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Portland art blog + news + exhibition reviews + galleries + contemporary northwest art
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Friday 08.29.08 Things to Do  This opportunity comes from former PORTstar Melia Donovan. The Beaverton Arts Commission is seeking "challenging" submissions for their mural project. The city recently voted to exempt public art from the sign code, birthing the mural program and creating a lot of excellent opportunity for interesting public art. You can learn more on the program's website. (A couple more things after the jump.) Posted by Megan Driscoll on August 29, 2008 at 14:40 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 08.28.08 Hear & See  Portland's art community has truly been stepping up to reexamine and re-imagine our fair city as it grows, and, more importantly, to guide its growth. Continuing the discourse opened by exhibitions like last month's PDXplore and the recently opened Suddenly, PORT's own Jeff Jahn is curating Volume, which opens this weekend at Worksound. Volume, Jahn's first non-institutional warehouse show since 2005, surveys "how Portland's art scene addresses, redirects, abuses and redefines space." Housed in one of the oldest buildings on the eastside, Worksound is especially well suited to the exploration of the development of the city and its once gritty/industrial Central Eastside (Arts) Industrial District. The exhibit features a lecture in late September by Arun Jain, Chief Urban Designer, City of Portland. Opening reception • 7-9:30pm • August 30 Also open for First Friday Lecture • 7pm • September 23 Worksound • 820 SE Alder • mojomodou@gmail.com More, more, MORE happenings this weekend after the jump. Posted by Megan Driscoll on August 28, 2008 at 9:39 | Comments (1) PermalinkWednesday 08.27.08 Manufractured  Dominic Wilcox, "War Bowl" Manuf®actured opens this Thursday at MoCC. The exhibition explores the use of "labor-intensive craft practices" to take apart and remold mass produced objects and materials. The wide variety of work examines questions of "overabundance, appropriation, [and] reuse." MoCC will, as always, stay open for the First Thursday artwalk next week. Exhibition • August 28, 2008 - January 4, 2009 Lecture • 6:30pm • September 18 Museum of Contemporary Craft • 724 NW Davis • 503.223.2654  Jesse Hayward's installation, progressed Jesse Hayward's innovative and interactive installation at Jáce Gáce has been building since it opened for First Friday. Come experience and celebrate the results this Friday. Closing reception • 6-10pm • August 29 Jáce Gáce • 2045 SE Belmont • 503.239.1887 Posted by Megan Driscoll on August 27, 2008 at 9:44 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 08.26.08 Suddenly  Artist Fritz Haeg w/ naturalist Mike Houck Suddenly: where we live now opens today at Reed's Cooley Gallery. It is "an ongoing set of visual art exhibitions, a reader, and a series of public programs" seeking to explore new ways to shape the natural and urban landscape. Featured artists include Fritz Haeg, Marc Joseph Berg, Michael Damm, Zoe Crosher, Frank Heath, Oscar Tuazon, and Metronome Press. During TBA, curator Stephanie Snyder will lead a tour through Fritz Haeg's Animal Estates. In late September, there will be a public reception in the Cooley Gallery, followed by the "unfolding event" Psychedelic Sprawl in the Reed Student Union, put on by the citizens of Mostlandia and others. Finally, a series of symposia on the exhibit is happening in October. Exhibition • August 26 - October 5 Public reception • 5-7pm • September 21 Unfolding event • 7-10pm • September 21 Cooley Gallery • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. • Hauser Memorial Library Posted by Megan Driscoll on August 26, 2008 at 8:28 | Comments (4) PermalinkMonday 08.25.08 Orbis Viridis Obscurus: Ethan Jackson at NAAU  "Orbis Obscurus" (Detail) Ethan Jackson 2008 Ethan Jackson's transformation of the New American Art Union this month is beautiful and baffling. Walking into the first section of the exhibit, Jackson has transformed the front windows of the gallery space into a giant camera obscura entitled 'Polyopticon VII' which depicts the side of the street opposite the gallery. Despite the advanced nature of the technology of optics in this day and time, this ancient discovery of the nature of lenses never fails to awe an audience. . . (more) Posted by Amy Bernstein on August 25, 2008 at 9:31 | Comments (0) PermalinkBreakfast w/ Andrew Brandou  Andrew Brandou Painter Andrew Brandou presents his lush landscapes at Grasshut. Innocent at first glance, his playful animal characters often reveal a mischievous - or downright twisted - twist that adds a wicked delight to his bright colors and careful brushwork. This weekend's opening reception of from the Funk Drawer, Brandou's Grass Hut mini-show, features a breakfast catered by the Screen Door, so RSVP soon to grasshut.corp@gmail.com. Opening reception (and breakfast!) • 11am - 1pm • August 31 Grass Hut • 811 E Burnside • 503.445.9924 • RSVP to grasshut.corp@gmail.com Posted by Megan Driscoll on August 25, 2008 at 9:20 | Comments (0) PermalinkSaturday 08.23.08 Jeffrey Sarmiento at Bullseye 
