Book Release

WAITING ROOM ARTIST’S BOOK RELEASE

Wednesday, May 8, 2024 | 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
PDX Contemporary
1881 NW Vaughn Street
Portland, Oregon 97209

Waiting Room
An artist’s book by Heather Watkins with an essay by Sarah Sentilles, 44 pages.
Deluxe edition of 50 in a clothbound folio with foil stamping ($80).
Standard edition of 200 in a letterpress printed glassine sleeve ($40).

Prompted by an invitation from the Sun Valley Museum of Art, Watkins revisits her embroidered textile series, Waiting Room (Recordings), a body of work made in waiting rooms of one kind or another.

The book features an essay written by author Sarah Sentilles which draws upon conversations she and Watkins have had over many years, exploring illness and repair, loss and recovery, grief, secret forms of communication that arise between women, and the vital and radical act of making art. 

This project was generously supported by the Sun Valley Museum of Art and is presented in conjunction with the recent exhibition Bodies of Work: Art & Healing, curated by Courtney Gilbert. Book design by Heather Watkins. Binding, foil stamping, letterpress printing, and project consultation by Rory Sparks. Printed by Brown Printing, Portland, Oregon. Photography: Mario Gallucci.

https://pdxcontemporaryart.com

Group Exhibition

Bodies of Work | SVMOA

January 12, 2024 to March 23, 2024
191 5th St E
Ketchum, ID 83340

Closing party & Artist Conversation with Sarah Sentilles and Katherine Shaughnessy—Saturday, March 9, 2024 - 5:00 PM

The exhibition features artwork by several contemporary artists who have used their practices as ways of exploring and processing their own experience of medical illness and also the experiences of others. Working in a range of media and from widely varying points of view and experiences, these artists have made art as part of their own healing and in order to enable the healing of others.

https://svmoa.org/

Interview

Interview with SVMOA

SO, THREAD IS JUST ANOTHER MEDIUM FOR EXPRESSION. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP TO YOUR MATERIALS, HOW YOU CHOOSE OR FIND THE MATERIALS YOU USE? 

A: My work in other media—ink, paper, cotton cording, wire—is very gestural and process-oriented. I think a lot about what a material does naturally, what its gestural language is, and what it might help me see or say. There’s a lot of experimentation as I develop an almost collaborative relationship with those materials, a give and take. My work with thread has become a more mediative, grounding, and deliberate part of my practice. The Waiting Room Recordingswere like a sketchbook, little abstracted notations that refer to various influences and obsessions. They were made with sewing thread (not embroidery floss), some from my grandmother’s supplies. The thin size of the thread almost matches the gauge of the weave of the linen—they feel like weavings. left the indentations of the embroidery hoop visible as a reminder of the process, evidence of one of the tools used to make the work.  

Read the full interview here

Solo Show

Elemental Things | PDX Contemporary

November 1, 2023 to November 28, 2023
1825 B NW Vaughn St.
Portland, Oregon 97209

The works in this exhibition developed through multiple, successive actions and gestures, each move informed by the last. Ink drawings made by pouring and guiding ink across a surface were then excised, freed from their grounds to become sculptures. Molded metallic reliefs that at first glance appear to be formed by great force, perhaps involving an industrial process, turn out to be ink drawings made on the back of a luminous, lightweight sheet of paper.

https://pdxcontemporaryart.com

Solo Show

Heather Watkins, still—arriving (detail), 2020
Linen, silk thread, 15.75 x 15.75 inches

still—moving | PlantHouse Gallery

Planthouse Gallery
55 West 28th Street
New York, NY 10001

October 20, 2023 – November 25, 2023
Opening Reception Friday, October 20, 2023, 6-8pm

Upcoming Events

Dark Moves: Fabiola Menchelli + Heather Watkins + Stephanie Snyder In Conversation

Saturday, May 6 | 11:30am
Reed College, Eliot Hall
3203 SE Woodstock, Portland, OR

Artists Fabiola Menchelli and Heather Watkins will discuss their work in conversation with curator Stephanie Snyder. Light refreshments will be provided at the event, and the gallery will be open following the talk.

This program is free and open to the public.

Heather Watkins: Blindspots and Throughlines Artist Talk

Thursday, May 11 | 6:00pm
Portland State University Lincoln Hall 
1620 SW Park Ave Lincoln Hall 225 Portland, OR

In this artist talk, Watkins will deliver an overview of this initiative in community-engaged learning that has allowed her to reanimate previous artworks with special attention to artistic process and modes of interpretation. She will also talk about her role in the inaugural curricular exhibition Beautiful Questions, which is currently on view in the Broadway Gallery in Lincoln Hall. Finally, Watkins will discuss the development of a publication (which she received a RACC Arts3C grant to produce) that will encapsulate and archive this exciting and multifaceted project.

