May 2024 News
April Coppini
The Pond
We are thrilled to welcome back April Coppini with a new series of charcoal drawings. Known for her passionate interest in all creatures and their importance to place, she brings a much-anticipated series of gorgeously rendered charcoal (with an occasional punch of pastel) drawings; her first solo show in over two years. Through elegant and expressive mark making she portrays the wild, unseen, and unexpected in her depictions of flora and fauna. This series began its inception from stolen moments of quiet meditation along the banks of a pond. Coppini took solace watching the wildlife within their habitat, finding peace in the rhythm of life from a pond’s edge. The exhibition opens May 11 during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk, from 12 – 8 pm and will remain on display through June 3.
After a forced creative hiatus due to circumstances beyond her control, Coppini delivers a new series of expressive and animated drawings. Known for her passionate interest in all creatures and their importance to place, she portrays a focused record in her subject matter, the simple struggle of existence. A slight tension of muscle before a possible leap, or the look of pensive awareness in preparation for escape from a possible predator, are all elegantly conveyed through beautiful and gestural mark making. With the underlying message of the importance of all creatures and their independent role to ecosystem and/or as pollinators, predators, scavengers or even domesticated animals, Coppini asks the viewer to consider the role our species takes (or doesn’t) in protecting the delicate relationship between mankind and animal as well as a direct reminder of our symbiotic relationship to all life on a global level.
Coppini tends to focus primarily on charcoal for her chosen medium because of “its immediacy and forgiving nature.” For her, the starkness of black on white strikes a basic and guttural cord. Within this series there are several pieces that include color, utilized with care to define emotive qualities or even echo elements of subject matter while still allowing for the dominant line of charcoal to do its work. The stark juxtaposition lends to the overall power and drama conveyed in each piece.
This current series began while Coppini was in New York with her eldest child, awaiting a complicated surgery and during the long days of recovery, post op. Coppini had/has little down time where she can focus on her career, the career that supports her and her 3 children. It is through her own tenacity that she was able to create this series of work, having had to cancel multiple exhibitions over the past two years. This body of work echoes the tenacity of life at the side of a pond within a city, the delicate balance of the natural world versus manmade. Within that balance there is still room for nature to thrive, Coppini depicts the quiet beauty that helped keep her grounded during a difficult time.
About this series, The Pond, Coppini candidly brings honesty and reality and shares the tribulations of balancing her career with the challenges of life. She states: “In Rockville Centre, Long Island NY there is a good-sized pond, called Smith Pond, right there in the middle of things- it’s barely separated (on one side) from busy Merrick road- by a few feet of earth, a cement divider and chain link fence. It’s a 5-minute walk from the Hampton hotel, where my 21 year old and I waited out the neurosurgical consult and then their actual neurosurgery; a Cranio-cervical fusion that would hopefully save their life (or at least some quality of life).
For more than two months, being able to walk(or run) to that pond held me together- and was where I processed our losses and gains, all the medical trauma, where I caught a breath from all the heaviness of caregiving somebody so very sick and bedbound …and where I made friends (mostly plants and animals).”
Along with the many creatures Coppini incorporates into her artwork, she has a special interest in the rapid disappearance of honeybees, also known as “colony collapse disorder.” As a result, she has created over 1000 drawings of bees. Her hope in this practice is to create awareness of the significance bumble bees have on mankind. In her own words, Coppini states, “I believe, foolishly or not, in the possibilities of the human race. I believe the act of being called on to make these drawings is something that comes from a force bigger than us. Its stating, here’s what needs attention, listen to the fables being told here. What we do next, what happens to all the imperiled species is, quite literally, up in the air.” Coppini has taken the cause to heart, not only by creating her luscious drawings of bumble bees in flight, but also donating a portion of the sale of each bee drawing to the Xerces Society for pollination research and conservation.
April Coppini
The Pond
We are thrilled to welcome back April Coppini with a new series of charcoal drawings. Known for her passionate interest in all creatures and their importance to place, she brings a much-anticipated series of gorgeously rendered charcoal (with an occasional punch of pastel) drawings; her first solo show in over two years. Through elegant and expressive mark making she portrays the wild, unseen, and unexpected in her depictions of flora and fauna. This series began its inception from stolen moments of quiet meditation along the banks of a pond. Coppini took solace watching the wildlife within their habitat, finding peace in the rhythm of life from a pond’s edge. The exhibition opens May 11 during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk, from 12 – 8 pm and will remain on display through June 3.
