SALEM — Portland artist G. Lewis Clevenger’s “Moving On” exhibit is the latest installment of art featured at the State Capitol, as part of the Art in the Governor’s Office Program.
The paintings feature abstract compositions with bold colors and overlapping, softly geometric forms. To Clevenger, painting each piece is a give-and-take process that takes time.
“The paintings develop as I ‘push’ the mark making and the canvas pushes back in response,” he says. “The colors and composition shift and settle in as the painting progresses. My paintings develop and change daily.”
The final works both reveal and hide these storied layers, inviting the viewer’s eye to return to the lines and colors again and again, searching for a meaning that is just out of reach.
Born in Roseburg, Clevenger attended the Pacific Northwest College of Art in the early 1970s. His work has been exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Clevenger’s work will be on display in the Governor’s Office from May 26 to July 25.
The Art in the Governor’s Office Program honors selected artists in Oregon with exhibitions in the reception area of the Governor’s Office in the State Capitol. Artists are nominated by a statewide committee of arts professionals who consider artists representing the breadth and diversity of artistic practice across Oregon, and are then selected by the Arts Commission with the participation of the Governor’s Office.
