(Above: Works by eminent Oregon artists, including the late David McCosh, are on display at the Karin Clarke Gallery through May 16, 2026; above is Gangster’s Funeral II (1930s) by McCosh.)

Edited by Randi Bjornstad

The names are probably familiar, but some of the works nonetheless may be new to aficionados of the ouevres of even venerable Oregon artists.

It’s all on display now at the Karin Clarke Gallery in a show called Where We Belong: Selected Works  by Margaret Coe, Mark Clarke, George Johanson, Davis McCosh, and Erik Sandgren. The exhibit emphasizes the way each of these artists developed the sense of their perception and skill within the landscapes and surroundings in which they lived and worked, and how each interpreted those people and places within the realm of their own perspectives.

It’s a wide-ranging show in terms of the size of the works, the span of decades in which they were created, and the settings, which vary from landscape to urban to interiors. the mediums also represent variety, including  oil, acrylic, and egg tempera paintings as well as lithographs.

The subject matter also varies greatly, expressing each artist’s sense of self, imagination, relationship to place, and perception and appreciation of environment.

Mark Clarke and Margaret Coe — who are gallerist Karin Clarke’s parents — made their home for decades in Eugene, where the late Clarke focused much of his artistic attention to the environment and people of the Willamette Valley while Coe focuses attention also on scenes from her European travels as well as examining the subtle delights and what she sees as the spiritual quality of her own back yard.

Johanson, who lived for many years in Portland, drew upon the vitality of the city for many of his landscapes, describing them as his way of creating urban “portraits,”  while the McCosh works included in this show are drawn largely from lithographs he created in the early 1930s, before he joined the faculty of the University of Oregon in 1934.

As for Sandgren, who also has deep roots in the Pacific Northwest, many of his works show the memories of places that he experienced as a child, from beaches to broader landscapes and peopled by indistinct human figures that captured in memory.

Karin Clarke Gallery: Where We Belong, Selected Works

When: Through May 16, 2026

Where: 760 Willamette St., Eugene

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

Information: 541-684-7963 or karinclarkegallery.com


Above: Bus Stop #1, by George Johanson (1985)

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