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Portland art blog + news + exhibition reviews + galleries + contemporary northwest art
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Tuesday 09.30.08 First Thursday Picks October 2008  Jen DeNike, still from "Flag Girls" Quality Pictures presents Jen DeNike's Flag Girls, the first video installation in their "Video Trifecta" series. Recreating a found 1918 postcard depicting women wrapped in the American colonial flag, DeNike's Flag Girls are able to free themselves from the flag's "oppressive hold," humming the national anthem as they unwrap themselves and exit off-stage nude. The video has been well received in England and New York, described in the Guardian as "a suggestion of American nationhood perhaps being transfixed by almost terminal self-doubt." Opening reception • 6-9pm • October 2 Quality Pictures Contemporary Art • 916 NW Hoyt • 503.227.5060 (More) Posted by Megan Driscoll on September 30, 2008 at 9:15 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 09.29.08 First Wednesday?  Bean Gilsdorf, "Tinker, Tailor" Bean Gilsdorf's Handsome opens this week at the Albina Press coffee shop, featuring nine mixed-media panels. "Each work in Handsome features a single figure: a stylized company man in the mode of mid-century advertising illustrations. Each man observes, gestures, or manipulates as he is engaged in some mysterious pursuit, the motive for which is unseen." Show • October 1 - 31 Albina Press • 4637 N. Albina AVE • 503.282.5214  Christopher James Brown PCC's Cascade Gallery is featuring the work of Christopher James Brown. Tooling Around breaks free of the binary of art/craft, using glue, ink, and wood to create "non objective works of art." Utilizing extensive knowledge of furniture making and the basic forms of Modernist design, Brown "formulate(s) new conjectures of mastery." His exhibit will be on view October 1st through November 5th. Opening reception • 4-7pm • October 1 Artist talk • 4-5pm • October 8 PCC Cascade Gallery • 705 N Killingsworth in Terrel Hall, Room 102 • 503.978.5326 Posted by Megan Driscoll on September 29, 2008 at 9:30 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 09.26.08 End of September Reviews It's the last days for several worthy exhibitions, so here are some quick reviews
to pique your interest:
 Installation View, Bored Meeting (L), Invincible Air (R) Sean Healy's Life in Black and White at Elizabeth Leach Gallery presents his solidest work to date but it's somewhat undone by a hang that diffuses the themes of power, security and posturing. Taken in small vignettes the show works though. For example, Bored Meeting and Invincible Air both resonate with anyone who knows the business world… it's all about selling some truth between all the posture and ambition... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 26, 2008 at 17:03 | Comments (0) PermalinkCloepfil's 2 Columbus Circle  Cloepfil's MAD @ 2 Columbus Circle amongst its neighbors. Photo Michael Paul Oman-Reagan Brad Cloepfil's incredibly contentious 2 Columbus Circle opens tomorrow and the NYT's gives it some pretty faint praise along with a fair amount of criticism. Personally, I feel the project flies in the face of all these highly performative and histrionic buildings architects have been putting up lately and that is bold in a different way. The real question is how does it reframe the Columbus Circle and how well do its galleries work? It just seems like everyone wanted this thing to do a jig but what Brad has done is create a more useable and subtle building. I think there is room for subtle in New York. The architect aquits himself well in this interview from Architectural Record at Business Week's site. Also, check out part 1of PORT's interview with Brad Cloepfil and get ready for the super massive part 2, it's the longest interview we've ever done and I hope to have it up very soon so check back. Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 26, 2008 at 10:43 | Comments (0) PermalinkApex (of) Nature  Mark Dombrosky, APEX installation view This Sunday, current PAM APEX artist Mark Dombrosky will speak about his "artistic process and intentions." Dombroksy's work examines the social atmosphere of an American town, typically utilizing found scraps of paper to offer a glimpse into the lives of strangers. This installation presents a series of cardboard homeless signs found in the streets of Tacoma and Seattle, his careful embroidery over the script "reveal[ing] as much about language and place as human relationships and individual psychology," (Jennifer Gately). The exhibit will be on view at PAM through October 26. Artist lecture • 2pm • September 28 Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811  Vicki Lynn Wilson, conceptual drawing for "Fung-US" Opening this weekend: The 2008 Natural Cycles installation on Trillium Trail at Tryon Creek State Park. A collaborative project between the RACC, Oregon State Parks, and Friends of Tryon Creek State Park, the Natural Cycles project brings temporary forest art installations to the Trillium Trail each year. The five artists featured this year are Brennan Conaway, Portland, Oregon (Invader); Lee Imonen, Dexter, Oregon (The Source Series); Julie Lindell, Seattle, Washington (Nontrivial Pursuit); Jen Pack, Warrenton, Oregon (Forevergreen Tuffet) and Vicki Lynn Wilson, Portland, Oregon (Fung-US). The 2008-2009 installations will be unveiled on Saturday, followed by a $100/plate fundraising dinner. A free family day will be held on Sunday with hands-on art activities along the trail. Forest art installation • September 27, 2008 - Summer, 2009 Tryon Creek State Park • Close-in Portland, see website for directions Posted by Megan Driscoll on September 26, 2008 at 10:29 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 09.25.08 Friendlier Fire 
Bruce Conkle's Do You Feel Lucky Punk? Rocksbox presents Bruce Conkle, "de facto king of the Pacific NW eco-art-geeks," currently showing Eco Takers at the State University of New York at SUNY Oswego. Friendlier Fire is "an exhibition of the prime-evil, using the primordial poop of the earth and the detritus of our caffeine fueled society hell bent on self-destruction." Opening reception • 7-11pm • September 27 Rocksbox • 6540 N Interstate • 971.506.8938 Posted by Megan Driscoll on September 25, 2008 at 9:15 | Comments (3) PermalinkWednesday 09.24.08 The Henry announces The Brink art award The Henry in Seattle has announced The Brink,
a biennial art award (funded by the Behnke's) that will go to a single deserving
artist from Oregon, Washington or British Columbia. Similar to the CNAA's
it will take nominations from local art worlders. Check out the details at The
Stranger. I'm particularly tickled that they are including Canada in the mix.
Art awards galvanize a more civic discussion over an artists work as well as the
region's overall support for interesting new art, so you can never really have
too many art awards.
Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 24, 2008 at 14:28 | Comments (0) Permalinkfourteen30 opens  Devon Oder, "Bleed #7 (Cloud)" Jeanine Jablonski's new gallery, Fourteen30, debuts this Friday with Devon Oder's Breaking Light. Oder's work uses film and lenses to manipulate photography and create surreal, mysterious landscapes. The exhibition's title refers to the physical processes of breaking up the Polaroid chemical emulsion and distorting light through trees, prisms, lenses, etc. Her images challenge "both the technical processes [of photography] and the phenomenological experience of the viewer." A specialty art bookstore will also open inside the gallery, including works published by Museum Paper (Stockholm), 2nd Cannons (Los Angeles), Nieves (Zurich), and JRP|Ringier (Zurich). Inaugural Reception • 6-9pm • September 26 Fourteen30 Contemporary • 1430 SE 3rd AVE • 503.226.1430 Posted by Megan Driscoll on September 24, 2008 at 8:21 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 09.23.08 Be What?: Ryan Trecartin's "I-Be Area"  " I-Be Area", Ryan Trecartin 2008, Courtesy Elizabeth Dee Gallery I Be Areaaaaaaaaaaaauhhhhhhh. Who you be. What you be. When you be you, I'll be me. . .but I have to indulge first. Call me by My Space and my color. Say what you mean PLEASE. Because I AM TIRED and so fucking bored. . . . All this non linearity is making me hungry for profundity. Poetry is the buzz word of a generation bloated from its deficiencies in Diet Coke and Sartre. What's my name? What's my Name? WHAT'S MY NAME? Uh. Say my name. say my name. say my name. When no one is around you, say, "Baby, I love you." Did you hear me? I can't believe this is happening! Where is he, Paulo? The muffins are burning! Urgency in all of these emergencies, but I didn't do it for the right reason. I asked him for more. It's just not fair that I'm an artist; my mother made me this way. She just doesn't understand bright yellow ambition. Fuck it. Calvin Klein never wanted any of this. But in Sally's world, he is God, and you know what that means: more sunscreen. So much fun and so little time. So much freedom and so much imovie. The abstract striation of thoughts and impulses to be found and gorged upon in Ryan Trecartin's film "I-Be Area" is an invitation to both freedom and farce. Featured in this year's Time Based Art Festival, "I-Be Area" stood alone in film and genre in the midst of the rest of the festival. . .