Fresh from more than a year spent in Europe and North Africa, artist Jay DeFeo (1929-1989) returned home to Northern California in 1953. In her Berkeley studio DeFeo looked to nature as inspiration, employing the artistic language she developed while in Florence to fuse modes of representation with approaches to abstraction in a group of drawings that make up Jay DeFeo: Trees.
Trees also features a selection of DeFeo’s photographs of trees captured in the Bay Area during the early 1970s when she began focusing on black-and-white photography. DeFeo took this aspect of her practice with the utmost seriousness, and it was integral to her artmaking. Accompanying these artworks will be a selection of archival materials highlighting the artist’s enduring fascination with trees and nature.
Jay DeFeo: Trees will be presented at Laguna Art Museum in Fall 2024 during its annual Art + Nature initiative, providing a framework for exploring the artist’s work within the wide-reaching context of the California environment through special public programs and educational engagements for a range of audiences.
Jay DeFeo: Trees is organized by Laguna Art Museum and guest curated by Rochelle Steiner.
Laguna Art Museum | Jay DeFeo
