Reception and artist’s talk is Friday, April 18

PENDLETON — The spring term exhibition at the Betty Feves Memorial Gallery features the works of Charlene Liu, Isami Ching and Mika Aono. According to a press release, all are accomplished artists and educators with national and international recognition.

“Flood” opened April 10, and the reception is Friday, April 18, 4-6 p.m. in Pioneer Hall at Blue Mountain Community College, 2411 NW Carden Ave. An artist’s talk at 5 p.m. features Liu and Ching. Food and drinks will be served.

Gallery Director Nika Blasser said the artists selected the show’s title as a broad reflection, ranging from flood waters and a flood or wave of emotions to a flood of color/saturation and a flood of media.

“There are watery-looking elements in each artist’s work,” Blasser said. “I think part of why they selected this word is because of the variety of connotations and interpretations that are all available for a viewer.”

The trio worked together at the University of Oregon, where Liu (professor/printmaking coordinator) and Ching (senior instructor of art) continue to teach, while Aono (master printer and print studio technician) moved to Portugal several years ago and founded a printmaking studio.

Liu was born in Taiwan, raised in the Midwest and earned a Master of Fine Arts at Columbia University in New York. Her paintings, prints and mixed media installations weave together familial histories, cultural tropes and decorative motifs while exploring memory, heritage and identity.

Ching received an MFA in sculpture at Columbia University. He previously taught at both Columbia University and Parsons the New School for Design. Ching’s interdisciplinary approach integrates printmaking, sculpture and installation art. His work often investigates materiality, transformation, and personal and collective histories.

Aono was born in Japan and came to the United States in her early 20s. In a 2020 interview with The Register-Guard, Aono said her art journey began after receiving Japanese wood-carving tools as a child. Aono obtained an MFA in printmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute.

Blasser said the trio of artists “draws on their Asian American experience from first and second-generation intercultural lenses” each with a different style, approach to media and overlapping concepts.

“Mika has a series of gorgeous, layered wood-cut prints that have meticulous carving and watery-looking colors, rendering the shapes of tributaries and other map-like waterways,” Blasser said. “Charlene has a series of paintings with swirling colors and flood-like movements in the paint that wrap around hidden female figures (and flowers, patterns of hair, etc.). Isami’s drawings are meditative, rhythmic — almost hypnotic — patterns made from simple shapes.”

The exhibit continues through June 5. The gallery is open Monday through Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.bluecc.edu/feves-art-gallery or contact Blasser at nblasser@bluecc.edu or 541-278-5952.