Anderson Foundation for the Arts: Exhibitions and Events
Anderson Foundation for the Arts is committed to providing quality art exhibitions, installations, and activities that promote
art enrichment in the Walla Walla Valley and beyond. The exhibitions that the organization curates are presented in a gallery space located at 1111 Abadie Street in the Foundry Vineyards building.
2018 Art Exhibitions
James Lavadour: February 16, 2018 – April 22, 2018
Augusta Sparks Farnum & Kim Nemeth: May 5, 2018 – July 31, 2018
2017 Art Exhibitions
Hank Saxe: February 3, 2017 – April 30, 2017
Marilyn Lysohir: May 5, 2017 – July 23, 2017
Keiko Hara: August 4, 2017 – October 22, 2017
Rob Pruitt: November 3, 2017 – January 28, 2018
2016 Art Exhibitions
Exploring Fragility & Transience: April 2, 2016 – June 19, 2016
Yasue Shibata & Yoshiyasu Fujii: June 26, 2016 – July 31, 2016
“Graffiti Writers”: August 5, 2016 – October 30, 2016
Matthew Day Jackson: November 4, 2016 – January 31, 2016
2015 Art Exhibitions
Ian Boyden: February 27, 2015 - May 31, 2015
Chuck Close & Kiki Smith: June 4, 2015 – August 28, 2015
Ai Weiwei: September 3, 2015 – October 31, 2015
Jay Anderson: November 4, 2015 – March 31, 2016
2015 Events
Documentary Screening: Chuck Close and Kiki Smith
July 16, 2015 at GESA Power House Theatre
Documentary Screening: The Fake Case (Ai Weiwei)
October 8, 2015 at GESA Power House Theatre
ROB PRUITT
ROB PRUITT
cats.
November 3, 2017 – January 28, 2018
New York artist Rob Pruitt is often seen as overtly playful but his wry wit keeps focus on a more personal and social critique taking place.
Much of Pruitt’s work extends beyond the gallery. He has become a pioneer in using the internet and social media for the purposes of art, sharing ideas and engaging in political activism.
For this show located in Foundry Vineyards gallery space, Pruitt will exhibit a series of new cat sculptures which have been cast and CNC milled in a variety of materials. Pruitt created these sculptures at the Walla Walla Foundry a few months prior to the opening of this exhibition.
Marilyn Lysohir:
GOOD GIRLS
Marilyn Lysohir: GOOD GIRLS
May 5– July 23, 2017
Opening Reception: Friday, May 5, 5-7 p.m.
Anderson Foundation for the Arts is pleased to present the installation “Good Girls” by Marilyn Lysohir. The opening reception will be held on Friday, May 5 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. including a 6 p.m. gallery talk with the artist.
“Good Girls” is an impressive installation of 164 ceramic portraits. Each bust captures the likenesses of girls from Lysohir’s 1968 high school class in Sharon, Pennsylvania. The project began over 30 years later when she bumped into a former classmate who she had forgotten, prompting her to go home and pull out her senior yearbook. She began her personal tribute to these “good girls” by creating ceramic busts of every single female student in her class over the course of the next four years. The sculptures debuted in 2006 at an exhibit at the Guardino Gallery in Portland, Oregon. Although the portraits are complete, the stories they tell are not. Lysohir was curious about what became of her classmates, and reached out to find out where they were and what they were doing. She found almost 50 of them, and subsequently updated their biographies, including obituaries, to make this a living project.
This artwork speaks to high-school nostalgia but also recalls a tumultuous time in American history. 1968 was an explosive year which saw America’s entanglement in Vietnam, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, the release of the Beatle's White Album, the launch of Apollo 7 and Apollo 8, the Women's Liberation movement, Richard Nixon's rise to the Presidency and many more culturally significant events. “Good Girls” invites viewer to remember a childhood long gone, ancient relationships built and forgotten, and how the late-sixties impacted America.
