Clark Art Talks
Clark College’s Artist & Scholar Lecture Series
Upcoming Art Talks:
Bruce Conkle
Artist Talk: Tuesday, April 15th, 1 - 2pm
Location: Clark College, Penguin Union Building, room 161
Bruce Conkle declares an affinity for mysterious natural phenomenon such as snow, fire, rainbows, crystals, volcanos, tree burls, and meteorites. He examines contemporary attitudes toward the environment, including deforestation, climate change, and extinction. Conkle's work often deals with man's place within nature, and frequently examines what he calls the "misfit quotient" at the crossroads. His work has shown around the world, including Reykjavik, Ulaanbaatar, Rio De Janeiro, New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, Seattle, and Portland. Recent projects include public art commissions for the Oregon Department of Transportation, TriMet/MAX Light Rail, and Portland State University's Smith Memorial Student Union Public Art + Residency. In 2011 Bruce received a Hallie Ford Fellowship in 2010 and an Oregon Arts Commission Artist Fellowship. His 2012 show Tree Clouds and Surface Glitch, 2016 were awarded project grants from the Regional Arts and Culture Council.
Chris Lael Larson
Artist Talk: Monday, April 21st, 10 - 11am
Location: https://clark-edu.zoom.us/j/89415804013
Chris Lael Larson is a Portland-based artist working in the overlap of photography, assemblage, and painting to create new perceptual experiences. He culls riches from the everyday absurd, forefronting the strange, ridiculous, and confounding ways we connect to each other, the things we consume, and the environments we inhabit.
Chris has shown work in over 30 cities across the US, with notable exhibitions at the Berkeley Museum of Art, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, and The Portland Art Museum NW Film Center. In 2020, he received a Grant from The Regional Arts and Culture Council to publish Cape Disappointment, a photo book that documents the visual vernacular of the distinctive towns of the coastal northwest — places where historical, cultural, commercial, and natural forces layer to create a confounding visual melange. Chris is a member of Carnation Contemporary and Wave Contemporary in Portland, Oregon. Chris received a BS in Earth Sciences and a BA in Photography from the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he was awarded the Irwin Scholarship for the Visual Arts.
Malia Jensen
Artist Talk: Wednesday, April 23rd, 1 - 2pm
Location: Clark College, Penguin Union Building, room 161
Malia Jensen (b.1966, Honolulu, Hawaii) is a Portland-based artist known primarily for her work in sculpture and video. Jensen draws inspiration from the natural world and the complex relationships we negotiate within it. Her technically accomplished work marries the tactile authority of the hand-made with complex psychological narratives and a genuine quest for harmony and understanding. Her work can be found in many public and private collections nationally and throughout the Northwest. She has been Artist in Residence at the Headland Center for the Arts, Ucross Foundation, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Yucca Valley Materials Lab, and the Portland Garment Factory. Jensen has been a visiting artist at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Whitman College, and Massachusetts College of Art and Design and has mentored students at Oregon College of Arts and Crafts and Pacific Northwest College of Art. Her recent project, Nearer Nature, received support from the Creative Heights Initiative of the Oregon Community Foundation. The resulting six-hour video, Worth Your Salt, screened online in 2020 during a virtual residency with the Portland Art Museum and was recently added to their permanent collection. Jensen has a BFA, ’89, from the Pacific Northwest College of Art and is represented by Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland and Cristin Tierney Gallery, New York. (Bio courtesy recology.com)
Bruce Conkle
Artist Talk and Workshop 1: Wednesday, April 30th, 1 - 2:20pm
Location: Archer Gallery
Bruce Conkle declares an affinity for mysterious natural phenomenon such as snow, fire, rainbows, crystals, volcanos, tree burls, and meteorites. He examines contemporary attitudes toward the environment, including deforestation, climate change, and extinction. Conkle's work often deals with man's place within nature, and frequently examines what he calls the "misfit quotient" at the crossroads. His work has shown around the world, including Reykjavik, Ulaanbaatar, Rio De Janeiro, New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, Seattle, and Portland. Recent projects include public art commissions for the Oregon Department of Transportation, TriMet/MAX Light Rail, and Portland State University's Smith Memorial Student Union Public Art + Residency. In 2011 Bruce received a Hallie Ford Fellowship in 2010 and an Oregon Arts Commission Artist Fellowship. His 2012 show Tree Clouds and Surface Glitch, 2016 were awarded project grants from the Regional Arts and Culture Council.
