1969). Chinese; People’s Republic of China, 2006, Heavy Snow (Daxue 大雪. Color photograph. 39 1/2 x 52 7/16 inches. Gift of the Jack and Susy Wadsworth Collection of Contemporary Chinese Photographs
I can’t believe it is 2025. I wasn’t going to start this report with that comment, but time is flying by, and suddenly it’s a new year. Here we go!
Since September, we’ve been enjoying Qiu Zhijie’s monumental Tattoo series photographs in the Focus Central Gallery, and I’m looking forward to seeing his Twenty-Four Seasons photos installed in the Barker Gallery at the end of January. The show is organized by Yan Geng, our still-new Curator of Contemporary and Traditional Chinese Art, and Yan was in Beijing for two weeks in October and November meeting with Qiu (his last name) and conducting other research for shows from the museum’s Wadsworth Collection of Contemporary Chinese Photography. For the JSMA, as an art museum with a superb, worldclass collection of Chinese art, having a curator devoted to this area is
essential and long overdue. So it’s great to have Yan here, and I can’t wait to see how Qiu’s photos will fill the Barker space. His work spans photography, Chinese ink painting, installations, and sculpture, and he is one of China’s most active and influential artists. Please see Yan’s article elsewhere in this issue of the magazine, and don’t miss his Tattoo works, which are on view through February 16.
Artist Qiu Zhijie in his studio with Dr. Yan Geng, JSMA curator of Contemporary and Traditional Chinese Art in October, 2024.
Yan Geng with Vinie Zhang Miller and Katie Miller in Tattoo series show.
I’m also pleased that we are premiering Michael Brophy’s new series of paintings about the decommissioned Hanford nuclear site. Titled Reach, the works offer a somber and pointed look at the history and legacy of the place where the plutonium for the world’s first atomic bomb was produced. Ultimately Hanford produced the plutonium for most of the more than sixty thousand U.S. nuclear weapons, and a massive amount of radioactive atomic waste. The site itself, at the confluence of the Snake, Columbia, and Yakima rivers, was an important home and meeting place of Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. The paintings themselves signal the complex, fraught histories they engage, but leave plenty of room for us as viewers to decide what we think about Hanford, why it was established, and what we should take away from its story. These are contemporary history paintings and Brophy nods to that tradition deftly. They are also brilliantly crafted, with a deeply satisfying painterly “carpentry” of composition, brushwork, and color handling that I personally enjoy. I’ve followed Mike’s painting since he was still a student at Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) back in the 1980s, and it’s gratifying to see where he’s taken his work and ideas. On the staff front, I’m thrilled to welcome Peggy Whalen to the JSMA as our new Senior Associate Director of Development. She brings great fundraising experience and enthusiasm to the museum from previous posts as executive director of Family Relief Nursery in Cottage Grove, the development director of the Eugene Science Center (formerly Science Factory), and as the executive director of Womenspace (now known as Hope & Safety Alliance) in Eugene. She is a longtime resident of Eugene, who has served on social service and performing arts boards, and is the parent of a 2023 UO graduate. Peggy joined us in November and hit the ground running. If you haven’t met her yet, please say hello at the next museum event! I also want to thank Tiana Buckley, our Development Program Manager, for her strong work last year as we conducted the search for Peggy.
Following our successful fundraising gala and Esther’s departure, Tiana took on managing leadership council, assisting with Shared Visions fundraising, and processing gifts of art, while maintaining our membership program and organizing several successful events. Well done.
The end of 2024 also brought the retirement of Sherri Jones, assistant administrator of education. Sherri managed the Exhibition Interpreter program, the museum’s largest volunteer group, and made certain that Oregon K-12 youth had access to the JSMA for tours and hands-on learning. Her voice was essential in advancing our DEAI initiatives and she was responsible for establishing the museum’s first art camp for youth who are non-binary, transgender and gender curious, providing a welcoming space for creative exploration. Thank you, Sherri. You will be missed.
Artist Michael Brophy
Lisa Abia-Smith, Sherri Jones, and John Weber
Thanks to Tiana Buckley
I know that many of you are aware of our new website, but this is my first chance to talk about it in the magazine. The site was developed for us by Surface Impression of Toronto and London, who worked with an in-house team headed by Debbie Williamson-Smith and me, working with Jonathan Smith, Chris White, and Mike Bragg. Staff in curatorial, collections, and education all contributed ideas and feedback, as did our Leadership Council and LC committees. The site is a big step forward for us, and that’s an understatement. With plentiful and gorgeous photographs of our exhibitions, events, collection, and museum facility, our website finally lets people who have never visited the JSMA see how good this museum truly is. We look great—our galleries and architecture, the art we show, the events and programs we offer—and this website shows it! I am sure that it will result in more enthusiastic collaborations and cooperation from other museums, galleries, artists, collectors, and professional colleagues around the world. I also believe it will have a beneficial impact on our fundraising and membership work and strengthen our public profile across the board. My particular thanks to Debbie for her project management and to both Debbie and Jonathan for their content work on the “back end” of the site. And a big thanks as well to Aedan Crooke, Amy Hetherington, and Peter Pavement from Surface Impression.
The JSMA Leadership Council year is off to a good start under the guidance of new LC president Paul Peppis and vice president Doug Blandy. Our committees continue to thrive, with stimulating meetings that bring diverse voices to the museum from across the community, and we have student representation on the Leadership Council itself and on the committees, ensuring that graduate and undergraduate experiences and voices are in the mix.
Happy New Year,
See you at the museum, John
It’s (Still) A Magical World, Hobbes, Ol’ Buddy: Selections of Original Art and Strips of Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes, 1985-1995
Artist Project Space On view through February 2, 2025
Kitchen Table Talk
Focus Gallery On view through April 13, 2025
Four Seasons in Japanese Art and Tea Preble/Murphy Gallery On view through October 5, 2025
Collecting Stories: Chinese Art through the Historians’ Lens
Soreng Gallery On view through August 17, 2025
Pious Customs: Religious Painting in European Art
McKenzie Gallery On view through March 16, 2025
Landscape, Mindscape: Portrayals of Nature and the World from Korea and Beyond, 1700-2020
Huh Wing and Jin Joo Gallery of Korean Art
On view through May 18, 2025
QIU Zhijie 邱志杰 (b. 1969). Chinese; People’s Republic of China, 2006, Severe Cold (Dahan 大寒).Color photograph. 39 1/2 x 52 7/16 inches. Gift of the Jack and Susy Wadsworth Collection of Contemporary Chinese Photographs
Twenty-Four Seasons is the second major exhibition drawn from the large and distinguished Jack and Susy Wadsworth Collection of Contemporary Chinese Photographs, which was donated to the JSMA in 2018. This installation presents a series of twenty-four largescale digital prints created by the artist Qiu Zhijie 邱志杰 (born 1969) and explores critical questions about temporality from multiple perspectives, as well as the effects of time on individuals, politics, and social change.
Qiu Zhijie began his monumental Twenty-Four Seasons series in the summer of 2005. The Chinese title Ershisi jieqi (二十四节气) denotes a system based on China’s traditional solar calendar, which was standardized during the Han dynasty in the second century BCE. Each jieqi —which can be translated as “solar term” or “seasonal marker” —indicates a 15-day period; 24 of these terms constitute one full
year in a system that aligns seamlessly with the Gregorian calendar established 1,500 years later in Europe.
On the first day of each jieqi, Qiu was photographed writing the Chinese name of that solar term in the air with a specially-designed flashlight. He did this at a chosen place in whatever location he happened to be at the time. The resulting series of photographs presents mysterious characters for the 24 jieqi hovering in urban and rural landscapes both inside and outside of China. Due to the long exposure times, these images render Qiu’s light writing visible, just as paper reveals the momentary brush movements of a calligrapher. Qiu described such composite art as “calli-photo-graphy”—an invented term acknowledging the fertile interaction between his calligraphy and photography.
