(Above: Taghrib Alghadban is one of many artists with work on display in May at the New Zone Gallery.)

Posted by Randi Bjornstad

Here’s what’s going on during the May 2022 First Friday ArtWalk in downtown Eugene, where it’s a good idea to start by picking up an ArtWalk guide to map out your self-guided tour of what’s going on with local galleries, art venues, and artists in the community. The guides are available in Kesey Square at Broadway and Willamette streets.

Also as usual, the official ArtWalk hours run from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., and it’s still a good idea to bring a mask along in case some host venues request that you wear it on their premises.

With all that out of the way, here’s what will be on Eugene’s May 6 First Friday ArtWalk:

Allies LLC (131 E. 11th Ave.) — Featured artist Jon Conway shows jewelry, paintings, and pyrography art, and also offers wood-burning demonstrations.

Art with Alejandro (5th Street Public Market 2nd floor, 246 E 5th Ave, Suite #224) — The art gallery and working art studio features Paint-and-Sip parties, custom pet portraits, murals, and more, this month with an emphasis on spring and motherhood.

ArtCity Studios on Broadway (160 E Broadway, basement) — WheelHaus Arts, an art studio designed for youth to create and aspire to a career in the arts, shows progress on its mural project, which will be displayed at this year’s Lane County Fair. The Eugene Printmakers will be printing a variety of “Spring Flowers” in yellow and blue to support Ukraine, from 5:30-7 p.m.  They request donations for the prints, with all proceeds going to help dislocated Ukrainians via the Nativity Ukrainian Church in Springfield.

The Barn Light (924 Willamette St.) — Former graphic design student Sky McAdory shows her feminine and quirky digital art, with some occasional creepiness thrown into the mix.

The Bloom Room (271 W. 8th Ave.) — This new shop carries a variety of artisan items, including skin care, general wellness, and food products, as well as ayurveda treatments and holistic services. May’s featured artist is Rae Matagora, an illustrator, graphic designer, screen printer, and craft queen. Her theme for this ArtWalk is Fruit Cocktail Party featuring her stickers, totes, shirts, prints, cards, and more, as well as a fruit “mocktail.”

UO students team up with scientists, using comic book art to make the research more understandable.

Books with Pictures Eugene — (99 W. Broadway, Suite C) — The Science and Comics Initiative pairs undergraduate students in Comics Studies at the University of Oregon with scientists to create comics about the scientists’ research, showcasing  artwork from these partnerships.

Broadway Commerce Center (44 W. Broadway) — Tell The Universe Exactly What You Want is a collection of two years of work by multimedia artist Debra Mae Jacques. It features many-layered monoprints  with electrifying colors, abstract shapes, layers of paint, paper, and textures on themes of dreams and passions of love, motherhood, and community.

ECO Sleep Solutions and Gallery (25 E. 8th Ave.) — Collages by Dori Koberstein feature detailed and frequently abstract representations of the natural world such as birds, landscapes, and flowers.

Epic Seconds (30 E. 11th Ave.) — In his show, Early Colours, London artist Ben Walker’s oil paintings on paper are like storyboards portrayhing fragments of childhood that are emotionally somewhere between first learning and last remembering.

Framin’ Artworks (505 High St.) — Tayler Parker’s work features Northwest wildlife, and fruits from all over the globe, using pointillism and gouache techniques to create a meditative space. Carley Savage creates whimsical and eccentric works in various mixed media including acrylic, marker, pencils, and also digital art, usually focusing on botanicals, mushrooms, and floral/fauna.

Karin Clarke at the Gordon (590 Pearl St., Suite 105) — The small gallery is showing  collages and paintings by the late Mark Clarke (1935-2016).

Karin Clarke Gallery (760 Willamette St.) —  The main gallery show is The Abstract Dispatch, featuring new abstract works by Chelsea Beaudrie, Jenny Gray, and Zoë Cohen, with each artist expressing their inner vision in the form of bold, abstract painting.

Artist Barry Pennington is one artist in a show at The Lincoln Gallery

The Lincoln Gallery (309 W. 4th Ave.) —  Showcase  features recent artwork created by participants of Oregon Supported Living Program’s Arts and Cultures Program. The Beverly Soasey Community Gallery has mixed-media portraits by Selena Dugan in a show called Glimpses of the Unseen: Portraits of Neuro-Diversity that focuses on the internal struggles of individuals with mental health issues and those who work with them.

Mosaic Fair Trade Collection (28 E. Broadway) — The shop specializes in Fair Trade jewelry, homewares, unique gifts, clothing, accessories, and more from all around the world.

The New Zone Gallery (110 E. 11th Ave.) — In addition to new and eclectic art created by many members of New Zone members, special shows for May include:

  • Eyes with Thread, paintings by Taghrid Alghadban, paintings in acrylic, ink, colored pencil, and textured paper portraying things concealed, partially opened, and soon to be shut.
  • Amidst Surf and Forest by Wayne Singer, paintings of nature’s beauty, depth, and wonder.
  • Fun Industrial Shapes, by Phil Beck and Steve Mast, who turn scrap metal into happy, 3D art.

Allison Reilly has two shows on display at the Starlight Lounge.

Starlight Lounge (830 Olive St.) — Artist Allison Reilly shows two collections, titled Who Smokes and Love Your Body in the mediums of acrylic painting and digital art. The first expresses that marijuana is not criminal and should be viewed in the same way as a glass of wine or spirits after a long day. The second encourages women of all shapes and sizes to accept their bodies as they are instead of falling prey to artificial and narrow social expectations of how women should be.

Windowfront Exhibitions continues presenting artwork of various kinds in empty storefronts downtown, including these locations:

  • 856 Willamette St. — Meditative Layers is a weaving display by Kum Ja Lee.
  • 1004 Willamette St. — Walking the Butte/Dancing the City by Hannah Hamalian combines video footage from the top of Spencer Butte with a dance performance.
  • 280 W. Broadway — Spring Emerges by Lindsay Swing, Honey + Sass, celebrates the vernal equinox and signs of spring.
  • 833 Willamette St. — Seeing Within (Seeing Without) is a collaboration by University of Oregon students to offer the community a space to recent societal upheavals, including the pandemic, social uprising, and wildfires. Contributing artists include Abby Pierce, Audrey Rycewicz, Zachary Smith, Tahoe Mack, Ellen O’Shea, and Anastasiya Gutnik.

Special events

The audience helps choreograph the dance when #instaballet takes the stage.

#instaballet (Capitello Wines, 540 Charnelton) — The audience helps professional dancers of #instaballet create a new dance in real-time by suggesting new moves for the dancers to perform. Stop by anytime between 5:30 and 8:00 p.m. to be a part of the creative process. The end result will be performed at 8 p.m.

Bailamos Latin Dance Network (5th Street Market (550 Pearl St., in The Alley) — Experience Latino music and dance with Bailamos Latin Dance Network, a collective of dancers, DJs, event organizers, and instructors who are looking to create communities to promote and support LatinX dance culture. Lesson starts at 6 p.m., social dancing from 6:30-8.30 p.m. Free, but donations are appreciated.

Marimba band Jenaguru (Kesey Square at Broadway and Willamette streets) — The 8-member marimba band from the Kutsinhira Cultural Arts Center performs from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Jenaguru means “full moon” in the Shona language of Zimbabwe and performs Zimbabwen mbira dance music on marimbas. (Performance is weather permitting.)

About Lane Arts Council

Lane Arts Council is a nonprofit organization that works to cultivate strong and creative arts communities throughout Lane County, by providing high-quality arts experiences, engaging people of all ages in arts education, and encouraging artistic endeavors.