Windowfront Exhibitions
Kenji Shimizu
Diversity Project | Photography
Dates displayed: April 7-July 16, 2023
Location: 99 W 10th Ave., South window
About the art: This project aims to encourage and celebrate diversity in our community from an immigrant’s point of view. I grew up in a country where there isn’t much diversity. In some ways, that makes it easier for people to get along; however, new ideas or ways of thinking are hard to nurture in a society with one value system. Here in Oregon, there are growing efforts to include people from diverse backgrounds in the community, and we are all thankful. In my view, the true benefit of inclusion is having different perspectives represented. People who grow up with different backgrounds and values will likely see the world differently. A richly diverse community brings many ways of thinking to the table, and I firmly believe that it is of tremendous value. Through this project, I want to highlight the richness of diversity in this community and celebrate how diversity is already helping us. I also want to inspire the community to see the values our differences can bring to make us stronger, wiser, more empathetic, kinder and closer together.
About the artist: Kenji was born in Japan and grew up there until he moved to the United States in 2005 to attend college. Many Japanese kids were taught that getting a high-paying, well-regarded job is the only way to succeed. He has always liked taking photos and looking at photographs; he did not, however, consider that a viable career option. After trying various kinds of work, from a preschool educator to a trainer at Apple, he learned that, unlike in Japan, he does not need to limit his career options in this country as long as he is willing to work hard.
Kenji’s passion for creating artistic portraits that resemble paintings from the Renaissance period started when he visited the Otsuka International Museum. There, famous paintings and works of art from all over the world are recreated brush stroke to brush stroke on ceramic in their original sizes. He saw how the painters made light fall on the subjects and how every piece has stood the test of time and tells the history of the era and the subjects. Kenji’s family experienced many losses in the last two years. In the wake of that loss, he became very grateful for the family portrait photos he walks by daily because they help him remember those he has lost. His daughter is too young to remember them, but she will know them from their images. Kenji is passionate about creating a legacy for each person and helping them tell their stories through photos for decades to come. He makes a safe space for everyone who comes to his studio and captures people as who they are and how they want to be photographed. His goal is for each photo he takes to make his subjects proud, stand the test of time and be enjoyed by their family for generations to come. shimizuphotography.com
View Kenji’s full Diversity Project gallery online (password: DP123)
Zoë Gamell Brown
Vexing me!
Dates displayed: December 2, 2022-July 16, 2023
Location: 824 Charnelton Street
About the art: Plenty howdy, welcome to my Guyanese American meal. In our time together, I invite you to immerse in the Caribbean currents carrying this exchange forward.
My creative practice speaks to multiplicity within Guyanese identity and extensions of the Caribbean to the Gulf Coast. Themes in my work revolve around culinary catharsis, collective and self-care. My creative work aims to move beyond monolithic definitions of artistic expression and ecological knowledge. For sales inquiries, email Zoë.
About the artist: Zoë Gamell Brown (she/they) is a Guyanese American integrative artist, educator and storyteller whose work spans ceramic sculptures, creative nonfiction, experimental video, landscape photography, photopoetry, restorative cartography and sonic arts.
Brown is a doctoral student in the University of Oregon's Indigenous, Race and Ethnic Studies department, where she centers Caribbean constellations of care through creative and spiritual practices. She is a Digital Evolution/Artist Retention (DEAR) Fellow Cohort IV through the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute and a Louise Westling Distinguished Environmental Justice Fellow through the UO's Holden Center for Leadership and the Pacific Northwest Racial and Climate Justice Futures Institute, 2022.
In 2020, Brown founded Fernland Studios, a nonprofit organization reimagining environmentalism through art and education. Their mission is to provide black, indigenous and people of color opportunities to explore environmentalism through artist residencies, educational retreats and writing workshops. When she is not writing or reading, you can find her hiking around the Pacific Northwest and taking pictures of trees and sea anemones. zoegamell.co