Alexandra Opie: Wonder Box
April 20 – May 19, 2019
Atrium Gallery
Each spring, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art pairs its annual senior art majors exhibition with a small solo exhibition of recent work by one of the faculty members in the art department at Willamette University. This year, the exhibition will focus on recent work by Alexandra Opie (American, born 1974), who serves as chair of the art department and teaches courses in photography and electronic media.
In Wonder Box, her current body of work, Opie creates heightened awareness of the intense beauty and mystery of the mundane through images of plant parts and found objects. Using antique forms: tintype, ambrotype, and prints from glass-plate negatives, she photographs plant parts and found objects in extreme macro—with an eight-foot long camera and a scavenged military aerial survey lens—in a way that intentionally confuses perception. The viewer is meant to wonder if they are looking at something natural or human-made, an ancient artifact that has survived for thousands of years or an ephemeral wisp of organic material that will soon decay.
Opening Reception
April 19, 2019 | 6-8 p.m.
Hallie Ford Museum of Art
RSVP ONLINE BY APRIL 15 (acceptances only)
Financial Support
Financial support for the exhibition was provided by general operating support grants from the City of Salem's Transient Occupancy Tax funds and the Oregon Arts Commission.
