PORT TOWNSEND — “Echoes, Memories and Curiosities,” sculptor Chuck Iffland’s multifaceted exhibition, brings an outsider artist inside Northwind Art’s space.
Now open at Jeanette Best Gallery, 701 Water St., Port Townsend, the exhibit populates the space with large biomorphic figures, copper masks, welded metal, molded concrete and carved wood.
Most of these pieces — about 80 of them — fall into three groups Iffland calls memories, curiosities and echoes. There are outliers, though, and those are called “misfits.”
They will all be on view through Aug. 24, while the gallery is open from noon to 5 p.m. every day except Tuesdays.
On Sunday, Iffland will host a question-and-answer-style talk at 3 p.m. surrounded by his work in the gallery. The public is welcome to ask questions about Iffland’s artworks and his creative process.
From his “Hourglass Totems” to his copper masks with names such as “Jezebel,” Iffland sculpts icons. His sources of inspiration range from traveling the globe to history, archeology and the natural world. For many years, he has worked at home in the rural Chimacum Valley south of Port Townsend.
Also on his property, Iffland has built a sculpture park open to the public by appointment. The sculptures in Northwind’s gallery echo the ones in the valley.
The son of painters, musicians and craftsmen — he uses his great-grandfather’s hand tools — Iffland turns his dreams and imaginings into sculptures and prints.
The artist is a free spirit. His degree is in political science.
“I have no art degrees, and I never wanted any art degrees,” Iffland said.
He infuses his fascinations with the natural world, archeology, history and borders into wood, stone, paper and copper, making “artifacts of the mind,” as he calls them.
His travels, including hikes in the American Southwest and explorations of Belize, also inspire him.
For more about this and other gallery shows at Northwind, along with art classes and summer youth camps, visit NorthwindArt.org.
