Connie Kiener



Connie Kiener
Big Kitty 2009
ceramic maiolica
20.25" x 24" x 12.5"

Connie Kiener’s newest exhibition features sculptures and bas relief, using humans and animals as their inspiration.  Whimsy and a sense of joy are expressed by the dogs, cats, birds and occasional humans who come to life in Kiener’s latest work. A Portland native, she has gained a national reputation as a ceramist, influenced by the Italian style of maiolica. She paints with unusual sensitivity and vivid color on figurative forms, wall mounted pieces, and sometimes on vessels.

Connie Kiener studied at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, and in Umbria, Italy.  She has exhibited in galleries across the country and has received several awards and commissions, including a project for the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.  Her work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Smithsonian Institution, the White House in Washington, D.C., the Arizona State University Museum in Phoenix, and the Arkansas Decorative Arts Museum in Little Rock.

More examples by Connie Kiener

Marlene Bauer


Marlene Bauer
April 2009
acrylic on paper
15" x 11"

Marlene Bauer’s paintings balance between abstraction and representation, exploring a symbolic vocabulary of simplified form and lush color.  Her work is subtly narrative, with evocative images of domestic interiors and settings of daily life connecting personal memories to time and place. In some paintings, suggestions of the human figure intersect with map-like passageways, while other pieces juxtapose the containment of interior spaces with the expansiveness of the outdoors.  Bauer’s energetic use of color and sensuous line draw viewers into her paintings, where exploration of personal memory and history can lead in myriad directions.

A Northwest native, Marlene Bauer received her BFA in 1976 from the Pacific Northwest College of Art.  Since that time she has exhibited her work throughout the Northwest while teaching art at Marylhurst College.  From 2002-05, while teaching art at Clackamas Community College she helped develop the inaugural shows for the college’s new Alexander Gallery.  Her work is in private and public collections along the West coast including the Portland Art Museum, OHSU, Safeco Corp., and Seattle Arts Commission.  In 2004, she completed a columnar commission in mosaic, Munnich for the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

More examples by Marlene Bauer

Upcoming 2009 Exhibitions:

July 2 - August 1
Michael Brophy – Recent Paintings
Gallery Group Show – Paintings, Sculpture, Works on Paper

August 6 - 29
Whitney Nye – New Mixed Media Paintings
Sean Cain – Recent Paintings