(Above: Jessica Eastburn’s painting, Tongue Twister, interprets the artist’s impressions of the way modern life is subjected nonstop to visual stimuli.)

By Randi Bjornstad

A three-artist show opens at the Maude Kerns Art Center on July 30, featuring paintings by artists Jessica Eastburn and Elizabeth Magee along with digital montages by Don Manderson.

It’s called Imagery Overload, because it conveys and contrasts the differing ways these artists express their own reactions to the never-ending barrage of visual expression that characterizes contemporary life. Their methods vary from frenetic to comic to quiet.

Here’s how the art center summarizes the background and method of each artist and what visitors to the exhibit will see:

Oculus, by Eugene artist Elizabeth Magee, offers a contemplative look at the effect of visual stimuli on modern life

Elizabeth Magee — This Eugene artist approaches her paintings as a field of inquiry, using less-familiar forms in her work. Influenced by contemporary culture, she is interested in a subtle interpretation of what “exists socially next to her work.” Magee’s imagery is not readily identifiable, focusing on scale, proximity, and the relationship of one form to another. “I like the idea that paintings can create a social screen, taking and offering impressions of their immediate surroundings,” she says. She earned an a master’s of fine arts in Visual Art from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a bachelor of fine arts in painting from the University of Oregon. Her paintings have been shown in Oregon and throughout the United States, most recently in the Umpqua Valley Arts Association Artworks Northwest Biennial Exhibit in Roseburg.

Don Manderson — This digital media artist comes from Pensacola, Fla., where he creates digital montages that reflect human sensory experience in an increasingly technological society. The resulting surreal imagery comes both from his study of Asian art and his training in expressionist painting techniques, but it also incorporates his personal subconscious and dream states. He develops his pieces using multiple layers of photographic detail to emphasize the visual bombardment that is so prevalent in contemporary life. He completed his master’s of fine arts degree at Florida State University. His digital montages have been shown throughout the United States, including at the Pensacola Museum of Art as well as galleries and museums in Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and San Francisco.

Jessica Eastburn — From Alameda, Calif., Eastburn uses what she calls “ephemeral media flotsam” in her work, combining images from pop culture with other different-but-overlapping patterns and visual themes. Her work portrays the dizzying and relentless outpouring of information that characterizes both social media and consumer-related technology, through paintings and hand-drawings that are competely non-digital in themselves. She earned her master’s in fine arts from San Jose State University and has shown her work in solo exhibits and group shows throughout California, including in 2020 at the de Young Open Exhibition in San Francisco.

Imagery Overload

When: July 30 through Aug. 27, 2021

Where: Maude Kerns Art Center, 1910 E. 15th Avenue, Eugene (corner of 15th  and Villard streets)

Special event: A virtual Artist Talk will take place via Zoom from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 19; informration online at mkartcenter.org

Gallery hours: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; and noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday during exhibits

Information: 541-345-1571 or online at mkartcenter.org

 

The relentless bombardment of imagery in modern life is visceral in artist Don Manderson’s Oblivion Lounge