After a forced creative hiatus due to circumstances beyond her control, Coppini delivers a new series of expressive and animated drawings. Known for her passionate interest in all creatures and their importance to place, she portrays a focused record in her subject matter, the simple struggle of existence. A slight tension of muscle before a possible leap, or the look of pensive awareness in preparation for escape from a possible predator, are all elegantly conveyed through beautiful and gestural mark making. With the underlying message of the importance of all creatures and their independent role to ecosystem and/or as pollinators, predators, scavengers or even domesticated animals, Coppini asks the viewer to consider the role our species takes (or doesn’t) in protecting the delicate relationship between mankind and animal as well as a direct reminder of our symbiotic relationship to all life on a global level.
Coppini tends to focus primarily on charcoal for her chosen medium because of “its immediacy and forgiving nature.” For her, the starkness of black on white strikes a basic and guttural cord. Within this series there are several pieces that include color, utilized with care to define emotive qualities or even echo elements of subject matter while still allowing for the dominant line of charcoal to do its work. The stark juxtaposition lends to the overall power and drama conveyed in each piece.
This current series began while Coppini was in New York with her eldest child, awaiting a complicated surgery and during the long days of recovery, post op. Coppini had/has little down time where she can focus on her career, the career that supports her and her 3 children. It is through her own tenacity that she was able to create this series of work, having had to cancel multiple exhibitions over the past two years. This body of work echoes the tenacity of life at the side of a pond within a city, the delicate balance of the natural world versus manmade. Within that balance there is still room for nature to thrive, Coppini depicts the quiet beauty that helped keep her grounded during a difficult time.
About this series, The Pond, Coppini candidly brings honesty and reality and shares the tribulations of balancing her career with the challenges of life. She states: “In Rockville Centre, Long Island NY there is a good-sized pond, called Smith Pond, right there in the middle of things- it’s barely separated (on one side) from busy Merrick road- by a few feet of earth, a cement divider and chain link fence. It’s a 5-minute walk from the Hampton hotel, where my 21 year old and I waited out the neurosurgical consult and then their actual neurosurgery; a Cranio-cervical fusion that would hopefully save their life (or at least some quality of life).
For more than two months, being able to walk(or run) to that pond held me together- and was where I processed our losses and gains, all the medical trauma, where I caught a breath from all the heaviness of caregiving somebody so very sick and bedbound …and where I made friends (mostly plants and animals).”
Along with the many creatures Coppini incorporates into her artwork, she has a special interest in the rapid disappearance of honeybees, also known as “colony collapse disorder.” As a result, she has created over 1000 drawings of bees. Her hope in this practice is to create awareness of the significance bumble bees have on mankind. In her own words, Coppini states, “I believe, foolishly or not, in the possibilities of the human race. I believe the act of being called on to make these drawings is something that comes from a force bigger than us. Its stating, here’s what needs attention, listen to the fables being told here. What we do next, what happens to all the imperiled species is, quite literally, up in the air.” Coppini has taken the cause to heart, not only by creating her luscious drawings of bumble bees in flight, but also donating a portion of the sale of each bee drawing to the Xerces Society for pollination research and conservation.
April 2024 Exhibit
Don Frank
Inky Daydreams
April 13 - May 6
We are delighted to welcome back local photographer Don Frank with a new series of photographic prints focusing on the moody and mysterious elements of the region, specifically during the “off season.” For many the winter months are a time of rejuvenation and contemplation. The days are short, weather is strong and endless grey days melt into darkness. For some it’s a time to reconnect to the natural world in a meditative way, preparing for the busyness of the long days of summer. Frank, with his keen eye of observation, brings the beauty of the subtle and the sublime in both his sense of composition and subject matter. Join us for Astoria’s artwalk 12 – 8, Saturday, April 13. Frank will be at the gallery 5 – 8 pm that evening and available to answer questions about his work. The exhibition will remain on view through May 6.
Known regionally for his compelling imagery, Frank has always tended to bring what might be considered the more obscure to the foreground. His deep immersion into subject matter within his work always makes for a thought-provoking series, providing contemplative space to consider the quiet beauty of the natural world while also acknowledging the relationship to mankind. His latest series Inky Daydreams is indicative of his approach with sharp focus on minute detail, fading into a subdued palette of soft and obscured background. This intentional delineation of foreground to background forces the importance of what caught his artistic attention. Within each photograph is nuance of nature, a study of texture and color culminating ultimately in elegant beauty.
About this series, Frank states: “The long nights and wet days of Winter in the Northwest can lead to a slowing of the senses that thrive at all other times. But not this year. Instead, this project led to searching for serene still-lifes in the grassy dunes, windy beaches, flowing rivers, and snow-covered forests of this place we call home. These strolls didn’t just result in moody photographs, but were a thoughtful exercise in listening, remembering, and may have included a little trespassing. To top off these wanderings, the images were made with an old medium-format Hasselblad camera and shot on film. The slowness that this process requires was a jolting reminder of how key it is to live in the moment and fondly remember what got us here.”
