Set sail for art in Manzanita
“Nightime Arrival” by Jenny Rideout
The May gallery exhibition at Manzanita’s Hoffman Center for the Arts features new works by Jenny Rideout, Victoria Christen and Robert Sumner.
An artists’ reception will be held from 3 to 5 pm this Saturday, May 3, during which the artists will speak about their work and answer questions.
An Astoria-based mixed textile artist, Rideout will show her works in “Sails, Freq Flags and Bonnets for Space Exploration.” This body of work began with an imagining of a majestic old tall ship. She saw intricate patchwork sails, maneuvering the ship elegantly and powerfully along the constantly shifting surface of the ocean. In her vision, the sails were covered in colorful mends, mysterious symbols, sigils and patterns. The resulting sails are meditations on power, creativity and the culmination of experiences alchemized for maximum propulsion. India ink and acrylic paint embellish the mixed textile constructions, assembled from quilts beyond repair, used drop cloths, old curtains and other found materials. These colorful assemblages are built to be vibrant talismans for interesting times.
Ceramic artist Christen’s exhibition, “ShapeScapes,” features combinations of shapes used to represent the beauty and majesty of the Wallowas. Others are shape-based interpretations of rock formations seen from ocean shores. Christen began working with found shapes almost 30 years ago, first collecting discarded felt pieces from a factory Dumpster across the street from her studio in Portland. She stored them for two decades before deciding to use them to create an alphabet of more than 20 combinations of fabric shapes sewn or glued together. They now serve as her foundation for expression, a lens that she uses to view and interpret the world around her.
“Visual Music,” painter and printmaker Sumner’s exhibition seeks to explore the communication and experience that lie beyond the limitations of verbal communication. Sumner uses the synesthetic and non-verbal communicative power that the visual arts share with the performing arts, especially music, as a jumping-off point to explore color, form and movement. Music and dance have clear analogs in the visual arts: rhythm, repetition, improvisation, melody and harmony, and even syncopation. The visual arts add color, texture, transparency, opacity and the physical capture of the passing of time.
The Hoffman Gallery is located at 594 Laneda Avenue in Manzanita and is open Thursday through Sunday from noon to 5 pm. For more information, go to hoffmanarts.org or call 503-368-3846.