Kick
off the summer season with a dose
of mixed media art!
The
Columbia Art Gallery in Hood
River will kick off the 2008 summer
season First Friday June 6th ,
with the show “Mix
Masters: Challenging Sculptural
Canons”
This
show features the mixed media
work of four Gorge area sculptors;
Arthur Higgins, Will Richards,
Tom Herrera and Joel Nelson who
express ideas not through any
one particular media but through
many, and often all in the same
works of art. Look for glass combined
with metals, clay mixed with kevlar
and recycled materials, wood united
with metal and more.
Curator
Jim Diem reflected, “I
am really excited to organize
such a dynamic show. One measure
of art is how well
it engages the viewer. Mixed
media automatically gives us
pause because it doesn’t
fit into preconceived notions
of sculpture as only metal,
clay or stone. Add content,
kinetics, humor and aesthetics
and you have art that demands
our full attention. Combine
this with the experience of
four very talented artists and
you have all the ingredients
for an amazing show."
Diem
adds: "This is a great opportunity
to see a body of work from some
of our hometown art stars. Come
and see it – I
promise you won’t be disappointed.”
Participating Artists
Mosier
artist Arthur Higgins has over
45 years as a professional artist,
has been awarded 39 public art
commissions and has had over
eighty solo shows since 1969.
Higgins’ work
for this show will include several
kinetic and
interactive sculptures. He
says this about his mixed media
work “For
me medium is not the message,
it is a component in the visual
art lexicon. Most of my art is
content loaded and I use the media
I know to best express that content.
I have gained competency in number
of media so I use what works best
for serving the idea. I am conversant
with wood, metal, lost wax casting,
lithograph, etching, wood relief,
watercolor, and oil. I will use
these
media as one would use tools
in a tool box.”
Will
Richards of Underwood has exhibited
regionally, nationally and internationally,
and has been commissioned for
art projects throughout the
United States. His work is represented
in many national collections
and has been published in Architectural
Crafts, Better Homes and Gardens
and American Windsurfer among
many others. Will says the following
about his artistic process, “A
spontaneous reaction to a controlled
concept with uncontrolled results
appeals to my sense of adventure;
constantly requiring fresh input.
The greatest work arrives as
a surprise to myself, emitting
the best cerebral rush.”
Tom
Herrera also of Mosier works
playfully in fine art often incorporating
visual and literal puns in his
sculpture. His
sense of humor is immediately
apparent in works like “Taco
Bell”. Trained as an industrial
designer Tom’s experience
in sculpture runs the gamut from
museum quality fine art to handrails
in custom homes. When asked
about his work Tom responded
with a quote from Norman Maclean’s
novella A river runs through it. “...all
good
things come by grace and grace
comes by art and art does not
come easy." His
sculpture is in the permanent
collections of Google and Mary
Hill Museum among many others.
Joel
Nelson, as the junior representative
of the group, is humble about
his expressive work. “I
love to fish so it seemed natural
to begin crafting steelhead and
salmon sculptures from scrap metal
and copper. I later expanded my
focus to include a variety of
wildlife. I build each piece by
hand and try to convey a sense
of motions and
depth.” Nelson
stated. Joel spends half the year
in the Gorge sculpting and the
other half in the remote Alaskan
wilderness fixing bush planes
and catching fish.
Columbia Art Gallery, located
in the Columbia Center for the
Arts, is a non-profit community
gallery with the mission to promote
an arts-rich environment in the
Columbia Gorge area. The Columbia
Center for the Arts is located
at 215 Cascade Ave., Hood River,
Oregon and is open seven days
from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
|