Frank has enjoyed a career that has taken his work across the country both in galleries and into private collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, and the Center for Fine Art Photography in Colorado.
Don Frank
Inky Daydreams
April 13 - May 6
We are delighted to welcome back local photographer Don Frank with a new series of photographic prints focusing on the moody and mysterious elements of the region, specifically during the “off season.” For many the winter months are a time of rejuvenation and contemplation. The days are short, weather is strong and endless grey days melt into darkness. For some it’s a time to reconnect to the natural world in a meditative way, preparing for the busyness of the long days of summer. Frank, with his keen eye of observation, brings the beauty of the subtle and the sublime in both his sense of composition and subject matter. Join us for Astoria’s artwalk 12 – 8, Saturday, April 13. Frank will be at the gallery 5 – 8 pm that evening and available to answer questions about his work. The exhibition will remain on view through May 6.
Known regionally for his compelling imagery, Frank has always tended to bring what might be considered the more obscure to the foreground. His deep immersion into subject matter within his work always makes for a thought-provoking series, providing contemplative space to consider the quiet beauty of the natural world while also acknowledging the relationship to mankind. His latest series Inky Daydreams is indicative of his approach with sharp focus on minute detail, fading into a subdued palette of soft and obscured background. This intentional delineation of foreground to background forces the importance of what caught his artistic attention. Within each photograph is nuance of nature, a study of texture and color culminating ultimately in elegant beauty.
About this series, Frank states: “The long nights and wet days of Winter in the Northwest can lead to a slowing of the senses that thrive at all other times. But not this year. Instead, this project led to searching for serene still-lifes in the grassy dunes, windy beaches, flowing rivers, and snow-covered forests of this place we call home. These strolls didn’t just result in moody photographs, but were a thoughtful exercise in listening, remembering, and may have included a little trespassing. To top off these wanderings, the images were made with an old medium-format Hasselblad camera and shot on film. The slowness that this process requires was a jolting reminder of how key it is to live in the moment and fondly remember what got us here.”
Frank has enjoyed a career that has taken his work across the country both in galleries and into private collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, and the Center for Fine Art Photography in Colorado.
March 2024 Press Release
Artic Dreams by: Linden
Places Far and Near by: Miki'ala Souza
Miki’ala Souza Sky Lines
And
Linden Play As You Go
March 9 – April 8
We are delighted to be jumping into spring with distinct solo exhibitions by two dynamic female artists, both place focus on sense of place through state of mind. Miki’ala Souza, a native Hawaiian artist who now calls Astoria home brings a new series of monotype prints titled Sky Lines. Linden, an Astoria born artist who now lives in Woodburn, Oregon brings her latest series of mixed medium paintings titled Play As You Go. Both exhibitions open during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk, March 9, all are invited to come meet the artists from 5 – 8 pm that evening. The exhibitions will remain on view through April 8.
In our South Gallery, we are excited to welcome back printmaker Miki’ala Souza, for her third exhibition at Imogen. Within this series Souza’s imagery draws on her own native culture combined with a strong interest in other native communities, placing focus on practice and repetition of pattern and line making. Her imagery is complex yet subdued with sheer layers of color and sometimes texture emulating landscape as backbone to her composition. Through the intrinsic layering process of printmaking, she brings dramatic imagery utilizing rich and saturated color. Incorporating bold swathes of layered sheer inks to act as current, rhythmic patterns wind over the page creating story of cultural connection. The very process of printmaking is a perfect metaphor for this transference of cultural identity that Souza meticulously depicts in each composition, weaving layers of color to create an imprint of movement while referencing indigenous art forms and symbols. An added element of texture is included, through chine colle, another printmaking technique, incorporating pressure to fuse printed imagery together through collage.
About this series Souza states, “I create landscapes that observe a world in motion. My prints focus on natural rhythms and patterns including currents, wind, clouds, and wave swells. This artwork is contemporary while recognizing traditions of printmakers and patternmakers from Hawaii and across the Pacific who came before me. The compositions of my designs are inspired by the movement, lines, and use of space I see in traditional Hawaiian artforms. While my imagery doesn’t portray people, it strives to create spaces that are full of life by referencing the interconnectedness between us and the environment. This might include fishing, canoes, voyaging, and recognizing native species. I see myself as intricately connected to these landscapes, and my subjects as cross-cultural. As a Native Hawaiian artist, the history, culture, and places I am a part of are also highly influential to my work and mixed into the layers of these prints.”
