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Fashion & Fiction
Vantage at Archer Gallery
Pierce, PMMNLS, & Amazonia
First Friday Picks February 2010
Portland2010 Biennial artists announced
First Thursday Picks February 2010
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Sharing the New York Times for now
Kuchar @ PSU
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Destroy your art
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Tuesday 02.09.10

 

Fashion & Fiction

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Melanie Pullen, "Phones"

The Linfield Gallery presents Fashion and Fiction, guest curated by Todd Johnson. The exhibition examines "the intersection of contemporary staged or constructed photography and the relationship with strategies and theories of traditional fashion photography...which has a long, rich history of creating fictitious imagery with luxuriously decadent and extravagantly ephemeral interpretations of modern culture." Featured artists include Melanie Pullen, Holly Andres, New Catalogue, Daniel Hoyt, Alex Lim, and Darien Revel. The show runs February 9 - March 13, 2010.

Opening reception • 6-8pm • February 10
Linfield Fine Art Gallery • Linfield College in McMinnville (directions) • 503.883.2804


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Posted by Megan Driscoll on February 08, 2010 at 9:56 | Comments (0)


Vantage at Archer Gallery

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Vantage (L to R) Layman, Pond and Slappe

The Archer Gallery's Vantage is a tightly curated and well presented rumination on the participatory rapport between art subject and viewers. As new Archer curator Blake Shell's first big show (that she programmed) it is telling that she chose to scrap all of the movable walls that once cluttered the fine space, affording all pieces sight line opportunities with one another. It's a welcome break from many northwest curators' fetish of cloistered, discreet spaces that keep works from forming interesting visual and conceptual aggregates. It also forces the show to have less work. Thus, Vantage is noteworthy for how good it looks as a gestalt. Pay attention Portland and Seattle galleries and curators, Vancouver Washington just showed you how it's done!

... (more)


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Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 06, 2010 at 14:18 | Comments (0)


Pierce, PMMNLS, & Amazonia

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Ryan Pierce, "Paradise"

Ryan Pierce is exhibiting To Those Who Do Not Know The Way at his alma mater OCAC in conjunction with his brand-new book of the same title. The show features 13 new paintings and one "disco-ball-esque" sculpture. Go see the exhibition and celebrate the book release with him this Sunday, and check out the review of his work in Art in America.

Artist reception & book release party • 12pm • February 7
Oregon College of Art & Craft • 8245 SW Barnes Rd • 503.297.5544

(More: Paul Ramirez Jonas for PMMNLS & Amazonia at the JSMA.)


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Posted by Megan Driscoll on February 05, 2010 at 18:38 | Comments (0)


First Friday Picks February 2010

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Fourteen30 presents DARK: A SHOW TO WINTER, curated by the Blood Rainbow Family. "Opening during the dead of a Portland winter, Dark will include work that addresses and/or reflects this outside environment. [The street.] The grim, the cold and the black will mingle with the solitary, the contemplative and the transcendent. Explorations of dark and winter drawn from both a common visual culture, as well as more personal voids, will work together to bring the vast, seemingly endless dark winter into the confines of the gallery space." Featured artists include Sebastian Gogel, Matthew Green, Frank Haines | Francis Heinzfeller, Alex Hubbard, Arnold Kemp, Alicia Love McDaid, Thomas Moecker, Jo Nigoghossian, Sven Stuckenschmidt, and Molly Vidor.

(More: Kendra Larson + Kurtiss Lofstrom at Gallery Homeland, Corey Smith at Worksound, annual juried theme show at Newspace, Down + Out at 23 Sandy.)


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Posted by Megan Driscoll on February 04, 2010 at 12:21 | Comments (0)


Portland2010 Biennial artists announced

Eighteen Oregon visual and performance-based artists have been selected to present a series of one-person exhibitions at for the Portland2010 biennial at; The Art Gym, Disjecta, Rock's Box, Alpern Gallery, IFCC and The Elizabeth Leach Gallery starting March 13th.

It's a solid list... maybe too solid since many will complain the majority are already well known, omnipresent or alumni from the now discontinued Oregon Biennials at PAM. The well deserved Crystal Schenk and Ditch Projects are the only riskier new names in the list, the other inclusions just gives us an opportunity to revisit some of our favorite artists. Question is, is that enough? Portland currently is in the midst of a strong new wave of new talent that can't be found here.

Curator (and PORT pal) Cris Moss considered 300 artists and will include the following in Portland2010:

...(more)


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Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 03, 2010 at 14:12 | Comments (6)


First Thursday Picks February 2010

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Liza Nguyen, "Surface"

Blue Sky presents Unfolding Time: Vietnamese Photography, Then and Now, co-curated by Christopher Rauschenberg and Stephanie Snyder. The show features photography by two contemporary women photographers, Liza Nyugen and An-My Lê, both of whose works "explore the relationship between aesthetic experience, representation, place, and memory. It is not about the politics of identity per se, but about artists' and individuals' gravitation to the photographic image as a uniquely personal and fictive agent for the stimulation of personal experience and cultural critique." In late February, LA-based photography curator Sam Lee will speak on "War and Vietnamese Photography," after which there will be a community discussion with the show's curators.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • February 4
Panel discussion • 3pm • February 27
Blue Sky Gallery • 122 NW 8th • 503.225.0210

(More: Re-Present at Elizabeth Leach, Avantika Bawa at Doppler PDX, The Quadratic Logogram... at Half/Dozen, Lindsey Aucoin at Tractor, Tyler Kohloff at Tribute, multiple shows at PNCA, SUPERTRASH at Anka.)


