January art highlights include self-taught artists at Hallie Ford Museum of Art, your last chance to see Gary Westford’s work at the Salem Convention Center and Salem Public Library, plus three new exhibits at Salem Art Association’s Bush Barn Art Center and more…

HALLIE FORD MUSEUM OF ART

Hallie Ford Museum, 700 State Street and is open 12 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Cost to explore is free for children, students 18+ and educators (with school ID); $8 adults, $5 seniors, and free for everyone on Tuesdays. For more information, visit willamette.edu/arts/hfma, or call 503-370-6855.

January 2 through April 20
Singular Visions: Self-Taught Artists from the Permanent Collection — Over the past two decades, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art has built a small but choice collection of work by self-taught artists. Organized by curator Jonathan Bucci and drawn exclusively from the HFMA permanent collection, the exhibition includes artists who are well known in the contemporary art world, such as James Castle, Louisiana Bendolph, and James Lavadour; important regional artists Gregory Blackstock and Russell Childers; and Midwest and Southern artists Burlon Craig and Royal Robertson among many others. In addition, new acquisitions by contemporary artists working with Living Studios, a Corvallis and Salem studio program for neurodivergent artists, are featured in the exhibition.

While the artists in Singular Visions each bring unique approaches and backgrounds to their work, there are universal traits they all share. The work operates as a reflection of the artists’ reality – the way they see the world, generated from both personal life experiences and the community in which they live and work. Artmaking is a form of communication as artists choose to express themselves and share their personal vision to connect with others.

As the cultural divisions that have led to the othering and separating of many self-taught artists and their work is dissolving, these important artistic voices and their influence are being brought into the larger conversation about contemporary art. The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is very pleased to present this first exhibition focused specifically on this growing area of the museum’s collection. — Jonathan Bucci, The John Olbrantz Curator of Collections and Exhibitions

January 23 through March 30
Willem Volkersz: The View from Here — Organized by the Missoula Art Museum and the South Dakota Art Museum, Willem Volkersz: The View from Here presents a 25-year retrospective exhibition for Volkersz, an internationally-recognized mixed media artist who is known for his neon and paint-by-number installations.

Volkersz is a significant contemporary artist and renowned collector of Folk and self-taught artists. A native of the Netherlands, he immigrated to the United States with his family after WWII and studied art and architecture at the University of Washington before earning an MFA in painting at Mills College in Oakland, CA. After teaching at the Kansas City Art Institute for 18 years, he came to Montana State University-Bozeman in 1986 to direct the School of Art and teach until his retirement in 2001. Volkersz’s work has been featured in 46 solo exhibitions and in over 200 group shows in the U.S., Canada, England, Scotland, China, and Taiwan. He is the recipient of many awards, including a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, grants from the Mellon Foundation and Gottlieb Foundation, and a 2020 Montana Governor’s Arts Award. He’s been a visiting artist and lecturer at almost 100 institutions in the U.S., Canada, Europe and China.

EVENTS @ Hallie Ford —

Lecture: Willem Volkersz, 5 to 6 p.m. Saturday, January 20, at Paulus Lecture Hall in Willamette University College of Law. Free and open to the public

Tuesday Gallery Talks focusing on the Willem Volkersz: The View from Here exhibition 12:30, Jan 23 (guided by Willem Volkersz) and 30 (guided by John Olbrantz, the Maribeth Collins Director of the HFMA). Free and open to the public.

LEVEL 2 GALLERY

Level 2 Gallery at the Salem Convention Center is curated by the Oregon Artists Series Foundation. Located on the second floor of the center, it features changing exhibits of work by established and emerging artists of the region. The Gallery is accessible Monday through Friday during regular business hours, during special events or by appointment by calling 503-589-1700. Info: oregonartistsseries.com

Through January 22
Miraculous Occurrences: Paintings by Gary Westford — “As an artist, I construct visual narratives that speak to our time, and yet, are timeless and universal. I’m committed to making good paintings that show a love for the medium of oil paint, and to a vision that is both clearly realized and open to interpretation,” says Gary Westford. “These Miraculous Occurrences paintings bear witness, as narratives, for what I have seen and experienced over time.”

Gary Westford was born in Oakland, California, and moved to Oregon in 1979. An artist and curator, he lives and works in Salem. He received an MA in painting from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied with Elmer Bischoff, Joan Brown, and Robert Colescott. His paintings and mixed media constructions have been shown in over thirty regional, national, and international juried exhibitions in the US and Canada. He credits the work of Surrealist painter Rene Magritte, poet W. H. Auden, composer Erik Satie and filmmaker Stanley Kubrick among his artistic influences.

