Joanie Krug With Guest Artists Kay Danley and Sue Friesz

Zig Zag--as your eyes move across a canvas or traverse a figure in space

~Joanie Krug

For the month of September Gallery 114 presents "Zig Zag," a show of paintings by gallery artist Joanie Krug, along with sculpture by guest artist Sue Friesz and paintings by guest artist Kay Danley. The show opens Thursday, September 2, and runs through Saturday, October 2. There will be an Artist Reception with artist talks and readings of ekphrastic poetry by Sarah Bokich, Dale Champlin, and Jennifer Dorner on Sunday, September 12, 1-3 pm.

Joanie Krug is a Portland artist who describes herself as attracted to the unexpected, even to random events that all of us encounter on a daily basis. She says her work may challenge us to to embrace the turnarounds in life: "They leave us with a different perspective and invite us to land in a new space." Working in both charcoal and oils, Krug's subject matter has focused predominantly on women in expressive emotional and social moments. There is a spontaneity of gesture in her figurative work that fuels the spirit of her imagery.

More recently, Krug has been exploring landscapes and interior environments and the myriad ways that color, space, and design inhabit a rectangle. Moving away from the more graphic imagery that characterized earlier work, she offers new paintings that embody energy and emotion in varied palettes and brushstrokes. She describes her painting process an an eventful journey, incorporating layers of effort to finally land on a moment of resolution.

Joanie Krug has been a member artist at Gallery 114 since 2014. Her paintings have been exhibited in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Portland, and her work is in several collections across the U.S. and in South Africa. In addition to being a figurative painter, she also has been employed in the profession of special education as teacher, facilitator, advocate, and consultant.

Showing as a guest at Gallery 114 is multidisciplinary artist Sue Friesz, who currently maintains a studio in Newport, Oregon. She spent the latter 1990s living in Paraguay, Brazil, and Egypt, and holds bachelor's and master's degrees in art, the latter from University of Central Missouri. She has won grants from the Avenue of the Arts Foundation and Public Arts Commission in Kansas City, Missouri, and a fellowship from the Edwin Austin Abbey Memorial Fund at the National Academy of Design in New York City.

In her sculptural work, Friesz draws from pulse and movement she observes in her surroundings. She remarks on the quietness of a wooded area, how it filters out the sounds of our everyday life: "One set of systems replaces another. Streets and traffic give way to plants, trees, and vines. In them I find distinctive rhythms and patterns to use in my work." The patterns and rhythms begin to surface out of elements she sees--as with plant life when wind bends leaves in the same direction, seedpods form clusters, or branches grow at the same angle.

Guest Kay Danley is a Portland painter whose work evokes a feeling of being transported from the literal world into one of reflection and imagination. "Urban life" she says, "is a rich and wondrous source of human interaction. What are people thinking, doing, responding to? Our internal lives coalesce with our external environment." Drawing images from urban architecture, she finds a rich source for composition, in its built-in structure. "My creative challenge is to interpret the architectural elements of urbanity alongside their personal associations. It's a symbiotic relationship, an abundant stage for the human condition."

Kay Danley has a degree in art from Prescott College and has taught drawing and painting through the International Baccalaureate Fine Arts Programs. Her paintings are in collections in the U.S. and Germany and are installed in the U. S. Embassy in Thailand. She has participated in many workshops throughout her years as a painter but considers herself self-taught through the trials and tribulations of the painting experience. She has two books illustrating her paintings: Kay Henning Danley, Selected Works and Kay Henning Danley, Paintings: the Years of Upheaval, 2018- 2021.

Image featured: Joanie Krug, Kaleidoscope, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in.

HOURS: 12-5 pm Friday-Sunday and by appointment 503-705-5669. Face masks are currently required.

Special Event--Sunday, September 12, 1-3 pm