Welcome to the College of Agricultural Sciences' Art About Agriculture
Art About Agriculture encourages artists to investigate the visual resources of the science and practice that sustains human life: agriculture. It strives to develop an understanding and appreciation of food and fiber production, especially among people not traditionally acquainted with agriculture.
Art About Agriculture was established in 1983 as the first annual arts competition and tour exhibit with an agricultural theme. It recognizes professional and emerging Pacific Northwest artists, creates a growing, dynamic, permanent collection of fine art based on, stimulated by, and portraying agriculture, and presents the permanent collection and tour exhibit to rural and urban audiences. The collection is exhibited by loan agreement throughout Oregon and other parts of the Pacific Northwest.
We hope you enjoy the artwork. You are welcome to contact us with comments about the exhibition.
Art of Growth
Strand Gallery
440 Strand Agriculture Hall
January 17 - March 19, 2020
Reception: January 17, 4:00 - 7:00 pm
Art of Growth presents a selection of permanent collection acquisitions and gifts spanning the 37-year history of the College of Agricultural Sciences’ Art About Agriculture program. A visual celebration of agricultural production and enjoyment.
Gallery Open hours:
- Tuesdays, from 11:30 am - 1:00pm
- Third Thursdays, from 3:3 0pm - 5:00 pm
- OSU Gallery Walk, February 4 from 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm
- Or by appointment: 541-737-5534 / owen.premore @ oregonstate.edu
Art of Work
Benton County Museum
1101 Main St., Philomath, OR
January 17-February 29, 2020
Reception: January 17, 5:00 - 7:00 pm
Art of Work is a collaborative exhibition featuring art from the permanent collections of both Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences’ Art About Agriculture program and Benton County Historical Society. The artwork chosen for the exhibition represent industries such as gardening, farming, cattle production, timber management, mining, scientific research, boat building, shipping and fishing.
Museum open hours: Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 am - 4:30 pm
Black Carbon
Ken Van Rees, Patrick Collier, and OSU Seminarium + Students from the School of Arts and Communication
November 5 - December 12, 2019 in Strand Gallery (440 Strand Agriculture Hall)
Reception: November 5th, 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm in conjunction with the new OSU Gallery Walk
Heat, light, smoke, consumption, alteration, spread, as well as clearing, cleansing, renewal, regrowth, nourishment, affect, and adaptation. Fire’s oxidation of materials through exothermic process is essential in our everyday lives, and yet it can go wild. Black Carbon presents artworks responding to the beauty, power, and wonder of fire and carbon.
Erik Sandgren
Parallels: Making the Avenue of Elms
April 2 – June 14, 2019 in Strand Gallery (440 Strand Agriculture Hall)
Reception: April 18, 2019 at 3:30 – 5:30pm, with gallery talk at 4:00pm
Gallery hours: Tuesdays 11:30am – 1:00pm, as well as 3:30 -5:00pm on the 3rd Thursday of each month (Corvallis Arts Walk), or by Appointment: 541-737-5534
Erik Sandgren’s thoughtful dialogue with landscape is rooted in revealing the spirit of place with pigments and charcoal. He was commissioned in 2015 by Oregon State University Foundation to commemorate a decade of monumental fundraising and construction efforts lead by OSU president Edward J. Ray. Sandgren arrived at the final composition through controlled experimentation and field research. Parallels: Making the Avenue of Elms documents Sandgren’s pursuit of an origin story; lyrical, powerful, culture-defining moments evoked in remembrance and respect. Strand Gallery presents twenty four paintings that the artist describes as “parallels and antipodes…parallel lines, parallel directions, parallel thoughts and parallel paintings.” Artistic strategies comparable to scientific explorations invite examination of overlaps between art and science. Exhibited alongside the commissioned painting, the parallel work inspires conversations about location, history, composition, style, and concept development. On digital display are thirty-eight pages of trials, sketches, process photographs, and a contextual sampling of Sandgren’s work throughout his career.
