Jenny Saville at Quality Pictures

NKOTB Quality Pictures inaugurates their Hoyt St. space with work by Cindy Sherman, Jenny Saville, Nikki S. Lee, Sue de Beer, Larry Sultan, Kara Walker, Glen Brown and Katy Grannan, among others, promising to keep the opening going until 11pm and evidently ordering enough food to warrant mentioning the opening's caterers (Planet B's Modern Tastes) in the press release. Sounds almost too good to be true...will they ask for our immortal souls at the door?

Ascendant local Holly Andres will join the formidable ladies and gentlemen listed above in POW! Pictures of Women, an exhibition of works that investigate female aesthetic power beyond the bland confines of traditional standards of beauty. Running simultaneously, Chris Verene's Self Esteem "will feature photographs by Mr. Verene that examine the role of photographed image and its effect on an individual's self esteem. Works in this exhibit will be primarily drawn from Verene's 'Self Esteem Salons' and from early work. Verene's 'Salons' are a performance artwork wherein he builds a temporary sanctuary to be used in helping strangers-'clients'-to make a sincere and lasting change in their lives."
Opening Reception • Dec. 7, 6-11pm • POW! Pictures of Women: Dec. 7-30 • Self Esteem: Dec. 7 - Jan. 27
Quality Pictures • 916 NW Hoyt • Tel. 503.227.5060

Laura Russo shows paintings and works on paper by internationally acclaimed artist and one-time PSU prof Robert Colescott. Colescott's darkly comic and frequently provocative images are noteworthy for their emotional immediacy and painterly gusto. Worth enduring the trek to, and mob scene around, 21st Ave. Also showing this month at LR: Sculptures by NW artist Frederic Littman from the 1950's - 1970's
Opening Reception • 5 to 8pm • Dec. 7-23
Laura Russo Gallery • 805 NW 21st Ave. • Tel. 503.226.2754

PORT prides itself on letting our readers in on all the latest underground hotspots before they blow up....like the gallery in the office of Commissioner Dan Saltzman. Say Saltzman's representatives, "As a social evening, it is an opportunity to meet with the artist and discuss his work. It also provides an opportunity to meet with the office staff and have a few words with the Commissioner." This month Saltzman shows Day Amalgam by Brad Carlile, whose work is an exploration of "the realities of impermanence in light, color and the passage of time."
Opening Reception • 5-7pm • Dec. 7-29, Mon.-Fri. 8am-5pm
Office of Commissioner Dan Saltzman, Portland City Hall • 1221 SW 4th Ave. Rm. 230 • Tel. 503.823.4151


video still from Jarrett Mitchell's Organism exhibition

"Funny, political and weirdly spiritually charged" - Frieze Magazine, September 2006
"I'd call it an uneasy marriage between paganism, road kill and Al Jazeera mixed amongst the roots of today's pressing political and ideological conflicts but without the omnipresent propaganda. Instead, there is common ground here and The Dawn Of The Birth Of The Battle Of Right To Life vs. The Law Of Death is Beuysian zeitgeist barometer." - curator, father-of-PORT and father-of-Organism Jeff Jahn, November 2006
Intriguing, no? Organism debuts with the work of Jarrett Mitchell.
Opening receptions • Dec. 6 and 7, both 6-9pm • Dec. 6 - Jan. 28, 12:00 - 6:00 Wed. - Sun. (Closed Dec 24, 25 & Jan 1)
Organism • 107 NW 5th Ave (4th floor)

Tilt Gallery and Project Space presents Chain Reaction by Portland artist Stephen Slappe. "Using equal parts satire and science fiction, Chain Reaction captures the anxiety induced by the invention of oppositional spectacles. Transforming the gallery space into a multi channel video installation, Slappe uses pop culture archetypes to serve as ambassadors of falsehood."
Opening reception • 6-9pm • Dec. 7-29
Tilt Gallery and Project Space • 625 NW Everett, Suite 106 • Tel. 908.616.5477

Both Quality AND Organism are unleashing themselves upon the public? Should be a fun month.

The Robert Colescott show is absolutely fantastic. He's always been one of my favorite painters, its a museum caliber show and today his work still has more teeth than Dana Schutz and Lisa Yuskavage... both of whom I like a lot but Colescott is the man when it comes to narrative shock painting with a social/personal commentary.

I'm also hearing great things about Tilt's Slappe show (fom very picky people), Ill check it out for sure... yes Tilt's curator Jenene Nagy works for PORT but she really does have the some of the very best shows in the city, month after month. I can't help the fact that People with those serious curatorial skills are precisely the sorts of people PORT likes to hire.

PAC's Kitai show is really nice, pretty much the first show to utilize that ginormous space well... which is why they will be building it out and breaking it into bits to make it suitable for something other than giant painting/drawings. Portland needs a serious space for all the installation artists in town.

Also, don't miss Michael Knutson's show at the Art Gym, it ends on the 10th.