October 2013 Exhibit
The Things We Leave Behind
Diane Kingzett
Diane Kingzett of Portland brings a new series of mixed medium paintings for her fifth solo exhibition at Imogen. Describing herself as a painter of emotion, Kingzett leaves preconceived ideas of content and composition to consider her own internal dialogue, allowing psyche to become muse. The Things We Leave Behind is consistent with Kingzett’s abstract style of expression but with a departure, giving pause for clarity and acceptance. The exhibition opens during Astoria’s second Saturday artwalk, October 14. Kingzett will be in attendance and available to answer questions about her work from 5 – 8 pm that evening. The show will be on view through November 6.
For Kingzett, the process of painting is a basic means of communication, a place where ideas and life experiences are gathered and utilized to distill into pictorial narrative. Within this series she considers the physical and emotional relics once so significant, which we ultimately abandon through maturity and a state of inner knowing. Through this process one may grow to understand and accept what to carry or what to put down, easing the burden of a lifetime of experiences. Through abstraction, her compositions might bring vague imprint of place which for her are personal documentations of time and memory.
With calculated use of palette, she brings exquisite blues melting into golden color fields; the warmth of vibrant, passionate pinks balancing quiet washes of grey, lending to memory of landscape while offering a sense of peace with what was.
Exploring new ideas, she has also incorporated the use of new medium. Working with flashe paint for the first time along with oil, her first love, she brings an intensity of color with a deep matte finish. Flashe paint is typically utilized on stage sets in theaters for its ability to absorb light with less reflection. For Kingzett this has granted a new-found freedom in the process of painting itself. Her painting style has always held the element of confidence, the addition of a medium new to her has enhanced that assuredness, freeing her hand and eye even further to explore her own ideas while bringing a deeper level of richness to color, texture, and finish. Consistent to her work is her ability to provide space for intuitive consideration of process through an ethereal sense of reality.
About this series she states:
These paintings address physical and emotional relics once significant to me that I ultimately had to abandon to embody maturity and a state of inner knowing. Tired attachments to places, ideals, fears and false securities become inert. The idea that abandonment, once such a detriment to us when we are young, can ultimately compel us forward into self-evolution.
While exploring a new medium in vinyl flashe paint, I found a fresh freedom of expression in the intense opacity of the paint, both as an under painting and in final layers partnered with oil paint, graphite and paper. The intensity and immediacy of the saturated color of flashe paint adds a new sensibility to intuitive painting for me coupled with a more decisive, authoritative hand. A sense of saying more with less has arisen, an old theme in contemporary art but relatively recent in my process. Painting feels more contemplative now, and paint has become a partner rather than something to conquer.
Kingzett, who has painted for well over 30 years earned her BFA at West Virginia University and studied at the San Francisco Art Institute as well as the Vermot Studio Center. Having lived in all four corners of the country, Kingzett has taken inspiration from her experiences and utilized that towards the development of her work as a painter. She is also an accomplished silversmith, translating her love of color and texture to exquisite bezel set stone jewelry pieces, also available at Imogen.
The Things We Leave Behind
Diane Kingzett
Diane Kingzett of Portland brings a new series of mixed medium paintings for her fifth solo exhibition at Imogen. Describing herself as a painter of emotion, Kingzett leaves preconceived ideas of content and composition to consider her own internal dialogue, allowing psyche to become muse. The Things We Leave Behind is consistent with Kingzett’s abstract style of expression but with a departure, giving pause for clarity and acceptance. The exhibition opens during Astoria’s second Saturday artwalk, October 14. Kingzett will be in attendance and available to answer questions about her work from 5 – 8 pm that evening. The show will be on view through November 6.
For Kingzett, the process of painting is a basic means of communication, a place where ideas and life experiences are gathered and utilized to distill into pictorial narrative. Within this series she considers the physical and emotional relics once so significant, which we ultimately abandon through maturity and a state of inner knowing. Through this process one may grow to understand and accept what to carry or what to put down, easing the burden of a lifetime of experiences. Through abstraction, her compositions might bring vague imprint of place which for her are personal documentations of time and memory.
With calculated use of palette, she brings exquisite blues melting into golden color fields; the warmth of vibrant, passionate pinks balancing quiet washes of grey, lending to memory of landscape while offering a sense of peace with what was.
Exploring new ideas, she has also incorporated the use of new medium. Working with flashe paint for the first time along with oil, her first love, she brings an intensity of color with a deep matte finish. Flashe paint is typically utilized on stage sets in theaters for its ability to absorb light with less reflection. For Kingzett this has granted a new-found freedom in the process of painting itself. Her painting style has always held the element of confidence, the addition of a medium new to her has enhanced that assuredness, freeing her hand and eye even further to explore her own ideas while bringing a deeper level of richness to color, texture, and finish. Consistent to her work is her ability to provide space for intuitive consideration of process through an ethereal sense of reality.
About this series she states:
These paintings address physical and emotional relics once significant to me that I ultimately had to abandon to embody maturity and a state of inner knowing. Tired attachments to places, ideals, fears and false securities become inert. The idea that abandonment, once such a detriment to us when we are young, can ultimately compel us forward into self-evolution.
While exploring a new medium in vinyl flashe paint, I found a fresh freedom of expression in the intense opacity of the paint, both as an under painting and in final layers partnered with oil paint, graphite and paper. The intensity and immediacy of the saturated color of flashe paint adds a new sensibility to intuitive painting for me coupled with a more decisive, authoritative hand. A sense of saying more with less has arisen, an old theme in contemporary art but relatively recent in my process. Painting feels more contemplative now, and paint has become a partner rather than something to conquer.
Kingzett, who has painted for well over 30 years earned her BFA at West Virginia University and studied at the San Francisco Art Institute as well as the Vermot Studio Center. Having lived in all four corners of the country, Kingzett has taken inspiration from her experiences and utilized that towards the development of her work as a painter. She is also an accomplished silversmith, translating her love of color and texture to exquisite bezel set stone jewelry pieces, also available at Imogen.
OPB's Think Out Loud interview of sculptor M.J. Anderson
Click on picture for OPB's live interview
For nearly 40 years, sculptor M.J. Anderson has been making annual trips from her home on the Oregon Coast to Carrara, Italy. She spends up to three months there, traveling along a winding road to quarries with towering walls of marble, the same kind of stone that was used to create Michelangelo’s sculpture of David and other timeless works of Renaissance art.
But Anderson isn’t interested in recreating classical, idealized representations of masculine or feminine beauty. Instead, as a recent exhibit of her work in Astoria showcased, a unifying theme of Anderson’s work is “the distillation of what it feels like to be woman.” Starting at her studio in Carrara, she uses grinders and air hammers to carve torsos evoking the female form out of massive blocks of marble, onyx and travertine. The pieces are then shipped, unfinished, to Anderson’s studio in Nehalem where she polishes them while retaining drill marks and other raw reminders of the stone’s past and its “power.” We’ll talk to Anderson about her artistic process and the themes that animate her work today.
Click on picture for OPB's live interview
For nearly 40 years, sculptor M.J. Anderson has been making annual trips from her home on the Oregon Coast to Carrara, Italy. She spends up to three months there, traveling along a winding road to quarries with towering walls of marble, the same kind of stone that was used to create Michelangelo’s sculpture of David and other timeless works of Renaissance art.
But Anderson isn’t interested in recreating classical, idealized representations of masculine or feminine beauty. Instead, as a recent exhibit of her work in Astoria showcased, a unifying theme of Anderson’s work is “the distillation of what it feels like to be woman.” Starting at her studio in Carrara, she uses grinders and air hammers to carve torsos evoking the female form out of massive blocks of marble, onyx and travertine. The pieces are then shipped, unfinished, to Anderson’s studio in Nehalem where she polishes them while retaining drill marks and other raw reminders of the stone’s past and its “power.” We’ll talk to Anderson about her artistic process and the themes that animate her work today.
Review of Darren Orange's Paracosm By Richard Speer
Darren Orange has maintained a long inquiry into the landscape of the region that nurtured him, the Pacific Northwest. (The show's title refers to an imaginary world, which Orange likens to "creating your own universe.") Born and raised in Yakima, Washington, to third-generation apple orchardists, he earned a B.A. in painting with an art-history minor at Western Washington University. Since 2000 he has lived in Astoria, Oregon, except for a two-year stint in Santa Fe. Over that quarter century Orange has transliterated the Northwest’s rivers, mountains, forests, and logging towns into the genre of abstracted landscape.
