The Craft Center Visiting Artist for Winter Term is glassblowing artist, Dan Friday. 

Dan Friday is a Skagit Valley–based artist and member of the Lummi Nation who has spent over 30 years working primarily in glass. His work draws heavily on Coast Salish imagery and cultural traditions, expressed through contemporary glass art. Friday has taught at numerous institutions and craft schools, founded the Native Youth Outreach Program at Pilchuck Glass School in 2017, and completed residencies at major museums and cultural centers worldwide. His work has earned multiple prestigious awards, appeared on Netflix’s Blown Away, and is held in museum and private collections internationally.

Exhibition On View: January 5-March 20 The Craft Center gallery is located on the 2nd floor of the Erb Memorial Union by the Adell Mcmillan gallery. Artist Talk & Reception: February 6, 12pm-1pm Join us at the Craft Center for an inspiring artist talk with Dan Friday. This event is free. Registration is required. Please register by visiting myemu.uoregon.edu. Glassblowing Demonstration: February 6, 1pm-4pm & February 7, 1pm-4pm Dan will demonstrate the techniques behind his glass sculptures, offering insight into the creative processes that shape his work, with two demo offerings available. Participants will also have the opportunity to engage in discussion about his art and studio practices. Free. Registration required at myemu.uoregon.edu.

The Craft Center is proud to exhibit: I Finally Finished It. See a variety of art forms from the diverse artistry of the Craft Center's staff, students, faculty and family.

Exhibit on display January 5 to March 12.

Reception January 13, 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Refreshments provided.

The University of Oregon Department of Art is pleased to present a lecture and exhibition by alumnus Reza Safavi (MFA ’06).  

The exhibition Binging on the Biome will be on view from February 16-26 in the LaVerne Krause Gallery. An exhibition reception will immediately following the lecture.

Binging on the Biome is informed by an interest in the edge zones of ecosystems, transitional regions where distinct environments meet and interact. These liminal spaces are defined by exchange, instability, and heightened activity, operating under conditions of continual negotiation rather than equilibrium. Through light-based works, scanned and printed ice forms, film, fabric, and kinetic systems, the works highlight these areas where environmental systems overlap and remain in flux. Referencing the increasing scarcity of ice, the exhibition considers how regions once defined by inaccessibility are becoming sites of strategic interest and control. The exhibition remains open-ended, resisting resolution while acknowledging the complexities of engagement with fragile systems.

Reza Safavi’s practice is shaped by a hybrid sense of identity. Raised in Canada after the Multiculturalism Act of 1988, he explores cultural juxtapositions through material and digital forms. Living and working in the U.S., he continues this inquiry through research and practice. Reza has been a member of several artists’ groups and, in addition to his solo work, he regularly participates in making of collaborative projects. His artwork has been exhibited and presented regionally nationally and internationally in diverse venues ranging from galleries and museums to public installations and performances. He is Professor of Art at Washington State University and holds an MFA from the University of Oregon (2006) and a BFA from the University of Victoria, in Victoria, BC, Canada. 

This lecture and exhibition are made possible by the Laverne Krause Lectures and Exhibitions endowment. 

Image caption: Komagataeibacterberg, fabricated from point cloud data from an Arctic iceberg using a custom biomaterial made from oceanic microbes and Kombucha, Archival Pigment Print