(more) Posted by Amy Bernstein on September 23, 2008 at 9:00 | Comments (2) PermalinkNatural Selection, Art Focus  Hilary Pfeifer, "Natural Selection," installed at Ogle This week's Art Focus on KBOO will feature Hilary Pfeifer. She'll be speaking about her Natural Selection exhibition on view at Ogle Gallery this month. The installation consists of a small greenhouse, filled with plants following a very human process of mate selection. You can also hear her speak at the gallery this Saturday. Radio Interview • 10:30-11am • September 25 Art Focus • 90.7 FM • Live Stream Artist lecture • 1pm • September 27 Ogle Gallery • 310 NW Broadway • 503.227.4333 Posted by Megan Driscoll on September 23, 2008 at 8:10 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 09.22.08 Falcon Artist Community & Suddenly Booklaunch There have been a host of events in the past week, but here are some pics of the Falcon Art Community's open house on the 18th and yesterday's Suddenly: where we live opening + booklaunch & psychedelic sprawl at Reed.
Falcon Art Community 
The Falcon Art Community by developer Brian Wannemaker may be the most successful new attempt at artist live/work space in Portland. Being at the busy intersection of Albina and...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 22, 2008 at 12:56 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 09.19.08 Jeff Koons at MCA Chicago  Installation view of Jeff Koons at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, May 31 - September 21, 2008. Photos © Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Photos by Nathan Keay. How much a person in the art world loves and or hates Jeff Koons mostly depends on how much they appreciate how thoroughly he manages the viewer's experience and expectations. For some it is too patronizingly complete and for others it's an open-ended parody of how patronizing a lot of art is. For the more casual viewer he's one of the few contemporary artists who can be practically guaranteed a response, which is rare and deserves serious attention. To put it mildly, he is a master of the conflicted pop response (like Warhol before him and Hirst after) and it is those other two artists that help bracket and benchmark our understanding of him... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 19, 2008 at 18:16 | Comments (6) PermalinkLast Minute Semi-Public Art  Eric Tillinghast, "Verticle Multichrome" Tonight the Oregon Arts Commission is unveiling two new site-specific public works at PSU. Eric Tillinghast's Verticle Multichrome and Steven Beatty and Laurel Kurtz's JUICY II will appear in the ceiling alcove on the second floor of the Ondine residence hall. Learn more about recent and upcoming OAC public art exhibitions in this PDF. Unveiling • 6-8pm • September 19 PSU Ondine Hall • 1912 SW Sixth Avenue Posted by Megan Driscoll on September 19, 2008 at 15:47 | Comments (0) PermalinkLena McGrath Welker  Lena McGrath Welker, "[chart] folio" PCC Rock Creek's Helzer Gallery presents Lena McGrath Welker, winner of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation award. The latest work in her Navigation cycle, Navigation [chart] is "an intellectually and physically complex installation that investigates our responses in times of grief and loss." Using maps, texts, and symbols, Welker charts our search for answers in the night sky. Welker will speak on this and related work in early October in PCC Rock Creek's Forum (Building 3). Exhibition • September 22 - November 12 Artist talk • 3pm • October 3 Helzer Art Gallery • 17705 NW Springville Rd. Building 3 • 503.244.6111 x3434 Posted by Megan Driscoll on September 19, 2008 at 9:39 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 09.18.08 Artist talk & art book sale Saturday  Hildur Bjarnadottir, "Blue