Orange’s palette has tended toward earth tones, his gestures toward natural and human-made referents such as the cut of the horizon line across the Pacific Ocean or the span of the iconic Astoria-Megler Bridge, which connects Oregon and Washington. This stylistic and thematic consistency makes his new exhibition, “Paracosm,” all the more surprising a departure.
The 33 oil paintings that comprise “Paracosm” (all from 2022 and 2023) leave concrete referents behind in favor of pure abstraction. He also trades in his customary color palette of browns, blacks, and subdued gray-periwinkles for bright, bracing, edible sherbet hues. Nothing in Orange’s prior work prepared me for the pinks and juicy oranges of the show’s centerpiece work, the 7 by 5 1/2 foot “Synesthesia,” nor the lemon-yellows and bubblegum blues in “Proclivity to Shadow the Sun,” nor the scrumptious cherry reds of “Glass Skies.” His handling of paint, however, retains the flowing, self-assured brushwork viewers will recall from previous bodies of work. In fact, arguably Orange’s most successful paintings have been those in which bravura representational passages verged on abstraction.
His current deep dive into pure gesture seems to have liberated and invigorated him. There is a newfound ferocity, a jittery kineticism in his dashes and daubs with brush, palette knife, and spatula. A powerful centrifugal force animates “Thorn of the Recalcitrant” and “Abstracta Botanica,” their crescent-shaped gestures telegraphing mass and motion hurtling outward.
He comes to abstraction not on a pointless mission to change art, but to discover himself personally and aesthetically. The works on aluminum panel, in particular, lend themselves to what Orange calls “a wild ride in slippery, wet viscosity that makes the painting action fast and loose.” The surfaces are thick with impasto, perhaps a nod to the mutant textures of Anselm Kiefer, one of his big influences.
I place Orange’s style in the company of four Northwest painters of roughly his generation: Timothy Scott Dalbow, Jason Dickason, my late partner Dorothy Goode, and Scott Wayne Indiana in his work circa 2004-2007 — assertive, intuitive, and very much in the lineage of Abstract Expressionism. Lucinda Parker and Barbara Sternberger began working in this mode a generation earlier.
Orange has reshuffled the bones of this approach into something appreciably fresher that — having ditched the woodsy hues and heavily varnished surfaces of his incipient years for a brasher, more exultant palette without varnish — evinces a hyperspace jump after two decades of a consistent aesthetic message. His abstractions look suave and commanding here, their nubby surfaces, bold gesturalism, and Pop Art palette exuding a heady confidence as they update the painter’s Northwest ethos with an agreeable jolt of flash and verve.
Although this is Orange’s fourth solo exhibition at Imogen, it’s his first in the gallery’s expanded exhibition space, which doubled in size with a remodel in late 2021/early 2022. Some background about this gallery’s location far from an urban center; it is unique in Astoria. Imogen is a light-filled white cube, warmed by rustic wooden beams holding up the ceiling. It is well suited for the large-scale paintings that Orange favors, and for sculptures such as those of M.J. Anderson, whose show preceded Orange’s. It’s hard to overestimate Imogen’s impact on the Oregon Coast art ecosystem over the past decade.
Director/founder Teri Sund opened up shop in August 2012, incorporating coast-based artists such as Anderson and Marc Boone, as well as Portlanders like Corey Arnold, Tom Cramer, and Matthew Dennison, Lauren Mantecón from Santa Fe, and Anne Grgich from Seattle. Sund has an eye for work that is regional but not regionalist. This is not the place to buy a sunset-and-sand print to cart home as a souvenir of your vacation on Cannon Beach, and while the gallery does have a section for ceramics, glass, and jewelry, the doubling of the exhibition square footage keeps the ratio of contemporary art to craft at around 85/15, which is just about right for an integral but pragmatic seaside art space.
Darren Orange has maintained a long inquiry into the landscape of the region that nurtured him, the Pacific Northwest. (The show's title refers to an imaginary world, which Orange likens to "creating your own universe.") Born and raised in Yakima, Washington, to third-generation apple orchardists, he earned a B.A. in painting with an art-history minor at Western Washington University. Since 2000 he has lived in Astoria, Oregon, except for a two-year stint in Santa Fe. Over that quarter century Orange has transliterated the Northwest’s rivers, mountains, forests, and logging towns into the genre of abstracted landscape.
Orange’s palette has tended toward earth tones, his gestures toward natural and human-made referents such as the cut of the horizon line across the Pacific Ocean or the span of the iconic Astoria-Megler Bridge, which connects Oregon and Washington. This stylistic and thematic consistency makes his new exhibition, “Paracosm,” all the more surprising a departure.
The 33 oil paintings that comprise “Paracosm” (all from 2022 and 2023) leave concrete referents behind in favor of pure abstraction. He also trades in his customary color palette of browns, blacks, and subdued gray-periwinkles for bright, bracing, edible sherbet hues. Nothing in Orange’s prior work prepared me for the pinks and juicy oranges of the show’s centerpiece work, the 7 by 5 1/2 foot “Synesthesia,” nor the lemon-yellows and bubblegum blues in “Proclivity to Shadow the Sun,” nor the scrumptious cherry reds of “Glass Skies.” His handling of paint, however, retains the flowing, self-assured brushwork viewers will recall from previous bodies of work. In fact, arguably Orange’s most successful paintings have been those in which bravura representational passages verged on abstraction.
His current deep dive into pure gesture seems to have liberated and invigorated him. There is a newfound ferocity, a jittery kineticism in his dashes and daubs with brush, palette knife, and spatula. A powerful centrifugal force animates “Thorn of the Recalcitrant” and “Abstracta Botanica,” their crescent-shaped gestures telegraphing mass and motion hurtling outward.
He comes to abstraction not on a pointless mission to change art, but to discover himself personally and aesthetically. The works on aluminum panel, in particular, lend themselves to what Orange calls “a wild ride in slippery, wet viscosity that makes the painting action fast and loose.” The surfaces are thick with impasto, perhaps a nod to the mutant textures of Anselm Kiefer, one of his big influences.
I place Orange’s style in the company of four Northwest painters of roughly his generation: Timothy Scott Dalbow, Jason Dickason, my late partner Dorothy Goode, and Scott Wayne Indiana in his work circa 2004-2007 — assertive, intuitive, and very much in the lineage of Abstract Expressionism. Lucinda Parker and Barbara Sternberger began working in this mode a generation earlier.
Orange has reshuffled the bones of this approach into something appreciably fresher that — having ditched the woodsy hues and heavily varnished surfaces of his incipient years for a brasher, more exultant palette without varnish — evinces a hyperspace jump after two decades of a consistent aesthetic message. His abstractions look suave and commanding here, their nubby surfaces, bold gesturalism, and Pop Art palette exuding a heady confidence as they update the painter’s Northwest ethos with an agreeable jolt of flash and verve.
Although this is Orange’s fourth solo exhibition at Imogen, it’s his first in the gallery’s expanded exhibition space, which doubled in size with a remodel in late 2021/early 2022. Some background about this gallery’s location far from an urban center; it is unique in Astoria. Imogen is a light-filled white cube, warmed by rustic wooden beams holding up the ceiling. It is well suited for the large-scale paintings that Orange favors, and for sculptures such as those of M.J. Anderson, whose show preceded Orange’s. It’s hard to overestimate Imogen’s impact on the Oregon Coast art ecosystem over the past decade.
Director/founder Teri Sund opened up shop in August 2012, incorporating coast-based artists such as Anderson and Marc Boone, as well as Portlanders like Corey Arnold, Tom Cramer, and Matthew Dennison, Lauren Mantecón from Santa Fe, and Anne Grgich from Seattle. Sund has an eye for work that is regional but not regionalist. This is not the place to buy a sunset-and-sand print to cart home as a souvenir of your vacation on Cannon Beach, and while the gallery does have a section for ceramics, glass, and jewelry, the doubling of the exhibition square footage keeps the ratio of contemporary art to craft at around 85/15, which is just about right for an integral but pragmatic seaside art space.
September 2023 Exhibit
Darren Orange “Paracosm” and Justin L’Amie “In The Weeds”
September 9 – October 9, 2023
Artwalk and reception Saturday, September 9, 12 – 8 pm
We are excited to cap off the summer season with two powerhouse exhibitions opening during September’s ArtWalk. In our new space we are pleased to be presenting the fourth solo exhibition for Darren Orange, “Paracosm”, a new series of dynamic and explosive oil paintings. We are also proud to welcome the work of Justin L’Amie for his first solo exhibition at Imogen. L’Amie brings a new series of delightful watercolor and gouache paintings titled “In The Weeds”. The two exhibitions open during Astoria’s Second Saturday ArtWalk, September 9th 12 – 8 pm and remain on view through October 9th. Both artists will be in attendance from 5 – 8 pm that evening, please stop by to meet them and learn more about their work firsthand.