Jeffrey Sarmiento Soviet Hotel II (Siauliai) Jeffrey Sarmiento's Translations at Bullseye is a crisp study in the way certain civic architecture's volumes and memory, when associated to space can exude and question imposed power and aesthetics. Sarmiento (a Fulbright fellow) likes to explore "self imposed mismatches" ... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 23, 2008 at 19:43 | Comments (1) PermalinkFriday 08.22.08 The Wall  Diane Jacobs, "Doing Time" The first solo show at Disjecta's new space is opening tomorrow. Formerly scheduled at PAC, Diane Jacobs presents The Writing's on the Wall. Taking an "an interactive and experiential" approach to American racism, the exhibition looks at the impact of incarceration and the ramifications of institutional racism. Opening reception • 6-9pm • August 23 Disjecta • 8371 N Interstate AVE • 503.286.9449 Posted by Megan Driscoll on August 22, 2008 at 11:33 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 08.21.08 Do The Gallery Shuffle For those who thought it was all gloom and doom when Motel and Small A galleries closed they didn't know that two new galleries run by two of Portland's smartest redheads were opening:
Fontanelle gallery and Fourteen30 (which we mentioned last week) both open in September Fontanelle is run by Leslie Miller, a former Artforum staffer who has been helping Stephanie Synder out at Reed. We are happy to see that her first show, which opens September 4th features one of Motel's best artists Meg Peterson and one of my personal faves Shanon Schollian. It's in Chambers old space. Chambers is moving across town. Fourteen30 is opening September 26th in the old Savage/Small A space. Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 21, 2008 at 19:02 | Comments (0) PermalinkWatching Rererato  This weekend at Rererato, Dustin Zemel brings us a series of video installations titled Stare Hard. Using a variety manipulated footage and loops, Zemel's work "explores the visual density of our highly produced films and television programs." Opening reception • 6-8pm • August 23 Rererato • 5135 NE 42nd AVE • info@rererato.com Not coincidentally, Episode 2 of Rererato TV will air at 4pm the same day, featuring music, performance, and a discussion of Zemel's work. Posted by Megan Driscoll on August 21, 2008 at 10:21 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 08.20.08 Make links not war Zaha
Hadid's design for a house in Moscow reminds me of her ski
jump in Innsbruck in addition to Olympic platform diving. It also seems a tad silly like Robotech in real life.
OpenwidePDX is a new photoblog focusing on Portland art scene openings. Steve Ditko was in the NYT's book review... nothing could be more deserved both for its praise and damnation. Peripheral Vision discusses honesty and fakery and their tenuously negotiated relationship to visual media. Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 20, 2008 at 13:07 | Comments (3) PermalinkTuesday 08.19.08 Make Art? Make Heritage?  The RACC is inviting filmmakers to submit short videos for Portland Art Happens, a pilot project that will expose Portland's "vibrant art scene" to the 50,000+ monthly visitors to the RACC's website. Submissions will be accepted from 18+ artists in the tri-county Portland area, and six filmmakers will receive a $200 honorarium. The submission deadline is September 17. More details can be found here. A plethora of public art opportunities after the jump. Posted by Megan Driscoll on August 19, 2008 at 9:31 | Comments (2) PermalinkMonday 08.18.08 Couture: Ethan Jackson  Ethan Jackson, from "Polyopticon VI" NAAU's next Couture exhibition opens this week. With Orbis Viridus Obscurus, photographer Ethan Jackson will convert the entire gallery space into a "living camera obscura." The project is a continuation of his exploration of the camera obscura in Polyopticon VI, where he used mirrors, lenses, and "baffles" to distort and convert space in an abandoned ranch dwelling in Wyoming. Jackson defines the camera obscura as a "participational optics... that defines a conceptual space that is difficult to tackle directly." Opening reception • 6-9pm • August 20 New American Art Union • 922 SE Ankeny St. • 503.231.8294 Posted by Megan Driscoll on August 18, 2008 at 9:46 | Comments (1) PermalinkFriday 08.15.08 Eadweard Muybridge and The Matrix  Eadweard Muybridge Animal Locomotion, Plate 700, 1887 Collotype Eadweard Muybridge understood that a single photograph was of little use when you are trying to understand the movement of an subject. Movement is inherently a function of moving through time and space. Muybridge's genius was that the even though a single photograph could only reveal a frozen moment in the movement of an