"Where Grasses Grow Over Me”

An Abstract Art Collection by Christopher St. John

PORTLAND, Oregon – Gallery @ the Jupiter Hotel is proud to announce its latest collaboration with local artist Christopher St. John entitled “Where Grasses Grow Over Me”, on display October 4th through November 29th, 2016. The installation is a featured collection highlighting the artist’s return to his initial calling: abstract art. The First Friday Eastside artwalk artist opening reception will be held on Friday, October 7th, 2016, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Christopher St. John lives and works in Portland, Oregon. His work touches on the impact of place on the shape of our lives, the vocabulary of form, the figure, and the joy of impermanence. For many years, St. John’s figurative work chronicled the self-destructive urges that seem to be consuming citizens as a nation. “I worked to craft a figurative gestalt that I felt revealed the essence of that despair, that nervous frenzy, that queer dislocation that pervades everything in this country; a country which has been at war since 2001,” explained St. John.

Having the desire to free his work, Christopher St. John’s most recent works move the focus into light and into a place where he can play with color and form and space.

“As Debussy wrote, sound and color should be adequate to express ideas, and I simply wish to be free as possible to move in light and in love,” says St. John. “The darkness will always have its place. When I first began painting, it was abstract art that initially called me, and at this stage in my life I find it to be a welcome friend and a return to home.”

Christopher St. John's work has been exhibited and collected across the United States and internationally in France, Sweden, Japan, Canada, and Malta. He received his BFA from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. His work is in the permanent collections of museums and universities in the United States. Christopher St. John is very happy to call the Pacific Northwest his homeland.

Reception for the artist will be held at the Gallery @ the Jupiter Hotel on Friday, October 7th, 2016, from 6 to 8 PM. Complimentary beverages will be poured by guest artisan, Brewvana Brewery Tours. Normally a tour bus about Portland, Brewvana will set up shop for one night at the Jupiter Hotel. During First Friday, Brewvana beer experts will be on-site, pouring local Portland craft beers in the bus. Brewvana Brewery Tours provides The Ultimate Craft Beer Tour Experience in Portland, OR. Their all-inclusive tours offer a fun, informative way to visit multiple locations in one day and be treated as a VIP, with the tour guide taking care of their guests every step of the way.

The Jupiter Hotel has been an incubator for small businesses and a supporter of the arts. Their First Friday Artisan Series is an opportunity for both local and visiting guests to experience and expand the concept of art into an exploration of all of the senses: visual, taste, touch, smell and sound. The First Friday event is an opportunity to treat attendees to a variety of sensory stimulation and support the local artisans that make Portland a unique and wonderful place to live. Complimentary beverages and light appetizers will be available for guests.