DANA LYNN LOUIS
danalynnlouis@gmail.com
503.227.7114
danalynnlouis.com
2211 NW Front Ave,
Portland OR 97209
gathermakeshelter.org
SELECTED COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT WORKS
2017-present:
Founding Director and shepherd of Gather:Make:Shelter, Portland, OR
GMS creates opportunities for people experiencing houselessness and poverty to engage in collaborative, skill-building projects in creative fields, bringing houseless and housed people together to empower each other. Starting with our shared humanity and hopes and dreams, we meet people where and how they want to be met to collectively manifest transformational projects beyond what any of us could have accomplished on our own.
2016-2019:
Residencies at Thread, a project of The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation Produced during my first residency in Sinthian, Senegal, Le Grande Robe is an homage to a local women’s collective and their work. A large, suspended sculptural dress measuring 13’ x 10’, the piece is made from rice sacks (representing the sustenance of the continent, and which I traded with the women, new for old). The dress was made in collaboration with the village tailor; and the installed piece includes a video projection showing women working, made in collaboration with the collective. The women chose the content and invited me to film them working on things important to them in their daily lives which they wanted to share with the world. I returned to Senegal in 2019 to continue this work as well as pursue my own work. At that time, I initiated drawing workshops to suggest a new media to the collective’s century-old pottery practice. These workshops led to a new income stream for the women as they quickly became experts and created remarkable painted pottery which they are now selling.
2014:
Hopes and Dreams A collaboration with patients at The Oregon State Psychiatric Hospital. Through a series of creative writing workshops, patients collectively wrote stories, songs and poems; and the results were permanently etched on the front of a new hospital in Junction City, Oregon. We performed at open mics, a memorial and a staff party. The workshops also included mindfulness activities and beading for a monumental work that was installed as a suspended waterfall in the new hospital.
SELECTED AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES
2024 Oregon Arts Commission Visual Arts Fellowship
2023 Bonnie Bronson Visual Arts Fellowship
2020 Re:Imagine Artist Grant presented by The Portland Art Museum
Precipice Fund Grant, The Andy Warhol Foundation
for the Visual Arts / Portland
Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA)
2019 Artist-in-Residence, Thread,
The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Senegal West Africa
2018 Oregon Arts Commission and
Ford Family Foundation Career Opportunity Grant
2016 Artist-in-Residence, Thread,
The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Senegal West Africa
2015 Northwest Artist Award, Portland Art Museum
2014 Artist-in-Residence, Franz Mayer Glass Studio Residency,
Munich Germany
Artist-in-Residence, Oregon State Hospital, Salem, Oregon
Oregon Arts Commission and Ford Family Foundation
Career Opportunity Grant Regional Arts
and Culture Council project grant, Portland, Oregon
2013 Artist-in-Residence, Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington
Artist-in-Residence, Camp Caldera Golden Spot, Ford Family
Foundation-sponsored Jordan Schnitzer Printmaking Award Residency,
Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Otis, Oregon
2008 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant Award
2007 Nocturnal Notations, Artist-in-Residence, South Waterfront,
Portland, Oregon
Regional Arts and Culture Council project grant, Portland, Oregon 1997 Artist-in-Residence, Bullseye Glass Factory, Portland, Oregon
1990 Artist-in-Residence, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
1989 Artist-in-Residence, Oregon College of Art and Craft (1988-89),
Portland, Oregon
SELECTED COMMISSIONS
2023 Regeneration, murals at the Zoiglhaus and International farmers market, Portland, Oregon
2020 Ripple Effect, safe rest village privacy screen, Portland Oregon
2015 Drawing Breath, full building tattoo on the Breathe Building,
Portland, Oregon
2014 Hopes and Dreams, permanent installation,
Oregon State Hospital, Junction City
2011 Crystallization, Tri-Met light rail station, (completed 2015),
Portland, Oregon
2009 A Delicate Wandering, multimedia mobile,
Clackamas Community College, Oregon City, Oregon
2007 City of Portland, outdoor mural project at Yoga Union,
Portland, Oregon
Ann Sacks, suspended installation, New York, New York
2006 Northgate Library glass wall, Seattle, Washington
2005 Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital,
entire glass facade of building, Tacoma, Washington
Suspended Migration, City Hall, 4-story mixed media
suspended installation, Portland, Oregon
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Russo Lee Gallery, Alchemy of Tears, Portland, Oregon
2022 Friesen+Lantz Gallery, SunValley Idaho
2020 Weave, Russo Lee Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2017 La Grande Robe, Front of House Gallery, Portland, Oregon
Stream, Friesen+Lantz Gallery, Sun Valley, Idaho
2016 As Above So Below, San Juan Islands Museum of Art,
Friday Harbor, Washington
2015 Thread, Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2014 Clearing, Hoffman Gallery, Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon 2013 Draw, Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2012 Container of Essence, Pioneer Courthouse Square Festival of Flowers,
Portland, Oregon
2010 Surfacing, Kuhl Gallery, Oakland, California Whisper, Gallery 111,
Sausalito, California
2008 Reflection, Nine Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2007 Faith: Suspended, Art Gym, Marylhurst University, Marylhurst, Oregon 2001 Drawing Breath, Laura Russo Gallery, Portland Oregon
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 Web, Friesen+Lantz Gallery, Sun Valley, Idaho
2017 Contemplative Practice, Sun Valley Art Museum, Ketchum, Idaho
I Am This, Oregon Jewish Museum curated by Bruce Guenther,
Portland, Oregon
2016 Residents in Resonance, Thread, Sinthian, Senegal West Africa
Nocturnal Notations, Winter Light Festival, Portland, Oregon
Ray Grimm Legacy Project, Ash Street Project, Portland Oregon
2015 Northwest Artist Award Exhibition, Portland Art Museum,
Portland, Oregon
SELECTED ARTICLES and PUBLICATIONS
- “Dana Lynn Louis, Artist and Activist,” Helen Hill for Street Roots,
Feb 2020 - “Dana Lynn Louis, WEAVE at Russo Lee Gallery,” Allyn Cantor Preview
Feb 2020 - “Signs and Portents,” Oregon ArtsWatch, Laural Reed Feb 2020
- “Clearing,” exhibition catalog essays Linda Tesner, David James Duncan, Jennifer Boyden, Dec 2014
- “Draw at Laura Russo Gallery,” Allyn Cantor, Preview, July 2013
- “Dana Lynn Louis at the Nine Gallery,” Daniel Duford, ARTWEEK, September 2008
- “Dana Lynn Louis at The Art Gym,” Lois Alan, Sculpture Magazine, December 2007
- “The Lightness of Balance,” exhibition catalog essay, Kate Bonansinga, May 2007
EDUCATION
MFA Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
BS Studio Art and Education, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
2020-present Member, Creating Conscious Communities with People Outside, Portland, Oregon
2017-present Founding Creative Director, Gather:Make:Shelter, empowering people experiencing houselessness through collaborative, skill-building projects in creative fields, Portland, Oregon
2013-2020 Mentor to Graduate Students, Pacific Northwest College of Art; Oregon College of Art and Craft
2000-present Board Member, KoFalen Cultural Center, promoting cultural, artistic and educational exchanges between the people of the United States and Mali, Bamako, Mali, West Africa
1992-97 Board Member, ORLO, exploring environmental issues through the creative arts, Portland, Oregon