About the Artist
Marilyn Lysohir is no stranger to Walla Walla. She worked with the Walla Walla Foundry beginning in the late 1980s, where she cast large bears and tattooed women (seen flanking the entrance to Foundry Vineyards).
Born in 1950,she studied at Ohio Northern University (B.A. in 1972), at the Centro Internazionale Di Studi in Verona Italy (1970-71) and at Washington State University (M.F.A. in 1979). From there she taught art at
Kansas City Art Institute, Ohio State University, the New York College of Ceramics, plus numerous visiting professorships up until 2004. Lysohir lives and works in Moscow, Idaho where she is the founder and owner of
Cowgirl Chocolates, and was the co-editor of High Ground, an annual art publication.
Matthew Day Jackson
MATTHEW DAY JACKSON
NEW SCULPTURE
November 4, 2016 – January 31, 201
Opening: November 4th, 2016, 5-7 p.m.
Anderson Foundation for the Arts, in conjunction with Foundry Vineyards, is pleased to present the exhibition “New Sculpture” by New York artist Matthew Day Jackson. This exhibit will run from November 4, 2016 through January 31, 2017. The artist’s reception will be held November 4th from 5pm‐7pm.
Known for his multidisciplinary approach to art making, Matthew Day Jackson’s work moves fluidly in and outside of the common boundaries of sculpture, painting, printmaking, photograph, video and performance. He often makes use of cutting edge technologies, combining them with more traditional techniques of a particular medium. Taking on the role of explorer or traveler, his practice has been referred to as an “all‐consuming campaign to chart the outermost limits of human physical experience," in order to find "the place just beyond those limits where the sublime might reside.” His work covers a broad range of topics including human anatomy, machines built for speed, machines built for destruction, space exploration, cold war tensions, and nuclear fallout. Through all of these broad topics his work remains grounded in constant dialog with historical and contemporary concerns within the field of art.
Yasu Shibata &
Yoshiyasu Fujii
YASU SHIBATA: JAPANESE WOODCUTS
ALSO FEATURING CALLIGRAPHY BY YOSHIYASU FUJII
June 26th – July 31st, 2016
Opening Reception: Sunday, June 26th, 2016, 5–7 p.m.
Anderson Foundation for the Arts, along with Foundry Vineyards is honored to announce its next art exhibition featuring two Japanese Masters: Master Printer Yasu Shibata and Master Calligrapher Yoshiyasu Fugii. The opening reception will be held Sunday, June 26th, 2016 from 5 p.m. – 7p.m.
Yasu Shibata will be exhibiting 24 recent prints in the main gallery space. Shibata’s aesthetics are geometrical in form with soft edges exhibiting a haloed effect around the shapes and lines. Born in Osaka, Japan in 1968, Shibata received his BFA from Kyoto Sika University and moved to the United States in 1991 where he began printing at Tyler Graphics for such artists as Frank Stella, David Salle and Helen Frakenthaler. Currently, Shibata works at the print publisher Pace Editions in New York working exclusively in the mokuhanga technique created editions for artists Chuck Close and James Siena. Shibata’s own artwork is created by using the Japanese woodcut technique known as Ukiyo-e together with the reduction technique to create multiple layers of pigment to build up intense color with variations of simple shapes.
During the exhibition Yasu Shibata will be teaching at the Walla Walla Mokuhnaga Center’s inaugural printmaking workshop. Where students from all over will come to Walla Walla for a week of intense woodblock printmaking lessons. of the Walla Walla Mokuhanga Center, founded in 2015 by Keiko Hara and Akira R. Takemoto. The WWMC was formed as a way to promote, explore and bring Mokuhanga and Japanese culture to Walla Walla though printmaking workshops, demonstrations, and community events.
Master Calligrapher Yoshiyasu Fujii, born in 1963 in Fukuoka, Japan, is the only calligraphy teacher in the United States that is licensed by the Japanese Ministry of Education.
