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“I love playing with paradise,” 2019 Jordan Schnitzer Printmaking Resident Chris Antemann teases during and artist talk and opening reception for The Art of Food exhibition at JSMA at PSU. “One bite of an apple can lead to so much.”
Antemann’s eighteenth-century rococo-inspired porcelain sculptures of food and pleasure seekers explore themes of temptation and desire through a contemporary gaze. I love the way she uses voyeuristic “eye candy” to draw us in and then challenge us to consider gender roles, what is natural and what is man-made construct. Beneath their hand painted garters and glazes, her figurine women simmer with unrest at the gender assumptions kiln-baked into their motionless lives. “I want my Diana to break herself off her pedestal and throw her own garden party.”
For those in the Portland area, The Art of Food is free to the public and runs through December 3. I admire how the exhibition, and Jordan Schnitzer’s collection, seats work by Pacific Northwest contemporary artists including Antemann and Malia Jensen at the dinner table alongside celebrated cola bottles, soup cans and bananas by Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol.
Jensen is one of 100 Pacific Northwest nature-inspired artists showing new work at Sitka’s 28th annual Art Invitational on October 14-16. One of the joys of hosting the Invitational in Portland each year is bringing together work by emerging and accomplished regional artists in a shared space. This newsletter includes more details from Art Invitational Coordinator Katie McClintock about this year’s exhibit, including our new venue, Oregon Contemporary. Please save the dates, spread the word and help us share this treasured annual event with a new neighborhood and community.
This newsletter also contains a bounty of updates from past Sitka Residents, Instructors and Art Invitational artists on their new work and upcoming exhibitions. Thank you to Nancy Newman, Sitka’s Administrative Coordinator, for opening up communications across our growing Sitka community and connecting us all each month. From album releases to research publications to book launches, if you have updates to include in future newsletters, please email Nancy at info@sitkacenter.org so we can help share your good news and new work.
October marks the beginning of Sitka’s 2022-2023 residency cycle, when we will welcome the first of more than 50 artists, writers, scientists and interdisciplinary creatives who will live and work at Sitka this October through April. Each incoming cohort expands my thinking about this place, who Sitka serves and how access to nature is vital to the creative process.
For those on our physical mailing list, watch for Sitka’s Fall + Winter Guide in your mailbox announcing this year’s residents and online Resident Talks, including the first online talk of the season on October 25 at 4pm PST. If you would like to join our mailing list or have an address update to share, contact us at info@sitkacenter.org or 541-994-5489.
Sitka’s upcoming calendar has all the ingredients to challenge and inspire. Whether you attend the Art Invitational, join us for an online Resident Talk or take part in other opportunities to experience work from across the Sitka community, I hope our newsletters and Fall + Winter Guide tempt you to get involved. One bite of an apple can lead to so much.
Alison Dennis
Executive Director