object, a series of photographs are able to reveal a much more accurate description of movement. Even more important was that when the photographs were taken sequentially so the movement of the object can be observed changing frame by frame. I was surprised at the difficulty of thinking about some of the implications of Muybridge's experiments. You can see all of this for yourself if you look at the excellent show of Edward Muybridge collotypes at Charles A. Hartman Fine Art until August 30, 2008. I feel like working through the spatial or temporal aspects of Muybridge's work and photography in general is like trying to understand a Zen Koan. It all sounds so simple on the surface. The shutter speed should be about time and the camera lens should be about recording the space or the field of view in front of the camera. The more I work through Muybridge's work, the more I wonder if the exact opposite is a more accurate description of what is happening. We usually associate time with the hands of a clock, no space just the continuous movement of experience counted off second by second. But couldn't time also be measured by the amount of spatial information that we are able to receive from a photo or a given environment? Ironically, this would imply that the clearer the spatial information is in a photograph, the more time and less space there is. Could the shutter speed be recording more space to be exposed on to the negative the longer the shutter remains open? More...  Still from the move The Matrix, 1999 Posted by Arcy Douglass on August 15, 2008 at 13:14 | Comments (11) PermalinkThursday 08.14.08 Artist Talks at Russo  Michihiro Kosuge, "Arbor Series Sculpture" Michihiro Kosuge and Gina Wilson are speaking this weekend on their current exhibitions at Laura Russo. Kosuge's Recent Sculpture explores "the relationship between man and nature seen in an influence by both architectural form and the natural environment." Featured works include The Arbor Series, towering columnal forms that are "solemn and spiritual." Wilson's New Paintings are playful abstractions of the human figure, "offbeat and distinctive... soft and intimate." Artists' talk • 11am • August 16 Laura Russo Gallery • 805 NW 21st AVE • 503.226.2754 Posted by Megan Driscoll on August 14, 2008 at 14:31 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 08.13.08 NigoghossianSnellman  Rocksbox is bringing us a pair of solo exhibitions by Jo Nigoghossian of NYC (left) and Natascha Snellman of LA, CA (right). Nigoghossian's Happy Hour "create(s) a psychologically charged atmosphere of visual discomfort" using "voyeuristic" video and sculpture in a psychosexual explorations of bar scenes, 70s film aesthetics, crowds, anxiety, and more. Snellman's We Children of the Zoo takes a different path through the human psyche via the "unstable frontier between what we consider human and what we still define as animal." Borrowing her exhibition title from the film Christiane F., she combines site-specific sculpture and collage. Opening reception • 7-11pm • August 16 Rocksbox Fine Art • 6540 N. Interstate • 971.506.8938 Posted by Megan Driscoll on August 13, 2008 at 8:53 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 08.11.08 Art and Architecture: An Interview with Brad Cloepfil Part I  Allied Works Architecture Maryhill Overlook, 1999 Photo by Sally Schoolmaster Brad Cloepfil is the principal of Allied Works Architecture in Portland, Oregon. Allied Works is a nationally recognized architecture firm that has recently completed projects like the extension to the Seattle Art Museum, the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis and is currently finishing the Museum of Art & Design at 2 Columbus Circle in New York. PORT recently sat down with him to ask about the impact artists have had on his work. How did your early experience with art feedback into your own creative process? When I was younger, I tended to be influenced by the raw experience of the work itself. At first, I wasn't even aware of who created a work, whether it was Richard Serra or Robert Irwin, it was the experience of the work itself that was important. The experience makes you ask yourself about the spatial quality of that type of work and about the ideas that those artists are exploring. It just resonates with you. I wasn't seeing anything comparable in buildings. It just seems like those guys understood more about the intentions of the 19th and 20th century architecture than the architects did. They had clarity of thought and a practice that was built on the exploration of material that became very important to me. The singular act of focus to create a work of art was really impressive. I saw Richard Serra's Circuit at MoMA and it is just four pieces of steel propped up in the corners of the room. The physical presence and the mass of the steel and its ability to radiate space into the small gallery was for me a very architectural experience that I could relate to much easier than the so-called "architecture" that was being produced at that time. The experience is about the material and the way that the material is made. It was also easier to learn from the artists because their work is so pure. By that I mean, the work that I was interested in was focused on the exploration of only one or two ideas.  