Henk Pander “Mary Alice Paintings” Exhibited at DISJECTA

July 15, 2010

September 11 – October 16, 2010
Disjecta Interdisciplinary Art Center
8371 N Interstate Avenue,
Portland, Oregon
Gallery Hours: Friday- Sunday 12:00pm – 6:00pm, or by appointment

Disjecta is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by esteemed artist Henk Pander. The works in this exhibition document Pander’s close relationship with his granddaughter, Mary Alice, who lived with Pander and his wife, Dolores, for over ten years. During this time, Mary Alice was a common fixture in Pander’s studio, either as a subject, or working at her own easel alongside her grandfather. Included in the exhibition, curated by Meagan Atiyeh, are oil paintings from 2002 through 2010 and artist sketchbooks.
The subject of a number of museum exhibitions, including an upcoming retrospective at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Henk Pander’s work is represented in every important institutional collection in the Northwest. His vast body of work demonstrates the practiced eye of a watcher, from his remembered scenes of Nazi occupied Europe to the dramatic canvasses documenting the wreck of the New Carissa off the Oregon coast, to the many commissions for public agencies, to drawings, photocollages and paintings created from his post 9/11 visit to lower Manhattan.
In the four decades since Pander arrived in Portland, he has had a hand in shaping the local art community the city enjoys today. During the 60s and 70s, Pander made ink-drawn political and cultural posters for a variety of causes. He was a founding member of the alternative Storefront Theatre in 1970. Later, he was the force behind The Visual Chronicle, a Regional Arts & Culture Council project to document the city through the eyes and works of local artists. In 1991, Pander was bestowed with the first-ever Oregon Arts Commission Master Artist Fellowship. In 2005, he received a Governor’s Arts Award and the following year was honored with a Visual Arts Fellowship from the Regional Arts & Culture Council.