Allison Sommers, Jeremy Hush and Susannah Kelly share an interest in creating poetic imagery out of macabre subject matter. The three artists are presenting new bodies of work for their collaborative show, “Irresistible Atrophies,” opening at Portland’s Antler Gallery on October 30.
Hush’s mixed-media paintings are rife with folkloric themes. Obscure objects and sage animals are presented in ways that allude to pagan rituals. His use of muted earth tones complements Sommers’s largely monochromatic, deep red color palette. Sommers artist creates depictions of unraveling, decomposing flesh, rendering biomorphic, otherworldly bodies that seem humanoid rather than human. Kelly’s somber, graphite portraits delve into despair. Her characters are often pictured with props symbolic of their emotional turbulence.
“Irresistible Atrophy” will be on view at Antler Gallery October 30 through November 25.
Jeremy Hush:
Allison Sommers:
Susannah Kelly:
Partners in art and in life, Ferris Plock and Kelly Tunstall collaborate seamlessly, almost out of necessity. They work in close proximity to one another in their studio, switching between parent duty to their two young children and working on their paintings. Elements of Plock's blocky, geometric style end up on Tunstall's softer, more painterly canvases and vice versa. The couple, sometimes known by the monicker 
In recent work, there’s an ever-evolving horror and beauty in the paintings of