August Gallery Exhibit: Willa Schneberg, “Bookish”

August 12 - September 3

Portland visual artist and poet Willa Schneberg brings a multi-disciplinary exhibit, “Bookish: Ceramic Sculpture and Photography,” to Astoria Visual Arts, on display August 12 through September 3.

Schneberg deconstructs the book form through sculpture and photography. Her focus is an aesthetic one: words and what they mean are not at play in these “bookish” sculptures, which invite movement within stasis — pages curl and dance with each other. Clay is the perfect medium to imitate this gesture, because when it is in the “not too hard and not too soft” state, it can become paper-like and unfurl.

Willa’s sculptures are hand-built, low-fire, intimate works. Her photographs explore books in harmony with others of their kind, how they are one and many, often bound together with other sensate objects in containers built just for them.

Willa captures spaces where words matter— the writing nook, the personal and public library, the bookstore— where words come alive in poetry readings and jump off the page, caught by booklovers in the audience.

Willa will give an Artist Talk on August 12 at 5:00pm. She will read from her newly-released book, The Naked Room, a poetry collection of the unconscious, the dreamscape, the despondent, the unmoored and the mortal, on September 2 at 2:00pm.

Willa will also give a workshop entitled “Developing Radical Empathy Through the Persona Poem” on September 2 at 3:00pm following the reading. The workshop is free and space is limited. Register at The Writer’s Guild of Astoria.

The Naked Room will be available to purchase during the exhibit.

This exhibit and its public events are supported by a grant from The Ford Family Foundation.