Waste Not

Friday, August 8, 2014 - Sunday, August 31, 2014
Opening Reception: Friday, August 8, 2014 6:00 - 9:00 pm
Gallery Hours: Friday – Sunday, 12:00 – 5:00 pm and by appointment

The spirit of rejuvenation, rebirth and environmental conservation come to life in palpable artworks on view at two shows opening Aug. 8 at Disjecta Contemporary Art Center and Nisus Gallery, 8371 N. Interstate Ave., Portland, Oregon. An opening reception for the shows is scheduled from 6 p.m. to 9 Friday, Aug. 8.

Opening at Nisus Gallery, located next door to Disjecta, is a solo show, “Waste Not,” by Portland artist Natalie Sept. Sept, too, was given access to the Metro Central Transfer Station and spent many hours there in order to create a series of paintings that capture the seemingly uneventful daily drama of employees who work there receiving and separating the dizzying volume of discards that migrate through the busy transfer station.

Sept’s show was administered and funded by Metro through its Let’s Talk Trash program, an event series to raise awareness about how our region manages its garbage and the choices we face for the future. Sept works primarily as a painter and last year had a much talked about solo exhibit at The Cleaners venue near The Ace Hotel. That show, too, operated as a snapshot of a specific sub-culture – dishwashers at Portland-area restaurants. This time, Sept will use her observational eye and realist painting technique to bring to life in vivid paintings the goings on at a resource recovery facility.

GLEAN, opening at Disjecta, is a group show featuring five emerging and mid-career artists – Sarah Bernstein, Francesca Berrini, Alyssa Kail, Michelle Liccardo, and Whitney Nye – displaying sculptures, collages and bas-relief works. Each artist uses discarded objects, or trash, and reinvents these found materials as the basis of their artwork. All of the materials used by the artists were taken from Metro’s Central Transfer Station in Northwest Portland.

 

About the Artists

Natalie Sept: Natalie is a sixth generation Oregonian who splits her time between politics and art. A graduate of the painting program at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, Sept has spent time living in Japan, India, Sweden and Spain. Her artwork focuses around storytelling and portraiture and highlights the work of otherwise unseen laborers in society. This fall, Natalie will be leaving her job as District Representative for Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici in order to pursue an advanced fine arts degree at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.

Website: nataliesept.com

Natalie Brehring: Natalie Behring is a freelance photojournalist based in Portland, Oregon. She has photographed news events, portraits, and documentary reports in the USA, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Asia. A Chinese speaker, she has spent more than a decade documenting the modernization of China. She has won several awards in the NPPA and POY contests.Working languages include Chinese (Mandarin) and German.

Website: nataliebehring.com

Rachel Bracker: Rachel Bracker is a videographer, video editor, production assistant, and everything in-between. But I don’t fly or fight crime. The “super” simply stands for the quality you’ll find in every project. My greatest priority is telling your story in the most creative and budget-friendly way possible. So when you need a hero to come and save you, don’t look to the skies. They’re probably cloudy anyway! Give me a call and together we can make the streets of Portland safer… for awesome videos.

Website: superbrackerproductions.com

 

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