Eva Lake is known for her eye-dazzling, abstract paintings. But she has also been drawn to photomontage and collage for years, often hoarding an image or a scrap of paper until she finds the perfect situation in which to use it.  In the pieces you will see in the Helzer Art Gallery, all made in 2008, Lake combines publicity images of “babes”—models, movie stars and entertainers cut from old magazines—with the ominous circle of a target. 

Lake’s work has always maintained a conversation with art history: the formal aspects of modernism as well as figurative work of the past. Thus, these collages include references to such artists as Eugène Delacroix, Lucio Fontana, Bridget Riley and John Chamberlain. First and foremost, they are elegant, resolved compositions. But there are also elements within each that allude to the biographies of these women: their problems with pills and alcohol, their status as objects of adoration, and their accidents and tragedies.

Eva Lake is represented by Augen Gallery in Portland. Her work has been included in exhibitions in New York, San Francisco and Portland. She is also an arts journalist, whose interviews can be heard on KBOO and YouTube. Lake studied at the University of Oregon and at the Art Students League in New York. Her website, lovelake.org, includes her fascinating blog and images of her paintings and photomontages.

The Rock Creek gallery is open Monday- Friday 10:00 am-4:00 pm and Saturday 9:00am-6:00pm. The gallery is located in Building 3 of the Rock Creek Campus of Portland Community College at 17705 NW Springville Road, Portland.

For more information contact Prudence Roberts at 503-244-6111 x3434

Prudence Roberts
Director, Helzer Art Gallery