"My Eye," an exhibition of paintings by award-winning artist Rick Bartow, will open this Sunday at the Snite Museum of Art. Bartow, who is Yurok in origin, draws on his Native American ancestry in his paintings, which explore mythological themes from all over the world. Originally from northern California, Bartow now lives and works on the coast of Oregon.Bartow is currently on a two-year national tour, funded by an endowment from The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and by the Oregon Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Oregon Council for the Humanities. An exhibition guide with an introduction by Oregon writer Barry Lopez, an extensive biography of the artist and a critical essay by curator Rebecca Dobkins will accompany the exhibition."Premeditated: Meditations on Capital Punishment" opened last Sunday. Artist Malaquias Montoya, a leading figure in the political Chicano movement on the west coast, conceived the protest during the 2000 presidential election after the focus on George Bush's home state of Texas brought greater media attention to the issue of the death penalty in the United States. He uses his imagery to protest a practice that he considers an atrocity."We have perfected the art of institutional killing to the degree that it has deadened our national, quintessentially human response to death," the Snite Museum Web site quoted the artist as saying. "I want to produce a body of work depicting the horror of this act.""Premeditated: Meditations on Capital Punishment" will run through Feb. 22. "My Eye" will run from Jan. 18 to March 14. Both exhibitions are free and open to the public.
