Bright Garden: JB, Bruno & Rufus Blunk

March 26 – July 10, 2022

Bright Garden: JB, Bruno & Rufus Blunk (March 26 – June 12, 2022) continues the tradition of the Blunk family exhibitions which took place in their home in Inverness, California, in the 1980s. These uniquely intimate exhibitions featured work by JB, his wife Christine, and their children.

Now staged in our Point Reyes gallery, Bright Garden is curated by JB's daughter, Mariah Nielson, and includes a collection of rare paintings and ceramics by JB from the 1970s and a selection of design objects by his sons, Bruno and Rufus. The pieces span several decades and are all made from local materials – salvaged wood from the Inverness Ridge, clay dug by hand in Nicasio and paintings on redwood off-cuts from JB’s larger sculptures.

JB’s children grew up in his important creation, his hand-built home. Built between 1959 and 1962, with salvaged materials from nearby beaches, forests and scrapyards, the house is a total work of art. JB made everything—from the doors to the furniture and all the ceramic tableware. In a conversation with Olivia H. Emery for her book, Gentle Revolution (1977), Blunk said: “I consider this whole place—house, studio, fruit trees, vegetable garden and chickens—one big sculpture.”

This unique and creative environment had a major impact on JB’s children. Both Bruno and Rufus started working with clay and carving wood at a young age. Although both artists acknowledge the influence of their father, their work is directly informed by the landscape of West Marin and their international travels in the 1970s and 80s.

In an interview with Mariah in 2017, Bruno describes his working relationship with their father:

“Rufus and I were constantly tinkering and making things, but we never worked directly with JB. We were on the periphery, but we didn’t collaborate. I think he wanted us to develop our own ideas. He encouraged our creative interests, but we didn’t discuss art…we just did it, we lived it. Making art wasn’t a conceptual process, it was something necessary, it was what we had to do.”