Oh, brother!
Sibling harmony on display at Lincoln City Cultural Center
Brother-and-sister artistic duo Bryan Nichols and Megan Brieno have joined forces for the latest show at Lincoln City’s Chessman Gallery, a magical exhibit of bold, colorful paintings and more.
The show, titled “ZuhG Life,” opens this Friday, Nov. 4, with a public reception from 5 to 7 pm, featuring light refreshments as well as a talk from the artists at 6 pm.
Nichols, a local favorite artist, musician and owner of ZuhG Life Surf Shop, is known for artwork that celebrates a love of the ocean — a style he developed years before moving to the Oregon Coast in 2013.
“Even when I was in Sacramento, I was painting waves and dreaming of living at the ocean,” he said. “Maybe just now I’m in the right place for it.”
Since moving to the coast, Nichols has also branched out into murals, his most recent being the octopus-themed image on Lincoln City’s Pipe Dreams Dispensary.
“That was an amazing opportunity right on the highway,” he said. “It blew my mind thinking about how many people will drive by it in a day.”
Megan’s art, meanwhile, focuses on her favorite animals, with giraffes, elephants, dogs and cats all making repeat appearances.
As well as canvases, visitors to the show will find Megan’s work on stickers, greeting cards and clothing, presenting plenty of opportunities for holiday gift-buying.
“We are excited that it’s going to be in there for the Christmas shopping season,” Bryan said. “It will be as cheap as $3, which is the cost of a sticker. Megan charges $15 for framed drawings. Some of my canvas work is $45 to a tittle over 100 dollars. It’s all very reasonably priced. We just want to have it land in someone else’s household rather than waiting to sell it for $300.”
“ZuhG Life” will be on display through Dec. 12, available to view from 10 am to 4 pm Thursday through Monday in the Chessman Gallery, located inside the Lincoln City Cultural Center at 540 NE Hwy. 101.
A virtual gallery tour will be posted to Facebook@LincolnCityCulture on Saturday, Nov. 5.
This artwork is gr-ate
Also opening at the cultural center on Friday, Nov. 4, is “What’s your 8?” the new exhibit from High Fiber Diet, a part of the Columbia Fiber Arts Guild.
Each year, the group creates a new theme to encourage fiber artists to advance their art professionally and pursue opportunities to exhibit and learn about the exhibit process.
Each piece in the show is inspired by a word that ends with the sound “ate” — germinate, intoxicate, legislate, mitigate, perpetuate, pollinate, proliferate and so on.
Viewers are encouraged to guess the word that each piece is based on and then check their guess by finding the word on the bottom edge of each canvas.
The show includes work from Susan Allen, Mary Arnold, Janet Darcher, Peggy Ellis, Diane English, Pat Fifer, Terry Grant, Jill P Hoddick, Sara Shayne Millar, Sherrie Moomey, Jo Noble, Pamela Pilcher, Gloria Richardson, Deborah Sorem and Sarah Williams.
“What’s your 8?” will be on display in the center’s Fiber Arts Gallery through January 2.