Exhibition – Seeing a River

Seeing  River

Two Artists and a Scientist

Truckenbrod Gallery, Corvallis, Oregon

Dates: February 3 – February 25, 2023 

Address: 517 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis, OR

Hours: Friday & Saturday, 12 – 4 p.m., and by appointment

Opening Reception: February 3, 4 – 8 p.m., with a panel discussion at 5 p.m.

Corvallis Art Walk: February 16, 4 – 8

Contact me with questions or to schedule an appointment

Seeing a River at Truckenbrod Gallery, Corvallis, Oregon, 2023

Our relationship with a river determines how it is seen. Depending on our personal experiences, we each see a river through a different lens. In this show, two artists (Wilson and Myers) and a scientist (Bartholomew) share their views of a river through different perspectives.

Artists:

Jerri Bartholomew

Andrew Myers

Leah Wilson

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Jerri Bartholomew is a professor of microbiology at Oregon State University. For over 40 years she has studied the effects of disease on salmon populations in rivers of the PNW. For the past 20 years this focus has been on the Klamath River and a single parasite that has been responsible for devastating losses of salmon. 

As a glass artist, she explores the intersection between art and science and how they inform each other. Her “science studies” began over 20 years ago and like her research, they have evolved, with the intent of involving the viewer in the science. By sharing the diverse perspectives of artists and scientists, she aims to build a bridge between the disciplines and to provide opportunities for others to explore this interface. Bartholomew has engaged artists in her own research, coordinates the Art-Sci Collaborative at OSU, and has established a student fellowship for students to explore their own intersections. 

Andrew Myers is an Oregon based visual artist and educator who explores the concepts of instinct, extinction, isolation and the conservation and preservation of wild places and creatures in work that is drawing-based with elements of installation, printmaking, sculpture and animation. He received his undergraduate art degree from Eastern Oregon University and an MFA in drawing and painting from Portland State University. 

Myers is a two-time recipient of the Career Opportunity Grant from the Oregon Arts Commission and the Ford Family Foundation. Notable exhibitions have been presented by the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene OR, Duplex Gallery in Portland OR, Soil Gallery in Seattle WA, Rodgers Gallery at Willamette University, Fairbanks Gallery at Oregon State University, RISD ISB Gallery in Providence RI and the PM Bohúň Gallery in Liptov, Slovakia. He has been awarded funded artist residencies that include an OAC Golden Spot Award at Caldera, Playa at Summer Lake, Oak Spring Garden Foundation and Pine Meadow Ranch Center for Arts and Agriculture. 

He currently teaches at Oregon State University. 

Leah Wilson is collaborating with scientists studying the ecology of the Klamath River, a river slated for the historic simultaneous removal of four dams in 2023. She is an embedded artist in a field research team and she assists with data collection. Wilson’s goal is not to explain or illustrate science but to ask stronger questions to deeply know the river, to experience it from different perspectives, and to create artwork coexisting alongside science. After earning an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, Wilson interwove her passions of art and whitewater kayaking living in the Sierra Nevada foothills. While there, she created a pivotal project influenced by the environmental decision-making processes of scientists, resource managers, and special interest groups during the Federal Energy Relicensing Commission’s assessment of the local watershed. This experience and decades of wilderness exploration form the backbone that continues to inform her creative process.