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CAS in the Media Arts and Sciences Media Headlines

Blending worlds, exploring space

Ceramic artist’s vessels layer materials, experiences

Ann Christenson
Ann Christenson

Curator Ryan Hardesty imagines ceramics artist Ann Christenson’s studio walls as porous, the boundary between art and life cleared with ease.

Ideas move in, become entangled with other ideas, “and there’s kind of this resulting beautiful array.”

Some of the results – more than 100 pieces, many containing references to Christenson’s cross-cultural experiences, her domestic environment and the natural world – are on display at the Museum of Art/WSU in Pullman.

Christenson, who began teaching at WSU in 1990, retired from the university in 2012. She’s been using clay to make art for more than 50 years.

While the exhibition includes a sampling of Christenson’s early work, the bulk of it is more recent, Hardesty said. The show includes “intimate” semi-functional pieces – bowls, mugs, teapots – along with sculptural vessels and larger-scale sculptural works combining steel and clay.

Learn more about the exhibit and artist

Sept. 1: Tri-Cities exhibit to feature Northwest wood creations

Peter Christenson
Peter Christenson

“Wood Creations,” a month-long exhibit by 14 Pacific Northwest artists featuring art made primarily from wood, will open Sept. 1 at WSU Tri-Cities.

Located at the Art Center in the WSU Tri-Cities Consolidated Information Center, 2710 Crimson Way, in Richland, the exhibit will showcase 36 works reflecting a variety of techniques and proficiencies.

Peter Christenson, WSU assistant professor of fine arts and curator of the Art Center, said a number of the 14 exhibiting artists will also be on hand to discuss their works at the exhibit’s opening reception, which is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Sept. 9.

Learn more about “Wood Creations”

Aug. 18-Sept. 13: Faculty ceramics at Museum of Art

Ann Christenson
Ann Christenson

A retrospective of ceramic works by retired fine arts faculty member Ann Christenson will be on exhibit Aug. 18-Sept. 13 at the Museum of Art at WSU Pullman. An opening reception will be at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28, in the museum gallery with a talk by the artist at 7 p.m. Admission to the museum is free.

Since 2004, the museum has presented works by fine arts faculty members, alternating large group shows with exhibits showcasing individual artists.

Christenson’s work often resembles a confluence of juxtapositions: organic yet geometric, industrial yet primeval, intimate yet worldly and awkward yet elegant. She draws influences from her cross-cultural experiences, her domestic environment, the historical diversity of ceramic art and the natural world in order to explore space and material.

Images and more about the show

Aug. 2-Sept. 16: Faculty art opens gallery in historic site

Dennis DeHart
Dennis DeHart

A photography exhibit by fine arts faculty member Dennis DeHart will inaugurate a new art gallery in a Hollywood landmark frequented by film and music titans.

“Concentrate to the Quiet” will run Aug. 2-Sept. 16 at SPOT Photo Works in the buildings known as “Crossroads of the World” at 6679 Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, Calif. An opening reception will be 6-9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 2.

DeHart is compelled by the connections, conflicts and intersections of the natural and cultural worlds: “My main concern is expressing interconnections – that what we do in our own backyard has a broader effect on the larger world we live in.”

Find out more about DeHart’s show at Hollywood’s SPOT

Through May 16: Exhibit considers Hanford residents

Hanfords Voice Exhibit poster
Hanfords Voice Exhibit poster

WSU history graduate students studying the oral histories of the Hanford Site have created an exhibit of its labor force and residents, running through May 16 in the atrium exhibit case of Terrell Library at WSU Pullman.

“Hanford’s Voices: Exploring Labor at Hanford Through the Stories of its Residents” pulled together students from the Vancouver, Tri-Cities and Pullman campuses enrolled in History 528, “Seminar in Public History,” according to course participant and history master’s student Robert Franklin.

To create the exhibit, the students relied on the Hanford History Partnership, which has collected narratives of the men and women who lived in the area before 1943 and who worked at the Hanford Site after.

Learn more about the exhibit