Darren Orange, known far and wide for his emotive oil paintings delves further into abstraction within his latest series “Paracosm”. He continues with his bold and energetic style, employing movement synonymous with dance and filling our new exhibition space with powerful color and energy. His process always intertwined with finished composition demands the viewer to take note and participate in the echo left behind from its creation. Utilizing his past work as a springboard he without hesitation jumps head on into pure expression with dramatic color bursts, jolting all to full attention while beckoning for playful and joyous interaction.
Within this provocative series, he pushes the unseen boundaries of mark making as expression. About this exhibition he states: “A childhood dreamscape of imagination. A universe unlocked through creation. This body of work explores abstraction through the lens of altered perspective. The intention to achieve new insight in placement and composition. Inner mindscapes or landscape on its edge. An attempt to flip the script of my previous understanding of viewer painting relationship by leading the viewer inside of the painting.” Through his painting, Orange moves beyond preconceived perception and takes a daring leap into the afterglow of sheer upbeat spontaneity, inviting all to come along for the ride. The shedding of past is apparent while looking directly to the unknown with exuberance and fearlessness.
Orange’s work has been widely exhibited, reaching all four corners of the United States, including New York, Atlanta, Santa Fe, Portland as well as the Coos Bay Art Museum, Oregon. He has been presented awards from the Oregon Arts Commission, the Ford Family Foundation, and the Ucross Foundation Residency Fellowship. His work has been selected for exhibitions by Michael Klein of the Microsoft Collection, Nat Trottman of the Guggenheim, Bonnie Laing Malcomson formerly with the Portland Art Museum, Margaret Bullock of the Tacoma Art Museum, and many others. Academic institutions such as Portland State University, Peninsula College, Mt Hood Community College, Lower Columbia College, Oregon Coast Council for the Arts have all awarded him with solo exhibitions. He was also selected by the Oregon Arts Commission for the Art in The Governor’s Office program, a prestigious recognition as an Oregon artist. His work can be found in private, public, and corporate collections around the world.
In our front gallery, we are proud to be presenting a solo exhibition for artist Justin L’Amie. Working primarily in watercolor he brings a new collection of delightful paintings portraying flora and fauna in whimsical and spontaneous composition. L’Amie who lives in Portland is from Astoria and began his art studies at Clatsop Community College before acquiring his BFA at Cornish College of Art. For his introduction to Imogen Gallery, L’Amie brings “In The Weeds”, a refreshing and original take on still life painting, with vases overflowing with intricate pattern of life. His compositions focus on color and form, staging with structure his bouquets contain imaginative flowers hosting playful insects and fungi.
About this series L’Amie states: “In the weeds can have a couple different meanings. At once it can mean to be overwhelmed and lost, or completely focused and enamored with all the great details, and delighting in the world of the subject at hand. In an artistic pursuit sense of the phrase, it can mean that one is exploring with no end in sight or intention of coming to a conclusion. I find that all the meanings can be applied to the way I am working. I have been working in mostly watercolor for over fifteen years and I am only discovering that there is more and more to get lost in. I am gladly getting lost in it and there is no end in sight. Like a pig in slop as they say. I am happy out here.” His work is imbued with that sense of “happy”, encouraging the viewer to join in with a sense of mystical discovery from each impeccably painted moth or mushroom found within thoughtful and magical composition.
L'Amie who has been represented by PDX Contemporary Art since 2009 has had his work included to many prestigious private and corporate art collections as well as exhibiting at the annual Seattle Art Fair. He has been a recipient of the Career Opportunity Grant through the Oregon Arts Commission as well as being awarded a residency at the Morris Graves Foundation Retreat.
Darren Orange “Paracosm” and Justin L’Amie “In The Weeds”
September 9 – October 9, 2023
Artwalk and reception Saturday, September 9, 12 – 8 pm
We are excited to cap off the summer season with two powerhouse exhibitions opening during September’s ArtWalk. In our new space we are pleased to be presenting the fourth solo exhibition for Darren Orange, “Paracosm”, a new series of dynamic and explosive oil paintings. We are also proud to welcome the work of Justin L’Amie for his first solo exhibition at Imogen. L’Amie brings a new series of delightful watercolor and gouache paintings titled “In The Weeds”. The two exhibitions open during Astoria’s Second Saturday ArtWalk, September 9th 12 – 8 pm and remain on view through October 9th. Both artists will be in attendance from 5 – 8 pm that evening, please stop by to meet them and learn more about their work firsthand.
Darren Orange, known far and wide for his emotive oil paintings delves further into abstraction within his latest series “Paracosm”. He continues with his bold and energetic style, employing movement synonymous with dance and filling our new exhibition space with powerful color and energy. His process always intertwined with finished composition demands the viewer to take note and participate in the echo left behind from its creation. Utilizing his past work as a springboard he without hesitation jumps head on into pure expression with dramatic color bursts, jolting all to full attention while beckoning for playful and joyous interaction.
Within this provocative series, he pushes the unseen boundaries of mark making as expression. About this exhibition he states: “A childhood dreamscape of imagination. A universe unlocked through creation. This body of work explores abstraction through the lens of altered perspective. The intention to achieve new insight in placement and composition. Inner mindscapes or landscape on its edge. An attempt to flip the script of my previous understanding of viewer painting relationship by leading the viewer inside of the painting.” Through his painting, Orange moves beyond preconceived perception and takes a daring leap into the afterglow of sheer upbeat spontaneity, inviting all to come along for the ride. The shedding of past is apparent while looking directly to the unknown with exuberance and fearlessness.
Orange’s work has been widely exhibited, reaching all four corners of the United States, including New York, Atlanta, Santa Fe, Portland as well as the Coos Bay Art Museum, Oregon. He has been presented awards from the Oregon Arts Commission, the Ford Family Foundation, and the Ucross Foundation Residency Fellowship. His work has been selected for exhibitions by Michael Klein of the Microsoft Collection, Nat Trottman of the Guggenheim, Bonnie Laing Malcomson formerly with the Portland Art Museum, Margaret Bullock of the Tacoma Art Museum, and many others. Academic institutions such as Portland State University, Peninsula College, Mt Hood Community College, Lower Columbia College, Oregon Coast Council for the Arts have all awarded him with solo exhibitions. He was also selected by the Oregon Arts Commission for the Art in The Governor’s Office program, a prestigious recognition as an Oregon artist. His work can be found in private, public, and corporate collections around the world.
In our front gallery, we are proud to be presenting a solo exhibition for artist Justin L’Amie. Working primarily in watercolor he brings a new collection of delightful paintings portraying flora and fauna in whimsical and spontaneous composition. L’Amie who lives in Portland is from Astoria and began his art studies at Clatsop Community College before acquiring his BFA at Cornish College of Art. For his introduction to Imogen Gallery, L’Amie brings “In The Weeds”, a refreshing and original take on still life painting, with vases overflowing with intricate pattern of life. His compositions focus on color and form, staging with structure his bouquets contain imaginative flowers hosting playful insects and fungi.
About this series L’Amie states: “In the weeds can have a couple different meanings. At once it can mean to be overwhelmed and lost, or completely focused and enamored with all the great details, and delighting in the world of the subject at hand. In an artistic pursuit sense of the phrase, it can mean that one is exploring with no end in sight or intention of coming to a conclusion. I find that all the meanings can be applied to the way I am working. I have been working in mostly watercolor for over fifteen years and I am only discovering that there is more and more to get lost in. I am gladly getting lost in it and there is no end in sight. Like a pig in slop as they say. I am happy out here.” His work is imbued with that sense of “happy”, encouraging the viewer to join in with a sense of mystical discovery from each impeccably painted moth or mushroom found within thoughtful and magical composition.
L'Amie who has been represented by PDX Contemporary Art since 2009 has had his work included to many prestigious private and corporate art collections as well as exhibiting at the annual Seattle Art Fair. He has been a recipient of the Career Opportunity Grant through the Oregon Arts Commission as well as being awarded a residency at the Morris Graves Foundation Retreat.
August 2023 Exhibit
All Things Being Equal
M.J. Anderson
We are honored to welcome back the extraordinary sculpture of M.J. Anderson. She brings a new series of marble sculpture conveying the power and beauty of femininity. Her epic work in stone is a testimony to an ancient process of geological wonder, carefully coaxed into sublime form. Each piece brought to a sensual tactile surface, holds eons of history. M.J., who maintains two studios travels to Italy several times a year where she hand selects her stone from the great quarries of Carrara, Italy. From there much of the coveted stone is shipped back to Nehalem, Oregon where she chisels and polishes into finished sculpture. Known internationally for her female torsos, this exhibition will also include her coveted green onyx abstract sculpture. M.J. will be present and available to answer questions about her work and career from 5 – 8 pm during the artwalk. The exhibition will remain on view through September 4.
