Reception:
* Saturday, June 18, 2:00-4:00 pm

Art Conversation:
* Wednesday, July 20, 5:00 pm

Exhibition Dates:
* June 18 - August 28

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.

Jean 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.

The exhibition will open to the public with a reception from 2-4pm. 

Wednesday, July 20, 5pm:  Join art historian Anastasia Aukeman and curator and critic Natasha Boas in the Main Gallery for a wide-ranging conversation exploring the diverse output of Inner Garden artist Jean Conner. From her early years with the Rat Bastard Protective Association, to her later botanical explorations in Marin County and current Glen Park studio practice, these two scholars engage in presenting new perspectives and contemporary concerns around Conner's work.  With a special poetry reading by Joanna McClure.