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RESIDENT ARTISTS

Mke Albano

Mike Albano

Mike Albano has been painting since his early teens. He's currently working primarily with oil paints and studying the works of old masters for inspiration.

Follow his work on Instagram: @Michael.albano.14

Rustyn Birch

Rustyn Birch

Rustyn Birch is the tyrannical ruler of the great planet Goo-Goo in the Vabicoo Halo Zone. His blasphemous hijinks, maniacal cosmic pranks, and supersonic dance-off capabilities in the 90s often brought him into conflict with Earthlings which resulted in total galactic banishment in 1999. It is rumored that he is currently in hiding somewhere in the Northwest, plotting his triumphant and inevitable revenge.

Simran Gleason

Simran Gleason

Simran Gleason is a Portland artist and illustrator, mostly working in oil painting. His work has been all over the artistic map, from plein air landscapes to improv music for modern dance, and most recently doing album covers for local & national bands. His series of figurative works in fantasy and dystopian settings has oddly turned into documenting actual burgeoning dystopia in America.

 

To paraphrase William Gibson:

 

dystopia is here, just not evenly distributed.

Sam Kline

Sam Kline

Sam Kline was born in Melbourne, Australia, and moved to the Portland area a when he was two. His father worked in government, and his mother was a graphic designer and illustrated children’s books. Growing up he was never short of materials to play and experiment with artistically. He started taking art classes at the age of seven and just kept going. — Sam is fascinated with patterns and the translation of information into a visually interesting format, like the veins on a leaf, or a page from the phone book can be an inspiration. He really enjoy art that keeps the mind moving. Art that wants to play with you. He realizes “playful” might not be the first word to come to mind when seeing his work, but it’s how he feels when he’s making it. It’s fun. — He prefers to work on, and with, circles as much as possible. They have a different “rhythm” than squares or rectangles. There is an organic interaction between a circle and the wall that a square just doesn’t have. Squares hang on the wall, circles play on it. He honestly can’t remember if he started working with circles because he had some lightning bolt of inspiration, or if he was just trying to be difficult (both are plausible). But he thanks his ring of stars that he did. He is happier thinking in circles. — Sam has worked as a sign and mural painter, graphic designer and illustrator. Among other things, he has painted guitars, buildings, vehicles, roller coaster cars and a forklift or two. There was a dalliance with comic books in the 1990’s that sometimes threatened to almost go somewhere at times. Graffiti was perhaps one of his favorite artistic tangents. It combined calligraphy, graphic design, color theory, marketing and strategic execution. (He never did quite perfect that last one though.) He really enjoy working with non-traditional materials. You get to make up the rules as you go, because there aren’t any.

Jonas Nash

Jonas Nash

Jonas Nash is a self-taught painter that has been creating art since 14-years old. He studied bronze silt casting at the Arcosanti project in Northern Arizona, and has traveled the world working circuses, including Circus Flora and Cirque Du Soleil. Jonas moved to Portland Oregon in 1999 and has been showing his work, putting together events, and supporting Portland's art community ever since.