Kurt Norlin, A Cross-Town Retrospective

November 7 – Dec. 1, 2023 at Emerald Art Center
2nd Friday Art Walk Reception at the Emerald Art Center:  Nov. 10 from 5-7 p.m.
Artist’s Talk at the Emerald Art Center on Sunday, Nov. 19, at 3 p.m.

The Emerald Art Center
500 Main St.
Springfield, Oregon 97477
541-726-8595
Emerald Art Center: Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
www.emeraldartcenter.org/

November 3 – November 30, 2023 at Dot Dotson’s Gallery
Opening Reception at Dot Dotson’s:  Friday Nov. 3 from 5-6 p.m.
Dot Dotson’s Gallery,
1668 Willamette
Eugene, Oregon  97401
541-485-1771
Dot Dotson’s: Monday-Thursday 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
www.dotdotsons.com

Free and open to the public

Long-time Oregon photographer and teacher Kurt Norlin will celebrate a half century devoted to photography with two exhibits in Eugene and Springfield in November.

A retrospective show of work spanning his multi-faceted career, from the 1970s to the present, will be at the Emerald Art Center in downtown Springfield, while a satellite show focusing on more recent work will be at Dot Dotson’s from Nov. 3-30.

Norlin will present an artist’s talk at the EAC on Sunday Nov. 19 at 3pm. The exhibit and talk are sponsored by the Photography at Oregon Committee.

The 84-year-old Norlin has been actively involved in creative photography for 50 years, ever since switching from a career in fisheries in the mid-70s to pursue one in fine art. During that time he has been a pioneer in several alternative approaches and process in the field, from hand-colored silver prints and photo-collages in his early years, to toy camera and pinhole photography in mid-career, and most recently intentional camera movement (ICM) images made with his phone.

“While the landscape has always been at the core of my work, the images are more about an impression or dream remembered, rather than pure descriptive fact,” he said. “Over the years I have become more interested in the essence of a place than the pure description.”

The Oregon native has had a life-long interest in photographing the eastern side of the state, and has assisted in four summer workshops conducted by the University of Oregon Photography Department in the Malheur and Steens Mountain country. From 1994 to 2016 he taught darkroom skills, alternative process, and digital photography courses at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany.

Norlin was born in Salem and grew up in Roseburg, then received his undergraduate and masters degrees from Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Wash. After 20 years as a darkroom technician and fine art photographer, including several years with a studio in the Crees Building in downtown Corvallis, he returned to the classroom at the University of Oregon to earn a Masters in Fine Arts in 1993. While at the UofO he worked as a teaching assistant under Profs. Dan Powell and Terri Warpinski.

Throughout that time Norlin maintained an active exhibition career, participating in solo, group and juried shows from Oregon to New York. He has also curated exhibits for galleries at LBCC and the Benton County Historical Museum. He is a founding member of the Willamette Valley PhotoArts Guild based in Corvallis and a former member of Gallery Calapooia in Albany.

Four collections of his work have been compiled in self-published books, including “Some Twenty Odd Images” in 2009, “Desert Dance” in 2010, “Memories, Metaphors, Manifestations” in 2012, and “Illuminations” in 2013. These books can be seen at blurb.com.