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Local Perspective
Free day at Portland Art Museum
Think
Weekly Web Round-up
Interview With Matthew Day Jackson
BBQ for PICA Artist-in-Residence • Tuesday, June 27 5-8p
Getting Tiki with it
Weekly Web Round-up
One Minute Film Fest @ Holocene
Lawrence Robbin at Yes
Tram a-lamma ding dong
The Winner of PORT's 1st Annual Pretentious Art Writing Contest

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Main

Friday 06.30.06

Local Perspective

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Clifford Gleeson (far left), Milton Wilson (large center painting), anonymous sculpture (foreground)

Be certain to check out two significant historical shows that close this weekend. There's Hilda Morris's show of small sculpture and sumi ink drawings at Laura Russo Gallery and the excellent Milton Wilson and his peers at Pulliam Deffenbaugh to check out... (more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 30, 2006 at 12:25 | Comments (0)

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Free day at Portland Art Museum

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The Portland Art Museum is open free of charge today and yes you can take advantage of it even if your day job keeps you occupied during office hours, the Museum is open till 8:00 PM on Thursdays and Fridays.

Besides the Hilda Morris and Great Painters in Bresca shows there are some things to really take note of at the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art.

First of all be certain to check out the Richard Rezac show that PORT reported on earlier.

But the most exciting works are some of the pieces on loan. The show stopper is Mark Rothko's "Homage to Matisse" (lent by an anonymous donor) it's an essential work that needs to be included in any serious Rothko retrospective and the single most important artwork residing in the Pacific Northwest right now, yes it set an auction record for Rothko late last year.

Other highlights are an early Untitled Donald Judd lent by the Miller Meigs collection. It's absolutely extra nice with its vermilion red color and placement near an Agnes Martin.

Then there is the wonderful Hans Hofmann that really adds something to the Abstract Expressionist room.

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 30, 2006 at 0:00 | Comments (0)

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Wednesday 06.28.06

Think

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This Fourth of July, Sam Gould and the members of Red76 present you with an opportunity to experience an auditory glimpse into the war in Iraq.  Entitled Bring the War Home, it is the closing project for a three-month residency the group held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Bring The War Home is a simple action set into motion to help remind Americans of the war in Iraq on the Fourth of July, and provoke discussion on the topic.  Utilizing audio and video soldiers have recorded, Red76 has created a sound collage formatted into a downloadable MP3.  Download this MP3 and play it outdoors as you feast on your hotdogs and down your PBRs.  Remind yourself and your neighbors what those fireworks are all about.

As an art group with sometimes changing members, Red76 seeks to create installations, performances and events that constantly point to the outside world, creating “an atmosphere wherein the public may become hyper aware of their surroundings and their day-to-day activities”.  Established in 2000, Red76 have produced projects locally, nationally, and internationally. To learn more about Red76 and their latest project, click here.

Posted by Jenene Nagy on June 28, 2006 at 21:28 | Comments (0)

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Weekly Web Round-up

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Courtesy of Michael John Muuss

The heat of summer is clearly in Portland and so begins the slowing of the art season. That must be why I can’t seem to find much of interest for this week’s Weekly Web Round-up. I've got a couple of articles and a couple of activities for you to do while enjoying the lowered temperatures to come.

Posted by Melia Donovan on June 28, 2006 at 9:56 | Comments (3)

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Tuesday 06.27.06

Interview With Matthew Day Jackson

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Jackson's Viking Burial Ship at PS.1's Greater New York show (2005)

Isaac D. Peterson
Matt D. Jackson (P.I.C.A. artist in residence)

IDP:
I was thinking about what we discussed earlier about the new structure of information, and I noticed in one of your sculptures you made this connection between Punk Rock and a Viking ship. This is one of those associations that couldn't normally exist in a linear structure but clearly Punk Rock culture may have some Viking undertones.

MDJ:
That piece was really a suicide piece.

IDP:
It was a funeral pyre, right?

