The deYoung Open 2023

The deYoung Museum's triennial competition, the deYoung Open, began a four-month run last week in Golden Gate Park. Bay Area artists were invited to submit JPG photos of single art works created in the last two years to a jury.

The jurors were Bay Area artists Clare Rojas, Stephanie Syjuco, Sunny A. Smith, and Xiaoze Xie, along with eight curators from the museum.

Submissions were capped at 12,000 with 800+ artists making the final cut.

The show is presented salon style, meaning art on the walls from floor to ceiling. Reportedly, the curators started with a computer program that mapped out sizes and color combinations for each room, and then they edited it.

There is also a bit of sculpture, including Hollow by Pacifica sculptor James Shefik.

There wasn't much political art in the exhibition but there were a few standouts, including America by photographer Christopher Simmons.

There is a lot of fine portraiture, including Maggie and Cody by K.Dilley that looks like an Alice Neel painting for the 21st century...

...and painter Tori Berghoff's depiction of a sweet-souled San Rafael neighbor, Daniel Waiting for the Bus.

A couple of acquaintances had paintings in the show while quite a few other acquaintances were not selected.

The Foggy Trail is by Karen Ames who I met in the classical music world. She explains on her website, "Karen began painting at the start of the pandemic when the cultural world closed down and her forty-year career as a senior communications executive came to an end. At that point, she picked up a brush for the first time and began the journey of becoming a painter."

Three Windows is by another acquaintance, San Francisco painter Mark D. Powers, who usually specializes in hyperrealistic street scenes that I love.

The huge exhibit is eventually overwhelming since there is no way to absorb 800+ images in one walkthrough. My only advice is to find a few of your own favorites the first time around and then use them as anchors for a second visit.