Join SMA Director Scott Malbaurn for a Creative Industries Discussion with Avantika Bawa.
About the Artist
Avantika Bawa is an artist, curator, and educator based in Portland, OR, and often resides in her hometown, New Delhi, India.
Bawa has an MFA in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA in the same from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India.
She has participated in the Skowhegan, MacDowell, Kochi Biennial Foundation, and Djerassi residencies among others. Noteworthy solo exhibits include shows at: The Portland Art Museum, Schneider Museum, Ashland, OR: Suyama Space, Seattle, WA, The Columbus Museum, GA, Saltworks Gallery, and the Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center, Atlanta, GA: Nature Morte, and Gallery Maskara, India: White Box, Tilt Gallery & Project Space, and Disjecta, Portland, OR.
In April 2004 she was part of a team that launched Drain – Journal for Contemporary Art and Culture. www.drainmag.com. In 2014 Avantika was appointed to the board of the Oregon Arts Commission. She is currently Associate Professor of Fine Arts at Washington State University, Vancouver, WA.
Alyse Emdur is an interdisciplinary artist. Her drawings, paintings, videos, and photography based projects use earnest humor to face loneliness, existential crisis, social struggle and the desire to escape. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Artforum, Art in America, Modern Painters, Cabinet Magazine, Huffington Post, the Atlantic, BBC News, Wired Magazine, Vrij Nederland Magazine, Art Papers Magazine, and Foam Magazine. Emdur is a graduate of the Cooper Union and holds an MFA from the University of Southern California.
Michael Parker’s art practice shifts scale, material, and temporality while making things such as juicy ceramic installations, recumbent obelisks, steam eggs, artist-run spaces, and public sculptures. Parker started teaching sculpture at Southern Oregon University three months before the pandemic began. Previously he lived, taught and made art in Los Angeles. With solo and cooperative projects at Materials & Applications; Craft Contemporary Museum; LA County Arts Commission; Annex LA at M+B Gallery; Artists’ Loft Museum Los Angeles; Descanso Gardens; Palm Springs Art Museum; Current LA Biennial; LA Department of Cultural Affairs, The Getty Museum; Southern Exposure; High Desert Test Sites; Human Resources; Pomona College Museum of Art; The Armory Center for the Arts; Machine Project; California State Parks at the Bowtie; Los Angeles Trade-Technical College; Cold Storage. He holds a BA from Pomona College, an EMT-1 from UCLA, an MFA from USC. Parker is a recipient of the California Community Foundation’s Emerging Artists Fellowship, Center for Cultural Innovation Artists’ Resource for Completion Grant, Public Art Residency at Heart of Los Angeles and Printed Matter Award for Artists.
Thursday, May 27th at 12:30pm PST
Free, and open to the public
#artbeyond2021
Join SMA Director Scott Malbaurn for a Creative Industries Discussion with Whistlegraph.
About the Artists
Whistlegraph is an evolving group of artists and performers currently consisting of Jeffrey Alan Scudder, Alex Freundlich, and Camille Klein. Topics ranging from art and technology to education and expression are explored through a novel art form combining drawing & live performance called whistlegraphing.
Developed by American artist, software developer, and lecturer Jeffrey Alan Scudder in 2019, whistlegraphs are memorizable hybrids of poetry, painting, storytelling and music inviting both artists and audiences to reconsider what qualities should be valued in each of these fields. Examples can be seen on the Whistlegraph TikTok account, which operates a shared sketchbook for the Ashland based group.
Frequent collaborators include artists Ella Fleck, Niki Stebbins, Matt Doyle, Anastasia Lewis, Adam Schwarz, Ash Nerve and an online community of artists & fans who keep up with the practice!
Friday, June 11th through Sunday, June 13th from 1pm to 3pm
Site: Mt. Ashland
#artbeyond2021
The term plein air means “out of doors” and refers to the practice of painting an entire finished work outdoors. Join seven established plein air artists up on Mt Ashland. The general public is invited to engage with the artists and observe their work from 1pm to 3pm.