M.J. Anderson has cultivated a long and fascinating career, balancing a professional life that connects the Mediterranean to the Pacific Northwest. Her work exudes the romance and history of the Mediterranean while offering the allure and mystery of the rugged Pacific Northwest. Regarded as one of the Northwest’s most important sculptors, for this exhibition she brings her iconic torsos in various marble types as well as abstract forms in green onyx.
Taking a nod from the masters and personalizing it, she focuses primarily on the female form in her work. She creates forms that might remind some of the sculpted marble falling somewhere between the Cycladic and Hellenistic periods, but exquisitely refining to define to her own definitive style. Hand selecting her marble, usually directly from the quarry, she has moderate control of what will occur once the chisel hits the surface. For M.J. the magic happens within the stone itself, revealing what some might refer to as flaws, she leaves the revealed rawness to become an integral part of the finished form. Having experienced profound loss in her life, Anderson utilizes her skills to portray woman as survivors, to serve as example of woman who have overcome adversity. The imperfections of surface become a living record of strife and struggle, becoming part of the overall beauty of form.
In the essay, “The Scars that Give a Stone its Soul: M.J. Anderson ‘s Ineffable Beauties” written by art critic, curator and author, Richard Speer, about a past exhibition held at Imogen Gallery, he states:
“Inhabiting a physical and psychological space midway between the Mediterranean Sea and Pacific Ocean—the conceit undergirding her To the Ends of the Earth exhibition at Imogen Gallery—has inevitably imparted an ambidexterity to Anderson’s aesthetic orientation. She floats across paradigms. Although attuned to the figurative, biomorphic, and abstract work of 20th Century icons like Brancusi, Moore, and Noguchi, she has been more directly influenced by medieval altarpieces, Käthe Kollwitz, and Manuel Neri. These disparate influences, folded into her own lived experience, guided her to the lodestar of her own practice: a never-ceasing quest to capture the ineffable. Her finished sculptures testify to the ways in which an intuitive and restlessly inventive artist can part the veils that divide the material world from the metaphysical. The sculptures are exquisite objects d’art but also emblems, signifiers, and most enigmatically of all, presences.”
Anderson, who began her career as a textile artist always held a love of stone and all things Italian. Her first visit to Italy was in 1974 and ten years later established her studio in Carrara. When discussing her choice of stone as vehicle of expression she says, “Marble was once alive. Marble was made from dying coral reefs and sea life billions of years ago. It was compressed and transformed by incredible heat, then lifted up into mountains by the forces of geology…some stones have smells, so when I’m sculpting, I’m handling and smelling something that once was alive.” This sense of vitality carries over into her finished forms.
About this series she states, “The major theme running through my career is the female torso, the distillation of what it feels like to be woman. When I first began to carve stone, I realized I wanted to give voice to my gender. The torso, without the individual identity that inclusion of a head might create, provides an inclusivity that can apply to many. Women continue to get the short end of the stick in our society and all around the world --and my intention is to create strong and resilient images of women, women who do not have to "perform" for attention, but are enough in their own right, and their own mind. The medium of marble gives a timeless and enduring quality to the message. My abstract forms in onyx relate to my more spiritual and environmental concerns. When I work with onyx, it is like working with petrified water. I create sculptures which reference WATER: Oasis, Reservoir, Vessel, Holy Well.... hoping to highlight what we are at risk of losing. Many of my sculptures reflect on the interior life of our humanity, such as meditation, prayer, reflection.
Anderson has been exhibiting her work extensively throughout the Northwest and abroad since the mid 1990’s. Her work is included to the permanent collection of the Portland Art Museum, Hallie Ford Museum, Salem, OR, Ceasar’s Palace, Las Vegas and the Maroochydore Bushland Botanic Gardens & Noosa Botanic Gardens, QLD, Australia. She has been the recipient of a Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant, a two-month Fellowship Award in Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy through the Northwest Institute of Architecture & Urban Studies in Italy, the recipient of a career grant through the Oregon Arts Commission and the Ford Family Foundation.
Anderson also gratefully acknowledges receiving funds this year from The Artist Relief fund, administered by the Oregon Arts Commission in partnership with Oregon Community Foundation and the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation. The program provides relief funding to Oregon artists who have experienced financial hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic.
All Things Being Equal
M.J. Anderson
We are honored to welcome back the extraordinary sculpture of M.J. Anderson. She brings a new series of marble sculpture conveying the power and beauty of femininity. Her epic work in stone is a testimony to an ancient process of geological wonder, carefully coaxed into sublime form. Each piece brought to a sensual tactile surface, holds eons of history. M.J., who maintains two studios travels to Italy several times a year where she hand selects her stone from the great quarries of Carrara, Italy. From there much of the coveted stone is shipped back to Nehalem, Oregon where she chisels and polishes into finished sculpture. Known internationally for her female torsos, this exhibition will also include her coveted green onyx abstract sculpture. M.J. will be present and available to answer questions about her work and career from 5 – 8 pm during the artwalk. The exhibition will remain on view through September 4.
M.J. Anderson has cultivated a long and fascinating career, balancing a professional life that connects the Mediterranean to the Pacific Northwest. Her work exudes the romance and history of the Mediterranean while offering the allure and mystery of the rugged Pacific Northwest. Regarded as one of the Northwest’s most important sculptors, for this exhibition she brings her iconic torsos in various marble types as well as abstract forms in green onyx.
Taking a nod from the masters and personalizing it, she focuses primarily on the female form in her work. She creates forms that might remind some of the sculpted marble falling somewhere between the Cycladic and Hellenistic periods, but exquisitely refining to define to her own definitive style. Hand selecting her marble, usually directly from the quarry, she has moderate control of what will occur once the chisel hits the surface. For M.J. the magic happens within the stone itself, revealing what some might refer to as flaws, she leaves the revealed rawness to become an integral part of the finished form. Having experienced profound loss in her life, Anderson utilizes her skills to portray woman as survivors, to serve as example of woman who have overcome adversity. The imperfections of surface become a living record of strife and struggle, becoming part of the overall beauty of form.
In the essay, “The Scars that Give a Stone its Soul: M.J. Anderson ‘s Ineffable Beauties” written by art critic, curator and author, Richard Speer, about a past exhibition held at Imogen Gallery, he states:
“Inhabiting a physical and psychological space midway between the Mediterranean Sea and Pacific Ocean—the conceit undergirding her To the Ends of the Earth exhibition at Imogen Gallery—has inevitably imparted an ambidexterity to Anderson’s aesthetic orientation. She floats across paradigms. Although attuned to the figurative, biomorphic, and abstract work of 20th Century icons like Brancusi, Moore, and Noguchi, she has been more directly influenced by medieval altarpieces, Käthe Kollwitz, and Manuel Neri. These disparate influences, folded into her own lived experience, guided her to the lodestar of her own practice: a never-ceasing quest to capture the ineffable. Her finished sculptures testify to the ways in which an intuitive and restlessly inventive artist can part the veils that divide the material world from the metaphysical. The sculptures are exquisite objects d’art but also emblems, signifiers, and most enigmatically of all, presences.”
Anderson, who began her career as a textile artist always held a love of stone and all things Italian. Her first visit to Italy was in 1974 and ten years later established her studio in Carrara. When discussing her choice of stone as vehicle of expression she says, “Marble was once alive. Marble was made from dying coral reefs and sea life billions of years ago. It was compressed and transformed by incredible heat, then lifted up into mountains by the forces of geology…some stones have smells, so when I’m sculpting, I’m handling and smelling something that once was alive.” This sense of vitality carries over into her finished forms.
About this series she states, “The major theme running through my career is the female torso, the distillation of what it feels like to be woman. When I first began to carve stone, I realized I wanted to give voice to my gender. The torso, without the individual identity that inclusion of a head might create, provides an inclusivity that can apply to many. Women continue to get the short end of the stick in our society and all around the world --and my intention is to create strong and resilient images of women, women who do not have to "perform" for attention, but are enough in their own right, and their own mind. The medium of marble gives a timeless and enduring quality to the message. My abstract forms in onyx relate to my more spiritual and environmental concerns. When I work with onyx, it is like working with petrified water. I create sculptures which reference WATER: Oasis, Reservoir, Vessel, Holy Well.... hoping to highlight what we are at risk of losing. Many of my sculptures reflect on the interior life of our humanity, such as meditation, prayer, reflection.