Kimberly Trowbridge
Artist Talk and Workshop: Thursday, May 1st, 10 - 12:20
Location: Frost Art Center, room 108
Kimberly Trowbridge is a painter, an installation artist, a performer, and a lecturer on color theory. She received an MFA from the University of Washington (2006) and a BFA in Painting / BA in English Literature from Indiana University (2003). Her first solo museum show at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (2021) was developed during her time as Creative Fellow at Bloedel Reserve (2018-2020), a 150-acre garden amid an old growth forest.
Recently, Trowbridge was a resident at Jentel Artist Residency, in Wyoming (2022). She is currently developing work in the PNW and the Mojave Desert. She is currently writing her first book on color.
Trowbridge completed a Facebook Open Arts commission (2021), and was Artist in Residence at Oxbow, Seattle. She is a two-time Neddy Award Finalist (2014, 2016), and an Artist Trust GAP Grant recipient (2014). She is the Director of The Modern Color Atelier, a multi-year painting program at Gage Academy of Art, Seattle.
She has led plein-air painting tours in Spain, Portugal, and Twisp, WA.
Bruce Conkle
Artist Talk and Workshop 2: Thursday, May 6th, 12 - 1:30pm
Location: Archer Gallery
Bruce Conkle declares an affinity for mysterious natural phenomenon such as snow, fire, rainbows, crystals, volcanos, tree burls, and meteorites. He examines contemporary attitudes toward the environment, including deforestation, climate change, and extinction. Conkle's work often deals with man's place within nature, and frequently examines what he calls the "misfit quotient" at the crossroads. His work has shown around the world, including Reykjavik, Ulaanbaatar, Rio De Janeiro, New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, Seattle, and Portland. Recent projects include public art commissions for the Oregon Department of Transportation, TriMet/MAX Light Rail, and Portland State University's Smith Memorial Student Union Public Art + Residency. In 2011 Bruce received a Hallie Ford Fellowship in 2010 and an Oregon Arts Commission Artist Fellowship. His 2012 show Tree Clouds and Surface Glitch, 2016 were awarded project grants from the Regional Arts and Culture Council.
Mark R Smith
Artist Talk: Thursday, May 8th, 1- 2:00pm
Location: Clark College, Penguin Union Building, room 161
Mark R. Smith’s current studio practice involves use of recycled textiles which he incorporates into labor-intensive, densely patterned motifs that reference communal architecture, crowd dynamics and the behavioral aspects of social organisms. His work has been featured in institutions across the US including the Portland Art Museum, the Contemporary Art Center (Cincinnati, OH) and the Zimmerly Art Museum, Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ). His solo exhibitions include The Office of the Governor (Salem, OR), Gallery Hlemmur (Rykjavik, Iceland), The Art Gym Marylhurst University (Marylhurst, OR) and several at the Elizabeth Leach Gallery in Portland, OR where his work is represented. Smith has also received many public commissions, including projects with Trimet, Providence Hospital and the Port of Portland (all Portland, OR). His work is included in several public and private collections, including the American Embassy (Accra, Ghana), CityArts Inc. (New York, NY), King County Public Art Collection, Meta (Seattle, WA), Lewis and Clark College (Portland, OR), and Nike Inc. (Beaverton, OR). Smith received his BFA from the Cooper Union (1983) and his MFA from Portland State University (1997).
https://markrsmithstudio.com/