RSVP

This program is free and open to the public. ASL interpreting will be provided.

Two Person Show

Left: Fabiola Menchelli, Where the light enters, it leaves, 2023. C-print on folded stainless steel, unique edition. Right: Heather Watkins, Hidden Span IV, 2022. Gold pigment and ink on paper; photo by Mario Gallucci.

Dark Moves: Fabiola Menchelli & Heather Watkins | Cooley gallery

February 16, 2023 to May 14, 2023

Saturday, February 25 at 2:00 pm, Reed Chapel, Eliot Hall

Conversation with artists Fabiola Menchelli and Heather Watkins, and exhibition curator Stephanie Snyder, followed by a public reception at the Cooley 


Cooley Gallery

Interview

Interview with The Semi-Finalist

S-F:
Artists often see themselves as "painters," "photographers," etc. in relation to their creative identities, but I don't get that sense from you and your work. You seem to embrace process more than any one material, which is really interesting to me. Can you talk about how you see yourself as an artist?

HW:
You’re absolutely right. Process is key. My work is rooted in material investigation—looking at, say, how different inks flow on different surfaces, or working with the drape and twist of certain fibers. My studio practice involves a lot of experimentation to construct a situation that will lead to unforeseen results, which I can then participate in, observe, react to, transform.

Read the full interview on The Semi-Finalist

Solo Show

zcQEuL3w.jpeg

still—humming
2020
linen and silk thread
15.75 inches x 15.75 inches

Still—MOVING | PDX Contemporary

September 1, 2021 to October 2, 2021

https://pdxcontemporaryart.com

Group Show

WATKINS-DESIRE PATH 1-IMG_8978-7.5X10.jpg
WATKINS-DESIRE PATH 3-IMG_8986-7.5X10.jpg

Desire Path (1-4)
2021
Pigment Print on Archival Rice Paper
10 inches x 7.5 inches, 13 x 10.5 inches (framed)
Edition of 4

Walking | PDX Contemporary Art

July 1, 2021 - August 28, 2021

www.pdxcotemporaryart.com

Recent Acquisitions & Commissions

WATKINS-SOUNDINGS-2020-FULL-DETAIL.jpg

Soundings: Opening, Fathoming, Grounding, Searching, Returning
2020
Thread on linen
25 x 25 in. each

2020-11-25-Heather-Watkins-009.jpg
2020-11-25-Heather-Watkins-022.jpg

Soundings: Opening, Fathoming, Grounding, Searching, Returning


Vanport Building at Portland State University
Suite of five works commissioned.

WATKINS-MCCC-SEEING THINGS-INSTALLED.jpg

Seeing Things
2015
Ink on linen
Dimensions tk

Seeing Things

For the permanent collection at Multnomah County Central Courthouse, Portland, OR
(Collection managed by Regional Arts & Culture Council)
17th floor

Stone Mystic (48, 3, 18)
2010-12
Ink, paper
30 x 22 in. each

Stone Mystic

Oregon State University Marine Studies Institute, Newport, OR
(Managed by Oregon Arts Commission)

Group Show

Seeing Things (no. 46)
2015
Ink on linen
14 3/4 x 16 3/4 inches

FRAGILE | Online Exhibition at Planthouse

Planthouse is pleased to present FRAGILE, an online group exhibition that includes works by 15 artists.

https://planthouse.net

C3:PROJECT RESIDENCY HEATHER WATKINS

c3.jpeg

Thrilled, honored, and grateful to be awarded a c3:Project Residency, beginning May 2019 through June 2020.

“Over the year Watkins will be making site visits to c3’s rural campus, Camp Colton, located an hour SE of Portland. During her residency Watkins will be preparing for a three-person exhibition at the Cooley Gallery, Reed College, in 2021, curated by Stephanie Snyder. As the residency unfolds, c3:initiative staff will collaborate with Watkins to develop public programs responding to her time at Camp Colton.”

http://www.c3initiative.org/

Group Show

tomorrow tomorrow install HW.jpg

Tomorrow, Tomorrow | CANADA

June 15 - July 21, 2017
Curated by Stephanie Snyder and Wallace Whitney

canadanewyork.com