Mark Newport's knitted costumes and embroidered comic book covers combine masculine superhero fantasies with the kinds of subversive appropriation of feminine domestic handcraft that has resurged in the past decade. Newport's work finds resonance in everything from Jim Drain's knitted bodysuits for Forcefield to Dave Cole's oversized knitting machine and work of DIY craft artists like Jenny Hart, who is part of Contemporary Crafts Museum & Gallery's New Embroidery show, which ends today [disclosure: I am Visual Media Coordinator at Contemporary Crafts]. On Monday, Newport will be the featured PSU MFA Lecture Series guest, coinciding with the opening of his solo show at PSU's Autzen Gallery.

The exhibition, entitled Heroic Endeavors, "will feature wearable costumes hand knit by the artist that are based on 'heroic' masculine role models such as the cowboy hero from the 60s and 70s as well as the classic comic book superheroes such as Batman and Superman. A series of prints plus a bedcover will accompany the costumes and expand on the visual language of comic books and the narratives suggested by the costumes."

Lecture · Monday, November 13th · 8:15 p
PSU 5th Avenue Cinema · 510 SW Hall St. Room 92 (on the corner of 5th & Hall)
Funded in part by PICA, PNCA, Reed College, Lewis & Clark College and The Affair at the Jupiter Hotel

Special Exhibition Hours · Monday, November 13th · 6:30 to 8 p
Through December 7th · Autzen Gallery · Portland State University · 2nd Floor, Neuberger Hall, 724 SW Harrison Street

Great News! Mark Newport has been named the head of fibers at Cranbrook!

http://www.cranbrook.edu/about/news/default.asp?newsid=368094

Namita Wiggers