EMDA has been part of the Oregon Center of the Arts now for 10 years! This Blog is part 1 of a two-part series, along with posts giving Alumni a chance to give some feedback on their experience getting their degrees in EMDA as well as where they are now and how this amazing program got them there. Part 1 focuses on the history of EMDA, how it started and where it is going. Stay tuned for part 2!

Oregon Center for the Arts Marketing Manager recently interviewed SOU Theatre major Alex Szabo, class of 2020 regarding their reorganization of the annual SOU OSPIRG fundraiser. OSPIRG is a campus political action group that enables students to lobby local, regional, and global political issues at the state level.

To celebrate its 30th anniversary, the Schneider Museum of Art is presenting solo exhibitions of four artists who have achieved high recognition in the art world: Tofer Chin, Amir H. Fallah, Ryan Schneider, and Liz Shepherd. The public is invited to a special opening reception on Tuesday, June 13, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM, and the exhibition will be on view through September 9, 2017.

The Museum is excited to be celebrating its 30th Anniversary with a sold-out crowd of supporters at the Gala Celebration: The Schneider Museum of Art at 30 Years to be held Saturday, June 10. Founded in 1986 by visionaries Florence and William Schneider and a wealth of community supporters, the Museum has since grown to have a significant impact on the contemporary arts scene in the region, as well as providing arts education to school groups throughout Oregon and Northern California. To support the gala fundraising effort, contact the Museum to purchase drawing tickets for a chance to win a beautiful pearl necklace in a unique setting, designed by CMD Designs specifically for the Museum’s pearl anniversary.

Museum Director Scott Malbaurn selected work by artists who have achieved acclaim in the art world to be on view this summer to be the highlight of the celebrations. “We turned our sights south and once again into our backyard for selecting the four artists for our four solo exhibitions this summer. Two are quickly emerging artists from Los Angeles and one from the desert of California adjacent to Joshua Tree National Park. The fourth artist lives and works in Ashland, OR. Each artist works predominantly two-dimensionally with an emphasis on drawing and painting and each have their own distinct style,” stated Malbaurn. The four solo exhibitions on view are:

Tofer Chin – 8
Tofer Chin is a Los Angeles, CA based artist who has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions internationally, including in Australia, Germany, Spain, Brazil, China and the United States. Chin states that he takes his inspiration from “the built environment, natural or manmade” to create “geometric paintings, sculptures, and photographs that interpret observations of urban and geological landscapes.” Having produced public commissions internationally in Brazil, Nicaragua, Japan and the United States, Chin’s solo exhibition will include large-scale murals in the Museum.

Amir H. Fallah – Unknown Voyage
Amir H. Fallah is a Los Angeles, CA artist who has exhibited widely in exhibitions across the United States and internationally. Fallah’s artistic oeuvre encompasses painting, photography, sculpture, and installation combined with a visual vocabulary that includes collage and complex patterning. His practice presents an alternative perspective to entrenched art historical portraiture traditions and the dynamics of modern-day art collection and art making, and in creating Unknown Voyage, Fallah’s inspiration came from Henri Rousseau.

Ryan Schneider – Mohave Masks
Ryan Schneider, a painter that relocated to Joshua Tree, CA from New York, NY, has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide. Recent solo exhibitions have been presented at Taymour Grahne, New York, NY, Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, and Two Rams, New York. Taking inspiration from his new environment of the Southern California’s Mojave Desert, Schneider “honors this parched desert’s pneuma in the exhibition’s mystical revelry of regionally specific imagery” (writer Trinie Dalton).

Liz Shepherd: East-West: Two Streams Merging
Liz Shepherd is an Ashland, OR based artist whose work has been exhibited at venues in the United Kingdom and the United States. Shepherd has studied extensively, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Camberwell School of Art, studying Japanese calligraphy for three years with Keiko Watanabe, and studying sumi-e, calligraphy, ikebana, and tea ceremonies for twenty years with Shozo Sato. Her works make use of ambient space to convey stillness and silence, while also displaying a mastery of technique and material.

