Coeur d’Alene artist opens interdisciplinary exhibit in Spokane gallery

Duncan Clark Menzies, a Coeur d’Alene artist with deep North Idaho roots, is taking his latest body of work across the state line this week with an interdisciplinary show that connects the local arts scene to a broader Inland Northwest network.

His exhibition, Catharsis, opens Friday, June 5, at Terrain Gallery, 628 N. Monroe Ave. in Spokane, as part of First Friday programming. The opening reception runs from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., admission is free, and the show stays up through June 27.

Terrain describes Catharsis as a solo exhibition that extends the central question behind Menzies’ ongoing project The Bedsheet Chronicles: “What do you cover?” The gallery says the work looks at how environment shapes identity, tracing that idea through life experience, religion, family, society and adolescence.

The show is not confined to one medium. Terrain says it includes conceptual lamps, collage, classical Americana landscapes, surveys of different decades and photojournalism. That range gives the exhibit a distinctly interdisciplinary frame, one that moves between visual art, narrative and documentation.

A Coeur d’Alene connection runs through the project in another way, too. Videographer Jack Wade’s documentary component, A Sheet from Naked, is part of the exhibition and will screen at 5:20 p.m., 6:20 p.m. and 7:20 p.m. on opening night before running continuously during regular gallery hours.

Menzies’ own project statement says The Bedsheet Chronicles uses woodwork, fabric, light, projection and installation, built around community “bedsheet interviews” in which participants donate fabric and talk about what they cover. His website identifies him as born in Snohomish, Washington, raised in Coeur d’Alene and still living there, tying the work directly to the community that shaped him.

That local tie matters well beyond a single gallery opening. For Kootenai County readers, Catharsis is another sign that artists from Coeur d’Alene are gaining regional reach without leaving their hometown identity behind. Menzies has already shown related work at Emerge in downtown Coeur d’Alene and at Jacklin Arts and Cultural Center in Post Falls, suggesting this Spokane show is part of a continuing run rather than a one-time appearance.

Terrain, which describes itself as a Spokane nonprofit focused on art accessibility and support for regional artists, is positioning the show as part of a larger creative exchange across the Inland Northwest. For Coeur d’Alene, that means one of its own is opening a show just up the road, while carrying local stories, local collaborators and local identity into a larger regional conversation.