Past Temporary Exhibitions

StoryHelix

Displayed: July 15–November 13, 2022

Eugene Public Library, Exterior, 100 W. 10th Ave.

Presented by StoryHelix, Lane Arts Council, Wordcrafters, Oregon Cultural Trust

Artists: Nate Brown, Chelsea Lovejoy, Christina Schueler, Brandon Waite, Erick Wonderly Varela

Storytellers: Ayisha Elliott, Liandy Mary Jimenez Otero, Eric Richardson, Doriandra Smith, Margaret Steinbrunn, Jeff Velez

Lane Arts Council and Wordcrafters in Eugene collaborated to bring community storytellers and professional artists together in creating this unique installation. Each panel, created by a different visual artist, is directly inspired by and made in collaboration with community storytellers who participated in StoryHelix. Wordcrafters in Eugene’s StoryHelix project invites community members to share their stories about the theme “belonging” and their experiences living in Eugene, Lane County and Oregon. Contributed stories become a part of a collective archive of voices from across our community. The stories selected for this art installation represent a wide range of lived experiences. Enjoy these stories visually and use the QR code under each poster to listen to the storyteller recording.

More Information

Earthbound Moon

Displayed: August 7-15, 2020 during Visual Arts Week

Posters at 100 W. 10th Ave., Eugene Public Library

For Eugene’s Visual Arts Week, Earthbound Moon invites you to collaborate with five artists on a series of DIY artworks. We have commissioned five Create-Your-Own-Sculpture Treasure Hunts. You can find the posters for the Treasure Hunts in the windows of Eugene’s Public Library.

Artists:

Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble invites you to create a musical composition as a preview of their 2021 multimedia performance, The Eugene Garbage Project.
Jorah LaFleur provides a Treasure Hunt that will culminate in a new work of sculptural poetry and poetic sculpture.
Mija Andrade encourages you to build a sculpture unlike any you ever imagined before.
Pat Luther has written a play in six scenes, each scene a single page available at a different location. Perform one scene or collect them all and perform the whole play.
Patricia Montoya Donohue’s Treasure hunt guides you in the creation of a spellbinding mandala.

DanceAbility International

Viewable: August 7-15, 2020 8:30 pm-midnight during Visual Arts Week

10th & Willamette storefront

Presented by Harmonic Laboratory

DanceAbility International’s mission is to dissolve barriers and connect people with and without disabilities through dance and movement. Harmonic Laboratory has lent their digital expertise to present a projection of the historical perspective of DanceAbility International performing company, viewable in the evening hours.

Reflections Space: OPEN

Displayed: November 2-December 21, 2020

245 W. 8th Avenue

Brought to you by Eugene Contemporary Art & Gray Space

The artist memberships of Eugene Contemporary Art and Gray Space Project are pleased to present Reflections Space: OPEN whose intention is to engage with viewers and leave them with open-ended questions about place and longing for their personal reflection and individual response. The project will consist of individual, looped videos created by Gray Space members Vicki Amorose, Michael Boonstra, Renee Couture, Sandee McGee, Andy Myers and Leah Wilson. As our community emerges from quarantine, it will once again engage with familiar locations.

Visitors and those who live and work in the Downtown Eugene area will experience its space differently and anew. The relationship of self to place is critical and it is important to reclaim and refresh those locations in order to build meaning and heal over time. To stand in front of a video screen for reflection is comparable to reflecting on mnemonic devices in illuminated manuscripts or other historic and meditative traditions. Art has the ability to change one’s perception and develop insight. At its best it is simultaneously an intimate and a universal experience, and transcends that which separates or partitions us off from one another. Rather than an activity that demands an immediate response and demonstrates viewer engagement through accumulated clicks, we will offer the radical experience of true reflection.

Reflections Space: River Road/Santa Clara

Displayed: Summer 2020-November 1, 2020

Southwest corner of River Road & Briarcliff

Brought to you by Eug-Art 404

The artists of Eug-Art 404 will create a series of outdoor installations visible along River Road, composed of teardrop-shaped pieces individually created by artist members, community partners, other area artists, and neighbors of all ages. We ask participants to create drop-shaped art pieces to convey the themes of disruption, loss, reflection and hope, and all they may be experiencing during this time of crisis.

