Bean Finneran
Artistic Perceptions
“ Then look at the human anatomy. We are all curved surfaces, curving structure, curving muscle and sinew.
This form evolved because it minimizes the amount of materials and maximizes structural strength.” — Eugene Tsui
I work with a simple elemental form, a curve made from the most basic natural material, clay. I make and build with hundreds or thousands of these forms. The clay curve connects me to time, the earth, the elements and human culture. The geometry of a curve weaves and allows construction. The clay curves I roll are each similar but unique connecting them to the natural world where blades of grass are almost the same but never quite the same. The process I use to construct the sculptures follows the patterns in nature. The shapes grow in the space allotted them through adding curve after curve. The forms are always transitory, in a space for a given amount of time. The sculptures cannot be moved without taking them apart and reconstructing them. They are built curve-by-curve and disassembled one by one. This process of continual and possible change and transformation connects me to the natural world along with the ordered chaos that comes from organizing thousands upon thousands of individual elements into a form. I garden. I love color and light and the changes light and shadows create. With the sculptures I compose with bright color and form in a space. With its deliberately ‘un-natural’ color, the work celebrates aspects of nature but does not attempt to mimic it.
The constructions are abstract rings, lines, cones, circles but often evoke real things: sea anemones, coral reefs, haystacks or wind blown grasses.
BEAN FINNERAN
BIOGRAPHY
BORN: 1947 Cleveland, OH
EDUCATION
Goucher College, Baltimore, MD
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Museum School, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, MA
Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018
Davis-Klemm Gallery Wiesbaden, Germany
Bit by Bit Radius Gallery, Santa Cruz, Ca.
2016
Gail Severn Gallery, Sun Valley, Ca.
2014
Spectra Bolinas Art Museum, Bolinas, Ca.
2013
New Work108 Contemporary, Tulsa, Ok.
2012
Polka-Dot-PlateauJose State University, San Jose, Ca.
2011
Musee Royal de MariemontBelgium
2010
Incidence & PatternPDX Gallery, Portland, Or.
2009
Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, Ca.
2008
XXe Biennale Internationale de Ceramique Contemporaine de Vallauris, France
2007
New Work Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, Ill.
REALMSPhiladelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, Pa.
CYCLEBaltimore Clayworks, Baltimore, Md.
MeanderUniversity of Oklahoma, Stillwater, Ok
2006
TOPOLOGYBraunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, Ca.
Nancy Margolis Gallery, New York, New York
SHIFTPDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR
2005
UP/Down/AroundGallery 555 Oakland Museum of California at City Center
Pacini Lubel Gallery, Seattle, WA
Slow Time / Play Time Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, Ca.
2003
Random Encounters, Installation, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR
Yellow, Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2002
Bean Finneran: Recurrence, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
Eyre/Moore Gallery, Seattle, WA
2001
New Work, Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1999
Installation, The 2nd Annual International Art Exposition, San Francisco, CA
1998
Installation, Davis Art Center, Davis, CA
1997
Introductions, Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, CA
SHARED EXHIBITIONS
2012
New Work Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum Id. (2 person show with Jun Kaneko)
2008
Natural Inclinations Holter Museum of Art, Helena, Montana
2006
Gail Severn Gallery, Sun Valley, Id.
2005
Pushing the Limits, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin
2004
Subtraction & Addition, ceramic sculpture and installations, Museum of Craft & Folk Art, San Francisco, CA (3 person show)
2003
The Character of Clay, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID (2 person show with Jun Kaneko)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017
La Sculpture Ceramique Expression Contemporaire, Giroussens, France
2016
“Celebrating Ruth” Fouladi Projects , San Francisco, Ca.
Ceramic Invitational, Foothills Art Center, Golden, Colorado
Ceramic & Landscape Keramis-Centre de la Ceramique, Belgium
“50 Women” Kansas City Jazz Museum, Kansas City, Kansas
2015
Ceramics Invitational: NW Clay, Traver Gallery, Seattle, Washington
AccumulationsSlate Gallery, Oakland, Ca.
2014
ToriawaseSan Jose Institute of Contemporary Art , San Jose, Ca.
BUILDTraywick Gallery, Berkeley, Ca.
2013
Clay in the BayDe Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, Ca.
2012
Earth & Alchemy Massachusetts College of Art & Design, Boston, Ma.
2010
Introductions: Where They Are Now, Braunstein/Quay Gallery San Francisco, CA.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS contunued
2009
Favardin et de Verneuil Galerie, Paris, France
World Ceramic Biennale Korea, Adventures of the Fire
2008
Full and Spare: ceramic art in the 21st centuryMuseum of Fine Arts at Florida State University (winter 2008)
2007
HUSH LUSH/Contemporary Crafts Piedmont Arts Association, Martinsville, Va.
ABSTRACT SCULPTURE, The Claystudio, Philadelphia, Pa.
Multiplicity: Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture,
San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, TX
Multiplicity: Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture, Landmark Arts,
Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
Multiplicity: Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture, Southwest School of Art and Craft, San Antonio, TX
2006
Mendenhall Sobieski Gallery, Pasadena, Ca.
Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, Ill
Nature’s WondersPacini Lubel Gallery, Seattle, Wa.
Red, White, and Black Gail Severn Gallery, Sun Valley, Id.
Multiplicity: Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture Portland Art Center, Portland, Oregon
Multiplicity: Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture, Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, University of Texas, El Paso, TX ( summer)
Arts Botanica, Loyola University Museum of Art
2005
Tales from The Kiln, San Jose Museum of Art 09/2005-09/2006
Today’s Voice: Exploring Alternative Applications, Neuhoff Gallery, New York, N.Y.
NEXT, PDX Gallery, Portland, OR
World Ceramic Biennale 2005, Icheon, Republic of Korea ( special prize)
From Tiles to Totems: a Century of Northern California Ceramics, Art Foundry, Sacramento,
2004
Critical Mass, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX
Black & White, Linda Ross Contemporary, Detroit, MI
Pucini Lubel Gallery, Seattle, WA
Susan Street Fine Arts Gallery, Solano Beach, CA
Chaos / Control, Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL
Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR
A Rare Glimpse: Modern American Art from Private Napa Valley Collections, Napa Valley Museum, Napa, CA
2003
Branch Out, Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, CA
San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
Small Works, Kemper Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
2002
Conceptual Color, Santa Cruz Museum of History and Art, Santa Cruz, CA
Scripps 58th Ceramic Annual, Scripps College, Claremont, CA
PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR
New Space, New Work, Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2001
Conceptual Color, San Francisco State University Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1998
Landscape as Memory, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1997
SOFA, Chicago, IL
1997
Ceramics Annual, John Natsoulis Gallery, Davis, CA
1997
ARTSHOW 1, Microsoft Art Collection, Seattle, WA
COLLECTIONS
Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris, France
Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Art, San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts
Crocker Museum of Art, Sacramento, Ca.
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
Microsoft Inc.
Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA
San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Private collections
The artist performing with SOON 3 Theater,
Rome 1981.
Performer: ZONE Theatre Company
1968-1970
Associate Artistic Director-Designer-Performer: SOON 3 Theatre Company 1972-present
Nine national and international tours including performances in Moscow, Cairo, Dubrovnik, Rome, Amsterdam, New York. In San Francisco SOON 3 premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in 1975 and has performed locally at the Magic Theatre, Cowell Theatre, Theatre Artaud, The Lab and various outdoor locations.
