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Portland art blog + news + exhibition reviews + galleries + contemporary northwest art
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Friday 01.30.09 Oregon Painting Society at Fontanelle  Interior of OPS's "UFO" The history of artist groups is incredibly important considering the way the Impressionists, The Nabis, Die Brucke, de Stijl, The Ten, the YBA's, Superflat, Royal Art Lodge, Forcefield and New Leipzig Schools all have left a lasting imprint. They often bring attention to art in out of the way places signaling a shift in the art world. If there was ever a time the art world needed a shift it is right now as the Miami art fairs or sales driven art ecology finds out Bernie Madoff has absconded with their trust fund money. It's time to get back to creating for art's sake... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 30, 2009 at 11:06 | Comments (0) PermalinkRight Brain Re: Logic  Brain Awareness 2k9: OHSU's The Right Brain Initiative is hosting a lecture on learning, the arts, and the brain next week. The panel discussion will be moderated by John Frohnmayer, former chairman of the NEA. Featured speakers include two leading researchers on the arts and cognition, Drs. Michael Posner and Helen Neville, and two members of Portland's creative community, famous advertiser Dan Wieden and Chris Coleman, artistic director of Portland Center Stage. After the lecture there will be a "creativity reception" with major Portland/Oregon arts groups. Tickets are $20 + fees. Panel lecture • 7pm • February 2 Portland Center for the Performing Arts • 1111 SW Broadway • 503.248.4335  Edgar Arceneaux, "The Alchemy of Comedy... Stupid" at the 2008 Whitney Biennial LA-based multi-disciplinary artist Edgar Arceneaux is speaking at next week's PMMNLS. Arceneaux "explores the origins and laws of our physical reality, using strategy in which linear logic is subverted and destabilized to create a space of experimentation." Recent works include The Alchemy of Comedy... Stupid at the 2008 Whitney Biennial, featuring actor David Alan Grier working out an introspective and frequently awkward comedy routine. Artist lecture • 7pm • February 2 PSU • 1914 SW Park • Shattuck Hall Room 212 Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 30, 2009 at 10:21 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 01.29.09 Spill-ennial  Liza Ryan Reed's Cooley Gallery presents SPILL, a film and photography installation by LA-based artist Liza Ryan. Ryan's work explores the liberation of the human psyche from the dimensions of reality, focusing on the psychological experiences of release and dispersal. The exhibition continues through March 8, featuring an artist talk in February in Reed's Eliot Hall room 314. Exhibition • January 29 - March 8 Artist talk • 6:30pm • February 20 Cooley Gallery • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. • Hauser Memorial Library  Stephanie Robison, "Oversight" The Tacoma Art Museum's 9th NW Biennial opens this weekend. TAM has had one of the more enduring annuals featuring regional artists, but in past years it has been a bit overcrowded and Seattle-skewed. Once again, there are only 5 Portland artists represented, but there should be some goodies. Stephanie Robison will be taking over the courtyard with a majorly expanded version of the above installation. (Note: Due to tinted glass, her piece will not be visible at night during the opening, so make the trip north early to see this gem in daylight.) The exhibition runs through May 25. Opening reception • 7:30-10pm • January 31 Tacoma Art Museum • 1701 Pacific Avenue Tacoma, Washington • 253.272.4258 Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 29, 2009 at 11:25 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 01.28.09 Arts Management Links Tyler Green has a superb and timely
interview with the Rose Art Museum's director, Michael Rush. It's a must
read for those following Brandeis' reprehensible decision to liquidate the Rose's
collection and dissolution of the museum. What becomes clear from the interview
is that this decision has nothing to do with the Rose's own financial standing
and everything to do with Brandeis' situation. The Rose even has its own healthy
endowment. Of course this is extremely relevant to Portland as PNCA
and The Museum of Contemporary Craft are pursuing a merger, for which I
urge extreme caution (Arcy's outright against it).... and this is partly why.
Look, even established gallery programs like Reed's Cooley and Lewis and Clark's
Hoffman gallery face ambivalence from important sections of their university
so visual arts programming is always a tricky balance, even without a formalized collection.
