Back

“Gay Outlaw Mutable Object,” on view at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art

 

EUGENE, Ore. -- (September 22, 2016) –  “Gay Outlaw Mutable Object,” an exhibition featuring a variety of artistic disciplines created by San Francisco artist Gay Outlaw, is on view at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, on the University of Oregon campus through February 19, 2017

 

The exhibition, curated by Jill Hartz, JSMA executive director, will be celebrated at a reception on Friday, September 30, from 6 to 8 p.m. On October 1, 2016 at 2 p.m., Outlaw will give a talk focusing on her work.

 

From printmaking and photography to sculpture made of wood, glass, caramelized sugar, and bronze, Outlaw, is recognized for her rigorous and unexpected explorations of material. Her work creates a dialogue between shape, color, surface, and interiority through a minimalistic approach.

 

“Outlaw’s keen observation of the everyday world is evidenced in her photographs,” says Hartz.  “Images and ideas from these are collated and translated into sculpture, lending the viewer a fresh and insightful perspective on our environment and the objects that surround us.”

 

The newest works to the artist’s practice are a series of photo assemblages that combine her original photographs with sculptural elements Outlaw calls “puddles” of glass. Fascinated with capturing that moment when movement becomes fixed, Outlaw used a lost wax process to create her “puddles:”  the glass takes its shape from poured wax, which blooms and eddies as it cools, creating textures reminiscent of cloud and wave patterns in traditional Japanese design.

 

The freestanding sculptures on view also emerge from Outlaw’s dialogue with photography and connect to both the material and structures of her earlier work. Forms replicate and reference similar shapes to those we find in her photographs. Sculptures energetically announce their physical components or masquerade, taking on the properties of other materials. Working intuitively, Outlaw regularly circles back to her photographs as well as her previous sculptures, mining their content and forms for new strategies and insights.

 

Born in 1959 in Mobile, Alabama, Outlaw received her BA in 1981 from the University of Virginia. She attended the École de Cuisine La Varenne, Paris, France (1981–82) and took courses at the International Center of Photography (1987–88). Her glass work, in particular, benefits from two Pilchuck residencies, in Seattle, in 2007 and 2014, and a Tacoma Museum of Glass residency in 2009. She is represented by Anglim Gilbert Gallery (formerly, Gallery Paule Anglim) in San Francisco.

 

Her work has been shown in solo exhibition at Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento, CA; Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA; University of Virginia Art Museum, Charlottesville; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and The Friends of Photography at the Ansel Adams Center, San Francisco.

 

Outlaw’s work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California.

 

About the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art

The University of Oregon's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is a premier Pacific Northwest museum for exhibitions and collections of historic and contemporary art based in a major university setting. The mission of the museum is to enhance the University of Oregon’s academic mission and to further the appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts for the general public.  The JSMA features significant collections galleries devoted to art from China, Japan, Korea, the Americas and Europe as well as changing special exhibition galleries.  The JSMA is the only accredited academic art museum in Oregon.

 

The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is located on the University of Oregon campus at 1430 Johnson Lane. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for senior citizens. Free admission is given to ages 18 and under, JSMA members, college students with ID, and University of Oregon faculty, staff and students. For information, contact the JSMA, 541-346-3027.

 

About the University of Oregon

The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.

 

Contact:
JSMA: Debbie Williamson Smith, 541-346-0942, debbiews@uoregon.edu

 

Links: Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, http://jsma.uoregon.edu

Gay Outlaw, www.gayoutlaw.com