COOS BAY — It was chaos.

Earlier this week, Coos Art Museum staff and volunteers scrambled to mount the museum’s Biennial exhibit.

Lacking a formal selection process and open to any artist living in Oregon who wishes to submit up to three works, the exhibit is larger than most others at the museum. About four or five times larger.

“It’s massive,” said museum director Steven Broocks, surveying the scene in the Maggie Karl Gallery on Tuesday.

There were about 250 paintings and other works still sitting on the floor, with a little more than 72 hours left until tonight’s opening. Broocks predicted the last piece would be hung about an hour before the 5 p.m. reception.

Compared only to other biennials, it’s still more than usual — about 58 percent larger than the 2006 Biennial.

The exhibit includes 323 works by 140 artists from 39 Oregon cities, with nearly two-thirds of the works coming from South Coast artists.

“It’s sort of a cross-section of how much creativity is going on out there in this part of the world,” Broocks said. “It’s kind of impressive that there’s that many people out there doing art.”

The exhibit is designed to give Oregonians a chance to display art that isn’t normally seen in a public setting, with works by amateurs and professionals displayed side by side. The pieces range in value from $12 to $9,500, with half falling between $100 and $400.

The athematic exhibit consists primarily of paintings, photographs, sculptures and mixed media art, with drawings, prints and fiber art as well. It fills all five of the museum’s galleries.

Throughout the exhibit, which runs through Dec. 10, visitors can vote on the People’s Choice award. The winner will receive a solo exhibit at the museum, probably in late 2009.

Amid the chaos of the unfinished exhibit, here are some examples of works found.

• Against a window with a view to the sea and below, books, a lamp and other items rest on a desk in “All That Matters” by Nan Forsberg-Hammons of North Bend. Little people stand on the panes of the window, and an embedded block of text refers to Einstein, Freud, Marx and Picasso, linking art, science and philosophy.

• A few other works also make use of text, including “Blue Marriage” by Sue Bee Dolan-Buckley of Allegany. Arrows and lines extend from two blue birds like textbook diagrams to leaves laden with printing in French. A pair of photographs by Mona Dinger of La Grande include images of a newspaper clipping and words running across a model’s breasts.

• Familiar scenes abound, including “Cape Arago Cliffs” by Katherine Andreason of Charleston, “Sunset Beach” by Charles of Charleston, the giant “Coos Bay Waterfront” by Mary Lou Stebbins of North Bend, and the tiny “Sunset Bay” by Curt Hitch of North Bend. Landscapes by Carol Turner and Kimberly Wurster, both of Coquille, capture local rivers and fog. “Last Light” by Pete Chasar of Brookings is a skyscape triptych.

• An old-style wooden house is missing one of its walls in “Retirement Home” by Sherri Overholser of Prineville.

• River water runs over rocks in sharp focus in “Cascading Waters,” a photo by Merrie Jo Rodriguez of Tenmile.

• Adam and Eve are framed by an overlay cut in the shape of an apple in “An Apple a Day” by Janet Higgins of Grants Pass.

• Mixed media works by Richard Yarnell of Port Orford recall the recent sea sculpture exhibit by Angela Haseltine Pozzi, except the items forming the three-dimensional works’ underlying structure are hidden by coats of paint.

• An immensely detailed watercolor by Steven Thor Johansen of Yamhill is similar to one that drew attention in the recent Maritime Art Exhibit. It looks like it could have been done with a fine-point pen.

• A dog is dressed as a Renaissance nobleman in Gold Beach artist J.M. Steele’s “Laughing Corgilier — After Frans Hals,” a copy of a 1624 painting with a substitution of the subject’s head.

• There’s a lot more. Sculptures by Dale Karstetter of North Bend and abstracts by Jon Leach of Winston, among others, add to the variety.