“Playing House” in the Nightingale Gallery

Visiting artist presents “Playing House” at EOU’s Nightingale Gallery

Sept. 20, 2018 LA GRANDE, Ore. –  A dynamic multi-media installation will fill Eastern Oregon University’s Nightingale Gallery this fall, as it hosts Maria Lux’s “Playing House” exhibition.

The exhibition opens with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on Oct. 5 in the gallery and runs through Nov. 2. Lux will return to campus Oct. 24 to present a public talk about her studio practice at 6 p.m. in Badgley Hall’s Huber Auditorium.

In her installation work, the Walla Walla-based artist and professor at Whitman College explores animals and their relationship to human knowledge. As both familiar and alien, animals often come to serve as the boundary against which humans create our own sense of identity — efforts that play out through both historical and urgently current concerns.

Lux uses a variety of materials and processes to convey the stories behind her work. She relies on representational approaches: referencing or parodying existing styles, combining found or modified objects alongside artist-made items, and quoting articles, texts, graphs or charts. Her work is part of a larger dialogue that looks to both animals as a subject and art-making as an approach for alternative ways to think and know.

Lux earned her BFA from Iowa State University in 2006 and her MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2012. She has been an artist in residence numerous times, including most recently at the Enos Park Residency in Springfield, Ill., and the Center for New Art at William Paterson University in New Jersey. She has shown work throughout the United States including solo exhibitions at Upfor Gallery in Portland, Visual Arts Exchange Cube Gallery in North Carolina, and the VisArts Center in Maryland.

“EOU’s art program has a strong tradition of mixed media approaches to art-making,” Gallery Director Cory Peeke said. “Lux’s work will provide students and others a glimpse into her distinct approach and complex integration of both traditional and non-traditional materials to create works that are visually and int

ellectually challenging.”

The gallery, located in Loso Hall, is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. For more information, visit eou.edu/art or follow the Nightingale Gallery on Facebook and Instagram.

To request images of artwork for publication or to schedule an interview with the artist please contact Cory Peeke at cpeeke@eou.edu.