Yesterday, I went to an advance showing of the de Young Open to see two of my paintings hung alongside some really amazing work. (That’s me at 839 and 840.) The show is simply crammed full of art. Nine room with work hung salon-style. There is some amazing works of art in the show and some stuff that wasn’t cup of tea (a lot of abstract art, for whatever reason, rarely does it for me.) but all of it was clearly high quality work. The curators did a fantastic job of grouping them thematically – one room was political art, another portraits, another nature landscapes.
This showing was reserved for artists. I heard a lot of people having the same “Hey look! It’s my painting” conversation. There were some name brand artists there too. I heard from a staff member that the great Bay Area figurative painter Wayne Thiebaud, a huge influence, was there too. I had a quiet fanboy freakout at that news. I probably walked right past him but it's hard to tell who's who with everyone wearing masks.
The de Young Open opens to the pubic October 10 and runs through to the end of the year.