KEIKO HARA
KEIKO HARA
Recent Works in Painting, Print and Glass
AUGUST 4, 2017 – OCTOBER 22, 2017
Opening Reception: Friday, August 4 from 5pm - 8pm. Gallery Talk at 7pm
“Recent Works in Painting, Print, and Glass” by Keiko Hara will be on display from August 4 – October 22, 2017. The opening reception will be held August 4 from 5-8 pm with a gallery talk at 7pm. Anderson Foundation for the Arts is pleased to be able to share, and celebrate, Hara’s art and talent with the community in which she lives.
Keiko Hara has been a Walla Walla resident since 1985. She is Professor Emeritus at Whitman College, where she taught art for 21 years. Hara has had a prolific and successful art career, including over 50 solo shows throughout the U.S., Europe, and Japan. This exhibition features Hara’s most recent works, and is a dynamic representation of the artist’s oeuvre, showcasing prints, paintings, and glass. Her use of untraditional methods and combinations of mediums adds a sense of depth to the work.
The central four-canvas piece “Verse Ma and Ki Memory 1, 2, 3, and 4” was painted using both water- and oil-based paint with collage elements including paper, cloth, rope, and staples. Hara’s use of the word “verse” in the title refers to an extensive investigation of a particular subject using different mediums and technique. In this case, the subject is the study of space and the spirit/invisible energy (Ma and Ki). When a “verse” has been fully explored (usually through many different artworks) they are exhibited together to create one large installation.
The glass work was created in June 2017 at the Pilchuck Glass School, where she was Artist in Resident. Hara welcomed the opportunity to explore a new medium. Instead of choosing to work with one process, she worked with both kilns and the hot shop. The result was an unlikely combination; Hara fused the blown glass with the kiln work creating an impressively large, colorful, multi-paneled installation.
Keiko Hara (b. 1942) is a native of Japan and moved to the U.S. in 1971. She attended Mississippi State University where she received her BFA in Painting and an MFA in Printmaking from Cranbrook Academy of Art. In 1985, Hara accepted a professorship at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA where she taught until 2006. Hara lives and works in Walla Walla while exhibiting her work around the world. Hara’s art is featured in numerous public collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago, Detroit Museum of Art, Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, Portland Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, Washington State Art Commission’s Public Art Collection, Whitman College, Yale New Haven Hospital, among others.
About Whitman College Mokuhanga Center
This exhibition is funded by the Anderson Foundation for the Arts and coincides with the Mokuhanga Center’s 2017 Print Studio Program (July 30- August 5). The Mokuhanga Center was established in 2015 by Keiko Hara and Akira R. Takemoto as a way to promote and explore the Japanese woodblock print tradition and traditional Japanese culture through workshops, demonstrations, and community events. The 2017 Print Studio Program attracted ten woodblock print artists to Whitman College for a week-long residency. These artists will work alongside Shōichi Kitamura, a professional woodblock print carver from Kyoto, who will be working on images by printmaker and artist Pat Clark, founder of A-6 Studio in Bend, Oregon. Master carver Kitamura will give a public demonstration of various woodblock print carving techniques on August 5, 2017 from 10am-11:30am at the Whitman College Tea Room (Olin Hall 157). The Mokuhanga Center also invites the community on Wednesday, August 2 from 7:00 to 8:30pm to visit the Chikurakken tea room, see meet Shōichi Kitamura, and to learn more about this year’s Studio Print Program. For more information, please contact Professor Akira R. Takemoto at takemoto@whitman.edu.
HANK SAXE
HANK SAXE: CERAMICS
February 3rd, 2017 – April 30th, 2017
Opening Reception: Friday, February 3rd, 5-7pm
Anderson Foundation for the Arts, in conjunction with Foundry Vineyards, is pleased to present an exhibition of ceramics by Taos artist, Hank Saxe. The artist’s reception will be held on Friday, February 3rd from 5-7pm and the exhibition will be on display until April 30th, 2017.