Reflections Space: Snippets of Eugene

Displayed: Summer 2020-December 2020

For details go to Eugene Printmakers

Brought to you by Eugene Printmakers

“Snippets of Eugene” will become mementos of places in our beloved city that the residents of Eugene will be able to take home with them. They will also be invited to experience printing patterns of their own choosing. Our concept is to call attention to the textures and patterns that we live with and often overlook in our everyday lives, and call attention to them as beautiful and compelling prints. The Eugene public will be able to go home with patterns from their favorite places, places that contain memories of events that punctuate their lives.

Eugene Printmakers will be dressed in workers' coveralls and carry our printing supplies in buckets. We'll invite the public to printing locations that we announce on social media. Everyone is invited to watch our demonstrations as well as participate in printing and take home a print. We will also involve the public by asking for suggestions of interesting patterns in our dear city.

The public will have a chance to purchase “Snippets of Eugene” in the form of printed T-shirts and bandanas, at each printing performance. The proceeds will be split among Eugene Printmakers and ArtCity, who has been generously hosting our studio space.

Valentina Gonzalez

Play More

About the art: The concept was a collaborative process with teens from the City of Eugene's Cultural Services summer internship Program. Speaking to the importance of creating communities where the youth are encouraged to be engaged as equal contributors in shaping their society. Using the imagery of waves to symbolize the emotional instability of adolescence, amid images of people and places important to them downtown. Googly eyes on the right leg, the only leg for it to stand on, representing the need for visibility as a means of support rather than of surveillance and exploitation.

About the artist: Valentina Gonzalez is an artist and musician who lives in the Whiteaker neighborhood. Originally from Santa Fe, NM, also known as VRGNZ; she combines a background in urban art with her experience as a graphic artist to create dynamic, personal paintings. She is committed to supporting community activities and has worked with an array of youth and social service programs. Using mostly spray paint and marker, bright colors, and bold patterns and layers, she chooses to produce artwork that challenges social normatives and empowers others to share their stories through creative visual expression.

David Placencia

A New Era of Unity

About the artist: I utilize chaos into my artworks to create harmony and this reminds me to find beauty in life. Art and beauty traverse the gaps of knowledge and can portray an unseen or unknown perspective. I am specifically curious about the visual connections found in atomic structures, nerve cells and space travel. These connections are inspired by physics, nature, memory, and neuroscience act as visual metaphors of how we can find unity amidst the chaos and discover the threads that tie us together. I look forward to examining more than just beauty but also engage in cultural and scientific impacts through art. In my practice and social engagement this will allow my subconscious mind to perhaps foreshadow a thread of common unity that will visually portray a coalesced truth. We all see the chaos but we shouldn't be overwhelmed or stunted by it. We can engage through the arts, through the chaos, and expound a message of inclusion and understanding. Khaos- The gap (or chasm) of understanding. Stasis- A means to stand or balance.

Mija Andrade

1982 Pop Culture

About the art: “I was beyond thrilled when Cultural Services invited me to be part of this project, giving me an upright piano to use as a canvas for my eclectic, mixed-media art. The 1982 theme is intended to honor the Hult Center’s 35th anniversary. I have a great affinity for the ’90s as I was a teenager during that decade. It was a very influential time for me, especially the music, fashion and artwork of the era. I enjoy layering designs, colors and imagery in my mixed-media collage work and chose images of iconic musicians and albums of the ’90s to layer over colorful painted patterns and sheet music. I also needed to incorporate the words “Please Play Me,” which I chose to do so by replicating variations of artwork by Keith Haring, one of my favorite artists who gained notoriety in the ’80s. I am so very honored to have had this opportunity and am grateful I was able to share some of my love of ’80s music and art through this project.”

About the artist: Mija grew up in California but has lived and worked in Eugene since 1995. Mija worked for many years in graphic arts and studied in the UC Santa Cruz graphic design and production program. She became involved with the Lane County non-prot organization MECCA in 2006 and worked as its executive director from 2008-13. She has worked and partnered with many Lane County organizations, planned community events and served on boards. She is an artist and long-time member of the local philanthropic women's art group The ArtChics. Mija was the resident artist at the Oregon Supported Living Program (OSLP) Arts & Culture Program before transitioning to the role of development director. She is also the 2017 Eugene Slug Queen Santa Frida Babosita.

