Connie Jenkins

Born in Texas in 1945, Connie Jenkins grew up in Illinois and attended the University of Colorado at Boulder. There she met her husband, the artist Tom Jenkins. In 1972, the Jenkins moved to Venice CA to join in the L.A. art scene. Jenkins became an active part of the feminist art movement as a founding member of Womanspace and Co-chair of Double X, a non-profit arts organization that organized exhibitions, performances and lectures by women artists and arts professionals.

Jenkins taught nearly five decades at several universities and colleges in Southern California, including the Claremont Colleges, Cal State Long Beach, USC, Otis Art Institute and Ventura College. She exhibited her photorealist paintings regularly at Koplin Gallery and later at Craig Krull Gallery as well as at numerous public institutions in California, the U.S and Japan.

In 1994, with their children grown, Tom and Connie Jenkins moved to the Santa Monica Mountains at the far western end of Ventura County. Jenkins’ paintings there reflected the natural landscape she found around her. In 2005, invited to work on a year-long project in the Channel Islands National Park, she began to photograph and paint the ocean landscape in intimate detail. Jenkins continued making paintings of tide pools for the next twelve years while volunteering to work with the Channel Islands National Park intertidal monitoring team. Some of that work is exhibited here. In 2018, Jenkins began a new series of works portraying the native plants growing in the Santa Monica Mountains and on the Channel Islands. After the Woolsey fire blackened the landscape around her home she focused specifically on fire-followers. Jenkins is currently working on a series of botanical landscapes of flora native to the Burren in Co. Clare, Ireland.

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Education

      University of Colorado, Boulder                                                                                           B.F.A, M.F.A

Selected Collections

      Aerojet General, La Jolla CA, American Golf Corp., Santa Monica CA, Bank of America, Gibson, Dunn,

      Crutcher, L.A., Hebrew Union College, NY, Hughes Aircraft, L.A., Mitchell,Silberberg & Knupp, L.A., Latham &

      Watkins, L.A., Metropolitan Water District, L.A., NTT Data, Tokyo, Orange County Museum of Art, Pacific Bell,

      L.A., Prudential Insurance, City of Santa Monica, Santa Monica Beach Club, United Bank of Denver, City of Ventura, Museum of Ventura County.

Selected Exhibitions

      Solo show. “Channel Islands: Tidal worlds”, Channel Islands Maritime Museum, Oxnard CA     2025

      “And Then”, group show, New Media Gallery, Ventura College, Ventura, CA                                      2025

      Solo show. “Intertidal”, Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside CA                                                      2023

      “Ventura Vistas:  A Tribute to 150 Years of Natural Beauty,” Vita Art Center, Ventura CA               2023          

      Solo Show, “Thirteen Moons: A Book of Hours”, Pritzlaff Gallery, Santa Barbara Botanical Garden CA 2022

      Solo show, “Ocean/Mountain”, Santa Monica Mountains Visitors’ Center, Calabasas CA                     2022

      “22 Miles: Ojai Valley Landscapes“, Ojai Vally Museum, Ojai CA                                                        2022          

      Solo Shows, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica CA                                        2005, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2018

      “Realism,” Imago Gallery, Palm Desert CA                                                                                        2011

      “Surf and Turf”, Palos Verdes Art Center, Palos Verdes CA                                                                2010

      Solo Shows, Davis & Cline, Ashland Or                                                                                   2004, 2006

      "Island Passages: Artists Celebrate the Channel Islands”, Museum of Ventura County, Ventura CA     2006

      "Landscape: Theme and Variations," Schneider Museum of Art, S. Oregon University, Ashland OR     2005    

      Solo Retrospective: "Paintings:1970-1999," Studio Channel Islands Art Center, Camarillo, CA             2000          

      "On the Mountain," with Tom Jenkins, bortolazzo/cdg, Santa Barbara, CA.                                         1999                
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Solo shows, Koplin Gallery, Los Angeles CA                                 1984, 1985, 1988, 1993, 1995, 1997    

      "L.A. Current:  The Female Perspective," Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles                                    1996            

      "Passages:  A Survey of California Women Artists, 1945 to Present," Fresno Art Center, Fresno, CA   1987

      "The Spiritual Eye," Inaugural Exhibition, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles                                          1985

      "West Coast Realism," Laguna Beach Museum of Art, CA and 9 other museums nationally          1983-1985          

      "The Real Thing:  Southern California Realist Painting," Laguna Beach Museum of Art                        1982

      Solo Show, Los Angeles Municipal Gallery, Barnsdall Park                                                                1981    

      "Double X," Woman's Building, Los Angeles                                                                                      1979      

"Current Directions in Southern California Art," Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art                   1978

      "Photorealism," Albert Contreras Gallery, Hollywood, CA                                                                   1975                

Opening show, invitational, Womanspace, Los Angeles, CA                                                        1973