Hank Saxe has been working on ceramics for over four decades in Taos, New Mexico. He states, "A fascination with natural sciences led me to ceramics, an original meeting ground of art and technology. Starting out, I didn't know how clays and minerals worked, but I thought I'd better figure out how to use that stuff. Still working on figuring that out, my sculptures are outcomes of investigation into process and materials and experimental interactions of form, color and texture."
Hank Saxe and his wife Cynthia Patterson have created numerous large-scale architecture and sculpture projects and developed and produced a line of architectural ceramics. Yet it is out of this practical aspect of their work that Saxe developed his personal creative process. In a studio geared to mechanical production, Saxe mastered his industrial equipment while also deploying it in the service of art, making his own creative inquiries on the side. "The challenge for me was to use the production tools in a way not dictated by necessity and efficiency, but open to possibility.”
In addition to doing their own work Saxe and Patterson have shared their studio workshop with other artists in collaborations, and through doing so have made connection with members of the community of sculptors and artisans gathered around the Walla Walla Foundry.
GRAFFITI WRITERS
August 5th, 2016 – October 30, 2016
Opening Reception: Friday, August 5th, 2016, 5-8:30pm.
Anderson Foundation for the Arts is pleased to announce their next exhibition “Graffiti Writers,” which will open August 5, 2016 and feature works by several legendary American graffiti artists. The opening reception will be held August 5th, 2016 from 5pm -8:30pm.
“Graffiti Writers” was curated by Lisa Anderson from a private collection that has never been publicly exhibited. The gallery will have on view several large paintings from notorious street artists: Taki 183, Tracy 168, Snake 1, Clyde, Cope2, Ghost, MinOne, Stay High 149, Claw, King 157, Apexer, and Ichabod. This exhibition seeks to reference the colorful history and numerous styles of American graffiti. Many of the exhibited artists are based out of New York City and were leading influencers of modern mass transit art.
Modern graffiti began in the late-1960s in Philadelphia, with its most prominent writer being CornBread, though the phenomenon emerged with enthusiasm in New York City during the 1970s on the outside and inside of subway cars. Urban youth would scratch, write, and paint their names all over the city using magic markers and spray paint. The reasons for creating these tags are as numerous as the writing styles. Some use graffiti as an activity, which helped steer them away from neighborhood gang life, while others compete with their friends to see how much they could get up. The danger and adrenaline of tagging large moving canvases while evading the authorities was most certainly a draw, but the most basic and universal reason for creating graffiti is as a means of self-expression.
IN THE FIELD
JAY ANDERSON
IN THE FIELD: JAY ANDERSON
November 6, 2015 - March 31
Opening Reception: Friday, November 6, 5–7 p.m.
This exhibition, Anderson’s first at Foundry Vineyards’ gallery, features over a dozen paintings on canvas, which reference early camouflage tactics from WWII era field manuals. These manuals discuss strategies for concealing objects using nets “garnished” with cut strips of canvas and other found materials. Due to the perforated construction of the nets, the objects being covered become equal contributors in their own concealment. Anderson’s paintings utilize this concept as a framework for abstraction. He reverses the roles of paint and canvas, creating a sense of confusion in the picture plane between what is perceived as the foreground, the middle ground and the background.
Biography
Jay Anderson received his MFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York in 2010, BA in Interdisciplinary Visual Art and a BA in Art History from the University of Washington in 2007. His work has been exhibited in New York, Seattle and Berlin, Germany; he lives and works in Walla Walla, Washington.
EXPLORING FRAGILITY &
TRANSIENCE
EXPLORING FRAGILITY & TRANSIENCE
April 2nd, 2016 – June 19th 2016
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 2th, 2016, 5–7 p.m. Gallery Talk at 6 p.m.
Anderson Foundation for the Arts, Foundry Vineyards, and the Whitman Mokuhnaga Center are pleased to announce the inagural exhibit of the Whitman Mokuhanga Center titled “Exploring Fragility and Transience.” THis exhibit featued work by young Japanese Mokuhanga artists.
