Tropical’s 2018-19 season starts this weekend!

Hello Tropical friends,

We’re kicking off our 2018-19 season this weekend with Impermanence, an immersive solo show of new work by Portland-based Brazilian artist Marcelo Fontana. The opening reception will be this Saturday, October 6th from 6-9pm. (Hint: you can make it a twofer and also check out the new show at Ditch that same night!)

(We also have another session of our popular figure drawing popup, Draw a Drag Queen, coming up next Tuesday, October 9th! Read through to the bottom of this newsletter for details of that event and other upcoming things around town.)

Back to Marcelo and some details of the first show of our season!

Fontana writes: “This exhibition relates the concepts of impermanence and photography – impermanence, also knows as Anicca or Anitya is one of the essential concepts of Buddhism: all of conditioned existence is transient, evanescent, inconstant. All temporal things, whether material or mental, are in a continuous change of condition, subject to decline, destruction or transformation.”

“Photography, like the human body, has a lifetime, is impaired. The print / blow out is already born with the confirmation of its death. It could be an “almost life” inside a film shelf, the 24 hours of Instagram posts or a long life in an archive. The matter of fact is that photography has always been a fragile material. Its main quality isn’t in surviving time but in freezing it. After this process, the image will only exist for a determined period, as little by little it will be transformed and then disappear.

The art in this exhibit works with an idea of transformation or disappearance, they are pictures that are dying and have a second chance, a volcano in constant transformation or a whale that has never been seen. They are all impermanent representations that are either fading away andbecoming vestige, or vestige that is becoming representation.”

Impermanence
New work by Marcelo Fontana

Tropical Contemporary
1120 Bailey Hill Road #11 Eugene OR

Opening Reception Saturday 10/6

Open Hours
Saturdays 1-4pm
10/13 & 10/20

Draw A Drag Queen II
a popup figure drawing event

October 9th from 3-5pm
Erb Memorial Union
University of Oregon Campus

A repeat of our summer pop-up performance and public figure drawing extravaganza! We invite the community of Eugene to participate in a live figure drawing session with fabulous drag queens in glamorous attire. Following a series of poses, each queen will put on a short performance. We will provide drawing stations and materials, but you are also welcome to bring your own. All skill levels are encouraged!