Weight
Crista Ann Ames
September 18 – November 1, 2025
Main Gallery
Reception & Artist Talk: Thursday, September 18, 5:30 – 7 PM
We are grateful to Cristom Vineyards who will be pouring wine during the reception.
About the Exhibition
Weight, an exhibition by Washington artist Crista Ann Ames, questions familiar feminine tropes in art and art history. Raised on a small subsistence farm, her work draws from personal experiences with pastoral life, animal husbandry, women’s craft and fertility.
The coil-built clay human figures in this exhibition, which Ames sees as vessels, re-imagine classic sculptures, historic narratives and symbolism. Her practice embraces both craft and the concept of “personal as political”, and thus she bridges the gap between myth and lived experience, resulting in transformed stories and feminine monuments that tell contemporary truths of trauma, joy and womanhood.
Unlocking Art: Discovering Art Together
Explore The Arts Center’s latest exhibition with our trained volunteers, as they offer thought provoking activities to help you better understand, and connect with art on view.
Sign up for one of our sessions today! RSVP by emailing curator@theartscenter.net.
Unlocking Weight Sessions
Tuesday, October 7, 2025, 1 PM
Saturday October 18, 2025, 1 PM (rescheduled due to No Kings Corvallis)
Tuesday, October 21, 2025, 1 PM
Saturday, October 25, 2025, 1 PM
Saturday,, November 1, 2025, 1 PM
About the Artist
Crista Ann Ames is a ceramics and mixed media sculptor. Through the layering of mythological and contemporary iconography, Crista questions familiar feminine troupes in art and art history. The sculptures she creates re-examine classic sculpture while re-imagining historic narratives and symbolism. Raised on a small hobby farm in Washington State, Crista often draws on her own experiences when exploring pastoral life and the gap between myth and lived experience, resulting in altogether new stories and feminine monuments that tell contemporary truths of trauma, joy, and womanhood.
Crista attended Washington State University where she obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics with a minor in Art History and Disability Studies. While receiving her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Montana she began studying dance and movement to help inform the way she sculpts the figure. She has been an artist in residence and exhibited at A.I.R. Valluaris in France, Guldagergaard International Ceramics Research Center in Denmark, the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT, The Clay Studio of Missoula, Santa Fe Art Institute, Red Lodge Clay Center, Gallery One Visual Arts Center, and The University of Montana. Crista is currently a studio artist and curator living in Ellensburg, Washington.