Today we made a visit to the de Young museum to see the Open 2023 exhibit. This exhibit celebrates the vision of Bay Area artists. There are 883 works on view created by artists who live in the nine counties surrounding San Francisco Bay. I was one of the 7,766 artists that submitted artwork, although my work was not selected. The piece I entered, Boulders, Alabama Hills, is available in my art store. I was curious to see what works had been selected. With an online web gallery, we were able use our phones to read about a few select pieces.
The first piece that caught my attention was piece #9, entitled Hollow by James Shefik, a piece based on a thumb push puppet. Here’s an excerpt from the artist’s statement:
My original intent was for the puppet to represent America’s continued slide into authoritarianism. The sculpture’s puppet character was made apparent by George Floyd’s murder and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests that spread worldwide. The Robert E. Lee puppet, when collapsed, reflected the fate of many of the monuments that had been raised in America in the past 120 years.
Of course, visiting an art exhibit is also about watching people, so I took a few images to document the event including some long exposures to introduce some intentional camera motion. I was clearly being watched while taking this photo. I’m calling the photo the watcher.
Here’s Joann photographing piece #694 entitled Name that Tune: H___ on the R____ by Ellen Reintjes. Ellen says:
Singing this traditional western song while viewing the painting will hopefully bring a smile to your face as the puns come alive.
We arrived at the museum about 11 a.m., spent an hour or so exploring the exhibit, took a break for lunch and returned to continue. It would be overwhelming to try and read about every piece but taking a few small bites about selected pieces made the experience quite enjoyable. The exhibit goes through January 7, so if you are interested in viewing this exhibit, time is of the essence.