Anderson has been exhibiting her work extensively throughout the Northwest and abroad since the mid 1990’s. Her work is included to the permanent collection of the Portland Art Museum, Hallie Ford Museum, Salem, OR, Ceasar’s Palace, Las Vegas and the Maroochydore Bushland Botanic Gardens & Noosa Botanic Gardens, QLD, Australia. She has been the recipient of a Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant, a two-month Fellowship Award in Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy through the Northwest Institute of Architecture & Urban Studies in Italy, the recipient of a career grant through the Oregon Arts Commission and the Ford Family Foundation.
Anderson also gratefully acknowledges receiving funds this year from The Artist Relief fund, administered by the Oregon Arts Commission in partnership with Oregon Community Foundation and the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation. The program provides relief funding to Oregon artists who have experienced financial hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic.
July 2023 Exhibit
Everything In Between
New Paintings by Bethany Rowland
For July we are proud to be presenting a new series of paintings by Bethany Rowland who returns to Imogen Gallery for her sixth solo exhibition, Everything In Between. Known for her soulful paintings, she once again delivers a powerful collection utilizing landscape, birds of prey and other wildlife to depict the mystery of existence and all that entails. The exhibition opens during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk, Saturday July 8 from noon – 8 pm. Rowland will be at the gallery from 5 - 8 pm that evening and available to answer questions about her work. The exhibition will remain on view through August 7.
Since childhood, Rowland has looked to the natural world to find order. Her existential take on the world forges a path to understanding through her emotive paintings, etched in nuance of contemplation. This series includes some surprises as she maneuvers changes in her own life, like many of us navigating the terrain of a newly emerged world, rediscovering normalcy. Believing in the sacredness of mystery and that which defies definition she cultivated this series, Everything In Between. Her goals were to “capture the sense of the expansive state of possibility that exists between opposing or alternate sets of feelings – hope and despair, beauty and terror, sadness and joy. There are the problems of the day along with the grand enormities of everything. Somewhere in it all we might find a way to become better humans.”
For many artists, landscape becomes muse. This holds true for Rowland who deems land and its inhabitants as spiritual guides. As a keen observer of nature she allowed this series to direct itself. She paints in a dreamlike manner allowing wildlife to emerge from background, coming forward as if to offer itself as shaman, providing comfort and strength. With subtle nuance of brush stroke she crafts composition lending to the mysticism of landscape and animals she honors. Within this series, Rowland allows herself to lean further into abstraction, defining space by intuition of what can’t be held, only felt. About this series she writes with honesty about her intuitive process. “In creating a painting, I’m looking for some truth in the interplay of emotion, attention, memory, witnessing. The direction I think I’m heading is often not where I end up, and sometimes it feels like the subject (usually the coyote) is responsible. I feel a responsibility to try to make work that is ‘worthy of our predicament’ (Teju Cole) while trusting that my efforts don’t need to be conscious to be of worth. It’s true, what we see and experience is only a fragment of reality.”
Rowland who has been painting for over 25 years handles her medium, style and subject matter with unabashed confidence, carefully cultivating imagery that is a beautiful and evocative marriage of representation and abstraction. Combining quiet corners of complex layers of sheer color with definitive mark and gesture, she conveys emotion; a hint of melancholy, comfort and acceptance within each composition. She readily sites such artists as Phil Sylvester of The Drawing Studio in Portland, OR as well as others including Andrea Schwartz-Feit, William Park and the late Royal Nebeker for giving her the courage to trust her own intuition in her practice. She understands form and allows herself freedom to explore the nuance of posture through the discipline of painting the human figure. Her figurative work has been juried into Clatsop Community College’s annual Au Naturel: The Nude In The 21st Century, for multiple exhibitions throughout its history. Her work is regularly included to the annual Sitka Art Invitational as well as the juried annual Cascade Aids Project art auction.
Everything In Between
New Paintings by Bethany Rowland
For July we are proud to be presenting a new series of paintings by Bethany Rowland who returns to Imogen Gallery for her sixth solo exhibition, Everything In Between. Known for her soulful paintings, she once again delivers a powerful collection utilizing landscape, birds of prey and other wildlife to depict the mystery of existence and all that entails. The exhibition opens during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk, Saturday July 8 from noon – 8 pm. Rowland will be at the gallery from 5 - 8 pm that evening and available to answer questions about her work. The exhibition will remain on view through August 7.
Since childhood, Rowland has looked to the natural world to find order. Her existential take on the world forges a path to understanding through her emotive paintings, etched in nuance of contemplation. This series includes some surprises as she maneuvers changes in her own life, like many of us navigating the terrain of a newly emerged world, rediscovering normalcy. Believing in the sacredness of mystery and that which defies definition she cultivated this series, Everything In Between. Her goals were to “capture the sense of the expansive state of possibility that exists between opposing or alternate sets of feelings – hope and despair, beauty and terror, sadness and joy. There are the problems of the day along with the grand enormities of everything. Somewhere in it all we might find a way to become better humans.”
For many artists, landscape becomes muse. This holds true for Rowland who deems land and its inhabitants as spiritual guides. As a keen observer of nature she allowed this series to direct itself. She paints in a dreamlike manner allowing wildlife to emerge from background, coming forward as if to offer itself as shaman, providing comfort and strength. With subtle nuance of brush stroke she crafts composition lending to the mysticism of landscape and animals she honors. Within this series, Rowland allows herself to lean further into abstraction, defining space by intuition of what can’t be held, only felt. About this series she writes with honesty about her intuitive process. “In creating a painting, I’m looking for some truth in the interplay of emotion, attention, memory, witnessing. The direction I think I’m heading is often not where I end up, and sometimes it feels like the subject (usually the coyote) is responsible. I feel a responsibility to try to make work that is ‘worthy of our predicament’ (Teju Cole) while trusting that my efforts don’t need to be conscious to be of worth. It’s true, what we see and experience is only a fragment of reality.”
Rowland who has been painting for over 25 years handles her medium, style and subject matter with unabashed confidence, carefully cultivating imagery that is a beautiful and evocative marriage of representation and abstraction. Combining quiet corners of complex layers of sheer color with definitive mark and gesture, she conveys emotion; a hint of melancholy, comfort and acceptance within each composition. She readily sites such artists as Phil Sylvester of The Drawing Studio in Portland, OR as well as others including Andrea Schwartz-Feit, William Park and the late Royal Nebeker for giving her the courage to trust her own intuition in her practice. She understands form and allows herself freedom to explore the nuance of posture through the discipline of painting the human figure. Her figurative work has been juried into Clatsop Community College’s annual Au Naturel: The Nude In The 21st Century, for multiple exhibitions throughout its history. Her work is regularly included to the annual Sitka Art Invitational as well as the juried annual Cascade Aids Project art auction.
June 2023 Exhibit
Stan Peterson
What the Ravens Saw
We are excited to welcome back Stan Peterson for his third solo exhibition at Imogen. He brings a new series of carved and painted wood sculpture, paintings, and photographs. This new series was directly inspired by his most recent artist residency in New Mexico where he spent time observing the areas ravens, framing this body of work. Join us for ArtWalk June 10, 5 – 8 pm and have a chat with Stan, he’ll have many great stories to share about his work and experiences. The exhibition will be on display through July 3.
Stan Peterson is not one to incubate his creative ideas strictly within the 4 walls of his studio, instead he enjoys travel, attending (and teaching) workshops and artist residencies to direct his creative path. He gathers observations from daily walks that once back within his studio become 2 and 3 dimensional reflections of experiences and thought. His most recent residency took him to the famed Ghost Ranch where Georgia O’Keefe lived, worked, and wandered throughout the terrain. Peterson who walked the same hills as O’Keefe and the Navajo people who came before her, took in the power of the landscape and its vastness, imbued in spirituality. This and his time observing the areas ravens became the backbone of this series of sculpture and paintings.
Peterson, a self-taught artist has been exhibiting his narrative and figurative sculpture for nearly four decades, utilizing animal form as a vehicle to explore human interaction and connection. As a retired postal carrier, walking is something he has always enjoyed, whether it be the city streets or remote beaches; long sidewalks give way to stretches of beach where he can observe his feathered friends and where his source of inspiration begins. These elements give him the time and space for introspection of daily experience and random encounters that quite often become center stage in his finished work.
