Examining our culture through art

This week, the Art Department will be hosting the opening of two shows that will grace the walls of university exhibits for the next month. Portland State sophomore Chloé Womack will be exhibiting her work for the first time in the MK Gallery and San Francisco artist Lucas Murgida will be showing work in the Autzen Gallery.

Womack’s first show will include a body of work that is both deeply personal and accessible to her audience. A native of Portland, Womack grew up being influenced by all the typical Portland things—food carts, veganism, public transportation, etc. Her show, titled Reflections, will be what Womack calls “a reflection of my experiences over the past 21 years of my life.”

The bigger picture in Womack’s work is to critique and examine the influence that today’s media has on the way we view the world and the culture it has created. She started by asking questions like “do we become mirrors to what we choose to view?” and “how do these images affect our interactions and what we decide is beautiful, youthful, or true?” The quest for understanding led to the creation of Reflections, a fusion of intellectual musings and imitations of refracting light.

To understand the work of Murgida best, you should hear him explain it. Luckily for Portland State students, Murgida will be on hand for the opening of his show on Thursday. His work is less about the product and more about the process. Basically, he finds a job and explores every nook and cranny of the work that is entailed. The ending result being the exposé of what Murgida calls “the imbedded metaphors inherent to the job’s structure.”

One of Murgida’s more interesting jobs was working as a locksmith. He began a one-man organization called “The Locksmithing Institute,” and he would teach free classes on what he saw as the true role of a locksmith—things like how to pick a lock and how to find your keys were among his topics. He also examined the influence of the doorknob on our daily lives, constructing swinging doors with useless knobs on the side that didn’t swing out just to see how people would automatically reach for the knob to open the door.
His physical work is a documentation of this process. Murgida has taken on the role of a busboy, a cabinetmaker, a locksmith and now a yoga instructor. His experience as a locksmith piqued his interest in how people protect their space, things and also themselves—he took on yoga to explore the latter. His show Grip, Grasp, Grope, and Fondle is, like all of his work, an attempt to showcase common things and people that are often ignored.

Grip, Grasp, Grope, and Fondle will open this Thursday, with an artist talk and reception beginning at 4 p.m. the same day. Womack’s Reflections will also have an opening reception the same day and time.

Reflections
MK Gallery
Art Building, room 207
Mon–Fri, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Runs through March 26
Opening reception: Thu, 4 p.m.–6 p.m.

Grip, Grasp, Grope, and Fondle
Autzen Gallery
Neuberger Hall, room 205
Opens Thu
Mon—Fri, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Runs through March 26
Reception and artist talk: Thu, 4 p.m.–7 p.m.