Exhibitions

“In March, following the unexpected closure of the Fine Arts Museums, The de Young Open and a call for submissions were announced and, beginning in June, local artists were encouraged to submit recent or newly created work to the exhibition through an online portal. An impressive 11,514 artworks submitted by 6,188 artists from across the nine Bay Area counties.Every artwork image was reviewed anonymously multiple times by a group of qualified jurors who did not know the identities of the artists. The jurors included four Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco curators in charge and three prominent Bay Area artists: Mildred Howard, Hung Liu, and Enrique Chagoya. Given the space limitations in our main exhibition galleries, the seven jurors were faced with the challenging task of selecting and accepting less than 8 percent of all the works submitted.

Works of art in The de Young Open are hung “salon-style,” installed edge to edge and floor to ceiling, which enables a maximum number of works to be displayed. The de Young filled the 12,000-square-foot Herbst Exhibition Galleries with 877 artworks by 762 Bay Area artists in The de Young Open.”

Bay Area artists jam-pack vivid ‘de Young Open’San Francisco Examiner, October 26, 2020

The reopened de Young Museum hosts 877 works by Bay Area artists telling the story of the momentThe Guardian, October 10, 2020Bay Area artists jam-pack vivid ‘de Young Open’San Francisco Examiner, October 26, 2020

‘On the Edge’: ‘The de Young Open’ exhibition calls for submissions from Bay Area artistsThe Daily Californian, May 22, 2020

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