Albino Crow Gallery showcases the works of artists Peggy O'Neal and Larry Watson, a husband and wife team. Their Gallery is a showroom for projects of WOW arts & exhibits, Inc. (Works By O’Neal and Watson), an award winning visual communication design firm specializing in public art projects and interpretive exhibits. Peggy O'Neal is the 'O' in WOW. Peggy received five intensive years of education and training as a fine art painter and illustrator at the San Francisco Academy of Art. In 1988, Peggy returned to her home town of North Bend, Oregon. Here she has developed her artistic style of energetic realism on a grand scale. Her work celebrates and honors: cultural diversity, the environment, the history and the traditions of Native Peoples.
Peggy is widely recognized for public art projects, corporate commissions, murals and painted exhibitry on these themes. Her collectors include: Menasha Corporation, Western Bank, Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, Chinook Winds Casino, North Bend School District (Ellen Stinchfield Foundation), North Bend Medical Center, Umpqua Discovery Center, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, City Library of Salem, Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Indians, and the Coquille Indian Tribe. After creating the cover art for E.A. Schwartz’s book, "The Rogue Indian Wars and Its Aftermath, 1850-1980", Peggy was commissioned by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians to develop a suite of paintings for print that would add new perspectives to the complex issues of Oregon’s Native American history. Her printed works currently include: Ahnkuttie Tillicums (Ancestors), Once We Were One, Feather Dancer, The Gathering Place, Eel Falls, and Dune Country.
Larry Watson (the last "W" in WOW), majored in Theater Arts at the University of Hawaii and Western Washington State College. Larry turned his talents to ceramic sculpture and studied four years at Pottery Northwest in Seattle, Washington. From there, he went on to direct the Clay and Sculpture Department for the City of Seattle at Seward Art Studio. His works have been shown at Bellevue Art Museum, Northwest Arts and Crafts in Seattle, University of Washington Henry Gallery, Contemporary Crafts in Portland and the Grand Palais in Paris, France. In 1983, Larry was appointed Director of the Coos Art Museum, where he developed 20 major exhibitions, some of which were presented at the University of Oregon's Natural History Museum, the High Desert Museum (Bend, Oregon), the Oregon Historical Society Museum Portland, and Portland State University. He left the Museum in 1994 to devote full time to WOW arts & exhibits. For WOW, Larry designs the exhibits, manages construction and consults on Museum and Interpretive Center exhibition planning.
The couple maintains studios and offices in North Bend, Oregon, where they design and consult for Native Tribes, Museums, and Interpretive Centers throughout the Northwest and Northern California. Recently, they completed permanent exhibition design and fabrication for the award winning exhibition, "Tidewaters and Time" at the Umpqua Discovery Center and conceptual designs for Oregon — "Where Past is Present", for the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural History. WOW is currently contracted for the planning, design, and fabrication of the Umpqua Discovery Center's new natural history wing, "Pathways to Discovery". |