Heather Watkins: Object Stories installation at the Portland Art Museum

From now through late October, the Object Stories gallery in the Lower Level of the Portland Art Museum will feature “Artist to Artist” highlighting selected works by five contemporary Northwest artists. This collaboration between the Museum’s Education and Curatorial departments brings together two pairs of Northwest artists—Lee Imonen and Lucinda Parker; Mel Katz and Carolyn Cole— who were invited to select an example of their recent output to complement their work on view in the permanent collection. We asked the artists to think about each other’s work and record Object Stories that consider and critique the work.

The four artists’ works from the permanent collection are currently installed in close proximity to one another in the fourth floor galleries. Each pair comprises a painter and a sculptor and all four focus primarily on abstraction, with occasional representational elements in their imagery. The artist pairs knew each other: Mel Katz had been one of Carolyn Cole’s professors at Portland State University, while Lee Imonen and Lucinda Parker were familiar with each other’s works.

Also featured in this gallery is a fiber sculpture by Portland-based artist Heather Watkins, whose work comprises the current APEX exhibition on the fourth floor. Watkins’s Object Story addresses her process, motivation, and inspiration, and explains how her work has evolved over the past decade. To view additional works by the artist, visit the exhibition APEX: Heather Watkins, which is on display through October 20th.

This Object Stories presentation is unusual as these works are not drawn from the Museum’s permanent collection. We hope you enjoy listening to these world-class local artists talk about their work and the work of their colleagues. Stay tuned for more exciting Object Stories projects this fall!

To learn more about Object Stories or to listen at home, visit objectstories.org. Find these Heather's story clicking on the link below:

APEX artist Heather Watkins on her work and process
http://www.objectstories.org/stories/#!/?Story=bd3a2e42-da05-e311-93f8-0...