Press Release Exquisitescroll Pierce Liu May 2021

Visuals Available Upon Request FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 21, 2021 Contact: Kelly Brand, 503.224.0521, [email protected] Exquisite Corpse - A game in which each participant takes turns writing or drawing on a sheet of paper, folding it to conceal his or her contribution, and then passing it to the next player for a further contribution. The game gained popularity in artistic circles during the 1920s when it was adopted as a technique by artists of the Surrealist movement to generate collaborative compositions. -MOMA, New York Exquisite Shape artists: Judy Cooke, Christy Wyckoff, Jinie Park, Duane Zaloudek, Pat Boas, Paula Overbay, Christine Bourdette, and Michelle Ross. May 5 - 29, 2021 Print Wall & Works on Paper: Exquisite Scrolls Collaborative Drawings for the Pacific Northwest College of Art Through May 29, 2021 Ryan Pierce Awake Under Vines New Paintings Charlene Liu Lattice New Works –————————— The Elizabeth Leach Gallery is proud to be a host location for Exquisite Scrolls: Collaborative Drawings for PNCA, a series of (12) ten-foot long multipanel collaborative works on paper benefiting Equity & Leadership Scholarships at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. One artwork from the series titled Exquisite Shape, 2021 will be on view at the gallery May 5 - 29, 2021. The project was initiated and organized by multidisciplinary gallery artist and PNCA alum Malia Jensen to create connection at a time of physical distancing and underscore the vitality and importance of our creative community during an extraordinary year of challenges and social change. Exquisite Scrolls involves over 100 artists, instructors, and friends of PNCA. All auction and pre-sale proceeds directly benefit the Equity & Leadership Scholarships and has already raised over $30,000 through the generosity of artists, sponsors and supporters. Online auction: May 18 - 29, 2021. Find more details here. Additional hosting galleries include Augen, Blue Sky, Froelick, Russo Lee, and UPFOR. Ryan Pierce’s exhibition, Awake Under Vines, is the artist’s latest series of large-scale paintings that feature artworks that combine an electrified palette with allusions to environmental activism and radical resistance. In these new works, Pierce continues to illuminate relationships between the human and natural world through dynamic dreamlike imagery infused with moral complexity and wonderment. Amid overgrown foliage or desolate desert landscapes, Pierce includes swirling, floating, dripping clothing, tools and detritus that form a surrealistic treasure map of discarded objects from celebratory aftermath. In the painting, The Ever-Parting Curtain, hints of figuration and domestic life intertwine with wild animals, flowers, trees and twisted branches. The artist’s sharp societal critique synthesizes with his idiosyncratic imagination to invite viewers into evocative and joyful scenes that propose a collective reawakening. Ryan Pierce received his MFA from California College of the Arts in 2007 and a BFA from Oregon College of Art and Craft in 2003. His work has been shown nationally and internationally, including solo exhibitions at Elizabeth Leach Gallery (Portland, OR), Nine Gallery (Portland, OR) and at Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder (Trondheim, Norway). His work has also been shown in group exhibitions at the Schneider Museum of Art (Ashland, OR), STREAM Gallery (New York, NY), the Henry Art Gallery (Seattle, WA) and at Irvine Contemporary (Washington, DC). Pierce's work resides in the collections of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Seattle, WA), Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR), Hallie Ford Museum of Art (Salem, OR) and the Multnomah County Courthouse (Portland, OR). In 2019, Pierce was selected to participate in the inaugural exhibition of the Portland Art Museum's regional triennial, the map is not the territory. In the concurrent exhibition Lattice, Charlene Liu explores two aspects of her art practice: mark- making and image-making. Liu's recent watercolors and unique woodcut prints are thematically connected by floral imagery and highlight the diverse considerations of medium specificity. The exhibition reveals the artist's complementary approaches between the mindful deliberations of printmaking techniques and the observational immediacy of line seen in her plein air style paintings. An array of vibrant green watercolor hues capture the lushness of wild gardens through enlivened puddled marks, while the jewel-toned graphic patterned woodblock layers harmoniously build optic effects through color and form. Liu's title Lattice suggests structural components of her process and considerations of surface tension as she continues to expand visual possibilities through her polymorphous material skill. Charlene Liu's artwork combines watercolor painting, collage, pen and ink, mechanical processes and printmaking techniques. An Associate Professor and Printmaking Coordinator at the University of Oregon, Liu received her BA from Brandeis University in 1997 and her MFA from Columbia University in 2003. Solo exhibitions of her work have been held at Shaheen Modern & Contemporary Art (Cleveland, OH), Taylor De Cordoba Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), Virgil de Voldere Gallery (New York, NY), Galleria Il Capricorno (Venice, Italy) and Andrea Rosen Gallery (New York, NY). Her work has been reviewed in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and Flash Art International, and is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY), the New Museum (New York, NY) and the Progressive Art Collection (Cleveland, OH). UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS June 3 - July 31, 2021 Lee Kelly Recent Work New Sculpture June 3 - 26, 2021 Judy Cooke Form First New Work .

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