The Clatsop Community College Royal Nebeker Art Gallery is delighted to announce: Fire and Light: Five + Four, a group art exhibition showcasing the remarkable talents of Clatsop Community College faculty, as well as a selection of invited local artists.
Beginning February 3, 2022, this collection of Five + Four will highlight the work of Clatsop Community College faculty Richard Rowland (Ceramics), Kristin Shauck (Painting, Drawing, Design), David Homer (Photography), Ben Rosenburg (Printmaking), and Lucien Swerdloff (Graphic Design). We are also pleased to feature Annie Eskelin, Glen Herman, Peter Korchnak and Randy McClelland from Astoria, Oregon.
This collection features works of art captured in a moment, in flashes of light. Some created in the passage of time, with earth and fire. Some explore the iridescence of color, memory, and how our imaginations soar or sink in response to what we observe. Each artist draws from their own heritage, memory and life to reflect their own unique interpretation of Fire and Light.
In the deep hollows of Oregon’s coastal forest, a tiny chamber of heat and flame. A 2,400 degree fire burns in the belly of a dragon. Clatsop Community College ceramics professor Richard Rowland leads a group of dedicated volunteers that hold vigil over the week-long firing of the anagama style kiln. The treasures inside are formed by the hands of the community, stacked within the kiln slowly, with painstaking care, so that each piece is graced by the whims of the final collaborator: fire. Richard Rowland and Randy McClelland share with us their pieces from the recent firings of Ahikaaroa, Astoria’s anagama style kiln.
Annie Eskelin conjures fire also, in the precise, blinding beam of an electric arc. She uses the energy to melt steel into a delicate representation of nature, deceased, unearthed, remembered and cherished.
Clatsop Community College professor Kristin Shauck collects her wisdom from years of teaching observational drawing; our personal experience can vastly alter our vantage of reality. Much like full spectrum sunlight, the viewer colors their perception, some absorbed, some reflected. Kristin shares her luminous creations in pigments and polymers as she reflects on the balance between our personal interpretations of reality, and the interconnected experience we share.
Peter Korchnak employs pointed blades, needles and thread, to weave together voices of old into stories anew, casting illumination on memories of state lines, split and stitched into history.
Ben Rosenberg, Printmaking instructor at Clatsop Community College, shares:
“I’ve always been pulled to the unintended irony in life and try to capture that in my work. It’s what lies underneath that lends humor and sometimes depth to a subject I’m after. I’m influenced by my surroundings, mass media, and politics. Animals show up often in my work, sometimes behaving like people. I work primarily in drawing, painting, ceramics, and assemblages.”
A retired engineer is now an artist, and has an appreciation for technical challenges. Glen Hermanis grew up on a small farm, and credits this heritage for the mechanical dexterity and technical curiosity he brings to his “Maker Lights.” By incorporating deliberate challenges within his designs, Glen develops artful solutions mixing light with science and function.
Lucien Swerdloff teaches Graphic Design, Historic Preservation and Computer-Aided Design at Clatsop Community College. He offers a series of images inviting reflection on destruction and creation, natural and artificial, reality and abstraction, fire and light.
The work of these artists and others are on display from February 3st through May 6th. A reception for Fire and Light: Five + Four is scheduled for Thursday, February 17th at 6:00 p.m. Please join us for an evening celebrating Fire and Light, and support the work of our extraordinary local artists.