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Monday Links
We've got one of our classic June log jams of content for you with no less than four major pieces coming your way in the next two weeks. The first should be here soon (it involved a lot of geological maps etc. to double check). Till then here are some links:
Indoor fracking installation creates debate in London... gotta love how Londoners are willing to debate about fracking themselves indoors.
Occupier protesters at Basel are forcibly evicted from an Art Favela installation.
How James Turrell knocked the art world off its feet in the Times.
Still this re-installation at the Whitney illustrates why I will always choose Robert Irwin over his one time friend Turrell... there's less magician's showmanship and far more content.
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Posted by Jeff Jahn
on June 17, 2013 at 9:07
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Friday links
We've got a fantastic major art historical essay for you soon but to tide you over here are some links:
In Basel, artists like Huang Yong Ping are responding to a world of conflict... by recreating Bin Laden's final compound. This is one of Ping's best efforts.
I really like how Painting in Place is literally repositioning painting. Obviously this is nothing new (is it ever in painting?) but it seems to be a bit of pushback against the market and the sometimes nagging feeling that the art world has disengaged itself from the rest of the world. We should do this in Portland, bank presidents check your walls... I'll be calling.
Michigan's Attorney General opines that Detroit's public art collection held in trust by the museum can't be sold to settle the city's debts. This isn't over yet but this condition of being held as in "charitable trust" for the public is a key argument.
I like how the British can give some guff to their visual art world without being threatened... here's a cartoon featuring Jeremy Deller and most of the figures from British history. PORT is actively seeking a cartoonist BTW email me at Jeff (at) Portlandart.net.
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Posted by Jeff Jahn
on June 14, 2013 at 10:06
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June 13th and 15th Openings & Events
On Thursday, June 13, The Northwest Film Center is thrilled to present STRESS POSITION, the latest work by Vancouver, B.C.-based filmmaker A.J. Bond.
Inspired by a flippant remark about the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Bond made a bet with close friend and longtime collaborator actor David Amito to see which of them could withstand a week of psychological torture at the hands of the other.
Shot in an avant-garde "torture chamber" in an isolated warehouse, what begins as a bizarre and darkly humorous reality TV scenario quickly spirals out of control, testing the limits of their friendship and exposing the connection between filmmaking and torture.
CLICK for Trailer
CLICK for Advanced Tickets
STRESS POSITION | A.J. Bond
Screening | June 13th | 7 PM
Northwest Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium Portland Art Museum | 1219 SW Park Avenue, Portland, OR
Admission | $9 General | $8 Students, Seniors | $6 Child
& more exciting things happening on the 15th !
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Posted by Emily Cappa
on June 12, 2013 at 23:38
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Monday Links
Jerry Saltz is in LOVE with the Met's new rearrangement of its European painting galleries. To tell the truth I kinda enjoy getting completely lost whenever I go to the Met and I love Jerry's bit about so many museums creating galleries that make you smell the foodcourt.
When an early internet art piece's archaic code no longer works is the piece compromised if it is brought up to the new standards? Since the internet is in many ways an active performance venue whose rules make its inter-netting possible I think it is ok for now. When the internet is repaced by something else I think that update might be a far thornier issue. As it stands there are still people playing Zork on various platforms but it was a game not an art piece.
Edward Winkleman and Elizabeth Dee on the place of mid level art dealers in the world of the megadealers.
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Posted by Jeff Jahn
on June 10, 2013 at 2:11
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Weekend Picks
http://eutecticgallery.com/brad-mclemore-cognition/
Contemporary wood fired sculptures are on display at Eutectic Gallery by Richard Brandt, John George Larson, & Brad McLemore.
"The passage of time and the story of the sensuous human experience lay on my work. I erode, then build again, reminiscent objects from the past, cycled through the fire, to the future to erode again." Richard Brandt is inspired by his passion for adventure, experimentation, and the discovery of his true nature. The utensils for tea and his love for the land guide his forms and pace.
John George Larson is a painter and wood fire ceramic artist from southwest Minnesota. He discovered clay at age fourteen as a means of expression and as an alternative way of exploring fundamental physics. John is currently building his fifth wood kiln and maintains his studio in Milan Minnesota. He uses native clays and other indigenous materials to create his works. Under a constant spell to discover the truth, the resulting works are an exploration into the magnification of the object as metaphor and the physical and mental limitations of the human body.
