SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- In celebration of the de Young museum’s 125th anniversary, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco opened The de Young Open, a juried community art exhibition welcoming submissions by artists from the nine Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma.

“As the de Young celebrates its distinguished 125-year history in 2020, we are proud to announce The de Young Open, creating a platform for the visionary artists who enrich the Bay Area’s cultural landscape,” states Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “Amid these uncertain times, this new initiative expands the Fine Arts Museums’ ongoing commitment to the Bay Area community and serves as a celebratory sign of our community’s strength and resilience. From local artists to art lovers, we look forward to welcoming our visitors back to the de Young museum this summer with this epochal exhibition.”

The de Young Open continues the museum’s long-standing tradition of engaging the local community and showcasing the talent of Bay Area artists. The optional theme for the exhibition, “On the Edge” derives from both the Bay Area’s geographic location on the Pacific Rim, but also the region’s historical reputation for leading-edge, cutting-edge, or edgy culture and creativity. Local artists were invited to submit their artworks to the exhibition June 1–14, 2020. 6,188 artists applied to be featured in the exhibition, submitting more than 11,514 individual artworks.

Timothy Anglin Burgard, Distinguished Senior Curator and Ednah Root Curator in Charge of American Art, headed up a curatorial jury to select the artworks in the exhibition that included Claudia Schmuckli, Curator of Contemporary Art and Programming, Karin Breuer, Curator in Charge of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts and Jill D'Alessandro, Curator in Charge of Costume and Textile Arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, in addition to renowned Bay Area artists Enrique Chagoya, Hung Liu and Mildred Howard.

“The Museums want to support our local art communities, particularly at a time when they are experiencing the negative impacts of the COVID-19 crisis,” says Burgard. “This innovative exhibition will provide a unique opportunity for our visitors to view the extraordinary breadth and depth of art created in the Bay Area.”

In total, 762 artists were selected for The de Young Open with a total of 877 artworks to be on view. These artists exhibiting work will be able to offer their works for sale and to retain 100 percent of the proceeds. Access The de Young Open Web Gallery to explore artworks in the exhibition.

In-Detail
The de Young Open is installed in all nine of the de Young’s Herbst Exhibition Galleries. Works in multiple media, representing a wide range of artistic styles, are grouped according to theme: Black Lives Matter and other political and social movements, COVID-19, the city of San Francisco, abstraction, nature, and the human figure. Works created by video and film artists will be featured in the museum’s nearby Media Room.




The first gallery of the exhibition showcases artists responding to political and social movements, particularly that of the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement. On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was killed by police officers in Minneapolis. A range of artistic responses that examine Floyd’s life and legacy are featured as our point of departure. When countless other Black lives have been lost to police brutality and racial injustice, and in a year with a divisive election looming, artists in this gallery have used their chosen medium as forms of protest. Other issues addressed include American politics, global warming, patriarchy, feminism, and LGBTQ rights.

As the COVID-19 pandemic began to disrupt our lives in unfathomable ways, artists featured in the second gallery responded to this incomprehensible time. Works reflecting a new reality characterized by shelter in place, social distancing, face coverings, online video meetings, mortality, and life in isolation serve as markers of this moment.

The exhibition’s third gallery explores our complex relationships with the city many call home. The artworks celebrate San Francisco’s iconic landmarks and architecture, as well as the beauty of its geographic location and its people. These artworks also spotlight the issues that beset our daily lives as San Franciscans—including homelessness, gentrification, income disparities, and the shrinking diversity of the population.

The fourth and fifth galleries of the exhibition showcase numerous forms of abstraction. Styles on display include gestural abstraction, color field images, hard-edge geometric works, surreal and imaginary imagery, and works inspired by cartoons and graffiti.

The sixth gallery pays homage to the natural world that surrounds us. From the vast Pacific Ocean to its dramatic headlands, from the blue waters of San Francisco Bay to the peaceful marshes of the delta, these works capture the distinctive topography of the Bay Area and California. Other works in this gallery address both the positive presence and the negative impact of human beings in and on the environment.

The seventh and eighth galleries are devoted to the human figure, including family, loved ones, workers, performers, religious and mythological subjects, and nudes. Other works address art, architecture, and art history.

The ninth gallery encompasses an array of smaller thematic groupings, including both mechanical and virtual machines, California and world history, suburbia, still life, and a series of images incorporating letters, words, and texts.

Finally, in the museum’s Media Room near the Herbst Exhibition Galleries, the work of 18 film and video artists is on view. Artists in this program embrace a multiplicity of styles that include animation, documentary, computer-generated imagery, montage, and narration. The themes range from identity, community, homelessness, hardship, and shelter in place to new technologies, climate change, medical science, and art itself.

Together painting a picture of an extraordinary time in recent human history, and representing both resistance and resilience, the diverse and inspiring artworks in The de Young Open are a testament to the creativity of the artists whose visions and voices enrich the San Francisco Bay Area’s cultural landscape.