Take a trip(le) to Newport
The Newport Visual Arts Center has prepared for the busy summer season with three beautiful new exhibits opening on Saturday, June 4, ranging from colorful pastels to large-scale dioramas.
A special talk given by participating artists Francisca Lauren Carrera, Jana Demartini, Emy Syrop and Khara Ladonne starts at 2 pm this Saturday, June 4, in the Runyan Gallery.
In Carrera’s upcoming solo exhibition “Museo du Profundo Mundo: The Carrera Expedition,” the Runyan Gallery will be transformed into an immersive environment, evoking the reverence and wonder of the museum-going experience.
Through use of large- and small-scale dioramas, Carrera examines our individual and collective past, present and future, and our relationship with the natural world.
Carrera is a Portland-based artist whose science and art-based installations have shown at the San Diego Museum of Art, the Oceanside Museum of Art, Grossmont College and the Museum of Monterey.
Trained at Rutgers University, Carrera furthered her education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, the Atlin Centre for the Arts in British Columbia and was mentored by famed Philadelphia artist Dan Wittels. She was the recipient of a fellowship at the Atlin Centre for the Arts in British Columbia and was nominated for the San Diego Art Prize as one of the “New Contemporaries” in 2012.
The exhibit will remain in the Runyan Gallery though July 31.
In the Coastal Oregon Visual Artist Showcase Gallery, two new friends will have their first group show. Emy Syrop and Khara Ledonne are Newport-based plein air artists who weave painting and parenting with determined finesse. Undaunted by the caprices of both coastal weather and their four young companions, they set up easels on the edge of the sea to capture the landscape.
Ledonne grew up in the Pacific Northwest and received a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts. She worked as a muralist and sign painter for 12 years in New York City before returning to the west coast and focusing on fine art, primarily enamel miniatures. Her murals sprinkle the globe from Italy to Dubai to Mexico, and her miniatures have been collected in more than 25 countries.
Syrop enjoys experimenting with landscapes in oil as well as scientific illustrations and wildlife art in a variety of paints and drawing media. She holds a master's degree in Biology and minored in Studio Art at University of California, San Diego. Her career in marine biology and lifetime of ocean hobbies inform her perspective and understanding of seascapes and marine life.
The joint show will be on display through June 26.
In the Upstairs Gallery, Demartini has put together an exhibit entitled “Rocking,” which marks a return to her previous work about landscape.
“I missed the beach so I started creating it from memories,” she said. “It dawned on me that rocks, the oldest, most durable, solid feature of our world, can be my stimulant…in these difficult, stressful times.”
The exhibit will feature 17 pieces, primarily pastels — a medium the artist enjoys working with due to how “time forgiving” they are.
Demartini was born and educated in Czechoslovakia, where she obtained degrees in art and Czech and Russian languages. She came to the US In 1965, later graduating from Portland State University with a BA in art.
The Upstairs Gallery will keep “Rocking” through July 31.
The Newport Visual Arts Center is located at 777 NW Beach Drive and is open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 4 pm. For more information, go to coastarts.org or call 541-265-6540.