Mokuhanga is a traditional form of Japanese woodblock printmaking (moku, meaning wood and hanga, meaning printmaking). Mokuhanga prints are derived from water-based pigments, creating a vibrant color palette, which is especially apparent in this exhibit. The featured artists include: Michiko Hamada, Kazuki Sakai, Chihiro Taki, Yūna Tanī, Ayumi Ohira, Misaki Oguro, Shoji Miyamoto, Yuki Kashiawagi, Katsutoshi Yuasa, and Hiroki Satake.
Walla Walla Mokuhanga Center
“Exploring Fragility and Transience” is the inaugural exhibit of the Walla Walla Mokuhanga Center, founded in 2015 by Keiko Hara and Akira R. Takemoto. The WWMC was formed as a way to promote, explore and bring Mokuhanga and Japanese culture to Walla Walla though printmaking workshops, demonstrations, and community events. This exhibit is made possible by the collaboration of the WWMC, the Innovation Laboratory in Tokyo (International Mokuhanga Association), a grant from the Japanese Ministry of Education, ArtWalla, and Foundry Vineyards.
AI
WEIWEI
WALLA WALLA
Ai Weiwei: Walla Walla
September 3–October 31, 2015
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 3, 5–7 p.m.
Anderson Foundation for the Arts is proud to announce that next exhibition will feature contemporary Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei. The exhibition will take place in Foundry Vineyards gallery. The opening of the exhibition is September 3rd and runs through October 31, 2015. We are honored to introduce Ai Weiwei to Eastern Washington, Ai’s creative works include film, photography, sculpture, installations, and architectural projects such as the “Bird’s Nest” stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He is internationally praised for the intellectually challenging nature of his artwork and for his candor when speaking against the Chinese government. Ai’s political dissent has caused him to be repressed in various ways, notoriously being detained for 81-days, being held under house arrest, and to this day he is unable to leave the country. The oppression experienced by Ai Weiwei has not halted his activism nor his art production.
Ai Weiwei has chosen to exhibit eight sculptural works titled Case and Rebar. The artworks are part of Ai’s Sichuan Earthquake series, which origins stem from the massive earthquake that shook the Sichuan province in China on May 12, 2008. More than 5,000 schoolchildren died during the disaster. When the Chinese government failed to release the number and names of students that perished, the lack of transparency was suspicious. Ai Weiwei coordinated the Citizens’ Investigation, which was comprised of volunteers whose purpose was to seek an explanation for the prodigious number of child casualties. The tofu-dreg construction, a term used in China to describe shoddy construction by the government, was to blame for the collapse of the schools (though the government’s investigation was inconclusive). This exhibition is part of a larger body of work by Ai Weiwei that discusses the Sichuan tragedy and the ability for a collective of individuals to find truth in spite of the government.
In addition to the sculptures, we will be exhibiting the name list of victims that was uncovered by the Citizens’ Investigation and a film documenting the Citizens’ Investigation titled “Little Girls Cheeks” will be playing continuously throughout the exhibition.
Ai Weiwei Walla Walla is curated by Siri Smith who is a project coordinator for Ai Weiwei’s studio in Beijing and is a Whitman College alumnus, if it were not for her connection to Walla Walla this exhibition would not have been possible.
Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case
Documentary Screening
October 8, 2015 at 7 p.m.
GESA Power House Theatre
AFFA believes in the importance of providing as much supplimentary learning material as possible. "Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case" offers its audience an in depth view of the hardships Ai Weiwei has gone through specifically because of the Chinese government.
Synopsis from the film producers:
Ai Weiwei, the world’s most famous Chinese artist, has always chosen the struggle for human rights over a life of privilege, a choice that has consequences when you live in China. In April 2011 he was suddenly kidnapped by the Chinese authorities and held in isolation at a secret location, denied all contact with the outside world and refused access to a lawyer. When he was released it was only to a year of house arrest under constant surveillance, his every move monitored by the state. Should he continue to risk his life for the Chinese people or keep his mouth shut?
