(re)site

Karl Burkheimer

1/23/23 – 3/31/23

Dengerink Gallery, VDEN Building

“The large grey dog seems to be the subject of the photo, yet the warm yellow-brown tones of late fall and a rusty steel bridge creates a confusing background that muddies the visual space and the viewers’ focus. Created during the era of point-and-shoot film cameras and 1 hour film development, the photo is a mere moment in a quickly receding past. Without context, the snapshot is neutral, conveying only what the viewer cares to consider. For the photographer the photo excites recollections of a specific hike with a beloved pet along an abandoned rail line during an unseasonably warm Thanksgiving weekend in Piedmont North Carolina. A few years later, on another Thanksgiving weekend, the dog died, continuing the refrain of impermanence.

“The built environment is the result of an inherently provisional act of cajoling space through the manipulation of matter. Humanity’s inability to achieve perfection and the natural world’s resistance to permanence assures a futility in making, while simultaneously perpetuating a creative instinct to pursue the exceptional or even the mundane or the abject.

“My creative endeavor is a manifestation of practice, a repeated return to the process of searching, making, and reflecting. The exhibited works become moments of exchange, temporal incarnations, and placeholders, emphasizing an ad hoc language of materials and processes in flux. Actions, efforts, and materials are employed to surround an emptiness, as the objects and images on view become markers adjacent to the focus of consideration. Thus, the work is allusive; only the residue of making is present.”

-Karl Burkheimer

Over the course of the exhibition, (re)site, will evolve, shifting in form and meaning with input and interaction by WSUV art students and faculty.

Burkheimer creates utilitarian and artistic objects that address labor, skill, precedent and intent through a language of utility. His works have been exhibited in the United States and internationally. He holds an MFA in woodworking from the department of crafts at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond; and a bachelor’s degree in environmental design in architecture from North Carolina State University, Raleigh.

Escape from… is a series of installations by students in the Beginning Drawing class of the Fine Arts Department. Curated by Professor Avantika Bawa, these works are informed by the interior architecture of sites around campus, including the Library, the Writing Center and Firstenburg Student Commons.

Scattered throughout these sites you will find these artworks, some that are easy to locate, while some just creep up on you. Each installation takes into account the site where it is installed, either by responding directly to the surrounding architecture, or the function of that particular area. In some cases, the works are the result of an imagination gone wild, while thinking of an alternative purpose of that location.

From Beyond the Deep

Amelia Seley, Brent Ocampo, Robert Sagastume, and Valorie Worden

The Writing Center

The Lesser Seen Things

Lucas Rogers, Xander Williams, Evan Renfro, and Victoria Moehring

Firstenburg Student Commons

A Walk in the Rainforest

Sorya Baxter, Teresa Patron Rivera, and Adrian Chwaliszewski

The Library

A World of Possibilities

Allison Balogh, Navleen Kaur, Mary Nguyen, and Liliya Tarkovskaya

The Library

Left: Molded, Wire, metal, and acrylic on canvas
Middle: Purple Glaze (detail), Acrylic on canvas
Right: Creature and Unmolding, Paper and plaster

Things Becoming Things

Shara Chwaliszewski

9/6/2022 – 12/16/2022

Science and Enginnering Building (VSCI), 1st and 2nd Floor Galleries

Things Becoming Things, on display throughout the Science and Engineering Building (VSCI) is an exploration of texture, color, and form. Raw canvas – painted, glazed, crumpled, and suspended. Cardboard or Styrofoam packaging covered with paper and glaze in layers upon layers upon layers until it transcends its purpose and becomes a new thing. Reclaimed or simple materials and repetitive, almost meditative, processes characterize my approach. As I struggle against or am guided by the inclinations of the medium, working with intention but no preconceived direction, a story begins to tell itself. Manipulation of outward form makes inner doubts fall away, and all is reduced to a conversation between my hands and the material.

