The Linfield Art Gallery

Upcoming Exhibit

Hands of the Ancestors

Hands of the Ancestors, an exhibit by artist Stephanie Craig will be featured in the Linfield Gallery in the Miller Fine Arts Center from April 2 through May 2, 2025. An opening reception will be held on Wednesday, April 2 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Craig will give remarks about the exhibition and her process at 5 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. The exhibition features indigenous basketry, belongings and photos corresponding to Stephanie’s traditions and practice.

Stephanie Craig shares the following statement regarding the exhibition:

“Hands of the Ancestors is an immersive exploration of cultural continuity, resilience, and the sacred connection between people, land, and tradition. This exhibit highlights the artistry and legacy of Native basketry, showcasing how these woven forms are more than objects—they are vessels of memory, identity, and knowledge passed down through generations. At its heart, this exhibit emphasizes the idea that our ancestors’ hands are still with us, guiding each weave, stitch, and braid. The pieces on display are created using traditional materials such as hazel, maple bark, cedar roots, rushes, and grasses—plants carefully gathered and prepared with respect, following ancestral protocols. Every basket, tool, and fiber reflects the intricate relationship between Indigenous people and the land, embodying the stories, songs, and teachings embedded within these practices.

By reviving and reclaiming these traditions, Hands of the Ancestors serves as both a tribute and a call to action. It seeks to inspire a deeper understanding of Indigenous cultural lifeways while fostering the responsibility to protect and sustain them for future generations. Visitors are invited to witness the living legacy of Native craftsmanship, to see not only the beauty of these works but also the resilience, knowledge, and spiritual connection they carry. This exhibit is not just about the past—it is about the present and future. It is a bridge between generations, a reaffirmation of identity, and a space where the wisdom of our ancestors continues to thrive in the hands of today’s makers.”

About Stephanie Craig:

Her traditional name, anqati təmtəm tənas siyaxus, translates to “Old Soul Young Eyes” and her American name is Stephanie Craig. Stephanie is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde; her Mother’s people are Santiam and Yoncalla Kalapuya, Takelma Rogue River, Cow Creek Umpqua, and Wakanasisi Lower Chinook. Stephanie is a 7th generation traditional basket weaver, Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Lifeways practitioner, and culture keeper and bearer. Stephanie uses TEK methods, ancestral knowledge, archaeological methods, and traditional plant fibers to create, revive, and awaken centuries old art and a way of life through basketry. Part of Stephanie’s inspiration comes from her 3rd and 4th generation Great Grandmothers, who were renowned master basket weavers and stewards of the land.

Stephanie grew up in the traditional homelands of her Mother's people, the Kalapuya, and was raised on her family’s farm. This experience forged a deep connection with the land and her ancestral ties. Motivated by her children, her Tribe, and her community, Stephanie aims to preserve her cultural heritage and lifeways for future generations by continuing the traditions of her Elders

Stephanie’s training includes the University of Oregon for her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts:IS in Anthropology, Cultural Museums and Folklore, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute, as well as by traditional basket weavers, museum specialists, archaeologists, her Elders, the plants, and the land. Stephanie has been consulting with museums and agencies for over 20 years. Exhibitions and curation of her work can be found in many private collections: Chachalu Museum and Cultural Center at the Grand Ronde Tribe, Multnomah Arts Center, the Mead Museum, Linn County Historical Museum, The Burke Museum, Seattle Children’s Museum, Independence Historical Museum, the Five Oaks Museum, Lane County Historical Museum, Willamette Heritage Center, United States Forestry Service, McKenzie River District, and the Erickson Fritz Apartments Historic Building in Portland, Oregon. Follow Stephanie on Instagram @kalapuya.weaving.

Sponsorship: This exhibition is sponsored by the Lacroute Arts Series and the Department of Art. The Lacroute Arts Series at Linfield University is made possible by the generosity of arts benefactor Ronni Lacroute. The series, sponsored by the Lacroute Arts Fund at Linfield, is dedicated to helping the University present art events and activities for the campus and community. It provides programs featuring artists in the areas of music, art and theatre.

Current Exhibition

Toxic Gods & Black Fairy Tales

Toxic Gods & Black Fairy Tales, an exhibit by artist Travis Johnson will be featured in the Linfield Gallery in the Miller Fine Arts Center at Linfield University from Feb. 12 through April 2, 2025. Johnson will give remarks and a vocal performance during the opening reception on Feb. 12 from 5 to 7 p.m. in the gallery. Light refreshments will be served. The exhibition features song, painting and sculpture.

Travis Johnson shares the following statement regarding the exhibition:

“Toxic Gods & Black Fairy Tales is a mythological synthetization of my history growing up in southern California. It’s me taking the imagined cosmological stories that were told to me as a child and remixing the orientation and hierarchy. This show is me making an insertion to remark and reimagine my childhood imagination with my current lens.

