Kent Manske: Inner Workings
Fairbanks Gallery, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon
January 9–March 19, 2025
Exhibition Statement
Inquiry and introspection into the nature of things—existence, human behavior, and knowledge systems—drive my desire to create conceptual narratives. My process is an investigation that helps me uncover my own truths and better understand the world in a broader context.
I began inventing imaginary cells and organisms to focus my attention inward and distract myself from creating socio-political images. These biological forms explore evolution, consciousness, ecosystems, entropy, survival, and personal responsibility. Working with organic forms focuses my attention, provides contemplative space, and offers catharsis. I am comfortable with uncomfortable truths, uncertainty, and things beyond my understanding. Hard questions and unknowns fuel my drive to dig deeper. By processing the wonder of things, I celebrate life itself, explore ways of being in the world, and embrace my own mortality.
The biological imagery evolves through planned and unplanned layering of screen-printed ink, often yielding serendipitous and unintended results. This process searches for new relationships, rooted in the belief that the world is an expression of happenings rather than static things. Collage elements are created from hand-pulled, screen-based monoprints that are cut, layered, and reassembled.
Science writers who have influenced my work include Yuval Noah Harari, Brian Greene, Elizabeth Kolbert, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Lisa Randall, and Matt Ridley.
Featuring
Genetic Garden presents invented cells, organisms, bacteria, and cancers. These lens-like views reflect my exploration of wonder, beauty, interconnectedness, evolution, healing, aging, and death. The works celebrate the 50 trillion cells in the human body, the ecosystems of our planet, and the Universe as a whole—encompassing all space, time, matter, and energy. Creating imaginary cells gives me hope that creativity and intelligence can prevail over the greed and ignorance contributing to the destruction of species biodiversity.
Table of Traits is a visual exploration of personality types and characteristics as they manifest in ourselves and others. We know much of the universe escapes human perception due to size, substance, location, or the nature of its light. While science has uncovered much about what drives us—internally, externally, and psychologically—we still lack an understanding of what humanity’s essence looks like on an individual, soulful level.
Are there specific organisms, such as enzymes, parasites, or bacteria, that code human character traits? If so, how might they appear on a molecular level? What might psychological states look like when our synapses fire with thought or action? What defines our humanity beyond the obvious physical manifestations of being upright, social, adaptive, curious, and creative? How might our inner spectrum appear, collectively and individually?
Collaboration with Nanette Wylde.
Weave examines the wonder and beauty of natural systems, our interdependence on them, and the perils we face—and will continue to face—if we fail to respect the natural order.
The COVID-19 pandemic offered an opportunity to reflect on the interconnectedness of living systems and the built environment. Ecosystems are dynamic entities subject to disturbances like hurricanes, fires, or novel viruses, which use the human body as both host and distribution network for their survival. Similarly, much of the human-created ecosystem is invisible, including economic networks, supply chains, workforces, and information systems. What became visible during the crisis is our dependence on these systems and our civilization’s limited understanding of biodiversity’s critical role in species survival—including our own.
Art Icons addresses economic, technological, health, spiritual, environmental, and social justice issues central to a healthy democracy. The series originated with a conceptual social media campaign titled Election Countdown 2020: 46 Images/46 Days/46th President. One image was published daily on Instagram for the 46 days leading up to the United States presidential election.
Existential Epistemologies is a series of ten original digital drawings. These visual narratives confront a range of issues, including the biotech future, toxic masculinity, spiritual folly, the nature of nature, civilization, societal pressures, self-preservation, health, and longevity.
Unknowns are portals to discovery initiating the journey towards unsolved mysteries. Science and art are based on fascination with and investigation of the uncertain, the unanswered. We catch a spark of questioning, then begin the work to uncover, identify, and understand possible truths and errors of imagination.