There are a large # of good shows that have gotten reviews that will be coming down soon.

Here's a list and most (except where noted) end Saturday October 27th;


Scott Peterman, Fryes Leap (2002) C-print

Charles A. Hartmann Fine Art though new is probably the tightest curated gallery space in Portland and his show of Scott Peterman's ice houses is a stunner. A very well received exhibition Brian Libby wrote on it for the O as did Chas Bowie at the Mercury. The work is haunting, desolate, funny, perfectly executed and sublime.


Just blocks away Jesse Rose Vala's show at Motel is a similarly ultra tight effort. PORT's Amy Bernstein reviewed it here. These are uneasy times and her work takes me back to my grad school studies of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market and Jean Ingelow's Mospsa The Fairy (both of which Vala should read).


Camouflage (L to R) works by Philip Taaffe, Andy Warhol, Agnes Martin and Damien Hirst (photo by Dan McLaughlin)

Camouflage at the Portland Art Museum ends on November 4th. A great show including Damien Hirst's latest work. here's my review.


Detail of Dan May's Untitled (2007)

Dan May's Testbeds at PDX. This is probably his best show to date and if you like Agnes Martin and or Ellsworth Kelly, he does them both proud. This body of work is especially successful because it doesn't rely so much on nostalgic worn surfaces and instead foregrounds how he works the surfaces with paint, pencil etc. It's less affected and this most effective show to date. The Mercury's review is here.


Tom Cramer did predictably well in his debut at Laura Russo Gallery and even managed to show some new tricks. Cramer's work has never looked as challenging or coherent as it did here. Here's the WWeek's review.


Rachel Neugarten reviewed the Tryon Creek park installations in the Oregonian. An interesting project I need to go and see myself.


Matthew Picton's very well received show at Pulliam Deffenbaugh was very coherent and highlighted what a good fit he is with his new Portland gallery. Richard Speer and John Motely both liked it. If the Mercury and Willamette Week both can agree it either means the show is really good or apocalypse is nigh. Actually, the fact that Victoria Blake at the O kinda gets it too might seal the apocalypse deal. Previously, Blake compared Picton (who isn't really even a painter) to a painting elephant in one of the most irrelevant reviews ever published in Portland. Shortly thereafter, Christopher Knight of the LA times published a glowing review making our daily look bad. I think she gets it this time because there is a human oriented narrative that she as a writer can latch onto, but that misses some of the point (the art isn't to be judged as how it fulfills her writerly needs). Structures impose open-ended rigor on us and by transcribing structure Picton both breaks and reaffirms its imporatnce... making the patterns more available to concscious meditation and questioning.