2015 Pacific Northwest Drawers
Debuting on First Thursday, April 2, 2015 and coinciding with Portland Photo Month, each artist was represented by 10 original photographic prints or objects from a single body of work in a dedicated archival, flat file drawer at Blue Sky through March 2016.
The complete list of artists selected from more than 195 submissions included:
Ciara Alberts, Colton Allen, Troi Anderson, Natasha Bacca, Adam Bacher, Paul Baughman, Susan Bein, Chris Bennett, Nils Benson, Rich Bergeman, Deborah Bergman, Briana Cerezo. Larry Clark, Max Cleary, Hailey Cothran, Matthew Courtway, Christopher Drake, John DuBois, Melanie Flood, C. Bruce Forster, Barbara Gilson, Carole Glauber, George Goetzman, Torrie Groening, Jim Hair, Ed Hamilton, Aaron Hartzel, Stewart Harvey, Tamar Haytayan, Carol Isaak, Andrew Jarman, John Kane, Ann Kendellen, Brian Kosoff, Jenni Kowal, Eduard Kurganov, Christine Laptuta, Larry Larsen, Frank Lavelle, Jim Leisy, Stu Levy, Hongzhe Liang, Susan MacDougall, Allen Maertz, Roberta Margolis, Robbie McClaran, Alexander Mouton, Loren Nelson, Liz Obert, Annie Oldenburg, Adam Ottavi, Norman Press, Stan Raucher, Christopher Rauschenberg, William Rihel, Isaac Sachs, Markus Shearer, Andrew Stanbridge, Deb Stoner, Mary Stroud, Tina Tran, Terri Warpinski, Carol Yarrow, and photographers from the Portland Grid Project.
Jurors Shane Lavalette and Prudence Roberts were equally impressed by the diversity of subject matter as well as the quality of technique apparent among this year's cohort of artists:
"The group of artists selected for this year's Drawers represent the diversity in backgrounds, approaches, and ideas within the medium of photography and the region of the Pacific Northwest. To spend time with the many submissions was a true pleasure, and I encourage those visiting Blue Sky to dive into these flat files and get lost in these portfolios." - Shane Lavalette
"I have certainly appreciated the chance to co-jury the Blue Sky Drawers. What a wealth of fascinating work and such a range of visions, from straightforward to surreal, from nature-based to conceptual. This program is one of Blue Sky’s most generous and innovative and I am honored to have been a participant. Long live the Blue Sky Drawers!" - Prudence Roberts
2015 Jurors
Shane Lavalette is an American photographer, the founding Publisher/Editor of Lavalette, and the Director of Light Work in Syracuse, New York. He holds a BFA from Tufts University in partnership with The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Lavalette’s photographs have been shown widely, including exhibitions at the High Museum of Art, Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, Aperture Gallery, Montserrat College of Art, The Carpenter Center for Visual Arts at Harvard University, The Center for Photography at Woodstock, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Musée de l’Elysée, in addition to being held in private and public collections. His editorial work has been published in various magazines, including The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Newsweek, Esquire, Bloomberg Businessweek, Vice Magazine, The Wire, Pig Magazine, CODE, and SLASH. Lavalette is currently based in Upstate New York.
Prudence Roberts was born in Philadelphia and moved to Oregon in 1985. She received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MALS degree from Reed College. She currently teaches art history and directs the Helzer Art Gallery at Portland Community College’s Rock Creek campus. Roberts has previously served as the curator of American art at the Portland Art Museum and she has curated Disjecta’s Portland2012 biennial, in addition to previous appointments as a guest curator at the Art Gym, Marylhurst University, the Center of Contemporary Art in Seattle, and the 2014 Cascade Aids Project Art Auction. Roberts is a member of the board of Disjecta Contemporary Art and of Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts. She has served on panels for the Regional Arts & Culture Council, the Ford Family Foundation, and the Oregon Community Foundation, and she is co-chair of Portland Community College’s Women in Art Lecture series.