Humboldt State University (HSU) Third Street Gallery presents, Dog Summer: Young Alumni -2018, on exhibit from July 1 through September 2. The exhibition features works by the 2018 graduates from Humboldt State’s Art Department.

Annually, HSU Third Street Gallery exhibits the creative work of these ambitious artists as they transition from their art studies into their professional careers. The Dog Summer: Young Alumni-2018 exhibition presents the work of 33 graduates whose art includes a wide variety of media and talent. This exhibition reflects the breadth of courses offered at the university including media areas such as motion graphics, sculpture, jewelry, painting, photography, graphic design, printmaking, and ceramics.

“The new alumni participating in this show have all developed to a point where their craft has approached a professional level,” states Third Street Gallery Director Jack Bentley.  “These participants demonstrate tangible evidence of artistic accomplishment. Crucial to their success, however, is an intangible quality they share—a dedication and commitment to making art as a way of life informed by aesthetic and intellectual engagement with their work.”

Upon entering the gallery, visitors will encounter a number of pieces of art by these graduates that have garnered awards and prizes.  These annual prizes, awards and scholarships are either underwritten or endowed by generous community members who support the educational mission of the Art Department at Humboldt State.

After over 20 years of exhibitions, this will be the last scheduled show to be presented by HSU Third Street Gallery.  In April of this year Humboldt State University announced that it will close the gallery in September.

HSU First Street Gallery opened in Eureka, California in 1998 to provide hands-on experiences for students and as a public service, bringing free exhibitions to California’s North Coast community.  In 2016, the gallery was relocated to Third Street in Eureka and renamed HSU Third Street Gallery. During its 20-year history the gallery’s exhibitions have focused on contemporary arts, and featured artists from the local area as well as national and international artists.

Annually, the gallery would also present ongoing exhibition series that were interdisciplinary in nature, which variously addressed the subjects of social justice, diversity, the Earth's environment, its natural resources, environmental responsibility and action.  The exhibitions were able to attract many visitors each year, and they were especially popular during monthly “Arts Alive!” events. After the gallery closes, the space may be used to serve students in other ways for the duration of the lease. 

 
Exhibition Schedule and Location 

A reception for the artists will be held at HSU Third Street Gallery on Saturday, July 7 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. during Eureka’s monthly Arts Alive program.   The exhibition will run from July 1 through September 2. During the exhibition the gallery will be open Tuesdays through Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. and closed on Mondays. The gallery will be closed on July Fourth in observance of the holiday. Humboldt State University Third Street Gallery is located at 416 Third Street Eureka, California. For more information, please call (707) 443-6363

Humboldt State University Third Street Gallery presents, HOT, on exhibition in the gallery’s South Room from January 29, 2018 to March 4, 2018. This exhibition features seventeen student and alumni artists from Humboldt State University.

The exhibition, HOT, will address climate change and global warming. With temperatures rising around the world, artists are exploring ideas about climate change — its causes and effects. With the general consensus from the scientific community about the threat of climate change and the recent regulation roll- backs from the current administration, artists are ever more inspired to create conversation around these topics with their work.

Participating artists are showing work in sculpture, ceramics, photography, painting, prints, jewelry and mixed media.  For example, alumna Elisa Griego-Martinez uses gouache and ink suspended in acrylic over maps and hydrographs to illustrate her thoughts about the recent wildfires. She states that, “Amplified by climate change, the recent dry spell has lingered on despite record rainfall, causing low agricultural yields, wildfires, and stress on available resources. It has not only changed the landscape but the political and social climate of the region.” Artists participating are utilizing their materials and subject matter to address the issues of rising temperatures, pollution, natural disasters, rising sea levels and diminishing resources.

This exhibition will run in the gallery’s South Room along side local artist Cynthia Hooper’s solo exhibition, Cultivated Ecologies, an interdisciplinary video and essay project that examines California wildlife refuges. Hooper’s exhibition will be held in the Project Room at the gallery. Artists participating in HOT will be Regina Case, Julie Clark, Tim Clewell, Gio King, Haley Davis, Lizzy Dostal, Claire Esselstrom, Lisa Griego-Martinez, Chelsee Harris, Harley Hinkle, David Jordan, Anna Kowalczyk, Anna Ladd, Malia Matsumoto, Bethany Matthis-Montgomery, Terry Torgerson, and David White.