Doodle" Icelandic artist Hildur Bjarnadottir will speak this weekend at Pulliam Deffenbuagh. One of four artists currently featured in Blurring the Line: art of thread, Bjarnadottir adopts the "handwork" of her native Iceland as she "unravels its traditions within the context of contemporary art." Artist talk • 11:30am • September 20 Pulliam Deffenbaugh • 929 NW Flanders • 503.228.6665 Also happening this weekend: Come to PAM this weekend for their annual book sale. Get your hands on art books, auction catalogs, and more for great prices and a great cause: All proceeds benefit the museum. Saturday, September 20, 10am - 5pm Sunday, September 21, 12pm - 5pm Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • Mark Building Posted by Megan Driscoll on September 18, 2008 at 7:37 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 09.17.08 Suddenly, Sound  From suddenly.org The Cooley Gallery is holding a reception & "unfolding event" for Suddenly: where we live now. Swing by the gallery from 5-7pm to check out the installed works, then head over to the Student Union for Psychedelic Sprawl, "music, conversation, disorientation, food, and drink," featuring presentations and performances by Mostlandia. You can follow this ongoing series of exhibitions and public events at www.suddenly.org. Reception • 5-7pm • September 21 Psychedelic Sprawl (Student Union) • 7-10pm • September 21 Cooley Gallery • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. • Hauser Memorial Library  From "Volume" Don't miss Volume's curator tour by PORTstar Jeff Jahn this weekend. He'll be joined by several artists to talk about the work in the show, which was positively reviewed by the Mercury and the Willamette Week. Learn more about the exhibition here, and check out photos from the show on Flickr. Also, don't miss the lecture next week by Arun Jain, Chief Urban Designer, City of Portland. Curatorial tour • 2pm • September 21 Lecture • 7pm • September 23 Worksound • 820 SE Alder • mojomodou@gmail.com Posted by Megan Driscoll on September 17, 2008 at 10:23 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 09.16.08 Jennifer Gately Resigns Word has it PAM's first Arlene Schnitzer Curator of Northwest Art, Jennifer
Gately has quit. She certainly has had a challenging role to fulfill (bridging
historical and contemporary concerns) and PORT thinks her record of mostly positive
reviews here says it all... it certainly gives an accurate picture of what kind
of curator she is. Also her recent re-install of the Hoffman galleries is spacious and uncluttered (if only the rest of the collection were the same... I hear a re-install is coming). Her eventual replacement will inherit an exciting and
challenging situation in one of the country's most active art scenes.
Here are our reviews and other posts in chronologically descending order: 2008 Contemporary Northwest Art Awards Jenene Nagy Marcus Rothkowitz ...a painting that should be in the collection Wes Mills Chris Johanson Roy McMakin 2006 Oregon Biennial Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 16, 2008 at 17:30 | Comments (1) PermalinkGlauber Lecture  Fanny Van Duyn, ca. 1907 Tomorrow night, Newspace hosts an Oregon Chautauqua program from the Oregon Council for the Humanities. Carol Glauber will lecture on four distinctive female Northwest photographers between 1852 and 1917. These women emerged from at least 233 women working at the time, documenting "the Columbia River Gorge, Native Americans, and the early development of the Klamath Basin [to] provide a window into [Oregon's] history that reflects community, culture, and gender." Lecture • 7pm • September 17 • Free Newspace Center for Photography • 1632 SE 10th AVE • 503.963.1935 Posted by Megan Driscoll on September 16, 2008 at 15:57 | Comments (0) PermalinkArtSpark September  This month's ArtSpark has relocated to the ArtBar in the PCPA building. The discussion will be hosted by Arts Partners, an initiative to connect artists and arts organizations with schools. They'll be outlining upcoming opportunities for artists interested in working in classrooms. ArtSpark • 5-7pm • September 18 (and every 3rd Thursday) ArtBar • SW Broadway & Main • 503.432.9205 Posted by Megan Driscoll on September 16, 2008 at 10:18 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 09.15.08 Crap art, condos, wind towers and green art Donald Kuspit considers the history
of shit in art.