Peter Goldlust & Melanie Germond

Urchin

About the art: As public artists, Melanie and Pete are engaged in a playful investigation of abstracted natural form. They appropriate elements from a variety of plant and animal sources, combining traits to create a colorfully baroque array of mutated hybrid forms. Inspirations include textile design, children’s book illustration and indie comics. Their piano, Urchin is a creature of the streets—loud, unkempt and non-binary. It is a celebration of the rich, weird diversity of human form, a tribute to the grotesque in all of us, and an acknowledgement of the expressive potential of unreconstructed body hair.

About the artists: Pete Goldlust and Melanie Germond and their two sons relocated from the southwest to Eugene in 2016. They have been working together on creative projects for over 30 years. Since 2009, the two have individually and collaboratively been awarded 20+ public art commissions. Projects have spanned a wide variety of media: music and sound composition, painted murals, concrete, metalwork, terrazzo, window glass treatments, and sculptural work with recycled plastics, textiles, and other materials. Melanie and Pete are actively involved in building educational and arts opportunities for kids. They currently volunteer-teach art at Ridgeline Montessori Public Charter School in Eugene.

Jessilyn Brinkerhoff

Build a Better World

About the art: “Representing growth and potential, this design features the native plants Indian paintbrush, maidenhair fern and lupine in vibrant colors. Abstracted book pages open behind the plants in gold and blue, while accents of the original wood peek through the piano. These are plants not just found anywhere but often in alpine regions and riparian zones. Like a story that unfolds, it has always been a surprise and adventure to come upon these species in the wild. Finding plants like these is a treasure of long hikes, visits to river canyons and taking paths less traveled in the spring while protecting these wild areas where they thrive.”

About the artist: Jessilyn has produced more than 25 murals committed to placemaking in a community that reflects culture, values, history and a future vision for itself. After receiving her art and design degree in 2011 from the University of Oregon, she continued to practice public art, incorporating large imagery of mural painting and text while pushing the medium to include sculptural elements in metal, ceramic and wood. As a female artist raised in Oregon, she holds a unique perspective that is culturally and environmentally aware. Jessilyn is dedicated to a high level of craft in each piece she installs, using public works not only to beautify spaces but to educate and honor history and ecology.

BRIDGE Summer 2019

August 2-31, 2019

Visual Arts Week and beyond!

The City of Eugene’s BRIDGE Exhibitions, creates opportunities for innovative, contemporary art projects, pieces and experiences that explore, express or reflect social, personal, political or ecological issues of the times. These works activate public spaces and highlight artists and arts organizations that creatively contribute to the current discourse in our community and beyond.

Darryl Evans - "Free Your Soles"

An installation of more than 1,000 shoes "freed" by our community. An abundance of both well-worn and pristine footwear will emerge from a tree at the intersection of 5th Ave. and Oak Street like low-hanging, wearable fruit. The changing social and physical environment at the tree’s urban location, along with the shoes’ origins and ultimate fate, are some of the elements shaping the meaning and message of Free Your Soles. A time lapse photographic record of the month-long evolution of the installation will be part of this artworks conclusion. At deinstallation, remaining shoes will be donated as appropriate, recycled if unusable, or reused in the artist’s next iteration of the work.

Sponsored by ArtCity Eugene with community partners City of Eugene Urban Forestry and Windermere Real Estate.

Tracy Sydor - "Miss Maple"

A character-based sculptural encounter appearing first at the Velvet Edge Boutique during Visual Arts Week. Miss Maple is born from Sydor’s childhood experience of a 1st grade teacher who stepped forward as a selfless protective presence. This memory has expanded into a figure of martyrdom and unquestioning protection within the artist’s personal mythology. Miss Maple will also inhabit the Forest of Tea and other locations during a portion of the August exhibition.

