D. E. May: The Artist as Archivist
November 8 – December 21, 2008
D.E. May is a contemporary Salem artist who works in a variety of media. A critically important Pacific Northwest artist, his work is nationally appreciated and is included in private collections across the country and in such public collections as the Portland Art Museum, the Tacoma Art Museum, and the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, New York. The range of the work of D.E May is broad: refined abstractions, intimate sketchbooks, templates, architectural models, to name a few genres. His work, in general, defies classification. May’s art tells a story of obsession—obsession with materials and time. While the materials he uses allude to different past eras his artistic process reinvigorates them so that they cease to be relics and become contemporary objects, relevant to today.