Jason Lehr: Unreliable Narrator
Anderson Gallery
March 29 through May 18, 2025
Lahr’s paintings combine darkly comic texts with appropriated images, creating shifting narratives of working-class male identity. The work draws from feminism, narrative theory, contemporary and postmodern fiction, semiotics, and film theory to explore the formation and shaping of masculinity through mass culture. The images are pulled from a wide range of popular and sub-cultural ephemera while the texts are fragments that suggest their excision from a larger story and give the reader/viewer flashbulb glimpses at moments of narrative action. Centering on female characters that occupy positions of authority and male characters who are injured, inept, defeated, or perplexed by their dealings with women, the texts and images form narratives which question the wash of expectations and assumptions we experience and create through popular culture.
Ten Thousand Gates – A Celebration of Humboldt Asian American Artists
Thonson Gallery
April 26 through June 8
In 1994, Karla Kaizoji Austin and Amy Uyeki assembled the first show of Asian Artists in Humboldt County entitled Made in America at the old Ink People gallery. Fast forward 31 years and this is one of the follow up shows to the original. Over the years times have changed and artists and media have changed. However, the creativity, artistry and intent remain. The selected artists all present a strong sense of creativity, originality and their work reflects their cultural roots. The work ranges from traditional style landscape/portraits to contemporary street art. Included are painters, ceramicists, mixed media artists, digital artists, photographers and videographers. They work in various media including Chinese Brush painting, ceramics, photography, spray paint, mixed media sources from nature, airbrush, and digital media. There are a wide variety of backgrounds ranging from a self taught Sennsei Japanese artist to national and international artists. This show aims to showcase a sampling of the work of these artists. Artists include: Karla Kaizoji Austin, Cate Be, Jeremy Hara, Ted Hsu, the late Suk Choo Kim, Ali Lee, Thao Le Khac, Amy Leon, Annette Makino, Yoshiko Skelton, Amy Uyeki and Libby Yee.
Maureen McGarry
Celtic Origins
Finding Perspective in the land of my Ancestors
Knight Gallery
May 3rd through June 15th
From the moment I stepped on the tarmac of Dublin Airport in 2016, I felt I had somehow returned to a place I had known from a time before, maybe a lifetime before, Soon, I was driving (on the left-hand side of the road) through Ireland’s lush countryside, I had never seen so many shades of green! For two short weeks I drove two-thousand miles around the Emerald Isle, taking in as much of the beauty as I could of this magical place. When I returned home, I painted many of the scenes I had passed through. I know I would return someday.
That day arrived on July 1st, 2024. With support from the Faben Artist Fund, I had the opportunity to attend a month-long artists residency at Watershed Studios, just outside of Galway on the west coast of Ireland. The road in front of the residency leads straight into Connemara, a region I had promised myself to return and paint. And paint I did! Tagged on to the end of my month-long stay were visits to the two countries where my ancestors lived before emigrating to America, Antrim in the North, and Cork in the South. My paintings are a celebration of the continuously stunning landscape of Ireland, and my ancestral home, a land of friendly, courteous people, with lovely Irish accents, and a culture rich in all of the arts.
Egyptian Masks
Freshwater Elementary
Youth Art Gallery
April 5 through April 27
From the HAC Permanent Collection: Morris Graves, Glenn Berry, Bruno Groth, Melvin Schuler & Romano Gabriel
“Selections from the Permanent Collection” features highlights from the HAC's superb holdings of North Coast fine art from the twentieth century. It incorporates a wide range of media, including painting, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, decorative and folk arts. Though the exhibition is ongoing, the installation is updated regularly. Please call ahead for details on current exhibitions. 707-442-0278
