Artist Suzanne Jackson is an alchemist who can make paint hold shapes in the air without the support of canvas or frame.

She can turn garbage into stained glass, shimmering silk and hammered precious metal dreamscapes. And she can divine love and beauty in situations of peril and grief, like the devastation of the environment and the loss of a grown child.

“ Suzanne Jackson: What Is Love, ” which opened at SFMOMA on Sept. 27 and runs through March 1 next year, is the first major museum retrospective of Jackson’s career, encompassing more than 80 works from the 1960s to the present.

The show’s title is a play on “What I Love,” a collection of poetry and art Jackson self-published in 1972. Her love for particular people, for the natural world, for humanity and beauty are perennial theme

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