Windowfront Exhibitions
Zoë Gamell Brown
Vexing me!
Dates displayed: December 2, 2022-March 19, 2023
Location: 224 W. Broadway
About the art: Plenty howdy, welcome to my Guyanese American meal. In our time together, I invite you to immerse in the Caribbean currents carrying this exchange forward.
My creative practice speaks to multiplicity within Guyanese identity and extensions of the Caribbean to the Gulf Coast. Themes in my work revolve around culinary catharsis, collective and self-care. My creative work aims to move beyond monolithic definitions of artistic expression and ecological knowledge. For sales inquiries, email Zoë.
About the artist: Zoë Gamell Brown (she/they) is a Guyanese American integrative artist, educator and storyteller whose work spans ceramic sculptures, creative nonfiction, experimental video, landscape photography, photopoetry, restorative cartography and sonic arts.
Brown is a doctoral student in the University of Oregon's Indigenous, Race and Ethnic Studies department, where she centers Caribbean constellations of care through creative and spiritual practices. She is a Digital Evolution/Artist Retention (DEAR) Fellow Cohort IV through the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute and a Louise Westling Distinguished Environmental Justice Fellow through the UO's Holden Center for Leadership and the Pacific Northwest Racial and Climate Justice Futures Institute, 2022.
In 2020, Brown founded Fernland Studios, a nonprofit organization reimagining environmentalism through art and education. Their mission is to provide black, indigenous and people of color opportunities to explore environmentalism through artist residencies, educational retreats and writing workshops. When she is not writing or reading, you can find her hiking around the Pacific Northwest and taking pictures of trees and sea anemones. zoegamell.com
Justin Kittell and James Sartor
Altered Cumulus | Polyester fill, chicken wire, LED strips
Dates displayed: December 2, 2022-March 19, 2023
Location: 833 Willamette Street
About the art: Justin Kittell and James Sartor strive to emphasize the foundational nature of change through dynamic and interactive works where light, sound and color blend in harmonious and meaningful ways. The exhibition shown here, Altered Cumulus was originally featured in BEAM, an annual showcase presented by ArtCity that features works of art incorporating light. This installation consists of 10 glowing clouds strung from an octahedral frame. The clouds are synced together and rotate through an assortment of light modes, sometimes evoking lightning and other times calm skies.
About the artists: Sartor and Kittell are light artists and scientists from Eugene whose mediums typically involve light, music and mirrors. For the past five years they have worked together on creations inspired by nature and geometry and bringing them to various festivals and other settings for people to enjoy. instagram.com/foxlightlabs
Leo White Horse and Sue Gallego
White Horse and Gallego | Acrylic on canvas, digital and multimedia
Dates displayed: December 2, 2022-March 19, 2023
Location: 873 Willamette Street
About the artists
Leo White Horse: I am a Sicangu Lakota artist who carries the inspiration of my Native American ancestry of the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. My art is influenced by the quick sketches of cowboys, rodeos and natives from the past that were drawn long ago by my father, Myers White Horse.
After the passing of my parents when I was 12, I was sent to Sky Ranch for Boys. I was chosen to enter the summer program at the University of South Dakota and was introduced to the work of Great Lakota artist Oscar Howe. Later, I attended college for Graphic Design and to study a variety of media for my art, including painting and drawing. I received my design certification and soon became a graphic designer for local sign company where my work included sign design and hand-lettering projects. My career led to illustration. I created graphics for a T-shirt screen printing company that designed apparel for more than 72 universities and colleges across 15 states. These included designing for numerous football bowl games. I later moved on to designing billboards and other artwork for 150 major cities with transit in Canada and throughout the United States.
Currently, I create artwork for online adventure games, which keeps my imagination and design skills sharp. I split my time between commercial work and my native art. Website and sales inquiries, leowhitehorseart.com
Sue Gallego: Historically, in the story of the Lakota people at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Five Mexican Nationals, part of a cattle-drive, married with Lakota women. I am a descendant from one of these unions. In my mother's family, although the older women spoke Lakota for privacy on party phone lines, they were culturally Bohemian, and there were no claims made of having Native blood. Even under duress. I am grateful for my heritage, for the tremendous gift of being all that I am, and for all my relations. My identity as an Indigenous woman has shaped my development as an artist, and represents some of the vital aspects and incentives of my work. I feel a responsibility for depicting the emotional values and story of our people and culture, especially those of personal insight, and vision.
As a self-taught Artist, I am committed to Painting. I first started to work in color with oil based chalk, and eventually shifted to using Acrylics. I enjoy their ease and simplicity, as well at the methods of their use. I paint directly onto the surface of my choice, usually canvas, or MDF board. I discovered very early that when I drew images first, and then proceeded afterward to paint them, I always exceeded the limits of what I had drawn. I painted out side the lines. It is easier for me to apply paint without the need to draw, and let the painting develop and blossom in that accord. In the beginning of this process, what was at first experimental, and required confidence to explore, became an engaging freedom and discovery, more intuitive. On one hand, being in possession of my actions, and on the other, feeling I am well provided for and lovingly supported. I like to express, that when I paint, I know what love is. I appreciate everything that it requires, and everything that must be given in its fulfillment. Importantly, without discipline and perseverance, I would have nothing to show for my efforts. For sales inquiries, contact Sue.