Heidi Preuss Grew: Into the Wilderness

For immediate release: March 18, 2014
Media contact: Andrea Foust
Membership and Public Relations Manager
Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University | 503-370-6867
Public contact: 503-370-6855 | museum-art@willamette.edu

Walk “Into the Wilderness” with Heidi Preuss Grew’s creatures

SALEM, Ore. — Associate Professor Heidi Preuss Grew is a Salem, Ore. artist whose ceramic work recently earned her first prize in the Eleventh International Biennial of Artistic Ceramics in Aveiro, Portugal. The exhibition "Heidi Preuss Grew: Into the Wilderness" will feature her recent work and will open on April 12 and continue through May 11 at Willamette University’s Hallie Ford Museum of Art in the Atrium Gallery.

Pruess Grew says, “I seek to reveal the vulnerable and pathetic side of the human condition as well as the heroic and beautiful. My studio practice involves serious and playful endeavors as I meld animal and human features together to develop specific meaning, symbolism, and psychological impact. This combination allows greater freedom in the creative process as it straddles real and fictional worlds.”

Willamette University Art Historian Professor Ricardo De Mambro Santos says Preuss Grew’s creatures “exercise a long-lasting effect over audiences through their capacity of awakening, disclosing and further stimulating a sense of wonder, amazement and even fear.”

An opening reception will be held April 11 from 5-8 p.m. at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art. On April 15 Preuss Grew will present a Tuesday Gallery Talk at 12:30 that is free and open to the public.

Preuss Grew has taught studio art at Willamette University since the Fall of 1999. She earned a BA degree and two BFA degrees from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, where she studied German, art history and crafts and earned an MFA degree from Ohio University in ceramics.

Over the years, she has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States, Europe and Asia and is included in public and private collections in the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Denmark, China and Japan, as well as the Hallie Ford Museum of Art.

Financial Support
Financial support for this exhibition has been provided by general operating support grants from the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy Tax funds and the Oregon Arts Commission.

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About the Hallie Ford Museum of Art

Oregon's third largest art museum features works by Pacific Northwest and Native American artists, and includes a diverse collection of traditional European, American and Asian art, as well as artifacts that date from antiquity. Frequently changing exhibitions include lectures, special events, tours, artist demonstrations and educational opportunities for children and adults.

The museum is located at 700 State St. in Salem. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Monday. General admission is $6, $4 for seniors and $3 for students 18 and older. Students 17 and under and children are admitted free. Admission is free for everyone on Tuesdays. For more information call 503-370-6855 or visit willamette.edu/arts/hfma.