Richard Serra Circuit II, 1972-86 Hot Rolled-Steel. Four Plates Each: 10' x 20' x 1" Posted by Arcy Douglass on August 11, 2008 at 20:09 | Comments (1) PermalinkPublic Art, Private Art  PSU's Urban Center Plaza Via the Oregon Arts Commission: PSU is seeking artists to design public work for a "180,000 square foot multiuse facility at PSU’s Urban Center Plaza." The art selection committee is particularly interested in proposals that "use the student or other local population as subject matter, or that provide opportunities for student interaction or gathering." There is a $325K budget that may be divided. The application deadline is September 17, and more information can be found right here. Launch Pad Gallery is hosting their sixth open call group show. This show's theme is Dreams: "This October, in the liminal month between summer and fall, Launch Pad Gallery invites you to delve deep into the private world of your mind..." Open call means non-juried, with space for one 2D work, max 2'x2', from up to 100 artists. The deadline is September 9. More details and submission info can be found here. And, finally, Art on Alberta, organizers of Last Thursday and other major NE arts events, are trying to build an online network for communication between vendors and artists. This is especially important in light of their recent meetings with the city regarding the planning and organization of Last Thursday. If you're a vendor, please contact vendors@artonalberta.org, and if you're interested in volunteering, you can get more info here. Posted by Megan Driscoll on August 11, 2008 at 10:26 | Comments (0) PermalinkSaturday 08.09.08 Jacqueline Ehlis at NAAU (Abstraction Today, an anatomy)  After Hours Red (The Red Corner), [view from above] Since it has opened Jacqueline Ehlis' Serenade at NAAU has become one of, if not the most demanding and discussed exhibition I've experienced in my 9.5 years in Portland. Its avowed goal is simply to "operate within the historically loaded perimeter of painting," but it's not the spectacle many expected. Instead, it presents itself without fanfare like a monk in a monastery; it is quiet, task driven, ascetic, up front and unpretentious. It carries itself around with a lot of discipline and deep seated routine that tells the viewer that this isn't just an art exhibition but a kind of anatomical treatise on monochrome geometric abstraction and minimalism's connection to surface and material. Now in its last weekend with positive reviews from every outlet in town and a nonstop sustained level of tongue wagging it's time for a deep look...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 09, 2008 at 11:29 | Comments (5) PermalinkFriday 08.08.08 Friday News The big review is coming saturday morning (what a beast to write... it's basically a checkup on the state of abstract art). Till then:
The Guardian has a slideshow of Richard Serra's latest exhibition in London. David Cohen discusses the Cy Twombly Retrospective, also in London. Douglas McLennan has a great article on why newspapers are failing. Tyler reported that Richard Diebenkorn (who was born in Portland but moved at age 2) will finally have an Ocean Park series retrospective. New Gallery news: Jeanine Jablonski (who has been working for Elizabeth Leach and created GLARE quarterly) is opening a new gallery fourteen30 in the old Small A/Savage space (watch this site). First show in September will feature the work of Los Angeles based artist, Devon Oder, Breaking Light. Besides national, local and international artists (is there a difference anymore?) she will focus on art publications. Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 08, 2008 at 10:30 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 08.06.08 Surface Tension  Vicki Lynn Wilson Surface Tension opens this month at Gallery Homeland. The exhibition features past and future artists from the gallery's annual summer series, Scratching the Surface. The series "embrac(es) the Willamette River's powerful role in promoting culture through community and exploration." Featured artists include Josh Arseneau, Vicki Lynn Wilson, Marc Dombrosky, Shannon Eakins, Tim Folland, Jesse Hayward, Sean Healy, Ben Stagl, Grace Luebke, Mack McFarland, Gary Wiseman, Dana Vinger, Jo Ann Kemmis, John Vitale, and Adam Ross, as well as video recaps of several past projects. Opening reception • 6-9pm • August 8 Gallery Homeland • 2505 SE 11th AVE • 503.819.9656 Posted by Megan Driscoll on August 06, 2008 at 13:28 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 08.05.08 First Thursday Picks August 2008  Bobby Grossman, "Andy Warhol: Cornflakes," 1978 Traveling exhibition Bande à part (Band of Outsiders) is coming to Augen Gallery NW this month. A reference to the 1964 film by Jean-Luc Godard, the show is a collection of photographs from the New York underground scene in the 60's, 70's, & 80's. It is an "inside" look at the self-proclaimed "outsiders," including photography by Billy Name, Danny Fields, Leee Black Childers, Anton Perich, Roberta Bayley, Godlis, Marcia Resnick, and Bobby Grossman. This show is timed nicely with the Famous Faces exhibition at the Maryhill Museum. Opening reception • 5-8:30pm • August 7 Augen Gallery NW • 716 NW Davis • 503.546.5056 (More) Posted by Megan Driscoll on August 05, 2008 at 10:30 | Comments (2) PermalinkMonday 08.04.08 Must Read and OPB Peter Schjeldahl's latest
