor.»
I and the friend I was with picked out a bunch of pins as gifts for people back home. He got one of a bare-​breasted woman’s torso with a sash that said «Booby Prize» for his amply bosomed girlfriend. I picked out a rooster, a hand flipping the middle finger, an elephant, and one of those automatic weapons for myself.
If and when I come back to Sunset, you bet I’ll be visiting this shop again.

This is one of those places that you walk by countless times, stare at the window covered with all kinds of pins, patches and what not, and wonder at its complete randomness — but yet, never step foot into.
It wasn’t until there was a need to look for some pins did I re-​discover this place. After all the years I’ve vaguely known about its existence, I finally walked in. First, you try to wrap your head around this place, which is pretty dimly lit and a little bit of clutter here and there. Then, you notice the HUGE collection of pins on display and pretty much just remain in awe of it all.
It’s got every pin you could possibly imagine for sale there! The Asian lady that owns the place is is a crack up to interact with too, in a good way. She is obviously very enthusiastic about her collection and appears to just love interacting with her customers.
You can’t help but walk out of here with a smile — as weird and different you thought the whole experience was

I’m kinda in love with this store.
Whenever I walk by — I always find myself stopping to peer into the dusty windows — at the rows. and rows, and rows, and rows — of little miniature figures, pins, patches, and other elements of pure beautiful randomness adorning the shelves.
It’s window browsing at it’s best.
Seriously.
But like other reviewers have pointed out — this store has extremely strange hours — so I never stepped inside until this past weekend. In fact, like some pointed out — I’d just assumed that it was never open.
Walking inside this cozy world of trippiness — was perhaps the most enlightening thing I’ve done in awhile. I’ve never seen so many quirky pins before. This place has patriotic pins, San Francisco pins, sassy pins, obscene pins, animal pins, fairy pins, etc. etc. You name it — this store has it. A small older lady — hustled out to help me. Her eyes lit up, when she sensed my excitement at her collection of pins.
The older lady is the owner — and it was evident in my brief interaction with her — how much joy she gets from collecting random things, and how much she enjoys helping other people with their own collections. She explained that the store opens at 1:00pm, and closes fairly early as well, which largely explains why most people have trouble discovering how amazing Oriental Art Gallery is.
Probably the most impressive extracts of information that I took away from our conversation — is that the store has been around for over 40 years! 40 years! Like many stores in the Inner Sunset — Oriental Art Gallery is a real neighborhood artifact — and has survived a cascade of neighborhood changes. With eyes beaming she explained how people come from all over to find collector pins — and with prices ranging from 3 – 4 dollars a pin — it’s a fairly cheap hobby to build upon. Tilting her head to the side — she explained how her husband who had passed away a little while back, had never shared her love of pins. In his passing though — she said she was able to really pursue her own love of them — and has been collecting them ever since.
I ended up walking away with a darling «I Love San Francisco» pin for three dollars. On the way out I noticed a gorgeous San Francisco landscape pin. Down the road I’m hoping to buy two of them (the owner buys a handful of the same pins at a time) and transform them into a unique pair of earrings.
If you’re in the Inner Sunset or near Golden Gate Park on a weekend afternoon — take a detour here. I assure you that you will be blown away, confused, and enthralled at the charm and randomness this place holds.
Trust.

I like coming here for the selection of pins and trinkets they have here. The little old lady who runs it is always very eager to help. They also have a wide array of iron-​on patches, mostly things like national crests, military logos, and the like. I’ve also bought a couple of cool pendants here. They have everything from Celtic Crosses to Mjollnirs (Thor’s Hammer for those who didn’t know) to deities like Shiva and Kali. One thing you wouldn’t expect is the amount of politically «incorrect» pins in this place… if you ask to see them that is.

Ok, so I finally got the balls to go inside this meldewy/​dungeony looking place. It’s owned by a really kooky old Asian woman, who chats like a lunatic. She’s pretty cute though, if you can deal with some weirdness in your life. She sells pins galore (seriously, if you have been looking for a pin of ANYTHING, she’ll probably have it), patches, collectible (?) sports cards, small figurines, and Asian religious items and art. She’s been there for 40 freakin’ years, people! And apparently she collects «miniatures», so that’s what’s up with all the junk in the window. So don’t be afraid to go inside, it’s dark and cluttered in there… but she sells a pin that says «I don’t do fat chicks». WTF, how could you pass that level of randomness up?

What the hell is this place? It looks like the dwelling of some urban hermit.
I can’t get in. Whether the door sign says «open» or «closed» the doors are locked and/​or the lights are off.
There are rows upon rows of art-​junk-​figures lining the window, but they don’t seem to be for sale. To be honest, I get the creeps every time I try to go in.
Anybody else been able to crack this mystery?