Various artist exhibitions across Salem this month seek to reclaim Indigenous stories, explore the tough work of caring for a child with brain cancer and trace a Portland artist’s 50 year career across several mediums.
Salem Reporter is starting a new monthly feature listing local art, history and museum exhibits open to the public. To submit your exhibit for inclusion, email Managing Editor Rachel Alexander at [email protected].
Here’s Salem Reporter’s roundup of June exhibitions in Salem.
Salem Art Association
600 Mission St. S.E.
Hours: Wednesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday 12-5 p.m.
Admission: free
Random Acts of Decommodification
Through June 24
Artist Patricia Vázquez uses several mediums, including paint, video and music, to investigate the places where art, ethics, politics and community art intersect, according to the Salem Art Association.
Random Acts of Decommodification features 12 paintings and drawings created in exchange for services and experiences offered to someone in Salem. The project asks, “What is the value of an artwork when it is taken outside the systems that assign it a commodity status?”
Under The Surface: A Retrospective
Through June 25
Painter and printmaker Annegret Disterheft will be displaying abstract art at the Bush Gallery this month. The artist grew up in Germany and went to college at what is now Western Oregon University.
She was six when World War II ended. In the years following, she saw a gray, despairing world turn to hope and color.
“I believe that the memories of the evacuation and the reconstruction of Germany are reemerging in my work in a transformed and refined way. The war is not my subject matter, but the positive and healthy elements of life are,” she said in the statement.
June 7 – July 2
The exhibit “Iconoclast” by artist Steph Littlebird explores Indigenous representation in American culture, and seeks to reclaim Native stories. Littlebird, a member of Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, seeks to reverse the power dynamic in media and question embedded biases, according to her artist statement.
One piece in the exhibit features Pocahontas as portrayed in the 1995 Disney film, with a middle finger thrust in the air aside the phrase “Paint with this.”
There will be a reception for the exhibition at the Focus Gallery on Saturday, July 1, at 4 p.m.
Through August 26
Brothers Santigie and Sapata Fofana-Dura have shared three new sculptures crafted from wood and metal.
Using salvaged Pacific Northwest wood and intentional burning, the architectural sculptures have an intriguing finished look.
There will be an opening reception with a performance from Santigie on Saturday, June 10, from 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
There will be a Juneteenth celebration and ribbon cutting ceremony at the Gallery on Monday, June 19 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Both events are free, and require online registration.
Artist in Residence: Katy Vigeland and Corrine Loomis Dietz
Through June 30
The association hosts an Artist-in-Residence program at the annex to promote experimentation and exploration. Local artists Corrine Loomis Dietz and Katy Vigeland have done that by investigating each other’s printmaking and painting methods to develop their own ideas and palettes.
Hallie Ford Museum of Art – Willamette University
700 State St.
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 12-5 p.m.
Admission: $8 general, $5 seniors over 55, free to people under 17, students and members
Through August 12
“Back in View,” curated by Christy Wyckoff, looks at the forty year career of Jim Hibbard, a master engraver who also worked in lithography and printing. Hibbard’s career spanned thirty years in Portland, where he received national recognition and established himself in the arts community.
After retiring from teaching at Portland State University, Hibbard moved to Guanajuato, Mexico where he lived and worked for 25 years before his death in 2022, according to the museum.
The Hallie Ford Museum will display his later work, developed in Mexico, for the first time alongside his better-known Portland pieces.
Tom Prochaska: Music for Ghosts
June 6 – August 26
Portland Artist Tom Prochanska uses paint, drawing, prints and glasswork to explore open-ended narratives through a cast of characters.
The exhibition, curated by Jonathan Bucci, features 70 works, including rarely seen early pieces, across 50 years. The exhibit will also have new paintings on view for the first time.
“With a wry smile, Tom tells stories that feel simultaneously vague and specific, walking a line between abstraction and representation. His imagery and compositions emerge from the interplay between material and process, lending themselves to the different mediums he effortlessly shifts between,” Bucci said in the exhibit’s description.
Salem on the Edge
156 Liberty St. N.E.
Hours: Wednesday-Thursday 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Sunday 12 p.m. – 4 p.m., closed last Sunday of the month
Admission: free
Through June 25
Nakoa Mercier, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, is one of few artists studying Chinuk form line art. He paints and draws on thin cedar panels using acrylic paints and pen to reflect on his heritage, according to a post by the gallery.
Through June 26
Self-taught artist Paul Meuse has moved from pop realism to abstract in recent years. Using mixed media and discarded objects, Meuse explores sadness, absurdity and love.
“This collection represents for me a unique moment in my life. Last summer my six-year old child was diagnosed with brain cancer. This year he is seven and nearing the end of a long, harsh, damaging course of radiation and chemotherapy treatment,” he said according to a Facebook post by Salem on the Edge. “There are no words to describe the suffering he has encountered nor the depths of his courage, resilience and playfulness in the face of a life-threatening illness. He is my deepest and biggest inspiration.”
Salem Public Library
585 Liberty St. S.E.
Hours: Tuesday-Thursday 10 a.m.- 8p.m. Friday-Saturday 10 a.m. – 6p.m., Sunday 12-6 p.m.
Admission: free
Kaethe Mentrum’s Art Exhibition
Through June 20
Kaethe Mentrum’s hopes to inspire more local artists to exhibit their work at the Salem Public Library with an exhibition of paintings highlighting nature. Mentrum is a volunteer with the
Northgate Neighborhood Association and a member of the Cherry City Orchid Society, a flower featured in much of her work.
Willamette Heritage Center
1313 Mill St. S.E.
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Admission: $10 adult, $8 seniors over 65, $6 students and children age 6-17
Through October 7
Prompted by the renewed focus on health during the Covid pandemic, the Willamette Heritage center invited museums and community organizations in the area to share artifacts to address questions of what it means to be healthy, and how that idea has changed over time.
Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: [email protected] or 503-704-0355.
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Abbey McDonald joined the Salem Reporter in 2022. She previously worked as the business reporter at The Astorian, where she covered labor issues, health care and social services. A University of Oregon grad, she has also reported for the Malheur Enterprise, The News-Review and Willamette Week.
