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Biography
Palmarin Merges attended the San Francisco Art
Institute and received her MFA degree in Printmaking
in 1999. She is a transplant from Oakland, CA, and
joined Blackfish Gallery in 2006.
She has had numerous shows in Japan and
throughout California, and this is her first show in
Portland, Oregon.
The work on view for the month of May 2008 is the artists'
response to her move from an urban California setting
to a more rural Oregon environment. The images are
composed of a variety of native and non-native flora
and fauna, which express the adabtability of life to
movement and change.
She currently teaches part-time at the
Multnomah Arts Center and is the Print Technician at
the Pacific Northwest College of Art, all while being
a full-time artist. She is busily immersing herself
in the wonder & beauty that is Oregon.
Curriculum Vitae
Palmarin P. Merges
pmerges@verizon.net
Education
1999 San Francisco Art Institute, Master of Fine Arts
1993 Point Loma Nazarene College, Single Subject: Art Teaching Credential
1992 Point Loma Nazarene College, BA
Born
Honolulu, Hawaii
Group Exhibitions
2008 New Member Group Show, Blackfish Gallery Portland, OR
2006 Multnomah Art Center Faculty Exhibit, Portland, OR
2005 Contemporary Abstracts, Alameda Art Center, Alameda, CA
Babes in Artland, Live Worms Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Collective Punch, Hollis St. Building, Emeryville, CA
2004 The Chicken Show, Cellspace, San Francisco, CA
Small Works, Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland, CA
Color Me Bad, San Francisco, CA
2003 Visual Aid, San Francisco, CA
Workers, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2002 Visual Aid, San Francisco, CA
1999 SFAI MFA Show Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA
What is Art for?, Oakland Museum , Oakland, CA
1998 Mainly Abstract, Long Beach Art Small Prints Competition
5 Printmakers, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1996 Sakuraiten, Gogakkukenshushitsu Kyobun Center, Yokohama, Japan
Solo Exhibitions
2004 Unbelievable Bugs (intaglio), Café Sapore, San Francisco, CA
2002 Words (Abstract Lithographs), Café Sapore, San Francisco, CA
1999 Coded Text as Structure, Borders, Emeryville, CA
Bodies of Work
2005 Fakitecture, Drawings & Lithographs, San Francisco, CA
2004 Windhover, San Francisco, CA, Etchings / Artist Book
2003 Support the Shooting Sports, Paintings, Oakland, CA
2002 Fantastic Architecture, Drawings, Oakland, CA
1999 Structures, Lithographs, San Francisco, CA
Galleries
2007- Current, Blackfish Gallery, Portland, OR – Gina Carrington, Director
2005 San Francisco Artists' Gallery, SF, CA – Maria Medua, Director
2004 CFA Gallery, San Anselmo, CA – Karen Johnston, Director
Travel
Bali, Canada, England, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Micronesia, Philippines, Singapore, Viet Nam, Mexico and the United States
Statement
May 2008 New Member Group Show: Ca. Transplant
In order for a living thing to survive a transplant,
several things need to be in order; the timing must be
just right, the environment must be a nurturing one,
and the transplant must be strong in order to adapt to
its new surroundings.
The Ca. Transplant series of screen-prints are my
response to the mental and physical shift of moving
from Oakland, California to Sherwood, Oregon: of
leaving an urban environment and settling into a
suburban environment. These screen-prints express my
response of moving, of being "transplanted," and map
my internal as well as my external environment.
With my "transplant" came freedom, freedom to explore
a new environment and a different way of living. In
order to navigate through this new environment and
adapt quickly, I did everything I could to learn about
this place I now call home. The different environment
reinforced to me that change and movement are
universal themes; that there is a cycle: birth, life,
death…change, adapt, grow. Every change is a “death”
of what we used to know, a chance for us to adapt and
grow into our new situation or die. Change is the way
of Nature.
The images are inspired by the abundance of native and
non-native flora and fauna in Oregon and my personal
symbology, and although they are mundane images of
rabbits, flowers, ferns, deer – they hold intensely
private and personal references for me which I feel
express the ultimate adaptability of life to movement
and change.
Palmarin Merges
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