Barker Gallery | January 25 – June 22, 2025
QIU Zhijie 邱志杰 (b. 1969). Chinese; People’s Republic of China, 2006, Autumn Begins (Liqiu 立秋). Color photograph. 39 1/2 x 52 7/16 inches. Gift of the Jack and Susy Wadsworth Collection of Contemporary Chinese Photographs
In contrast to the notion of French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), who characterized the photograph as the outcome of a single “decisive moment,” Qiu Zhijie proposes the idea of processbased photography, as demonstrated in his Twenty-Four Seasons series. Qiu believes that the power of photographic images comes not only from within, but also from outside, in-between, and even before shooting. He transcends the previous debate between candid shots and posed photography by employing both methods in individual photographic works, and makes the direct cultural intervention the core of his photographic practice. Ultimately, by introducing a spatial narrative into the temporal dimension, Qiu activates the potential energy of his works as an awakening, transformative process of person, time, and place.
In an essay entitled “Time, Space and Photography,” Qiu remarked:
"We always mistakenly think of photography as an instantaneous art form, but forget that within the period when a shutter opens and
closes, what happens is an event, a drama, and perhaps a miracle. The length of time is flexible—it depends on our feelings. Thousands of years can be a blink, and one thought can span three thousand years."
Born in Fujian Province, Qiu Zhijie has been a leading figure in contemporary art since the 1990s. In 2012 he served as Chief Curator of the Shanghai Biennial and in 2017 as Curator of the China Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He is now a professor at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, the Dean of the School of Experimental Arts at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, and was recently appointed President of the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts.
This exhibition was organized by Dr. Yan Geng, Curator of Contemporary and Traditional Chinese Art at the JSMA. Generous support for the exhibition, programs, and forthcoming catalogue was provided by the WLS Spencer Foundation.
QIU Zhijie 邱志杰 (b. 1969). Chinese; People’s Republic of China, 2006, Insects Awaken (Jingzhe 驚蟄). Color photograph. 39 1/2 x 52 7/16 inches. Gift of the Jack and Susy Wadsworth Collection of Contemporary Chinese Photographs
Qiu Zhijie Tattoo
This exhibition features the renowned Tattoo series created by Chinese artist Qiu Zhijie 邱志杰 (born 1969), one of the most prolific and influential artists, critics, curators and educators in China today. Qiu began the Tattoo series in 1994. He, himself, is the bare-chested, expressionless figure in all the photographs. In the article “The Limit of Freedom”, he remarked:
"I envy Kafka and Giacometti, who had an external reality to oppose and who felt the force of alienation pressing upon the Self…. But I have lost such an external reality to press against. My environment and I are one, and nothing—neither movement nor alienation—can take place in this harmony. “I” is the name of an invisible man, and it will soon vanish even in my own memory."
Thanks to the transformative gift of over 190 important contemporary Chinese photographs from Jack and Susy Wadsworth in 2018, the JSMA is able to present the complete, large-format series of nine Qiu Zhijie Tattoo images. Monumental in scale, these celebrated experimental works explore the issues of alienation, self-identity, and the power of environment over human bodies. By using conventional shooting techniques to create a series of bizarre self-portraits, the artist invites questions about vision and illusion and the objectivity of photography, anticipating the “trust crisis” caused by technological advancements in digital imaging.
Qiu Zhijie Tattoo was curated by Yan Geng, Curator of Contemporary and Traditional Chinese art, and Anne Rose Kitagawa, Chief Curator at the JSMA. Generous support for the exhibition was provided by the WLS Spencer Foundation.
Focus Central Gallery | On view through February 16, 2025
QIU Zhijie 邱志杰 (b. 1969). Chinese; People’s Republic of China, 1994-2000, Tattoo Series Nos. 6 and 9, 6th and 9 th from a set of 9 color photographs, each 70 3/4 x 55 1/16 inches.
Gift of the Jack and Susy Wadsworth Collection of Contemporary Chinese Photographs
Reach:
The Hanford Series
Schnitzer Gallery | February 1 – April 27, 2025
In 2017, painter Michael Brophy visited the decommissioned nuclear production complex at Hanford, Washington. He observed its B Reactor, the world’s first full-scale plutonium-producing reactor, the former townsites, and remnants of the area closed off when Hanford’s facilities were established by the U.S. Government in 1943—a landscape forever changed. In a reference to the site’s nine nuclear reactors, now offline and cocooned in concrete, Brophy made nine paintings to document and process his experience and bring this history to light. Named after the Hanford Reach, a 51-mile section of the Columbia River
Michael Brophy’s
Michael Brophy (American, b. 1960). Reach: Dominion, 2024. Oil on canvas, 78 x 84 inches. Courtesy of the Artist and Russo Lee Gallery, Portland
“This is a landscape that has been written upon; stories have been laid onto this sealed-off place. I set out to express my story of this place in visual form.”
—Michael Brophy
along the area’s northeast border, Brophy’s series title conflates this geographical term with the philosophical and ethical implications of a complicated legacy. The 580-square-mile site remains one of the most polluted places in North America after thirty years of ongoing environmental cleanup.
Reach: The Hanford Series will fill the museum’s Schnitzer Gallery and will be the first solo exhibition at the JSMA by Brophy, one of the Pacific Northwest’s most prominent painters. It continues what
the artist calls his “Northwest Ethos” — a long-held commitment to examining the region’s history of exploration and settlement, and the relationship of its native peoples, historical settlers, and contemporary residents to the natural and increasingly urban world. In the fall of 2023, Brophy’s work was included in Many Wests: Artists Shape an American Idea, and in 2022-23, his work was on view in On Earth: A Fragile Existence, featuring works in the JSMA’s collection .
Clockwise: Michael Brophy (American, b. 1960). Reach: Fall, 2024. Oil on canvas, 78 x 84 inches. Courtesy of the Artist and Russo Lee Gallery, Portland Michael Brophy (American, b. 1960). Reach: Face, 2024. Oil on canvas, 78 x 84 inches. Courtesy of the Artist and Russo Lee Gallery, Portland Michael Brophy (American, b. 1960). Reach: Safety, 2024. Oil on canvas, 78 x 84 inches. Courtesy of the Artist and Russo Lee Gallery, Portland
2024-2025 Common Seeing My Heart May Be Satisfied
Focus Central | March 8 – July 20, 2025
Now entering its fifteenth year, the UO Common Reading program cultivates campus-wide engagement and programming around a shared book that is selected on the basis for its capacity to generate cross-cultural understanding, broaden perspectives, and create dialogue between students, faculty, and staff. The selection for the 2024-2025 academic year is Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H., a queer coming-of-age memoir that addresses intersectional themes of race, sexuality, gender, class, and faith through the author’s experience as a nonbinary, queer, Muslim immigrant.
My Heart May Be Satisfied was created as a visual response to Lamya’s vulnerable and profoundly empowering storytelling and brings together the work of four artists: Diana Al-Hadid, Jamil Hellu, Baseera Khan, and Saba Taj. All four are first- or secondgeneration immigrants to the United States whose bodies of work address many of the themes present in Hijab Butch Blues, such as gender identity and sexuality, navigating challenges of immigration and perceptions of ‘Otherness,’ combating harmful stereotypes, reconciling faith—or the lack of it—and identity, and creating, uplifting, and maintaining community.
This exhibition was organized by Alexis Garcia, Post-Graduate Museum Fellow in European and American Art, and a member of the 2024-2025 Common Reading Selection Committee, and Danielle Knapp, McCosh Curator.
Jamil Hellu, Untitled (Odyssey), 2023. Digital pigment print. 40 x 30 inches. Courtesy of the artist
Memory Works
APS Gallery | February 22 – June 1, 2025
Exploring the concept of technologies of memory, this exhibition examines artworks that question the myriad ways memory works and the tools that incite remembrance, reflection, and dialogue. The artists in the exhibition adopt and share their own tools to enhance memory, interrogate it, and contest the ways we remember and experience our memories. Their work employs mixed media such as collage, dried leaves, string, coffee, paper, and photography.
