An array of women’s health topics are explored by local and international artists in “Unconditional Care,” opening with a reception from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Friday, March 3, at Lewis-Clark State College’s Center for Arts & History, 415 Main St., in Lewiston.
The exhibition, which runs through April 23, looks at chronic illness, disability, pregnancy, sexual assault and gun violence through works by more than 10 artists in film, audio, mixed media, paintings and photography, according to an LCSC news release.
Curator Katrina Majkut, a New York City-based embroidery artist who also has several pieces in the exhibit, noted, via email, that many current shows addressing health care are “a point of protest as a response to current events and often very subjectively abstract.”
While there’s a place for that type of show, Majkut said, she aimed for something different.
“I wanted to curate a show that finally addressed the topic of health from a medically objective standpoint that bridged the gap between the political spectrums,” she said. “And rather than focus on art that pushed a specific opinion, this show offers storytelling to understand various health issues by those directly impacted by them.”
Her work employs cross-stitch, a craft she learned from her Ukrainian mother growing up in Boston, to illustrate topics not typically associated with needlework, including family planning and reproductive health products, sexual assault evidence kits and women’s self-defense products.
“I basically started this body of work because I was really bored by store kits and felt that most motifs were obsolete,” she said. “I wanted to stitch a motif that interested me and felt like it represented who I was as a modern person.”
Majkut’s work joins that of artists she has long admired, and some who were new to her. Though they work in diverse media, the resulting art has a common thread.
“They really inspire me in their truth seeking, their strength to acknowledge that there are some things in the world that can be improved, and their determination to use their art and empathy to make it better,” she said. “And so many of them are community driven; they really care about people.”
Among the local artists represented in the exhibition are contributors to “MMIW: No More Stolen Relatives,” with works by Linda Dufford, Helen Goodteacher, Nikanot Sylvia Tatshama Peasley and Agnes Weaskus that shine a light on missing and murdered Indigenous women.
_____
A reception from 4-7 p.m. Friday, March 3, launches a new show at Valley Art Center, 842 Sixth St., Clarkston.
Works by Catherine Temple, of Clarkston, and Jay Henry, of Peola, will be on display and for sale there through the end of the month.
Temple, who has been painting with acrylics for more than 25 years, specializes in wildlife, including birds, and dog portraits. She won duck stamp competitions in Washington and Delaware, and some of her work in this show will be dog-duck combinations, as well as new bird paintings.
Henry is retired from 36 years of teaching science and coaching at Lewiston High School. He started painting at age 60, and 16 years later he creates artwork influenced by the natural world around him. His softly rendered landscapes offer a contrast to Temple’s hyperrealistic wildlife portraits.
The gallery’s hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
