Kittredge Gallery at the University of Puget Sound will open two new exhibits on March 11, each examining the relationship between humanity and the environment.

“The two shows may appear distant, as the artists are hundreds of years apart on opposite sides of the globe, but both examine how we see the world around us and how we think about it,” said Kittredge Gallery Manager Peter Stanley.

 In Above, Below, and Beyond, Kathy Gore Fuss presents a collection of paintings, drawings, and photographs that explore the disconnect between our idealized conceptions of nature and the actual land around us.

“Perspectives are changing; We no longer look over our fence into our neighbor’s yard, we Google it. … A drone equipped with a GoPro camera is now part of my observational toolkit,” says Gore Fuss. “Kathy’s artwork looks at the way that changing viewpoints in a very literal way can help us see our collective issues and find solutions for them,” adds Stanley. 

Curated by Puget Sound students Sandra Brandon ’19, Lee Nelson ’19, and Sarah Laurie Johnson ’19, the second show is titled Traversing the Urban Landscape Through the Floating World of Japanese Prints. Featuring a selection of Japanese Ukiyo-e prints by artist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), the show illustrates cities and surroundings' role in people’s lives.

The exhibition “reveals how depicting the ‘urban landscape’ for the burgeoning middle class was revolutionary, and how that revolution and the artist’s style ricocheted around the world up to the present day,” says Johnson.

The exhibition will be the first time Puget Sound’s Hiroshige prints have been on display in Kittredge Gallery since Magdalena Maher Shelton donated them to the university in 1999.

Photo: Clear Weather after Snow at Nihonbashi Bridge, ca. 1839-42, Edo Period, Polychromic woodblock print; ink and color on paper, 24.2 x 36.7 cm, University of Puget Sound Collection

Kathy Gore Fuss: Above, Below, and Beyond
March 11 to April 20, 2019
Reception: March 13, 5­–7 p.m.

Traversing the Urban Landscape Through the Floating World of Japanese Prints
March 11 to April 20, 2019                                 
Reception: March 13, 5–7 p.m.
Curators’ Talk: April 10, 5 p.m.