Communications scholar Marita Sturken defines “technologies of memory” as tools that can activate memory flows and encourage the creation of counter narratives as well as commemoration. Writing about cultural memory, Sturken explains how memory is constantly negotiated and reframed by objects, images, and diverse representations of historical accounts and contemporary events. As Sturken argues, “These are technologies of memory, not vessels of memory in which memory passively resides so much as objects through which memories are shared, produced, and given meaning.” Technologies of memory might include public artworks, film, posters, memorials, photography, ribbons, “and even bodies themselves” as these objects and sites not only evoke memories but can create new ones as well.
José Manuel Fors explains, “Mi primera exposición personal se tituló Acumulaciones; desde entonces tengo una marcada tendencia a acumular cosas… La acumulación de documentos y objetos no siempre puede tener un vínculo directo con mi memoria familiar, pero si es un trabajo íntimo que se va expandiendo” (My first solo show was titled Accummulations and since then I have a tendency to save things. …The safekeeping of documents and objects is not always related to a family memory, but it is an intimate work that keeps expanding).
Reflecting on the role of memory, another artist in the exhibition, Georgina Reskala, comments:
“A moment is alive each time we speak of it and remember it. And each time we speak of it we transform it. Every time I replicate an image, I mimic storytelling and memory making as I take a moment out of time, copy it, reshape it, transform it, or erase it. I am interested in the power of narrative and how it shapes our personal history as well as our collective memory.”
Other artists in the exhibition who examine notions of memory, identity, fragmentation, and amalgamation, include Matthew Picton and Elsa Mora.
This exhibition is curated by Adriana Miramontes Olivas, PhD, Curator of Academic Programs and Latin American and Caribbean Art.
José Manuel Fors (b. 1956 Havana, Cuba). Parasol, 2003. Mixed media, color photographic strips on umbrella frame, diameter 45 x 10 inches. Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Irwin R. Berman
David McCosh: Parallel with Nature
West | May 3 – August 17, 2025
A wide-ranging body of work completed by David McCosh (1903-81) in his Eugene studio, typically in the evenings, came to be known as his “Night Drawings.” These exercises on paper were more than simple ink or oil drawings of the specific landscape situations that McCosh keenly observed. Rather, they were opportunities for the artist to challenge his own process of seeing and knowing a familiar subject. He worked freely and intuitively, creating a large number of these works throughout the 1950s and 60s. Imagery ranged from elegant
line drawings suggesting branches to energetic tangles of trees and forest floors. Each demonstrates McCosh’s superb command of his materials and the statement by French Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne, an artist whom McCosh frequently referenced in his own philosophy of painting, that “art is a harmony parallel with nature.”
Featured works are drawn from the JSMA’s permanent collection and from the McCosh Memorial Collection.
Focus
David McCosh (American, 1903-81) Untitled (Night Drawing), n.d. Ink on paper, 20 3/4 x 27 5/8 inches. Gift of Anne Kutka McCosh
MFA Art Exhibition 2025
The University of Oregon MFA Art Exhibition 2025 culminates three years of independent research and experimentation by a cohort of five artists whose various practices engage a broad range of inquiry. This year, the MFA exhibition returns to the JSMA, making the work accessible to the UO and Eugene community, while celebrating the MFA graduates’ efforts in the professional standard of the museum setting. The 2025 cohort is Adam DeSorbo, Xinyu Liu, Kate
Montgomery, Jens Pettersen, and Gracie Rothering. The five artists showcased in this exhibition represent a diverse range of media and practices, spanning ecology and personal/cultural memory, to the bridge between death and the living world, symbolic institutional gateways, and ideas about abstraction through the materiality of painting.
Kate Montgomery, Rince Fada (Long Dance), 2024. Acrylic, microscope slides, stoneware, turntable, projected light, and sound, variable size. Image courtesy of the artist.
Working with Metal: A Teaching Selection
MacKinnon Gallery South | December 7, 2024 – September 7, 2025
The University of Oregon’s art department has a long and distinguished tradition of teaching metalsmithing and jewelry making. Working with Metal: A Teaching Selection draws on the JSMA’s extensive metalwork collection, presenting a group of works selected by current UO art faculty members Anya Kivarkis and Claire Webb to support their metalsmithing instruction. These works include pieces from the museum’s founding collection of East Asian art donated by Gertrude Bass Warner; works by Max Nixon, UO’s longtime metalsmith faculty member, donated by his wife Hattie Mae Nixon; works from the Margo Grant Walsh Twentieth Century Silver and Metalwork Collection, and other donations.
To help students visualize and appreciate the nature of choices and decisions metalsmiths make in the creation of their work, Kivarkis and Webb chose a wide variety of jewelry, hollowware (vessels), containers, candlesticks, and other objects made from silver, copper, aluminum, and other materials. Each piece offers an example of ways to approach problems, such as how to connect different components of a design; how materials can be treated to convey or obscure the impact of the artist’s hand; the possibilities that a repeated shape can offer; and other issues experienced metalsmiths routinely grapple with. Commentary in the exhibition elucidates what kinds of questions students will be encouraged to consider as they explore the works on view. For the general, non-student, museum-going public, Working with Metal opens a window into how professional artists think as they make, and how they evaluate other artists’ work as they consider the creation of their own.
Working with Metal: A Teaching Selection highlights the museum’s role as a university-based teaching museum. It supports object-based art instruction, offering faculty and students the opportunity to engage works of art firsthand in a direct, unmediated way.
The museum thanks professors Kivarkis and Webb for their collaboration on this project.
Students working in Visiting Assistant Professor Claire Webb’s metal forming course.
Top: University of Oregon Professor Max Nixon at his workbench, 1970s. University of Oregon Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Bottom: Wall Handarbeit Company (German, 20 th century). Watering Can, 20th century. Copper. Margo Grant Walsh Twentieth Century Silver and Metalwork Collection, gift of Margo Grant Walsh
Adapting Antiquity: Classical Receptions in American Art
| December 7, 2024 – June 1, 2025
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the ancient world? Some recall the architecture of Athens and Rome, others classical nude sculpture or the vivid red-figure Greek pottery. More will first think of the scores of gods, heroes, and monsters that star in ancient myths and epics such as Zeus and Hades, Achilles and Odysseus, Icarus and Oedipus, or modernday interpretations like Disney’s Hercules or Ridley Scott’s Gladiator. Centuries later, the legacy and influence of ancient antiquity continues to endure.
Adapting Antiquity: Classical Receptions in American Art draws upon the framework of classical reception, which has been defined as “the ways in which Greek and Roman material has been transmitted, translated, excerpted, interpreted, rewritten, re-imaged, and represented.” It examines how legacies and stories from the classical past have been adapted and redeployed to address contemporary themes, concerns, and socio-political issues. This exhibition considers four American artists whose work is in dialogue with the ancient past: Andy Warhol, Nelson Sandgren, Suda House, and William Cumming.
From Warhol’s playful exploration of the enduring celebrity of Alexander the Great to Suda House’s vibrant portraits of ancient goddesses, each work encourages an examination of our connection to the ancient past and how it transforms, and is transformed by, contemporary people.
This exhibition was curated by Alexis Garcia, 20232025 Post-Graduate Museum Fellow in European and American Art.