MDJ:
Well, it wasn't historically accurate, but I'm not even concerned with that, I'm concerned with maybe the Hollywood representation of Vikings. Basically I had come to the point where I realized I was fulfilling someone else's legacy of making art. I was operating within this formal strategy that was completely developed by my predecessors. You know from Modrian to Reinhardt to Philip Guston to Jonathan Lasker. Basically what they were making were super-narrative abstract structures. I realized that what I was doing was something that was not entirely a part of my generation, and that my ideas and creativity were constantly struggling against this. I wanted to put it all to rest, so I started making this funeral vessel for my own ideas and it took the form of this very heroic funeral practice. Of course the whole idea is pure Hollywood myth, there would be no artifacts of these ships if they had all been set on fire and pushed out to sea. I would say that that definitely didn't happen, but I wasn't as concerned with that. I was more concerned with heroic death and how it was represented in the media. I wanted to focus on death in relationship to all of this iconography. The sail refers exactly to a pattern from a specific Mondrian painting, and that leads in to the idea that these modern icons have narrative potential.

IDP:
That seems pretty radical to think of Mondrian as having narrative potential.

MDJ:
But it is! We've gone there! It's on clothing, it's on swatches, it's on furniture!

IDP:
Regardless of what Mondrian intended, the work has acquired a narrative.

MDJ:
Yes, and that's the world that we live in. I think of the Brancusi heads I'm making now, they are stacked up like cannonballs. The original sculpture was called the Sleeping Muse, and its eyes are closed, but in my version their eyes are wide open! The Sleeping Muse has been awoken from its slumber of the last 83 years. It's a statement about modernity to think of Brancusi used as a cannonball. We are at the tail-end of the industrial revolution, and that thing that was calm and banal is essentially being used to knock you out.

IDP:
I wanted to ask you about your interest in Bosch and Breugel.... (more)

Posted by Isaac Peterson on June 27, 2006 at 1:30 | Comments (2)

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Monday 06.26.06

BBQ for PICA Artist-in-Residence • Tuesday, June 27 5-8p

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PICA artist-in-residence Matthew Day Jackson wants you to eat some hot dogs and add your voice to his project on Tuesday June 27 from 5-8pm.

During the bbq he is inviting you to his studio to record your "sung" version of an air raid siren. These recordings will be incorporated into one of his pieces on view this Fall as part of TBA 06. Hang out or participate at this recording session and bbq.

FREE
Tuesday, June 27 • 5 - 8 pm
Drinks and Dogs while they last(veggie dogs too!)
Corberry Press • NW 17th + Northrup
PICA

Posted by Melia Donovan on June 26, 2006 at 2:00 | Comments (0)

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Thursday 06.22.06

Getting Tiki with it

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a cool Tiki mug

Yes, PORT will have some pretty hefty content for you on Monday night (Matthew Day Jackson) but until then here is some weekend fodder to sacrifice to the volcano god:

Portland's TIKI-KON starts on Friday, click here for details. If you love kitschy pseudo Polynesian culture and strong silly drinks this is for you. Apparently they will be taking a big tour of Portland's best private Tiki bars on Sunday. The main event though is Saturday which starts at the Jupiter Hotel, features a School of Rum bus and of a tour of Portland's public Tiki bars. There's even a sneak peek of the soon to open Thatch bar. Go and appease the volcano gods!...(more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 22, 2006 at 22:43 | Comments (0)

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Weekly Web Round-up

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Courtesy of Michael John Muuss

Welcome to the first installment of the Weekly Web Roundup (name to change when I can think of a catchier title-any suggestions?). The plan is to post links to articles, shows and websites that are either related to Portland’s art scene, completely ridiculous or both. All I ask in return is for you to write me (melia@portlandart.net) whenever you’ve found something, written something-or had something written about you or others related to the arts in Portland that's linkable. If it's unrelated but funny, it'll probably make it to the list too....(more)

Posted by Melia Donovan on June 22, 2006 at 8:00 | Comments (3)

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Wednesday 06.21.06

One Minute Film Fest @ Holocene

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This Thursday night, the very trendy but actually quite cool Holocene is hosting the third annual One Minute Film Festival put on by Telegraph.  As one of the younger art non-profits in town, Telegraph strives to link artists of different mediums together and to connect these artists with an audience.  This year’s film fest features work by Ryan Jeffrey, whose evocative film was shown at PDX in May, Matt McCormick, and Jeremy Bird, among many others.  The thread to all the films is that they are only 60 seconds long, so if you decide that one might not be your cup of tea, the pain will end quickly.  

