Join us for a visit and talk with art historian Elizabeth Ferrell, author of About the Rose: Creation and Community in Jay DeFeo’s Circle, followed by a facilitated discussion with Ruby member Nicole Wong. The event will end with a collaborative art activity!

San Francisco in the 1950s and 60s: Beat poets are gathering in galleries and North Beach bookshops, and across town artist Jay DeFeo is cultivating her own locus of activity with her monumental sculpture-painting, The Rose. Created over the course of eight years in the bay window of her Fillmore apartment, the completed work stands nearly eleven feet tall and weighs almost a ton, and had to be removed by crane from her home. Throughout the process of creation, the work inspired unique collaborations across photography, painting, film and poetry amongst DeFeo’s artist contemporaries.

We are honored to host author and art historian Elizabeth Ferrell at the Ruby (our very own creative community!), who will walk us through the remarkable history of Jay DeFeo and The Rose as well as the web of artistic connections, traced outward from it. She will also talk about her research process for writing the book, her career in art history and academia, and her favorite places to see art in the Bay Area.

About Elizabeth Ferrell

Elizabeth Ferrell is an art historian who specializes in modern and contemporary art, and Associate Professor of Art History at Arcadia University. She received her PhD. from UC Berkeley, and has recently relocated to her hometown of Santa Monica, California.

Jay DeFeo’s The Rose is part of the permanent collection at Whitney Museum of American Art.

About Nicole Wong

Nicole Wong is a writer, audio producer and founding member of The Ruby.

COVID Notes

All attendees must be fully vaccinated and show proof of vaccination at the event. Masks are also highly encouraged. The Ruby has KN95 masks available to all at the front desk.