Heather Watkins, Hidden Span IV, 2022, gold pigment and ink on paper, 39” x 27” x 2”
PDX CONTEMPORARY ART is pleased to present Elemental Things, a solo exhibition by Heather Watkins. The works in this exhibition developed through multiple, successive actions and gestures, each move informed by the last. Ink drawings made by pouring and guiding ink across a surface were then excised and freed from their grounds to become sculptures.
Molded metallic reliefs that at first glance appear to be formed by great force, perhaps involving an industrial process, turn out to be ink drawings made on the back of a luminous, lightweight sheet of paper. A collection of mysterious ink drawings made with ink-soaked cotton cord draws influence from the beginnings of Ovid’s Metamorphosis. Heather Watkins’ practice is rooted in a deep engagement with the transformation of materials, with a desire to find ways to hand off a part of the creative process to forces beyond her control. Watkins works with the elemental forces that shape our world— gravity, suspension, compression, evaporation—embracing flux states and unforeseen results.
Some of the works included in this exhibition were originally commissioned by and presented in a two person exhibition curated by Stephanie Snyder at the Cooley Gallery at Reed College, Dark Moves: Fabiola Menchelli & Heather Watkins.
Watkins holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a dual Bachelor’s from Pitzer College in English and Classical Studies. She currently resides in Portland, OR where she is represented by PDX CONTEMPORARY ART, and has served as a faculty member at Lewis & Clark College, the Art Institute of Boston, and Massachusetts College of Art. Heather Watkins has been the recipient of grants from the Oregon Arts Commission, the Ford Family Foundation, and the Regional Arts & Culture Council. She has also been awarded residencies at Township10 (Marshall, North Carolina), Caldera (Sisters, OR), the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology (Otis, OR) and Em Space Book Arts Center (Portland, OR). Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions regionally and nationally including at the Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR), The Art Gym at Marylhurst University (Marylhurst, OR), Cooley Gallery at Reed College (Portland, OR), PDX CONTEMPORARY ART (Portland, OR), The Lumber Room (Portland, OR), the Hoffman Gallery at the Oregon College of Art and Craft (Portland, OR), Broadway Gallery at Portland State University (Portland, OR), Nine Gallery (Portland, OR), Disjecta (Portland, OR), CoCA (Seattle, WA), Law Warschaw Gallery (St. Paul, MN), Planthouse (New York, NY), and CANADA (New York, NY). Watkins is currently represented by PDX CONTEMPORARY ART in Portland, OR.
Her work is included in the collections of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at University of Oregon (Eugene, OR), the Miller Meigs Collection (Portland, OR), the Portland Art Museum, Portland State University, the Regional Arts & Culture Council Portable Works Collection (Portland, OR), Portland Community College (Portland, OR), Lewis & Clark College’s Aubrey Watzek Library (Portland, OR), and the Artist’s Book Collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY), Newberry Library (Chicago, IL), Rhode Island School of Design Library (Providence, RI), and Oberlin College Art Library (Oberlin, OH).
Mentions and reviews of Watkins’ work and exhibitions have been featured in The Oregonian, Oregon Arts Watch, PORT, Visual Art Source, the semi-finalist, and Willamette Week. She has also been featured in catalogue essays for The Art Gym at Marylhurst University, the Watzek Library Special Collections, The Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery at Reed College, and The Ronna and Eric Hoffman Gallery of Contemporary Art at Lewis & Clark College.
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