Despite the crashing stock market today there will be new condos by HdeM and OMA in NYC... both have already broken ground and something tells me the people who already bought their penthouses will still be able to afford these. Funny how NYC can get cool condos by HdeM and Koolhaas but hasn't been capable of realizing museums designed by these two topnotch talents. Architecture is always defined by the client and though I'm sure the condos will be nice... no high density residential design can hope to take very many chances... and certainly not as many as a museum project could conceivably afford. Portland Architecture discusses a potential 600 foot observation tower in Portland's city's center (it is also a wind power generator). I want to see pics ASAP... this could be great if the design is up to snuff (an icon of Portland's new and bolder commitment to a better way of living) or tragic if it isn't. *Update Brian Libby has published the images and weighs in. Also, Randy Gragg of Portland Spaces has interviewed the developer. In a related post Edward Winkleman explores the effect of global warming on art and design. Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 15, 2008 at 10:54 | Comments (0) PermalinkSaturday 09.13.08 Gertrude & Otto Natzler at MoCC  Bright Blue Bowl, 1968; Ceramic; 5.25 x 3 inches diameter; Museum of Contemporary Craft Gift of Tom Hardy photo Dan Kivitka This September plays host to some of Portland's most spectacular, erudite and heavy hitting shows in recent memory but the one I keep coming back to is an oasis of quiet mastery, The Ceramics of Gertrude and Otto Natzler at the Museum of Contemporary Craft. It's a return of sorts since the museum organized a retrospective of the Natzlers in 1975 when MoCC was then called the Contemporary Crafts Gallery. Maybe it's the renewed interest in everything mid 20th century or the way it makes difficult things look so easy with its incredibly rare display of virtuosity. Maybe it is the daunting consistency and experimentation of this husband and wife team who fled the Nazis in 1937 but somehow this feels like the show that must not be missed... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 13, 2008 at 10:01 | Comments (0) PermalinkZidane  Still from Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait by Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno I went and saw Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait by Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno which is part of PICA's TBA Festival 2008 at the Northwest Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium at the Portland Art Museum on Friday night. I thought that the film was extraordinary. It raises some basic questions about how we choose to engage our environment or experience. I learned that it is our awareness of our own attention which informs whether we are actively or passively engaged in our experience. The structure of the film is pretty straight forward. There are 17 cameras that are focused on a famous soccer player named Zidane. Unlike watching soccer on television, these cameras are always on Zidane whether he has the ball or not. The film is a compilation of images from all of these cameras and are edited to follow the flow of the soccer game that took place in 2005. Unlike some of his fans, I had heard of Zidane but I did not follow his career so I was able to see Zidane as a man playing soccer rather as a hero of European soccer. If you are fan of his, your experience will be different than mine. Like the best films, very subtle changes in perception end up making a big difference. (More...)  Still from Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait by Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno Posted by Arcy Douglass on September 13, 2008 at 9:20 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 09.12.08 Hirst's Castle Yes, I'm still on the road but we will have a great review for you saturday. Plus I have reviews of Jeff Koons at the MCA, an interview with one of the most exciting young artists today, then there's part II of PORT's interview with Brad Cloepfil (here's part I) and a round robin of exciting museum shows in the Midwest. Dang that is a lot of stuff... Plus PORT's other writers are covering Portland.