Exhibition Schedule and Location
The exhibition, HOT, will run from January 29 through March 4. The gallery is open Tuesday–Sunday, noon – 5 p.m.  The gallery will hosta public reception for the artists on Saturday, February 3, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., during Eureka Main Street’s Arts Alive Program. Third Street Gallery is located at 416 Third Street in Eureka, California.  Admission is free for all. Groups are encouraged to call ahead to arrange tours. For more information call (707) 443-6363

Humboldt State University Third Street Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition featuring a survey of works by Keith Schneider. Ranging over the years of 1996-2017, the exhibition, Selected Works: Drawing, Mixed Media, and Ceramics, will feature many works by the artist that have never been exhibited on California’s North Coast.  The exhibition will run through May 13.

Schneider’s œuvre is an amalgamation of his life’s passions and pursuits.  Animated by a love of play and experimentation, Schneider allows his work to speak for itself, in order to evoke personal emotions and interpretations from his audience members. 

Aesthetically, Keith Schneider is interested in objects that “wear” their history or appear to do so. Since his graduate school days Schneider has been developing a community of unique characters, populated by animals, human-like figures and totems.  Themes and symbols of shelter, labor, transportation, journeys, music, song and companionship further inform this artist’s world. In the artist’s words, “The life story that each object could tell remains a mystery; but the hint of its past adds a layer of richness, even when drawn over or partially obscured by paint.”
 
When working in collage and mixed-media sculpture, Schneider engages in free-form improvisation as he uses everything from household items to sidewalk debris to inform his art.  His drawings, however, evince a careful, focused eye and a disciplined hand, yielding rich pieces that simultaneously portray his quirky characters while serving as a meditation on drawing itself.  In his ceramic work he creates thrown ceramic vessels (vase and urn forms) as the underlying foundation of his characters’ physical shape; and in turn, he often gives some of his characters a vessel of their own, such as a boat or wagon.

To impart such richness to his ceramics, Schneider utilizes trompe l’oeil (a trick of the eye), manipulating the clay to appear as if it were another material such as fabric, leather or wood.  Schneider effectively uses the language of fabric to create characters with individual personalities and expressive facial features.  A master of ceramic glazing technique, he easily conveys the delicate nostalgia of a vintage toy, a bit worn out, but nevertheless cherished. The use of buttons for eyes, wheels and wooden limbs evoke a mélange of pathos and humor.  These objects emanate a bittersweet energy, each character bringing a unique backstory to the mix.

“Often, as I am working, these pieces take on a life of their own and it is interesting to me that some of my characters seem worried and perplexed, some quizzical and amused, some mischievous and playful. As I live with these characters, I believe that they speak to me about myself.”

Schneider knew early in his life that art was the path he wanted follow. He left Southern California to move to California’s North Coast in the 1980s where he completed a Masters of Art at Humboldt State University.  He then wanted to take his art to the next level and completed a Masters in Fine Arts from University of California, Santa Barbara.  Having been familiar with the area, Schneider moved back to Humboldt where he has established himself as an art professor, teaching ceramics and drawing at Humboldt State University.

His work has been exhibited in galleries nationwide and he has been the recipient of numerous awards for his art. Schneider has been featured in Ceramics Now magazine and at the SOFA (Sculpture Objects and Functional Art and Design Fair) in Chicago.

Selected Works; Drawing, Mixed-Media, and Ceramics, by Keith Schneider, is produced by Humboldt State students enrolled in the Art Museum and Gallery Practices Program.  These students participate in the daily management and planning of exhibitions at the gallery.  The gallery provides real-life opportunities for the students to develop their gallery and museum skills, which in turn provides them with experience that will help them to enter the job market. Many students who have participated in the program have gone on to careers in museums and galleries throughout the nation.

