Cliff Notes
Each week, our regional Cliff Notes columnists Christine Miller, Rachel Elizabeth Jones, Sam Hiura, and Nia-Amina Minor pick the most exciting events and exhibitions on the West Coast.
Stephan Soihl: Spaces Between
Black Fish Gallery (Main Gallery), Portland, Oregon
May 1 to June 1, 2024
Looking at Stephen Soihl’s watercolor paintings in Spaces Between at Blackfish Gallery feels like entering into a dream. As someone who paints with watercolors, I’m often asked how I handle medium’s challenges. My response remains that the paint doesn’t just do what you tell it to do, you have to talk to it and feel it to understand the direction the watercolors want to go and how they want to dry.
These paintings awaken my five main senses—I hear birds, see bright colors, smell nature, taste tomatoes, and feel the wind. Accompanying Soihl’s paintings are kinetic sculptures of garden flora and 3D forms, designed as if they are to roam the garden. The watercolor pieces and sculptural works form an unexpected yet harmonious, adding depth and movement to an overall sensory experience.
Ryan Pierce: Improbable Springs
Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, Oregon
May 2 to June 1, 2024
I often think about the end of 2020 when the world stood still, stories emerged of nature healing from human overuse. Later, these proclamations were debunked as myths, but it’s still heartening to imagine different fish populations restoring and the earth regenerating its protective layers unseen to the human eye.
Ryan Pierce’s exhibition Improbable Springs at Elizabeth Leach Gallery takes me back to that time. Pierce’s large-scale paintings expose the tension between nature and man-made, envisioning a world where nature dominates and the remnants of humanity are all that remain. The show initially appears as littered trash—scattered sandals, backpacks, clothing, watches, and books as evidence of the human imposition on nature. However, it’s quite the opposite. Inspired by a six-week hike in 2018, where Pierce was immersed completely in nature, the show serves as a powerful reminder that nature existed first and, regardless of human existence, or demise, nature will always endure.