As an artist who delights in storytelling, Peterson has created yet another fantastical body of work still based on the figurative, whether it be a hybrid creature of his brilliant imagination or a more literal depiction of birds, horses or human figure, each piece always lends to story. While at Ghost Ranch, Peterson adopted the early morning practice of walking a labyrinth, always shared with the neighboring ravens who called to each other as he walked amongst them. Folklore extends deep within our shared histories of the great raven and for many native cultures the esteemed Corvus was a creature of metamorphosis, or trickster and/or shape shifter. Peterson embodies the spiritual side of these great ebony avians with totemic hand carved sculpture.
About this exhibition he states:
Ravens are powerful guides. So well known as intelligent communal beings who are assertive and clever. They have become prominent subjects on my journeys away from cities. Big skies and open spaces with soaring ravens. This exhibit groups ravens, horses, and hybrid figures with carved wood sculptures, small painted dioramas with carved figures, memory paintings of landscape on canvas, and photographs of onsite installations. Nature is an ever-changing backdrop and inspiration whether by the ocean shore or the high desert. Memories of time immersed informs the slow task of carving with hand tools.
Peterson has enjoyed a remarkable career as an artist, exhibiting his work from the west coast to as far away as New York and Paris with collectors in all points in between. He has been a featured artist on the much-loved OPB Art Beat program and written about in PDX Magazine. He has enjoyed several artist’s residencies over the years including an award of an individual artist’s grant from the William T. Colville Foundation to travel to Bali for “Arts in Bali” where he worked with a traditional Balinese mask carver.
Stan Peterson
What the Ravens Saw
We are excited to welcome back Stan Peterson for his third solo exhibition at Imogen. He brings a new series of carved and painted wood sculpture, paintings, and photographs. This new series was directly inspired by his most recent artist residency in New Mexico where he spent time observing the areas ravens, framing this body of work. Join us for ArtWalk June 10, 5 – 8 pm and have a chat with Stan, he’ll have many great stories to share about his work and experiences. The exhibition will be on display through July 3.
Stan Peterson is not one to incubate his creative ideas strictly within the 4 walls of his studio, instead he enjoys travel, attending (and teaching) workshops and artist residencies to direct his creative path. He gathers observations from daily walks that once back within his studio become 2 and 3 dimensional reflections of experiences and thought. His most recent residency took him to the famed Ghost Ranch where Georgia O’Keefe lived, worked, and wandered throughout the terrain. Peterson who walked the same hills as O’Keefe and the Navajo people who came before her, took in the power of the landscape and its vastness, imbued in spirituality. This and his time observing the areas ravens became the backbone of this series of sculpture and paintings.
Peterson, a self-taught artist has been exhibiting his narrative and figurative sculpture for nearly four decades, utilizing animal form as a vehicle to explore human interaction and connection. As a retired postal carrier, walking is something he has always enjoyed, whether it be the city streets or remote beaches; long sidewalks give way to stretches of beach where he can observe his feathered friends and where his source of inspiration begins. These elements give him the time and space for introspection of daily experience and random encounters that quite often become center stage in his finished work.
As an artist who delights in storytelling, Peterson has created yet another fantastical body of work still based on the figurative, whether it be a hybrid creature of his brilliant imagination or a more literal depiction of birds, horses or human figure, each piece always lends to story. While at Ghost Ranch, Peterson adopted the early morning practice of walking a labyrinth, always shared with the neighboring ravens who called to each other as he walked amongst them. Folklore extends deep within our shared histories of the great raven and for many native cultures the esteemed Corvus was a creature of metamorphosis, or trickster and/or shape shifter. Peterson embodies the spiritual side of these great ebony avians with totemic hand carved sculpture.
About this exhibition he states:
Ravens are powerful guides. So well known as intelligent communal beings who are assertive and clever. They have become prominent subjects on my journeys away from cities. Big skies and open spaces with soaring ravens. This exhibit groups ravens, horses, and hybrid figures with carved wood sculptures, small painted dioramas with carved figures, memory paintings of landscape on canvas, and photographs of onsite installations. Nature is an ever-changing backdrop and inspiration whether by the ocean shore or the high desert. Memories of time immersed informs the slow task of carving with hand tools.
Peterson has enjoyed a remarkable career as an artist, exhibiting his work from the west coast to as far away as New York and Paris with collectors in all points in between. He has been a featured artist on the much-loved OPB Art Beat program and written about in PDX Magazine. He has enjoyed several artist’s residencies over the years including an award of an individual artist’s grant from the William T. Colville Foundation to travel to Bali for “Arts in Bali” where he worked with a traditional Balinese mask carver.
April 2023 Exhibit
Kathleen Faulkner
The View from Here
April 8 – May 8
We are pleased to host a solo exhibition for Northwest artist Kathleen Faulkner, her first show at Imogen. Faulkner who works in oil and oil pastel brings a new series of paintings titled The View from Here, focusing on landscape of the coastal Pacific Northwest, depicting the quiet places that she lives within. The exhibition opens during Astoria’s Artwalk, Saturday, April 8. Faulkner will be in attendance from 5 – 7 pm and available to answer questions about her work. The exhibition will remain on view through May 8th.
Kathleen Faulkner, a native to the Pacific Northwest calls Anacortes, Washington home. Living along the Salish Sea, her paintings are informed by her love of land and sea. She conveys a meditative sense within her work, a gentle and serene interpretation of coastal waterways and forests, while reflecting on past and future of these places and the sustainability of them. With a nod to history of the land, Faulkner brings soft edged skies meeting with sea that melts into shore. Her deft use of oil pastel as medium to convey mood, adds to the subtle layers of color as water reflects sky. Carefully developing background to foreground she builds a deceptively simple composition of a complex ecosystem of wetlands and forests. Both equally important to global health, as forests are considered the lungs of the planet while wetlands the kidneys, both crucial to our existence.
About this series Faulkner states: “My work is about the environment and how I view it. Life on earth is a lot different than when I was younger. Earth is paying the price for our over consumption. Other species, wild places and biospheres are declining. I keep track of what is here now in a small portion of a region called the Pacific Northwest. I miss the abundance of the past but try to live in the moment. It is less than it was but more than it may be in the future.” With muted palette she conveys the delicate balance and symbiotic relationship between land, water and sky or our coastal rainforests, bringing both hope and awareness to reality.
Faulkner has exhibited her paintings, prints and jewelry primarily throughout the Northwest but extending around the globe when her work was included to a traveling exhibition throughout Europe as well as a permanent home in Kosova when her paintings were selected for the Art in Embassies program in 2022. She has exhibited in multiple museum exhibitions including an upcoming 20 woman exhibition planned for the early Spring of 2024 at the Museum of Northwest Art. The exhibition, “Silva Cascadia: The Forest is Female” explores the nuance of our forests and will also include the work of Imogen represented artist Laura Hamje.
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 thru 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 or at www.imogengallery.com .
Kathleen Faulkner
The View from Here
April 8 – May 8
We are pleased to host a solo exhibition for Northwest artist Kathleen Faulkner, her first show at Imogen. Faulkner who works in oil and oil pastel brings a new series of paintings titled The View from Here, focusing on landscape of the coastal Pacific Northwest, depicting the quiet places that she lives within. The exhibition opens during Astoria’s Artwalk, Saturday, April 8. Faulkner will be in attendance from 5 – 7 pm and available to answer questions about her work. The exhibition will remain on view through May 8th.
Kathleen Faulkner, a native to the Pacific Northwest calls Anacortes, Washington home. Living along the Salish Sea, her paintings are informed by her love of land and sea. She conveys a meditative sense within her work, a gentle and serene interpretation of coastal waterways and forests, while reflecting on past and future of these places and the sustainability of them. With a nod to history of the land, Faulkner brings soft edged skies meeting with sea that melts into shore. Her deft use of oil pastel as medium to convey mood, adds to the subtle layers of color as water reflects sky. Carefully developing background to foreground she builds a deceptively simple composition of a complex ecosystem of wetlands and forests. Both equally important to global health, as forests are considered the lungs of the planet while wetlands the kidneys, both crucial to our existence.
About this series Faulkner states: “My work is about the environment and how I view it. Life on earth is a lot different than when I was younger. Earth is paying the price for our over consumption. Other species, wild places and biospheres are declining. I keep track of what is here now in a small portion of a region called the Pacific Northwest. I miss the abundance of the past but try to live in the moment. It is less than it was but more than it may be in the future.” With muted palette she conveys the delicate balance and symbiotic relationship between land, water and sky or our coastal rainforests, bringing both hope and awareness to reality.
