There are several ways to sample California’s contemporary artists. One is driving thousands of miles around the state to visit museums and galleries. Another is to visit the Santa Clara Triton Museum of Art’s Salon competition, which runs through Sept. 8.
The show was started by current and former directors Preston Metcalfe and George Rivera more than 20 years ago. This year’s show features 119 pieces, chosen from nearly 2,200 entries, from about 650 artists. The show is such a draw that the opening reception drew 700 visitors to the Triton.
“It’s also a big fundraiser for us,” said Curator Vanessa Callanta.
“The Salon is open to any artists living or working in California, and we get entries from all over the state,” Callanta continued. “Artists are welcome to submit up to 10 works in any 2D media. The only thing that we ask is, no AI created art.”
The Triton gives awards in six categories: painting, drawing, printmaking, mixed media, photography and Best of Show.
“Our main award is Best of Show,” said Callanta. “That is a pretty unique prize: a future solo exhibition at the museum. Our juror was Ali Gold, who runs Pacific Art League in Palo Alto. She was very kind enough to jury this for us — it was a tall order.”
This year’s Best of Show was San Francisco contemporary realist Dean Larsen who created Urban Light. Characteristic of Larsen’s work, the colors in the San Francisco cityscape are muted, with a complex interplay of light and shadow.
The detail is so precise, that some can identify exactly the street, says Callanta — not surprising, as Larsen teaches cityscape and landscape art at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
“The play of light and how it reveals itself is often the most important aspect of the subject,” Larsen has said of his own work. “My process also emphasizes variety, unequal distribution of shapes, edges, and often uses water and reflections.”
Another work captured the Director’s Choice award: Suzette McDonough’s and James Whitehouse’s collaborative painting Paparazzi #2.
“I am often intrigued by partners who paint together,” Metcalfe wrote. “I am intrigued not only by the decisions each make in composing the overall whole but in the daringness they take as a team in portraying some parts in completion, while others are left to our imagination, as if in fleeting visions captured by paparazzi’s cameras.”
Salon includes not merely a wide variety of mediums; it also includes combinations of media that are innovative and sometimes specific to the artist, for example, a work done in artfully woven slivers of paper.
“As an artist, you’d have to be so careful,” said Callanta. “You can’t mess up one little bit of it. It’s not like you can paint over a mistake.”
There’s another unique thing about Triton Salon that isn’t hanging in the galleries.
“We keep our entry fees low,” Callanta said. “We make it affordable for people to enter — $20 for the first entry and $10 for each additional one. And it’s a simple entry form online.”
It’s an accessibility recipe that lets the Triton showcase contemporary California artists, and visitors to experience a broad range of styles and media.
Triton Salon runs through Sept. 8, 2024.
The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday (except holidays), 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For information on current and upcoming shows, and artist receptions, visit Tritonmuseum.org.