McLemore is a Portland based ceramic professor, and this shows through his work. Guiding students in the observational of natural and human-made structures, his work is formally designed and abstract. His objects currently on display at Eutectic are relics of industrial design. They have been lost, decayed or edited over time, and remain fragments of a greater, discarded system. Organized to implicate utility, the somewhat awkward forms are not tools, yet try to charm with a certain hand-hewn conviction.
COGnitiohn | Richard Brandt, Brad McLemore
Opening Reception | June 7th | 6-8P M
June 7 – July 28
Eutectic Gallery | 1930 NE Oregon St. PDX, OR | entrance on 20th
Friday June 7th 20 artists at Portland Storage will have their annual open studios. This is always a lively event.
Open Studios | June 7th | 5 - 9PM
215 SE Morrison Street
Tonight, galleryHomeland kicks off Weird Shift Con with The Long Share, an exhibition in keeping with the conference of shifted reality that it supports.
"The Conference, an aggregate of interdisciplinary investigations, presentations, performances and puzzles that promise to implode, sinter and splinter (ir)reality prismatically into many new streams for retrieval and report."
"The Long Share exhibit (including works by Peter Claugh, Julia Oldham, Tom Sherman, Stephen Slappe, Soda Jerk, Weird-Fiction and others!) to additional amenities, including the Research Commons, the PDF Library, the dossiers, and the Map Room, paired with fine coffee and edibles, will provide other itineraries betwixt and between the scheduled events." It should be wierd.
Opening Reception: The Long Share | June 7th | 6:00-9:00
Weird Shift Con: The Conference. June 14-16, 2013
galleryHomeland, 2505 SE 11th Ave
& there's much more throughout the whole weekend . . .
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Posted by Emily Cappa
on June 07, 2013 at 11:31
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June 2013 First Thursday
Merridawn Duckler
www.blackfish.com/exhibitions/ritual-show
"Ritual, The Show" has transformed Blackfish gallery space. An exhibit created by Blackfish member Merridawn Duckler and guest artist Geordie Duckler, invites visitors to partake in three separate experiences that combine ritual and art.
Blackfish is also hosting "Ritual," a companion, group exhibition of works in various media that explore ideas about ritual.
Ritual, the Show | Merridawn Duckler, Geordie Duckler
Ritual Group Exhibition | Artists
First Thursday Opening | June 6, 2013 | 6-9 PM
June 4 - 29, 2013
Blackfish Gallery | 420 NW 9th Ave. | Portland, OR 97209
Klaus Moje, Chromatic Evolution 1 & 2, 2013
fused, kilnformed, ground and polished glass, 47.5 x 72 x 1.375inches (installed)
Photo: M. Endo
www.bullseyegallery.com
Many have tried to explain color through poetic characterizations and elaborate analytical and organizational systems. Despite these efforts, conversations about color remain subjective with little tie to hard fact.
In conjunction with BECon 2013, Bullseye Gallery presents Chroma-Culture, an exhibition focused on color, featuring fifteen artists from around the world. Color is subjective, explained scientifically as the sensation of the visual spectrum. It is a physical process in which electromagnetic waves of a particular length stimulate receptors within the eye. Within are brain, we transform this into color and form.
Each of the Chroma-Culture artists, using kilnformed glass, approaches color in unique ways, making works that tackle the visual, psychological, symbolic, and cultural implications of color.
Chroma-Culture
May 01 - June 29, 2013
Bullseye Gallery | 300 NW 13th Avenue, Portland, OR 97209
& there's more !
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Posted by Emily Cappa
on June 04, 2013 at 18:34
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Sunny Southern Links
Adrain Searle gives his review of the Venice Biennale. I make no secret that I prefer the more unvarnished edge of British arts writing (it IS where I got my start) and there is always something classic about the British take on Venice.
Then there is the huge Miami Convention Center design competition pitting Rem Koolhaas' OMA team vs. BIG. To these eyes it is OMA's stunning integrations of indoor/outdoor park spaces and creative parking/shipping solutions that sets it apart. Art Basel Miami Beach would be so much more enjoyable with such interplay. The current and very old school design makes visitors feel like rats running a maze.
