The weather has relented (for now), time to get out of the house...

Indoor Wildernesses is a serendipitous thematic art walk of 4 shows, 3 galleries on 1 corner... all explore a common theme: nature inside the gallery environment, all achieve very different ends

When: January 24th 6:30-8:30PM
Where: Corner of NW 5th and Couch @ Motel, Organism & the Portland Art Center

Rational: The presence of the outdoors and wilderness motifs in particular are everywhere in contemporary art so when four shows all appeared on the same corner in Portland's Chinatown it seemed like serendipity was knocking. Why not explore four very different shows to greater highlight their intersecting but very divergent content, goals, motifs and effects?

Also, please forgive the self promotion but it is an excellent chance to get out and visit one of the Portland art scene's most rewarding corners. The fours shows present divergent motifs such as the charged psychological cave environment, life changing encounters with wild deer, man made materials in the woods and ecology in North Portland.

Shows and discussion times:


7:00PM Emily Counts: "The Cavernous Reflection" @ Motel, Emily and gallerist Jennifer Armbrust will discuss the psychological fantasyscapes that take place in the cave-like installation. Made from drawings this grotto recalls Victorian fairytales, detective stories and theatrical settings. It also has resonance with Plato's cave and psychological self-examination. The Portland based Counts showed at the Mark Moore Gallery last year and was a graduate of CCAC (BFA 1999). Show ends January 27th.


7:30PM Jarrett Mitchell: "The Dawn Of The Birth Of The Battle Of Right To Life vs. The Law Of Death" @ Organism 107 NW 5th (4th floor) Curator Jeff Jahn will discuss the installation which uses dramatic encounters with wild deer to explore how wildlife and human nature define the narrow borders between life & death and the polarizing effects of this distinction upon today's politics. An up and coming international artist, Mitchell has been favorably reviewed in Frieze (September 2006), shown in major galleries like Deitch Projects and is a 2002 MFA grad of CCAC. In its second month this show ends January 28th


8:00PM J.D. Perkin & Anne Thompson: "Second Skin" @ Portland Art Center 35 NW 5th Ave. Consisting of 6,000 earplugs…11,000 cigarette butts…865 pried open beer cans…1,000 pounds of clay…16 animal hides…tire tread, rose petals, human hair, fake fur, cross cut fir, pond liner, antlers, and leaves….Second Skin explores the idea of "materials" natural and unnatural. Where do they originate, and where do they end up? What happens to tires when they fall apart? Second Skin does not attempt to be "pro" or "anti" anything; it merely raises questions to ponder, while providing a surreal campsite foray. JD Perkins is represented by the Laura Russo Gallery (show runs through February)


Also at PAC: THE OTHER PORTLAND Art & Ecology in the 5th Quadrant. Organized and curated by Rhoda London, she will lead a discussion about art and ecology in North Portland with several of the artists. The show features Peg Butler, Cecillia Cannon, Clare Carpenter, Jedidiah Chavez, James Jack, Laura Foster, Courtney Frisse, Susan Harlan, TJ Norris & Abi Spring, Liz Obert & Mike Suri. Sponsored and organized by Art on the Peninsula, and North Portland Neighborhood Services. The artists have responded to and identified environmental issues in North Portland, with particular interest in the Smith and Bybee Lakes and the Willamette and Columbia Rivers. Some of the conservation issues are: wetlands, invasive species both plant and animal, illegal dumping, soil and water contamination, pollution: air, sound, water and more, as well as the unique landscape on the Peninsula. (Show runs through February)

Organized by Organism in conjunction with Motel and the Portland Art Center, Indoor Wildernesses germinated when J.D. Perkin suggested doing a thematic art walk while visiting Jarrett Mitchell's show.

This turned out great, on a nice night... a fun, well attended event that was centered on exhibition content. For such a short notice thing to come off so well... it speaks volumes of why Portland is such an exciting art city.

Thanks to everyone

Yes, thank you Jeff for organizing this event. It proved to be a very nice evening and provided a forum for THE OTHER PORTLAND artists to discuss their work. Thank you and thanks to all who came out. It was lovely.