CORVALLIS, Ore. - "Blackout," an exhibit of work by Oregon State University's Kerry Skarbakka, is on display at the OSU Center for the Humanities now through June 8. The center is located at Autzen House, 811 S.W. Jefferson Ave., Corvallis. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

Skarbakka is assistant professor of photography at OSU and teaches courses in photography and sculpture. Blackout is Skarbakka's second solo exhibition in Corvallis in the last year. The site-specific installation is comprised of objects of art and understanding, encapsulated in the medium used to line the beds of trucks, and thus blacked out, or rendered void.

Skarbakka said the Center for the Humanities exhibition, which coincides with the March for Science and Earth Day on April 22, provides "a message of solidarity against attempts to defund and silence the arts, the sciences and the humanities."

Skarbakka's performance-based photographic work depicting existential anxieties and loss of control through the acts of falling, drowning and fighting have been exhibited internationally including at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Haifa Museum of Art, Israel; and The North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh.

His work has been featured on the cover of notable publications such as Aperture and The Missouri Review, and in other publications including Afterimage, Art and America and ArtReview International. 

Skarbakka has received funding from Creative Capital, Seattle's 1% for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council. Skarbakka received his B.A. in studio art from the University of Washington in 1994 and his M.F.A. in photography from Columbia College, Chicago in 2003.For more information, visit www.skarbakka.com

Source: 

Kerry Skarbakka, 541-737-1256, [email protected]

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