The Opening Reception for Jane’s solo exhibition at NY2CA Gallery last Saturday was a wonderful evening of art, music, food and conversation at NY2CA Gallery, 617 First Street, Benicia, CA. Jane gave a Gallery Talk responding to questions about her works from gallery director Vickie Marchand. Many people attended and also enjoyed live music by local musicians and great food in the gallery’s back patio area. Jane’s work remains on view in the gallery till June 21, and the NY2CA Gallery is open Thursday through Sundays, Noon to 5 pm. Jane will be there in Benicia at the gallery again on June 6 for the Benicia Arts Festival day to conduct a public art activity at the gallery. The public is invited to make a “house” for a public art installation of over 100 handmade paper and wire mesh “houses” in the patio and garden area behind NY2CA Gallery.
See the gallery’s website at https://ny2cagallery.com for information about the exhibition and the Benicia Arts Festival.
Here are some photos of the gallery reception on Saturday, May 16, 2026, for Jane’s exhibition taken by Timothy S. Allen:
My piece (c 1975) is now in the collection of the Crocker Art Museum, and it is a loom woven over-sized legal pad with my family’s typical grocery list written on it with hand embroidery. It is an honor to have my work in the Crocker’s collection and to have this piece shown with so many excellent feminist artists, including Frida Kahlo!
Solo Exhibition Opens May 16, 2026, in Benicia, CA: The Work of Earth and Hand: Jane Ingram Allen
Opening Reception and Artist Talk on Saturday, May 16, 5-7 pm, at NY2CA Gallery, 617 First Street, Benicia, CA
NY2CA Gallery Director Vickie Marchand has visited my Santa Rosa studio two times to select works for this show and to plan activities during the exhibition which will close on June 21.
I will also be in Benica on Saturday, June 6, at the gallery to do a public art installation I am calling “Building Community – Benicia Houses” that will involve some hands-on public participation papermaking to create over 100 small houses and arrange them for a public art installation in the gallery’s back garden space. Volunteers who have taken my papermaking workshops will be helping participants create their own “house” for the installation that will remain on view until June 21. The papermaking activity will run from 11 – 4 on June 6. There will also be many other activities that day in downtown Benicia with lots of art to see!
One of more than 35 works in my Benicia Exhibition at NY2CA Gallery California Blooming – Poppies, 2025, 25 x 75 inches, Mixed Media handmade paper pulp painting with threads and gel.
34 of my “Made in Taiwan” artworks created during my two years (2003-04 and 2004-05) as a Fulbright Scholar Artist in Taiwan are now in the collection of the Tainan Art Museum, Tainan, Taiwan.
All of these works now in the Tainan Art Museum’s collection were created using materials collected at 13 different places all around Taiwan, where I used over 135 different plants of Taiwan to make the handmade paper for these mixed-media artworks. I am planning an exhibition of some of these handmade paper “sitemaps” with the Tainan Art Museum curators for Fall 2026. Check back for more details on this exhibition and some public workshops and other activities on a possible 2-week trip to Taiwan at the end of October and first of November, 2026.
One of the 34 works in the collection of Tainan Art Museum, Tainan, Taiwan Chiayi Site Map, 2005, 35 x 78 inches, mixed media, handmade paper from plants of Chiayi County, Taiwan, thread, acrylic paint and gel, other items collected in Chiayi, part of my “Made In Taiwan” Fulbright Scholar research grant project.
New Collaboration Feeling the Heat with printmaking artist Jami Taback is in progress. Jami and I are calling this new multi-part eco-art installation “Feeling the Heat”, and it is focused on environmental issues related to fire, global warming and climate change, using handmade paper, thread, dye, controlled burning and printmaking. The project is an extension of our “In Deep Water” collaborative project begun in 2020 and exhibited at 5 non-profit venues in Northern California, NJ and NY as well as one foundation gallery in Taiwan. Our In Deep Water Project was supported by grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Puffin Foundation and Live Forever Foundation, Taiwan. This time the collaboration is via Zoom and shipping parts back and forth between PA where Jami now lives and Santa Rosa, CA, where I continue to be based. We expect to premier this new installation either in Northern CA or in the Northeastern US in late 2026 or early 2027. We are actively seeking venues to exhibit this work and also applying for grants and other support. This “Feeling the Heat” installation will feature multiple swirling panels with fire imagery and hand papermaking and printmaking joined by threads and suspended from the ceiling in site-specific installations by the artists. Public programs and hands-on workshops will be offered at each venue. Keep watching for more news and photos of this in-progress large-scale eco-art collaborative installation.
Jane Ingram Allen and Jami Taback, Feeling the Heat (installation in progress), 2026, dimensions variable, multiple panels, handmade abaca and kozo fiber paper, threads, ink, dyes, pigments, controlled burning and collage with acrylic gel.