OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
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As part of OSU150’s anniversary celebration, The Little Gallery proudly presents "Reverence," an exhibition showing a selection of works from Ka’ila Farrell-Smith, Natalie Ball, and Rick Bartow. Deeply influenced by their Northwest indigenous heritages and cultures, the exhibition presents works that explores the artists’ native relationship to the land, as well as themes of activism, and autobiography, through painting, installation, textiles, and sculpture.
This event is part of the OSU150 Land Grant Festival running October 1-17.
Leaning, discovery and service to all people will always drive us to make our world better. Learn more at OSU150.org
For event questions or accommodation requests, please contact Shelly Signs, (541) 737-0724 or shelly.signs@oregonstate.edu.
Right: Pueblo, graphite, acrylic, aerosol, oil paints on birch panel, 24" x 18,"2017
Ka'ila Farrell-Smith is a contemporary Klamath Modoc visual artist based in Portland, Oregon. She works as a professor in the Indigenous Nations Studies at Portland State University and is Co-director for Signal Fire artist residency program. Her work has been exhibited at Out of Sight 2017 + 2016, Bridge Productions, the Alice Gallery, Institute for New Connotative Action, Linda Hodges Gallery, Vancouver City Hall, Museum of Northwest Art, Tacoma Art Museum, WA; Missoula Art Museum, MT and Medici Fortress, Cortona, Italy; and in Oregon at the Gretchen Schuette Art Gallery, Blackfish Gallery, and is in the permanent collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art and Portland Art Museum.
Natalie Ball was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. She has a Bachelor’s degree with a double major in Ethnic Studies and Art from the University of Oregon. She furthered her education in New Zealand at Massey University where she attained her Master’s degree in Maori Visual Arts, with a focus on Indigenous contemporary art. Ball then relocated to her ancestral homelands to raise her three children. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally, including: Contemporary Native Art Biennial (BACA), Montreal, QC; Te Manawa Museum, New Zealand; Portland2016 Biennial, OR; Portland Art Museum, OR; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, KS; Museum of Contemporary Native Art (MoCNA), NM; and Hallie Ford Museum of Art, OR. Natalie attained her M.F.A. degree in Painting & Printmaking at Yale School of Art in 2018.
Rick Bartow's tribal affiliation and heritage is Wiyot of Northern California. Personal experiences, cultural engagement and global myths, especially Native American transformation stories, are the heart of his art. Animals and self-portraits populate his iconography, and he is known for astute interpretations of literary, musical and visual sources. Rick Bartow passed in April 2016. A singular, clear, strong, and accomplished voice in the contemporary art world, he is remembered for his passion, vitality and artistic vision. Rick Bartow's honors include "We Were Always Here," a large-scale sculpture commissioned by The Smithsonian/National Museum of the American Indian, which sits on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
