2025 JURIED GROUP EXHIBITION: RESILIENCE
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Celebrating Creativity and Community
Foundry Vineyards is proud to present its second juried art show. This exhibition showcases the incredible talent within the Walla Walla Valley and its surrounding areas, while continuing our mission to foster community connections through art.
The theme for this year’s show, Resilience, reflects on the strength, survival, and hope we’ve experienced collectively and individually in recent years. The works selected explore resilience in its many forms—personal, environmental, and communal—offering a powerful dialogue on perseverance and connection.
Proceeds for a Cause
A portion of the proceeds from artwork sales will support ArtWalla’s Arts Build Communities Grant. This annual grant funds arts, cultural, and educational organizations in the Walla Walla Valley, furthering our shared commitment to enriching the community.
Selection Process
The selection process for this juried show was decided on by two of our community arts members, Emily & Andrew Somoskey. With over 45 artists submitting work, our jurors carefully reviewed each piece based on:
✔ Alignment with the theme – How well the work reflects the idea of Resilience.
✔ Artistic quality – Creativity, technique, and impact.
✔ Cohesion – How the selected works contribute to a unified and engaging exhibition.
To be eligible, artists had to meet the following criteria:
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Be 18 years or older
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Reside within 60 miles of Walla Walla
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Submit work completed within the last five years
From this talented group, 26 artists were selected. While narrowing down the submissions was a difficult task, we are incredibly proud of the chosen works and the meaningful stories they tell.
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List of Exhibiting Artists:
Abad Javier
Anne Haley
Ariel Anderson
Bea Murray
Brian Heinzman
Brianna Wray
Candace Rose
Ellen Heath
Frankie Laufer
Greg Tate
James Harley
Javier S. Ortega
John Mueller
Julee Hightower Ryle
Kathryn Kaye
Lori Montgomery
Lorna Barth
Lynn Woolson
Mareth Warren
Mariana Ruiz-González
Mika Means
Nika Blasser
Rachel Smith
Ryan Gary
Sam Sanders
Steve Miller
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Meet the Jurors: Emily Somoskey & Andrew Somoskey
Emily Somoskey
Walla Walla, WA | www.emilysomoskey.com | Instagram: @emsomoskey
Emily Somoskey is a 2-D mixed media artist and painter living in Walla Walla, WA. Her work explores the complexity of perception through layered oil paint and collaged photographic imagery. With a BA in Art Education from The University of Akron and an MFA from Michigan State University, Emily’s work has been exhibited across the United States, including shows at Chatwin Arts in Seattle, WA, and a solo exhibition at Boise State University. She currently serves as an Assistant Professor at Whitman College.
Q&A with Emily Somoskey
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Q: How do you see art playing a role in helping people through tough times like these?
Emily: Art, and all forms of creative expression, can allow us to engage with difficult topics in a really unique and vital way. It can provide a space to reflect on, reframe, and process the world around us, while also sometimes serving as a reprieve from it. Art can open up new ways of thinking and provide something tangible that allows us to share our perspectives and values. Ultimately, it helps us connect more deeply to those around us, which is especially important during challenging times.
Q: What stood out about the submissions this year? Were there any surprising themes or patterns?
Emily: Beyond the wide range of creative approaches and use of materials within the submissions, I was struck by the variety of ways they embodied the concept of resilience. It’s clear that so many artists in our region have thought about how they can use art as a tool to move through adversity, and they all do so in their own way.
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The works we selected gave us insight into how artists have cultivated connection with their communities, shown strength and endurance, and found ways to navigate the complexities of the world. The impact of the exhibition comes through the wide range of individual voices that resonate and build on each other’s strengths. Together, they reflect the ways we can uplift one another through personal perspectives and shared experiences.
Q: What excites you most about being a juror for this exhibition?
Emily: It’s always inspiring to see the depth of creativity and thought that artists bring to their work, especially when addressing such a powerful theme as Resilience. The opportunity to help shape this exhibition and share these voices with the community is incredibly rewarding. Being part of something that highlights the importance of art in fostering hope and connection is something I truly value.
Andrew Somoskey
Walla Walla, WA | www.andrewsomoskey.com
Andrew Somoskey is a visual artist living in Walla Walla, Washington. He earned his MFA in Studio Arts from Michigan State University in 2019, and a BFA in Painting & Drawing from The University of Akron in 2011. His work and recent installations incorporate the activity of encoding and decoding information that is central to our contemporary existence. While the systems referenced within his process center around textual and symbolic language, they also refer to the history of abstraction and the disruptions, complexities, and migrations of meaning that occur when languages and systems interface. Most recently Andrew has shown work at Terrain Gallery in Spokane WA and The Pendleton Center for the Arts in Pendleton OR. He is currently the Exhibitions and Collections Manager for the Sheehan Gallery at Whitman College.
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Q&A with Andrew Somoskey
Q: What does resilience mean to you?
Andrew: Resilience is the ability to adapt and grow in the face of adversity. It’s not just about enduring tough situations, but about finding strength to keep moving forward and learning from challenges. In the context of art, resilience takes on an even deeper meaning—it's about embracing the vulnerability of the creative process, dealing with setbacks, rejection, or self-doubt, and continuing to create despite them. It’s a mix of perseverance, flexibility, and a willingness to fail forward, trusting that each moment, whether positive or negative, contributes to the growth of both the artist and their work.
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Gallery Hours Thursday – Saturday: 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM; Sunday: 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM