Coming in April: WWU's Western Gallery presents Northwest artists on the environment

The Western Gallery will present "Critical Messages: Northwest Artists on the Environment” from April 12 through May 29.

The work of 26 artists from Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, Idaho, and California will be showcased in this exhibition that has been organized around eight environmental issues facing the Pacific Northwest: growth, waste management, production and consumption, transportation, wilderness and wetland preservation, biodiversity, climate change, and energy.

Multiple types of media will be featured in the show, including painting, sculpture, photography and other crafts.

“Contemporary artists are at the forefront of critical dialogues about social, political, and environmental issues. Although the artists in Western’s show cannot be labeled as environmentalists, this is one subject from many contemporary themes with which they work,” said Sarah Clark-Langager, director of the Western Gallery and curator of the exhibit. “The show gives several messages, some hard-hitting, some ambiguous, just like the environmental issues themselves.”

Organized by the Western Gallery in conjunction with the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University, the exhibition was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) award. Following its time at the Western Gallery, the exhibition will travel to Willamette University and the Boise Art Museum. Accompanying the exhibition is a catalogue that features all the artworks and essays by Clark-Langager and William Dietrich, a faculty member at the WWU Huxley College of the Environment.

Western Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, except for Wednesdays when the gallery is open until 8 p.m., and noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. For more exhibition details please visit http://westerngallery.wwu.edu/ or call (360) 650-3900.