ART HALL @ Salem Public Library

A year-round gallery space under the guidance of the Salem Public Art Commission, the Art Hall at the Salem Public Library features the Salem Reads Art Exhibit each February as part of Salem Reads: One Book, One Community. During the rest of the year, the Oregon Artists Series Foundation will present curated rotating exhibits featuring regional artists.

Through January 24
Miraculous Occurrences: Paintings by Gary Westford — This show is a companion to the work on display at Level 2 at Salem Convention Center.

EVENT —

Art Talk with Gary Westford — Oregon Artists Series Foundation presents a free talk with Salem artist Gary Westford, who will speak about his life and his works of art in the current exhibit, Miraculous Occurrences in the Library’s Art Hall.
When: 1 p.m. Thursday, January 11
Where: Salem Public Library, 585 Liberty St SE

SALEM ART ASSOCIATION

Salem Art Association (SAA) at Bush Barn Art Center & Annex, 600 Mission St. SE. For more information, call 503-581‑2228 or visit salemart.org.

January 12 through 28
Bill Rutherford: Pencil, Ink, Paint, Wood & Wire — “For me the creative process starts with an idea or concept. Then I go to work! If the idea seems like it might become something I continue on! As the piece develops, IT decides what it wants to BE. From then on, I just try to keep up with the piece until it’s time to stop! Art is never complete.”

January 12 through February 24
Diffusing Light: The Evolving Landscapes of John Van Dreal — “My artistic style and method, as well as my philosophy about art, are founded in my admiration for Northern European and American realism, Luminism, and Tonalism. As a craftsman, I build surface and texture through layered oil painting combined with thin applications of translucent glazing. I have found that such an approach allows me to capture light as well as render form that has an intrinsic identity and offers the viewer a subtle expression of beauty as it is found in landscape, still life, and figure. I study and report form by concurrently sketching and painting as I move a work forward to completion. Using this method, combined with traditional aesthetic principles, allows me to create contemporary images that are luminous, tonal, evocative and that connect with the viewer on a personal level. By indulging in form and the aesthetic, I attempt to paint the denominators most common to human beings in their search for visual harmony, the beautiful, and sublime. Thus I hope my art offers a connection to good things.”

January 12 through February 25
Dying to Live: Chloe Frydenlund — “My name is Chloe Frydenlund, but I use my childhood nickname, Clover, for my artwork. I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. I have lived in Salem for the last four years with my husband and two children. I am a self-taught artist, as I went from drawing as a child, to acrylics, and now for the last few years, oil painting, which is my favorite medium, so far. Making art has always been in my nature. It was not until I became a mother that I realized I needed art on a daily basis to start unburying who it is that I really am. I have repeatedly felt called to be a painter throughout my life, as it brings me an immense amount of joy. I believe we are all created to create and I can only hope to inspire others to create what it is that cries out to their soul. I am continually inspired by nature, animals and specifically women and the life/ death/ life cycles we must all go through. I have been overwhelmed with the amount of support that I have received as an artist since moving to the welcoming city of Salem. Art has been hugely helpful in my own life to provide healing, expression, and self-discovery. I strive, through my art, to portray the ideas and concepts that I personally discover about this wild life.”

EVENTS @ Salem Art Association —

Opening Reception for Bill Rutherford, John Van Dreal and Chloe Fydenlund, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. January 12

Cultural Exhibits

SALEM PUBLIC LIBRARY

WILLAMETTE HERITAGE CENTER

Preserving and interpreting the history of the Mid-Willamette Valley, the Willamette Heritage Center (WHC) features 14 historic structures that house permanent and changing exhibits, a research library and archive, a textile learning center, and rentable event spaces over a five-acre campus, which also has retail shops, art galleries, cooperative artist studios, and offices. It is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturday and located at 1313 Mill St SE. Cost to explore is $10. $8 senior, $6 student and youth ages 6 to 17. For more information, call 503-585-7012 or go to willametteheritage.org.

Through January 31, 2024
Filaments — In partnership and the WeGO (Weaving Guilds of Oregon) and the Salem Fiberarts Guild, WHC hosts the 2023 WeGO juried exhibition Filaments. All weavers and fiber artists use filaments of some size and shape to create. This show celebrates our materials and how, individually, we construct them for our purposes. Whether for domestic use, as decorative objects, or purely as art, we consider function as well as form, and choose our fibers accordingly. The exhibit has been juried by Associate Professor Emerita in the Department of Art, University of Oregon, and internationally renowned fiber artist, Barbara Setsu Pickett.