Current Exhibits   Previous Exhibits   Exhibit Schedule   Back to previous exhibits Celebrating our 20th Anniversary 1986-2006 July 6 - 29, 2006 THE LAURA RUSSO GALLERY IS PLEASED TO PRESENT: Marlene Bauer, Carson Heights - New Paintings Anne Siems, Bouquet - Mixed Media Paintings OPENING RECEPTION: First Thursday July 6, 2006: First Thursday Hours, 5-8pm We are pleased to present a new series of acrylic paintings by Portland artist, Marlene Bauer entitled, Carson Heights. She continues to explore a symbolic vocabulary of abstract images and color while integrating a range of shape and color. Bauer creates a kind of visual poetry, inspired by memories and impressions of familiar people, places and neighborhoods, as suggested by the exhibit title. "Rather than portraying particular scenes, my paintings communicate my sensory experiences as they are shaped by a profusion of color. The images, existing somewhere between abstraction, realism and geometry, are a manifestation of simplified forms and colors as they appear in my mind." Bauer understands color better than most as her sensory awareness is heightened by something called, synethesia; an innate ability to connect particular colors with particular sounds. Consequently as Bauer develops her paintings she refines her interpretations--taken from the mind's eye--to create beautiful abstractions. A Northwest native, Marlene Bauer received her BFA in 1976 from the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Since that time she has exhibited her work throughout the Northwest while teaching art at Marylhurst College. From 2002-05, she taught art at Clackamas Community College and most recently was responsible for developing their Alexander Gallery. Her work is in private and public collections along the West coast. In 2004, she successfully completed a commission, Munnich for the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Marlene Bauer Basswood 2006 acrylic on paper on wood 48" x 42" More examples by Marlene Bauer We are pleased to present our first show with Seattle based artist, Anne Siems. Her work shows a fascination with nature and the mystery of the human experience. Figures are delicately rendered and embraced by flora and fauna, yet placed in ambiguous settings of time and space. There is an interesting play between anonymity and portraiture in these figures. "I have been fascinated with portrait photography since I was young and the first impulse for these paintings is from photographs from the nineteenth century." Yet, her interest in dreams and spirituality gives the completed work a mystical presence. "The final image emerges in a process that is uninterrupted by analysis and is moved by free association from a visceral place." Her works are lilting and compelling in their dreamy timelessness. Anne Siems was born in Germany and received her MFA in 1991 from Hochschule der Kunste in Berlin. She has exhibited in the United States since the mid-1980s, at galleries in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Her work is part of public collections including the Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; Boise Art Museum, ID; Microsoft Collection, Redmond, WA; Tacoma Art Museum, WA; and University Hospital, University of Washington, Seattle. Anne Siems Dog on Pillow 2006 mixed media on panel 30" x 30" More examples by Anne Siems Next month: Henk Pander - Recent Watercolors Mike Spafford - Paintings and Works on Paper