By Noma Faingold

The new show “About Place,” opening on Aug. 10 at the de Young Museum, carries an adaptable theme, which could mean any number of things to the 10 Bay Area artists being exhibited.

“We tried to find a throughline among these very different artists with very different backgrounds, who use very different mediums,” said Janna Keegan, associate curator of contemporary art and programming for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, who organized the exhibit.

“The notions of place and identity, these artists are thinking about having a more balanced relationship between the land and the people who are on it,” Keegan said. “Co-nurturing, self-sustaining – one really looks at the land as part of ourselves, instead of something we can make into something. These artists are asking important questions.”

The work of Saif Azzuz, 36, a Pacifica-based artist featured in the exhibit, is informed by his Yurok and Libyan heritage, his familial roots in Eureka, California, as well as his immediate studio surroundings at the Hunters Point Shipyards.

The abstract, mixed-media piece is titled, “Lo’op’ (It burns)” and was acquired in 2022 by the FAMSF, along with 41 other contemporary artworks by 30 emerging artists, through a $1 million grant from the Svane Family Foundation focused exclusively on Bay Area artists.

Created in 2021, “Lo’op’ (It burns)” is part of the artist’s ongoing “Invasive Species” series, which he refers to as portraits, rather than landscapes. The “About Place” piece is composed of hues including burnt orange, mauve, crimson and ochre, sprayed on top of invasive plant species and bouquets found near Azzuz’s studio, which have been laid on top of the canvas.

“That palate is pulled from fire maps at the time, with red being the worst,” he said.

Azzuz’s work has been shaped by such themes as colonization, gentrification, culture, resiliency of community and ecological inheritance, even before he earned his bachelor’s degree in painting and drawing from the California College of the Arts in 2013.

“I think about the land a lot,” Azzuz said. “The land holds so much story.”

The husband and father of two often asks himself, “What am I doing to take care of the land?”

“It keeps me engaged and presents questions to the viewer,” Azzuz said. “A fun thing about being an artist is we’re tasked with asking questions and not providing answers.”

According to Keegan, Azzuz does not think there is a separation between land and self.

“It’s part of a mutually informing identity,” she said. “His abstractions are appealing visually, but it’s the conceptual underpinnings that tie back to the indigenous community. This approach to art and nature challenges the dominant narrative that we’ve been hearing for so long.”

“About Place” is the second in a series of three exhibitions derived from the Svane acquisitions. Last summer’s show was called “Crafting Radicality.” This year’s show includes 10 artists, including Azzuz, Chris Johanson, photographer/filmmaker, Katy Grannan, Ruby C. Tut and the artist collective, Postcommodity.

A multi-channel video and sound installation called “Going to Water” (2021), by Postcommodity, will be featured prominently in the de Young’s central atrium, Wilsey Court. Surveillance video of the arid Lake Owens (located east of Los Angeles) will be combined with an experimental soundtrack.

“It was drained (in 1926) to provide water to the Los Angeles community. It was an important meeting place for indigenous communities when it was still a lake,” Keegan said. “The way the piece is put together gives a feeling of what happened there and the sense of loss.”

There will also be a collaboration with the SFJAZZ Collective, Oct. 24-27 in the music venue’s Miner Auditorium. The collective’s seven-person musical ensemble will compose new material and arrange familiar songs inspired by select works from the Svane acquisition. Video of the artworks will run accompanying the live performances.

“About Place” is a showcase for 10 emerging Bay Area artists, Aug. 10-Sept. 28, 2025, at the de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr. Learn more at famsf.org.