Oregon Coast Council for the Arts welcomes Clatsop County visual artist Darren Orange to the Coastal Oregon Visual Artist Showcase and Video Archive at the Newport Visual Arts Center. Watch the video which accompanies his exhibit below:
His exhibit of paintings and photo based aluminum prints, “ANTESEEDENT,” “addresses the issue of natural beauty in the wake of human influence. The human struggle to control the environment has left nature scarred, however it perseveres and grows in his footsteps.”
In discussing his process Orange says, “I use what is at my disposal and seek out new adaptations of materials to solve problems in which traditional materials cannot provide like a child playing on the floor with all his toys together…
As a landscape artist I am most directly inspired by the surroundings of where I have lived. The sublime landscapes, homesteads of Central Washington, fishing villages on the lower Columbia River, and the desert of the Southwest. These pastoral places have provided me with reference to understand the past, and to be aware of my own mark on the environment.”
Orange has a BFA from Western Washington University. Orange lives in Astoria, Oregon and has been an Astoria Visual Arts board member. He has shown extensively throughout the Northwest including three solo exhibits and one group show in 2012 and has had exhibits in New York, L.A., Santa Fe, and Atlanta.
His work is in collections across the country, Canada, Sweden, and the United Arab Emirates. His work has been published in regional books and magazines.