A program of the City of Auburn, The Vault Gallery is one of Auburn's newest art exhibition spaces. Artists are selected through an annual application process to create art installations in a small gallery within the Postmark Center for the Arts, dedicated to immersive and/or site-specific installations. The Vault Gallery provides a $1,000 artist stipend to support the creation of new work and site-specific projects for three-month exhibitions. The Vault Gallery is located at 20 Auburn Ave, in Auburn WA 98002, within the main gallery of the Postmark Center for the Arts.
For information on this art opportunity visit our Call To Artists page.
Current Exhibition
Tatiana Garmendia
Allegory of Persistence
July 23 - October 9, 2025
We are happy to host Tatiana Garmendia in the Vault Gallery as part of Unprecedented: The Inaugural Postmark Biennial!
Shadow, Reality, and the Truth We Refuse to See.
A spotlight illuminates a 3D-printed model of Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne, casting its shadow onto the wall. But what do we truly see?
The title invokes Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, where prisoners mistake shadows for reality. When one escapes and glimpses the truth, he returns—only to be dismissed.
Sexual violence is often treated the same way. Its legacy, like a shadow, is ever-present yet obscured. We fail to grasp its full weight—not just for survivors, but for all of us. This piece is a meditation on the myths we accept, the truths we reject, and the persistence of what remains unseen.
This work will be on exhibition through October 9, 2025 and available to view during the Postmark Center for the Arts’ open hours.
Past Exhibitions
Roldy Aguero Ablao
ININA to Glimmer or Glow
April 19 - July 6, 2025
We are thrilled to have artist Roldy Aguero Ablao as our current Vault Gallery artist!
Artist Statement:
“In the Pacific, seafarers would look towards the stars to help guide them on their journey, listen to the ocean for safety and directions. Master navigators would share that before any journey across the ocean, one would have to believe in the destination they are heading to, even if they cannot see it. In this immersive installation, people are invited to enter a space of reflection and journey, a celestial canoe filled with hope and intention. Like stars in the sky, the space will be adorned with images and motifs of the Mariana Islands, symbols that glow and glimmer, offering the community a place to sit and reflect on their past, present and future journey.”
-Roldy Aguero Ablao
Amanda Jenkinson
Tentative
January 15 - April 11, 2025
We were thrilled to have artist Amanda Jenkinson as our current Vault Gallery artist!
Artist Statement:
“I am 26 years old at the time of creation and exhibition of this piece, Tentative. The inspiration for this soft sculpture is quite personal.
Its concept had been floating in my mind for many months, and foundationally coincided with an emotional journey involving my relationship with the potentiality of motherhood. My age is important here, as I have been firmly placed between two immediate, diverging paths.
Choosing whether I should or should not have kids has been existentially confounding to me. I have many desires that lie in each direction, and many fears, and many mixed emotions. Creating this soft sculpture from start to finish over the course of this internal discourse was a meditative exercise.
Embedded in the hand-sewn patches of this piece are pomelo membranes. These skins are representative of the body, of a tree bearing fruit, and of a fruit bearing seeds. Sewn in as quilt patches on a patterned skin, this amorphous sculptural form alludes to my nebulous thoughts on the topic of motherhood.”
-Amanda Jenkinson