Morris Graves Gallery
Suda House (American, b.1951). Leda, from the Aqueous Myths, 1984, printed 2013. Chromogenic print, 20 x 16 inches. Gift of Suda House
Left to right:
TSUKIOKA Yoshitoshi 月岡芳年 (1839-1892). Japanese; Meiji period, 1886 September. How hopeless it is… - Ariko, from the series One Hundred Aspects of the Moon Ukiyo-e woodblock print in vertical ōban format; ink and color on paper, 14 x 9 5/8 inches. Gift of Irwin Lavenberg, The Lavenberg Collection of Japanese Prints
OHARA Koson 小原古邨 (1877-1945). Japanese; Shōwa period, 1930. Two White Rabbits Under Full Moon Shinhanga woodblock print in vertical ōban format; ink and color on paper, 15 7/8 x 11 inches. Loan from The Lavenberg Collection of Japanese Prints
OHARA Koson 小原古邨 (1877-1945). Japanese; Shōwa period, 1928. Reeds and Geese Shinhanga woodblock print in vertical dai ōban format; ink and color on paper, 19 x 14 ¼ inches. Murray Warner Collection
Recurring Seasons: Intertextuality of Seasonal Imagery in Japanese Literature and Woodblock Prints
Small Preble/Murphy Gallery | On view through October 5, 2025
Elements of nature and the four seasons are ubiquitous in Japanese art. Seasonal motifs can be found in paintings, prints, textiles, furniture and architectural decoration, and utensils for the tea ceremony. Many natural objects are associated with a particular season and often represent a certain theme, emotion, or mood. The cultural lexicon of the four seasons grew out of traditional Japanese poetry. By 905, the time of the Kokinwakashū, Japan’s first imperial collection of waka (thirty-one syllable poems), seasonality became one of the genre’s major themes. From there, seasonal aesthetics permeated all other art forms.
While seasonal beauty has remained ubiquitous in Japan, its cultural significance has changed over time. The traditional kind of beauty associated with the ancient court of the Heian period (794-1185) was revived with an added tinge of humor by urban commoners during the Edo period (1615-1868). Edo artists and poets often made fun of “courtly elegance” (雅, ga) using their “vulgar” (俗, zoku) wit. As Japan underwent rapid and intense modernization and westernization after its opening in the mid-nineteenth century, Japanese prints and
paintings featuring nature and seasonal themes became popular in the West, leading to the belief that such imagery was an essential characteristic of Japanese culture. One creator of such imagery was the artist Ohara Koson 小原古邨 (1877-1945), whose prints were exported and highly valued in the West, while remaining relatively obscure in Japan.
Seasonal aesthetics not only bridge genres, but also transcend time, sometimes accruing new cultural meaning upon revival. This exhibition showcases the intriguing intertextual nature of such themes in Japanese prints and highlights how they appear and recur with additional nuances in poetry, classical tales (including parodies), theatrical performances, and the culture of courtesans.
This exhibition was organized by Teppei Fukuda, a doctoral student in East Asian Languages & Literatures (School of Global Studies and Languages) as a part of a 2024 summer fellowship working with Anne Rose Kitagawa, Chief Curator of Collections & Asian Art and Director of Academic Programs.
Shared Visions Spotlight
ZENG Fanzhi 曾梵志
Water X is on view in the MacKinnon Gallery from December 4, 2024, until March 9, 2025.
ZENG Fanzhi was born and raised in Wuhan, China, during the Cultural Revolution and moved to Beijing in 1993. He quickly became a pioneer of contemporary Chinese painting, fusing together traditional East Asian techniques and subjects with German Expressionism, Romanticism, Pop Art, and other European modernisms. His work often bridges figuration and abstraction and is rooted in decades of research on color theory, iconography, and materials throughout art history.
Water X is part of a new series inspired by the legacies of Impressionism and Pointillism. The artist became interested in works that are recognizable from afar, but become
abstract when viewed up close, and are made visible by their color combinations. His latest works incorporate and challenge these techniques while combining subjects that are rooted in Christian, Buddhist, and Chinese Literati thought. Water X was recently featured in a solo exhibition at the Venice Biennale designed by Japanese architect ANDO Tadao (b. 1941). When asked about his interest in Zeng’s work, Ando replied: “At a time of so much conflict around the world, I believe his artistic vision, which serves as a bridge between Eastern and Western cultures, has a role to play in promoting a message of peace.”
ZENG Fanzhi曾梵志(Chinese, b. 1964). Water X, 2019-2023. Oil on canvas, 110 ¼ x 70 7/8 inches. On loan from the Collection of Dominic Ng
Toyin Ojih Odutola
The Firm is on view in the North Upper Hallway until February 9, 2025
Toyin Ojih Odutola was born in Nigeria and moved to the United States with her family at the age of five. In her early career at the University of Alabama, Huntsville, and the California College of the Arts, the artist became known for her drawings and works on paper. Using pencils, ballpoint pens, charcoal, and pastels, Ojih Odutola started exploring the complexities of Black skin as geography. According to the artist: “When I draw the skin of my subjects, I really want people to travel throughout them. The surface isn’t something I trifle with. In the making of the work, skin is the geography I travel in order to discover each individual and his/her story.”
Ojih Odutola has created a robust body of work that is rooted in travel and storytelling; she often weaves her subjects together with complex narratives that are inspired by art history, popular culture, and/or her own life. The Firm was created when the artist was building a series about fictional aristocratic Nigerian dynasties that were not impacted by the history of colonialism. In the drawing, nine people gather and relax in a richly decorated courtyard. Their clothing, jewelry, and environment point to wealth and status. As the artist said: “What would wealth look like in these countries if they’d been left alone?”
Toyin Ojih Odutola (Nigerian-American, b. 1985). The Firm , 2017-2018. Pastel, charcoal, and graphite on paper, 73 3/4 x 122 x 2 3/4 inches. (framed) Private Collection
Meet the Collections Staff
Behind every artwork on display at JSMA is a team of skilled professionals working quietly to protect and manage the museum’s collection. The collections staff—including collection managers, registrars, and photographers—are the dedicated caretakers who ensure each object is properly maintained and thoroughly documented. While their work often goes unnoticed by visitors, it is
Miranda Callander
essential to the museum’s operations, covering tasks like condition reporting, shipping coordination, detailed cataloging, and careful handling. These experts safeguard the museum’s legacy, preserving its collection and its records for future generations. They are the steady hands that keep the museum’s pieces in top condition and ready for public appreciation.
Miranda has the enviable task of managing the Shared Visions program. As Head Registrar, she’s responsible for legal contracts, logistical arrangements, and the condition documentation for artwork on loan to the museum. As Shared Visions Manager, she puts her BA and MA in Art History to work curating ever-rotating installations. Miranda joined the Collections department in 2012 and has nearly seventeen years’ experience in art registration at accredited academic museums. You will likely find her exploring the UO campus with her Albanian-born husky, Loma.
Alexander H. Ellis
You’ll find the newest member of the collections team, the JSMA’s Assistant Registrar, Alexander, armed with his trusty flashlight and Optivisor, closely condition reporting newly arrived artworks to the museum. With a focus on exhibition support, a typical day for the JSMA’s assistant registrar might include calling a new lender to discuss an upcoming loan, arranging international fine art shipping, and even polishing silver objects for their upcoming journey home. Alexander is also a practicing painter, has served as the assistant studio manager for a private painting conservation firm in New England, and holds an MA in History from the University of Vermont.
From left to right: Alexander H. Ellis, Jonathan Smith, Elizabeth Larew, Miranda Callander, and Chris White
Elizabeth Larew
As the Collections Assistant, Elizabeth assists with the coordination, care, and documentation of the permanent collection. She also supports Academic Programs by overseeing class tours and art viewings. Elizabeth joined the JSMA in 2019, bringing collections experience in galleries, archives, and museums across North America. She holds a BA in Photography and an MA in Photography Preservation and Collections Management. Outside the museum, Elizabeth enjoys baking, playing board games, and spending time outdoors.
Jonathan Smith
Jonathan began working for the JSMA in 2004 as a recent graduate of the MFA photography program at the UO. Over the following 20 years he has filled many roles in the museum — prep, facilities, graphic design, and since 2010 has served as the Collections Photographer and Database Coordinator. He manages the collection website and virtual tour program for the museum and has an interest in anything that can bring the art to a wider audience.
