Serendipity
Avery McDowell
Corrine Woodman Gallery
February 3 – 28, 2026
Reception and Artist Talk: Thursday, February 19, 5:30 – 7 PM
About the Exhibition
Avery McDowell’s exhibition, Serendipity, on view in the Corrine Woodman Gallery at The Arts Center of Greater Corvallis from February 3–28, 2026. In the exhibition, McDowell sets aside the grief and weariness that comes with living in an unreliable body and instead focuses on the positive ways her lived experience has shaped her.
By honestly exploring themes of desire, pain and chance, McDowell publicly takes control over aspects of her private identity. She celebrates the mother figures who have cared for her in chaos and grief, and shows gratitude for her struggles, as they are the inspiration that drives her artistic practice.
Artist Interview
TAC curator, Jennie Castle had the pleasure of catching up with Avery McDowell prior to the installation of Serendipity. Take a listen!
About the Artist
Avery McDowell is a multidisciplinary artist from Portland, Oregon. Her work draws on personal experiences with gender, disability, and navigating the modern social landscape as a person it wasn’t designed for. After graduating from Oregon State University in 2025 with her BFA in Studio Art, McDowell was awarded The Arts Center Residency Award and produced this collection of pieces over the course of that program. She strives to take control of her own narrative through self-portraiture and explore the connection she has to her physical form in a way that acknowledges the complexities of living in an unreliable body while also finding joy and pride in her identity. Her work builds on long-standing themes in her practice around the expectations society places on disabled people and provides perspective outside of established conventions of what the world says people with disabilities are allowed to do, be, or desire. Following her residency with The Arts Center, McDowell is looking forward to pursuing her MFA and teaching art full-time.
Avery McDowell’s exhibition invites viewers to reflect on how personal experience, vulnerability, and resilience shape both the body and the creative process.