 Damien Hirst's The Kingdom of The Father at PAM last Fall To tide you over Tyler Green considers some of the latest Hirst coverage in Time. My take, "journalists" are primarily a knee jerk reaction in the written record and they are probably pretty sick of having Hirst jerking them every month for the past 15 years. They are kind of addicted to him but nothing they say about him changes anything anymore... so it feels like everyone is on automatic pilot and everyone feels a little used. I'm a historian so I don't have the twitchy fingers of a journalist... so I'll make this historical prediction, Hirst is going to be THE artist of the 90's and likely the aughts as well. Sure not all of his work is great but a great deal of it is very good compared to the rest of Chelsea's best fare. My favorite stuff was in the 90's (way better than Matthew Barney in the aughts) but I still think he turns out enough good work to take seriously now... just like Koons he's in it for the long haul and has entered that point where he's competing only with himself. Hirst is still the artist who best exemplifies our age. Life, death, Pop, minimalism, media tweaking/manipulation etc... he has it all. Including a penchant for avoiding museums. For more Hirsting here is Arcy's review of Hirst's show last year at PAM and my review of a then newly unveiled Hirst in a group show at PAM. Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 12, 2008 at 9:56 | Comments (2) PermalinkWednesday 09.10.08 Iron Artist  "The sculpture competition that's one part Iron Chef and two parts Junkyard Wars." That says it all- come check out the festivities, featuring a wild and crazy sculpture competition, music, food, a beer garden, and more. All proceeds benefit the School & Community Reuse Action Project (SCRAP). More info and schedule of events can be found here. Competition 11am - 2:30pm • Festivities until 7pm September 13 • SE 2nd @ Main & Salmon Posted by Megan Driscoll on September 10, 2008 at 11:15 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 09.09.08 Beyond Green  Michael Rakowitz, "paraSITE" Lewis & Clark's Hoffman Gallery presents Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art. The exhibition features an international group of artists exploring "the convergence of art, design, and sustainability," and this is its only stop in the Northwest. Three overlapping themes guide the grouping of the works: objects, structures, and processes/networks. Each features a creative restructuring of humans' relationship to our world, such as Michael Rakowitz's paraSITES (above). These portable structures, inflated and heated by the air from city buildings, offer an "unconventional" shelter for the homeless. The exhibition runs through December 7. Opening reception • 5-7pm • September 11 Hoffman Gallery at Lewis & Clark • 0615 SW Palatine Hill Rd. • 503.768.7687 Posted by Megan Driscoll on September 09, 2008 at 11:45 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday links I'm in beautiful Des Moines Iowa, home of the fantastic Des Moines Art Center and Ill have some things for you later today and tomorrow. Till then here are some links.
Jerry Saltz takes a look at the somewhat indecisive curatorial directions of MoMA and the Guggenheim... with some analysis on how it might change with new leadership situations. The Capital A art blog from Glass Tire has a pie graph of geographical distributions for the Texas Biennial. Ahhh some things never change, like the statistical analysis of survey shows. Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 09, 2008 at 9:13 | Comments (2) PermalinkMonday 09.08.08 Side by Side  PSU's second year MFA candidates in studio & social practice will be showing their work at the Autzen gallery. Side by Side features artists Katy Asher, Steve Baggs, Vanessa Calvert, Varinthorn Christopher, Damien Gilley, Bethany Hays, Avalon Kalin, Laurel Kurtz, Sandy Sampson, Rebecca Shelly, Cyrus Smith, and Eric Steen. The exhibition runs from September 8 through October 4, and there will be a closing reception for the artists. Closing reception • 5-7pm • October 4 PSU Autzen Gallery • 724 SW Harrison St. Posted by Megan Driscoll on September 08, 2008 at 9:31 | Comments (0) PermalinkSaturday 09.06.08 Barney and the Boundary: Barnett Newman's 18 Cantos at PAM  Barnett Newman 18 Cantos, 1963-64 A portfolio of 18 lithograph prints and one cover page Copyright 2008 Barnett Newman Foundation I should say that it was the margins made in printing a lithographic stone that magnetized the challenge for me from the very beginning. No matter what one does, no matter how completely one works the stone (and I have always worked the stone, as soon as it is printed) makes an imprint that is surrounded by inevitable white margins. I would create a totality only to find it change after it was printed-into another totality...There is always the intrusion of the paper frame. To crop the extruding paper or to cover it with a mat or to eliminate all of the margins by "bleeding" is an evasion of this fact. It is like cropping to make a painting. It is success by mutilation...The struggle to overcome this intrusion-to give the imprint its necessary scale so that it could have its fullest expression, so that it would not be crushed by the paper margin