“Honey Eyed” exhibit coming to Nightingale Gallery

Sept. 23, 2022

“Honey Eyed” exhibit coming to Nightingale Gallery

LA GRANDE, Ore. – Eastern Oregon University’s Nightingale Gallery welcomes the new fall term with an exhibition by Portland artist Leslie Vigeant. Vigeant’s “Honey Eyed” is a multi-part installation, part tragedy and part comedy. The visual notes of her installation pokes holes in the societally-assumed “shoulds” of romance, relationships, and adulthood while highlighting absurdity in everyday life.

“Honey Eyed” opens with a reception for the artists from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, October 7 in the gallery. Vigeant will also present a public talk about her work at 6 p.m. in Badgley Hall’s Huber Auditorium on Thursday, October 6. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend both events.

This exhibition questions the heterocentric pressures often faced when speaking of “love” and “forever”—especially within a gendered context. 

“What do we teach young girls about womanhood—and why—and how do we cope with those young lessons as adults?”, asks Vigeant. “With the ever-present doomscrolling on TikTok and Instagram, where do we, the everyday people, fit in, in a world that is presented as beautifully curated homes, couture cakes, cocktails, clothing, and extravagant snapshots of perfected, peaceful living?”

With colored lighting, repetitive harmonic synth tracks and a 20-foot indoor billboard, this installation evokes notions of relationships, home, pleasure, excess, falsehood, loss, and the engrained and naive ways in which we compare ourselves to those around us.

“Honey Eyed” invites participants to listen and rest with their spinning thoughts in a wholly synthesized and artificial environment.

“I was first introduced to Leslie’s work through an exhibition proposal she submitted to the gallery in 2021,” Gallery Director Cory Peeke said. “I was struck by her playful material explorations and compelling interrogation of our contemporary world.” 

Vigeant has previously exhibited at Winnipeg Underground Film Festival, Woodbury Art Museum, Stephanie Chefas Projects and HAP Gallery of Portland. She is also the Director of Marketing and Communications at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) and Manager of the GLEAN Residency.

“Honey Eyed” will run from October 7 through November 7. The gallery, located in Loso Hall, is open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, follow the Nightingale Gallery on Facebook and Instagram, @nightingale_gallery.To request images of artwork for publication or to schedule an interview with the artist, please contact Gallery Director Cory Peeke at cpeeke@eou.edu.