Bean Finneran has a 50+ year practice working with ceramics. Her signature sculptural form is the “curve,” a simple hand-rolled and glazed length of porcelain that, when gathered in the hundreds or thousands, create colorful organic forms inspired by the natural world. She was a founder of Parrot Pearls, a cult-favorite ceramic jewelry line in the 1980s-90s, and was a founding director of SOON3, the experimental theater company. Her current ceramic practice explores thrown bowl forms, pinch pots, and bricks, all of which retain the playful hues and graphic shapes she is known for.

Bean has exhibited internationally and her work is in the collections of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, San Jose Museum of Art, and Mills College among others.