Erik Sandgren was awarded the 2002 Betty Brose Art About Agriculture Purchase Award for his painting, A Pragmatic Poetry of Mist, 2001. Accessions to the Art About Agriculture Permanent Collection, such as Amanita, are made possible from patron-donor partnerships. All gifts made to the OSU Foundation-Art About Agriculture qualify as contributions under current state and federal tax codes and may be made at any time.
Kristie Potwora: The Domestic Chicken
January 7 — March 22, 2019 in Gallery 440 Stand Hall (Gallery open Wednesdays 11:30am - 1:00pm).
February 21, 2019: Artist’s reception from 3:30 - 5:30pm in Gallery 440 Strand Hall, with remarks beginning at 4pm
Kristie Potwora’s life-long interest in Environmental Biology towards creative exploration has inspired intricate and compassionate imagery of our earthly cohabitants. Whether through drawing, painting, encaustics or printmaking, she draws on the wisdom and character of the in-dividual being, while celebrating the patterns, habits and other structures that define necessities of species. In this exhibition, Potwora works with her own illustrations of her chickens to create graphic depictions using hand-generated contemporary, experimental, and traditional reduction screen printing and photo emulsion techniques. She writes, "Gallus gallus domesticus focuses on presenting chickens as unique individuals. My hope is that the affectionate nature of these remarkable beings is as evident to the viewer as it is to me."
Kathryn Cotnoir: Pacific Northwest landscape
June 25 — November 30, 2018 in Gallery 440 Stand Hall (Gallery open open by appointment via 541-737-2331.)
June 29, 2018: Artist’s reception from 3:30 to 5:30 p. m. in Gallery 440 Stand Hall, with remarks beginning at 4 p. m.
Portland artist, Kathryn Cotnoir, creates drawings and paintings en plein air style, working outdoors with natural sun light of the Willamette Valley, the Oregon coast, and the Haida Gwaii, Canada, archipelago off the Pacific coast of British Columbia. Cotnoir writes, “I respond to dramatic spaces created by interactions of earth, plants, topography, and water. My work is an extended and interpretive response to my surroundings. I use various media - especially drawing, watercolor or acrylic—sometimes in combination—to address the landscape of the Pacific Northwest.”
Susan Eileen Burnes: Fiber Art
April 2 — June 8, 2018 in Gallery 440 Stand Hall (Gallery open hours from Noon to 1:30 p. m., Thursdays, April 5 & 12, May 3 & 10, and June 7, 2018, and by appointment.)
April 19, 2018: Artist’s reception from 3:30 to 5:30 p. m. in Gallery 440 Stand Hall, with remarks beginning at 4 p. m.
Susan Eileen Burnes, of Rogue River, Oregon, creates layers of color as pastel pigments and acrylic paint are applied over a textural base of hand stitched fiber in forms and patters attached to painted canvases. Her compositions range from jewel tones, monochromes, and variegated earth palettes. Burnes writes, “Through my art I intend to convey the experience of unity and harmony through the repetition of simple geometric forms in linear patterns.”
Susan E. Burnes was granted the 2017 Betty Brose Art About Agriculture, and Gordon and Brenda Hood Art About Agriculture purchase awards, sponsored by Betty Brose, the late Brenda Hood, and the College of Agricultural Sciences.
Artwork:
Susan E. Burnes
Community
Fiber
24 by 24 inches, 2016
Eugene printmaker shows colorful Oregon scenes at OSU's Gallery 440
Connie Mueller
Lino-cut Reduction Prints
January 8 — March 23, 2018
February 15, 2018: Artist’s reception from 3:30 to 5:30 pm, with remarks beginning at 4 pm.
Gallery open hours from 3 to 4:30 pm on Thursday, January 18, 2018, and March 15, 2018, for Corvallis Art Walk.
