When Deborah Taylor turned 50 she felt she needed to do something. She had studied music at the University of Oregon, lived in Europe for years, studying languages, and later she worked in mortgages. But 50, as with many people, was a milestone year for her. She figured that if she lived to be 100, then she’s only lived half of her life — what would she do with the second half?
“I decided to do painting,” says Taylor, who, via YouTube, taught herself to paint. Her subjects were her grandchildren.
As her skills developed, she learned of New Zone Gallery’s biannual Zone 4 All, which takes place in March and September. It’s a non-juried art show where artists can display two pieces to be seen by hundreds.
When Taylor heard that her art wouldn’t be judged, she entered the show. “I was like, ‘That sounds good. I don’t want to be judged,’” she says.
For four decades, New Zone has been a place for “emerging artists,” a place where it doesn’t matter how long one has been pursuing art or what their art may look like.
After her entrance in Zone 4 All, her confidence in her abilities was boosted. “I remember coming here and walking around and just being like, ‘OK, do I think I am worthy?’” Taylor asked herself, but she knew the answer. “Yes, I was.”
Now, several of her pieces hang in New Zone Gallery.
“One of the big things we do is we bring in emerging artists,” says New Zone president Dianne Story Cunningham. “Many of Eugene’s great artists came through New Zone.”
Cunningham has been president of New Zone for 11 years, but she, like Taylor, didn’t pursue art till her 50s.
After retiring from a career as a dental hygienist 25 years ago, Cunningham developed an interest in art. Like many, Cunningham was intimidated by the art scene, but eventually, her art — Picasso-esque clay faces with names like “Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire” and “The Moon Was High, and So Was I” — and even herself, found a home at New Zone.
For many Eugene artists, New Zone has been something of an Island of Misfit Toys. It’s inclusive as to who can show their work there — anyone, with members ranging from teens to 80s, and it’s welcoming of all skill sets and styles. There’s just one rule: The art must be able to hang from a wire.
“We support experimental art,” Cunningham says. “We don’t have any censorship. There was a piece that was rejected by one of the other galleries, and we hung it,” she adds of a war-inspired piece that had bullets.
New Zone isn’t only accepting of different types of art and artists, it also accommodates different types of incomes. At many art galleries, it’s common to see pieces sell for five figures, but at New Zone the price of pieces range so that anyone can find something affordable. “We’re just kind of special in that we are really accessible for any buyer,” Cunningham says.
The art is varied, too. There are heartstring pieces, like Taylor’s paintings of her grandchildren, but there are also pieces like politically bold graphic designs.
Since it opened four decades ago, hundreds of artists have come through the gallery.
The New Zone Gallery was formed 40 years ago as Zone by two earlier cooperatives that combined after losing their downtown spaces, the Artist Union and Project Space, which operated in the late ’70s, providing a sense of community for local artists.
However, New Zone these days is quite different in its approach from the old New Zone. Its founders had a distinct vision of fine arts, being selective to what it would show compared to today’s far more open-minded approach to art.
In its 40 years, the New Zone has occupied many different spaces, and sometimes didn’t have a physical space at all, being kept alive by having shows in bars, restaurants and online.
The late ’90s and early ’00s were the gallery’s “nomadic years” where it struggled to find a stable place. Artists Steve La Riccia and Jerry Ross played a significant part in stabilizing the gallery during this time. Cunningham continues to praise La Riccia for seeing the gallery through hard times. He “pretty much single-handedly kept it going for 28 years, through thick and thin. And there was a lot of thin.”
The gallery has weathered holding art in storage units, quick notices to vacate and a changing art scene. But the gallery has never been a location; it’s been a collective of people.
At one point, the gallery was meeting in Cunningham’s backyard. “I did a little speech and said, ‘This is the gallery right here. We are the gallery. We don’t have a space right now, but we are still a gallery,’” Cunningham says.
New Zone has been housed at 110 East 11th Avenue for about four years now. The location is spacious with large windows, a location that artists are proud to call home.
To celebrate 40 years — of art, relocations and survival — the gallery plans to bring back artists who have shown their work throughout various points of New Zone’s existence.
The new location lets plenty of light in. “I say that we bring people out of the shadows,” Cunningham says of New Zone’s inclusivity and opportunities.