Please join us on Tuesday, June 13, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM for a special opening reception. The Summer exhibitions are on view from Wednesday, June 14 through Saturday, September 9, 2017. Regular Museum hours are Monday through Saturday, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. The exhibitions will be complemented with published essays of the work by writers Tofer Chin, Trinie Dalton, Lindsay Preston Zappas, and Dante Fumagalli.

Please see the Museum website, sma.sou.edu for additional programs such as First Fridays, FREE Family Days and Tuesday Tours, drop in docent-led tours of the exhibition held every Tuesday at 12:30 PM. The Schneider Museum of Art’s summer exhibitions are generously supported by a donation from Judy Shih and Joel Axelrod.

The Oregon Fringe Festival is underway! The festival kicked off Wednesday to host a variety of local art, film, music, and theater student-driven acts. A mixture of innovatively produced happenings, installations, and curated works from artists at Southern Oregon University, the Oregon Fringe Festival breaks boundaries and takes art out of its traditional venues. The Festival’s student producers are particularly excited to present headlining performances this weekend by special guest artists Mark Applebaum and James Donlon.

Key Fringe events are listed below – for a full schedule of Fringe events, please see www.oregonfringefestival.org. All events are FREE and open to the public.

Mark Applebaum and James DelPrince: Concerto for Florist
Friday, May 5, 6:00 PM, SOU Music Recital Hall
Saturday, May 6, 3:00 PM, Lithia Park Butler Bandshell

Mark Applebaum’s Concerto for Florist is a daring composition that exemplifies his unconventionality. Featuring floral designer James DelPrince, the piece blends floral design, musical composition, and performance work. Mark Applebaum is an internationally renowned musician and composer whose solo, chamber, choral, orchestral, operatic, and electroacoustic work has been performed throughout the United States, Europe, Africa, and Asia. www.markapplebaum.com.

James Donlon: Monsters
Friday, May 5, 10:30 PM, SOU Music Recital Hall
Saturday, May 6, 10:00 PM, SOU Music Recital Hall

James Donlon presents a devised theater piece, entitled Monsters, that changes in each manifestation. Donlon has partnered with students from the SOU Theater, Music, and Visual Arts Departments to bring this provocative work to the Oregon Fringe Festival.  James Donlon has been a celebrated master teacher, international performer, and director since 1970. The New York Times describes his work as “an extraordinary blend of skill and lunacy!” jamesdonlon.com

Visual Arts Exhibitions

Opening Receptions – Coinciding with First Friday Trolley: Friday, May 5th, 5-8pm

Exhibition Dates: May 5 – 28, 2017

Stevenson Union Gallery

figure.ground, David Bithell, Solo Exhibition

Center for the Visual Arts Galleries

Dancing with Alchemy, Mara Reinhardt, Solo Exhibition

Imagined: 30 Years of Performance Mask, James Jesse Peck, Solo Exhibition

Works by Ka’ila Farrell-Smith, Ka’ila Farrell-Smith, Solo Exhibition

[i s h], Samuel Lindley, Solo Exhibition

Revelation, Charlie Howarth, Solo Exhibition

 

This upcoming First Friday, May 5, ride the Allaboard Trolley to visit downtown galleries and the art happenings at Southern Oregon University. Exhibitions can be viewed in the Schneider Museum of Art, the Center for the Visual Arts (CVA) Galleries, and the Fine Art students’ Private Open Studios until 8:00 PM.

University parking behind the Museum will be made available to the public starting at 4:00 PM. The Allaboard Trolley will shuttle patrons to and from the Museum to the downtown Ashland area between 5:00 PM and 10:00 PM – a generous amount of time to visit the Museum, the student studios and Center for the Visual Arts (CVA) Galleries, and then visit your favorite Ashland galleries, studios, restaurants and more. There will be three stops on the Trolley route, the Schneider Museum of Art, A Street between 5th and 6th Streets, and the Plaza by the Fountains. Museum hours will be extended until 8:00 PM.

