Portland, Oregon

April 2, 2009 - April 28, 2009

Steven Beatty was born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in 1966. He is an interdisciplinary artist and teacher living and working in Portland, Oregon. His work addresses environmental and social issues, and includes mixed media, sculpture, installation, public intervention, painting, digital photography, material exploration lectures and collaborations with Portland-based artist, Laurel Kurtz. He received his BA from Humboldt State University, 2002 and his MFA from Portland State University, 2006. He has shown work internationally in Liverpool UK, Ulsan Korea, and Stuttgart Germany and the west and east coasts of the United States. Beatty won the 2006 International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award in Hamilton, NJ and his work was shown in Sculpture Magazine.

Portland, Oregon

April 2, 2009 - April 28, 2009

Laurel Kurtz is in her second year at Portland State University’s (PSU) Art and Social Practice program. Kurtz earned a BA from PSU in Fine Art/Sculpture. Kurtz often works collaboratively and some of her past works include working with Avalon Kalin and the local NW Dowser, Mike Doney; Sandy Sampson and Kurtz created a public speaking platform that was influenced by their involvement in Toastmasters; Kurtz and Steven Beatty have an on-going collaborative practice involving plastic bottle caps collected from the community. They have traveled to the East coast and overseas to the UK with their bottle caps. Most recently, Kurtz is working with Bill Harrelson, a neighbor, to create a back scratcher museum. Kurtz’s work focuses on the social as a vehicle to highlight people and issues of interest and relevance in a community.