Main Gallery

The Main Gallery is Rogue Gallery’s largest exhibition space. Each year we host up to eight exhibitions in this gallery that feature individual artists, group shows, large scale work, and thematic exhibitions.

Current Exhibition

Dreams from Eden 
Artworks from Joe Batt & Nancy Watterson Scharf 

March 6-April 17

Reception: Friday, April 17, 5-8PM

Come experience Joe Batt’s colorful stoneware figures and Nancy Watterson Sharf’s paintings come
together to explore our shared ecosystems, resilience, and humanity’s place within the
natural world.

Artist Statement for Joe Batt

My colorful, narrative clay figures delve into innocence and endurance, and they are an exploration of our place in the natural world. Growing up in

rural South Dakota continues to impact my ceramic work, and living in the Pacific Northwest also provides endless inspiration. The forms are

hand- built with stoneware clay. Colored pencils are added after the firing. Sometimes there is a smoke-firing step before the color is added.

Some ceramic artists who have impacted my work are Arthur Gonzalez,

Edith Garcia, Robert Arneson, and Richard Shaw. A few artists who have guided me in sculpture and mixed media are

Robert Rauschenberg, Louise Nevelson, H.C. Westermann, and Marisol Escobar.

A couple of books currently fueling my journey are An Immense World, by Ed Young, and On Trails, by Robert Moor.

Artist Statement for Nancy Watterson Scharf

Earth teems with intelligent living systems. Procreation, life and death are the principles of creation cycling through time. Generation after generation organisms maintain their existence on our planet. Healthy ecosystems depend on relationships and we humans are a profound part of the whole in which we exist. In this work I have taken nature’s point of view, placing us together as vital participants in this rich and complex world. I explore our kinship with nature and how we shape each other through time.

The shared habitats of the people, plants and animals of Oregon are at the heart of my artistic practice. I often combine wetlands and other wild ecosystems with urban imagery as a metaphor for human development.  With the continuing effects of fire and drought on the landscape, I find myself focusing on the value of fresh water, essential to the success of every organism. I explore our mutual needs for this essential resource and the bio-systems that water supports.

The imagery I use comes from found objects, memories, sometimes dreams, and from my photographs.  I use literal imagery for orientation and then reorganize the space and shapes into different perspectives with unexpected visual relationships. Acrylic paint allows me to work with transparent and opaque layers to create a new world where I can question the known and suspend time. I enjoy studying the indigenous and often rare plants and animals that live in the habitats I examine in my work.