Soft Ambition

Exhibition Details

My children cause me the most exquisite suffering of which I have any experience. It is the suffering of ambivalence. The murderous alternation between bitter resentment and raw-edged nerves. and blissful gratification and tenderness…

– Adrienne Rich

Motherhood is the current focal point of Renee Couture’s work. Created from her mothering experience, she has a diverse practice, encompassing sculpture, photography, and drawing.

Motherhood is brutal and bewitching. And full of other dichotomies. The joy of watching your child. The utter boredom of watching your child. Never being alone, yet feeling lonely. The tedium of motherhood’s repetition and work makes for busy days and an ever-moving body. Couture lifts, bends, extends, twists, curls, and releases minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, marathoning her way through each day.

A discussion with Renee Couture about her work Soft Ambition will be available here on August 7, 2023

Artist Bio

Renee Couture graduated from Buena Vista University (Storm Lake, IA) with a BA degree in Studio  Art and Spanish in 1999. She holds an MFA in Visual Art from Vermont College of Fine Arts in  Montpelier, VT. Couture taught Fine Art for over a decade at Umpqua Community College.  She currently works as a Project Manager with the Percent for Art/Art in Public Places program managed by the Oregon Arts Commission. 

Couture’s work has been exhibited nationally in group exhibitions and as a solo artist.  Couture has received two Career Opportunity Grants from the Oregon Arts Commission and two Individual Artist Grants from the Douglas Country Cultural Coalition. She was a featured artist on OPB’s Oregon Art Beat and has been granted artist residencies at Jentel Arts, PLAYA  Fellowship Residency Program, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Vermont Studio Center, and Djerassi Resident Artist Program, and Ucross Foundation.

This project is supported by funds from the Oregon Arts Commission, the Ford Family  Foundation, and the Douglas County Cultural Coalition.