The Linfield Art Gallery

Current Exhibit

Petrichor, an exhibit by artist Peter Evan Costas, will be featured in the Linfield Gallery in the Miller Fine Arts Center from Oct. 8 through Nov. 14, 2025. The exhibition features photographs, mixed media artworks, and sculpture.

Opening Reception: The artist will give remarks during an opening reception on Wednesday, Oct. 8, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the gallery. Light refreshments and wine will be provided.

Peter Evan Costas shares the following statement regarding his working process:

“I am fascinated by naval history and its relationship to historical photographic processes, specifically, with the use of naval superstitions and traditions, pre–standardized cartography, and the methods of photographic image–making preceding the World Wars. My own photographic practice is a mixture of contemporary and historical processes. I am often drawn to the use of camera–less photographic techniques as a metaphor for the memories I have from my naval service that I can never divulge, at least without severe consequences. I thus have used my photographic practice to express a simultaneously new and old world of my own construction, using pieces of my memory and imagination as the structural components to these new landscapes, feelings, and machines.

One of my most impactful memories of being deep below the surface of the Pacific Ocean was the absolute vastness of knowledge, space, and ideas we as a global society are, for the most part, completely unaware of. Photography is often used in a manner to describe the known, repeatedly, to show us what we think we already know, even in the face of all our collective self-doubts. And that is exactly why it is my preferred medium of expression of the lesser known and the completely unknown. It is a perfect paradox of our own assumptions. It is a machine completely dependent on Wonder.”

Costas offers the following thoughts on this current exhibition:

“The word petrichor refers to the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil. What do you call a sailor who dwells in the high desert? A place as far from the oceans as one can get. A place ironically shaped by ancient waters thousands of years ago during a time

that gave humans their first memories. Windstricken, wild weather, and the winter sun — is the alpine desert really all that different from the oceans?”

About the artist:

Peter Evan Costas is a Colorado–based artist who uses mixed media to reconstruct and unearth memories and imagination. Through a combination of lens–based work, sound, sculpture, performance, and painting, his work drives to both communicate the submariner experience and use memory as a catalyst for fiction. Much of his practice relies on eliciting sensory experiences around sound and touch and how they affect our heavy reliance on the visual. Having served on submarines as a Sonar Technician in the US Navy from 2011 to 2016, his personal experience within the military is a constant totem of time, growth, humor, trauma, and secrecy. Peter Evan Costas received his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois and his Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2022. Costas was recently a Visiting Lecturer at Northwest Indiana University and is currently an Assistant Professor of Art in Photography at Adams State University. He currently lives in Alamosa, Colorado with his faithful companion, Olive. For more information on the artist, please visit his website https://www.peterevancostas.com/ or follow Peter on Instagram @peterevancostas.

Sponsorship: This exhibition is sponsored by the Lacroute Arts Series and the Department of Art. The Lacroute Arts Series at Linfield University is made possible by the generosity of arts benefactor Ronni Lacroute. The series, sponsored by the Lacroute Arts Fund at Linfield, is dedicated to helping the university present art events and activities for the campus and community. It provides programs featuring artists in the areas of music, art and theatre.

Previous Exhibitions