Samantha Wall
Russo Lee Gallery is pleased to present Beyond Bloodlines by Samantha Wall. This exhibition includes drawings that intertwine Korean folklore with elements derived from Eurocentric mythologies. Wall exposes the entangled narratives she navigates as an immigrant and multi-ethnic woman.
Originally from Seoul, South Korea, Samantha Wall immigrated to the United States as a child. She received her BFA from The University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, and her MFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR. Her work has been featured in both solo and group exhibitions regionally and nationally. Wall is the recipient of awards and grants from organizations including the Oregon Arts Commission; Portland, Oregon’s Regional Arts & Culture Council; The Ford Family Foundation; and The Joan Mitchell Foundation. She was also selected for the Portland Art Museum’s Contemporary Northwest Art Awards 2016 and the winner of the Arlene Schnitzer Prize. Recently she has completed commissions for Oregon State University’s Cascade Camps in Bend, OR, and for the Facebook AIR Program, Redmond, WA.
Congratulations to artist Samantha Wall on winning the 2022 Bonnie Bronson Award. The guiding principles are to advance and encourage creative and intellectual growth in a working artist of the Pacific Northwest region, specifically in Oregon or Washington. The award consists of a monetary gift (currently $10,000) and the purchase of the artist’s work for the Bonnie Bronson Collection, which is stewarded by the Cooley Gallery, Reed College, and displayed prominently throughout the Reed campus.
Measuring in at 14-foot by 25-foot, “What Moves Us” is a mural installation consisting of three distinct 7-foot-tall gold bodies in positions that suggest suspension. Each body is ringed by 10 circles that upon closer inspection are portrait heads, all set against a blue and grey gradient background. The mural embodies the transformational power and inspirational force generated through the integrated learning environment at Oregon State University-Cascades’ Edward J. Ray Hall
Visual artist Samantha Wall leads Artslandia through her creative process and shares insight on her sources of inspiration and hope.
Learn how Samantha Wall’s monochrome drawings offer highly personal explorations of identity, race, and interior life.