THIS SATURDAY MAY 2nd! The Virtual Recycled Rain Project goes live! Check out the website for this year’s stunning contributions and to learn about our fantastic artists!
Due to the current COVID-19 Outbreak the 2020 Recycled Rain Project Will Be Held Virtually.
FEATURING: Clare Carpenter, Nate Ethington, Karl Kaiser, Kindra Krick, Jody Katopothis, Kelly Neidig, Hilary Pfiefer, Amy Ponteri, Sara Sjol, Nanette Wallace, Jon Wippich, Jackie Wood, Samyak Yamachi, Zeratha Young.
And follow along on Facebook & Instagram at @therecycledrainproject for process shots and more!
ABOUT THE RECYCLED RAIN PROJECT
Since its first show in May 2012, The Recycled Rain Project has been dedicated to its mission to increase awareness of local artists and to engage and educate the community on water issues.
Each spring a group of Portland artists come together to create original works with collected rainwater. This all leads up to the big event, which takes place the first Saturday in May. A portion of the sale of all works from RR2020 will be donated to Columbia Riverkeeper.
Over the last seven years The Recycled Rain Project has supported over 100 local artists and have donated over $4000 to non-profits that focus on a variety of water issues.
In the contemporary world, we tend to live and breathe narrative. The connective tissue of the Story has threaded into much of our cultural consumption. Whether we are digesting the news of the day, taking in the entertainment media, or sharing anecdotes with loved ones, we’ve learned to mimic the narrative arc perpetuated in our histories and our fictions, as we learn and re-tell.
This collection of artists serves as a cross-section of creative production that activates our intuitive sense of narrative as a means to engage with their work. Often snapshots, and at times borrowing from the tools of abstraction, these pieces empower the viewer to consider questions pertaining to the information left off the canvas as a means of connecting with the artwork itself. At times creating art speaking to social questions, personally lived experience, or the captured moments of a photograph, the selected works of these artists deploy the viewer’s narrative faculty in accessing and finding dialogue with the piece.
Featuring works by:
Marie Conner Kyle Lee Hector Ornelas Tatyana Ostapenko Mami Takahashi
Guest Curator: Cass Gray
Opening Reception February 29th, 6-9 PM
With a performance by Marie Conner at 7 PM Music provided by BHOLT in Ford Food & Drink
Bios
Marie Conner
Marie Conner is living her best life as a Portland based inter-disciplinary artist, non-fiction writer, and educator with a focus on disability aesthetics and otherness theories. She received a BA in Liberal Arts, Sculpture and Writing in 2015 and an MA.Ed in Postsecondary Educational Leadership and Policy from Portland State University in 2017, followed by an MFA in Visual Studies from Pacific Northwest College of Art in 2019. She has exhibited across the Pacific Northwest and in Antwerp, Belgium. Her work asserts that the non-normative body can be seen through the lens of the sublime and beautiful, and that every body is actually non-normative. She has a pedagogical philosophy grounded in experiential learning, with a focus on personal narrative. Her work also asks what access really means and strives to establish a framework and language with which to open lines of communication concerning difference and acceptance.
Kyle Lee
Kyle Lee was born and raised near Tampa Bay, Florida. After traveling around the United States in his early twenties, he made a move to Portland, Oregon and began his studies in art at Portland State University. He received his BFA in 2013 and MFA in 2016. He has exhibited in galleries around Portland including Littman Gallery, B10 Gallery, Blackfish gallery, and he is a recipient of the 2016 Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize. Kyle has remained in Portland for nearly nine years and never got a tattoo.
Hector Ornelas
Hector Ornelas is a first generation Mexican American who lives and works in Portland, Oregon. He has received a BFA from Portland State University. Primarily he works in painting and photography, and currently experiments with larger scale work and mix medium. Ornelas takes inspiration and imagery from both American and Mexican culture to create work, and uses his work as a way to better understand himself and his identity as a Mexican American.
Tatyana Ostapenko
Tatyana Ostapenko makes history paintings to record the lives of people who will never make into official historical records. She was born and raised in Soviet Ukraine and currently lives in Portland, OR. She holds a BFA in Studio Practice from Portland State University.