piece is a Must Read. It's one of those rare occasions where the critic's
analysis of the show is more worth while and telling than the exhibition
itself. The long and short of it is, the second artists start making gestures
at becoming very serious again we suddenly expect the work to transcend all
of the museum blockbusters and art fairs that have lowered the level of expectations
for art during the past decade. Finally, PS has taken on younger artists instead
of his typically brilliant laurel wreaths for the likes of Bruce Nauman and
Ed
Ruscha. We know those guys are good, what we want now is a new crop with
a similar level of rigor and achievement.
On a more regional level (but not strictly so), I'll be on Oregon Public Broadcasting's Think Out Loud tomorrow at 9:00 AM with curator Jennifer Gately, Dan Attoe and Richard Speer to discuss the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards and their impact on the regional art scene (though artists like Attoe have pretty bitch'n international careers already so it opens some complicated and impossible to categorize discussions of regionalism in an internationally decentralized art world). Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 04, 2008 at 17:01 | Comments (0) PermalinkDan Attoe & Craig Thompson talk at PAM  Dan Attoe, "You Are Vulnerable Just Like the Rest of Us," 2006 (View 1) Dan Attoe & graphic novelist Craig Thompson are speaking this week at PAM. They'll present their shared artistic influences, and "reflect on the contemporary American experience." Attendees are invited to visit the CNAA galleries for a discussion following the lecture. Unfortunately, the event conflicts with the First Thursday artwalk... So scheduling might be an issue. Artist lecture • 6pm • August 7 • Museum Admission applies Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811 Posted by Megan Driscoll on August 04, 2008 at 10:52 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 08.01.08 Last Chance Reviews Portland doesn't shut down its scene with a bunch of perfunctory Summer group shows like
a lot of cities. This July was no exception with a wonderful pile of more serious
shows, many of which come down this weekend. I'll also have a very long and involved review for one show up later this weekend. Till then here are a few waning
shows that deserve some more attention:
 Donald Morgan's Egyptian One Eighty at Rock's Box Donald Morgan's Hunters and Collectors at Rock's Box continues what has become the strongest altspace exhibition series in Portland since the Haze Gallery of 2004. The show itself is filled with tons of allegorical constructions that reference everything from Egyptian funerary accoutrements to the show's eponymous piece consisting of a zebra hide and mid century sportsmen's hats. It's all about the artist's rather catholic and somewhat syncretic tastes which for me felt like watching the discovery channel for an afternoon (not bad if the weather weren't so nice). Maybe it's not the best show Rock's Box has done recently as it feels a tad slick and referentially impressive for the sake of being academically impressive but still it's well done. Show ends Sunday August 3rd.  Owen's useless, incorruptible, secret at Reed College Melody Owen's show at Elizabeth Leach was all over the place, probably because the artist had literally been in Iceland, Paris and Quebec. I found her collages and sculptures to be her strongest suit… but it was her Caseworks show at Reed College's Hauser Library titled useless, incorruptible, secret that was the... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 01, 2008 at 15:16 | Comments (0) PermalinkSeattle Public Art Opportunity  From the Seattle Mayor's Office The Seattle Mayor's Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs wants to purchase 2D art from emerging Northwest artists. Correction: They have a $30K budget, they will purchase more than two works, judged by panel... The pieces will go into the Seattle Public Utilities' Portable Works Collection. The deadline for submission is August 25. For more application details, click here. Posted by Megan Driscoll on August 01, 2008 at 9:00 | Comments (5) Permalink |
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