Chris White
As Collections Manager, Chris is central to the care and organization of the museum’s diverse collection. With a background in Object Conservation and Library Science, Chris ensures that each piece is meticulously documented, stored, and ready for future exhibitions. Working closely with curators and museum staff, he brings a detail-oriented approach to preserving the integrity and accessibility of the museum’s collection for future generations. Known for his commitment to quality and collaboration, Chris is dedicated to maintaining the museum’s legacy and smooth operations with support from colleagues across all departments. Chris also helps manage the UO’s active Percent for Art program, helping to bring art to the greater UO community campus-wide.
Preventive conservation, or more simply, measures that reduce or prevent the deterioration of museum collections, is a persistent concern in proper collection stewardship. To ensure the JSMA observes museum best practices related to preventive conservation, our collections department regularly evaluates and modifies guidelines for the care, handling, display, and storage of the JSMA’s permanent collection.
Last year, the museum undertook a major upgrade to the JSMA’s collections storage area with the replacement of nearly 30 fluorescent lamp fixtures in the Decorative Arts Vault. Light damage is cumulative and can cause irreversible damage to a wide range of collection materials. The most harmful form of light is ultraviolet (UV), and fluorescent lights emit large amounts of UV radiation. The JSMA swapped the fluorescent lamps for light-emitting diode (LED) lamps, which emit little or no UV light (and, as a bonus, are energy efficient). The project involved numerous staff members, including the facilities services coordinator, who managed the contractor; the collections assistant, who oversaw and directed installation; and the prep staff, who moved objects out of active installation areas.
A forthcoming improvement is the rehousing of selected works in our world class collection of Chinese imperial textiles and garments. Currently, we store these textiles flat in acid-free boxes; when folding is necessary, folds are “padded out” with acid-free tissue to prevent creasing. Although archival quality boxes are practical for our limited shelf storage, many of the textile boxes are full and the accumulated weight of the textiles within the boxes increases the risk of damage. In Winter 2025, we plan to install an oversized, archival flat file cabinet to house our most vulnerable and valuable robes. This will involve removing about 30 robes from various boxes into the flat files, reducing overcrowding and allowing them to be stored unfolded in the flat file drawers. Additionally, we will wrap each robe with a muslin sling so that it is simpler and safer to retrieve these objects for class use or exhibit. We are grateful for the generous support of Keith & Carol Richard, and the Max & Hattie Mae Nixon Endowment Fund, whose contributions made this essential upgrade possible.
Acid-free boxes and tissue paper help protect objects in collections storage.
Development News Member Spotlight: Ryan Rudd
Ryan Rudd is a super-senior at UO. He will be graduating this Fall with a degree in Philosophy. He has worked with Security as a Monitor, then as a Lead Monitor at the JSMA since 2022.
Tell us a bit about your background. What brought you to the University of Oregon?
I grew up in Grants Pass, Oregon. My family is LDS, so my devout siblings went to BYU. When I left the church in my late teens, UO was really the only other option. I started as a business major, because that’s what my parents wanted. That only lasted a week before I switched to psychology, then sociology, and classics. Finally, I found philosophy. It’s what I needed at the time. I had very few solid foundations as a functioning human being, so it taught me what it meant to think for myself.
What made you want to work at the JSMA?
The JSMA was the first job I’ve ever had that I could actually see myself doing before I applied. Preceding the JSMA, I had a number of jobs from roadkill pickup to wildland firefighter, and while I’m grateful to have had those opportunities, none of them fulfilled me. Then, when I encountered the JSMA’s hiring booth two years ago, something clicked into place. Museums are one of my favorite places to be, and barring Covid, I’d been to every major exhibition since I started at UO. It was a no-brainer.
What does being a student member mean to you?
Being a student member literally means some feisty discounts, a year-long post-grad membership, and tidy notifications to museum programs, events, and exhibitions. Although personally, it means being part of a family. Everyone who works here wants to show you the world of art as best they can. Sometimes they
challenge you: Necroarchivos de las Americas is a heartbreaking exhibition. Sometimes they make you laugh: I’ll never forget seeing Calvin and Hobbes originals. But they always place you where you can best deepen your understanding of what it means to be human.
What has been your favorite JSMA exhibition?
My favorite exhibition — I don’t think was an exhibition. James Turrell’s CAPE HOPE was as mysterious as it was extraordinary. It was placed in a dark room with an elliptical hole in one wall. The hole exposed a diffused light that slowly shifted from one color to the next on a two and a half hour rotation. Sitting with the art piece was like sitting in a featureless cathedral, listening to a Gregorian chant of one abiding note. According to the JSMA catalog, Turrell is interested in the, “immateriality of color and the sensorial experience of space, color, and perception,” but to me, it was holy.
How do you think the JSMA impacts the student experience?
The student experience at UO can be grueling. The tenweek system is rushed and compact, but the JSMA offers a safe haven for everyone. It rotates regularly, so what you see one day might be something completely different the next! All the more reason to check it out.
What do you wish other students knew about the JSMA?
The other day, I heard a professor call the JSMA a “hidden gem.” Many believe you have to go to a big city to see what we’ve got in our backyard. Patrolling the halls of the JSMA as a student monitor, I see giants like Picasso, Van Gogh, Cy Twombly, James Turrell. Every day’s a surprise, and there’s no better place to ponder in Eugene.
What are your career goals? How will your activities at the JSMA affect them?
My career goals are multiple. In terms of passion, I’m a board and card game designer. I produce games, sell them to companies, or self-publish and work directly with artists, manufacturing specialists, and distributors. That’s a process of teamwork and leadership, both of which the JSMA has taught me. Secondly, in terms of cash, I’ve got a load of options. I’m moving to Virginia in a few months, so I’ll apply at the Smithsonian. I could also do subbing or work in psychiatric care. Depends on what interests and takes me. In any case, I’ll always look back at the JSMA fondly. It’s been a great ride.
Welcome to our new Director of Development, Peggy Whalen!
University of Oregon Advancement and the JSMA are pleased to announce that Peggy Whalen has joined the university as the museum’s new Senior Associate Director of Development. Partnering closely with UO Advancement, JSMA executive director John Weber and other museum staff, she oversees development and membership efforts to build support for museum exhibitions, collections, academic and education programs, and other museum activities.
Whalen brings excellent fundraising experience and enthusiasm as a longtime Eugene resident and parent of UO graduate to the museum from her most previous role as executive director of Family Relief Nursery in Cottage Grove. She has also served as the development director of the Eugene Science Center (formerly Science Factory), and as the executive director of Hope & Safety Alliance (formerly Womenspace) in Eugene. “Peggy Whalen’s fundraising experience, energetic enthusiasm, and a strong record of success will be an asset to the JSMA,” said Weber. “Her experience with Eugene and statewide philanthropic communities means she hit the ground running. I am delighted to be working together!”
Whalen’s experience encompasses a comprehensive understanding of development, including major gift solicitation, donor cultivation, stewardship, grant writing for government and private foundations, major fundraising events, membership building, and development communications. “We are excited to leverage Peggy’s passion for the arts and fundraising acumen to effectively partner with our incredible JSMA donors and members to elevate the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art through philanthropy as the leading university art museum in the nation,” says Senior Associate Vice President for Development, Wesley Stewart.
Along with her responsibility as a fundraiser and non-profit executive director, Whalen has served on local Eugene volunteer boards involved in the performing arts and social services.
“I am thrilled to join the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art! After many years of working in nonprofit human services, this opportunity allows me to combine my commitment to community impact with my passion for the arts,” said Whalen. “I look forward to collaborating with both the JSMA and University Advancement to support the museum and help create opportunities for inspiration, education, and engagement.”