Tatyana’s work has been exhibited at the 5th Geoje International Art Festival (South Korea), Odessa Contemporary Art Biennial (Odessa, Ukraine), the Governors Island Art Fair (NYC), Cape Cod Art Museum (Dennis, MA), Littman Gallery (Portland, OR) Locker 50b (Richmond, VA) and Site: Brooklyn (NY, NY).
Mami Takahashi
Takahashi received her MFA in Contemporary Studio Practice from Portland State University in 2013. She earned a BFA in Japanese painting from Joshibi University of Art and Design (Japan) where she was awarded a prize for her thesis work. Takahashi also obtained an Associate of Fine Art in Aesthetics from Aoyama-gakuin Women’s College (Japan).
Takahashi’s practice includes both traditional craft techniques and technological approaches, such as chemical reactions and digital modulated sound systems. In addition to being a visual artist, Takahashi is also a research scholar at the University of Oregon focusing on the conceptual understanding of Japanese aesthetics. Her work has been collected and exhibited internationally.
Through playful exploration of the emotional, mythical, morbid, and psychedelic, “Deep Down” invites viewers to delve into the waters of the subconscious.
We often attach a negative morality with the concept of being “down”. “Deep Down” aims to embrace the dark and mysterious beneath the palpable. It is often beyond the visible where brilliant changes take place and from which new life and insights are born. As there is light, so there is darkness. This exhibit honors all that dwells in the dark, under the surface, and under the flesh. We celebrate these shadowy spaces for the seeds that they germinate, the dreams that they sew, the strength that they build and the secrets that they hold. We are born from these deep dark places and we will return to them. With this body of work, we’ve chosen to surpass the shallow depictions of our daily lives, and dive deep down into a kaleidoscope of simultaneity, where the doors of perception become unhinged.
Jonathan Steele will be providing tea services the night of the opening. Steele hosts a delicate and magical tea experience by serving with his own beautifully hand-crafted tea-ware, at a mystically ornamented tea table set to enchant and inspire those who come to sit and sip together.
Ila Rose’s work is colorful, dark, complex, layered, luscious and surreal. She plays with symbols which emerge from a combination of research and subconscious exploration. Ila is constantly concerned with improving her technique -as well as researching topics ranging from psychology, mythology, spirituality and science- so that she may be a better vessel for articulating potent and relevant information as it flows through her. Rose has been painting all of her life and considers herself an art activist. She strives to use her privilege, to be a voice for social injustices as well as an advocate for the value of art in our lives and uplifting the value of the working artist. Rose believes art practice is vital to invoking collective creative thought and a necessary and positive transformation in our world. The process of art-making is symbolic to the process of forging our own personal paths; there is much to be learned, in any creative practice, about enduring and transmuting struggle.
Lindsay Swing is a self taught artist, her background in science heavily influences her work and style. Captivated by the art of biological illustration, Swing strives to capture the beauty of all things around her by exploring non-traditional mediums. Her love of abandoned treasures led to an obsession with vintage windows, which she uses as her primary canvas in her illustrated work. She employing freehand etching and inking techniques to create each one of a kind piece. Her sculptural work focuses on recognizing the magic around us. Swing mixes found biological oddities such as bones, insects, and botanicals, with clay and grown crystals to create surreal worlds designed to highlight the natural beauty of the object with attention to detail and respect for conservation. Swing believes in the importance of art and expression. She is interested in helping to raise awareness of the value of art in the community by encouraging individual artists to recognize their own worth, by finding ways to point out the significance of art culturally and collectively.
Ford Gallery celebrates our beloved Ford Building this holiday season, featuring the many talented artists and makers who call the Ford Building their home! Get original works, artist prints, and handmade goods from Ford Building residents. Find unique and locally-made holiday gifts for friends and family.
Join us Saturday, December 7th, from 6-9 PM for an opening celebration and mixer!
