4
MIXED MEDIUM
OCTOBER 13�20, 2021
THE ARTS AROUND
EASTERN OREGON
‘Homecoming’ exhibition opens
Nightingale Gallery season
Go! staff
L
A GRANDE — The Nightingale Gal-
lery at Eastern Oregon University
opens its 2021-22 exhibition season with
“Homecoming,” an exhibit that welcomes
EOU alumni — or at least their creative
works — back to campus.
“Homecoming” presents a selection
of work by 17 EOU art alumni and runs
Oct. 8 through Nov. 5. The gallery is
located in Loso Hall.
The work on exhibit encompasses
a variety of media including drawing,
painting, mixed media and sculpture. The
artists represent a span of more than 20
years of art program graduates.
One artist is Josh McDonald, a 2014
graduate and native of Powell Butte.
McDonald’s paintings combine abstrac-
tion and symbolism to create a narrative
described through geometric forms and
inspired by early modern art movements
such as cubism. His works are high in
contrast and depth, shadow and light,
and presented with a limited color palette.
McDonald uses oil and cold wax medium
to build up the surface of his paintings
NIGHTINGALE GALLERY
Loso Hall, EOU
La Grande
11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Monday-Friday
and then drags a comb through the paint
in angular lines. This interrupts the initial
paint application and breaks through the
hard edge to obtain a softness and a mix-
ture of unique blends and texture.
McDonald, who now makes his home in
Seattle, works for the Greg Kucera Gallery
and has an active studio practice with
several recent group exhibitions featuring
his paintings at SEASON Gallery and J.
Rhinehart Gallery in Seattle. McDonald’s
solo exhibition “Carry Me Through the
Field” opened this October at Seattle’s
SOIL Gallery.
Meredith Matthews, a 2020 graduate,
will present her mixed media installation
“i am not what i might be.” Using bird
feathers, faux fur, painted duralar, bones
and other materials, she attempts to
capture the landscape of her lived expe-
rience with chronic pain. The processes
of the external, natural world — sedi-
mentation, metamorphosis, sublimation,
moulting, decay — become signifi ers,
descriptors for this internal world.
Matthews is a lifelong resident of
the Grande Ronde Valley and is pursu-
ing a master’s degree in fi lm at Queen’s
University Belfast, Northern Ireland. She
is currently working on fi nishing her fi rst
short fi lm, “Blood and Memory.”
Other exhibiting artists include Bill At-
wood (2006), Kevin Boylan (2003), Mariah
Boyle (2009), Addie DeLong (2014), Annie
Eskelin (2004), Devin Farrand (2009), Mad-
eline Ford (2016), Genevieve Gaudreau
(2016), Auburn Isaak (2012), Audrey Lind
(2019) Meredith, Andrew Myers (1995),
Dawn Norman (2006), Hannah Smith
(2020) and Henrik Soerensen (2013).
“These artists present us with a varied
collection of works exploring everything
from abstraction and intimacy to feel-
ings of loss and the intersection between
production and aesthetics,” said Cory
Peeke, Nightingale Gallery director. “The
art department is pleased to have such
a diversity of thoughtful and visually
skilled artists out in the world represent-
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Josh McDonald/Contributed image
This work, oil and cold wax on panel, was
created by Josh McDonald and titled “Through
the Touch of the Full Moon’s Light.”
ing the strengths of our program and this
university. We are even more pleased they
have chosen to come home to where they
began their careers to share their creative
work with our current students and the
regional community.”
Gallery hours are 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Monday through Friday. The public is
welcome; masks are required. For more
information visit www.eou.edu/art or
follow Nightingale Gallery on Instagram
and Facebook.