Souza is both a practicing artist and educator, teaching art to all ages. She currently teaches at the high school level and spent several years teaching printmaking at Clatsop Community College. She has always had a strong love of travel, exploring the world to deepen her own knowledge of sense of place. Her prints include bits and pieces of all the places that have touched her through experience and memory. Souza’s exploration of other cultures includes six months study at Parsons School of Design in Paris, three months in the Solomon Islands studying art practices in a small village as well as multiple trips to New Zealand including one visit granted by the Oregon Arts Commission for residency and exhibitions of indigenous artists.
In our Front Gallery we present a new series of mixed media paintings on paper by Linden. Known for her evocative abstraction, she brings her fourth solo show to Imogen. “Play As You Go”, as the show title implies, is all about bringing out a healthy sense of play. Her imaginative compositions lend to storytelling with the goal of embracing playfulness and looking back to a time of the unburdened innocence of childhood. Linden’s paintings, while filled with whimsy and perhaps a secret look into her self-created world, is far from simple with sophisticated use of color and line defining each composition. All are invited to step into her mythological world of play and beauty.
As an artist, Linden relies on the visual language to convey thought and idea, allowing herself the freedom to explore by reducing known forms to a mere suggestion. Her goal is to allow the viewer to participate in her process of analogy and perception while keeping it lighthearted and upbeat. Specific to this series she states, “Around the ages of 8-12, we decide we aren't and don't want to be kids anymore. We begin to see life more and more as serious and complicated. We sometimes leave the world of our playful imagination, leave art all together or jump to a time of copying the current art fad. The underlying presumption of this body of work is my need to get back to finding the carefree time of childhood play.”
Beginning her studies at Clatsop Community College, Linden sites instructors Royal Nebeker and Roy Garrison as instrumental in her development as a fine artist. She continued her studies at Pacific Northwest College of Art, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Art degree, focusing both on painting and sculpture. Relocating to the Bay Area in the late ‘90’s, Linden continued her career while also teaching. Living in Benicia, California she founded a school dedicated to the education of all fine art practices for all ages, opening the school under the premise that “the innate creativity that we have as children isn’t ever really lost, it just needs to be fed so it can blossom.” The Linden Tree is still in operation today with the same mission.
Linden has exhibited her work throughout the Northwest and beyond. She began her local career here in Astoria at the former Ricciardi Art Gallery in 1996. Some of her accomplishments include a Juror’s Award for sculpture from the 2003 Journey’s End International Art Exhibition held at the Clatsop County Heritage Museum, selection to be included to the Around Oregon Annual exhibition at the Corvallis Art Center, juried by Martha Lee the owner/director of Russa Lee Gallery in Portland. Her work is also included to the permanent collection of Clatsop Community College, Pacific Northwest College of Art and the Astoria Public Library.
Imogen Gallery is located at 240 11th Street, on the vibrant block shared with Cargo (now located across the street) and Astoria Coffeehouse & Bistro. Current business hours are Thursday through Monday 11:00 to 5:00 and Sunday 11– 4, closed Tuesday and Wednesday. For more information about Imogen Gallery or its represented artists please call 503.468.0620 or stop by in person to see what is new. Imogen Gallery can also be found on the internet via Facebook, Instagram or at www.imogengallery.com .
Artic Dreams by: Linden
Places Far and Near by: Miki'ala Souza
Miki’ala Souza Sky Lines
And
Linden Play As You Go
March 9 – April 8
We are delighted to be jumping into spring with distinct solo exhibitions by two dynamic female artists, both place focus on sense of place through state of mind. Miki’ala Souza, a native Hawaiian artist who now calls Astoria home brings a new series of monotype prints titled Sky Lines. Linden, an Astoria born artist who now lives in Woodburn, Oregon brings her latest series of mixed medium paintings titled Play As You Go. Both exhibitions open during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk, March 9, all are invited to come meet the artists from 5 – 8 pm that evening. The exhibitions will remain on view through April 8.
In our South Gallery, we are excited to welcome back printmaker Miki’ala Souza, for her third exhibition at Imogen. Within this series Souza’s imagery draws on her own native culture combined with a strong interest in other native communities, placing focus on practice and repetition of pattern and line making. Her imagery is complex yet subdued with sheer layers of color and sometimes texture emulating landscape as backbone to her composition. Through the intrinsic layering process of printmaking, she brings dramatic imagery utilizing rich and saturated color. Incorporating bold swathes of layered sheer inks to act as current, rhythmic patterns wind over the page creating story of cultural connection. The very process of printmaking is a perfect metaphor for this transference of cultural identity that Souza meticulously depicts in each composition, weaving layers of color to create an imprint of movement while referencing indigenous art forms and symbols. An added element of texture is included, through chine colle, another printmaking technique, incorporating pressure to fuse printed imagery together through collage.
