(Above: Light-Struck by Carol Jenkins is one of the pieces on display in Random Perfections, one of two new shows at the Maude Kerns Art Center.)

By Randi Bjornstad

Two new shows open at the Maude Kerns Art Center on Feb. 26 and continue for a month, and good news — these shows may be seen in person, subject of course to pandemic requirements for distancing and mask-wearing. For those still not comfortable with that option, the shows  — one named Random Perfections and the other called Embodied Experience — also may be viewed online.

Karen Russo’s sculpture, Hands to Hold, is part of a show called Embodied Experience at the Maude Kerns Art Center.

Sarah Ciampa, exhibits coordinator for the art center, is especially happy that as of the opening day of these new exhibits, people will not have to make reservations to come and see them, because Lane County has been lowered from extreme pandemic risk to high risk by the Oregon Health Authority.

“We could only accommodate 10 people at a time while at extreme risk, but now we will be able to have up to 25, which means we shouldn’t have any problem with the number of people who might want to attend at one time,” Ciampa said.

The five artists whose work is included in the two new shows “all were people who applied during our biennial call for artists,” she said. “Two of them, one a ceramics artist and one a painter, applied as a duo, and their work complements each other extremely well. We have combined that show with work by another artist whose paintings have a similar feel with a lot of emotion and rhythm.”

The second exhibit “also has color, texture, and patterning,” Ciampa said. “The first word that comes to my mind when I see both shows — and I don’t mean this to sound cliché — is ‘beautiful.’ But it’s true.”

The Random Perfections show in the Main Gallery will be taken up with work by three artists working in varied mediums and styles, but all their work is connected by their explorations of how control and randomness combine to make their creations unique.

Rebecca Arthur, a ceramicist from Corvallis, follows the Japanese Raku style, which traditionally involved firing earthenware to red-hot temperatures and then quickly placing the pieces into another area containing substances such as sawdust or paper that catch fire and eat up the oxygen in the kiln, leaving the pieces with patterns and colorations that seemingly randomly affect their final color and pattern. Her work has been included in juried shows in Portland, Corvallis, and Coos Bay, and she received the Potters Choice Award in 2019 at the Eugene Clay Fest.

The other two artists — Geralyn Inokuchi of Coos Bay and Carol Jenkins from Mt. Shasta in northern California — are known for their abstract paintings.

In the Loop is one of Geralyn Inokuchi’s encaustic artworks

Inokuchi’s work has been shown throughout Oregon, including at the Verum Ultimum Art Gallery in Portland, the Rogue Gallery in Medford, and at her “home” gallery, the Coos Art Museum in Coos Bay. Her work is drawn primarily from the Oregon Coast environment, and it incorporates an intricate combination of seemingly random colors and strokes in built-up layers on a glazed surface.

Jenkins’ work has been displayed broadly in galleries throughout northern California, including solo, two-person, and group shows in Orinda, Oakland, and Berkeley. Like Inokuchi, her work is drawn from her lifelong examination of the environment, especially wilderness, and the way colors, shapes, and movement change and recombine.

Arthur and Inokuchi were the two artists who applied together to show their work.

“Although their mediums are very different — ceramics and painting — it all flows together very nicely,” Ciampa said. “There are beautiful echoes between the encaustic of the (Inokuchi’s) paintings and the Raku surfaces of (Arthur’s) ceramics.”

In her artist statement submitted for the show, Inokuchi “said she had been looking for a ceramic artist to show work together with her,” Ciampa said. “And it is true — you can see a huge connection between them.”

The Salon exhibit space features work by two other artists in the Embodied Experience show, but these pieces differ markedly by being primarily figurative, in contrast to the abstractions of Random Perfections.

Elmira ceramic artist Karen Russo has created a series of human forms that in form and expression reflect human emotions such as strength, despair, and hope, while Corvallis artist Vicki Idema’s work also tells stories but using cut paper as her artistic technique to evoke understanding of personal suffering occasioned by issues such as mental illness, gender identity, human trafficking, or alcoholism.

Vicki Idema’s Stepping Outside the Loop is an intricate paper-cutting artwork that examines experiences and emotions of women in society.

Before turning to paper-cutting as a medium, Idema spent four decades as a textile artist, and that background permeates her newer work in the form of delicate designs interjected in her paper images.

Russo’s sculptural process is likewise elaborate, employing hand-built clay figures augmented with layered textures, materials, and colors. She describes her work as focused on “the tensions of the feminine experience” but with “an eternal optimism for the human spirit in this beautiful, delicate, and chaotic world.”

Russo’s art has been shown in several galleries in Eugene — including the Eugene Biennial at the Karin Clarke Gallery and the Mayor’s Art Show — as well as at Portland’s Guardino Gallery and the Around Oregon Annual art show at the Corvallis Art Center.

Idema’s work has been shown throughout Oregon, including solo exhibits at the Springfield City Hall Gallery, the Visual Arts Center in Newport, and the Corrine Woodman Gallery in Corvallis.

After a stint having to make reservations to view exhibits, Ciampa is elated that people once again can drop in to see shows, so long as Lane County covid-19 statistics remain at acceptable levels.

“Everything has been harder since the pandemic began, but we have been able to keep a high level of community involvement and service,” she said. “Our director, Michael Fisher, has worked incredibly hard to bring in more grants to help us, and our education coordinator Amber Eggleton has been dynamic and energetic about maintaining classes online.”

Members of the art center and the overall community also have maintained their support for the art center, Ciampa said.

“We’re very lucky. We are very grateful.”

Two exhibits: Random Perfections and Embodied Experience at the Maude Kerns Art Center

When: Feb. 26 through March 26

Where: 1910 E. 15th Ave., Eugene

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

Virtual artist talk: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. via Zoom on Thursday, March 18, moderated by Maude Kerns’ exhibit coordinator Sarah Ciampa; request an emailed Zoom link on the art center’s website at mkartcenter.org

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

Axis, a ceramic piece by Elmira artist Rebecca Arthur that is part of the Random Perfections exhibit at the Maude Kerns Art Center