Happy New Year from all of the team here at the Rental Sales Gallery!
We hope that 2022 brings you success, warmth and joy. And, of course, the opportunity to bring beauty to your home or workspace with some of the finest art from the Pacific Northwest.
We are very excited to welcome seven new Member Artists to the Gallery. It has been some time since we last brought in new artists, so we are particularly delighted to welcome these gifted and diverse individuals here. Each of them is an artist who will bring a something uniquely different with their work and we are proud to represent them.
Join us on Friday, February 11th, 4-7pm for the New Artists Invitational Show in-person opening event, where you will be able to view, rent and purchase a selection of their works and meet many of the artists too.
But let’s meet these artists and find out a little more about each of them.
James has been referred to by some as “The Painter of Colorful Memories”. As he says “It is always an honor to be entrusted with re-creating favorite memories for others in my signature style Sculptured Oils on Canvas”.
As a young man growing up in Portland, he began to notice a common thread in his drawings: the focus being one of hope for a brighter, more inclusive and positive world. After working in a range of different techniques, James discovered that he felt most at home working with a palette knife and oils, as is seen in his current work. This gives his pieces a richness, both of color and texture.
One of his greatest motivators is a love of the dramatic beauty of the Pacific Northwest and a desire to capture and share that with others. “My heart”, he says, “will always be for Portland.”
Maral Esteghlalian is an Iranian-American artist based in both Portland, Oregon and Amsterdam, Netherlands. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design from The Art Institute of Portland where she developed her graphic visual language.
As an artist, her focus is on minimalist explorations of geometric shapes and colors. She uses her intuition and feelings as a guide to create simple visuals that help balance the complexity of life. The colours, the abstract compositions and the titles are central to her work to express what will arouse and inspire reflection in others.
Maral’s works’ unique and expressive titles together with the content of her paintings tell a story about her life. She creates striking, minimalist designs of harmony and balance.
Lindsey Holcomb is an internationally-recognized artist and founder of the #ColorsofMS project.
#ColorsofMS was created following Lindsey’s personal diagnosis with multiple sclerosis which shares stories of those living with MS through the lens of art. To date, Lindsey has painted 189 MRIs with project participants in 32 US states and 13 countries.
Her primary medium and body of work are in ink and thread on paper, including kintsugi techniques and paper-cutting as a nod to her Japanese heritage. As of 2021, Lindsey has also worked in various forms of sculpture, playing with opposite mediums such as encaustic wax and metal.
Ever since he was a child, Joseph has expressed himself through tinkering and creating art. He says, “Creating art has always been a fun task to me, and that’s why I strive to “create” as my main means of income and life in general. I simply enjoy it.”
As well as painting, Joseph has a deep interest in photography; both as an art form and using it in the planning process for some of his paintings. An artistic entrepreneur, Joseph has worked hard, refining his craft and heightening his abilities. As well as the original and striking landscape works that we will be making available at Rental Sales Gallery, you can also see his murals all across the city of Portland.
“In order to capture Perception as a painter you must live life as full as you can”, says Joseph. “So in essence, when I paint I’m trying to display to you my life through the process.”
“I have spent my life on the coast.”, says Emily. “And all my artwork has its roots in my love of the sea. I see coastal environments as a border between the known and unknown, amid constant cycles of change.” As a lifelong artist, she creates a wide range of work, including watercolor and encaustic painting, mixed media sculpture, functional porcelain ware, and interactive installation art.
Initially, Rental Sales Gallery will focus on showcasing her beautifully-painted and -realized watercolors of the natural world. Many of these pieces will have been created working in plein air (outdoors), a period of intense, creative time which allows the creation of a deeper bond to a location. Since 2005, Emily has regularly scheduled this work, together with her studio-focused time.
Outside of the Gallery, Emily focuses much of her time on creating interactive installation art. Her traveling installations include Ghost Net Landscape, a collaborative community installation transforming reclaimed fishing gear into art, and 1000 Moons, an art installation and grief process in handmade paper.
Arturo Villaseñor was born in Mexico City in 1965. As a Civil Engineer he worked for several years in the restoration of historical buildings in Mexico City, were he had the opportunity to work side by side with experts in the field: masters on restoration, painters and expert artisans.
In 2000 he moved to Oregon and started to work in Adult Education and Social Work. He worked in coordination with the Mexican Consulate to establish the first “Plaza Comunitaria” in Washington County. In 2009 he joined to Adelante Mujeres and continued his work in Adult Education, Computer literacy, and business training for Latino entrepreneurs.
In parallel with his formal work he always worked in his artistic facet as a poet, professional painter, graphic designer, sculptor, translator, writer, and photographer.
Maya Vivas is a multidisciplinary artist working in a variety of mediums such as ceramic, performance, painting, social practice and installation.
Maya has exhibited work, spoken on panels and hosted workshops throughout the United States including venues and institutions such as Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, Louisiana State University and Yale.
Vivas is also co-founder of Ori Gallery. Whose mission is to redefine “the white cube” through amplifying the voices of Queer and Trans Artists of color, community organizing and mobilization through the arts.
“Through sculptural gesture, absurdity, carnality, speculative fiction, and body horror, I navigate questions of diasporic body memory.”