This film follows Ai Weiwei right after his release. He is grounded in his house in Beijing, on probation and subjected to tight surveillance and restrictions by the Chinese authorities. He is hit with a lawsuit, which he soon names ‘The Fake Case’, referring to the obvious false reasons behind the accusations, and referencing in a clever double entendre, the name of his company.
After his release Ai Weiwei is shaken, marked by the pressure, his detention and the state’s Kafka-like opacity. But slowly he regains his strength and courage, ready to face his opponents even though their powers are mighty. He spends time with his young son, talks about the dark past with his mother, and secretly creates a stunning piece of art depicting his time in detention, always blending his life and art with politics. Responding to the lawsuit, ordinary Chinese citizens spontaneously send him money with personal notes urging him to keep up the fight. Ai Weiwei’s firm belief that China is about to change is refueled. And he will fight to make it happen.
The year is full of uncertainties, personal despair and unjust court cases. Ai Weiwei heads into trouble, breaks the rules, and intimidates the secret agents following him. During this period of his life, he finds new ways to express himself in order to continue to be a free human being and simply to stay alive, lending voice to himself and to the Chinese people.
Art Films
Chuck Close / Kiki Smith
Tapestries from Magnolia Editions
Chuck Close and Kiki Smith: Documentaries
July 16, 2015 at 7pm
GESA Power House Theatre
AFFA believes in the importance of not only appreciated art but also understanding the artist's creative process. Documentaries provide a great opportunity for the community to learn together.
Our inaugural screening features films about artists Chuck Close and Kiki Smith and is in conjunction with the exhibition Chuck Close/Kiki Smith: Tapestries from Magnolia Editions taking place at Foundry Vineyards Gallery.
The double feature begins at 7 pm with Squatting the Palace: An Installation by Kiki Smith in Venice. This film takes the viewer inside internationally renowned artist Kiki Smith’s home, which is also her studio, to discover what drives her as an artist. The audience will follow Smith’s journey to create a colossal, eight-room, installation of both two- and three-dimensional artworks for the 2005 Venice Biennale. The documentary uncovers the artist’s history, her creative process, and also takes the viewer to the canals of Venice, Italy.
At 8 pm, the second screening of Chuck Close: A Portrait in Progress will begin. The viewer will be immersed in Close’s life and his unique style of painting. The film follows him through personal tragedy and shows how he continues to cope with adversity. The documentary features interviews with composer Philip Glass and artists Alex Katz, Kiki Smith, and more, all detailing how Close has affected the art world and where he fits into the expansive history of art.
CHUCK CLOSE / KIKI SMITH:
Tapestries from Magnolia Editions
June 4, 2015 – August 28, 2015
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 4, 5–7 p.m.
CHUCK CLOSE / KIKI SMITH: Tapestries from Magnolia Editions is named for the collaboration between artist and Magnolia Editions in Oakland, California and features six larger-than-life tapestries. The exhibition illuminates subjects of portraiture by Close and the natural and ethereal world of Smith.
Chuck Close, originally from Monroe, Washington, is esteemed for his ingenious rendering of the human face in painting and printmaking. On display in CHUCK CLOSE / KIKI SMITH: Tapestries from Magnolia Editions are three large-scale photorealist portraits that stem from a mid-1990’s series of daguerreotypes of family, friends, self-portraits and artists. Featured are black and white portraits of Kiki Smith, Lyle Ashton Harris, and the artist himself.
The work of Kiki Smith, who lives in New York, NY, provides a stark contrast to that of Close’s ultra realism by leading the viewer into an ethereal landscape of the natural world. Smith begins by forming her works of art through collages and painting that are then transformed into tapestries using a Jacquard loom. The scenes depicted in her works include birds and stars, heaven and earth that resonate with depth and complexity.