Mueller is a printmaker known for her richly colored reduction linocut relief prints, a process that builds up many layers of vibrantly colored inks onto the surface of the paper, creating an embossed look. Noted mid-20th century artists who used this medium include Pablo Picasso and Russian artist Ivan Vasilevich Batechko.
“I love the process,” Mueller says. “Surprises come with the overlay of many colors and the depth that is possible.” She achieves the rich color palette in her limited print editions by making a series of reduction cuts, each followed by a unique color inking and over-printing. “To finish an edition of prints may require 210 to 360 separate inking and printing steps,” she explains.
A display of the process, including an etching plate of one of the images in the exhibit and the inking stages that created it, is also on view in the gallery. The exhibition includes 15 landscapes and still life studies, with a number of Willamette Valley and Eastern Oregon farm and ranch scenes included.
Places to Thrive
Betty Feves Memorial Gallery
Blue Mountain Community College
Places to Thrive is an invitational art exhibition organized by the College of Agricultural Sciences, Oregon State University, through its Art About Agriculture program. The exhibition is presented in partnership with the Betty Feves Memorial Gallery at Blue Mountain Community College, Pendleton, Oregon; the exclusive exhibition host.
Signature art: Sherrie Wolf, Cherries/Mountains, 2015, Photogravure and hand colored etching, 3/30, 19.5 by 22.5 inches
Sherrie Wolf was granted the Dean and Director, College of Agricultural Sciences and Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station; and Paul & Reese Lamb Memorial Art About Agriculture 2017 purchase awards, sponsored by Dan and Wanda Arp, the Lamb Foundation, and the College of Agricultural Sciences.
The Bountiful Lens
Sep. 20 through Dec. 8, 2017
Gallery 440, Strand Agriculture Hall, Oregon State University
Reception: Friday, Oct. 20, 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., with remarks by Eugene photographer Susie Morrill.
A reception and gallery talk by Susie Morrill will be held on Friday, Oct. 20, from 3:30 to 5:30. A long-time photographer and photo educator from the Eugene area, Morrill is the most recent photographer to be added to the permanent collection, which now includes 50 regional photographers among its artists.
“The Bountiful Lens: Selected Photographs from the Art About Agriculture Permanent Collection” includes 17 color, black-and-white and alternative process photographs by photographers from Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Nebraska and New Mexico. (Read more...)
Susie Morrill
Nichole and Bucky
Pigment Photographic Print
11 by 14 inches
Pollination: Recent Work by Tallmadge Doyle
“Pollination,” an exhibition of recent works by celebrated Eugene printmaker Tallmadge Doyle, is on display in Gallery 440 in Strand Agriculture Hall on the Oregon State University campus through Sept. 8. Sponsored by the OSU College of Agricultural Sciences, the exhibit features 15 hand-pulled prints from her studies of the nature and science of pollination. The 440 Gallery is located on the fourth floor of Strand Agriculture Hall, and is open Wednesdays from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Doyle’s “Pollinators” series fits into the long tradition of botanical art, which first took root during the European Renaissance, primarily from the 15th to 17th centuries. It was a time when naturalists and artists sought collaboration and joint sponsorship during rapid cultural and intellectual advancements of the day.(Read more...)
View Image Gallery of Exhibits
Tallmadge Doyle
Migration Pollination
2016
Woodcut, line etching, hand coloring
4 by 18 inches
Art About Agriculture receives special grants
The College of Agricultural Sciences, Oregon State University, has acquired four mixed media artworks by Portland artist Sally Finch, “Dryland Farming 3: Moro” (12” x 12”), “Dryland Farming 4: Pullman” (12” x 12”), “Dryland Farming 5: Spokane” (18” x 18”), and “Dryland Farming 6: Moscow” (18” x 18”.) The works of art were acquired with the assistance of the Ford Family Foundation through a special grant program managed by the Oregon Arts Commission, and sponsored in part by the OSU College of Agricultural Sciences, the late Brenda and Gordon Hood, and the late Margaret Hogg. (View image gallery)