Bean Finneran: Curves, Cones, and Rings

Bean Finneran: Curves, Cones, and Rings presents four site-specific sculptures, each constructed with the artist’s established technique of easing and entwining together thousands of thin, ceramic forms she calls curves.

In her California studio, Finneran handmakes hundreds-of-thousands of curves by rolling clay coils, then shaping, smoothing, firing, glazing, and firing them again. When gently positioned and layered directly on the floor, they create large, nest-like structures the artist terms floor cones and floral rings. The cones and rings gain structural integrity from each small curve’s relationship to its neighbor, suggesting the interconnectedness of nature, Finneran’s ultimate inspiration. Each curve is unique unto itself — like snowflakes and blades of grass — no two are the same. The sculptures emphasize the power of our natural world.  While each tiny part appears delicate and fragile on its own, the communal whole is durable and strong.

The artist’s time-intensive installation method recalls her years of touring in theater. “Both are about arriving in an empty space and putting something together in a limited period of time… in both, you have a sense that you’re not totally in control. I think that’s a wonderful thing.” Like performance art, her sculptures are impermanent – only existing once before being returned to their elemental curves, destined to become new sculptural forms in the future.

Bean Finneran was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1947, and currently lives and works in California. She spent time at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Her sculptures have been exhibited internationally and are in museum collections around the world.

Organized by the Boise Art Museum