Events

Current Exhibit

Local Artist Bonsai Exhibition

July 1 - November 1

Curator: Bob Hilvers

(Con't) However long before the Clark Bonsai Collection was established at its original home at the prestigious Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture in Hanford and then relocated to the Shinzen Friendship Gardens in Woodward Park, Central California had a rich and storied history with the art of bonsai. Indeed, as with many California communities following WWII, bonsai clubs and organizations formed in Hanford and Fresno: the Akatsuki Bonsai Club (now defunct), the Fresno Bonsai Society and the Hanford Bonsai Society.

The latest Exhibition of Bonsai at the Clark Bonsai Collection in Shinzen honors the legacy of the history and culture represented in the living art of its creators. Visitors will have the unique opportunity to view iconic bonsai, learn the individual stories behind their inspiration and share in the experiences of the local artists who created them.  See the “Swamp Monster,” perhaps the finest Bald Cypress bonsai extant. View the impressive work of local bonsai legend Ray Thieme, who was a contemporary and close friend of the most influential American bonsai artist in the history of the art, John Naka. Get an up-close and personal look at an ancient Pomegranate believed to be in excess of one hundred years of age, originally styled by Ralph Green a founder of the Hanford Bonsai Society one of the oldest bonsai clubs in the nation. Find out how the “Old Snag” and the “Screaming Tree” got their names and the fascinating histories of their journeys from landscape trees to bonsai.