One Minute Film Festival • Thursday June 22 • 9pm
Holocene • 1001 SE Morrison
$4-$10 sliding scale

Posted by Jenene Nagy on June 21, 2006 at 22:18 | Comments (0)

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Tuesday 06.20.06

Lawrence Robbin at Yes

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Yes, a fashionable boutique that sits among the smart young businesses on lower Burnside, has been hanging art on the walls since they opened two years ago. This month is their most sophisticated and impressive showing to date. Lawrence Robbin spent a year living in Los Angeles in the mid-1970s as a photographer for the radical Los Angeles Vanguard. Documenting everything from notable personalities such as Charles Bukowski to absurd and bittersweet street scenes, these black and white photos capture not only the spirit and the style of the era, but also highlighted the tenderness, humor, and emotional complexity of the subjects. Although the photos stand on their own as historical documents, Robbin’s appreciation of composition and mastery of closing the shutter at the right moment give them life as works of art. Tonight, Robbin will be up from California to present fifteen works in the LA76 series.
Lawrence Robbin • LA76
Artist Reception • Tuesday, June 20th • 7 to 10p
Yes • 811 E Burnside

Posted by Jennifer Armbrust on June 20, 2006 at 10:02 | Comments (1)

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Sunday 06.18.06

Tram a-lamma ding dong

*Update, The tram is now complete

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The beginnings of the aerial tram's middle tower as seen from the east

The 20 story tall middle tower for the innovative and uber controversial aerial tram by AGPS architects is finally rising right next to I-5. Apart from being an impressive engineering feat it certainly does look good in its aluminum skin (yes some would rather have a log ride).

Look, I like the project... it's the first bit of really innovative architecture to rise in Portland in decades and considering how many design jobs exist in this city it may be the first real outward symbol of the sea change taking place here (sophistication wise), besides the art scene. An armada of condos alone do not make for sophisticated citzenry and Portland is learning to not hide its strengths to the outside world anymore...(more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 18, 2006 at 23:23 | Comments (16)

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Saturday 06.17.06

The Winner of PORT's 1st Annual Pretentious Art Writing Contest

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The oppressive humor archetype

The pop-art (yet neo-minimalist) etchings of Ziggy and Family Circus, both liegemen to the Lichtensteinian legacy, question their own raison d'etre. Are they visual tropes? Are they self-conscious (self-mocking/self-loathing) po-mo nombrilisme? Or are they simply (and solely) stochastic snapshots sans lexical basis? The Family Circus series can best be examined as artistic interventions against the oppressive humor archetype, whereas the unappealingly desperate musings of Cathy Guisewite's eponymous series are truly indebted to Jenny Holzer’s oeuvre. Or, as Baudrillard and Guillaume so succinctly state, “What is produced with the romantic turn…is…the…play of…masculine hysteria…of …sexual paradigms that once again must be reinserted in the more general and universal context of a change in the paradigms of otherness.”[1]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Jean Baudrillard and Marc Guillaume, Figures de l'alterite. Paris: Descartes et Cie., 1994.


Submitted by Ethan Ham, who recieved a $50 Le Happy gift certificate for this fantastic abuse of thought and words. Thank you to everyone who submitted and to Le Happy, makers of the Le Trash Blanc crepe for their fantastic generosity and food.