Saturday, June 19th from 10am to 5pm
#artbeyond2021
Open to all. Sign up to join fellow Plein Air artists in Lithia Park on Saturday, June 19th. Artists can come and go throughout the day. The general public will be encouraged to engage with the artists between 10am to 5pm to talk to artists about their work and process.
The first 30 registered artists will be invited to show one piece created at this event at Scienceworks Hands-On Museum from June 21st through September 16th. Art will be sold at by Scienceworks with 50% of sales price going to the artist and 50% to Scienceworks.
Please register here to be a participating artist.
Ashland Gallery Association (AGA) Summer Art Show
Saturday, June 19 from 12pm to 5pm.
In lieu of the traditional Open Studio Tour, the AGA is thrilled to display a Summer Art Show at Ashland Art Works that will include live demonstrations and the showcasing of member’s artwork outdoors. Ranging from paintings, to sculptures, and ceramics, there’s a little bit of everything. So stop by and take a peek. The gallery is a short stroll from the plaza.
Left Edge Percussion will perform Framework: Scaffolded Clouds by Terry Longshore, as part of the Schneider Museum of Art’s Art Beyond, on Saturday, June 5th, at 4:00 pm. In the event of inclement weather, the performance will be rescheduled for Sunday, June 6th, at 1:00 pm. The performance will take place at Willow-Witt Ranch, located at 658 Shale City Road
Ashland, Oregon 97520.
Framework: Scaffolded Clouds was commissioned by the Schneider Museum of Art for Art Beyond, an outdoor art exhibition focusing on sculptural and installation based artworks. It will be performed on Avantika Bawa‘s A Yellow Scaffold on the Ranch, an installation artwork created for the exhibition and erected at Willow Witt Ranch outside of Ashland, Oregon.
The performers play on the artwork itself, an idea that came to composer Terry Longshore when Scott Malbaurn, Director of the Schneider Museum of Art, first described the work to him, “I instantly thought of climbing on and playing directly on the scaffolding, but I was afraid that would not be welcomed. It turned out Avantika loved the idea; ‘Beat the hell out of it!’ she said. I was thrilled!”
Similar to Bawa’s works, Framework: Scaffolded Clouds is modular and minimalist in nature, utilizing cells of rhythmic and textural musical material including a technique borrowed from Greek-French composer and architect Iannis Xenakis – “stochastic clouds of percussive sonorities.” Silence is also employed, inspired by the “space between” – a meadow, a cloud, an interior, etc. – one experiences when viewing Bawa’s Scaffold series. The score isarranged in a scaffolded fashion, the cells of musical materials built upon and connecting to each other, with instructions to the performers on how to move between them during a performance.
The premiere of Framework: Scaffolded Clouds will be performed by Left Edge Percussion on June 5th, 2021, at 4:00 pm. Performers: Terry Longshore (Artistic Director), Jade Hails, Delaney Jai, Bryan Jeffs, Bobby Odle, and Parker Stockford.
Rain Date: Sunday, June 6th at 1:00 pm
About the Artists
Left Edge Percussion is a contemporary percussion group in residence at the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University, led by artistic director Terry Longshore. The group tours and performs throughout the Northwest and actively collaborates on innovative projects with composers and artists of various media. The members of the group have been featured around the globe at prestigious festivals, competitions, conferences, and workshops and bring a diverse array of influences and collective energy to the ensemble. Left Edge Percussion has commissioned, co-commissioned, or premiered works by Joseph Bertolozzi, David Bithell, David Crowell, Josh Gottry, Bryan Jeffs, Ivan Trevino, Alejandro Viñao, and Drew Wright.
