Jean Conner: Inner Garden

June 18 – August 28, 2022

Reception: Saturday, June 18, 2-4pm

Admission: $10/8, free for members

Jean Conner: Inner Garden chronicles the artist’s prolific yet under-studied career, spanning 1954 to the present day, and showcases her work across a range of media. The 60 works included, many exhibited here for the first time, depict Conner’s interests in nature and spirituality. Influenced by the legendary Bay Area botanist Ida Geary and nineteenth century French Symbolists Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon, Conner’s works display her animated imagination through the use of religious symbolism, dream-like imagery, flora and fauna. Given Conner’s reticence to share her work publicly and the outsize role her husband, artist Bruce Conner (1933-2008), played in the art world, her contributions have gone largely unnoticed. Inner Garden is among the first museum presentations devoted to this historically overshadowed artist.

Taken as a whole, the exhibition emphasizes the artist’s intimate relationship with themes of nature and the imagination, connections that emerge most profoundly when looking at the arc of her career. Conner’s work connects the visible with the invisible and looks to nature as a space in which the world can be known and understood. The artist continues to defy categorization, forging a path defined by her own unique approach to artmaking, and its link to the routine activities of daily life.

This exhibition is generously supported by The Herbst Foundation. Additional support is provided by Ron Casentini, Daniel and Susan Daniloff, and William Otton.