First Friday Opening Reception: Belonging Otherwise & Columbia River Gorge in VI Sections
September 4 @ 5:00 pm
Join us to celebrate the opening of two new exhibitions. In the main gallery, Belonging Otherwise brings together Epiphany Couch and Charlie-Anne Hopkins, two artists whose work converges around identity, ecology, and the layered histories of the American West — reframing the region not as static history but as a living terrain of story and survival. In the lobby, Kristie Strasen’s Columbia River in VI Sections maps the full length of the Columbia through handwoven tapestries, tracing the river’s geological, cultural, and political history and its central role in Native sovereignty and environmental balance.
Mingle, enjoy light refreshments, and be among the first to experience both exhibitions. Both shows run September 4 through October 30.
About the Artists
Epiphany Couch (she/her) is a spuyaləpabš (Puyallup), Yakama, and Scandinavian/mixed European interdisciplinary artist and writer. Drawing on family stories, archival research, her own dreams, and her childhood in caləłali (Tacoma, WA), she works across photography, beadwork, weaving, and collage. Her recent honors include a Percent for Art commission, the Oregon Contemporary Artists’ Biennial, residencies at MASS MoCA and the GLEAN Program, and a Career Opportunity Grant from the Oregon Arts Commission. She lives and works in Portland, OR.
Charlie-Anne Hopkins (they/them) holds an MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute. They have held residencies at the Museum of Arts and Design (NYC), Vermont Studio Center, Caldera Arts, Brush Creek Foundation, Mildred’s Lane, Leland Ironworks, Sou’wester Arts, Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, and Aunt Dofe’s, and have exhibited nationally and internationally. They co-founded Carnation Contemporary, a cooperative gallery in Portland, OR championing emerging and underrepresented artists. Hopkins lives and works in Thorp, Washington.
Kristie Strasen built a highly successful career in New York City as a textile designer and colorist for leading companies in the interior furnishings industry before returning to her roots as a hand weaver and launching Little Weavings Co in 2017. Committed to making “things worth keeping,” she creates artisanal, one-of-a-kind pieces from natural fibers – often hand spun or produced by small-batch spinners, and both commercially and naturally dyed. Known for an intuitive command of color drawn from years of building color systems for clients across North America and Europe, Strasen weaves work of unusual richness and significance.