Featuring Works By: Alexandria Levin Alicia Schultz Amy Ponteri Arletha Ryan Jan Rothermel Kenneth Sellen Leah Samour Midge Williams Nicki Beiderman Ryan McAbery Sara McCormick Thérèse Murdza
Chasing Jessie Applegate, a new solo show at Ford Gallery, is a visual art exhibition of work created by Portland artist Kirista Trask. Through the abstract exploration of place the artist seeks to reconcile her genealogy as a seventh generation Oregonian in relationship to her families long struggle with inter generational trauma. Chasing Jessie Applegate visually speaks to how trauma does not dissipate in its effect but rather can trickle down from generation to generation. Chasing Jessie Applegate will also allow the artist to share the stories of the women in her family visually as often words are out of reach. Generating a visible representation of pain that is often unspoken or invisible. To give pain a place to rest and to allow stories of hope and resilience to stand alone in its place. Chasing Jessie Applegate features twelve paintings that each represent the untold story of a women in her genealogical line. These twelve paintings span eight generations of women, going all the way back to the Oregon Trail.
Opening Reception Saturday, October 26th 6-9 PM
Coming up this Saturday at the Ford Gallery! Kirista Trask discusses her current solo show, Chasing Jessie Applegate, and the process she went through creating a body of work that is so intimate and personal yet so important. During the talk you will learn a little more about each of the women in her family and how trauma directly affected their lives. Kirista will be breaking down how each plate relates to the symbols in each of the paintings, as well as spending a good amount of time talking about how important it is, especially for female artists, to tackle difficult and somewhat painful subjects in their art.
Artist Talk Saturday, November 16th 3 PM
About the Artist Kirista Trask translates subtle moments and landscapes into swirling abstraction, blending saturated, opaque colors with translucent washes to evoke moment as an emotional experience. Her work is created using a variety of materials, including acrylic, ink, charcoal, pencil, oil pastel, chalk and coffee, in order to react to the spirit of the location at the moment. These abstract works exist somewhere between presence and memory, giving the viewer a moment for pause. Her best work is done plein air style in stunning locations all over the world and especially in the Pacific Northwest. As a seventh generation Oregonian Kirista finds a deep connection to place and incorporates that into her work.
Kirista Trask was awarded a project grant from Regional Arts Cultural Council which provided the funds for this project.
Just in time for the autumnal equinox, Ford Gallery is excited to present “From the Forest, From the Furrows, From the Field”, a group show inspired by folk horror, a sub-genre of horror in which rural, isolated communities assume their folklore and superstitions to be true, often revealing the continued practice of sinister, ancient pagan beliefs. In some folk horror tales, creatures said to lurk in the woods are very real, hexes and enchantments have genuine effects, and the old gods do indeed grant bounties and bring punishments, but often the community’s rituals reflect only the failings of tradition, and evil in the human heart.
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 28th 6 – 9 PM
Participating Artists Include: AJ Hawkins Alicia Justus Alison Grayson Angela Myers Arún Joseph Ragan Caren Rockwood Dusty Ray Elizabeth Massa-MacLeod Elodie Kahler Erika Rier Esmeralda Rupp-Spangle Heidi Elise Wirz Holly Cappello Lisa Laser Liv Rainey-Smith Lorren Ashley Lowrey Maria Mangus Mavis Leahy Melissa Monroe Mrrranda L. Tarrow Natalie Wood Pip Simon Ramon Martin Rebecca Artemisa Sam Hutt Tera Stenzel Trisha Shozuya Troy Hileman Woodland Shrine xochi_pilli
Curated by Mrrranda L. Tarrow
Live music by May Dirt 8 PM
“An experience like crawling on your belly through moist fertile soil with a bone rattle clutched in one hand and a book of faerie tales in the other.” https://www.facebook.com/pg/MayDirt23/
Custom faire-style cutouts, as designed by over a dozen local artists.
F.A.C.E. will exhibit roughly 15 large-scale pieces, each designed by a different local artist. Each piece features a roughly face-shaped hole somewhere on the canvas, where you and your pals can join the composition and selfie yourself into oblivion.