Faulkner has exhibited her paintings, prints and jewelry primarily throughout the Northwest but extending around the globe when her work was included to a traveling exhibition throughout Europe as well as a permanent home in Kosova when her paintings were selected for the Art in Embassies program in 2022. She has exhibited in multiple museum exhibitions including an upcoming 20 woman exhibition planned for the early Spring of 2024 at the Museum of Northwest Art. The exhibition, “Silva Cascadia: The Forest is Female” explores the nuance of our forests and will also include the work of Imogen represented artist Laura Hamje.
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 thru 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 or at www.imogengallery.com .
March 2023 Exhibit
Kim Hamblin
Outskirts of Biophilia
March 11 – April 3
We are eager to welcome back Kim Hamblin and her complex hand cut paper assemblages. Known for her intricate compositions on wood panel, created with paper, acrylic paint, steel nails and an X-Acto knife, Hamblin brings a new series titled “Outskirts of Biophilia”. Within this series she takes a deeper consideration into the relationship between humankind and the wild, still drawing inspiration from her love of biology, botany and anatomy. The exhibition opens during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk March 11 from 12 – 8 pm; stop by and meet Kim, she’ll be at the gallery 5- 7 pm. The exhibition will remain on view through April 3.
Kim Hamblin of Sheridan, Oregon is a woman who wears many hats. Besides being known throughout the northwest for her intricate paper – cut assemblages, she is also a farmer, realtor, music festival organizer, and winemaker. Hamblin and her husband own a 50-acre farm called Roshambo ArtFarm located in the Willamette Valley where they also hosted the Wildwood Music Festival. Her interests and talents are vast but always intersect with her artistic endeavors.
Specific to her artwork, inspiration is gleaned from her lifelong love of the sciences; particularly anatomy, botany, biology, entomology and zoology. The focal point of her work is a compelling blend of imagery and process, becoming quintessential to each finished piece. Hamblin’s use and application of materials is a unique blend of paper cutting, painting and mixed media, culminating in an industrial yet delicate composition. She considers her process a form of meditation as she hand cuts paper and then mounting to painted wood panel. She then meticulously adds small nails to further tessellation and texture, bringing a more industrial nature to the delicateness of pattern revealed in each paper cut. The juxtaposition between paper and steel makes for a unique and striking finished composition.
Hamblin’s imagery is always indicative of her love of science. As her show title implies, Outskirts of Biophilia she focuses on that direct parallel. Biophilia, a term first coined by psychologist Erich Fromm and later evolved into scientific theory by biologist Edward O. Wilson, literally is defined as “love of life” and describes the human drive to connect with nature and other living things. This is the very crux of Hamblin’s work, with a twist thrown in.
Most have heard the term “forest bathing” the simple practice of taking a walk in the woods for emotional and physical health. It is an innate need of humankind to connect with flora and fauna and has been scientifically proven as being beneficial to well-being. Through imagery, Hamblin explores the importance of this basic connection while also addressing the complex issues of mankind’s impact on nature. About this series she states, “We humans tend to simultaneously spiritualize and destroy our natural world. Some creatures inspire us to understand our connections by acting as omens, some represent our ancestors, some our future. Yet, as a whole, we rarely value nature enough to fully protect it. By valuing nature for only it’s ‘resources’, we tend to destroy habitat for our own enrichment without understanding that we are slowly destroying ourselves in the process. We are often on the outskirts of nature, but I think the only way to save ourselves is to understand that we need to protect and understand the intrinsic value of our natural world.”
Hamblin has exhibited her work throughout the northwest, including past recognition the “Best of Show” award for Art in The Pearl, one of the Northwest’s esteemed art festivals held annually in Portland. She is also a recipient of two purchase awards from the Oregon State University’s Art About Agriculture where her work is included to their permanent art collection.
Kim Hamblin
Outskirts of Biophilia
March 11 – April 3
We are eager to welcome back Kim Hamblin and her complex hand cut paper assemblages. Known for her intricate compositions on wood panel, created with paper, acrylic paint, steel nails and an X-Acto knife, Hamblin brings a new series titled “Outskirts of Biophilia”. Within this series she takes a deeper consideration into the relationship between humankind and the wild, still drawing inspiration from her love of biology, botany and anatomy. The exhibition opens during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk March 11 from 12 – 8 pm; stop by and meet Kim, she’ll be at the gallery 5- 7 pm. The exhibition will remain on view through April 3.
Kim Hamblin of Sheridan, Oregon is a woman who wears many hats. Besides being known throughout the northwest for her intricate paper – cut assemblages, she is also a farmer, realtor, music festival organizer, and winemaker. Hamblin and her husband own a 50-acre farm called Roshambo ArtFarm located in the Willamette Valley where they also hosted the Wildwood Music Festival. Her interests and talents are vast but always intersect with her artistic endeavors.
Specific to her artwork, inspiration is gleaned from her lifelong love of the sciences; particularly anatomy, botany, biology, entomology and zoology. The focal point of her work is a compelling blend of imagery and process, becoming quintessential to each finished piece. Hamblin’s use and application of materials is a unique blend of paper cutting, painting and mixed media, culminating in an industrial yet delicate composition. She considers her process a form of meditation as she hand cuts paper and then mounting to painted wood panel. She then meticulously adds small nails to further tessellation and texture, bringing a more industrial nature to the delicateness of pattern revealed in each paper cut. The juxtaposition between paper and steel makes for a unique and striking finished composition.
Hamblin’s imagery is always indicative of her love of science. As her show title implies, Outskirts of Biophilia she focuses on that direct parallel. Biophilia, a term first coined by psychologist Erich Fromm and later evolved into scientific theory by biologist Edward O. Wilson, literally is defined as “love of life” and describes the human drive to connect with nature and other living things. This is the very crux of Hamblin’s work, with a twist thrown in.
Most have heard the term “forest bathing” the simple practice of taking a walk in the woods for emotional and physical health. It is an innate need of humankind to connect with flora and fauna and has been scientifically proven as being beneficial to well-being. Through imagery, Hamblin explores the importance of this basic connection while also addressing the complex issues of mankind’s impact on nature. About this series she states, “We humans tend to simultaneously spiritualize and destroy our natural world. Some creatures inspire us to understand our connections by acting as omens, some represent our ancestors, some our future. Yet, as a whole, we rarely value nature enough to fully protect it. By valuing nature for only it’s ‘resources’, we tend to destroy habitat for our own enrichment without understanding that we are slowly destroying ourselves in the process. We are often on the outskirts of nature, but I think the only way to save ourselves is to understand that we need to protect and understand the intrinsic value of our natural world.”
Hamblin has exhibited her work throughout the northwest, including past recognition the “Best of Show” award for Art in The Pearl, one of the Northwest’s esteemed art festivals held annually in Portland. She is also a recipient of two purchase awards from the Oregon State University’s Art About Agriculture where her work is included to their permanent art collection.
February 2023 Exhibit
Northern Light
Paintings by George Wilson
In celebration of the return of FisherPoets Gathering, we are pleased to welcome back George Wilson, a commercial fisherman and professional artist. Wilson who comes from a generational fishing family in Scotland now resides in Portland. His love of water, merging where sky meets shore is ever present in soothing and dreamlike watercolor paintings. For this series Wilson continues in true fashion bringing ethereal paintings, focusing on landscape, flora and fauna etched within memory. The exhibition Northern Light opens Saturday, February 11th from 5:00 – 8:00 pm and will remain on display through March 6th. George Wilson will be in attendance from 5:00 – 7:00 pm as well as the delightful duo Weird Fishes, comprised of Graham Nystrom and Celeste Olivares performing acoustic music.
For George Wilson, waterways are essential to life. Born into a fishing family in a small coastal Scottish village, he was raised on and around Moray Firth, an inlet of the North Sea. Wilson’s relationship to water has always been a part of his existence, as well as a source of livelihood. His work is infused with his experiences as a fisherman, bringing the beauty of solitude as surveyor of land, water and its inhabitants. His profound connection has culminated in an enchanting series of paintings that serve as visual poetry to places he has known, reflecting shoreline and its ever-changing edges as weather fronts work to shape and define.
For this series he brings serene landscapes depicting his love of terrain of places he’s known. The saturation of pigment on paper gently pools, emulating the climate and impact of atmospheric quality. Trees, lush with life dot hillsides held by waterways. As a fisherman, Wilson’s work is framed by the importance of where land and sky meet. He shares with the viewer his love of the land with dreamlike renditions of places that resonate with a deep and rooted sense of nostalgia. About this series he reflects, “I am thinking about Northern Oceans today; of haar (sea fog) and the call of the kittiwake; of pink blushing dawns, long daylight hours and blazing sunsets. I know the Northern Light of Scotland and Alaska. I’ve seen it dancing on the Moray Firth and on the Shelikof Strait. I have seen it at the end of the day dipping behind the peaks of Morven and behind the snow-capped mountains of the Alaskan Peninsula. It is memory and longing, familiar yet far away.”
