(Above: Detail from teenage artist Cailin Stewart’s photograph, Girl Looking Through. Stewart, one of triplets, has one painting and four digital photographs in the show at the Maude Kerns Art Center. She says she finds individuality through photography and painting: “When I paint, I find inspiration in the world around me. My photography is another way to provide a view of the world through my emotional lens.”)
By Randi Bjornstad
Nevaeh Bahler’s sees digital art as an “opportunity to get away from reality, think outside the box, and express my feelings …”
For three weeks starting Sept. 4, the Maude Kerns Art Center will have two shows on the walls. The main gallery features the 21st annual staging of Fast Forward: The Mayor’s Teen Art Show, a juried show featuring work by 31 teenage artists from 11 schools throughout the region. The Salon Gallery has an exhibit titled New Acquisitions: Selected Works by Maude I. Kerns, the center’s namesake, which includes 18 pieces that have not been displayed at the center before.
The entries in the Teen Art Show were selected by artists and art educators Krista Raasch, Christopher St. John and Barbara Counsil. The mayor of Eugene, Lucy Vinis, selects the Mayor’s Choice Award winner, and the jurors choose additional winners. The awards will be announced on Sept. 11.
The teens in this year’s show created work in a wide array of mediums, including paintings in oil, acrylic, and watercolor; drawings in ebony pencil, graphite, and ink; linoleum print; mixed-media; glass; wood; photography; digital art; photography; and papier mâché sculpture.
New Acquisitions features 18 works by Maude Kerns that have never been exhibited before
The New Acquisitions show at the art center includes 18 pieces by Maude Kerns that have not been exhibited before. They are part of a larger body of works-on-paper that belonged to Leslie Brockelbank, Kerns’ great-niece, and which have been donated to the Maude Kerns Art Center by Brockelbank’s daughter, Mary Jane Griffiths, who lives in New Zealand. These art pieces include mostly abstract studies, prints, and paintings on paper.
The Mayor’s Teen Art Show and New Acquisitions: Selected Works by Maude I. Kerns
When: Through Sept. 25
Where: Maude Kerns Art Center, 1910 E. 15th Ave., Eugene (corner of 15th and Villard streets)
Gallery hours: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, noon to 4 p.m. Saturday when exhibits are on display
Information: 541-345-1571 or online at mkartcenter.org
Details: The Maude Kerns Art Center adheres to all State of Oregon and Oregon Health Authority guidelines such as use of masks, attendance limits, and social distancing. Both exhibits can be viewed in person or online at www.mkartcenter.org. Artwork also may be purchased through the Art Center’s website.
Nic E. Hampton, from California College of Arts and Crafts, has two glass pieces and three mixed-medial works in the 2020 Mayor’s Teen Art Show. Above is a mixed-media acrylic painting titled Hope. The artist says she asked herself three questions before beginning a work —What do I want to say? Why do I want to say it? Why should it exist in the world? — before choosing the material and form to convey her feelings.
