Blackfish founding artist-owner Barbara Black and former artist-owner Angela Passalacqua have shown together numerous times over the past 30 years. They are honored to inaugurate the new Blackfish Gallery space. They’ve had many conversations about the direction this show should take, after Blackfish Gallery lost its space on NW Ninth Ave. (which had been its home for 36 years). It seemed an appropriate time for a retrospective of works shown in the prior Blackfish space, combined with current work. For many years, Black and Passalacqua shared a studio at the old Troy Laundry Building. Inevitably, they exchanged ideas and critiqued each other’s work, which has continued to this day. They are both attracted to mythology and they plumb surrealism for dream-like imagery. They're also passionate about life drawing, especially the immediacy of gesture.

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Also showing with them is Barbara Conyne, another multi-decade colleague, and an artist whose sculptural work combines materials with wit and a poet’s eye.

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These three artists, colleagues and friends for over 40 years, are exhibiting traditional media: painting, printmaking, drawing, and sculpture for Blackfish's inaugural exhibition in our new space at 938 NW Everett St.