This content was published: June 8, 2023. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
Erinn Kathryn and Sara Osebold
Rock Creek Helzer Gallery
OPENS presents: Erinn Kathryn, Sara Osebold
What We Already Know
Left: Erinn Kathryn, Venus, Found wood, metal, lichen and other natural materials, gold leaf, Variable dimensions, 2021. Right: Sara Osebold, At Snow’s Continuum, Clay, watercolor, graphite and colored pencil on Lokta paper, 14″ x 11″, 2023
- Exhibition dates: May 30 – August 31, 2023
- Gallery hours: Monday – Thursday, 9am-3pm
What we already know are the things we think we have forgotten- things that we perceive as disconnected from our contemporary experience through industry, technology and capital. We know that we are made of the same things as trees and gophers but somehow no longer allow ourselves to feel this truth. We have the information, but do not know how to know these things in our bodies. We spend money, time, sweat, and tears trying to find these things we should know. We already know. The things are in us. The question is how do we look for them?
The work of Sara Osebold and Erinn Kathryn can give us clues. In the work of Kathryn, found objects are treated with reverence and amassed to create protective totems. Transformation is key- a reseeing of what is already there, a kind of magic that comes from opening oneself to the entirety of an object’s history and story. This allows us, the viewers, to feel the connectedness of each thing- the stick that fell from a tree that was part of a forest that drank rain and worshiped the sun.
Osebold’s drawings are intuitive and searching. They are reminiscent of shields and sutures and possibly symbolic forms that are assembled into an intricate whole. There is a sense of the same kind of protective magic as in Kathryn’s work- a seeing outside of the everyday, seeing with a clear eye. Clay is used alongside graphite and water media to create images that hover between an earthy wholeness and feathery ephemerality. In this way, Osebold suggests a way to look for what we know- to hold two truths at once.
Through connection to nature and natural materials, re-seeing, and intuition, both of these artists create work that points to what we already know. In the end, this knowing does not require facts from outside, but rather feeling and looking inward.
Curatorial statement by Ben Buswell
The Helzer Gallery is pleased to partner with OPENS to present this exhibition. OPENS’ mission is to introduce unrepresented artists to new audiences by showing work in serendipitous and non-traditional venues. OPENS’ ability to provide affordable quality work to new and established collectors is due to the generous collaboration of the venues that they partner with. OPENS has no overhead, therefore OPENS does not need to take a percentage commission from sales. Collector purchases directly support working artists.
Please contact benbuswell@gmail.com for sales inquiries or find OPENS on IG @opensgallerypdx.