200 Thurston Ave
ABOUT THE EVENT:
Come to Desuetude Art Gallery for an evening with interdisciplinary artists, Vito Valera and Ashley Corbett Williams. Vito Valera and Ashley Corbett Williams, along with other current members of the Knitting Mills Artist Collective share their works and creative processes. This one hour discussion will engage us into the magical practice of work, the process of pattern-making for oneself, and what at times, seems to be the final product.
Collaboratively conceived and curated by Orca Books Co-op, Desuetude Art Gallery and The 3rd Thing Press, these weekly events are an exercise in creating a culture of necessary alternatives.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
VITO VALERA
Born and raised in a family of Spanish immigrants in southwest France, Vito Valera was 18 years old when she moved to Bordeaux to attend the University of Michel de Montaigne from which she later received an MFA. 10 years later, she then relocated further away from home to the Pacific Northwest and embarked on an unpredictable journey of self-discovery. She released 4 opuses on K records (Olympia, Wash USA) and toured extensively around the world under the name of Tender Forever. Valera has worked on big scale multimedia projects, including collaborations with filmmaker Ted Passon, musician Khaela Maricich The Blow, and singer songwriter Mirah. She’s performed at the Time-Based Art Festival in Portland, the Sónar Festival in Barcelona, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Centre Georges Pompidou, La Gaîté Lyrique and La Cité Internationale Universitaire in Paris, and el Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid.
ASHLEY WILLIAMS
Ashley Corbett Williams is an educator, media coordinator, and artist living in Olympia, Washington. Before relocating to the Pacific Northwest, Ashley spent three decades living in the American South and was the fifth generation of her family raised in her historic Arkansas home. She received a BFA in Painting from the University of Arkansas in 2009, an Art Educator’s License from the University of Arkansas in 2014, and a BA in Media Studies and Production from The Evergreen State College in 2016. Ashley employs an interdisciplinary and inter-media approach, generating work spanning the mediums of 16mm film, digital video, animation, photography, painting, printmaking, ceramics, digital sound, prose, and multimedia installation