Ducks Give and the Anne Cooling Student Impact Fund
One of the priorities for the JSMA is to introduce university students to the breadth of careers available in the museum field and provide opportunities to learn, research, and hone professional skills. This effort is made possible in large part to the Anne Cooling Student Impact Fund. Established in 2019, this fund provides wages for students interested in museum careers and gives them the opportunity to explore curating, collections management, and museum education. So far, over twenty students have been impacted by this fund and this year, Ducks Give will raise funds to help even more students gain career readiness in the museum field.
“My time at the JSMA provided me with a solid foundation of museum experience, which has since allowed me to build an international career in the museum sector,” said past recipient Narsingh Khalsa.
“I applied for the JSMA’s Curatorial and Collections Management internship, which played an integral role in building the rest of my career in the museum sector.” Khalsa also worked with our visitor services team, researched and inventoried the David McCosh Memorial Collection, assisted with condition reports on Shared Visions loans, as well as collaborated with Danielle Knapp on the 2021-22 Common Seeing exhibition. He is currently an Operations Coordinator with NYC Exhibitions, Dietl International Services.
Top to bottom: Mac Coyle, Christalee “CK” Kirby, and Narsingh Khalsa
Curatorial opportunities are coveted by UO students and this fund allows us to hire curatorial interns and fellows. Students get the opportunity to work on their first exhibition and provide much needed support to the JSMA’s curatorial team. Mac Coyle, former Laurel Intern and Post-Graduate Fellow in Asian Art, was able to curate/co-curate four exhibitions in our Asian galleries during his time at the JSMA, including Rhapsody in Blue and Red: Ukiyo-e Prints of the Utagawa School; Fit to Print: The Dawn of Journalism in Japanese Woodblock Prints from the Lavenberg & Michels Collections; Fit to Print II: Constructing Japanese Modernity in Action and Body; and Capital and Countryside in Korea.
“As someone who is hoping to pursue a long-term career in the museum field, I feel my experiences at the JSMA have been an invaluable part of my professional development and will have set me up for success in my future career,” says Coyle. He is now working at the Denver Art Museum as Provenance Research Fellow and says, “I am incredibly grateful for all the wonderful opportunities I’ve had, and I would like to express my sincerest thanks for helping make these experiences available to young professionals such as myself.”
Recent graduate, Christalee “CK” Kirby, thrived working in our education department. She worked as the Education Program Assistant, helping with Art Heals and other projects; served as a mentor to students in World of Work, a 3-month paid internship program for high school students; and was an instructor for summer art camps. In addition, she served as the undergraduate Representative on the JSMA’s Leadership Council.
"My experience here at JSMA is the basis of what I want to do in the future. I worked on and had discussions with various JSMA staff in regards to works of art on view, including the different social issues they represent and the perspective of the African American experience from my specific point of view. Thanks to generous supporters, I am gaining the experience and insight on how museums run from behind the scenes and in return have helped connect the museum with other parts of campus.” CK is currently attending Drexel University for MA Program in Museum Studies.
The Anne Cooling Student Impact Fund helps the JSMA provide professional development, career readiness, and open doors for university students to explore the variety of careers available in museums and in art. On Thursday, May 15, please consider making a gift to increase the opportunities for student jobs at the JSMA!
Ducks Give is the University of Oregon’s annual day of giving, a 24-hour campaign that encourages alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff, and friends to support the university. It is about all sizes of gifts, from $5 to $1000, so we encourage you to donate on Thursday, May 15. If you want to have a deeper impact on the campaign, consider becoming a challenge donor, where your gift will inspire others to give what they can. if you would like to learn more, please
Our innovative Art Heals program reaches thousands across Oregon each year, impacting diverse populations through creative engagement that promotes well-being. Thanks to the leadership of Lisa Abia-Smith, Director of Education, and the work of a dedicated team of JSMA museum educators, Art Heals has grown substantially.
Art
Since its launch in 2010 serving around 300 people, the program now reaches over 3,000 participants annually. This success is a testament to our talented Art Heals educators, whose work continues to expand the program’s reach and impact.
Meet some of the inspiring individuals behind our Art Heals programs.
Dr. Anna Looney
A colleague at Samaritan Cancer Resource Center introduced J. Anna Looney to Art Heals in 2019, but her path to this serendipitous connection began in 2013 when she embarked on an intense study of Mind Body Medicine.
Looney spent her career working in both business and academic sectors. After earning a doctorate in Sociology from Rutgers University, she worked at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, NJ, doing qualitative research and systems change before moving into a Family Medicine faculty position in the medical school. Her background in sociology enabled her to introduce medical students to the complex social justice issues of the underserved and patients with disabilities, and the importance of a humanistic approach to hospice.
In 2017, Looney relocated to Albany, Oregon, where she devoted her time to teaching powerful self-care techniques learned from The Center for Mind Body Medicine (cmbm.org). These techniques combine the essence of ancient and modern best practices for well-being, hope and dignity. Since bringing Mind Body Medicine practices to Art Heals, she has seen joy emerge as participants discover their own innate creativity. In both in-person and online workshops, participants experience respite from their burdens of life, discover the delight of making art in a supportive setting, and make connections that build hope and understanding. Perhaps the best signifier of the power of Art Heals is the way it fosters ‘human artists’ who are able to see their struggles as part of the journey of life.
Heals
Dr. Rebecca Thompson
Rebecca Thompson came on board in the fall of 2023 as a consultant-educator with Art Heals; however, she has been involved with the JSMA since 2018 when she began leading workshops for Art of the Athlete She has led workshops for a variety of participants, including a session for Samaritan Health’s Postpartum Mother’s group for Latina women, and her “Bloom” workshop drew inspiration from Chinese textiles from the JSMA collection. She consults with Lisa Abia-Smith on arts and health initiatives, including co-leading a workshop in November 2024 for the National Organization for Arts in Health.
Dr. Thompson holds an MS in education, an MFA in sculpture from Cornell University, and a PhD in Applied Intercultural Art Research. As an artist and educator, she consults with diverse groups to inspire hope and a renewed interest in living life fully through creative methods. She has published nationally recognized profiles on health-related stories, and her monumental artwork can be viewed nationwide on university campuses, public sites, and private collections.
Thompson’s mission is to fortify the spirit of individuals and communities through public art and creative expression. She works closely with clients to form visual narratives reflecting their dreams, hopes, and unique histories. She enhances public spaces through meaningful works of art supported by her groundbreaking research called Biophilic Art & Design™. This framework is an artistic approach she developed that combines work in the arts, environmental design, and healthcare to foster ethical and caring relationships among humans, non-human living species, and the natural environment.
Betsy Wolfston
Betsy Wolfston is a Eugene-based artist celebrated for her commitment to community-centered art and her role in fostering connection and placemaking through her work. For over 30 years, Wolfston has created public artworks, gallery and studio exhibitions, and has contributed as an arts educator, shaping programs that make art accessible, meaningful, and inspiring, and engaging diverse audiences. A longtime advocate for the arts, Wolfston contributes projects to Art Heals that emphasize art’s transformative power in difficult times.
Wolfston’s teaching style is grounded in open awareness, encouraging people to explore creative prompts, and the many possibilities that different materials offer. By inviting participants to follow their curiosity and work intuitively, she creates a supportive space where art becomes a medium for personal reflection and expression, resulting in both meaningful experiences and works of art. Her approach underscores art’s potential to bring people together, foster empathy, and provide comfort.
Since being diagnosed with an incurable blood cancer three years ago, Wolfston has developed a profound understanding of art as a source of healing. This life-altering experience has deepened her commitment to art’s role in supporting emotional resilience. For Wolfston, creating art— and guiding others on their creative journeys—has become a path toward the acceptance and healing, and ultimately of mortality as a part of life. Her public artworks, seen across Eugene and Oregon in plazas, colleges, parks, and other spaces, are designed to inspire contemplation, foster a sense of place, and remind us of our shared humanity. Wolfston’s dedication to art as a tool for connection and healing continues to enrich her community, leaving a lasting impact on all who encounter her work.
