Please join us on Zoom for an artist talk from Dylan Hausthor, whose exhibition, What The Rain Might Bring, will be on view at Blue Sky from My 2 to Jun 1.

This artist talk will take place on Zoom.

Please join us on Zoom for an artist talk from André Ramos-Woodard, whose 2023 Critical Mass Exhibition, BLACK SNAFU, will be on view at Blue Sky from Apr 4 to 27.

This artist talk will take on Zoom.

Please join us on Zoom for an artist conversation with Toni Pepe and Renee Brown, Pepe’s exhibition, Mothercraft, will be on view at Blue Sky from Apr 4 to 27. Renèe Brown is a PhD candidate at Boston University. Her research explores photo archives, text-image relationships, visual anthropology, and photo-based philosophies of knowledge. She is currently working on a dissertation about photo librarian Paul Vanderbilt.

This artist talk will take on Zoom.

Please join us on Zoom for an artist conversation between Sage Sohier and Christopher Rauschenberg. Sohier’s exhibition, Passing Time, wis on view at Blue Sky through Sat, Mar 2.

This artist talk will take place on Zoom.

We invite you to join our community town hall event to get a glimpse of our strategic vision and help frame our future.

This event will take place on Zoom

During this town hall, we will present an overview of our strategic plan and its key components. We believe that your insights and perspectives are crucial in shaping the direction of Blue Sky, and we are eager to hear your thoughts, suggestions, and concerns.

Agenda:

• Presentation of the Strategic Plan

• Open Floor for Community Feedback

Thank you for being an integral part of the Blue Sky community. Your participation is essential in helping us create a plan that truly reflects the needs and aspirations of our community. We value your input and look forward to a productive and engaging discussion. We look forward to your presence and contribution at the town hall.

Please join us in the gallery for a presentation on Zaharia Cușnir Archive with Victor Marian. Cușnir’s exhibition, The Joy of Living, will be on view at Blue Sky through Dec 30.

This event will take place on Zoom.

Victor Maxian (Moldovan, b. 1993, he/him/his), graduated from the Academy of Arts in Chisinau in 2016, is a filmmaker and curator. While working on his diploma film he discovered in an abandoned house the collection of photographs made by Zaharia Cușnir. He is the curator of several exhibitions made in Italy, Poland, Romania and in the Republic of Moldova. He directed a documentary film about Zaharia Cușnir which is in a post-production phase.

Please join us on Zoom for an artist talk from Richard Mosse, whose exhibition, Occidental, is on view at Blue Sky through Sun, Oct 22.

This artist talk will take place on Zoom.

Richard Mosse: Occidental is curated by Christian Viveros-Fauné and organized by Converge 45 and its institutional partners as part of its 2023 citywide biennial program Social Forms: Art As Global Citizenship.

Join us in the gallery and online for the YouTube Premiere of our 2023 Members Show: Balance

6:30 PM (PT)

YouTube Premiere link

Please join us on Zoom for an artist talk from Erik Östensson, whose exhibition, Tjärnen, is on view at Blue Sky through Aug 12.

This artist talk will take place on Zoom.

Please join us on Zoom for an artist talk from Mishka Henner & Vaseem Bhatti, whose exhibition, Energy Goast, is on view at Blue Sky throughout May.

This artist talk will take place on Zoom.

Please join us on Zoom for an artist talk from Kristen Joy Emack, whose exhibition, Cousins, is on view at Blue Sky throughout April.

This artist talk will take place on Zoom.

Please join us on Zoom for an artist talk from Frank Frances, whose exhibition, Remember the South, is on view at Blue Sky throughout March.

This artist talk will take place on Zoom.

Please join us on Zoom for an artist talk from Kevin Bennett Moore, whose exhibition, George, is on view at Blue Sky throughout February. Moore will deliver the Zoom Artist Talk on Thu, Feb 16 at 6 PM (PT).

This artist talk will take place on Zoom

Please join us on Zoom for an artist talk from Jordanna Kalman, whose exhibition, Jordanna and the Masters of Photography, is on view at Blue Sky throughout November. Kalman will deliver a Zoom Artist Talk on Wed Dec, 7 at 6 PM (PT)

This artist talk will take place on Zoom

Stitched Together

How can a woman alter an image someone else takes of her, in order to more fully express her own artistry?  How can a photographer collaborate with the women who appear in her photographs, to resist objectifying them? How can the intricacy of an embroidery stitch convey the immensity and diversity of India?

 Join us on Zoom on Wed, Sep 21 at 5:30 PM (PT) as Lois Leveen leads a discussion of photographs by Spandita Malik and embroidery by women from Punjab, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.

Malik’s exhibition, Nā́rī - Threads of Identity, is on view at Blue Sky throughout September.

