Room to grow
For the past few months, the current cohort of artists- and scientists-in-residence at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology have been engrossed in their work, secluded among the trees and wildlife. Join them for the Resident Show & Tell at 4 pm on Tuesday, Jan. 5, to see what they have produced so far.
Located just north of Lincoln City at Cascade Head, the Sitka Center is an ideal location to withdraw from the distraction of daily life, find the solitude needed to push through creative boundaries and chase artistic pursuits. Accomplished artists and scientists from around the world visit the center every year, and almost always leave with a body of new work.
The current cohort includes printmaker Justin Gibbens, for whom the natural world is filled with mystery, fascination and intrigue; and whose work celebrates often layered, complex and ambiguous relationship humans have with nature. His stylized and embellished images speak of evolution, mutation and biodiversity, and perhaps serve as cautionary tales and stand-ins for our anthropocentric selves.
Gibbens received his BA in painting from Central Washington University in 1998 and a Scientific Illustration Certificate from University of Washington in 2003. He is a founding member of PUNCH Projects, a central Washington-based artist collective.
Stop-motion animator and musician Alice Langlois is from rural Western Massachusetts, the place that fostered her deep love for nature and the environment. Her animated films have been screened at and received awards from festivals around the world, and her sculptural work shown in galleries throughout her time in college.
After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2019, Langlois moved to Oregon where she currently works as a freelance artist and animator. When not working on art or music, she can often be found growing hydroponic heirloom vegetables in her tiny apartment and scattering wildflower seeds in urban parking lots.
Printmaker, muralist and tattoo artist Alejo Salcedo, from Washington, DC, uses his art to explore the intersection of food, art and medicine.
Salcedo received his printmaking degree at Guilford College in 2015, working closely with printmakers like Roy Nydorf, John Gall and Bill Fick. He has been involved in the public art space for the past 10 years, interning with artist Byron Peck in Washington DC and working with the Greensboro Mural Project cooperative in North Carolina. He has painted public and private murals around the US and abroad. In 2017, he began practicing tattooing, with an emphasis on experience and collaboration. Beyond a visual art practice, Salcedo seeks to live a creative lifestyle through an interactive existence with the natural landscape.
Multimedia artist M Prull uses photography to explore transgender bodies and identities. His practice asks the question: what if the depiction of transgender identities could be met with empathy instead of objectification? His self-portraiture creates a new visual vocabulary to describe how it feels and what it means to be transgender. He celebrates discomfort and dysphoria right alongside trans joy, and portrays his trans identity as a multifaceted, complex and sacred experience. His work has been shown locally in Portland, where he lives and works.
Installation artist Emma Akmakdjian uses creative research to draw comparisons between systems of the body and the environment to understand how we personify place and develop identity through our interactions with non-human nature. She creates her installations from discarded artifacts of society such as old fishing ropes, nets, tires and plastics. These projects take shape in videos, performances and woven installations that re-evaluate the daily habits of fishing, cleaning, cooking, weaving and the subsequent roles we play inside the ecosystem.
Akmakdjian received her Bachelor of Arts from California State University Channel Islands and has studied at L’Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze in Florence, Italy. She resides in Southern California where she collaborates with scientists and cross-cultural communities to bridge science and art.
When not in residency at Sitka, photographic artist Brittney Cathey-Adams is based in Portland. Her work includes themes of body politics, fat positivity and interrogating ideas of representation through self-portraiture. Her work has been exhibited throughout institutions such as the de Young Museum in San Francisco, The Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, and the Center for Photography at Woodstock, New York. Most recently her she is featured as a Guest Artist in “The Body Issue” published by Hatje Cantz with the collective Female Photographers Org.
The Tuesday, Jan. 5, Show & Tell will take place via Zoom. Pre-registration is required. For more information, go to www.sitkacenter.org or call 541-994-5485.