Art Heals
Karla S. Chambers
Growing up immersed in the rhythms of farm life, Karla S. Chambers developed a deep appreciation for the intersection of nature, community, and creativity. She co-founded Stahlbush Island Farms in 1985 with her husband, Bill Chambers. Located in the Willamette Valley near Corvallis, Stahlbush Island Farms is known for its commitment to sustainable agriculture and innovation. With a background in agricultural economics, Karla has spent decades shaping Stahlbush into a leader in sustainability, blending her passion for environmental stewardship with an artistic sensibility.
In addition to her work in agriculture, Karla is an advocate for the arts, which she believes play a vital role in personal and collective healing. As an artist, Karla finds inspiration in the natural world, painting vibrant landscapes and abstracts that reflect the seasons, moods, and colors of Oregon’s environment. Her artistic practice is deeply rooted in the belief that creativity is a form of nourishment—one that feeds both the soul and the community. Through her participation in Art Heals, Karla aims to share her journey with others, encouraging them to embrace art as a medium for reflection and healing.
For Karla, farming, fine art, and high-quality food are all expressions of the same passion: providing nourishment, whether through the vibrant produce grown at Stahlbush or the creative spark that art can ignite. Karla’s artwork can be found on display in galleries across the country, including Gallery 444 in San Francisco, CA, and Arnot Gallery in New York, NY.
Dr. Grace A. Haynes
Dr. Grace A. Haynes is a board-certified family practice physician with over thirty years of experience, known for her compassionate, integrative approach to healing through medicine, art, and ministry. Currently practicing at Village Medical in Gilbert, Arizona, she holds graduate degrees from Creighton University School of Medicine and UC Davis. Dr. Haynes has received numerous awards, including East Valley Tribune’s Best Doctor and American Top Doctor, in recognition of her holistic, patientcentered care.
Dr. Haynes is the founder of Grace’s Song, a Phoenix-based nonprofit, and has served as a medical missionary in countries like Liberia, Malawi, Gambia, and Mexico. In addition to her medical work, she is a mixed-media artist, contracting and facilitating with Art Heals at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, the Northwest Narrative Medicine Program, and the University of Arizona’s Art and Healthcare department.
Dr. Haynes leads workshops that integrate art and healing, including body mapping for addiction recovery, creating mandalas for postpartum mothers, and honoring anatomy donors through art. Her sessions support UO students, individuals with cancer, chronic illness, and mental health challenges, demonstrating her commitment to treating the whole person through both medical and creative means.
Happy Retirement, Sherri!
Sherri Jones first started at the JSMA as a docent and quickly became a leader in arts management. She has carefully managed the JSMA’s dedicated docents—called Exhibition Interpreters, or EIs— leading training sessions that reflect her passion for inclusivity and education, and draw on her skill as a certified Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) trainer and coach. Under her guidance and with the support of two $1.5 million grants, the STELLAR Project (Strategies for Technology Enhanced Learning and Literacy Through Art) became a transformative project that measures the impact of VTS and arts-based programs to improve literacy for K-6 students. When school tours stopped because of the covid pandemic, her ingenuity fostered Art Teaches, a series of video introductions to objects from our collection that include downloadable curriculum guides for K-12 teachers.
Sherri is also a tremendous force in advancing the JSMA’s DEAI initiatives. She started our Art Exploration Summer Camp, making a space for youth who are non-binary, transgender and gender curious, providing a welcoming space for creative exploration. She is an active member of the UO’s Deconstructing Whiteness Working Group, and in 2022 Sherri was nominated for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Social Justice Award for leadership in modeling the values of Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity. She has mentored countless UO students, including the UO Leadership Enrichment Interns working at the JSMA, and high school students in the museum’s World of Work program.
Her leadership and unwavering commitment to equitable art education have left an indelible mark on our community. Thank you, Sherri!
Happy Retirement, Kerry!
The museum congratulates Museum Security Officer Kerry Wade on his recent retirement. Kerry started working at the JSMA in our Prep Department before joining Security where he worked for several years. Kerry is an advocate for the arts, accomplished artist, published author, staunch supporter of human rights, and a gifted gardener. What stands out most about Kerry is his ability to care. Over the years he provided warm, thoughtful energy and always made time for those around him. Of course he is missed by staff, but it is our student body that most heavily feels his absence in their daily life. We would say you are always welcome back, but as a pillar that helped build our institution, you will never truly be gone. Thank you for your time, energy, and creative passion.
Staff Updates
Sherri with UO students Gio Betancourt and Seberiana Lopez
Group photo following the Exhibition Interpreters holiday luncheon
Self portrait by Kerry Wade
In Memorium: Michael Powanda
After a long illness, California collector and JSMA donor Michael Powanda passed away on June 9, 2024. Born in 1942 in Jersey City, New Jersey, he attended St. Peter’s Prep and St. Peter’s College and spent countless hours as a high school and college student studying art in New York museums. He went on to get a PhD in Biochemistry at Miami University before joining the Army. Michael met his future wife, Elizabeth Moyer, PhD, at a science conference where she cited his research. They married in 1982 in Charlottesville, Virginia, and moved to San Francisco, where he worked at the Presidio until his retirement in the early 2000s. Together, they studied and collected all kinds of art. Elizabeth inherited a wide-ranging collection from her grandparents, and Michael briefly studied printmaking and was a connoisseur of European and American prints. Over time, their collection came to encompass diverse cultures, periods, and categories of art, including Chinese bronze vessels, mirrors, and snuff bottles; Japanese prints, textile stencils, and ceramics; American and European art glass and pottery; Middle Eastern and Mediterranean artifacts; artist books, and 17th-21st century works on paper.
Michael Powanda and Elizabeth Moyer became JSMA benefactors in 2013 and have donated and have helped the museum purchase over 600 artworks from Asia (420+), the U.S. (120+), Europe (50+) and Latin America (10+). They also helped bring visiting artists to campus and provided art and financial support for publications such as Voices of My Ancestors: The Papercuts of Catalina Delgado-Trunk (2016), and exhibitions such as The Faces of War: Gabor Peterdi and his Contemporaries (2016), and more. Michael’s print expertise and Elizabeth’s knowledge of Asian art found expression in their long engagement with Japanese mezzotint master Hamanishi Katsunori (shown with them at left), including a visit to his studio for the 2017 JSMA Japan Tour. They also commissioned two prints by Hamanishi and supported publication of his JSMA monograph Evocative Shadows: The Mezzotints of Hamanishi Katsunori (2019). Their most recent group of 170+ donations arrived in 2023, some of which are on display in Collecting Stories: Chinese Art through the Historians’ Lens (through August 17, 2025).
At Michael’s request, Elizabeth has worked with JSMA Chief Curator Anne Rose Kitagawa to commission a new mezzotint by Hamanishi celebrating the Stages of Life from birth, through growth, maturity, and decline, to be donated to the JSMA and other museums in his memory. Titled For Michael, the resulting mezzotint is a tour de force triptych. It depicts a flowing stream and golden clouds behind panels featuring the life stages of a ginkgo tree, from fluttering leaves, to seedlings, to a mature tree, to dense forest, culminating in the rich and varied life (birds and fish) that flourish in the rich environment created by the majestic ginkgo. We look forward to welcoming this moving tribute into our permanent collection, and thank Elizabeth Moyer and Michael Powanda for their vision and generosity.
HAMANISHI Katsunori 浜西勝則 (b. 1949). Japanese; Reiwa period, 2024. For Michael. Mezzotint triptych with relief-printed color; ink and color on paper, 17 3/4 x 36 ¼ inches.