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 17, 2006 at 22:07 | Comments (1)

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Friday 06.16.06

Richard Rezac at the Portland Art Museum

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Richard Rezac, Untitled (98-06), 1998, Nickel plated bronze and steel, Collection of Sarah and Andrew Meigs

Whenever I move to a new place it is easy for me to take it for how I’ve found it, believing in a permanency that seldom exists. I see it, so it must have been true for all time. As a newcomer, I have had to remind myself that the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art in the Mark Building at the Portland Art Museum hasn’t always been there. Knowing that there was a void that has since been filled has left me wondering how I would feel about my new home had there not been a place to study a large collection of contemporary work...(more)

Posted by Melia Donovan on June 16, 2006 at 8:30 | Comments (1)

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Thursday 06.15.06

Don't Forget...

PORT's one year anniversary celebration tonight!

Eurotrash Bash
8pm at Apotheke (1314 NW Glisan, Upstairs)
with DJ van DIS

We'll be announcing the winner of the first annual "Pretentious Art Writing Contest"
Hope to see you there!

Posted by Jennifer Armbrust on June 15, 2006 at 12:54 | Comments (1)

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Tacoma Art Museum Announces the 8th Northwest Biennial

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The Tacoma Art Museum has a beautiful building by prize winning architect Antoine Predock and they've been doing more large scale modern/contemporary art shows than either the Portland Art Museum or the Seattle Art Museum for many years now. TAM has also been tackling the Northwest Biennial for several iterations (the last one was juried by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov) but this one promises to be something a little less jumbled since the jurying wont be purely by slides or theme. Instead TAM curator Rock Hushka and Whitney curator David Kiehl will be doing studio visits before any decisions. Thankfully, jpeg entries are allowed and materials need to be postmarked by 7/15/2006, check out all the details here. One notable inclusion is the $25 entry fee (better to have a sponsor and no fee) but I think it is to defray the $500 honorariums they are giving to each of the selected artists.

Hopefully, it will be a coherent survey of some of the strongest work in the Northwest as opposed to the "more art the better" or ADD-ish strategy Ive seen in survey shows lately. I prefer a quality show that highlights the art not the profusion of artists. The last Northwest Biennial had nice work by Portlanders Nan Curtis, Hillary Pfeifer, Horia Boboia and Linda Hutchins but the overall effect of so much work of less than equal quality was numbing.

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 15, 2006 at 0:33 | Comments (5)

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Wednesday 06.14.06

Turner Short List Announced

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Tate has announced the four artists who have been short-listed for the often controversial Turner Prize 2006. The artists are Tomma Abts, Phil Collins, Mark Titchner and Rebecca Warren. The Prize, established in 1984, is awarded to a British artist under fifty for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the twelve months preceding 9 May 2006. 
This year’s members of the jury include: (more)

Posted by Jenene Nagy on June 14, 2006 at 10:01 | Comments (0)

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Tuesday 06.13.06

Become a Member

The very democratic Gallery 114 is currently seeking new artist members.  Established in 1990, the gallery is "committed to the development of contemporary art".  Become a member and show with the likes of Carson Legree and Erin Brimmer. All mediums are welcome and will be considered.  Questions can be directed to dptrowbridge@comcast.net or call Gallery 114 at 503-243-3356.
For an application, click here.
Members Wanted @ Gallery 114
1100 NW Glisan • Portland, Oregon 97209

Posted by Jenene Nagy on June 13, 2006 at 21:41 | Comments (0)

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What works in Work/Live?

Untitled Document Commissioner Sam Adams is asking for your opinion about live/work space needs in Portland. You can take his survey and/or leave your opinion on his Blog about what exactly a live/work space is now, it’s relevance for Portland artists and how you would utilize one.

Posted by Melia Donovan on June 13, 2006 at 14:28 | Comments (0)

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Monday 06.12.06

Reminder Thursday

Just a reminder, PORT's 1 year anniversary party, the Eurotrash Bash along with the results of our pretentious art writing contest will take place on Thursday night 8:00 PM at Apotheke. Click here for details. You have till Wednesday night to email me the writings ... and because you asked, yes pseudonyms are kosher, this is a pretentious art writing contest afterall.

