Stories & Visual Narratives

Stories & Visual Narratives: Works by Marina Hajek, Ralf Huber, Rogene Mañas, Kenji Shimizu, Karen Russo

A beautiful 5-person exhibit will be featured in the Memorial Union Art Gallery located on the campus of Oregon State University through Dec. 14, 2023. Showcased are paintings, figurative ceramic sculpture, mixed media assemblage, photographs and mixed media paper wall sculptures. This is a beautiful exhibit of visual
story tellers.

Artist Marina Hajek makes her own paper pulp to create subtle yet poignant work about giving a voice to the immigrant. Participants were invited to write letters to the people of the USA. Ms. Hajek shares “People need to
hear the other side of the story about immigration and connect with the person behind it. When you read the letter, you are also looking at the person behind the story. With my work I tried to give a voice to the voiceless.”

Artist Ralf Huber utilizes mixed media assemblage and characterizes his style as ‘art with purpose’. The works in this exhibit focus upon the industrial revolution and the social issues it created, in particular child labor. The richly layered elements are all found or re-purposed.
Rogene Mañas beautifully vibrant paintings are a medium to get the unwanted thoughts of pain and suffering into a tangible form. In sharing them she hopes “others are affected and perhaps motivated enough to help create the changes in themselves or in the world that are so desperately needed.”
Sculptor Karen Russo’s sculptures explore the tensions of the feminine experience: strength and contemplation, youth and aging, love and grief, instability and equilibrium, hope and despair. Through these female archetypes, so evocative of the precious earth from which they were formed, Karen hopes to express an eternal optimism for the human spirit in a beautiful and turbulent world.

With Kenji Shimizu’s photography, his goal was to highlight the richness of diversity in the Springfield/ Eugene community and celebrate the different diverse backgrounds and values present. Kenji states “I want to encourage the community to see past skin color to the values these differences can bring to make us stronger, wiser, more empathetic, kinder, and closer together.”

The exhibit is open daily.