My intention for this show is to collapse the sacred, serious and whimsical into one space. For me, this is an opportunity to imagine the gallery as a studio, a sanctuary, a visual playground. This reimagining of space gives me a chance for play, curiosity, and sonic interventional prayer to happen nearby. This visual and sonic happening will be articulated through song, sculpture and painting.”

About Travis Johnson:

Travis Johnson is a cross–disciplinary artist who is currently dividing his time between Washington, Oregon and California. Johnson leans on painting, sculpture and performance to express and distill his reexamination of a rural black aesthetic. Travis is interested in the poetic, philosophical and practical relationship between material, the body and subsistence. He leans on the whimsical and cartoon iconography as a staple to tell the story of his life growing up in southern California and the impact the Mojave Desert had on him as a young adult. In his work, Johnson references the imprint that religion and labor have on the diasporic fragmented body. The work sits as a resting place for a reconsideration of the need for respite care and a black refusal and looks to find a philosophical celebration for a new relationship with physical and emotional labor and the exhaustion hustle culture.

Johnson graduated from Evergreen State College with his Bachelor of Arts in the summer of 2021 and earned his Master in Fine Arts in the fall of 2023. Since graduating, he has combined his singing touring schedule with his art residencies. His last notable residency was in Marfa, Texas at the invitation of Camp Bosworth and Buck Johnston of the Wrong Store. While in Marfa, he explored the life and work of Donald Judd and a host of local, luminary Marfa artists. Johnson’s work is collected internationally and is in several significant private collections throughout the West Coast region. Johnson is currently working as a visiting assistant professor of painting and drawing at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. Follow Travis on Instagram @travisjohnsonstudios.

Sponsorship: This exhibition is sponsored by the Lacroute Arts Series and the Department of Art. The Lacroute Arts Series at Linfield University is made possible by the generosity of arts benefactor Ronni Lacroute. The series, sponsored by the Lacroute Arts Fund at Linfield, is dedicated to helping the University present art events and activities for the campus and community. It provides programs featuring artists in the areas of music, art and theatre.

 Previous Exhibition

A Democracy of Multiples: Recent Print Publications from the Studio of Mullowney Printing

Gallery hours

Monday through Friday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturday: noon to 5 p.m.

A Democracy of Multiples: Recent Print Publications from the Studio of Mullowney Printing will be featured in the Linfield Gallery in the Miller Fine Arts Center at Linfield University from Oct. 17 through Nov. 22. Mullowney Press founder Paul Mullowney will make remarks regarding the exhibit at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 17, followed by an opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Linfield Gallery with wine and light refreshments. The exhibition features woodcuts, etchings, monotypes and letterpress broadsides published by Mullowney Printing over the past ten years, including work by Sandow Birk and Elyse Pignolet, Demian DinéYazhi', Stephen Hayes, Narsiso Martinez and Marie Watt.

Founder and co–director Paul Mullowney shares the following statement regarding the exhibition:

“The exhibition, A Democracy of Multiples, features recent and past print projects from the studio of Mullowney Printing in Portland, Oregon. The work in the exhibition highlights the important role of print media in our culture to educate and elucidate the public at large. Throughout history, the promulgation of the printed image and word has been an integral part of the forefront of social justice issues. Revolutions and movements were driven by the vision and messaging of artists making work that challenges political norms and authoritarian governments.

In our age when digital image and messaging is ubiquitous through online platforms, this exhibition seeks to elevate the fact that traditional print media is alive and well, indeed flourishing, through the egalitarian means of getting the word out there.”

About Mullowney Printing:

Mullowney Printing is a multifaceted fine art print studio in Portland, Oregon, publishing traditional print media by leading contemporary artists. They offer community workshops, internships, residency programs, contract printing and public exhibitions.

About Paul Mullowney:

Paul Mullowney has operated Mullowney Printing since 2011, beginning in San Francisco then moving the business to Portland, Oregon in 2019. After becoming a master printer at Crown Point Press in San Francisco in 1990, Mullowney went on to run studios in Japan and Maui, Hawaii. He has taught at Pacific Northwest College of Art and San Francisco Art Institute and has conducted numerous printmaking workshops in America and Japan.

About Harry Schneider:

Harry Schneider has been with Mullowney Printing since 2016 and later became partner and co–director with Paul when the business moved to Portland. Harry helps manage the day–to–day operations of the studio while working on editions. He helps train new printers and apprentices through their Undergrowth program. Schneider graduated from Pacific Northwest College of Art with an MFA in Print Media. He received his BS in Art from the University of Oregon. Harry interned at Hatch Show Print and has helped create printed editions with Watershed Publications.