About this series Souza states, “I create landscapes that observe a world in motion. My prints focus on natural rhythms and patterns including currents, wind, clouds, and wave swells. This artwork is contemporary while recognizing traditions of printmakers and patternmakers from Hawaii and across the Pacific who came before me. The compositions of my designs are inspired by the movement, lines, and use of space I see in traditional Hawaiian artforms. While my imagery doesn’t portray people, it strives to create spaces that are full of life by referencing the interconnectedness between us and the environment. This might include fishing, canoes, voyaging, and recognizing native species. I see myself as intricately connected to these landscapes, and my subjects as cross-cultural. As a Native Hawaiian artist, the history, culture, and places I am a part of are also highly influential to my work and mixed into the layers of these prints.”
Souza is both a practicing artist and educator, teaching art to all ages. She currently teaches at the high school level and spent several years teaching printmaking at Clatsop Community College. She has always had a strong love of travel, exploring the world to deepen her own knowledge of sense of place. Her prints include bits and pieces of all the places that have touched her through experience and memory. Souza’s exploration of other cultures includes six months study at Parsons School of Design in Paris, three months in the Solomon Islands studying art practices in a small village as well as multiple trips to New Zealand including one visit granted by the Oregon Arts Commission for residency and exhibitions of indigenous artists.
In our Front Gallery we present a new series of mixed media paintings on paper by Linden. Known for her evocative abstraction, she brings her fourth solo show to Imogen. “Play As You Go”, as the show title implies, is all about bringing out a healthy sense of play. Her imaginative compositions lend to storytelling with the goal of embracing playfulness and looking back to a time of the unburdened innocence of childhood. Linden’s paintings, while filled with whimsy and perhaps a secret look into her self-created world, is far from simple with sophisticated use of color and line defining each composition. All are invited to step into her mythological world of play and beauty.
As an artist, Linden relies on the visual language to convey thought and idea, allowing herself the freedom to explore by reducing known forms to a mere suggestion. Her goal is to allow the viewer to participate in her process of analogy and perception while keeping it lighthearted and upbeat. Specific to this series she states, “Around the ages of 8-12, we decide we aren't and don't want to be kids anymore. We begin to see life more and more as serious and complicated. We sometimes leave the world of our playful imagination, leave art all together or jump to a time of copying the current art fad. The underlying presumption of this body of work is my need to get back to finding the carefree time of childhood play.”
Beginning her studies at Clatsop Community College, Linden sites instructors Royal Nebeker and Roy Garrison as instrumental in her development as a fine artist. She continued her studies at Pacific Northwest College of Art, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Art degree, focusing both on painting and sculpture. Relocating to the Bay Area in the late ‘90’s, Linden continued her career while also teaching. Living in Benicia, California she founded a school dedicated to the education of all fine art practices for all ages, opening the school under the premise that “the innate creativity that we have as children isn’t ever really lost, it just needs to be fed so it can blossom.” The Linden Tree is still in operation today with the same mission.
Linden has exhibited her work throughout the Northwest and beyond. She began her local career here in Astoria at the former Ricciardi Art Gallery in 1996. Some of her accomplishments include a Juror’s Award for sculpture from the 2003 Journey’s End International Art Exhibition held at the Clatsop County Heritage Museum, selection to be included to the Around Oregon Annual exhibition at the Corvallis Art Center, juried by Martha Lee the owner/director of Russa Lee Gallery in Portland. Her work is also included to the permanent collection of Clatsop Community College, Pacific Northwest College of Art and the Astoria Public Library.
Imogen Gallery is located at 240 11th Street, on the vibrant block shared with Cargo (now located across the street) and Astoria Coffeehouse & Bistro. Current business hours are Thursday through Monday 11:00 to 5:00 and Sunday 11– 4, closed Tuesday and Wednesday. For more information about Imogen Gallery or its represented artists please call 503.468.0620 or stop by in person to see what is new. Imogen Gallery can also be found on the internet via Facebook, Instagram or at www.imogengallery.com .
February 2024 Exhibit
Corey Arnold
Far From Home
February 10 – March 4
In conjunction with the annual FisherPoets Gathering and in honor of the importance of the maritime industry to our region, we are proud to present the powerful photographic work of commercial fisherman and artist Corey Arnold. Arnold brings an incredible collection of large-scale photographic prints, narrating his work experiences in Alaska, both on the Bering Sea and Bristol Bay. His up close and intimate look at the working environment is an inspiration with a solid nod of respect to those who depend on the sea for livelihood. Far From Home opens during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk 12 – 8 pm, February 10 and will remain on view through March 4th.