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 12, 2006 at 19:01 | Comments (6)

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Sunday 06.11.06

The Art Of Richard Tuttle at the Des Moines Art Center

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Fountain, 1965; Acrylic on plywood; 1 x 39 1/8 x 38 3/4 in.;
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York;
50th Anniversary gift of Richard Brown Baker; © Richard Tuttle;
photo: Jerry L. Thompson, courtesy the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York


While at the wonderful Des Moines Art Center a few weeks ago I was able to take in their fantastic version of The Art of Richard Tuttle retrospective. It ended today, June 11th. Sure it was an impressive show at both SFMOMA and the Whitney but the DAC offered some exciting new twists, especially a not to be forgotten Tuttle vs. Richard Meier showdown. The show was installed in both the Eliel Saarinen and Meier wings of the DAC and the difference between the two is part of the special magic this version of the show had. All of the other museums presenting this show have only one architect for their space, Botta, Breuer and next up at Chicago's MCA, Joseph Paul Kleihues (these are my favorite museum galleries anywhere).

Each version of the retrospective would have to be different as Tuttle is an idiosyncratic and pragmatic artist. He adapts and ...(more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 11, 2006 at 23:00 | Comments (1)

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Saturday 06.10.06

Ovitz Part II at Reed's Cooley Gallery

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Gregory Crewdson, Untitled (North by Northwest), Summer, 2004, Digital C-print, 64.25 x 94.25 in.
Edition 5 of 6. Image courtesy of the artist and the Ovitz Family Collection, Los Angeles

Ok, Ill admit I haven't been the biggest fan of Gregory Crewdson and much prefer the works of of his pupil Justine Kurland or the noirish and Lynchian video installations of Sue de Beer to his work. Still, Im not certain they would have had careers if he hadn't blazed a cinematic trail in the late 90's for them. Yes, I found this second installment of Reed's New Trajectories series called "New Trajectories II: Expansions, Recent photography by Gregory Crewdson and Candida Hofer from the Ovitz Family Collection, Los Angeles"... (whew) nearly as compelling as the first installment. The show closes on Sunday June 11th so I recommend you make a point to see it... (more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 10, 2006 at 16:55 | Comments (0)

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Friday 06.09.06

Homeland Call For Artists

Gallery Homeland is accepting artist proposals for work to be included in Scratching the Surface, a city- wide art project that will “acknowledge and embrace the Willamette River’s powerful role in promoting culture through commerce and exploration”.  The project runs July 14-30, 2006.

Homeland is looking for proposals for homemade boats, installations, and improvised performance works. The parameters of the proposal ask for artists to consider river, its location and it's effect on place.

Proposals can be sent to Paul Middendorf at Paul@galleryhomeland.org.
For more information visit the Gallery Homeland website.
Deadline is June 15.

Scratching the Surface @ Gallery Homeland
926 SE 34th Ave (near the SE corner of 34th and Belmont) • Portland, OR 97214

Posted by Jenene Nagy on June 09, 2006 at 9:07 | Comments (0)

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Richard Rezac

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Saturday, the Portland Art Museum will play host to sculptor Richard Rezac’s work for a second time. The museum’s 1985 Oregon Artists Biennial debuted Mr. Rezac’s work 11 years after graduating from PNCA’s BFA program. Twenty-one years later, he is back with a selection of sculptures and drawings from 1998-2005...(more)

Posted by Melia Donovan on June 09, 2006 at 8:00 | Comments (3)

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Wednesday 06.07.06

Announcing the Eurotrash Bash & Pretentious Art Writing Contest for PORT's 1 Year Anniversary

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To mark our 1st anniversary PORT announces:

The Eurotrash Bash, 8:00PM June 15th at Apotheke, Portland's uber angular bastion of Northern European spirits and nosh • 1314 NW Glisan, Suite 2A (Upstairs). Come over, get your Gjetost on, meet PORT staffers and try some Zwak Unicum as you listen to the Europhile sounds of DJ van DIS.

