Artist Roundtable with Michael Boonstra and Rick Silva

We are pleased to present a panel discussion with artists Rick Silva and Michael Boonstra, two Oregon-based artists whose work intersects with ecology and human relationships with the landscape. This panel will be moderated by Thien-Kim Bui, PhD candidate in PSU’s Department of Geography.

Michael Boonstra received an Individual Artist Fellowship award from the Oregon Arts Commission in 2024 and has been awarded multiple Career Opportunity Grants. Recent commissions include site-specific projects at the Oregon State University Marine Studies Building, the Oregon State Treasury Resiliency Building, and the Lane County Farmers Market Pavilion. Boonstra’s work is included in the collections of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, the City of Portland, Oregon State University Cascades, Umpqua Community College, and PacificSource. He has been an artist in residence at Playa Center for Art and Science, Djerassi, Caldera, Pine Meadow Ranch, Signal Fire, and the Kesey Farm. Boonstra received his BFA from the University of Michigan and his MFA from the University of Oregon. He currently teaches sculpture and creative field work at Oregon State University.

Rick Silva is an artist who explores landscape via technology and time. His work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum, the Centre Pompidou, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. He has been featured in Artforum, Wired, and Rhizome’s Net Art Anthology. Silva was born in Brazil, received his MFA from the University of Colorado Boulder, and lives in Eugene, Oregon, where he is a professor at the University of Oregon.

Image Credit: Rick Silva, Dirt Nap (video still), 2025, HD Video, projection, sound, Dimensions variable, Courtesy of the artist

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