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The Spaciousness of Change
Kathleen Caprario, Sarah Grew, Sandra Honda, Mei-ling Lee
July 3 – August 28
Receptions:
First Friday Opening: Friday, Jul 3, 5:00 – 7:00 PM
Second First Friday: Friday, Aug 7, 5:00 – 7:00 PM
Artist Talk: Thursday, August 27, 5:30 – 7:00 PM Register here
On View: Wednesday - Saturday, 11 AM-4 PM beginning July 3.
Central Oregon is no stranger to the impacts of climate change. Whether we talk about drought, wildfire and accompanying smoke, heat domes and other extreme weather and water events, climate change is changing the landscape in many ways. We see the change, we feel the change, and we are being forced to be change itself. In our representations of change, three visual artists and one composer come together to present visions of not only devastating change, but hopeful change made real through works that examine species, ecosystem, individual and community resilience. Across mid-to-large scale photographic, sculptural, sound and 2D mixed media installations, we “paint a picture” with wildfire soot, sheetrock dust, textiles, plaster, oral histories and the sounds of coping and caring for Oregon’s landscapes, living and physical systems and communities during this time of climate uncertainty.
About the Artists:
Kathleen Caprario is a “naturalized” Oregonian - someone who has adapted to and positively integrated herself to her adopted home. Born and raised in working-class New Jersey, she made the transformative decision to relocate to Oregon’s Willamette Valley.
It’s where she raised my son and established herself as a visual artist, writer, and art educator - and where she discovered her life-long subject: the land.
Caprario is the recipient of an Oregon Arts Commission’s Individual Artist Fellowship and Career Opportunity Grants, a Jordan Schnitzer Black Lives Matter Artist Grant, Ford Family Foundation Residency Fellowships and the Modesto Lanzone Mostra 99 Award. An avid traveler, her work is heavily influenced by the places she’s been. She has had
the opportunity to participate in supported artist residencies including the Weir Farm National Historical Park, Pine Meadow Ranch Center for Arts & Agriculture, Djerassi Foundation, Ucross Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, HJ Andrews Experimental Forest, Morris Graves' Foundation, Playa @ Summer Lake, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, ARIS, Hakone, Japan and Victoria University’s S.W.I.R.L Program, Central Australia.
Sarah Grew is a photographer based in the Pacific-Northwest whose work often expands into installation and environmental art. Infused in ideas bridging art history, philosophy, and natural sciences, her art studies ideas of time, light and climate change. To further develop the concepts that enrich her work she has been an artist-in-residence at a recycling facility, become a beekeeper, studied native plants and participated in a philosophical collegium in Italy. Recently Grew was invited to speak at the Portland Art Museum. She has received support from the Ford Family Foundation and residencies at Djerassi Residency Artist Program, Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Playa, Joshua Tree National Park, and Ucross Foundation. Her project, The Ghost Forest, won both a LensCulture Critics Choice award and Critical Mass top 50 Photographic projects. Currently, she is collaborating with several science teams to create work that sits in the interstices of art and science.
Sandra Honda (she/her). In 2018, Sandra Honda left her career as a Washington, DC speechwriter and scientist to redirect her focus toward art and writing. She began by interrogating what it means to be Asian and American in today’s America. Informed by the Japanese American experience of ethnically-based mass incarceration during World War II, her drawings, paintings, digital works, assemblages, and installations draw a historical throughline of anti-Asian activities in the U.S. from the 1800s to today. In 2022, she initiated a social practice focused on climate change in which she broadened her toolkit to include sculpture. This climate change-related work draws on her career addressing climate, ocean, and science policy through her speechwriting work. Her social practice is now finding its way into her identity work.
Honda was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, where her family relocated after their incarceration in America’s concentration camps (Pinedale, Tule Lake, and Minidoka) during World War II. She received her Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Washington and an M.S. in Botany and Plant Pathology from Oregon State University.
Dr. Mei-Ling Lee, a Taiwanese-born composer, integrates sound with elements of Asian culture in her work. She specializes in composition, sound synthesis, real-time interactive music, and audio design within new media environments. She holds both a Ph.D. in Composition and a DMA in Music Performance, specializing in Data-Driven Instruments, and studied under Dr. Jeffrey Stolet, Dr. Robert Kyr, and Dr. David Crumb.
In her recent works, Lee explores a storytelling-data-driven-instrumentation paradigm, blending narrative with innovative musical technology. Her compositions reflect themes of human essence, exploring the interdependence of family, the intrinsic connections to nature, the evolving cycles of the natural world, and the implications of technological advancements.
Her work has been performed in various conferences, including ICMC (International Computer Music Conference) , ISEA (International Symposium on Electronic Art) , NYCEMF (New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, (SEAMUS (Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States), and KISS (KYMA International Sound Symposium).
Beyond her solo endeavors, Dr. Lee actively collaborates with artists across various disciplines. Her multimedia works have been exhibited in prestigious galleries such as the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art and Patricia Reser Center for the Arts.