Melissa Mankins, Ryan Paxton, and Jordan Limbach BFA Terminal Show

Ryan Paxton

Paxton is inspired by math, science, philosophy and the pursuit of an understanding of reality. He works with no bounds utilizing disparate parts to create the greater whole. Paxton creates installations that pose questions of perception to the viewer. He became aware of his culturally indoctrinated conception of reality through experience in pottery making.

Melissa Mankins

Yard sales, thrift shops, free boxes, dusty photo albums, and musty clothes inspire Mankins. Working with photography and textile printing, her work is about the idea of family and layered histories. It is about loss and life and the threads that hold us all together.

Jordan Limbach

TSK: Tam Nguyen, Shannon Sullivan, and Kathryn Clark BFA Terminal Show

Kathryn Clark

In her project, “Finding a Place in the Photographic Documentary Tradition: The Midway Worker Re-Illuminated,” Clark aims to portray the dignity of the estranged group of the midway carnival circuit of the northwest in portraiture and photojournalism. The documentary photographic tradition seeks to lift marginalized people from the shadows, bringing them back into the light of humanity. Preferring to work in black and white, with large format photography, Clark’s influences stem from the work of Sebastião Salgado, August Sander, Nan Goldin, and Susan Meiselas.

Shannon Sullivan

Sullivan’s work is inspired by the moments of nature and landscape that she experiences, whether she seeks them out, or whether they infiltrate her routine city life. Sullivan works with oil paints, and her subject matter is related to both landscape and painterly abstraction. The artist seeks to communicate moments of her experience with the landscape, allowing the viewer to re-create those moments in a way that is specific to them. The movement away from representation in Sullivan’s paintings is a method in support of this goal.

Tam Nguyen

In this show, Nguyen’s work is inspired by the idea of wandering and making new interrelationships along the surface of our reality. The artist’s preferred medium is photography and, more specifically, night photography. Nguyen’s work is a reflection of his exploration in the perception of space.

Zoe Sargent, Shaina Dotson, and Ginger Chen BFA Terminal Show

Zoe Sargent

(no statement)

Shaina Dotson

Dotson is interested in the human bonds we have with objects and the spaces that we inhabit. Through jewelry, worn on the body, we are able to carry and preserve these emotional vessels with us. Searching for the clarity within the chaos, each piece commemorates a specific childhood memory. The pieces are about memory, identity and nostalgia.

Ginger Chen

Chen is receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking from the University of Oregon. Through various printmaking techniques and collage, her work explores childhood memories and its connection to language and the comic book form. In her work, Chen also looks at the use of animals in folklore and how their anthropomorphic qualities replace the human character.

“Materiality”, A Craft Exhibition

Materiality is an exhibition curated by Liz Glass and Lyndsay Rice, showcasing work from the California College of the Arts and the University of Oregon. Conceived out of an interest to investigate the uses of craft in these two communities, Materiality brings together works in a multitude of materals.

The works in Materiality reflect the expansive use of craft materials and methods to create expressive objects. Usually associated with the dialogue of “use,” these works demonstrate the ability of craft to transcend function, and the power of the materials at conveying concepts. Some of the works build their own mythology, while others activate pre-existing cultural tropes; some are engaged, primarily, with examining the nature of their own material, and others use these media as a means to an end. The works inMateriality take up many themes personal and cultural themes, including the hiddenness of history, the collision of cultural forms, and the experience of sound.

Artists included
MAX ESPLIN
ALEX HERNANDEZ
ALIDA BEVIRT
ROBERT MERTENS
CARLOS RAMIREZ
JAKE ZIEMANN
MEGHAN URBACK
COURTNEY KEMP
AUBREY HILLMAN
BEAN GILSDORF
ZOE SARGENT
LILY LEE
SARAH NANCE