Tactile Transmissions

Sharon Servilio

Corrine Woodman Gallery

July 28 – August 29, 2026

Meet the Artist during CAW: Thursday, August 20, 5:30 – 7 PM

About the Exhibition

Tactile Transmissions is a participatory installation that invites visitors to touch, hold, and interact with handheld objects that transmit ecological stories through form, pattern, and inscribed diagrams. Embroidered textiles and ceramic sculptures encode interspecies narratives such as pollination, the mycorrhizal system, and the life cycles of organisms. Servilio has watched these processes unfolding in her yard, around Portland, and under a microscope, deepening these observations with research from scientific papers, books, and local nature guides. The forms are inspired by Neolithic and Bronze Age artifacts that dissolve boundaries between domestic and sacred, human and non-human spheres. In the intimate space of the Corrine Woodman gallery, visitors can rest, be immersed, and contemplate our interconnectivity with an abundantly animate world.

Artist Interview

TAC curator, Jennie Castle had the pleasure of catching up with Sharon Servilio prior to the installation of Tactile Transmissions. Take a listen!

About the Artist

Sharon Servilio (she/her, b. 1983, New Jersey) received her BA from Brandeis University and her MFA from American University, with a focus on painting throughout her education. She then spent a formative decade in Queens, NY, where her work evolved into the third dimension as painted paper wall sculpture. She has lived and worked in Portland, OR since 2020, and has recently expanded her practice to include ceramics, textiles, and curation.

Unspoken /Unseen

No hablado / No visto

Angennette Escobar, Patricia Vázquez Gómez, v. maldonado, Laura Medina, Angela Sáenz, Santiago Savi

Main Gallery

July 16 – September 5, 2026

Unlocking Art in the Gallery: July 28, August 1, August 25 at 1 PM

Meet the artists during the Corvallis Arts Walk, Thursday, July 16, 5:30 – 7 PM.

*featured image Mesa de Abuelitas by v. maldonado

About the Exhibition / Sobre del Exhibición

Declaración de les co-curadores

Dedicado a nuestras abuelas ancestrales y su memoria amorosa.

Nuestro objetivo y nuestra esperanza al organizar esta exhibición grupal es humanizar y hacer visible la belleza compleja y la sabiduría de la gente Latinx y su cultura.  Un pueblo en la diáspora moldeado por el Imperio, la colonización y el capitalismo. Desplazado y desarraigado, estereotipado y separado por la narrativa de la clase dominante.

El título de esta exposición consta de dos partes que unen los conceptos de lo no hablado y lo no visto. Ideas más allá de nuestros sentidos. Un concepto dual que equilibra y arraiga nuestros entendimientos tradicionales sobre la realidad contemporánea.

Cada artista en esta exhibición implementa su trabajo para dar voz a perspectivas usualmente ausentes de los entendimientos comunes sobre nuestras experiencias y realidades vividas. En cada uno de sus trabajos vemos manifestadas metodologías para existir al centro de una cultura de apropiación y desaparición.

Cada artista en esta exhibición fue invitade a compartir su voz auténtica, y trabajo que sentían urgencia de mostrar. Con eso en mente, como co-curadores, nos propusimos estar informades y sorprendides por les artistas en el proceso de seleccionar los trabajos. Esperamos que el público experimente el enfoque de esta exhibición con el cuidado y respeto con el que los trabajos fueron producidos y seleccionadas para la misma.

Les invitamos a que tomen su tiempo y les invitamos a nuestros espacios como familia.

~ Angennette Escobar & v. maldonado

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Co-Curator Statement

Dedicated to our ancestral grandmothers; in their loving memory.

Our hope and goal in organizing this group exhibition is to humanize and make visible the complex beauty and wisdom of Latinx people and culture. A diasporic people shaped by Empire, colonization, and capitalism. Moved and displaced, stereotyped and separated by the narrative of the ruling class. 

The title of this exhibition is in two parts that conjoin the concepts of the unspoken and that which is unseen. Ideas beyond our senses. A dual concept that balances and grounds traditional understanding with contemporary reality.

Each artist in the exhibition deploys their respective work to give voice to perspectives usually missing from common understanding of our lived experiences and daily lives. In each of their works we see manifest methodologies for existing amidst a culture of appropriation and erasure.

Each of the artists in the exhibition were invited to share their authentic voice and to share work they felt was urgent to see. With that in mind, as co-curators, we set out to be informed and surprised by the artists in the process of selecting the works. We hope that audiences experiencing this exhibition approach it with the care and respect in which the works were produced and selected for exhibit.

We actively encourage you to take your time and invite you into our spaces like family. 

~ Angennette Escobar & v. maldonado

Corvallis Poetry Marquee

About The Poetry Marquee

The Corvallis Poetry Marquee has been a celebrated community project for over 25 years. With the help of Linda Modrell, then a Benton County Commissioner, and David Livingston, the defunct Midway Drive-in Theater sign was installed in 1998 on a building at the corner of First and Madison Avenues. Once the sign was in place, David Livingston continued to maintain the sign and agreed to display poems selected by The Arts Center.

2026 Selected Poets

Congratulations to the 2026 winners selected by Oregon Poetry Association President, David Goodrum. The following poems will be installed on the Corvallis Poetry Marquee throughout the year.

Flight

Don’t you wish you could open a book,

spine splayed, pages fluttering, 

heft it above your head so pages 

turn into wings as you clutch covers 

front and back, and let it lift you 

up, up, up?

Ann Farley – Beaverton, OR

My Cat

My cat sits, meditating on the sink, 

water swirling down the drain. 

I sit, contemplating the cosmos. 

What difference?

Tim Hicks – Eugene, OR

Afternoon Slump

Walking east at 4 PM

my shadow

drags me along

feet first

Lana H. Ayers – Newport, OR

Along the River

Grass and leaf, salmon’s leap, eagle’s soar— all 

born in fire and rock, ice and flood. Water the

start of all that breathes. When you look for 

your way along the shore, do not discount a place 

of wild reeds. So much is nurtured in the tangle.

Louise Barden – Corvallis, OR

Visit the Poetry Marquee in Person

Enjoy the most recent poem by going to 134 Southwest 1st Street, Corvallis, OR — the sign is hung on the South side of the building. Take a moment to walk inside and order some Sugar J’s Ice Cream as well!

Call for Poets Guidelines

• Each author may submit only one application per call (2 poems)
• Poems must be 7 lines or less.
• Each line can have no more than 50 characters.
• Two poems will be selected. Selected poems are installed in the fall and spring, weather permitting.

The call for Poetry Marquee poets is currently closed.