Seattle-based artist Mary Iverson creates oil paintings that both celebrate nature and comment on our problematic choices surrounding it. Slashes and geometric shapes obscure parts of the pristine backdrops depicted by the artist, using an X-acto knife to cut through her initial creations. Here, sites like the California coast and Mount Rainier are overcome by shipping containers and similar, intrusive objects. Iverson was last featured on HiFructose.com here.
In its second year, Forest for the Trees, curated by gallerist Matt Wagner and artist Gage Hamilton, brought together 20 international and local artists in Portland for a few days of mural painting intended to encourage the growth of public art in a city already known for its creative flair. Unlike other street art festivals around the world, Forest for the Trees had a notable presence of artists you wouldn’t necessarily put in the street art or graffiti camps.
On Saturday, Thinkspace Gallery celebrated the opening of “After”, a collaborative exhibition by Mary Iverson and Stephanie Buer. As a singular statement, their new work explores a certain “afterlife” of desolate urban and rural landscapes. Where Stephanie Buer (previously covered here) suggests the passing of time through colorful graffiti on crumbling walls, Mary Iverson interjects peaceful mountainscapes with exciting abstract shapes.