Sallyportal: Madly Blogging Reed

Prof. Knutson's Work on Display in Governor's Office

By Laurie Lindquist on December 23, 2013 09:26 AM

Symmetrical Four-layered Ovoid Lattices #3

An exhibition of Prof. Michael Knutson’s [art 1982–] watercolors, from his series Layered Ovoid Lattices, is on display in the office of Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber in Salem through February 2014.

Selected for the Art in the Governor’s Office Program, which honors professional, living Oregon artists, Prof. Knutson’s name adds to a list of artists that includes Manuel Izquierdo, Michael Russo, and alumna Margot Voorhies Thompson ’70.

Describing the work in this series, Knutson stated: “There are various ways to read across the paintings: locating the smallest clusters of ovoids and following their expansion across a layer; looking between the ovoids at the membrane-like lattices; looking through the layers of ovoids and lattices; constructing an elastic scaffolding across the layers of lattice; sliding on and off arcs of the implicit spirals; scanning between the symmetrical elements. My paintings might lead one to consider not just what one is seeing, but how one is seeing.”

Completed in 2012–13, the series also includes paintings in oil, some of which were exhibited at the Blackfish Gallery in Portland in 2012. Learn more about Knutson's work and view the images online at his Reed faculty website.

Tags: visual art, professors