I am so excited for the opening of American Underland at the Archer Gallery at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington. Also check out this Studio View at Mark Moore Fine Art.
The works making up the series American Underland are meditations on deep, geologic time and its gravitational pull on history. The works– comprising landscapes, large narrative drawings and ceramic sculptures–arise from the tangled myth and history of American land. They are attempts to reveal the crackling, animist life that exists in the rocks, trees, myths and memories of the nation. I wanted to address the deep time of the American continent to counter the shimmering surface of present politics. The works are meant to address the larger-than-human climate from an almost shamanic perspective.
The motifs filling these new works are the Janus head, coyotes, the Tarot and landscapes. Janus is the Roman god of doorways, of ending and beginnings. The double faced god presided over city gates marking times of war and peace. Old Man Coyote, too, has many faces. He is the Changeable One. Coyote the deity created death, the stars and bumbled through many episodes of fertile chaos. His stories are bawdy, absurd and alive with the electricity of a living landscape. The landscapes are made up of caves, fallen trees and entrances into the underworld. These are core samples into the chthonic energies rumbling beneath the ground and lava flows animating the collective unconscious of the nation.
When: Sept. 16- Dec. 20, 2024
Opening Reception: Oct. 1, 2024, 3-6PM
Artist Talk: Oct. 15, 2024, 1-2PM PUB 161
Saturday Reception: Nov. 2, 2024 3-6PM
Address: Archer Gallery, Clark College,
1933 Fort Vancouver Way
Vancouver, WA 98663
info@archergallery.space
(360) 992-2246
Coyote’s Travels: Strength, 2024, 40 by 51 inches, oil pastel, graphite and conte crayon on paper
