Edmonds CC art gallery features ‘River Run’ by June Sekiguchi

“River Run,” a sculpture by artist June Sekiguchi, is made of enamel on scroll cut hardboard.

Edmonds Community College’s art gallery this fall features “River Run” by June Sekiguchi.

Sekiguchi has focused on rivers as the life force of the Earth, finding inspiration around the world as a means of sustenance in nourishment, transportation, and recreation.

The exhibit, running from Sept. 19 through Dec. 8, is a yearlong progressively cumulative installation that responds to sites around Puget Sound from Bainbridge Island, Ellensberg, Bellingham, and Seattle, with its most expansive iteration culminating at the Edmonds CC Art Gallery.

Her work involves intensely manipulating material that is pattern based and involves processing, deconstructing, and restructuring a form, blending metaphorical and literal interpretations of the source material.

“My primary medium is engineered wood panels using a scroll saw to cut patterns with which I create forms that address cultural identity, cross cultural exchange, and personal narratives,” Sekiguchi said. “I explore the diversity and commonality of cultures through the interplay of surface pattern and structural form with a deeper meaning of pattern in humanity, or more intimately, personal patterns of habit.”

Sekiguchi graduated in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She is the recipient of a 2015 Artist Trust Fellowship award, a 2007 Artist Trust Grants for Artists Projects (GAP) award, and three 4Culture project grants.

Originally from Fayetteville, Ark., Sekiguchi has lived in the Seattle area since 1994 and exhibits her work in both private and public collections.

She also focuses on arts advocacy, including past service on the Issaquah Arts Commission, co-founding artEAST Art Center and METHOD Gallery, and currently serves on the board of the Antipodes Collective in Pum Prey, Cambodia, and is the curator for Era Living.

Meet Sekiguchi at an artist reception from 3-5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14, in the gallery.

The exhibit is sponsored by the Edmonds Arts Festival Board, and the Edmonds CC Library, Visual Arts department, and Center for Student Engagement and Leadership.

The gallery is open 7:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Fridays, and 1-5 p.m. on weekends.

The Edmonds Community College Art Gallery is on the third floor of Lynnwood Hall at 20000 68th Ave. W, Lynnwood, WA.