Some pieces were removed from the gallery and relocated to other areas in the building to allow the remaining works room to breathe, and to further investigate the relationship between the object and the space it occupies.

Toxicityscape, Stryofoam and paper

Born on Canada’s eastern coast, Shara Chwaliszewski has made her home in the Pacific Northwest since 2006. Working in several mediums, she creates two- and three-dimensional works that are non-objective but often biomorphic. Shara is a Washington State University Vancouver alum (BA English, 2020; BA Fine Arts, 2021) and works as a tutor at the WSU Vancouver Writing Center when she is not making art in her backyard studio in Camas, WA.

Left: Imperfect Measures, Clock, paper, bamboo, and plaster
Right bottom: Spring, Sprang, Sprung Metal trap, paper, clothespins
Right top: Cephalopodcast, Bamboo roots, paper, and screen

Modular Shifts, Relief print installation, 18′ x 10′, 2022
Courtesy of the artist and Elizabeth Leach Gallery

Modular Shifts

Chris Chandler

8/22/2022 – 12/16/2022

Dengerink Gallery, VDEN Building

“Modular Shifts is a series of prints based on the construction and deconstruction of modular type. I use the Vandercook 232P letterpress machine, Alpha-Blox & Futura Schmuck woodcut fonts to combine shapes, letters, words and phrases and then abstract them through rearranging, tearing, wheat pasting, layering, and shifting. The simplicity of breaking the alphabet down into its most basic elements allows for a seemingly endless combination of shapes that appeal to my analog self.” – Chris Chandler

Left: Fade-Out, Variable relief print, 11’x54.5″, 2022
Right: AB043, Monotype relief print, 2022, 48″x48″x2″, 2022
Courtesy of the artist and Elizabeth Leach Gallery

Fade-Out (detail)
Courtesy of the artist and Elizabeth Leach Gallery

Chris Chandler founded Neu Haus Press in 1996 after he acquired his first Vandercook Press in Venice Beach, CA. Through the years his love, talent, and knowledge for this vintage craft has grown — inspired by pioneers of graphic design like master typographer Jan Tschichold, Bauhaus, Constructivist El Lissitzky, and the Expressionist painter and printmaker Erich Heckel.

In addition to his printmaking, Chris spent 30 years working as a tour manager and sound engineer in the music industry. He has had the privilege of sharing his passion for letterpress with a variety of musicians, leading to intimate collaborations and the opportunity to print their work. Making his home in Portland, Oregon with his wife and two children, Chris has been able to expand his studio and printing portfolio. He is represented by Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, OR.

This collection of work exhibits how Chris takes advantage of his Vandercook 232P with a 30” x 32” printing bed to recreate and experiment with the 1943 Alpha-Blox font in large form in order to push the limits of letterpress.

Left: The Space Between Us, Monotype relief print, 48″x48″x2″, 2021
Right: AB039, Monotype relief print, 2021, 48″x48″x2″, 2022
Courtesy of the artist and Elizabeth Leach Gallery

Makeready, Monotype relief print, 26″x26″, 2022
Courtesy of the artist and Elizabeth Leach Gallery

The 26th Annual Fine Arts Student Exhibition features work made in a wide range of art classes from the past year. In these classes, students from different majors across campus practice the building of form, the process of conceptual development, critical thinking, and the value of a commitment to craft.

The Fine Arts Department at Vancouver believes that mark-making is an essential human activity, exploring the connection between contemporary art, culture, and the built environment.

Artists: Kayla Aiman, Jamie Anoai-Shroyer, Dakota Benjamin, Maija Bennett, Cedar Brown-Geldreich, Jenn Carlsen, Marilou Cassidy, Yaremy Clara, Ilona Coscodan, Marianna Cruz, Emily Effinger, Olivia Eldredge, Jade Goggin, Avery Huver, Roxy Hong, Shayleigh Howells, Seth Jordan, Annika Larman, Megan Macomber, Eli Mitchell-Hopmeier, Mimi Nguyen, Ana Dominguez Pacheco, Bibiana Picho-Garcia, Jace Rintala, Janet Rodriguez, Dante Dian Torres, Tiffany Tucker, Nina Uchtmann, Lauren Varney, Colin Willis, Paesli Wilson, and Taylor Wiss

Vinyl Countdown is a series of installations by students in the Beginning Drawing class of the Fine Arts Department. Curated by Professor Avantika Bawa, these works are informed by the interior architecture of sites around campus, including the Library, the Mutimedia Classroom Building, and Firstenburg Student Commons.