Known for his high drama photographic imagery, Arnold has enjoyed a dual career, merging his love of the sea with his art. Respected internationally, he has fished, photographed, and exhibited his work around the world. His love of the sea and fishing began as a child, about the same time he first picked up a camera. What began as weekend family adventures quickly became a permanent part of life. Arnold began fishing commercially in 1995 as a deckhand aboard various vessels and skiffs in Alaska. His career as a fine art photographer and fisherman has taken him far, both documenting and fishing the world’s oceans. Despite his international success as a photographer, Arnold returns every summer to Bristol Bay, Alaska where he captains a skiff, fishing for salmon.
Arnold’s work is without doubt a celebration of the lifestyle of the fisherman. Through his lens he captures the raw and rugged reality of hard work, with brutal and honest images that depict both danger and beauty, sometimes in the same moment. Arnold is not one, however, to overly romanticize, he is critically aware of the struggle of a rapidly changing global fishing industry. His photographic work runs deeper than capturing a way of life, he tackles environmental issues, food production and man’s complex relationship to the natural world, all on a global level. Within this series, Far From Home, he considers the sacrifice that comes with the career, leading to days, weeks even months away from home and loved ones.
About his work, he states: “During my seasonal adventures at sea, there was plenty of down time to reconsider one’s place in the world. This seasonal escape from the “real world” has its meditative benefits but, not without a certain feeling of loss, especially being far from those we love. While we are not alone on these boats or distant islands, a shared experience of loneliness, the vulnerability of longing bonds us with our fellow crew. Photography has always been my way of sharing my life at sea with my friends and family back on shore, a way of connecting distant worlds. This exhibition is a collection of images I have made over many years, moments of reflection, suffering, adventure, storms, and unlikely beauty far from home.”
Arnold, who graduated from the University of Art Academy in San Francisco has enjoyed a diverse and exciting career. His series Fish-Work was launched after receiving a commission from the PEW Charitable Foundation, taking him to Europe and photographing from aboard fishing vessels in eight European countries. He has also been awarded an American Scandinavian Foundation grant which led to the documentation of the work of fishermen in Northern Norway. His work has been exhibited in Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York as well as numerous other venues worldwide, and published in Harpers, The New Yorker, New York Times LENS, Art Ltd, Rolling Stone, Time, Outside, National Geographic, Mare, and The Paris Review, among others. He is a Hallie Ford Foundation Fellow as well as a National Geographic Explorer, and the recipient of multiple awards including the 2023 Wildlife and Nature Professional Category of Sony World Photography Awards and first-place in the Nature Category of World Press Photo Awards in 2018. Arnold has published two books of photography by Nazraeli Press including Fish-Work: The Bering Sea, and Fishing with My Dad and his work can be found in the permanent collection of the Portland Art Museum as well as many other private, corporate, and public collections.
Corey Arnold
Far From Home
February 10 – March 4
In conjunction with the annual FisherPoets Gathering and in honor of the importance of the maritime industry to our region, we are proud to present the powerful photographic work of commercial fisherman and artist Corey Arnold. Arnold brings an incredible collection of large-scale photographic prints, narrating his work experiences in Alaska, both on the Bering Sea and Bristol Bay. His up close and intimate look at the working environment is an inspiration with a solid nod of respect to those who depend on the sea for livelihood. Far From Home opens during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk 12 – 8 pm, February 10 and will remain on view through March 4th.
Known for his high drama photographic imagery, Arnold has enjoyed a dual career, merging his love of the sea with his art. Respected internationally, he has fished, photographed, and exhibited his work around the world. His love of the sea and fishing began as a child, about the same time he first picked up a camera. What began as weekend family adventures quickly became a permanent part of life. Arnold began fishing commercially in 1995 as a deckhand aboard various vessels and skiffs in Alaska. His career as a fine art photographer and fisherman has taken him far, both documenting and fishing the world’s oceans. Despite his international success as a photographer, Arnold returns every summer to Bristol Bay, Alaska where he captains a skiff, fishing for salmon.
Arnold’s work is without doubt a celebration of the lifestyle of the fisherman. Through his lens he captures the raw and rugged reality of hard work, with brutal and honest images that depict both danger and beauty, sometimes in the same moment. Arnold is not one, however, to overly romanticize, he is critically aware of the struggle of a rapidly changing global fishing industry. His photographic work runs deeper than capturing a way of life, he tackles environmental issues, food production and man’s complex relationship to the natural world, all on a global level. Within this series, Far From Home, he considers the sacrifice that comes with the career, leading to days, weeks even months away from home and loved ones.