In conjunction PORT is announcing our first annual "Pretentious Art Writing Contest." Simply give us your most craven and pedantic prose somehow remotely related to art (either real or imagined) by emailing it to me on or by the 14th (a shadowy league of judges will decide). Yes you get points for name dropping but only to a point. Also, anyone caught simply copying from the Art Forum Diary or Okwui Enwezor will be publicly flogged in pioneer square for crimes against linguistic communication. To set the bar let this be a benchmark for your entries (on the scale of 1-10, 10 being most pretentious, this is a mere 7). The winning entry will be published on PORT and receive a dinner for two, complements of Le Happy, where you can feast on the veritable sea of undermined ironic pretenses distilled into their legendary Le Trash Blanc crepes. We will announce the winner of our pretentious art writing contest at the Eurotrash Bash.

Thank You PORT sponsors, readers and staffers

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 07, 2006 at 0:00 | Comments (2)

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Tuesday 06.06.06

Barry Johnson: Commutatus (and more at the new Portland Art Center)

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Barry Johnson's Commutatus translates the virtual space of drawing into the actual space of sculpture. His forms are as fluent and lively and as complex as large scale charcoal drawings. He's not overly focused on woodworking skill and I think this is a strength rather than a weakness. The forms, as extensions of drawing, are the most important and Johnson's construction methods primarily facilitate those forms...(more)

Posted by Isaac Peterson on June 06, 2006 at 23:46 | Comments (2)

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Affair In the Air

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Well, folks, its confirmed.  The 3rd Affair at the Jupiter Hotel art fair will be held on Sept 29-Oct.1, 2006.
This influential event (the Aqua in Miami has since been modeled after the Affair) should prove to be even more extensive in representing a larger slice of the national scene.  With less emphasis on Portland galleries than we have seen in the past, this year’s affair includes notables such as Modern Culture, Lemon Sky, and Saltworks.
Co-Organizers Laurel Gitlen and Stuart Horodner surely know how to get the numbers out (over 3000 visitors last year) but what remains to be seen is how much of that traffic relates to actual sales.    In any case, it’s a great event to sample galleries from out of town and to make some connections. 

This year’s special events include

more...

Posted by Jenene Nagy on June 06, 2006 at 8:26 | Comments (4)

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Monday 06.05.06

Seeing the Oregonian for what it is

Look we give them a tough time occasionally but the Oregonian does provide a startling amount of visual arts coverage like today's review of TJ Norris' Grey|Area show. Yes, it is more descriptive than an intellectual mediation on the specific details of sublimely liminal, less than colorful work, but it does get the main points about the curator and the one artist's work which just doesn't quite cut it. Most newspapers for a city of 2.1 million metro don't come close to this and if you want depth... there is a reason PORT exists. There is a place for generalist publications and a place for insider concerns.

Also, DK published his second best bit of writing to date with his expose on the Portland Art Center last week (his best was the retirement piece on PAM's beloved Donald Jenkins). He's tough on PAC but patient, pointing out their inconsistencies while slyly making important points about the inconsistencies of other art organizations as well. I do have concerns about whether programming by committee is a good idea though?

Portland has to be tough on its arts organizations because nearly all are still either nascent or only just recently finding their strides. The city is under served but that is exciting (for the time bieng).

The O even has Brian Libby of Portland Architecture freelancing.

So why all the visual arts coverage? Because Portland's changes in identity and sophistication are some of the most rapid I've seen in any US city and the visual arts are the single best gauge of that shift.

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 05, 2006 at 0:00 | Comments (3)

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Friday 06.02.06

Fund Your Projects

RACC Project Grant Guidelines and Applications for both individuals and organizations are now available online.   The new requirements include a Intent to Apply form, due Aug. 14, 2006 at 5pm.  Application deadline is Aug. 21.  Join the ranks of outstanding area artists such as Daniel Duford, Brenda Mallory, and Marne Lucas

more...

