Creatio, a solo exhibition and installation created by Portland artist Wendy Given. Given produces vivid photography, sculpture, and drawings rooted in her interest in natural philosophy, folklore, myth and magic. Her work honors a fundamental awareness that we are all, and always will be, dependent on the natural world. The power and mystery of nature pervades her work.
Creatio explores multicultural creation mythology from constellations in the night sky, to the division of night and day, to forbidden fruits, to a skull made of ice. In this show Given reflects on modern culture’s mode of assimilating and processing myth.
Wendy Given is a Portland, Oregon based artist who holds a MFA from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, CA and a BFA from the Atlanta College of Art in Atlanta, GA. She has exhibited nationally and internationally. Recent exhibitions include Claw, Shine, Gloam and Vesper at Whitespace in Atlanta, GA; Death Caps and Dark Wood at Wieden+Kennedy Gallery in Portland, OR; Sanctified: Spirituality In Contemporary Art at the Vincent Price Art Museum in Monterey Park, CA; GeoGráfica at Fototropía in Guatemala City, Guatemala; 31 Women in Art Photography, curated by Jon Feinstein and Natalia Sacasa, at New York City’s Humble Arts Foundation. Given’s photography is featured in The Collector’s Guide to New Art Photography Vol. 2. Her work is represented by Whitespace Gallery in Atlanta, GA and Kasher | Potamkin in NYC.
Of the Garden: Vitis, 2014
C-print
40 x 40 in.
Edition of 3
Of the Garden: Progenitor, 2014
C-print
60 x 40 in.
Edition of 3
Of the Garden: Progenitress, 2014
C-print
60 x 40 in.
Edition of 3
Of the Garden: Punica granatum, 2014
C-print
20 x 20 in.
Edition of 3
Of the Garden: Ficus carica, 2014
C-print
20 x 20 in.
Edition of 3
Of the Garden: Malus domestica, 2014
C-print
20 x 20 in.
Edition of 3
Of the Garden: Scindere, 2014
Wood and iron and deer antler
59 x 24 x 12 inches
A. muscaria, 2012
C-print
40 x 40 in.
Edition of 3
Lights in the Vault of the Sky, 2014
Mixed media on paper
40 x 40 in.
Corvus, 2014
Taxidermic Carrion Crow, silver and moonstones
19 x 22 x 7 inches
Pavo, 2014
Taxidermic peacock, mouse, insects and crystals
78 x 18 x 24 in.
Freyja’s Bitter Flowers, 2014
C-print
30 x 45 in.
Edition of 3
Paradis, 2014
Mixed media on paper
30 x 45 in.
Serpens No. 1, 2014
Clay and glass eyes
2 x 15 x 9 in.
Serpens No. 2, 2014
Clay and glass eyes
2 x 6 x 6 in.
Serpens No. 3, 2014
Clay and glass eyes
4 x 16 x 11 in.
Serpens No. 4, 2014
Clay and glass eyes
1 x 24 x 9 in.
Serpens No. 5, 2014
Clay, glass eyes and Northern Flicker feather
2 x 34 x 9 in.
Serpens No. 6, 2014
Clay and glass eyes
1 x 12 x 10 in.
Serpens No. 7, 2014
Clay and glass eyes
1 x 16 x 14 in.
Serpens No. 8, 2014
Clay, glass eyes, enamel and porcelain
2 x 10 x 10 in.
HAP Gallery Special Edition: Pavo et Mus musculus, 2014
C-print
16.5 x 11 in.
Edition of 30