Benjamin Sutton kicks off part one of a five part series on light and space art with a look at the current leaders in the field.
... and the Huffington Post wraps up their Venice blogging with some parting remarks.
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Posted by Jeff Jahn
on June 04, 2013 at 13:05
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Eight Years of PORT
It is hard to believe, but June marks PORT's 8th anniversary as Portland's most
fearlessly critical and in depth source of visual arts discourse and information.
We've gone from those early
days in 2005, when people wondered if the internet was even an effective
place for art criticism... to 2007 with notice
from the Walker Art Center and an Art in America Round Table. For 2012 alone we
boasted over 1.3 million unique readers and a
nod from the Wall Street Journal.
One of the things I'm most proud of is
the way the site has allowed a group of writers to articulate themselves as a variety of strong
voices and we have interviewed the likes of Catherine
Opie, Ed
Ruscha, Ai
Wei Wei, Okwui
Enwezor, Richard
Serra and Critical
Art Ensemble (just last month). What's more we have a backbone, noted for
independent
critical analysis of institutions
and regional tropes and are often first to point out major turning points
like PNCA's
eventually successful bid for the 511 building or OCAC's
new Vollum Center. We often break stories, like the Portland
Art Museum's new identity and PICA's
Precipice Fund.
Criticism isn't simply a description or a parroting back of the artist's statement,
which does nothing to improve the state of the arts. Instead, we ask difficult
questions and pursue an understanding of the way art operates and comes into being.
Ultimately, it is this commitment to defining and relevant reviews + essays
that are at the heart of what we do. Here are ten examples that that celebrate what PORT does:
Storm
Tharp 2007
William
Kentridge 2007
Rothko's
Portland 2009
Alfredo
Jaar and Carsten Holler 2011
No
Painting Left Behind 2011
Interior
Margins 2012
Folkert
de Jong 2013
We pay especially close attention to developing artists like Travis
Fitzgerald and Gary Robbins or Chase
Biado because criticism brings feedback at a crucial time.
There is something about criticism that makes the discussion broader, more present and sharper for everyone. Criticism, especially that with a finer edge actually can motivate discussion. That type of true criticism is inherently inconvenient and perhaps the best corrective to the constant packaging and pure public relations that even art is subject too. Criticism helps us step back from ourselves and re-examine our priorities and experiences through a different understanding. A "Critic" brings experience beyond opinion, often sussing out the more arcane motivations and effects of art. It all takes time... in the case of PORT (a community of writers) it takes 8 years.
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Posted by Jeff Jahn
on June 01, 2013 at 22:01
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Openings Tonight: Team Kristan vs Team Holly
Often the art world pulls us in opposite directions. For example two of Portland's most popular art personages have rival openings in two very different cities making one choose between Team Kristan and Team Holly. I really should be at both... and you should too. Actually you will see the work better if you go during the day Saturday.
At Fourteen30 Kristan Kennedy is opening Sleeper and people will go just to kiss her ass and try to get a show at TBA. Kristan of course is the Visual art curator at PICA but everyone knows she's at heart a working painter. She's smart, one of the brightest people in the scene but there has always been a push/pull between her two roles and it always seemed like she was deliberately learning from every artist she worked with as a curator. You could see it most clearly with Jesse Hayward's work at PICA's 2009 TBA but other TBA artists like Charles Atlas, Storm Tharp and Jessica Jackson Hutchins are all in the mix. Lately in group shows Kristan's work has come alive... most recently when very passive, almost apologetic wall based pieces like N.T.N.L.M.R.R.D.R.P. were reconfigured as a shawls covering some furniture in upstate New York art fair. It was a breakthrough. Instead of passive, it seemed to actively wield a silencing of forms and a sense that something was awakening. For that reason I'm very excited about this show and the possibility of Kristan finally fulfilling her potential.
Sleeper | Fourteen30 Contemporary
Reception: May 31, 6 - 8PM
May 31 - July 7, 2013
1501 SW Market
The Deconstruction (2011)
At the Hallie Ford Museum in Salem, Holly Andres is opening her first retrospective The Homecoming. She has become a hot commodity in fashion and commercial photography and her fine art work has started to emerge from the influence of Gregory Crewdson and Justine Kurland in exciting narrative ways. It will be great to see so much of it in one place from such a young artist.
