About this Event
Join graduate students from the University of Washington School of Art with special guest artist Eric-Paul Riege for a wide-ranging discussion on their individual practices and relationship to material. Drawing from their varied practices, the artists will explore the tension between function and failure as it pertains to expectations around materials and objects. When a material breaks, decays, or loses its original function, what new possibilities emerge from that transformation?
The forum marks the opening of I Will Carry You Over On My Back, a group show at the Jacob Lawrence Gallery featuring work by graduate students, alongside the closing of Eric-Paul Riege’s solo exhibition, ojo|-|ólǫ, at the Henry Art Gallery. Jordan Jones, Director + Curator at the Jacob Lawrence Gallery, will moderate.
Bios
Eric-Paul Riege (Diné) is a weaver and fiber artist working in collage, durational performance, installation, woven sculpture, and wearable art. Using weaving as both means and metaphor to tell hybrid tales that interlace stories from Diné spirituality with his own interpretations and cosmology, he understands his artworks as animate and mobile. His practice pays homage and links him to generations of weavers in his family who aid him in generating spaces of sanctuary. Riege’s recent solo exhibitions include iiZiiT [3]: RIEGE Jewelry + Supply at Canal Projects, New York (2025), Hammer Projects: Eric Paul Riege at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2022–2023), and Hól ́ǫ—it xistz at the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami (2019). His recent group exhibitions include the 24th Biennale of Sydney in Australia (2024), Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination (2023), Prospect.5 Triennial in New Orleans (2022), and the Toronto Biennial of Art (2022). He holds a BFA in Art Studio and Ecology from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. His work is collected by Forge Project and ICA Miami, among others. He is represented by Bockley Gallery (MN) and STARS Gallery (CA). Riege is a member of the Charcoal Streaked Division of the Red Running Into the Water clan. He was born and is based in Na’nízhoozhí [Gallup, New Mexico].
Jordan Jones is an arts worker living and working in Seattle. She currently serves as the Director + Curator of the Jacob Lawrence Gallery in the School of Art + Art History + Design at the University of Washington. In her role, she provides curatorial, programming, and administrative leadership and oversight in their newly renovated exhibition space. The Jacob Lawrence Gallery is devoted to education, social justice, and experimentation that honors the legacy of one of the 20th century’s greatest artists, Jacob Lawrence. Through an ambitious program of contemporary exhibitions, the gallery seeks to carry his work forward as a place where we can come together in community to talk about art, but also the pressing concerns of our times.
Using a range of materiality and modes of making, Jayden Dukes makes work that focuses on fat liberation, failure, and capacity. Dukes was born and raised in rural Southern Oregon and received their Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography and Digital Studio from Oregon State University. They were awarded The Emerging Artist Grant and The Denis Diderot A-i-R Grant to attend the Artists & Writers in Residence at Chateau d'Orquevaux, France in 2025. Dukes has exhibited works throughout Oregon, including Joan Trukenbrod Gallery (Corvallis, OR), Umpqua Valley Arts (Roseburg, OR), Corvallis Museum (Corvallis, OR), Umpqua Community College (Roseburg, OR), and Fairbanks Gallery, Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR). They have also curated and juried a range of exhibitions including Welcoming, A Watched Pot Always Boils, Materiality Matters, and more. They are currently pursuing their Master of Fine Arts in New Genres from University of Washington.
Cameron McGaff is a conceptual artist, curator, and writer working with sound, responsive sculpture, and installation. Moving between mythic and contemporary understandings of terrain, their interdisciplinary practice investigates capital-driven forces of extraction, urban development, and surveillance. The work fixates on openings — thresholds, punctures, glitches — as sites where the logic of a system suspends itself, however briefly, and gives way to alternate horizons of potentiality and liberation. They have exhibited nationally and internationally, with recent work included in the Madison Queer Biennial, Institute of Contemporary Art Singapore, and in an upcoming two-person show at the Neon Heater. Cameron holds a BFA from the University of Wisconsin Madison, and is currently working towards an MFA in Painting and Drawing at the University of Washington.
Skye Amber O’Brien is a mixed media artist who specializes in glass making, sculpture, and printmaking with a focus in collaborative experimental works. Originally from Rhode Island, Skye Amber O’Brien spent a decade in Hawaii exploring her creative process and participating in the arts on Oahu. She received her BFA from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2017 and has studied at Pilchuck Glass School, Urban Glass in New York, and the Rhode Island School of Design. Currently she resides in Seattle, Washington where she is pursuing an MFA in the 3D4M: Ceramics, Sculpture, and Glass program at the University of Washington. Her research involves studying energy efficiency and the future of glass making. She is the founder of the educational resource GlassArtEnergy.org.
Gaeun Kim (b. Seoul, South Korea) is an artist who works in clay and metal. Drawing inspiration from construction sites and childhood memories, they explore how resilience emerges amid instability and loss. Navigating life as an immigrant in the United States after a series of displacements in Seoul driven by gentrification, they create sculptures that embody futility to examine the aftermath of uprooting and the uncertainty that follows. They are currently pursuing an MFA in 3D4M: Ceramics + Glass + Sculpture at the University of Washington. They received their BFA in Ceramics and Interactive Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Their work has been exhibited locally and nationally and featured in The Seattle Times.
Accessibility
The Henry strives to be a welcoming and accessible space for all visitors. Assisted Listening Devices (ALDs) and AI-generated live captions will be available. For additional accessibility information, please visit henryart.org/visit/accessibility or contact Museum Services at 206.221.3850 or [email protected] with questions or needs.
Event venue & nearby stays
Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, United States
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