PORT ANGELES — Nathan Barnes’ solo exhibition “Strangely Familial” will come to the PUB Gallery of Art at Peninsula College beginning Tuesday and run through Feb. 6.
On the last day of the free exhibit of his painting and mixed media at the campus at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., Barnes will present a talk, “Transgressive Angels,” at Studium Generale at 12:35 p.m. in the Peninsula College Little Theater, with an artist reception immediately afterward.
The lecture is free.
Barnes was born in Utah and raised in a Mormon family. His youth featured a regular dose of common religious observances, such as prayer and community practice, intertwined with earnest accounts of ecstatic visions and magical healings, Kolobian cosmology, and folklore.
It was an immersive milieu that colored many of the artist’s formative experiences.
“Art has been a constant in my life,” Barnes said. “It’s how I have found my way. I often think of the titular character in the novel ‘My Name is Asher Lev,’ who broke tradition with his ancestors when he chose art.”
He received a bachelor’s of fine arts in painting and drawing from the University of Utah and an master’s of fine arts in Studio Art from Idaho State University.
Barnes has lived in western Washington since 2013. Currently, he is a full-time art instructor at Grays Harbor College, serves on the Olympia Artspace Alliance board of directors, and curates public art projects through his inclusion on the Washington State Arts Commission’s public art curator roster.
“I see my role as that of a bard,” he said of his creations.
“My power is in perpetuating the subjects of my choosing in the pictures and objects I make. And maybe, in the margins or negative spaces, they can take on a life of their own.”
For more information, contact Michael Paul Miller at mpmiller@pencol.edu.
