"Porphyra," one of the images in Dianne Kornberg's August exhibit at Orcas Center

The Visual Arts Committee at the Orcas Center is presenting work by Obstruction Island artist, Dianne Kornberg during August.

“Evidence of its Occurrence” will open on August 5 with a reception, music, and a gallery walk-thru with the artist. The archival pigment prints are the result of two artist-in-residencies at the Whiteley Center on the campus of the Friday Harbor Laboratories, where she photographed marine algae specimens, many collected over a century ago.

Of the work in the exhibition Kornberg says, “I find these preserved specimens extraordinary. A visual elegance and poignancy underlies the erosions of time and use. Paradoxically, although the specimens are preserved, they also signify a transience that takes on particular meaning for me as habitat for beautiful and wild living things is depleted.”

Kornberg has exhibited throughout the United States in more than twenty solo exhibitions in the last twenty years, as well as internationally. She is represented in several collections including those of the International Center for Photography, Houston Museum of Art, Princeton Art Museum, American Embassy in Belize, Seattle Art Museum, Portland Art Museum, Henry Gallery, and Tacoma Art Museum. She is Professor Emerita at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon.

Kornberg’s work is the subject of two books, Field Notes, Photographs by Dianne Kornberg, 1992-2007, and India Tigers. A third, Madonna Comix, is scheduled for publication in 2012.

She is also featured in Contemporary Art in the Northwest, Portland Art Museum–Selected Works, and 100 Artists of the West Coast.  Her work has received critical acclaim that often cites her sense of grace and restraint. (Aletti, The Village Voice, l994; Ciezadlo, Chicago Artist’s News, 2009). For the past three years Kornberg has been working in collaboration with two New York City poets.

The work will be on display at Orcas Center from August 5-31. The reception will be held from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. on Friday August 5. A conversation with the artist will take place at 6:15 p.m.

Dianne Kornberg may be contacted at dkornberg@centurytel.net , Her work may be viewed at www.diannekornberg.com

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