(Above: Detail from Artemis, created by Margot Lovinger of fabric, thread, and leather cord and measuring 45 inches by 40 inches. The piece is one of 41 artworks on exhibit during the third Eugene Biennial art show at the Karin Clarke Gallery.)

By Randi Bjornstad

Empty Nest, mixed-media clay sculpture by Anna Mueller

This year’s Eugene Biennial  at the Karin Clarke Gallery is up on the walls, and art lovers have two ways to view it — either in person (masks and social distancing according to State of Oregon requirements) or online at karinclarkegallery.com.

Gallerist Karin Clarke says her third biennial exhibit is the biggest one yet. She started the show in 2016 after the city of Eugene shut down its longtime Jacobs Gallery in the Hult Center for the Performing Arts. The Jacobs Gallery traditionally had housed the annual Mayor’s Art Show, and its loss left the community without a place to continue that style of exhibition. So Clarke stepped into the breach.

“Our first two biennials had about 33 or 34 pieces in those shows, but we have 41 this year,” she says. “We tried to get it down to 40, but we just couldn’t do it, the quality of the submissions was so high and there were so many things we wanted to include.”

“We” refers to Clarke and her fellow jurists who made the selections for the exhibit — ceramics artist Betsy Wolfston and interior designer and art collector Kevin Brown.

Hossein Peigahi’s Landscape, in acrylic

“It is a very lively show, and we had 277 entries to choose from,” Clarke says. “For a time period that is full of worries and fears like this one is, a lot of the pieces in the show are really bright and uplifting. And it’s interesting, because many of them are of nature and include animals. We don’t have a theme for the show, but it just worked out that way.”

The biennial is open to applications from artists in Lane, Linn, Benton, Lincoln, and Coos counties, “kind of our part of the state, with Eugene as the focus and fanning out from there,” Clarke says. The purpose of the show is to feature work by artists who are not “the usual suspects” whose work frequently appears at the gallery.

The pieces on display reflect the genres of painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, textiles, printmaking, and mixed-media. One of the most unusual is a freestanding, 65-inch-tall tapestry deer created by Marjorie Taylor, titled My Dear.

Marjorie Taylor’s tapestry, My Dear, stands 5 feet tall.

Because of continued concern about the coronavirus pandemic, there will not be an opening reception for the Eugene Biennial.

However, the  biennial show includes awards, and those will be presented on Aug. 14 via Zoom, starting at 6 p.m. That virtual event will be hosted by the city of Eugene as part of its Visual Arts Festival, which includes the resurrected Mayor’s Art Show, as well as the Eugene Biennial 2020.

Eight awards will be given to Eugene Biennial 2020 artists, sponsored by the city of Eugene’s Cultural Services Department, Whiteaker Printmakers, Oregon Art Supply, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, and The UO Duck Store.

A new prize this year is a People’s Choice Award, voted in by visitors to the gallery or its website. The winner receives a $300 award, sponsored by the family of the late Eugene art patron, Eleanor Freeman. The People’s Choice artist also will be included with other prizewinners in next year’s show at the Karin Clarke Gallery, Eugene Biennial Award Winners — One Year Later.

 

Eugene Biennial 2020

When: Through Aug. 29

Where: Karin Clarke Gallery, 760 Willamette St., Eugene or online at karinclarkegallery.com

Gallery hours: Noon to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday

Information: 541-684-7963, kclarkegallery@mindspring.com or karinclarkegallery.com

Artists of the Eugene Biennial 2020:

  • Susan Applegate
  • Germaine Bennett
  • Keith Bennett
  • Sandy Brown Jensen
  • Zoe Cohen
  • Bets Cole
  • Todd Davis
  • Tallmadge Doyle
  • Terry Duffy
  • Janine Etherington
  • Peter Fox
  • Analee Fuentes
  • Pete Goldlust
  • Leslie Green
  • Joel Haffner
  • Megan Haight
  • Phyllis Helland
  • Lynn Ihsen Peterson
  • Heather Jacks
  • Bob Keefer
  • Margot Lovinger
  • Rebecca Mannheimer
  • Luke McCready
  • Satoko Motouji
  • Anna Mueller
  • Hossein Peigahi
  • John Pellitier
  • Marilyn Perry
  • Sarah Peterman
  • Christopher St. John
  • Andrea Schwartz-Feit
  • Sarah Sedwick
  • Liam Sherlock
  • John Subert
  • Lauren Suveges
  • Marjorie Taylor
  • Libby Wadsworth

Janine Etherington’s In Walked Bud (After Thelonious Monk), assemblage of acrylic panel