Gallery Talk by the Artist

Keith Schneider will give a talk about his work on Saturday April 21 at 3 p.m.  Come meet the artist as he guides you through the exhibition.

Exhibition Schedule

This exhibition will run from April 3 through May 13. A reception for the artist will be held on Saturday, April 7, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. during Eureka’s monthly Arts Alive event. The gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.  Those planning group tours are encouraged to call ahead. Humboldt State University Third Street Gallery is located at 416 Third Street Eureka, California.  In 2016 the gallery was relocated and renamed after 19 years in its former location on First Street in Eureka. For more information call 707-443-6363.

For many years, I have been attracted to objects that “wear” their history, and have collected these things, such as old toys, maps, pencils, and sheet music as inspiration for my ceramic pieces, and to use in my assemblages and collages. I like the quality of these things, and how time has given them a story that can be read into them.

The assemblage materials that I use come from many different sources, but whether culled from thrift store bins, beach debris or sidewalk trash, the unifying factor in most of my pieces is that they are made with the quality of assemblage in mind. Over the years, I’ve attempted to use this idea of collage and assemblage as a thematic starting point, and I hope that this sensibility is present to the viewer in most, if not all of the work that I make.

In my ceramic work, inspired by things I have scavenged, I often invent my own “found” objects and materials.  In my more recent work, I have used clay “fabric” to dress up my characters and clay tape ands stitching to hold them together.   Since facial expression is so important in defining the personality of each of my figures, using wrinkles, tears and holes in the clay fabric has opened up new and exciting options for achieving this.

My pieces are constructed from earthenware clay and fired to cone 03.  Surface color is developed with underglazes, glazes, stains and sometimes lusters.  I often begin my pieces with a wide variety of wheel thrown forms and put them together in combination with other elements; sometimes extruded pieces, sometimes press-molded or handbuilt.  During this process, I try not to be too cerebral, but instead, attempt to react directly to what is visually in front of me and trust my instincts.

Often, as I am working, these pieces take on a life of their own and it is interesting to me that some of my characters seem anxious and overwhelmed, some worried and perplexed, some quizzical and amused.  As I live with these characters, I believe that they speak to me about myself.

Keith Schneider
Spring, 2018

Cal Poly Humboldt’s Goudi’ni Native American Arts Gallery presents Tintah: Amongst The Trails, works in wood and works on paper by Robert Benson. Exhibition runs October 5th through December 2nd, 2023.

Focusing on a new body of work, Tintah, Hupa language for amongst the trails, features newly carved salvaged old growth redwood sculptures, and watercolor studies. Robert Benson, Tsnungwe, is a leading figure among artists in the northwestern California art world. He worked as a well-respected teacher for more than 30 years at the College of the Redwoods in Eureka, California, as well as a curator of Native art. 

His current paintings and sculptures are filled with trails, literal and suggested. “There is the trail into our family hunting camp that I traveled for more than fifty years, there are trails handed down through stories and mythologies, and there are the trails of imagination. When we consider that at the most basic level a trail is just something connecting two points, even the ladder and stairway forms that populate my work can be viewed as kinds of trails. To be amongst the trails is to find your rhythm, your place, and to discover the interplay between that rhythm and the melody of the universe.” Benson states.

Tintah:  Amongst the Trails

A trail is quite simply a rough path across open country formed by repeated travel. Trails are everywhere. Universal. But the physical act of walking a trail is personal. Some of the experience is dictated by what you bring, some by what you find: Walk the same trail at a different time of day, in a different season, at a different age, with a different load (be it physical or emotional) and even the most familiar trail becomes new, offering experiences beyond simply the convenient passage from point A to B. Much like the creative process, walking a trail is an act of will but also an act of discovery. There is the trail head, the point of origin, and there is a desired destination. However, despite our intentions, the reality and experience of a trail is often non-linear. In between origin and destination, a world of possibility exists filled with spurs, obstacles, confrontations, and resolutions. This trail is as much a place as origin or destination.

