Overview
Nature Vive is an intimate exhibition celebrating the masterful work of Paul Missal through the lens of his playful and symbolic still-life paintings and prints. This exhibition explores themes of decay to renewal, the cool tension of balanced dualities, and nature as guardian. The title of the show inverts the traditional term nature morte (literally, dead nature, or still-life) and instead celebrates his work as nature vive, or living still-life.
An artist for over fifty years, Missal was classically trained at the Cleveland Institute of Art and Yale University. Despite his love of the classical approach of painting, Missal includes modernist artists like Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015) and Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) as equally influential to his way of seeing the world through art.
In addition to his acclaim for his commanding art, Missal is recognized as an influential and lifelong educator in the Portland community. He taught at the Pacific Northwest College of Art for over 30 years and, in 1979, co-founded the Blackfish Gallery, the oldest artist-run cooperative gallery in Portland.
Missal is celebrated for his exceptional portraits, landscapes, still-lifes, and symbolic representations. In this careful selection of drawings, prints, and paintings, Missal’s skillful touch, playful humor, and lifelong dedication to his art come vividly to life.
Acknowledgments
Curated by Grace Kook-Anderson, the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Northwest Art and Mary Weaver Chapin, Ph.D., Curator of Prints and Drawings. This exhibition is presented in honor of the late Museum Trustee Jim Winkler and includes several artworks from the collection of Jim and Susan Winkler. This exhibition is supported by The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Endowments for Northwest Art.