Forsberg Art Gallery

---

About the Exhibition: Branches Bend

Branches Bend brings together five artists whose practices trace the visible and invisible forces that shape form. Working across clay, paper, sound, scultpure, and social practice, the exhibition considers how materials record touch, time, ritual, and transformation. In clay, Ann Christenson embraces duality - raw and ornamental, visceral and refined - revealing every push, pound, and gesture as a fired record of movement and history. David Herbold approaches art as a continuous exchange with the world, where splitting wood, tending land, and marking surfaces become studies in balance, flexibility, and the erosion that reveals new form. Lauren McCleary's intricate cut-paper works emerge through meditation and mending, holding concentration and play in equal measure as she follows the quiet possibilities of a humble material. Ann Saberi questions and explores the boundaries between land and sky, heaven and earth, and life and death. Squeak Meisel's cross-media practice weaves drawing, sound, installation, and divination systems into an oracular framework where analog, digital, and ritual processes converge.

 

Find out more about the Artists:

Ann Christenson - Born in Indiana, Christenson holds a BA (1964) and an MFA (1983) from UC Berkeley. She studied ceramics at Greenwich House Pottery, Indiana University, California College of Arts and Crafts and the University of California, Berkeley. Working in the “Cal Pot Shop” during the early sixties and watching Peter Voulkos’ performance demonstrations helped shape her ideas about clay.  In the mid sixties she and Sue Newman started a ceramic studio in NYC where she worked until 1971. Returning to California she again helped form a communal ceramic studio where she worked until returning to graduate study in 1979.  She is currently a Professor of Fine Art at Washington State University where she coordinates the ceramic area. Her work has been exhibited across the United States, and in China, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Spain and Russia. Most recently her work was featured in 75 Gifts for 75 Years, The Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, OR Fish Bowl Window, Black Fish Gallery, Portland, OR and Unwedged, Pottery Northwest Gallery, Seattle, WA.

David Herbold - He was introduced to art at a young age. He was very lucky to have supportive parents and public schooling that always had thriving arts programs. In high school, I had a dedicated ceramics course with an amazing teacher (thanks Cindy Irby). His first job at 14 was working at a handmade tile factory. He graduated from high school and was off to Bozeman, MT, (where I was born) to attend Montana State set on pursuing art for an undergraduate degree. He learned valuable lessons from his mentor Michael Peed about making narrative ceramic work and how to approach and maintain making art as a life pursuit. Since graduating with a BFA from Montana State in 2000 he hopped around quite a bit but have always maintained a studio practice and a bushel of other jobs. In 2008 he moved to Moscow to attend the University of Idaho to pursue a MFA in Studio Arts.

Lauren McCleary - Lauren is a teaching artist living in Moscow, Idaho. Her cut paper process allows her to translate observations, a way of mending and meditating on matters at hand, holding concentration and playfulness in the same hand. Paper is her footpath — it keeps her wondering, fascinated, surprised, and searching for all the possibilities such a simple material holds. She holds a BFA and K-12 Art Education degree from Metropolitan State University of Denver, and an MFA from Washington State University. She has lived on the Palouse since 2007 and is the Clinical Assistant Professor of Art Education at the University of Idaho.

Ann Saberi - Ann Saberi has been a member of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art team since 2012, and currently serves as Collection Manager. She holds a BA and BFA from Washington State University, and an MA from New York University. At the museum, Ann enjoys working with the permanent collection and helping to install new exhibits, among other things. Born and raised on the Palouse, she loves cooking with her four children, riding her bike, and gardening.

Squeak Meisel - Squeak Meisel spent his youth riding around on Kansas dirt roads in his grandfathers fuel delivery truck spitting cherry seeds at road signs. His adventures often took him near badger caves or running from wild turkeys. Squeak playfully addresses the daily struggles of life through immersive works that invite his viewers to participate in their own inner spelunking. He is aProfessor of Art at WSU in Pullman, WA. In addition to having several permanently sited public works in the a Seattle area he has exhibited his temporary site based works both nationally and internationally. He was one of 28 finalists for the Portland art Museum’s 2013 Contemporary Northwest Arts Awards and was added to the Washington State Arts Commission’s roster of artists for 2013-18. He received public art of the year award from Americans for the Arts Public Art Network 2013 year in review for his work begin.

---

 

---

Contact Forsberg Art Gallery