Christine Bourdette: Riddles, Bunnyheads and Asides
For Release: July 30, 2008Opening reception 3 to 5 p.m., Sunday, September 7, 2008
Gallery talk noon, Tuesday, October 7
Exhibition continues: September 8 – October 22, 2008
Christine Bourdette: Riddles, Bunnyheads and Asides, a retrospective exhibition, will open at The Art Gym, Marylhurst University, with a preview reception on Sunday, September 7. Curated by The Art Gym director Terri Hopkins in collaboration with the artist, the exhibition is the most comprehensive presentation of Christine Bourdette's work to date and includes more than 50 sculptures and six drawings from 1987 to 2008. The exhibition continues through October 22. Admission is free.
At noon, Tuesday, October 7, curator Terri Hopkins will moderate a gallery talk with artist Christine Bourdette.
Christine Bourdette: Riddles, Bunnyheads and Asides follows the artist's course over the past two decades as she developed a fully three-dimensional vocabulary and a mastery of materials. Bourdette employs both figuration and abstraction to make art that comments on social, political and simply human predicaments. Her commentary is often indirect and laced with humor that appears to grow out of both affection and frustration with the foibles of humankind.
The exhibition is accompanied by a 70-page full color book. Linda Brady Tesner, curator of the Hoffman Gallery at Lewis & Clark College, has written an essay for the publication that tracks and elucidates Bourdette's themes and formal explorations since 1987.
Tesner writes: "It is a rare artist who is this adroit and skilled at using a range of media: wood, leather, rawhide, rubber, plaster, fabric, metals and all sorts of found and salvaged objects. Whether conscripting cut strips of cargo blankets, milling raw wood into basketry, or coaxing leather into the shape of a bird or a person, Bourdette never shies from materials; instead, she enlists whatever materials best fit her concepts. In this, Bourdette joins a number of contemporary object makers who fearlessly collaborate with their materials in developing an idea."
Over the past three decades Christine Bourdette has become one of the Northwest's most accomplished sculptors. Bourdette's artworks are included in many private and public collections, including those of the Portland Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum and Reed College. Her public commissions can be experienced in numerous cities, including Portland, Seattle and Phoenix. She is also known for her collaborations with other artists such as choreographers Mary Oslund, Minh Tran and Kristy Edmunds, and filmmakers Jim Blashfield and Joanna Priestley. In 1992, Christine Bourdette became the first recipient of the Bonnie Bronson Fellowship Award, and, in 2000, the Regional Arts & Culture Council honored her with a Visual Artist Fellowship. She is represented by the Elizabeth Leach Gallery.
Regional Arts & Culture Council provided support for Christine Bourdette: Riddles, Bunnyheads and Asides through its project grant program. Additional funding for the publication came from many individuals and from The Art Gym Publications Fund, a new fund launched this year with assistance from the Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation and Linda Hutchins and Jon Montague.
Art Gym programs are supported in part by the Oregon Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Art Gym, Marylhurst University is located at 17600 Pacific Highway (Hwy. 43), Marylhurst, Oregon, 97036. The gallery is open Tuesday - Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. The Art Gym is located on the third floor of the B.P. John Building on the Marylhurst University campus, one mile south of Lake Oswego. Admission is free. (503-699-6243)
Founded in the fall of 1980, The Art Gym at Marylhurst University has a 26-year history of presenting work by hundreds of artists based in the Northwest. The Art Gym has published more than 50 exhibition catalogues and sponsored more than 100 conversations about art, in the region. In 2004-2005, The Art Gym was a recipient of the Governor's Arts Award.