“Garbage Paintings and Other Works” is the name of a new exhibition opening this Saturday, August 6 at the Runyan Gallery at the Newport Visual Arts Center.
The featured artist is Robert Dozono, whose artistic career spans 50 years and across multiple mediums. His next exhibition features works in watercolour, charcoal, oil and waste.
“The natural environment is very important to me,” Dozono said. “During all these years, I have reused in my work objects that cannot be recycled – plastic objects without numbers, wiper blades, rubber bands, toothpaste tubes, hair dryers , etc. The river and their unfortunate interaction with humans is evident to me when I go fishing with my friends. Sometimes we try to pick up the trash that others have left.
Many Dozono paintings are large river scenes from the Clackamas River and other areas of Oregon. “I try to highlight what we are doing to our natural resources by using a canvas overlaid on what is normally set aside,” he said.
Dozono, a Portland-based artist, earned his MFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, taught at Portland Community College from 1973 until his retirement in 2001, and has been affiliated with Blackfish Gallery since 1986. His work has been exhibited regionally and internationally, including the Maryhill Museum of Art, the Nikkei Legacy Center, the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art and the Orkrensni Museum (Czech Republic).