Wilson who has painted as long as he’s fished, eventually found himself entering the academic world with studies at Gray’s School of Art, one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious art schools located in Aberdeen, Scotland. After graduating with a focus on painting and drawing, he found his way back to the sea where his time was shared between fishing trips and the studio. His work is a beautiful balance of both worlds with one love always merging with the other.
Northern Light
Paintings by George Wilson
In celebration of the return of FisherPoets Gathering, we are pleased to welcome back George Wilson, a commercial fisherman and professional artist. Wilson who comes from a generational fishing family in Scotland now resides in Portland. His love of water, merging where sky meets shore is ever present in soothing and dreamlike watercolor paintings. For this series Wilson continues in true fashion bringing ethereal paintings, focusing on landscape, flora and fauna etched within memory. The exhibition Northern Light opens Saturday, February 11th from 5:00 – 8:00 pm and will remain on display through March 6th. George Wilson will be in attendance from 5:00 – 7:00 pm as well as the delightful duo Weird Fishes, comprised of Graham Nystrom and Celeste Olivares performing acoustic music.
For George Wilson, waterways are essential to life. Born into a fishing family in a small coastal Scottish village, he was raised on and around Moray Firth, an inlet of the North Sea. Wilson’s relationship to water has always been a part of his existence, as well as a source of livelihood. His work is infused with his experiences as a fisherman, bringing the beauty of solitude as surveyor of land, water and its inhabitants. His profound connection has culminated in an enchanting series of paintings that serve as visual poetry to places he has known, reflecting shoreline and its ever-changing edges as weather fronts work to shape and define.
For this series he brings serene landscapes depicting his love of terrain of places he’s known. The saturation of pigment on paper gently pools, emulating the climate and impact of atmospheric quality. Trees, lush with life dot hillsides held by waterways. As a fisherman, Wilson’s work is framed by the importance of where land and sky meet. He shares with the viewer his love of the land with dreamlike renditions of places that resonate with a deep and rooted sense of nostalgia. About this series he reflects, “I am thinking about Northern Oceans today; of haar (sea fog) and the call of the kittiwake; of pink blushing dawns, long daylight hours and blazing sunsets. I know the Northern Light of Scotland and Alaska. I’ve seen it dancing on the Moray Firth and on the Shelikof Strait. I have seen it at the end of the day dipping behind the peaks of Morven and behind the snow-capped mountains of the Alaskan Peninsula. It is memory and longing, familiar yet far away.”
Wilson who has painted as long as he’s fished, eventually found himself entering the academic world with studies at Gray’s School of Art, one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious art schools located in Aberdeen, Scotland. After graduating with a focus on painting and drawing, he found his way back to the sea where his time was shared between fishing trips and the studio. His work is a beautiful balance of both worlds with one love always merging with the other.
January 2023 Exhibit
Aaron Johanson
The Biopsy Revisited
January 14 – February 6
During the month of January, we welcome the photographic work of Aaron Johanson who brings twenty stunning black and white prints that he created in his Portland studio. The series, titled The Biopsy Revisited is a fusion of the past and the present, created over a twenty-year span focusing on Johanson’s deft use of lighting and traditional printing techniques through compositions based on botanical imagery. Aaron Johanson will be at the gallery and available to answer questions about his work Saturday, January 14 from 5 – 7 pm. The exhibition will remain on view through February 6th.
This series, The Biopsy Revisited, originally inspired some time ago when a neighbor of Johanson’s left a desiccated Dollar plant at his door. The structural transparency became a source of intrigue, inspiring a series of photographs based on leaves of all forms of decomposition. Some of the images created then, dating back to 2000 were exhibited and then relegated to Johanson’s personal archives. He has since revisited that body of work and reconsidered its importance compositionally while going through his own journey through cancer treatment. The work, created so long ago took on a new meaning. About the series he states: “I titled this exhibition The Biopsy Revisited after having a biopsy performed. I saw these leaf samples — detached from their life source, some dead, some dying, other looking very much alive — as similar to a biopsy performed for medical evaluation. Both are based on living tissue. It is interesting to me how our personal experiences shape our perception of the world.”
By isolating his subject matter and stripping it down to its bare essentials, Johanson lets us appreciate natural form through the inherent beauty of large format, traditional black and white film photography. He revisited what was created twenty some years ago in preparation for this exhibition and scanned the negatives to see how digital prints might differ from his original prints. The series will include both his traditional printed work alongside his digitally printed images, based on film exposed around 2000. This series depicts the incredible delicateness of form in an intimate and parred down way, imagery floating in space, held in careful study by the eye behind the lens. Johanson’s sense of composition is deliberate yet tender.
Johanson who was born into a creative family, his father being the late George Johanson, acclaimed printmaker, and educator, became hooked on photography as a teenager after receiving his first camera as a gift. During his studies at University of Oregon and studying under Willie Osterman he had the opportunity to visit Ansel Adams, tour his home and darkroom along with a portfolio critique. He was hooked and knew that was his future. After several apprenticeships at large commercial photography studios in Portland, followed by years of travel he landed a job in a Japanese publishing firm as the only foreign staff photographer. His assignments took him throughout Japan, a dream job for any photographer. In 1996 he returned home to Portland and opened a commercial studio, taking on newspaper and magazine work which eventually led to his specialization in photography of artwork. Johanson has photographed the work of several Imogen represented artists over the years.
Beyond his success as a commercial photographer, his personal work as an artist has been exhibited from Portland to Tokyo, including a solo exhibition at the Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art in Japan. His work is included to many private, corporate and museum collections such as the Hallie Ford Museum and the Portland Art Museum.
Aaron Johanson
The Biopsy Revisited
January 14 – February 6
During the month of January, we welcome the photographic work of Aaron Johanson who brings twenty stunning black and white prints that he created in his Portland studio. The series, titled The Biopsy Revisited is a fusion of the past and the present, created over a twenty-year span focusing on Johanson’s deft use of lighting and traditional printing techniques through compositions based on botanical imagery. Aaron Johanson will be at the gallery and available to answer questions about his work Saturday, January 14 from 5 – 7 pm. The exhibition will remain on view through February 6th.
This series, The Biopsy Revisited, originally inspired some time ago when a neighbor of Johanson’s left a desiccated Dollar plant at his door. The structural transparency became a source of intrigue, inspiring a series of photographs based on leaves of all forms of decomposition. Some of the images created then, dating back to 2000 were exhibited and then relegated to Johanson’s personal archives. He has since revisited that body of work and reconsidered its importance compositionally while going through his own journey through cancer treatment. The work, created so long ago took on a new meaning. About the series he states: “I titled this exhibition The Biopsy Revisited after having a biopsy performed. I saw these leaf samples — detached from their life source, some dead, some dying, other looking very much alive — as similar to a biopsy performed for medical evaluation. Both are based on living tissue. It is interesting to me how our personal experiences shape our perception of the world.”
By isolating his subject matter and stripping it down to its bare essentials, Johanson lets us appreciate natural form through the inherent beauty of large format, traditional black and white film photography. He revisited what was created twenty some years ago in preparation for this exhibition and scanned the negatives to see how digital prints might differ from his original prints. The series will include both his traditional printed work alongside his digitally printed images, based on film exposed around 2000. This series depicts the incredible delicateness of form in an intimate and parred down way, imagery floating in space, held in careful study by the eye behind the lens. Johanson’s sense of composition is deliberate yet tender.
Johanson who was born into a creative family, his father being the late George Johanson, acclaimed printmaker, and educator, became hooked on photography as a teenager after receiving his first camera as a gift. During his studies at University of Oregon and studying under Willie Osterman he had the opportunity to visit Ansel Adams, tour his home and darkroom along with a portfolio critique. He was hooked and knew that was his future. After several apprenticeships at large commercial photography studios in Portland, followed by years of travel he landed a job in a Japanese publishing firm as the only foreign staff photographer. His assignments took him throughout Japan, a dream job for any photographer. In 1996 he returned home to Portland and opened a commercial studio, taking on newspaper and magazine work which eventually led to his specialization in photography of artwork. Johanson has photographed the work of several Imogen represented artists over the years.
Beyond his success as a commercial photographer, his personal work as an artist has been exhibited from Portland to Tokyo, including a solo exhibition at the Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art in Japan. His work is included to many private, corporate and museum collections such as the Hallie Ford Museum and the Portland Art Museum.