August 2-9, The Velvet Edge Boutique

August 10-20, Forest of Tea

Aug 11- Sept 4, Location TBA

Sponsored by Eugene Commercial Photography with community partners The Velvet Edge Boutique, MECCA and Forest of Tea.

Josh Sands - "Breathe, Step, Arrive"

A series of artworks in the form of imagined transit maps located along the walkways from Smith Family Bookstore on Willamette Street to the intersection of 5th Ave. and Pearl Street. Physically produced as professional signage, Sand’s maps may offer our current location in relation to water resources, possible personal moods and psychological status, our current level of distraction verses interaction and more.

Sponsored by Imagination International with community partners LTD, FASTSIGNS and Smith Family Bookstores.

BRIDGE Spring 2019

The Distance Between Us

Sponsored by Earthbound Moon

April 14-20, 2019

Willamette Street between 7th and 8th Avenues

What if you lived in an artwork? What if we walked along a city street the way we walk through a museum? Can we see our surroundings as cultural treasures? The Distance Between Us is an artwork exploring these questions and many more.

For one week, Willamette Street between 7th and 8th Avenues will be turned into an artwork, The Distance Between Us. Fifteen businesses along this block are collaborating with fifteen artists. Each business/artist pair will create a limited edition work of art that doubles as a product of the business. The artworks are available through sales and engagement.

Throughout the exhibition, events will take place, including guided docent tours during the day; and discussions, live music and a pub quiz in the evenings.

Artworks

-Ravens and artist Sterling Israel

Creating "Four Corners of Our World," a set of prints exploring the science and mythology of ravens.

-London Hair Studio and Spa and artist Courtney Stubbert

Creating "Let’s Compromise," a gel nail design available by appointment.

-City of Eugene Parking Services and artist Bret Pendlebury

Creating "Thank You Ticket," featuring a portrait of the Parcade garage located at 7th and Willamette.

-Manifest Beer Company and artist Sunny Selby Johnston

Creating "Still Moving Life," a single keg of beer and portrait fragment coasters.

-Doc’s Pad and artist Joshua Isaac Finch

Creating a mixed drink, "Dive & Hasten"

-Spence & Sabitt, LLP and artist Libby Wadsworth

Creating "...Some Words," a set of printing plates visitors may use to make their own rubbings of legal language explorations.

-Urban Therapeutic and artist Lisa Sansevere

Creating a "Stained Glass Garden," a scented sand or salt desk garden.

-City of Eugene Facilities Management and artists Helen Liu and Elnaz Talaei

Creating "Growth," attempted collaborations responding to the landscape elements along the block.

-Park Street Cafe’ and artist Charly Swing

Creating "The Smeede," a sandwich.

-Perugino Coffeehouse and artist Mika Aono

Creating "Ichigo-Ichie, -Stumbling Upon," a tea drink engaged with a transformation of the coffeehouse space.

-Gary Dawson Design and artist Tallmadge Doyle

Creating "Octopus Embrace," a pendant available for sale at Urban Therapeutic.

-AHM Brands and artist Ugo Akabike

Creating a logo for The Distance Between Us exhibition branding.

-Sushi-Ya and artist Randolph Carter

Creating "Into the Deep," a sushi roll.

-Earthbound Moon and artists Mei-ling Lee & Jeff Goolsby

Creating "Alte Innenstadt Vido Stroll," an audio/video engagement with the street and the projects along it this week.

BRIDGE Summer 2018

July 27 - August 5, 2018

Projects for BRIDGE Summer 2018 creatively utilize the outdoor areas of the Hult Center for the Performing Arts, the Parcade parking structure and breezeway between 7th and 8th streets.

Intersecting Bodies

by Farhad Bahram and Shannon Mockli

Metanoia Catalyst

by Leah Wilson and Kate Ali with Gray Space members

We Are Ships. You Are The River, Part 1 0f 3: Vessel

by Valentina Gonzalez, Josh Sands & Dain Kaldahl

Sponsored by Whiteaker Community Art Team (WCAT) and Wildcraft Cider Works

Movements

by Jessilyn Brinkerhoff

Sponsored by Lane Arts Council with co-sponsorship from Maude Kerns Art Center

3:30 AM

by Junwei Zhang