The Homecoming | Hallie Ford Museum
Reception May 31 | 6 - 8PM
June 1 - August 4th
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Posted by Jeff Jahn
on May 31, 2013 at 10:21
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2013 Hallie Ford Fellows
Congratulations to Mike Bray, Cynthia Lahti and D.E. May who are this year's Hallie Ford Fellows. Seems like the Ford Foundation heard some of the criticisms we brought to light this year.
For example, Bray is a multimedia artist and both May and Lahti (in addition to Bray) are actually producing the best work of their careers. I don't think of any of them as being academicians at all though Bray does teach at the U of O (a criticism I and many others noted). One should also note that all three have gallery representation... something the first three fellows did not have but has become typical in the last 3 cycles. Lastly, one could debate Bray being a mid career artist (I sat on his thesis review panel) but that's always an incredibly tricky distinction.
Looking at the press release "craft" was once again a major criteria, nothing wrong with that but craft does not define all contemporary art and the little bit about Bray from the jury, "There is fine craft aesthetic underpinning his work, something often underplayed in the digital field." seems like they were trying very hard to justify a multimedia artist who actually uses digital media as craft.
My position is that there is craft in practically all good, object based work and digital mediums have a great deal of craft in them as well.
Panelists included: Dr. George Baker, Professor of Art History, University of California, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA); Lawrence Fong, recently retired as Associate Director & Curator of Regional Art, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art / University of Oregon (Eugene, OR); Clara Kim, Senior Curator of Visual Arts, Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN); Lawrence Rinder, Director, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA); and Prudence Roberts, Art History Professor, Portland Community College, and independent curator (Portland, OR).
The Lumber Room will showcase a selection of work by the 2013 Hallie Ford Fellows in the Visual Arts. A public viewing of the work will be held one weekend only, June 28 and 29, from 12 - 5pm, located at 419 NW 9th Avenue.
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Posted by Jeff Jahn
on May 30, 2013 at 10:25
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Openings & Events | May 29th - 30th
pica.org/event/richard-jackson-lecture/
The PSU MFA Studio Lecture Series brings together artists from different disciplines to explore the subjects of their own work before a live audience. Lectures are FREE and open to the public. This week esteemed artist
Richard Jackson will be talking.
Based in Los Angeles since the early 1970s, Jackson, with his wildly inventive & exuberant "action" paintings, has expanded the definition and practice of painting more than any other contemporary figure. Exhibited widely internationally and nationally, his paintings are slightly performative, sculptural, and concern themselves with the art of everyday experience.
Richard Jackson | MFA Studio Lecture Series
May 29th | 7 PM
PSU SHATTUCK HALL ANNEX | 1914 SW Park Avenue
& there's more . . .
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Posted by Emily Cappa
on May 28, 2013 at 17:13
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Tuesday Links
Here are some straight forward answers about what can and cannot happen to works that are owned by the Detroit Institute of Arts. Once again, selling works of art held in trust for the public to make token stabs at financial obligations is just a bad idea. Detroit's problems are larger than any art sale could satisfy.
Also in Detroit, MONA is putting on its own Documenta in an attempt to "void" all museums and "prove" them "invalid". Good luck with that, I think most institutions struggle to validate themselves rather than invalidate others. Nice to see some pretty ballzy language from an institution for a change though...
Brian Libby interviews Sergio Palleroni on the creation of PSU's groundbreaking Center for Public Interest Design. This sort of advocacy/think-tank program is precisely what Portland had been missing for the past 50 years and it could become incredibly important for the next 50.
Jerry Saltz makes a great case for Jeff Koons as an artist. Dont let the success fool you... Koons is for real and that is the part that is worth freaking out about.
Christopher Knight on James Turrel's retrospective at LACMA. Don't get me wrong, I think Turrel is a great artist but his woo-woo religious overtones always put me off. It comes off as a salesman's spiel... and not unlike Wilford Brimley talking about oatmeal. Basically, Turell always seems to be selling you something. That and I seriously doubt a crater of a volcano can be improved upon... for those reasons I'll always prefer Irwin and Wheeler. When you talk to Robert Irwin, he isn't trying to sell you a bridge... you've got his full attention.
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Posted by Jeff Jahn
on May 28, 2013 at 10:44
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