Register in advance for this event: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwtfuqprjojGdMd1Rav40oElRx_Hv7mndvz

REFOCUSING is a free program from Blue Sky Gallery, where we explore ways to redefine and strengthen community by engaging online with photographs (and other art forms) and with each other.

Saddled, With History

What can twenty-first-century photographs of Louisiana convey about centuries of Creole culture and history?  How do images of Black trail riders challenge our expectations about horses and who rides them?  What do these photographs reveal about how Black community is built and how Black joy is expressed?

Join us on Zoom on Wednesday, August 24, at 5:30 PM (PT), as Lois Leveen leads a discussion of photographs from Jeremiah Ariaz’s series Louisiana Trail Riders, currently on view at Blue Sky.

REFOCUSING is a free program from Blue Sky Gallery, in which we explore ways to redefine and strengthen community by engaging online with photographs and with each other.

Sign up to get the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAqfu2rqj4qHtfYmeXoIE-z_k6gr0MC1QCn

Join us for a panel discussion with those close to late artist Ward Shortridge.

This event is both in-person and virtual

Doors open: 1:15 pm 

This retrospective exhibition, Beauty That Thrives Under the Ravages of Time, comprises work spanning a 20-year period, including the series Dupont Circle, Washington DC: Portraits (1999-2004), Portland, Oregon: Portraits (2009-2014) and Portland, Oregon: Houses (2018-2019). 

Shortridge was born in 1960 in the Washington, D.C area. At the age of 6 he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. Shortridge earned a master’s degree in social work from American University in the early 1990’s and started a career as a social worker soon afterwards. About the same time he began shooting photos of people he met around Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. He moved to Oregon in 2009 where he continued his social work and photography. Shortridge passed away in December 2019 at the age of 59.

Please register to attend the in-person panel discussion.

For the health and safety of the artists, Blue Sky staff, and attendees, we are limiting the number of registrations for the event. 

Please be prepared to show proof of vaccination (including booster) or a recent negative COVID test (within 48 hours) at the door. Masks required. 

Join January artist Jana Sophia Nolle for an Artist Talk regarding his Blue Sky exhibition, Living Room: San Francisco & Berlin.

THIS ARTIST TALK WILL TAKE PLACE ON ZOOM

Jana Sophia Nolle’s series Living Room: San Francisco & Berlin concentrates on the ever-growing rift between rich and poor. Now living and working primarily in Berlin, her conceptual photographic study of makeshift shelters began during her stays in San Francisco from 2016 — 2019.

Nolle works with people living on the streets to understand how their improvised dwellings are constructed. After establishing relationships with the unhoused individuals, and with their permission, Nolle approaches wealthy people for permission to access their homes. Then, in a performative act, she recreates and photographs the makeshift shelters within the homes of the wealthy.

The photographs are an inventory, a typology of improvised dwellings, cataloging their various attributes. The elaborate reconstructions show a conglomerate of repurposed items and materials, resulting in a series of architectural interiors. While aesthetically striking, Nolle’s resulting contrast of living spaces also touches on larger phenomena of socio-political changes, housing shortages, exclusion and gentrification. The project aims to challenge our perceptions and definitions of living space and wealth, of poverty, and the importance of refuge and security.

Living Room is an ongoing project. Currently Nolle is working on its European continuation in Paris and London.

Join January artist Kensuke Koike for an Artist Talk regarding his Blue Sky exhibition, Dear Friend.

THIS ARTIST TALK WILL TAKE PLACE ON ZOOM

In Dear Friend, Koike deconstructs vintage photographs or postcards to create new images by cutting, pasting and reassembling by hand. Many of his works visually transform in utilizing the approach of “nothing added, nothing removed,” by rearranging the pieces and parts, into something completely reimagined. Koike’s eye for the surreal reinvents found imagery into surprising and delightful objects. His “renewed” photographs challenge the viewer’s expectations with new associations that reveal humor, curiosity, absurdity, and beauty.

Join November artist Steven B. Smith for an Artist Talk regarding his Blue Sky exhibition, Your Mountain is Waiting.

THIS ARTIST TALK WILL TAKE PLACE ON ZOOM

Steven B. Smith's work seeks to create a portrait of our culture by engaging the many ways we value and shape the landscape. Your Mountain is Waiting was created in Utah, Smith's home state, after years living on the east coast. In this body of work Smith strives to show the complicated relationships that people who live in the west have with their surrounding environment. Whether they are recreating or building a new home their love of the landscape is expressed through conspicuous consumption.

Blue Sky is pleased to announce Remnants of an Exodus, a first solo exhibition by Al J Thompson featuring photographs from his monograph of the same name. 

Remnants of an Exodus is a love letter to Thompson's second home — Spring Valley, NY, a Caribbean immigrant community, 40 minutes from New York City. Thompson observes and experiences change firsthand, as the community undergoes a dramatic shift in both demographic and political landscapes. In turn, he finds Spring Valley fraught with insecurity and uncertainty but bound by love.