About his work, he states: “During my seasonal adventures at sea, there was plenty of down time to reconsider one’s place in the world. This seasonal escape from the “real world” has its meditative benefits but, not without a certain feeling of loss, especially being far from those we love. While we are not alone on these boats or distant islands, a shared experience of loneliness, the vulnerability of longing bonds us with our fellow crew. Photography has always been my way of sharing my life at sea with my friends and family back on shore, a way of connecting distant worlds. This exhibition is a collection of images I have made over many years, moments of reflection, suffering, adventure, storms, and unlikely beauty far from home.”
Arnold, who graduated from the University of Art Academy in San Francisco has enjoyed a diverse and exciting career. His series Fish-Work was launched after receiving a commission from the PEW Charitable Foundation, taking him to Europe and photographing from aboard fishing vessels in eight European countries. He has also been awarded an American Scandinavian Foundation grant which led to the documentation of the work of fishermen in Northern Norway. His work has been exhibited in Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York as well as numerous other venues worldwide, and published in Harpers, The New Yorker, New York Times LENS, Art Ltd, Rolling Stone, Time, Outside, National Geographic, Mare, and The Paris Review, among others. He is a Hallie Ford Foundation Fellow as well as a National Geographic Explorer, and the recipient of multiple awards including the 2023 Wildlife and Nature Professional Category of Sony World Photography Awards and first-place in the Nature Category of World Press Photo Awards in 2018. Arnold has published two books of photography by Nazraeli Press including Fish-Work: The Bering Sea, and Fishing with My Dad and his work can be found in the permanent collection of the Portland Art Museum as well as many other private, corporate, and public collections.
January 2024 Exhibit
Nicholas Knapton
Conversations with Gavi
We are excited to be presenting a long-awaited exhibition for Nicholas Knapton, a Pacific Northwest artist who has been balancing his career between Astoria, Oregon and Berlin, Germany for nearly three decades. This series, Conversations with Gavi encompasses years of connection to a long-time friend, despite distance, via artistic expression. Knapton brings paintings, drawings and silk screen prints for his solo exhibition that opens during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk, January 13. Knapton will be at the gallery Saturday, January 13, 5 – 8 pm, come say hello and learn more about him and his diverse career. The exhibition will be on view through February 5.
Knapton, born in York, England and raised in Astoria has a fascinating story. His sense of connection to home is strong, regardless of how far away he found himself and with the ever present need to immerse himself in other cultures, studying other languages and always gathering knowledge from wherever he landed to then imbue into his artwork. Back in his Astoria studio he has been creating new paintings, considering conversations with a longtime friend in Berlin. These conversations may feel insignificant in the moment but sometimes lead to the framing of one's identity. This exhibition is about personal connections, enjoying years of shared philosophy over tea and ultimately exploring what may seem mundane, to the life altering profound. He also includes drawings done while still in Berlin, the bridge from here to there.
Knapton continues with his recognizable direct and edgy abstract style, however within this series he brings brighter color to his palette. Gone is the moody darkness inspired by old gritty Astoria and war-torn East Berlin, instead turning to a more playful upbeat pallet, perhaps reflecting a hopeful future that we all look towards. His style still contains reference to the avant garde German Expressionist movement, an inescapable influence from his years living in Berlin within the rebellious counterculture, after the Wall came down and the unification of the country.
About this series he states: These painting relate to the conversations I would have with my Scottish friend Gavi who still lives in Berlin. They are quite indulgent in color and abstraction similar to what Gavi would talk about. They are not difficult or demanding but simple and entertaining, but also with some deep, stimulating intellectual meaning behind them. These conversations would always get me through hard times, but also just to pass some time, almost like reading a book or indulging in a fascinating film documentary. Many people have asked me why I moved to Berlin, which I did in 1994 at the age of twenty-three, and then again in 2011 when I was aged forty. The question is always difficult to answer because Berlin especially East Berlin is a place where people stereotypically escape from, but strangely enough people of my ilk, artists, rebels, political activists, musicians, and people who basically did not fit in to wherever they had come from fled to. These people were basically people from everywhere, congregating in Berlin in the 1990’s after the Fall of the Berlin Wall. And Gavi and I were a couple of the people amongst thousands who just ended up there. These years were extremely formative for me and have basically shaped my personality and my work as an artist.
Knapton, who began his art studies at Clatsop Community College under the tutelage of Royal Nebeker and Richard Rowland has balanced a career that has taken him back and forth between two very distinctive art communities, exhibiting his work here in Astoria, Portland to the other side of the Atlantic in Berlin, Paris, Estonia, and other European art houses. This dual career is what inspires him, allowing him to participate in an epicenter to creative thought while also bringing it home to a quieter village lifestyle. It is living here, in a more rural setting, that gives him space to contemplate his broader experiences, shaping and defining his focus. His experience in both communities translates to a bold painterly style where both dynamic layers of energy and spontaneity find spaces of open calm and dynamic use of color.