Tintah is a Hupa word that literally translated means, Amongst the trails. The word is used figuratively to mean, In the forest. I chose Tintah as the title for this exhibition for several reasons. First, my paintings and sculptures are filled with trails, literal and suggested. There is the trail into our family hunting camp that I traveled for more than fifty years, there are trails handed down through stories and mythologies, and there are the trails of imagination. When we consider that at the most basic level a trail is just something connecting two points, even the ladder and stairway forms that populate my work can be viewed as kinds of trails.

 There is also the notion that being "amongst the trails" is to be in the natural world and to recognize the ubiquity of the trail. When we start to look, we see literal and metaphorical trails all around us. Trails connect us. They act as touchstones to who or what came this way before. From antiquity to today, from dinosaur trackways to New York City subway lines, from a wildfire's trail of destruction to hidden ant trails and glacial moraines, the list of trail makers and phenomena is expansive.

Lastly, there is the trail's metaphorical sense regarding exploration of our world and ourselves. The path of life, path of least resistance, the road less traveled, stairway to heaven, the ladder of success: Our language is filled with phrases that speak to this connection between the trail and the pursuit of personal growth or enlightenment. In my Native culture, just to be on the trail to the high country is itself a spiritual journey. The trail is perceived as having its own life and is treated with appropriate regard.

Walking a trail, your mind gets clean. There is an auditory component to the work of it. Almost like music, your stride, each footfall and breath, creates a kind of rhythm. The mind becomes clear. In that state, you become open to what in you resonates with the natural world, the sounds and sensations outside of yourself layered atop that internal rhythm of breath and stride. To be amongst the trails is to find your rhythm, your place, and to discover the interplay between that rhythm and the melody of the universe.

—Robert Benson, 2023 

If you encounter issues accessing or navigating the Matterport website or any of the virtual tours of the exhibits at Reese Bullen Gallery or any of the Galleries on this website, please call 707-826-3629 or email rbg@humboldt.edu for assistance during normal business hours, 8-5 Monday through Friday.

The HSU Art Department and Reese Bullen Gallery is pleased to announce Twenty | Twenty: BFA Exhibition. This exhibit showcases work by our inaugural BFA cohort and celebrates their achievements. Featured work includes painting, photography, sculpture and jewelry. 

Group Exhibition curated by Meyo Marrufo, Eastern Pomo

March 28th - May 11th, 2024

Opening Reception Thurs March 28th, 4:30pm-6pm

Featuring a group of 11 artists curated by Meyo Marrufo (Eastern Pomo), Wa Hinthil Come North focuses on Pomo worldview through visual language and storytelling. Wa Hinthil is “the People” in the pomo language, this exhibition is a cultural exchange here north into our local tribal lands. Featuring regalia, digital media, photography, basketry, painting and more, this exhibition expands on the curatorial work of Maruffo that has been showcased at the Mendocino Art Museum, Grace Hudson Museum and Sonoma Valley Museum of Art.

The exhibition will host an Opening Reception on Thursday March 28th from 4:30pm-6pm at the Goudi’ni Gallery. All are welcome to attend, and light refreshments will be served. An artist talk with participating regalia makers will be held the next day, Friday March 29th at the Goudi’ni Gallery 10am-11:30am. Future artist talks on basketry and contemporary art are forthcoming.

Open to in-person viewing four days a week, and presented virtually at art.humboldt.edu/galleries. We welcome visitors to our in-person viewing hours at the Goudi'ni Gallery starting Friday March 29th: Wed/Thurs 12pm-6pm, Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 11am-2pm. Closed Sun/Mon/Tues. Also open via appointment, please contact the Gallery Director at rbg@humboldt.edu, or call 707-826-3629. 

If you encounter issues accessing or navigating the Matterport website or any of the virtual tours of the exhibits at Reese Bullen Gallery or any of the Galleries on this website, please call 707-826-3629 or email rbg@humboldt.edu for assistance during normal business hours, 8-5 Monday through Friday.

More information on past works.