From August 22nd through October 2nd ArtsWest Gallery presents the exhibition Tenuous Truths. Artists Piper O’Neill, Eric Montoya, Yun H. Chang, Rajiv Kapoor, and Jessica Plumb explore the cultural fabric that makes up the expanding culture in our Information Age and provide an authentic look at the sometimes awkward and solitary experience of contemporary life.

Piper O’Neill’s ink and pastel paintings of strained stances of girls in pretty dresses on silver-leafed paper are copies of her grandparents’ snapshots from the 1950s. Her work presents an idyllic world of nostalgia and underlying tensions found within everyday moments.

From his series, “Memoir Americana,” Eric Montoya explores the collective experience of being an American male from mid-1960s on. Memory and historical fact collide in his large-scale oil paintings that speak to the complexities of the landscape of boys on trikes to men on tractors with guns and industry by their side.

Yun H. Chang’s delicate porcelain pieces are unique in that the works are intentionally fractured during creation and then stitched back together with strands of Chang’s hair as thread. “Memory”, her fractured and delicate work sewn back together, speaks to fragility and loss. Another piece titled “You and I” presents two similarly shaped vessels leaning against one another with a rounded puncture connecting the two vessels.

Meet the artists of Tenuous Truths at the opening reception on September 9th at 6pm during the West Seattle Art Walk.