Pond in a Bowl
Dawn Cerny
Building 305, South Gallery
On View: September 8 – 21, 2025, 12 – 4 pm (open at 10 am on 19th – 21st)
Rhododendron Garden
On View: September 19 – 21, 2025, 10 – 4 pm
Reception: Friday, September 19th from 3 – 5 pm, with Artist Walkthrough at 3 pm
Centrum is thrilled to announce an installation, Pond in a Bowl, in two locations by visual artist Dawn Cerny as part of its In the Making residency program. Please join us starting on September 8th at Centrum’s Building 305, South Gallery, to view new drawings and video work. From September 19th – 21st the installation will expand to include sculptures in Fort Worden State Park’s Centennial Rhododendron Garden. The artist will host an informal walkthrough of the installation on September 19th at 3 pm during the opening reception and will be on-site over the last weekend if folks have more questions.
Pond in a Bowl conceives outdoor sculptures as sites for collaboration with mutable conditions – human, animal, plant and insect; The light and the conditions of the place endlessly change. This project is tied to the environmental and social ecology of the garden or park as a place that invites hospitality, rest and survival. Artists Dawn Cerny and Bristol Hayward-Hughes collaborated on a series of sculptures that serve as bird feeders, pollinator rest stops and poetry kiosks. These sculptures carve out places to hold water, birdseed and nest-building material for the birds, animals and pollinators to take. The writer Ed Steck developed a series of poems and collaborated with Cerny to make an edition of postcards and trifold pamphlets that will be installed on the sculptures for visitors to take.
Dawn Cerny has had solo institutional exhibitions at The Frye Museum (2025); The Seattle Art Museum (2021); The Portland Art Museum (2017); and The Henry Art Gallery (2008 and 2017). Her sculptures, works on paper and collaborative projects have been exhibited in institutions and galleries across North America, including Micki Meng Gallery, San Francisco (2023); F Gallery, Houston (2022); Cooper Cole, Toronto (2018); and MOCA, Los Angeles (2018). She is the recipient of two Washington State Artist Fellowships (2004 & 2017); the Betty Bowen Award (2020); the Bonnie Bronson Visual Arts Fellowship (2022) and the Joan Mitchell Fellowship (2022). Cerny’s works on paper and sculptures are in public collections, including The Walker Art Gallery, SFMOMA, The Frye Art Museum, The Henry Art Gallery, The Portland Art Museum and The Seattle Art Museum. Dawn Cerny’s work has been written about in Bomb Magazine, KQED, Variable West, Artforum, the International Sculpture Center Blog, The Brooklyn Rail, The Stranger, and The Seattle Times. Cerny received an MFA in Sculpture from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College in 2012 and is currently an adjunct professor at Seattle University.
Centrum's Residency Programs and exhibitions are made possible through the generosity of Sally Warren & Jeff Jackson, Cathy Sarkowsky, Cat Clifford, The Chin Family Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and numerous other granting agencies. We are very grateful to Washington State Parks and Friends of Fort Worden for their support of this project.