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Posted by Megan Driscoll on February 02, 2010 at 8:44 | Comments (0)


lectures

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Isaac Layman

For their ongoing artist talk series, Clark College presents Isaac Layman, whose photographs are "hyper-real, psychologically charged visions of the spaces and objects found in his Seattle home." In conjunction with the lecture, his work is on display in the Archer Gallery through February 6th.

Artist lecture • 7pm • February 3
Clark College • 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver, WA • Penguin Union Building (PUB) 161


Poet, essayist, translator, and cultural critic Lewis Hyde will lecture at PNCA on The Gift and the Commons: Creativity and the Public Good. "Hyde asks questions central to the lives of artists as well as teachers and others who serve the public good: How do we discover work that satisfies beyond financial compensation? What are our norms for reciprocity and how do gifts create bonds in communities? His current project extends these questions to the realm of the 'cultural commons' — 'that vast store of un-owned ideas, inventions, and works of art we have inherited from the past, and that we continue to create.' In his lecture, Hyde will discuss personal gifts, the creative spirit, and our shared cultural past and imagined future."

Author lecture • 6:30-8pm • February 3
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson • Swigert Commons


For TBA:10, PICA will present The People's Biennial, a new experiment in exhibition making by Harrell Fletcher and Jens Hoffmann. The project focuses on art being made outside of traditional artistic institutions and urban centers, and Portland will be the first location on a five-city tour. This weekend the curators will be in town to host a chat about their own practice and their aspirations for the show. They'll also be soliciting recommendations from the community for work that should be included.

Curatorial conversation • 4-5:30pm • February 6
PICA @ The Ace Hotel Annex • 403 SW 10th


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Posted by Megan Driscoll on February 01, 2010 at 13:15 | Comments (0)


Sharing the New York Times for now

It's only a matter of time before the New York Times makes unlimited content available only to subscribers, so enjoy it while it lasts. (I consider this a bad idea, it's why all of PORT's content is Creative Commons)

Holland Cotter reviews the choreography of Tino Sehgal at the Guggenheim.

Nocolai Ouroussoff reviews three classic films about recent starchitecture.

Then there is their art in review section with reviews of John McLauchlan, Joel Shapiro and Christian Holstad.

I tend to read The Times in newsprint at coffee shops, partially because I don't ever want a hard-copy newspaper subscription again... which constantly reminds me just how much paper recycling such a choice results in. At the same time pay to play subscriptions ultimately keep newspaper content more cloistered and won't be shared as much.

Overall, the competition for our attention and sharing of content was what made newspapers work. Granted most newspapers now are filled with such drivel we don't read them, even when free... but the times is still worthwhile. I get 95% of my information off the web and from links emailed to me and taking the New York Times from that mix seems short sighted. Information is ultimately only valuable if it can be shared. People will simply turn someplace else and I'm not certain that a deal with Apple for their devices will solve the problem either.


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Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 01, 2010 at 12:17 | Comments (1)


Kuchar @ PSU

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George Kuchar

In conjunction with PMMNLS, PSU presents The Films of George Kuchar selected by George Kuchar at the New Video Gallery. A "legend of independent filmmaking," Kuchar began making B-style mini-epics in the 1950s and later turned to video in the 1980s, creating a massive collection of video diaries. "In Kuchar's video universe, nothing is safe from the camera expanding his oeuvre to exploiting his morbid interests and notorious insecurities with his token razor-sharp sense of humor in classics like The Mongreloid and The Weather Diaries.--Kuchar's friendships, lusts, anxieties, fears, and bodily functions are all addressed onscreen, often accompanied by his outrageously funny commentary. And yet below the witty surface lie profound and moving meditations on human existence."

You can view his selections at the New Video Gallery and from the street, dusk til dawn, February 1-26, 2010. Kuchar will also be lecturing this Monday for PMMNLS, and the NW Film Center is hosting "An evening with George Kuchar" on Tuesday.

Video exhibition opening reception • 4-6pm • February 1
New Video Gallery • Lobby PSU Art Building • 2000 SW 5th Ave
Artist lecture • 7:30pm • February 1
PMMNLS @ PSU • Shattuck Hall Annex • 1914 SW Park Rm 198
Special screening • 7pm • February 2
NW Film Center • Whitsell Auditorium • 1219 SW Park


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Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 29, 2010 at 9:46 | Comments (0)


artist opportunities

The Hearst Corporation is seeking submissions for their 2011 8x10 Photography Biennial Competition, open to all U.S. and international freelance, amateur and professional photographers and students, aged 18 to 35 years of age. Submissions are due by May 31. Portland photographer Brad Carlile was one of eight winners in the 2009 Biennial. Learn more about the Hearst Biennial and read Brad's advice here.

(More! Public school supplies benefit, IN HOUSE gallery, and Portland Open Studios.)


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Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 28, 2010 at 11:27 | Comments (0)


Destroy your art

British artist Michael Landy has created a project where artists can destroy their unwanted art called, "Art Bin." Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin have already contributed. It reminds me that Picasso once famously stated, "All acts of creation are acts of destruction."


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Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 28, 2010 at 11:09 | Comments (2)


zoomtopia

Carole Zoom's Portland art space dream has become a reality with Zoomtopia: "Affordable pricing and lease-to-own terms enable artists and nonprofits to find a stable home while building social and financial equity." The building features six large studio spaces, a dance rehearsal studio, common amenities, ADA accessibility and, perhaps most importantly, a great location - the corner of SE 8th & Belmont. Join them for their opening celebration tomorrow evening, kicked off by a building dedication by mayor Sam Adams and featuring a rockin' after party.

New artist space celebration • 6pm • January 28
Zoomtopia • 810 SE Belmont


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Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 27, 2010 at 10:49 | Comments (0)


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