In Memorium Sandra Lynne Lawrence Mattielli
On July 18, 2024 the JSMA lost a dear friend and supporter with the passing of gifted graphic designer and editor Sandra Mattielli. Born Sandra Lynne Lawrence in Portland in 1931, she attended Beach Grade School, Jefferson High School, and The Portland Museum School, before graduating from Reed College with a degree in graphic art and calligraphy. While working as an Arts & Crafts Director at a US Army base in South Korea she met Robert Mattielli, who was the Supervisor of the Arts and Crafts Division after the Korean War (1950-1953). They married, and in 1962 Sandra resigned her civil service job and began work as a freelance graphic artist. She edited, proofread, did Western calligraphy, and designed for numerous publications, both for individuals and The Royal Asiatic Society. She and Robert lived in Seoul for 30 years, raising their daughters there. Based in Portland in retirement, the Mattiellis traveled all over the US and South Korea and to many places in Asia, Europe, and Canada. Sandra’s later years were spent reading and enjoying her warm relations with her family and friends. Her last month at home was peaceful, with Robert and her daughters constantly by her side.
For years, Robert and Sandra Mattielli have supported the JSMA through generous loans and donations. Their remarkably broad and deep Korean art collection, amassed over decades of careful study, has helped to educate JSMA staff, UO faculty, students, and museum visitors about the country they knew and loved. Our current Korean exhibition, Landscape, Mindscape: Portrayals of Nature and the World from Korea and Beyond, 1700-2020 (June 8, 2024- May 18, 2025), includes three marvelous Korean literati painting loans from their collection. In November the family donated a Shamanic Sculpture in loving memory of Sandra, joining the many other significant works they have brought to the JSMA collection. Because the JSMA has scant representation of the indigenous Korean religous tradition (sometimes referred to as Muism), this statue is an especially welcome addition. It will be a fitting remembrance and provide a welcome resource for the study of Korean art, religion, history, and society. We look forward to its inclusion in our upcoming Korean exhibition.
Above: Immortals Arriving at the Banquet Given by Queen Mother of the West (Yojiyeondo, 요지연도, 瑤池宴圖). Korean; 20th century. Eight-panel folding screen; ink and color on paper,
). Korean; Joseon dynasty; 19th century. Six-panel folding screen; ink and light color on paper, 70 x 150 3/4 inches. Gift of Robert and Sandra Mattielli in honor of Kyung Sook Cho Gregor
Art Seen
Spring Patron Circle and Members’ Receptions
In May, we celebrated our new photography exhibition, Terry Toedtemeier: Photographer, which brought together a special collection of prints by the artist, given to the JSMA by his friends, family, and colleagues. It was also our first opportunity to welcome Dr. Yan Geng, our inaugural Curator of Contemporary and Traditional Chinese Art. The following day, Toedtemeier’s colleagues Craig Hickman, artist; Prudence Roberts, curator and partner; and John Weber, JSMA Executive Director, discussed the artist’s impact in a conversation moderated by Thom Sempere, JSMA Associate Curator of Photography.
Asian Celebration Exhibition
The JSMA partnered with the Oregon Asian Celebration to host their annual exhibition that opened in June. This year’s show was hung salon style and featured 53 artists, and 105 works of art. The show started outside the front doors with a performance by Phi Long Lion Dance to begin the reception where we celebrated the art, artists, and community. Soojin Jeong, Post-Graduate Fellow in Asian Art and Gayun Lee, 2023-2024 JSMA/Korea Foundation Global Challengers Intern, gave a tour of their exhibition, Landscape, Mindscape: Portrayals of Nature and the World from Korea and Beyond, 1700-2020.
Indigenous People’s Day
To celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we opened our inaugural Art Acknowledgement of the Land installation featuring Steph LIttlebird on October 14th, 2024. We had special open hours and free admission to commemorate the occasion. We also collaborated with the UO Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) for a day of events that began with a campus art walk hosted by Danielle Knapp and Littlebird, and culminated with a reception at Knight Library for their new installations, The Land We Have Always Known exhibit and Steph Littlebird SCUA Artwork.
Fall Patron Circle and Members’ Receptions
This fall, our Patron Circle and Members’ Receptions celebrated a phenomenal line-up of new exhibitions. Our special guests included artists Voluspa Jarpa, Steve Prince, Leah Glenn, Steph Littlebird, and guest curator Kate Kelp-Stebbins. Necroarchivos de las Americas: An Unrelenting Search for Justice, including the installation of Doris Salcedo’s Plegaria Muda, filled the Barker and Schnitzer Galleries. Everyone’s favorite tiger was on view in the APS Gallery in It’s (Still) A Magical World, Hobbes, Ol’ Buddy: Selections of Original Art and Strips of Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes, 1985-1995. The Focus East and Central Galleries showcased the work of Steve Prince in Kitchen Table Talk and the incredible photographs in Qiu Zhijie’s Tattoo. The weekend included a gallery talk by Voluspa Jarpa and a talk by Steve Prince that was accompanied by a dance performance by Leah Glenn and Shannon Mockli.
Day of the Dead
Til Death Do Us Part was the theme for the 43rd Annual Celebration of Day of the Dead, organized by MEChA de UO, Adelante Sí, and the JSMA. We welcomed special guests Mexican Consul, Carlos Quesnel Meléndez, and photographer Alberto Venegas, whose works were on view during the celebrations. Musical performances and dance by Sones de México Ensemble included La Presumida, La Valentina, El Maracumbé, and La Llorona. The event included an art workshop led by Castalia Venegas and delicious food from El Kora. Thanks to Armando Morales, MEChA Community Advisor; Rebeca Urhausen, Executive Director of Adelante Si, and Susy Velázquez Huanosta, MEChA Program Director, for their work on this annual event, coordinated for the JSMA by curator Adriana Miramontes Olivas.
Leadership Council Emeriti Luncheon
Summertime means we celebrate those who have served on our Leadership Council with a luncheon for past and present LC members. Chaired by former LC President Jim Walker, this reunion is always filled with gratitude for those who have given the museum so much. John Weber showcased highlights from the past year and previewed upcoming exhibitions before taking a tour of our newest exhibition, Necroarchivos de las Americas: An Unrelenting Search for Justice.
The David and Anne McCosh Memorial Visiting Lecturer Series on Northwest Art
Our annual McCosh lecture featured Seattle-based curator and art historian Chloe Dye Sherpe presenting the distinct careers of Northwest artists David McCosh and Morris Graves. Titled (Un)parallel Discoveries: Beauty, Nature, and Self in the art of David McCosh and Morris Graves, Sherpe compared the aesthetic and career choices of both artists. Thanks to the David John and Anne Kutka McCosh Memorial Museum Endowment Fund and the support of JSMA’s McCosh Advisory Committee for making this lecture possible.
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Elyse Graham Studio
Founded in 2014 in Los Angeles and now based in Oregon, the Elyse Graham Studio is a place where unusual materials and experimental processes are implemented to create a melding of art and object. These microbe vessels are hand-cast with hydrocal plaster inside of a balloon. The interior of each piece is poured with layers of resin, making it waterproof. Finally, each vase is hand-dyed with custom mixed pigments and finished with a unique pattern of dyed plaster protuberances, inspired by the unique galaxy of microorganisms living within each of us.
Mailing address:
Street address: 1223 University of Oregon 1430 Johnson Lane Eugene, OR 97403–1223 Eugene, OR 97403
In the heart of the University of Oregon campus
Phone: 541-346-3027
Fax: 541-346-0976
Website: http://jsma.uoregon.edu
Hours
Wednesday: 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Thursday - Sunday: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Academic visits by appointment
Cover Image: QIU Zhijie 邱志杰 (born 1969). Chinese; People’s Republic of China, 2006, The Vernal Equinox (Chunfen 春分), No. 4 from the series 24 Seasons (Ershisi jieqi 二十四节气). 4th of a set of 24 color photographs, 39 1/2 x 52 7/16 inches; Gift of the Jack and Susy Wadsworth Collection of Contemporary Chinese Photographs
