The beauty of baseball statistics

The Huntington Beach Art Center is in the big leagues now.

For curator Darlene DeAngelo, a lifelong Yankees fan, her new exhibition, 2332, is a culmination of her longtime obsession.

The show, which opens Friday night with an opening artist reception, includes painting, sculpture, multimedia installation, prints and drawings.

After a lifetime of attending games, DeAngelo began to notice works of art on the field; her friends said she seemed to be having less fun when she was at the ballpark.

“Baseball talk with artists became an obsession, like statistics,” DeAngelo wrote. “Paintings with grids, precision performances, drinking beer, the idea of home, singing off key, diamond shapes — I saw them all on the field and in artists’ studios.”

She “drafted” the first artist for the 2332 show two years ago; her “nine-man roster” was completed four months ago.

“I acted as both coach and manager for the exhibition, drafting, signing and bringing up my nine boys of October one by one, following the rules and timing of MLB draft days,” she said.

“Once all nine artists were selected, we went to baseball games, shared baseball memories and e-mailed each other to stay in touch.”

Some of the artists’ works are more immediately accessible, like Ian M. Kennelly’s gouache of a beer bottle and a baseball.

Others, like Costa Mesa artist Jimi Gleason’s “Fastball” grid, invite longer scrutiny.

Stuart Allen takes baseball stats and forms them into familiar shapes, like a baseball diamond, coloring his works with equally familiar colors — the shades of the ballpark, uniforms and Cracker Jack boxes.

“My contribution to 2332 plays on the beauty within the numbers,” Allen wrote. “I find an elegant logic in the way baseball is played and the way it is studied.”

IF YOU GO

WHO: Huntington Beach Art Center

WHAT: 2332 exhibition opening reception

WHEN: Exhibition discussion 5 p.m. Friday; opening reception 7 to 9 p.m. (show runs through Dec. 21)

WHERE: Huntington Beach Art Center, 538 Main St.

COST: Free

INFORMATION: (714) 374-1650 or surfcity-hb.org