We were pleased to meet Megan Harned, the newly appointed Visual Arts writer for the Willamette Week, last weekend. Here’s her short review of Emily Counts’ The Ins and Outs:

“To answer my own question, Emily Counts new work is Freudian and feminist, weird and queer. As the name of the show suggests, The Ins and Outs has a great deal of sexual subtext, but these works aren’t simple iterations of mortars and pestles. Some are freestanding sculptures in the round and others are strung together and hung up like unwieldy ritual ornamentation. Segmented ceramic rope is a unifying motif that causes the viewer to recall intestinal tissue alongside gilded phalluses and perforated cervices. Counts handles her medium well and creates a variety of contrasting textures through manipulation and glazes. They heighten the physicality of the work and bring out our own desire to touch, fondle, and caress the sculpture on display.”