Public art at the Redmond Library is funded through Oregon’s 1% for Art program. The new building is home to a suspended sculpture by John Grade, an oil-on-canvas painting by Central Oregon artist Bill Hoppe, a mixed-media painting by Klamath artist Ka’ila Farrell-Smith, and a beloved bronze that has greeted readers for decades.
Sculpture · Suspended installation
Sage
John Grade · b. 1970, Minneapolis, MN · lives and works in Seattle, WA
Sage is a large-scale art installation suspended over the central stairway. The sculpture is inspired by the structure within the stem of the sagebrush that grows throughout Central Oregon. When viewed from above and below, the sculpture’s surface resembles aerial views of obsidian flows from the Newberry caldera.
Painting
oil on canvas · 100 × 60 in.
West Went
Bill Hoppe · Bend, OR
Located on the second floor near the adult collection. Transparency and atmospheric perspective are at the core of works by Bend artist Bill Hoppe.
Painting
2022–2023 · Northern Paiute lithium topsoil, acrylics, aerosols, graphite on stretched canvas
Ghosts in the Machine 021
Ka’ila Farrell-Smith · b. 1982 · Modoc Point, OR
Located on the second floor near the teen collection. Farrell-Smith’s work is a visual matrix of grayscales, layering wild harvested Lithium top soil, metal detritus stencils found at Modoc Point studio ranch, acrylic, and aerosol paints. The found metal detritus stencils visually represent machinery, grids, bots, and perhaps unidentified flying objects. Farrell-Smith’s body of work is her response to the “burgeoning global AI technocratic state that is threatening human freedom through the violent extraction of rare earth minerals like Lithium (Li) from sacred Tribal spiritual grounds for the sole benefit of Western electric elitism.”
Ka’ila Farrell-Smith (b. 1982) is a Klamath Tribal member who works and resides in her ancestral homelands at Modoc Point studio. She received a BFA in Painting from Pacific Northwest College of Art and an MFA in Contemporary Art Practices Studio from Portland State University. Farrell-Smith is a 2021 Hallie Ford Fellow and a 2019–2020 Fields Artist Fellow with Oregon Humanities.
Sculpture · Bronze
Young Reader
This bronze sculpture has been a beloved part of the Redmond Library for decades. Community members have taken countless photographs of children sitting beside her, and she now greets customers of all ages on the first floor near the stairs.