The exhibition opens with a reception on Friday, January 11 from 6-8pm in the gallery located in Loso Hall.  The show will run through Friday, February 1. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 11am to 4pm.

The biennial Faculty Exhibition features work from the six nationally and internationally recognized artists who make up EOU’s art department and offers a collective view of their recent creative endeavors. The integration of the each artist’s body of work into the communal space of the Nightingale Gallery allows viewers to explore visual relationships amongst the artists as well as consider the newest trends in the work of some of this area’s most dynamic and respected artists.

The six artists with works on exhibit are Professor of sculpture, Doug Kaigler; Associate Professor and Director of the Nightingale Gallery, Cory Peeke; Associate Professor of painting, Jessica Plattner; Assistant Professor of printmaking, Susan Murrell; Assistant Professor of photography, Michael Sell and Visiting Assistant Professor of ceramics Jess Riva Cooper.

Doug Kaigler will present some of his most recent sculptural works which both feature and explore the elemental materials of wood, stone and water. Cory Peeke and Jessica Plattner will each present some of their most recent collage works. Peeke’s works feature found vintage photography which through the process of collage combines with other elements to become something both fresh and familiar. Plattner’s collages depict her infant daughter in a variety of surreal settings and act as a meditation on the magical possibilities of childhood. Susan Murrell will exhibit a selection of prints made during her summer residency at the Crow Shadow Institute. The photographic portraits that Mike Sell has on view are part of his larger investigation into fictional and real selves and how the Internet enables users to fictionalize themselves in a public manner. And visiting artist Jess Riva Cooper, who is filling in for Peter Johnson while he is on sabbatical, will present a selection of her newest ceramic sculpture inspired by the literature of Yiddish folklore, science fiction, and magical realism.

“Just as we six artists have come together to create a vibrant Art program at Eastern Oregon University we have worked together to create a dynamic exhibition which explores the individual talents of each as well as the collaborative nature inherent in our close knit program,” said Cory Peeke, Nightingale Gallery Director.

For more on each individual artist and their work please visit the EOU Art program faculty webpage: http://www.eou.edu/art/faculty/.

In conjunction with the exhibit the artists will present a gallery talk about their work on Thursday, January 24 from 5-7 p.m. in Nightingale Gallery. The talk is free and open to the public.

The Nightingale Gallery is located in Loso Hall on the campus of Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, OR.  Gallery hours are Monday-Friday 11AM-4PM.  For more information please visit our website: http://www.eou.edu/art/nightingale-gallery/ or follow us on Facebook.

The exhibition opens Friday, October 5 with a reception for the artist from 6-8pm in the gallery located in Loso Hall.  The show will run through Friday, October 26. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 11am to 4pm.

Stone features a collection of Don Gray’s works in both painting and drawing. His depictions of rocks and sky can be seen as metaphors of a larger reality, a reality beyond what we can observe.

“Indigenous peoples around the world think of the entire earth as a living organism.  Modern science increasingly corroborates that intuitive notion” explains Gray.  “It occurred to me that the only reason we think of a rock as inanimate is because its lifespan is unimaginably longer than our own. I sensed the life in these stones as metaphors of the living earth.”

Gray’s exhibit investigates the extraordinary in the ordinary. The multi-panel works make it necessary for viewer to experience the pieces incrementally and cumulatively, building an intrinsic sense of time into the work. The images are at once both vibrant and quiet, they straddle the line between representation and abstraction, and search for meaning in the most basic elements of our natural world.

Gray’s exhibition in the Nightingale coincides with the unveiling of his recently completed mural for EOU’s Inlow Hall. The mural presents portraits of 36 individuals who, as students, faculty or administrators, have had made their mark on EOU’s 83 year history. The official unveiling of the mural will take place on October 12 at 1PM in the Inlow Hall Welcome Center.

Don Gray grew up in rural Oregon and started drawing and painting at a young age. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Eastern Oregon University in 1970. Gray has painted large murals all over the U.S., illustrated books, taught workshops, won numerous awards and exhibited his work in many galleries and museums. In 2007 he began an online journal, www.dailyartwest.com, where he posts small daily paintings and commentary. His work is included in the permanent collections of the State of Oregon, The Hallie Ford Museum, The University of Washington Medical Center, the Frye Art Museum, the Grande Ronde Regional Medical Clinic, and numerous other collections both public and private.

The Nightingale Gallery is located in Loso Hall on the campus of Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, OR.  Gallery hours are Monday-Friday 11AM-4PM.  For more information please visit our website: http://www.eou.edu/art/nightingale-gallery/ or follow us on Facebook.