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Justine Verigin Matt Hopkins Amanda Baker Keith Henderson Beth Austin YouCantSitWithUs Maddison Bond Hannah Bearden Cynthia Reinhold Logan Welliver Jamie Middleton Chaya Bogorad YaPouring Kate Straube
Curated By Anya Bogorad
All Ages, though 18+ recommended.
Come for the novelty, stay for the music, “gift shop” (small items table), and of course Little Red’s Bakeshop cookies! We’ll open our door at 6:00pm, and then kick alla y’all out so the artists can chillax and high five at 9:00pm.
Entry for opening night will be $5 at the door – CASH PREFERRED.
Just in time for the autumnal equinox, Ford Gallery is excited to present “From the Forest, From the Furrows, From the Field”, a group show inspired by folk horror, a subgenre of horror in which rural, isolated communities assume their folklore and superstitions to be true, often revealing the continued practice of sinister, ancient pagan beliefs. In some folk horror tales, creatures said to lurk in the woods are very real, hexes and enchantments have genuine effects, and the old gods do indeed grant bounties and bring punishments, but often the community’s rituals reflect only the failings of tradition, and evil in the human heart.
Artists may submit up to three pieces in any medium; we must ask that no single work be larger than 36″ in any dimension. Space for 3D work is limited – let us know if you require a podium or special display requirements. Work must have been completed within the the last three years, and have not already been shown at the Ford Gallery. There is no entry fee, but the Ford Gallery takes a 40% commission on work sold.
If you would like your art to be considered for our promotional materials, please send images of finished work by Sun, Aug 18. Please confirm your participation by Sat, Sept 15. Work is due at the Ford Gallery (2505 SE 11th Ave, Portland) by Sat, Sept 21.
Intrigued, but unsure if your art would fit? For a better sense of the folk horror aesthetic, check out these films and books: The Wicker Man, Midsommar, Blood on Satan’s Claw, Children of the Corn, The VVitch, November, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, “The Great God Pan” by Arthur Machen, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, “The Ritual” by Adam Nevill (and its 2017 film), “The Loney” by Andrew Michael Hurley, “The Owl Service” by Alan Garner
Submissions Due: Sunday, September 15th
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 28th 6 – 9 PM
The Recycled Rain Project is a PNW based invitational art show creating original works using rainwater to raise awareness of water issues.
Since its first show in May 2012, The Recycled Rain Project has been dedicated to its mission to increase awareness of local artists and to engage and educate the community on water issues.
Each spring a group of Portland artists come together to create original works with collected rainwater. This all leads up to the big event, which takes place the first Saturday in June.
A portion of the sale of all works from RR2019 will be donated to Columbia Riverkeeper.
Over the last seven years The Recycled Rain Project has supported over 100 local artists and have donated over $3,500 to non-profits that focus on a variety of water issues.
Featuring Works By: Theresa Andreas-O’Leary Roberta Aylward Jane Levy Campbell Clare Carpenter Kindra Crick Nate Ethington Jenn Feeney Marilyn Joyce Karl Kaiser Jody Katopothis Thérèse Murdza Jesse Narens Kelly Neidig Amy Ponteri Candace Primack Maryann Puls Quin Sweetman Sara Sjol Nanette Wallace Laura Weigle Jon Wippich Karen Wippich Zeratha Monique Young
Ahuva S. Zaslavsky Fritz Koch Jemila Ann Hart Jenn Feeney
OPENING
Saturday, April 27th 6-9 PM
Under
Pressure: One of One is a group of Portland based printmakers that
has been working together for over eight years. In 2019, we founded
the Under Pressure: One of One collective in order to foster a
supportive community and space for our printmaking process. Our
mission is to create, encourage, collaborate and exhibit together.
In
the monotype process there are limitless possibilities. Works are
created by applying ink to a smooth plexi plate, manipulating the ink
using tools and our signature techniques, and then running the plate
and paper through a press which transfers the image to the paper
using pressure.
We
are passionate about our work and in sharing our techniques and
methods with each other. We see monotypes as a bridge between
printmaking and painting, and we love the playful quality of this
printmaking method.