On view at the Schneider Museum of Art is Convergence: Digital Media and Technology. The show is co-curated by Richard Herskowitz and Museum Director Scott Malbaurn in collaboration with the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (JSMA) and the Ashland Independent Film Festival (AIFF). It includes work by video, film, and installation artists with world-renowned reputations:

  • Allison Cekala
  • Derek G. Larson
  • Nina Katchadourian
  • Ken Matsubara
  • Julia Oldham
  • Vanessa Renwick
  • Peter Sarkisian
  • Lou Watson

Adjacent to the Museum, join the CVA Galleries to celebrate a collection of exhibitions for the 2017 Oregon Fringe Festival! The Festival welcomes bold work from courageous young creators. A mixture of innovative produced happenings and installations and curated works from artists at Southern Oregon University, the Oregon Fringe Festival breaks boundaries and takes art out of its traditional venues. The following shows will be on view:

  • Dancing with Alchemy, Mara Reinhardt, Solo Exhibition
  •   Imagined: 30 Years of Performance Mask, James Jesse Peck, Solo Exhibition
  •  Works by Ka’ila Farrell-Smith, Ka’ila Farrell-Smith, Solo Exhibition
  •  [i s h], Samuel Lindley, Solo Exhibition
  •  Revelation, Charlie Howarth, Solo Exhibition

The Schneider Museum of Art thanks the following sponsors for supporting the trolley service for First Friday: Brickroom, Gallerie Karon, Hanson Howard Gallery, and Standing Stone.

For more information, please contact the Museum at 541-552-6245 or visit the website at sma.sou.edu. For information about the Center for the Visual Arts galleries, please contact cvagalleries@sou.edu or visit Facebook.com/CvaGalleries.

Mail Tribune – Posted Nov 21, 2016

When Austin Brayfield was diagnosed with brain cancer, her painting took on new urgency.

The 83-year-old Ashland artist, who started painting at 70 after a career as a psychologist, began turning out anguished, feverish works packed with emotional power.

Learn more about Brayfield’s work on the full article.

LA Weekly

Posted Aug. 9, 2016

Lora Schlesinger Gallery presents Flowers from Mars, a series of small-scaled paintings by Laurel Bustamante. Like Persian miniatures, Bustamante’s paintings are elaborate and enticing. Flowers from Mars combines carefully painted human-interpreted flora with otherworldly environments.

Learn more about ‘Flowers from Mars” on the full article.

Ashland Daily Tidings

Posted Jul. 29, 2016

The Schneider Museum of Art is taking part in what has been dubbed “Oregon’s largest art show.” The museum on Southern Oregon University’s Ashland campus is exhibiting the diverse work of five artists through Sept. 17 as part of “Portland2016: A Biennial of Contemporary Art.” Previous biennials were staged in Portland. This year, organizers have expanded the reach of the exhibit of 34 emerging and established Oregon artists and artist teams to stretch from Astoria to Ashland and as far east as La Grande.

Learn about the upcoming art show on the full article.

Ashland Daily Tidings

Posted Jul. 21, 2016

As the Schneider Museum at OCA moves from strength to strength, most recently with its participation in the prestigious, statewide Portland Biennial, Scott Malbaurn has moved from his interim position as executive director of the museum into a permanent position. Quills and Queues caught up with Malbaurn to ask him about his vision for the future.

Learn more about the new museum Director on the full article.

Ashland Daily Tidings

Posted Jul. 14, 2016

Curator Michelle Grabner drove 1,800 miles and visited more than 100 studios as she scoured Oregon for artists to include in a state biennial exhibition. Rather than show her selections in a centralized exhibit in Portland, her finds are on display throughout Oregon. To further mix the pot, the work of Portland artists has been sent far afield to sites that include Pendleton and Ashland, while pieces by outlying artists were brought to Oregon’s biggest city.

Learn more about Michelle Grabner’s curated show on the full article.