Exhibited in the Governor’s Office from Aug.7 – Sept. 26
SALEM – Corvallis artist Greg Pfarr will exhibit “A Sense of Place: Time, Memory and Imagination in the Pacific Northwest” in the Governor’s Office of the Capitol Building in Salem from August 7 to September 26.
Place has always been a central focus of Pfarr’s art. He grew up roaming the woods and creeks of southern Ohio, where he found his first inspiration. Early backpacking experiences in the Smokey and Rocky Mountains convinced him that he had to live near wilderness. A move to Oregon in 1980 made it possible. Since then, Pfarr has hiked, backpacked, drawn, and painted in the Pacific Northwest, where recent trips to Alaska have heightened his interest in glaciers as a visual phenomenon. Pfarr’s paintings and prints challenge conventional notions of realism and abstraction to emphasize the power, strength, and beauty of natural forces as manifested in the wilderness.
Pfarr studied painting, drawing and printmaking at Ohio State University, where he received his BFA and MFA degrees. His work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions regionally, nationally and internationally for more than 30 years and has been favorably reviewed in The New York Times. Pfarr has received numerous awards and has been juried into the Boston, Los Angeles and Philadelphia Printmakers Associations. His work can be found in public collections including the New York Public Library, the China Academy of Fine Arts, the Portland Art Museum, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Oregon State University and Multnomah County Library.
Pfarr is represented by Print Arts Northwest (Portland), the Portland Art Museum Rental Sales Gallery (Portland) and Pegasus Gallery (Corvallis). This summer he will make his third trip to Alaska, where he will spend three days studying, drawing and photographing glaciers in Glacier Bay National Park in anticipation of a busy fall and winter in the studio.
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. Only professional, living Oregon artists are considered and an exhibit in the Governor’s office is regarded as a “once in a lifetime” honor. Artists whose work has previously been shown in the Governor’s office include Henk Pander, Michele Russo, Manuel Izquierdo, James Lavadour, Margot Thompson, Gordon Gilkey and Yuji Hiratsuka.
The Oregon Arts Commission provides leadership, funding and arts programs through its grants, special initiatives and services. Nine commissioners, appointed by the Governor, determine arts needs and establish policies for public support of the arts. The Arts Commission became part of Business Oregon (formerly Oregon Economic and Community Development Department) in 1993, in recognition of the expanding role the arts play in the broader social, economic and educational arenas of Oregon communities. In 2003, the Oregon legislature moved the operations of the Oregon Cultural Trust to the Arts Commission, streamlining operations and making use of the Commission’s expertise in grantmaking, arts and cultural information and community cultural development.
The Arts Commission is supported with general funds appropriated by the Oregon legislature and with federal funds from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as funds from the Oregon Cultural Trust. More information about the Oregon Arts Commission is available online at: www.oregonartscommission.org.
Want more stories related to artists? Check out more, here.
