Linfield Gallery hosts works by Mills de Pinyas

Oct. 3, 2011 - PRLog -- LINFIELD COLLEGE

The exhibition opens Oct. 10 and runs through Nov. 12.

Mills de Pinyas is an art professor at Linfield College whose work has been supported by the Fulbright Scholar Program and exhibited across the U.S. and in Asia and Latin America. His most recent mural series was inaugurated at the Hallie Ford Center at Oregon State University, and supported and administered by the Oregon Arts Commission.  

The large abstract paintings in the current exhibit emerged during a stay in Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2010–11, where Mills de Pinyas was inspired by the ancient and colonial architecture and patterned folk art and weavings.

“I was working through what sometimes seemed to be a mysterious maze of shifting pathways in life, hence the title,” he said.

The paintings embody the distinct mysticism and romance inherent in a worldview that blended indigenous and Western culture. More recent pieces in the exhibit were inspired by the color and light of the Oregon landscape and the vitality of botanical forms. Throughout, the focus of the work has been intense surface plasticity. With their luminous color, patterns in rhythm and ethereal — almost mystical — flow, the works reintroduce a pictorial sense of figure-ground relationships abandoned some time ago in favor of more pure field compositions.

LINFIELD GALLERY

Exhibitions of regional, national and international stature are on view throughout the academic year in the 1,500 square foot space at Linfield College. Patrons can expect challenging shows that exemplify diverse approaches to the practice of contemporary visual art.

All exhibits are free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. For more information, call (503) 883-2804 or visit the gallery at www.linfield.edu/art/gallery.

To reach the gallery from 99W, turn east on Keck Drive at the McMinnville Market Center in south McMinnville. Turn right at the first street onto Library Court. Linfield Gallery is located in the James Miller Fine Arts Center, the second building on the left (Building B) and number 56 on the campus map. Ample parking is available on the street and in the lot west of Nicholson Library.

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