J.D. Perkin
For the month of October, Russo Lee Gallery presents The West Yet Glimmers by J.D. Perkin. This sculptural installation reimagines the American West through a dystopian, mythic lens. Originally conceived during the pandemic amid wildfires and political unrest, this body of work expands on Perkin’s earlier stop-motion project Western Edge, shifting from small-scale puppet satire to large wooden assemblages. Drawing on the narrative arc of a road trip and the ‘hero’s journey,’ the artist gathers his imagined findings—wood-carved bones, tools, skulls, and chains—and assembles them into sculpture. Tree-shaped, anthropomorphic pieces recall the Pacific Coast and Sitka forests, while other forms mimic dust devils and frontier ghosts. Blending Greek myth with cowboy archetypes, Perkin states that at its heart, this show, “creates an American Neo-Gothic Dystopic Western in the form of an art installation.”
A Portland native, J.D. Perkin has exhibited his work in numerous solo and group exhibitions since 1982. He received a BS from Portland State University in 1984, with a focus on anthropology. While there, he also received an Award of Excellence in Painting from the School of Fine and Performing Arts. A large part of Perkin’s artistic development includes performance art. He received a grant from Portland’s Metropolitan Arts Commission in 1990 for his performance piece, Dirt Box. His work has been featured at the Portland International Airport, the Bush Barn in Salem, and is in the permanent collections of AIDS Memorial Room, Theatre! Theater!, Hotel Lucia, Nordstrom, Portland Development Commission, and Tin House, Inc.