Sponsorship: This exhibition is sponsored by the Lacroute Arts Series and the Department of Art. The Lacroute Arts Series at Linfield University is made possible by the generosity of arts benefactor Ronni Lacroute. The series, sponsored by the Lacroute Arts Fund at Linfield, is dedicated to helping the University present art events and activities for the campus and community. It provides programs featuring artists in the areas of music, art and theatre.

Spheres of Influence

Spheres of Influence, a multigenerational exhibition by members of the Hoskinson family, will be featured in the Linfield Gallery in the Miller Fine Arts Center at Linfield University from Aug. 28 to Oct. 5.

This exciting exhibition, featuring traditional ceramic vessels, sculpture, painting and drawing, honors the works and artistic output of three generations of one artistic family — parents Don and Cindy, daughter Mya and their grandchildren. The family’s special relationship to Linfield University spans several decades, with both Don and Cindy teaching at Linfield University at different periods and Cindy currently teaching. In addition, daughter Brittney graduated from Linfield and has contributed an essay for the exhibit.

Opening Reception: There will be an opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 29. In the Gallery with wine and light refreshments.

Artist Talks: Members of Hoskisson family will present artist talks at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 17. in the Delkin Recital Hall in the Vivian Bull Music Center, with wine and light refreshments to follow in the Gallery. Delkin Recital Hall is located in the Vivian Bull Music Center at 57 Keck Drive, near the corner of Lever Street. There is ample free parking in the lot east of the building.

About the Artists:

Don Hoskisson is a potter and painter whose artistic practice has spanned more than 50 years and ranges from ceramics to drawing and painting. He received his Masters of Art from Utah State University in 1964 and his Master of Fine Arts from Arizona State in 1971. He taught at Jarvis Christian College from 1966–1969, and at Western Oregon University for over 38 years, retiring in 2003. Hoskisson then team–taught at Linfield with Cindy until 2015. In addition to teaching, he has been a practicing artist throughout his career with a productive studio practice.

Cindy Hoskinson is an educator and studio potter who has been working in clay since 1980. She was the manager at East Creek Anagama for 30 years. She taught at George Fox University then co–taught with Don at Linfield, where she is currently teaching. Additionally, Hoskinson has had an illustrious career as a studio potter, exhibiting in numerous exhibitions, fairs, and galleries.

Daughter Mya Cluff is a studio artist living and working in Montana. Cluff graduated from the Oregon College of Art and Craft, receiving a BFA in Craft with an emphasis in Ceramics. Cluff is intrigued with the psychological, political, and interpersonal ramifications of motherhood. She uses her own experience as inspiration, as well as the stories of her peers, written accounts of motherhood, and maternal feminist theory to inform her work. Cluff was a short–term resident at the Red Lodge Clay Center in 2019, Pentaculum at Arrowmont in 2023, and Chehalem Cultural Center in 2024. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally in group exhibitions and has work in various private and public collections.

Daughter Brittney Bailey is a Graduate Fellow in the department of Art History at Rutgers University, specializing in late–nineteenth and early–twentieth century Modernism. Brittney received her BA in English Literature from Linfield University in 2008 and her MA in Art History from American University in 2015. Her research interests include questions of gender, race and transnational exchange. Brittney has held internships in the education departments of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, DC and the Portland Art Museum. She has taught at Rutgers University and Moore College of Art and Design in Philidelphia and George Fox University.

Cindy Hoskisson shares the following statement regarding Spheres of Influence:

“When you sit down with a ball of clay at the wheel, no matter what the finished work is going to become, you start by making a sphere — a strong yet flexible circle that can be stretched wide or lengthened for height or squeezed tight or flattened to create a disk.

When you throw a stone to skip across the water, you create a sphere that continues to spread and make more and more spheres.

For our family, there are many spheres:

• The spheres that bond us together.
• The spheres that require us to create.
• Spheres of community that give us friendships and cause us to stretch and grow, and require more of ourselves and each other.
• Spheres of teaching and sharing what we have and know with each other and with those we are lucky enough to have stewardship over for a short time.

This show represents many of those spheres. The work is old and new, done by us individually and collaboratively. We work together at times to influence each other and support each other. At times, we work alone or separately, but the influence is always there. One piece may touch another just as our spheres hopefully continue to grow and spread, so our work changes and stays the same, and the influence continues.”

SPONSORSHIP: This exhibition is sponsored by the Lacroute Arts Series and the Department of Art. The Lacroute Arts Series at Linfield University is made possible by the generosity of arts benefactor Ronni Lacroute. The series, sponsored by the Lacroute Arts Fund at Linfield, is dedicated to helping the University present art events and activities for the campus and community. It provides programs featuring artists in the areas of music, art, and theatre

Past events and exhibits

Visit the Linfield Gallery archive page to view information about past events and exhibits.