Art Center East

CURRENT EXHIBIT ABOUT THE ARTIST VIRTUAL GALLERY SHOP ORLASKE GALLERY ORLASKE EXHIBIT RAFFLE MAIN GALLERY

Exhibits can also be viewed online at artcentereast.org thanks to a partnership with High Country Realty Professionals.

SUE ORLASKE

Orlaske Gallery Ribbon cutting

Photo: Berenice Chavez

The Art Center East Orlaske Gallery, formerly the Co-op Gallery, is an international fine art exhibition space that is community-supported and funded by Art Center East annual memberships, private donors, state and regional funders, and sponsors.

In 2022, Art Center East rebranded and reimagined its Co-op Gallery space to better serve the community. Community members had the opportunity to honor in memoriam a prominent local artist or art supporter by voting to rename the space.

After a three-month voting period, Art Center East’s Co-op Gallery transformed into the Orlaske Gallery, honoring the late local artist Sue Orlaske.

Sue Orlaske was born in southwestern Michigan but moved to Oregon in 1977 to attend graduate school and continued to live in Oregon until her death in October 2021. She has both a B.S. and an M.S. in Biology. She had no formal art training but from a young age was interested in art and produced detailed pen and ink drawings. For several years in the 1980s, Sue owned and operated a retail business — a coffee and tea store long before there was a Starbucks on every corner. It was during that time that Sue also became interested in pursuing art in a more serious way. She started taking classes in pottery at Valley Art Center in Forest Grove.

In the early 1990s, Sue sold her business and she and her husband, Mitch Wolgamott, moved to Northeast Oregon, briefly to La Grande and then to Summerville. Sue then became a full-time artist with a well-equipped studio where she produced ceramic/clay art as well as two-dimensional art (pastels and watercolors, including Batik watercolors). Her themes often included abstract and representational natural elements: Eastern Oregon landscapes, critters, and plants.

Sue was a member of and actively involved with three art co-ops: Valley Art in Forest Grove, Art Center East in La Grande, and Crossroads in Baker City. She became well-known in the region for the quality of her work and for her willingness to help and teach other artists. Her work was in many art shows and won several regional art awards. She was a featured artist on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s “Oregon Art Beat”. Several galleries in Oregon and Southern Washington carried her work.

Each exhibition has its own festive opening and closing receptions. Free and open to the public, exhibits remain on display for approximately 1-2 months. Exhibits can be viewed online thanks to a partnership with High Country Realty Professionals. Each exhibition artwork is listed online for viewing. Shop the current exhibition art here.

NEW! During Friday evening exhibit receptions (6:00 - 8:00 pm) and on Saturdays (10:00 am - 2:00 pm), visitors may find artisan pop-ups in the ACE Galleries foyer. Read about the ACE Artisan Pop-Up Program here.

Exhibiting artists of all mediums are juried by the gallery committee.

The Orlaske Gallery hosts a selection of annual events and non-juried exhibitions.. These include:

- The Big: Art Center East’s Annual Open Exhibition

- Annual Fiber Arts & Jewelry Exhibition

- Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead Exhibition and Community Celebration

- Annual Handmade Holidays Makers Market

The Art Center East Galleries are open Wednesday - Friday from 12:00 - 5:00 pm and Saturday from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm.

Art Center East (ACE) announces the opening of “Explorations”, a solo photography exhibition by international award-winning photographer and multidisciplinary scholar John Lundy. Community members of all ages are invited to attend a free opening reception on Friday, May 2, 2025, from 6–8 p.m. in ACE’s Orlaske Gallery. A free closing reception will take place on Friday, June 27, from 6–8 p.m. The exhibit will be on display May 2 through June 28, 2025.

Lundy, who relocated from the Toronto area to La Grande, Oregon, shares a more personal perspective in this exhibit than in any of his previous shows. “Explorations” features work created through his travels in Eastern Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, and beyond. His photography practice is rooted in improvisation—using the camera as a tool to slow down and look at the world with curiosity and openness.

With a background in both fine art photography and academia, Lundy brings a thoughtful, interdisciplinary lens to his work. In addition to his photography, he is a professor at Eastern Oregon University and a published philosopher and social theorist. His artistic and academic practices alike explore relationships between contemporary culture, the environment, and visual storytelling.

Raffle tickets for an original photograph by Lundy will be available for purchase in person and online at artcentereast.org, beginning at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 2. Proceeds from the raffle support the ACE Gallery Program. The raffle winner will be drawn after June 28, 2025.

John Lundy shares, “Moving from the Toronto area of Canada to start a new chapter of my life here in La Grande, Oregon, was the inciting incident that inspired this exhibition. More personal, in a way, than any of my previous shows, Explorations focuses on seeing new places based out of my new home here in Eastern Oregon. I have begun excitedly exploring this new home, the wider Pacific Northwest Region, and beyond through my photography, and I feel exceptionally fortunate for the opportunity to share some of this with you here.

I don’t usually approach the world in order to make photographs. Usually, it’s the other way round. In this way, my camera can actually become a tool that helps me explore the world. It slows me down and allows me to look at things in different ways.

Be it mundane or unusual, I take inspiration from the world around me. I understand my photography to be an improvised practice. Of course, I always bring my own preoccupations and ways of seeing but, whether strolling city streets or hiking a wilderness trail, I strive to remain radically open to the wonders and possibilities in the world as I encounter it.

In photojournalism or documentary photography, the photos are there to enhance an account of something. Similarly, in some artistic practices, photographs are used to illustrate some kind of external narrative or conceptual scheme. While stylistically akin, in many respects, to these photographic traditions, what photographers like myself do is different. It’s important to my practice that the image itself is the narrative or account. For this reason, I am deliberately careful not to say too much about the specific context of my photographs or suggest a lenses through which it can be interpreted. I see this as the role of the viewer. I strive to put something impactful into the images themselves, but what, if anything, you take from the images is now up to you.”