Portland Presence
Mel George, Deborah Horrell, Jeremy Lepisto

exhibition runs: April 3 - May 3, 2009
opening reception: thursday, April 2, 5 - 8 pm

Traver Gallery is pleased to present Portland Presence, an exhibition featuring sculptural work by three leading Portland, Oregon artists working in glass. A smaller city than Seattle with a population approximately two thirds the size, Portland has become more and more a destination for young people and artists looking for a new opportunity and a cheaper cost of living. Portland’s presence within the interwoven networks that make up the American studio glass community has been building for decades. With the founding of two glass manufactures in the 1970’s– Bullseye Glass and Uroboros Glass– the city began to draw artists through residency programs, apprenticeships, production positions and the promise of community. A number of production studios, industrial glass manufacturers, artists studios and galleries have sprung up in and around Portland. Still, the city has remained largely overlooked for the talent that is present just a few hours from the glass art hub that is Seattle.

Artists are a reflection of their environment, working as a mirror to the world that surrounds them. We are seeing the emergence of a new breed of pioneer in Portland with artists such as Mel George, Deborah Horrell and Jeremy Lepisto at the forefront. Rooted in its green growth and quieter pace, the area allows for a level of introspection that is apparent in all three of these artists’ work. They are crafting compositions that are immediate and personal. They create narrative that brings focus to their physical surroundings as well as awareness of the passage of time. From concepts of place and belonging, to drawing introspective responses to cycles of death and life through graceful and timeless compositions, the artists ask us to look inward.

An Australian native born in Canberra, Mel George moved to Portland in 1998 after completing her BFA at Canberra School of Art. The visiting artist program at Bullseye Glass the previous year had introduced her to the area and the community quickly welcomed her. Her work is based in narrative with her own journey and experience as a foreigner attempting to create a sense of ‘home’ in a new country as the central focus. George utilizes iconic, immediately recognizable objects such as spools of thread, postcards or even Polaroid prints to create a history and presence. Her work explores issues of identity and place based on the forms of our cultural relics, playing on themes of memory through object and remaining tied to your past through belongings. The compositions are vulnerably personal yet create a feeling of intimacy that brings forth a sense of sympathetic nostalgia.

Originally working as a ceramic artist, Deborah Horrell has lived in the Northwest since beginning the MFA program at the University of Washington in the 1970’s. Residencies at Pilchuck Glass School (WA) in 1994 and Bullseye Glass (OR) in 1998 drew her into the world of glass and more specifically into life in Portland. Horrell works in a number of styles and techniques including pate de verre vessels. The work included in this exhibition, however, is a departure for the artist. The cycle of birth, life and death is prominent. In Horrell’s own words, “Art is a reflective journey changing as one’s life shifts. The work is precipitated by a wide gamut of emotions present in this current journey; of certainty, strength and vulnerability.” Using mixed imagery of tears and bird feathers, Horrell focuses on the play between weightlessness and gravity. She brings a sense of strength and determination to the sculptures while simultaneously remaining contemplative and soft.

A resident of Portland since 1997, Jeremy Lepisto creates work that asks us to reassess our surroundings and perceive them not as a constantly shifting background, but as a static image of grace and perspective. His work is unattached to the vessel, utilizing glass as canvas. Within the new “SQ FT” series, Lepisto creates a three-dimensional abstract composition that is drawn directly (and to scale) from a section taken from within the environment he paints in the piece itself. Drawing inspiration from the architectural landscape of his home and the surrounding areas, the artist focuses our awareness on the beauty within the every day- the lines and shadows in buildings and the streets that create still life compositions any time you care to look. His work roots the viewer in the moment, asking that we observe our surroundings minutely and see the beautiful in the everyday.

110 Union Street #200
Seattle, WA 98101
206.587.6501 phone
206.587.6502 fax
info@travergallery.com

Seattle gallery hours are Tuesday - Friday 10-6,
Saturday 10 - 5 and Sunday 12 - 5

Image Credits:
mel george
above the northern land
2009, kilnformed glass
4.5″h x 11″w x 0.5″d

deborah horrel
threshold II
2009, cast glass, plex, graphite, oil paint
69″h x 23.5″w x 1″d

jeremy lepisto
sq.ft.06
2008, kilnformed glass
12″h x 12″w x 2.5″d