and still have a margin- that was the challenge for me. That is why each canto has its own personal margins...These eighteen cantos are then single, individual expressions, each with its unique difference. -Barnett Newman, "Preface to 18 Cantos," 1964 The problem of the boundary, or how a work a work relates beyond the borders of work to engage the periphery, drove some of the most interesting work of the 60s. The boundary is how the viewer is able to separate the inside of a work from the outside or how a work separates or integrates itself with the outside world. It goes by many names: the frame, the pedestal, the border and the edge to list a few. It is how a viewer locates themself as they are exploring a work. Barnett Newman's 18 Cantos are no exception and are especially interesting because they specifically highlight issues of boundary that might be latent and misunderstood in his paintings. For Newman, the printmaking process left an artifact that brought the idea of the boundary to the forefront of his thinking. His articulation of the problems of the boundary also coincided with work by other artists of the 60s including Donald Judd, Dan Flavin and later even Mark Rothko who had done some of the most advanced thinking on the subject. Perhaps no issue is now more critical than the boundary because it is ultimately about how artists integrate their work with the world around us. Newman's 18 Cantos are now on display at the Portland Art Museum. More...  Donald Judd Untitled, 1989 Aluminium and blue plexiglas Copyright 2008 Donald Judd Foundation Posted by Arcy Douglass on September 06, 2008 at 17:34 | Comments (1) PermalinkFriday 09.05.08 Friday links I'm traveling right now but I'll have several posts for you in the next two days, including a review this weekend. I've already seen an incredible show called Sensory Overload in Milwaukee and I've yet to make my way through Chicago etc. Till then check out:
Holland Cotter's take on official Chinese propaganda art Time's interview with Ann Temkin, MoMA's new chief curator of painting and sculpture It's nice to see the WWeek doing artist interviews again and the recent interview with Sean Healy is hopefully the sign of more to come. Here's PORT's review of Healy's last solo show for comparison's sake. Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 05, 2008 at 9:30 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 09.04.08 First Friday Picks September 2008  Jim Kazanjian Jim Kazanjian's Untitled works seek to produce an "entropic" series of images. Fragmenting photographic space, Kazanjian attempts to break down the "linear" visual plane, and create something entirely new in its reconstruction. Opening reception • 6-9pm • September 5 Pushdot Studio • 1021 SE Caruthers St. • 503.224.5925 (More.) Posted by Megan Driscoll on September 04, 2008 at 12:01 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 09.03.08 VK6  The 6th Vinyl Killers show is seeking submissions. Vinyl Killers is an exhibition of international vinyl art, launched in 2003. The submission deadline is October 8, and more details can be found on their website. Posted by Megan Driscoll on September 03, 2008 at 11:09 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 09.02.08 First Thursday Picks September 2008  The Yes Men TBA starts this week, and hidden amongst the opening night activities is one of the most exciting shows on this month's First Thursday circuit: The first major exhibition of The Yes Men. This artist/activist group has become (in)famous for infiltrating events like the GO-EXPO, Canada's largest oil conference, and successfully obliterating perceived limits of social and business norms. For TBA, they've installed KEEP IT SLICK: Infiltrating Capitalism With The Yes Men at PNCA. KEEP IT SLICK features "elaborate costumes, slapstick videos, outrageous posters and props ... exhibited alongside new works produced for this exhibition." The Yes Men will also present a workshop this weekend giving insight into their methods and How to be a Yes Man. Opening reception • 5-8pm • September 4 Workshop • 3-4pm • September 6 PNCA Feldman Gallery • 1241 NW Johnson St. • 503.226.4391 Much more! Posted by Megan Driscoll on September 02, 2008 at 10:59 | Comments (2) PermalinkMonday 09.01.08 A lil reading The Guardian got
ambushed at the Rothko Chapel.
The NYT's reviews Looking at Music at MoMA... does anybody question Bowie's influence musically or visually? ...or is that something only his kid's might be able to do? Peter Plagens has published first two installments of his on line novel The Art Critic on Artnet. Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 01, 2008 at 19:01 | Comments (2) PermalinkAnomaly  Eugenia Pardue, from "Anomaly" Described as "almost sculptural," Eugenia Pardue's painting transforms the Linfield Gallery into a site specific installation. Using tools to "braid, mold, and weave" her thick paint, Pardue's work crawls off the canvas to interact with the viewer. Opening reception • 6-8pm • September 3 Artist talk • 4pm • September 24 Linfield Gallery • 900 SE Baker St. McMinnville at the Miller Fine Arts Center • 503.883.2804 Posted by Megan Driscoll on September 01, 2008 at 12:02 | Comments (0) Permalink |
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