In addition to regular performances at the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University, recent Left Edge Percussion performances include the Teatro Principal in Guanajuato, Mexico, the Center for New Music in San Francisco, Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics at Stanford University, Gold Lion Arts in Sacramento, Northwest Percussion Festival, Britt Music & Arts Festival, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Green Show, Hipbone Studio in Portland, Ashland World Music Festival, the Oregon Fringe Festival, and the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC). In 2020 Left Edge Percussion was invited to perform at the Bang on a Can Long Play Festival in New York City, and the Other Minds 26 Festival in San Francisco, both postponed due to COVID-19.
Engage deeper with the concept of Barerra‘s art, and volunteer as a land steward to support the mission of Vesper Meadow. All are welcome to join at the scenic Vesper Meadow Restoration Preserve, and participate in restoration activities such as planting, creek-wood structure preparation, and seed collecting.
Date: The competition will run from May 15th to July 18th. Winners will be announced on Thursday, July 22nd
Site: Lithia Park
#artbeyond2021
Get to Lithia Park and engage with the 4th Wall App, a free, augmented reality (AR) public art platform exploring inclusive creative expression by Nancy Baker Cahill. Post your still or video images to Instagram with #artbeyond2021 and geo tag Lithia Park. Nancy Baker Cahill will select some of her favorites and you can win free Schneider Museum of Art gear! Be sure to join Baker Cahill’s free Zoom talk listed below under events. Download the free app HERE.
Join the Whistlegraph team for complimentary sketchbooks and drawing utensils to the first 40 families who find them near the Lower Duck Ponds at Lithia Park. Follow their drawing prompts in the park for a day of family fun!
Thursday, May 13th at 12:30pm
Free, and open to the public
#artbeyond2021
Join SMA Director Scott Malbaurn for a Creative Industries Discussion with Nancy Baker Cahill.
About the Artist
Nancy Baker Cahill is a new media artist who examines power, selfhood, and embodied consciousness through drawing and shared immersive space. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of 4th Wall, a free Augmented Reality (AR) public art platform exploring resistance and inclusive creative expression. Her recent AR public art project, Liberty Bell, commissioned by Art Production Fund, earned features in the New York Times, frieze Magazine, Artnet, Smithsonian Magazine and the Washington Post, among many other publications. The project, on view through 2021, spans six historic and culturally significant sites along the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. and appeared in Artnews’ list, The Defining Public Artworks of 2020. Baker Cahill was also included in ARTnews’ list of 2021 Deciders. Her 2018 TED talk, Augmented Reality (AR) as an Artist’s Tool for Equity and Access, launched her international public speaking practice. She has since delivered keynotes at the 2019 Games For Change, 2020 A.W.E. (Augmented World Expo) and has spoken at the Hirshhorn Museum and numerous academic institutions and conferences. She is the Art and Creative Technologies Advisor for the XRSI Safety Initiative and is one of ten artist scholars in the Berggruen Institute’s inaugural 2020 Transformations of the Human Fellowship. In May of 2021, Baker Cahill will receive the Williams College Bicentennial Medal of Honor.
Site Location:Willow-Witt Ranch
Title: A Yellow Scaffold On the Ranch
#artbeyond2021
A Yellow Scaffold On the Ranch is the sixth installation of the ‘Scaffold Series’. Here utilitarian scaffolds are transformed by color and context into formal sculpture, as they cease to be objects of function. This transformation is realized by painting them bright yellow, and consciously choreographing their install on Willow-Witt Ranch nestled in a valley in the Cascade mountain range. Yellow, the dominant, and only color in the installation is directly connected to growth and life. A Yellow Scaffold On the Ranch serves as a symbol of hope as we move past these trying times, while also bringing a burst of cheer to those who gaze at it amidst the pastoral background.
About the Artist
Avantika Bawa is an artist, curator, and educator based in Portland, OR, and often resides in her hometown, New Delhi, India.
Bawa has an MFA in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA in the same from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India.