Posted by Jenene Nagy on June 02, 2006 at 10:06 | Comments (0)

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Barney & Bjork • Drawing Restraint 9 • Opens Tonight

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LET THE FLENSING BEGIN!

Have you been wondering what Matthew Barney has been doing for the last four years? Wonder no longer. Besides making babies with Bjork he's been making a new film with her... (more)

Posted by Melia Donovan on June 02, 2006 at 8:00 | Comments (5)

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Thursday 06.01.06

First Friday June 2006

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Natalie Cartwright • Enamored, a photo travel diary
Cartwright reflects on the wonders of her childhood with a photographic diary of a more recent journey through Japan. Moshi Moshi 811 east burnside portland or 97214 • 503.445.9924 Opening Reception Friday June 2, 6-9 p. Show ends July 1, 2006.

grey|area • group show So-called theme-less, non-narrative, conceptual and abstract minimalism are part of the blurred-line of focus for this show, which could be really strong. Curated by TJ Norris. The 13 selected West Coast artists include Troy Briggs, Ty Ennis, Scott Wayne Indiana, Laura Fritz and Ellen George. Guestroom Gallery 128 NE Russell • 503.284.8378 Opening Reception Friday, June 2, 6 - 9 p. Runs through June 30, 2006.

more.....

Posted by Nicky Kriara on June 01, 2006 at 15:17 | Comments (1)

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Introducing Melia Donovan: I Don't Take Vacations - I Just Move To Interesting Places

Though art making can be considered an interior and self-centered endeavor, I have always enjoyed countering that aspect of production with activities that enable a dialogue outside of the studio, in the larger community, to flourish. For that reason, I am very excited to join PORT as the new Announcements and News writer. I am a recent citizen of Oregon and if what I've read and experienced is true, the only native in the state is my friend Ramona in Hood River. The massive influx of people from all over the world, really, necessitates a forum for navigating, organizing and rallying the arts community. PORT has certainly permitted me access to dialogue and information in a scant amount of time - I moved into my house in January of this year. I can only hope to help do more of the same.

Here's a little background about myself...

Posted by Melia Donovan on June 01, 2006 at 0:05 | Comments (1)

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Introducing Jenene Nagy: Better Every Year

I am addicted to art. I make it, I curate it, I teach it and now, I write about it. I feel honored to live in a city with such a rich and vital arts community where students, emerging artists, and international players all breathe the same air. My interest in working for PORT as a opportunities and announcements writer is two-fold, both reasons self-serving. I want to be connected, to be in the art world trenches. I want to be a vehicle that helps distribute information and share that information with as many people as I can reach. Secondly, I want to learn. Writing, criticism, community, movable type, I want to know more. I want to grow. I want to get better every year.

Posted by Jenene Nagy on June 01, 2006 at 0:00 | Comments (1)

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PORT is 1.... and expanding

Yes, today is PORT's first birthday and we are proud to announce two new additions to our staff. From the outset PORT has been a successful experiment in evolving the blog format into a serious visual art forum, one that could provide the expertise that the subject deserves but is quite rare in more generalist publications. Big thanks go out to our sponsors who have made PORT possible.

It's true, when first conceiving of PORT we didn't realize we were creating a daily publication, but that is what it has become. The need for daily coverage is partially due to the ever expanding art scene activity in Portland as well as the increased interest from elsewhere in our local affairs. So yes, PORT is a local publication with an international reach. In fact, PORT's readership has constantly increased with a rise of over 17% in individual readers last month alone. With this explosion in Portland art scene activity and an ever expanding readership it became necessary to expand our writing staff (instead of creating our own brand of gin) and we are pleased to announce that Melia Donovan (news and announcements) and Jenene Nagy (artist opportunities and announcements) are joining us. We were fortunate to have such a highly qualified and competitive pool of applicants to choose from but Melia and Jenene both stood out. Stay tuned for details on our our 1 year birthday party in the next 2 weeks.

They will both be introducing themselves here shortly,

-The Management

Jeff & Jenn

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 01, 2006 at 0:00 | Comments (0)

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