Artwork That Takes Wing Jundt Exhibit Features Bird Prints And Brazilian Featherworks

Two exhibits featuring a wide variety of artistic styles are among the best bets for those seeking a year-end visual arts break.

“Birds of a Feather: Avian Prints and Brazilian Featherworks” at Gonzaga University’s Jundt Museum provides a unique window through which to view other ways of life and other cultures.

The serene stillness and graceful flight of birds have captivated the imaginations of land-bound humans since life began.

To the Amazonian people, birds represent more than graceful flight; they embody a greater spiritual significance.

The indigenous people of the Brazilian rain forest live under a green canopy that is their equivalent of a cathedral, says Paul Brekke, the Jundt’s assistant curator. To them, the scarlet macaw is the incarnation of the Sun God.

“Their whole environment is their cathedral and the bird is this spirit that flies through it,” Brekke says. “These featherworks are the equivalent of what Western civilizations give to sacred vessels.”

For centuries these indigenous people have created a distinctive art form in which they transform feathers into metaphors that represent the myths, spirit and energy of birds.

Because feather art plays a prominent role in ceremonial rituals, the most respected artists within each culture create the most significant pieces.

“The artists’ purpose is to make an object that is beautiful, pleases the people and especially pleases the spirits,” Brekke says.

While the feather art on display includes crowns, headdresses, armbands and masks, they are not clothing, costumes or mere ornamental decorations. They are documents of unwritten knowledge, with each telling a story that is centuries old.

“For nonliterate people, these works of art serve as instructional vehicles for the continuity and transfer of many basic cultural ideas,” says Brekke.

Also on display in this exhibit is a standout selection of avian prints from the Jundt’s permanent collection. Museum director Scott Patnode has assembled these works over the past two decades.

Dating back to the mid-1880s, these prints emphasize the many timeless characteristics with birds. The artists portray various species of birds in different pictorial styles and techniques including woodcut, silkscreen, intaglio, lithography and stencil.

The exhibit features works by notable printmakers including Glen Alps, Leonard Baskin, Dorr Bothwell, Louis Bunce, Jacques Hnizdovsky, Imao Keinen, Charles Lapicque, Kananaginak Pootoogook and Michael Spafford.

The museum is located on the Gonzaga campus at 202 E. Cataldo. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. It will be closed this Saturday and Monday for the holidays.

On Jan. 31 at noon, Brekke will give an informal gallery talk in the arcade area and answer questions.

Chase Gallery

There are only two days left to catch “The River” exhibition at the Chase Gallery in Spokane City Hall.

Reaction to the show has been very positive, says Karen Mobley, director of the Spokane Arts Commission.

“People care about the river,” says Mobley. “The river is key to the psyche and identity of this community.”

Appealing to a wide variety of tastes in visual arts, the show explores the many images of the river through paintings, photographs and pottery in styles ranging from representational to abstract.

Melville Holmes’ detailed, realistic oil painting requires close inspection while Charlie Palmer’s impressionistic landscapes seem to leap off the wall.

The boldness of Palmer’s brushwork encourages the viewer “to get some distance from the painting to let the colors merge,” he says.

“It’s put on pretty frisky,” says Palmer. “I work direct on the canvas with a loaded brush.”

A common denominator in the Medical Lake artist’s work is the effects of light and shadow on natural objects.

“I go out and find locations that inspire me because of some unique quality, such as an arrangement of tree trunks, or the transparency of water, or the way sunlight defines certain rocks,” Palmer says.

While basing his paintings on natural elements, he brings a 20th-century approach.

“I am not interested much in perspective and the reality of a subject,” says Palmer. “I could care less about whether rocks are smooth or textured. They are just masses in space where I can play with colors.”

The photographs of Larry Conboy and John S. Lewis provide intriguing, recognizable images.

Conboy’s black-and-white photographs focus on bridges spanning the Spokane River, while Lewis zooms in on people living near the river or interacting with it.

The exhibit also features work by potter Gina Freuen and painters Shani Marchant, Kay O’Rourke and Ken Spiering.

The Chase Gallery is on the lower level of City Hall, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. The gallery is open during normal building hours, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.