Scattered throughout these sites you will find these artworks, some that are easy to locate, while some just creep up on you. Each installation takes into account the site where it is installed, either by responding directly to the surrounding architecture, or the function of that particular area. In some cases, the works are the result of an imagination gone wild, while thinking of an alternative purpose of that location.

A Time of Reflection

Ana Dominguez, Seth Jordan, Jace Rintala, and Paesli Wilson

The Library

φίδι (snake)

Jenn Carlson, Shayleigh Howells, Keeley Hunter, Megan Macomber, and Eli Mitchell-Hopmeier

Multimedia Classroom Building

Hungry for Knowledge

Dakota Benjamin, Danny Blanchard, Baylee Gregg, and Shelby Stevens

The Library

Be Brave, Coraline

Bibiana Picho-Garcia, Danika Fields, Kayla Aiman, and Marianna Cruz

Firstenburg Student Commons

Current Surroundings

David Schell

01/10/2022 – 3/11/2022

Dengerink Gallery, VDEN Building

“How we shape a context helps to determine how something is perceived. All contexts are subject to change, so it’s only natural that perceptions follow suit.

“Current Surroundings is a continuation of intimate, intimate, my 2021 show at Augen Gallery, Portland, OR. Intimate as an adjective suggests an experience that is taking place away from the rest of the world; as a verb, on the other hand, it looks outward.

“To intimate is to invite the rest of the world (or at least one other person) in on a little secret. It is social, even if it’s a bit coy. Why else would one hint or suggest unless they’re hoping for a reply from a willing participant that will take the time to look and respond? In this way an intimation is different from a lie or a half-truth. It’s not meant to be a deception; rather, the small amount of information given is meant to tantalize, to pique someone’s interest. It’s not a final word, but instead an invitation to keep a conversation going.  — David Schell

from top left moving clockwise:
Informal Warmth, A Brand New Shape, Inside Outside (2), Interior Form (Night)
Oil, pumice and cold wax on panel, 2020-21
photographs by Mario Gallucci

David Schell (he/him) is an artist working in Portland, Oregon. He received an MFA from American University and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Schell’s recent work is rooted in the idea that how we shape a context helps determine how something is perceived. He is the co-founder of The Semifinalist, an online platform for the second best in art, because the first place is for sell-outs.

www.davidscottschell.com
www.thesemi-finalist.com

detail of Periphery (2)
Oil, pumice and cold wax on panel, 2021

Heidi Schwegler works in the interstitial ruins of Beijing, Los Angeles, New York City and suburban America. She rescues haphazardly disused scraps from the bowels of the megalopolis: chicken bones, Big Gulps, broken signs, lost shoes, crumpled pylons, take out containers. Plastic, fiber, and bone: these materials decay but never decompose. A peerless craftsperson, she resynthesizes her sources into facsimiles with cast glass, gold, silver, wax, resulting in artwork that persists in a “living death.” Recent exhibition venues include WBG London Projects (London), Asphodel (New York), Sheldon Museum (Lincoln, NE), and the Portland Art Museum (Portland, Oregon). Schwegler is a Ford Family Fellow, a MacDowell Colony Fellow, and a Yaddo Artist-in- Resident. Reviews of Schwegler’s work have appeared in Art in America, Daily Serving, ArtNews, Modern Painters, and the Huffington Post. Schwegler is the founder of the Yucca Valley Material Lab, a platform for making and thinking.

Words to that Effect