Scalehouse to Open Two New Exhibitions on November 6

Scalehouse is opening two new exhibitions this November, featuring Bend-based artist Kathleen Branch and Peruvian artist Gonzalo Benavente.

Liminal by Gonzalo Benavente

Peruvian artist Gonzalo Benavente will make his Oregon exhibition debut with Liminal, opening November 6 at Scalehouse in downtown Bend. Bringing together ancestral symbolism, contemporary sculpture, and digital technologies, the exhibition explores how cultural heritage, migration, and personal identity shape our understanding of belonging.

Born in Cusco, Peru, Benavente draws on pre-Columbian symbolism and traditional paper-folding practices while experimenting with cardboard sculpture, interactive installations, and digital processes. His work creates connections between inherited traditions and contemporary technologies, examining what happens when cultures, histories, and identities meet and transform.

In Liminal, the space between the familiar and the unfamiliar becomes a place for discovery. The exhibition considers the tension between what we inherit and what we choose to change, inviting viewers to reflect on how memory and identity evolve across time, place, and cultural experience.

Benavente is a graduate of the School of Fine Arts of Peru, founder of Orilab, a laboratory dedicated to folding and paper art, and author of Sculptural Origami. His multidisciplinary practice brings together material experimentation and cultural inquiry, using the act of making to reconsider the relationship between past and present.

An opening reception will be held on Friday, November 6, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. Benavente will also participate in an artist talk on Friday, December 18, at 5:30 PM. An artist-led workshop is planned, with additional details to be announced. Liminal will remain on view through January 22, 2027.

Passage of Eras: Selected Works by Kathleen Branch

Bend-based artist Kathleen Branch brings together paintings from across her career and recent work in Passage of Eras, a new exhibition opening November 6 at Scalehouse. Drawing inspiration from Mid-Century Modern design, Branch explores how color, geometric form, movement, and balance shape contemporary abstract painting.

Featuring selected works spanning different periods of Branch’s artistic practice, the exhibition offers a look at the evolution of her visual language. Her compositions combine vintage-inspired color palettes, clean lines, and organic forms, drawing on the optimism and experimentation associated with the postwar era while developing a contemporary approach to abstraction.

Branch’s background as a scenic artist and set designer informs her sensitivity to space, scale, and visual relationships. This experience shapes how she approaches composition and considers the relationship between a work of art and its surroundings.

Through Passage of Eras, Branch revisits the design principles and aesthetics of an influential period while exploring their continued relevance in her own work. The exhibition brings together paintings from different stages of her career, inviting viewers to consider how artistic ideas evolve, persist, and take on new meaning over time.

An opening reception will be held on Friday, November 6, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM.

Passage of Eras: Selected Works by Kathleen Branch will remain on view through January 22, 2027.

Both exhibitions will be free and open to the public.

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