Ahuva
S.Zaslavsky (1975-) was born in Tel Aviv, Israel and moved to
Portland, Oregon in 2010. Ahuva is a Printmaker and Painter. She
graduated from The University of the Negev, Israel with a B.A. in
Behavioral Sciences. Her art practice began when she moved to
Portland at the CE Program at PNCA and at Crow’s Shadow Institute of
the Arts.
Coming
from a diverse cultural background and having pursued studies in
Psychology, Sociology and Literature, Ahuva is constantly seeking to
understand the relationship between human behavior, the individual’s
motivation to be and create, and their interaction with the world,
society and culture. She is dealing with identity questions of the
subject in a group and as an individual.
Ahuva’s
current theme is movement and rhythm of the individual in private and
public spaces, the expression within those psychological and mental
spaces, and the ways to express these in two dimensional form.
Fritz
Koch creates monotypes that celebrate and reflect the spirituality of
landscape, particularly that of Central and Eastern Oregon. His work
is a meditation on textural landforms, geologic juxtapositions, and
atmospheric perspective. The work is presented as a medium for the
observer to vicariously commune with nature, and to find comfort in
the familiarity of real or imagined spaces.
Koch
was born in Detroit, Michigan and received his BFA from Michigan
State University, and now makes his home in Portland, Oregon.
Koch
is a member of Flight 64, a non-profit, cooperative print studio in
Portland, OR, and is a returning printmaker at Crow’s Shadow
Institute of the Arts, in Pendleton, OR. He has exhibited at the
Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA), Flight 64, Bite Studio,
Crow’s Shadow and others. He also co-curated and installed
Reflections on the Columbia River Plateau, a traveling exhibit of
monotypes produced at Crow’s Shadow, coordinated through Pacific
Northwest College of Art.
Jemila
is often drawn to landscapes in the prints that she creates. She
uses landscapes to capture and investigate states of mind, nuances of
her own emotional life. While the landscapes that she chooses to
depict are often beautiful, they hint at human impact and the seen
and unforeseen consequences of our intentions and our delusions on
the environment and on each other. These subtle environmental themes
question the inequitable distribution of the natural world for the
sake of progress, question the squandering of our abundance and
question the drive to expand, colonize and use the earth’s
resources to depletion. There is much to be learn from paying
attention to the landscapes around us, she feels, they hold the
history of our humanity and tell stories about our relationships; our
relationships to ourselves, to others and our relationship with the
planet.
Jemila
was born in Michigan, but has lived in many places including
Washington State, Yemen, Niger and Alaska. She currently lives with
her partner Jeff and their two aged cats in NE Portland. She has a
great appreciation for the perspective that comes from traveling,
seeing new places and glorious new things.
Jemila
received her BS in Biology and Anthropology from Lewis and Clark
College and recently completed her Masters in Social Work from
Portland State University. Jemila currently works as a community
based social worker in Public Housing communities in Clackamas
County, is a member of Flight 64, a non-profit collective Portland
print studio and returns regularly to workshops at the Crow’s
Shadow Institute of the Arts in Pendleton, Oregon to expand and
deepen her skills in monotype printmaking.
Jenn
Feeney’s prints are monotypes which are one of a kind prints, also
known as the painterly print. They are created by applying ink to a
smooth plexi plate, and then transferring the image to paper by means
of pressure through a press. Jenn enjoys the chemistry of the inks
and solvent and the effects created by using tools to remove and add
ink, layering color over color, texture over texture. While she can
anticipate what will happen with the print, she is surprised and
thrilled each time the print is revealed. Her works have been
described as organic, underwater scenes or other worldly, microscopic
views.
Jenn’s
childhood was spent around a commercial print shop, so being a
printmaker was inevitable… there’s ink in her blood! By chance,
when she joined the working world, she ended up working in print –
first as corrugated and then in business print and promotions, which
is still true to this day.
In
addition to printmaking, Jenn also paints in both acrylic and oil on
canvas or wood. She is involved in the Portland art community and
helps organize and participates in group shows and fundraising events
regularly. She is an honorary member of Bite Studio in SE Portland
and a returning printmaker at Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts
in Pendleton, OR.
