You do not Have to be Good this Friday

Hello Tropical friends,

2018 is behind us, a new year (and the rest of our season of programming) lies ahead. We have so many things on the horizon that we’re excited to share… Not to mention a lot of rad things going on around town! Make sure to check out the calendar at the end of this newsletter for your extracurricular arts programming this month! We’re still working on the documentation from our last show, Outside Inside, but take it from us- it looked amazing and was a great way to cap off the year.
We kick off 2019 with a show of work by Andrew Nigon, Ben Lenoir, and Susan Krueger-Barber, titled You do not Have to be Good. This multimedia exhibition addresses issues surrounding cultures of morality in conflict, and the reclamation of LGBTQ+ identity and aesthetics. The opening reception is TOMORROW, Friday January 11th from 6-9pm.
Susan Kruger-Barber – ” Latter-Day-Saint (Mormon) pioneers fled the settled United States after Joseph Smith was murdered and Nauvoo burned. In Utah, they suffered more persecution for practicing polygamy coupled with fighting for women’s suffrage. Carrying epigenetics of maltreatment, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints currently fights same-sex marriage and queer identity. Their LGBTQ* community lives on a rollercoaster of small gestures of acceptance and great acts of exclusion. LGBTQ* believers and somewhat allies survive on a yo-yo that rarely peaks and often plummets.”
Andrew Nigon – “My figurative work draws conceptual inspiration from Catholic symbolism with a focus on the human form theatrically displaying themes of trauma, decay, and resilience. My practice relies on a playful experimentation of material and process to create forms that challenge and manipulate established iconography. These works are heroic yet tragic monuments devoted souls trapped in an incomplete and imperfect world -the travails of walking a tightrope of religious participation within a place of patterned rejection.”
Ben Lenoir – “My practice begins in rumination and emotion, then ends in evaluation and reflection. This project began as a means to connect with the bullying I experienced as an adolescent. I connect to that experience through language since verbal abuse was central to it. I’ve been called ‘faggot’ over 1000 times in my life and I have written it just as many times in 2018. As the work evolved, the letterforms became increasingly abstracted—a kind of visual semantic saturation. The once perfectly formed words turned into gestures and suggestions rather than an epithet. The collection of works displayed here depict the experience of cognitive dissonance established by bullying based on sexual identity.”
You do not Have to be Good
Andrew Nigon / Ben Lenoir / Susan Krueger-Barber

Tropical Contemporary
1120 Bailey Hill Road #11 Eugene OR

Opening Reception Friday 1/11 6-9pm
Open Hours Saturdays 1/12 & 1/19 1-4pm
One last item of news- we have another new member of Tropical! Tannon Reckling is an MFA candidate at the University of Oregon and makes very cool work about the internet, which you can hear him talk about here. We’re so excited to have him on board!! If you’re interested in getting involved with Tropical, it’s as simple as sending us an email at tropicalcontemporaryspace@gmail.com. Tell us a little about yourself, your work (whether as an artist or a curator), and your specific interest in Tropical (what you would hope to achieve as a member). We would love to get a dialogue going- let’s see if we’re right for one another!
Thanks for your ongoing support- and we hope to see you at our upcoming events! Check out more photos of past shows at tropicalcontemporary.space or follow us on Facebook and Instagram for more frequent updates. As always, if you love what we’re doing and want to support our project space, you can do so through our Patreon page.
UPCOMING TROPICAL EVENTS:
Upcoming Tropical Programming:

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