Guest curator Rochelle Steiner will be joined by Leah Levy, executive director of The Jay DeFeo Foundation, to discuss the artist’s career in a conversation focused on the works featured in the exhibition Jay DeFeo: Trees. This will be followed by an opportunity to view the exhibition, which also includes archival materials that provide insights into the artist’s process.

One of the subjects DeFeo (1929-1989) explored in her work was nature. She took on the motif of trees specifically through close observation and a high degree of abstraction. Within her series of Tree drawings created in Berkeley, California between 1953-54, all of which are on view in the exhibition, she used an array of media—graphite, tempera, and ink on cardboard, paper, and other materials—and created a range of marks, from detailed representation to expressive strokes.

Jay DeFeo: Trees also features a selection of DeFeo’s photographs of trees from the 1970s, when black-and-white photography became an integral part of her artmaking. When juxtaposed with the 1950s drawings, the photographic works create a visual dialogue that accentuates the breadth of DeFeo’s visual vocabulary.

Advance tickets recommended.

Museum members: $12

Non-members: $18

Leah Levy is Executive Director of The Jay DeFeo Foundation, serving as a trustee since its inception in 1991. From 1974 to 1983 she owned and directed the Leah Levy Gallery in San Francisco. She was founding curator of Capp Street Project, an artist-in-residency program for site-specific installations. Levy has organized exhibitions as an independent art curator and is the author of several books and numerous catalogue essays, most recently editing Jay DeFeo: Photographic Work (DelMonico Books, 2023). She worked with Jay DeFeo as a curatorial consultant from 1985 until the artist’s death in 1989. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Artists’ Legacy Foundation and the Nancy Graves Foundation and currently serves as Honorary Chair, Aspen Institute Artist-Endowed Foundations Initiative Advisor.

Rochelle Steiner is a Los Angeles–based curator, writer, and educator, and serves as curatorial fellow for Laguna Art Museum. Previously, she was chief curator and director of public programs and education at Palm Springs Art Museum; associate director and chief curator at Vancouver Art Gallery; director of the Public Art Fund, New York; chief curator at the Serpentine Gallery, London; and associate curator of contemporary art, Saint Louis Art Museum. She has curated monographic exhibitions of the works of Glenn Brown, John Currin, Lari Pittman, Gabriel Orozco, Elizabeth Peyton, Cindy Sherman, Gary Simmons, Monika Sosnowska, Rirkrit Tiravanija, as well as forthcoming exhibitions on Carole Caroompas and Fred Tomaselli. Her recent publications include Jay DeFeo: Trees (Laguna Art Museum, 2024), Sarah Charlesworth (DelMonico•Prestel, 2017), and Do Ho Suh Drawings (DelMonico•Prestel, 2014).