Join us for the opening of our new show featuring the art of Nathan Ueno and Joni Smith of North Pole Studio.
The North Pole Studio was founded in June of 2020 and has been supporting artists with autism and I/DD through COVID-19. We enact our mission through physical and digital programming that is focused in three areas: access to opportunities, community engagement, and artist representation. The studio is located in the NW Marine Artworks artist collaborative.
The North Pole Studio supports careers in the arts, and exists to increase opportunities for artists with autism and intellectual / developmental disabilities to thrive as active members of the arts community. They foster self-determination and facilitate meaningful connections through total engagement in the arts.
About the Artists:
Nathan Ueno
Nathan Ueno was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. Nathan works across a variety of materials, preferring to use those with rich color such as paint, pastels, ink, markers, and colored pencils. Across mediums, Nathan’s work is characterized by his symbolic interpretation of the world around him captured through bold lines and blocks of color.
Nathan’s work is influenced by history, politics, nature, maps and calendars. These large-scale portraits are part of a series of characters drawn from photographs of artifacts and masks found in National Geographic magazines.
Joni Smith
Joni Smith has been drawing her entire life. At age 65, her home in SE Portland overflows with her sketchbooks.
Joni has a dedicated and consistent art practice. She draws for approximately eight hours each day, covering close to a hundred pages per week and frequently drawing on both sides of each page. She will often begin a sketchbook by putting a single mark on every page. Joni draws with a purposeful, expressive hand, making seemingly instantaneous decisions about color as she rhythmically layers her lines.
This is a collection of new work created over the spring and summer of 2021. This period of time has marked a significant expansion in Joni’s practice onto different paper sizes, textures and materials.
Various works of Nathan