LA GRANDE — Art Center East opens two art shows with a reception on Friday, April 4, 6-8 p.m. at ACE, 1006 Penn Ave.

Eastern Oregon University’s annual Junior Exhibition “Collideoscope” will be in the Main Gallery. Part of the EOU Art Department capstone sequence, the Junior Theory and Practice class guides students through concentrated research, writing and studio exploration. Students in the class have each begun to develop focused bodies of work, and these are the pieces on display in “Collideoscope.”

The featured student artists include Shelby Bell, Samantha Choate, Abby Colby, Andrea Grigg, Jack Hess, Henry Hoelscher, Megan Hurley, Elisabeth Munsell and Baron Ucharm.

“Displaying the Memory of Touch,” a mixed media collage exhibit by Seattle-based artist Genevieve Gaudreau Thompson, opens in the Orlaske Gallery.

The show explores Thompson’s relationship and experience with loss and the grief that follows, according to a press release. Through layered mixed media collage, Thompson examines her complex emotions surrounding loss by using nostalgic imagery that is a recurring theme in her work. Each piece resembles a personal self-portrait.

Thompson grew up in Wichita, Kansas, and moved to La Grande in 2011 to attend EOU, where she earned a bachelor of science in art. She has exhibited her work throughout the Pacific Northwest and now lives and works in Seattle.

Raffle tickets for an original piece by Thompson will be available for purchase in person at ACE and online beginning Friday, April 4. Tickets may be purchased through April 26; with proceeds benefitting the ACE Gallery Program. The raffle winner will be contacted and announced after April 26.

Art Center East is open Wednesday–Friday from noon to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Exhibits also can be viewed online at artcentereast.org thanks to a partnership with High Country Realty Professionals in La Grande. ACE galleries are open to the public, and admission is always free.