She has participated in the Skowhegan, MacDowell, Kochi Biennial Foundation, and Djerassi residencies among others. Noteworthy solo exhibits include shows at: The Portland Art Museum, Schneider Museum, Ashland, OR: Suyama Space, Seattle, WA, The Columbus Museum, GA, Saltworks Gallery, and the Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center, Atlanta, GA: Nature Morte, and Gallery Maskara, India: White Box, Tilt Gallery & Project Space, and Disjecta, Portland, OR.
In April 2004 she was part of a team that launched Drain – Journal for Contemporary Art and Culture. www.drainmag.com. In 2014 Avantika was appointed to the board of the Oregon Arts Commission. She is currently Associate Professor of Fine Arts at Washington State University, Vancouver, WA.
My practice emphasizes the intersections where drawing and sculpture, stasis and motion, and the functional and non-functional intermingle. Geographic and architectural differences in landscape strongly inform my work. I explore the diversity of topographies, the presence or absence of color in local environments, and the range of visual and tactile qualities of locally sourced and fabricated materials.
Bearing in mind a location’s prior use, I create wall drawings and/or paintings, and repurpose and rearrange functional objects to create temporary installations on-site. My approach is influenced by Minimalism and its emphasis on reductive form, modularity, and experimentation with scale. I gather and compose industrial products like brick, plywood, and concrete, simulating common gestures, such as sitting, leaning, pulling, and stacking. These installations invite the viewer to experience the crossroads between the utilitarian, historical, and aesthetic qualities of each space.
In addition to site-based works, I have a sustained drawing practice. Often these are preliminary studies, or a response to my installations, while the majority are stand-alone pieces. These drawings are deliberative yet whimsical, as I work with the pure physicality of line, shape, surface and color.
Signal Fire announces Gabriel Barrera as 2021 Tinderbox Artist in Residence at Vesper Meadow. The artwork created at this residency will be on display at Vesper Meadow and will include a mural on the barn as well as additional collaborative artworks with visitors and or volunteers. Tinderbox Artists in Residence are embedded in grassroots environmental advocacy organizations. Artists receive a stipend, and work closely with the staff and volunteers in the office and the field to develop a body of work specific to the experience. This partnership exists at the intersection of multiple artist communities, regional social justice initiatives, and decolonized environmental stewardship showcasing the capacity of interdisciplinary coalition building across the Rogue Valley.
About the Artist
Originally from Southern California, Gabriel Barrera is a Mexican American/Xicanx visual artist living in Southern Oregon. He works in various mediums including traditional art methods, multimedia and graphics. His artwork is rooted in social justice, advocacy, and youth mentorship. Gabriel received a BFA from Pratt Institute and has worked for over 20 years as a scenic artist in theaters such as South Coast Repertory, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and numerous colleges. He currently operates ScenicG, a visual art and design company providing services in art/design, workshops, consultation, facilitation and mentorship. Learn more at scenicg.com.
I am Gabriel Barrera. I own ScenicG, a small art and design company with my spouse, Merilee, in Southern Oregon. I am a painter, scenic artist, activist, and mentor. My recent artwork has centered around the intersections of social justice, identity, social location and isolation during the pandemic. When practicing my art, I take into consideration the intersectionality of identity, social impact and relevance of the subject. I paint in oil and acrylic and am influenced by methods and techniques from my 20 years as a scenic artist. The Tinderbox-Art Beyond residency is an important component to building a strong alliance with indigenous artists like Ka’ila Farrell-Smith who will be a mentor throughout the residency and beyond. The residency will help me build trusting relationships with local tribal artists and activists fighting for environmental justice.
The Tinderbox-Art Beyond Residency at Vesper Meadow sponsored by Signal Fire and the SOU Schneider Museum of Art is an important part of my personal and artistic journey. The conceptual framework of my artwork will center around environmental justice, the history of the environment, people and animals of the land. The artwork I produce and share from this residency will include a painted mural on the facade of a barn, individual art pieces made from remnant findings on the land, and an art panel for visitors to practice art making. I also plan on creating a video documenting my artmaking process. I look forward to providing a lecture midway into my residency describing my artwork and advocacy.