Knapton’s flexibility in lifestyle has allowed him experiences few will encounter. After finishing studies at Clatsop Community College, he headed to Portland where he attended Portland State University, studying under Northwest notables such as Mel Katz, Linda Wysong and Susan Harlan. With a strong core of knowledge, Knapton then jumped into the then burgeoning Berlin art scene. While in Europe he assisted with the restorations of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, London, and participated in the Wrapped-Reichstag project by famed installation artists Christo and Jeanne Claude in Berlin. Back home, his figurative work has been juried into the annual Au Naturel International Juried Exhibition multiple times by acclaimed art professionals, including an awarded purchase prize from the college. He continues to exhibit his work both in the Northwest as well as Berlin.
Nicholas Knapton
Conversations with Gavi
We are excited to be presenting a long-awaited exhibition for Nicholas Knapton, a Pacific Northwest artist who has been balancing his career between Astoria, Oregon and Berlin, Germany for nearly three decades. This series, Conversations with Gavi encompasses years of connection to a long-time friend, despite distance, via artistic expression. Knapton brings paintings, drawings and silk screen prints for his solo exhibition that opens during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk, January 13. Knapton will be at the gallery Saturday, January 13, 5 – 8 pm, come say hello and learn more about him and his diverse career. The exhibition will be on view through February 5.
Knapton, born in York, England and raised in Astoria has a fascinating story. His sense of connection to home is strong, regardless of how far away he found himself and with the ever present need to immerse himself in other cultures, studying other languages and always gathering knowledge from wherever he landed to then imbue into his artwork. Back in his Astoria studio he has been creating new paintings, considering conversations with a longtime friend in Berlin. These conversations may feel insignificant in the moment but sometimes lead to the framing of one's identity. This exhibition is about personal connections, enjoying years of shared philosophy over tea and ultimately exploring what may seem mundane, to the life altering profound. He also includes drawings done while still in Berlin, the bridge from here to there.
Knapton continues with his recognizable direct and edgy abstract style, however within this series he brings brighter color to his palette. Gone is the moody darkness inspired by old gritty Astoria and war-torn East Berlin, instead turning to a more playful upbeat pallet, perhaps reflecting a hopeful future that we all look towards. His style still contains reference to the avant garde German Expressionist movement, an inescapable influence from his years living in Berlin within the rebellious counterculture, after the Wall came down and the unification of the country.
About this series he states: These painting relate to the conversations I would have with my Scottish friend Gavi who still lives in Berlin. They are quite indulgent in color and abstraction similar to what Gavi would talk about. They are not difficult or demanding but simple and entertaining, but also with some deep, stimulating intellectual meaning behind them. These conversations would always get me through hard times, but also just to pass some time, almost like reading a book or indulging in a fascinating film documentary. Many people have asked me why I moved to Berlin, which I did in 1994 at the age of twenty-three, and then again in 2011 when I was aged forty. The question is always difficult to answer because Berlin especially East Berlin is a place where people stereotypically escape from, but strangely enough people of my ilk, artists, rebels, political activists, musicians, and people who basically did not fit in to wherever they had come from fled to. These people were basically people from everywhere, congregating in Berlin in the 1990’s after the Fall of the Berlin Wall. And Gavi and I were a couple of the people amongst thousands who just ended up there. These years were extremely formative for me and have basically shaped my personality and my work as an artist.
Knapton, who began his art studies at Clatsop Community College under the tutelage of Royal Nebeker and Richard Rowland has balanced a career that has taken him back and forth between two very distinctive art communities, exhibiting his work here in Astoria, Portland to the other side of the Atlantic in Berlin, Paris, Estonia, and other European art houses. This dual career is what inspires him, allowing him to participate in an epicenter to creative thought while also bringing it home to a quieter village lifestyle. It is living here, in a more rural setting, that gives him space to contemplate his broader experiences, shaping and defining his focus. His experience in both communities translates to a bold painterly style where both dynamic layers of energy and spontaneity find spaces of open calm and dynamic use of color.
Knapton’s flexibility in lifestyle has allowed him experiences few will encounter. After finishing studies at Clatsop Community College, he headed to Portland where he attended Portland State University, studying under Northwest notables such as Mel Katz, Linda Wysong and Susan Harlan. With a strong core of knowledge, Knapton then jumped into the then burgeoning Berlin art scene. While in Europe he assisted with the restorations of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, London, and participated in the Wrapped-Reichstag project by famed installation artists Christo and Jeanne Claude in Berlin. Back home, his figurative work has been juried into the annual Au Naturel International Juried Exhibition multiple times by acclaimed art professionals, including an awarded purchase prize from the college. He continues to exhibit his work both in the Northwest as well as Berlin.
