Clatsop Community College
1653 Jerome, Astoria OR 97103
For immediate release
Contact: Kristin Shauck (503) 338-2472

Au Naturel: The Nude in the 21st Century: CCC’s First Juried International Art Exhibition

Clatsop Community College Art Center Gallery is proud to host “Au Naturel: The Nude in the 21st Century,” the first juried international art exhibition to be held at a community college in Oregon, April 2 through 27, 2007. An artist’s reception will be held on April 3 at 6 p.m. Au Naturel includes a wide range of interpretations of the nude human figure, from representational to abstract.

After much deliberation, over 70 works of art were selected from over 300 entries. The exhibit will represent artists from 13 states including Hawaii, plus Washington D.C., and international artists from Europe, Asia and North America.

“We had a tremendous response, quite exceeding our expectations,” said CCC art instructor Kristin Shauck. “The quality of artwork submitted was exceptional and the juror was faced with a very difficult task.”

Clatsop Community College has a rich tradition of using the nude figure as the focal point of the Art Department. When the department first started using the nude figure in about 1980, it was one of the first community colleges in Oregon to work from nude models in its studio classes.

“We really feel that having access to the nude figure is very important to our students, especially in drawing, painting and sculpture,” said CCC Art Department Founder Roy Garrisson, who taught art classes at the college from 1969 until his retirement in the spring of 2006. “The figure is fundamental to art—we need that information to understand form.”

Serving as juror for the exhibition is Royal Nebeker, a painter and printmaker whose work appears in both the US and Europe. He was recently included in a contemporary survey of European gallery artists at the Louvre in Paris. In 2004, Nebeker was invited to give the inaugural address for the new fine arts campus at the National School of Fine Arts in Oslo, Norway. In May of 2006, he was appointed by Governor Ted Kulongoski to serve on the Oregon Arts Commission, and is currently represented by Augen Gallery of Portland and Lisa Harris Gallery of Seattle, Washington.

“Clatsop Community College continues to have one of the best visual art programs in the Northwest,” said Nebeker, now an adjunct instructor at CCC, who also played an intrinsic role in developing the emphasis on the nude figure at college.

“This is a particularly significant accomplishment when one realizes the relatively remote geographic area served by the facility,” he continued. “Bringing this quality of artwork to the campus will be educational and greatly enjoyed by the student body and local community. It is an example of the vision and leadership the art faculty constantly provides for our region.”

The Clatsop Community College Art Center Gallery is located at 1653 Jerome Avenue in Astoria. For more information please contact Kristin Shauck at (503) 338-2472.

© Michael Reedy

© Eileen Kane

© Tamara Codor