Art Scatter has a relevant article on arts management everyone should read too. Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 28, 2009 at 11:01 | Comments (0) PermalinkUndone  From "Undone" Karl Burkheimer and Jenene Nagy have organized a group show of work by post-bac students at the Oregon College of Art & Craft. Undone showcases projects in wood, ceramics, metals, photography and drawing and painting by a group of artists who have come to OCAC to "further their artistic practice in an art and craft environment," in a "re-investigation of art and learning." Featured artists include Soraya Sayani, Molly Purnell, Jacie Friedkin, Matt Wicks, Kimo Nelson, Pat Krishnamurthy, Johanna Keefe, Suzanne Lussier, Betany Porter, and Stephanie Brachmann. The show will run at Disjecta from January 31 through February 14. Gallery hours are Thu-Sun, 12-5pm, but watch out for unexpected closures- Disjecta's had some scheduling issues with performances and gallery availability in the last few shows. Exhibition • January 31 - February 14 Disjecta • 8371 N Interstate • 503.286.9449 Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 28, 2009 at 8:47 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 01.27.09 Economic and Cultural Crisis Links By now everyone has heard that Brandeis
University is planning to sell off its art collection. (I've had tons of
emails about this since last night and Tyler
is definitely on it). In short, this is reprehensible... just like the idea
of selling off the University
of Iowa's super important Guggenheim Mural by Jackson Pollock was. It also
underscores my concerns about a PNCA/MoCC merger. Institutions are defined by
their priorities and a University has to be very stable to consider having a
formalized collection under its care. Also, I believe that is where Obama's
stimulus package needs to think beyond financial institutions. Museums and Universities
are just as much the job creating entities that the automakers and lending institutions
are, in fact they will likely outlive them.
Here's what one recent museum world layoff recipient has been up to. AKA, if the model is broken, make a new model. Jerry Saltz discussed this interesting strategy for museums trying to deal with the current economic crisis, while still providing new programming. Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 27, 2009 at 15:10 | Comments (2) PermalinkPushup  Appendix gallery is opening its 2009 season with Pushup: new work by Calvin Ross Carl, Zack Davis and Joshua Pavlacky. Opening reception • 6-10pm • January 29 Appendix Project Space • In the alley b/w 26th & 27th on NE Alberta Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 27, 2009 at 9:43 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 01.26.09 Due North  Janice Vitkovsky, "Beneath the Surface II" Bullseye presents an exhibition of work from Scotland's North Lands Creative Glass. Due North celebrates the legacy of glass making in Scotland's highlands, featuring Jane Bruce, Lisa Cahill, Mel George, Deborah Horrell, Steve Klein, Dante Marioni, Catharine Newell, Robin Provart-Kelly, Bruno Romanelli, Louise Tait, and Janice Vitkovsky. Exhibition • January 27 - March 21 Artist panel • 2-4pm • March 22 Bullseye Gallery • 300 NW 13th • 503.227.0222 Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 26, 2009 at 9:44 | Comments (0) PermalinkSunday 01.25.09 Sammy Stays 
The AP is reporting that Sam Adams, our newly elected mayor is staying put amid some sex scandal I have barely any interest in other than I like living in a US city where sex scandals are kinda passé. Good for him and good for Portland. No, Adams isn't popular with all of PORT's staff or sponsors for the lies and a perception that he can be a bit "phoney" but I think this is a good development for Portland because there is work to do. Adams got elected in part because of his commitment to the arts as key to Portland's identity. Though his savvy in such things as artist live/work space and arts organizations is sometimes questionable, at least he is interested and any earlier pre-mayoral mistakes are educational opportunities. At least he has shown he is interested in listening to good and very obvious advice regarding 4.3 billion dollar bridges from PORT. Here's how we see it, PORT just doesn't care about sex scandals. We do care about art, design and aesthetics and we will evaluate him on those matters alone. Who knows, maybe a slightly humbler Adams will be a more effective mayor. Clearly he's going to have to regain confidence from a lot of people and some head scratching pet projects like the convention hotel are probably dead for now. Also, what does the mayor think about a 70 year old Portland art institution merging with a 100 year old one? LA's mayor definitely wasn't for MOCA merging with LACMA a few months ago. Also, note to the New York Times. The map you ran on Saturday is incorrect, that dot is near San Francisco, not Portland. Please make note of the correct dot in blue below. 
Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 25, 2009 at 23:17 | Comments (3) PermalinkFriday 01.23.09 Go Make Camp at PCC's Northview Gallery  Joseph Palazzo & Mark Smith The Painting as a Tent; the Tent as a Landscape; the Landscape as a Museum, 2002 Making Camp will be running January 8 through February 5 at the PCC Sylvania campus' North View Gallery (CT Building) and it definitely lives up to its name with a strong, coherent theme sustained throughout the show. Interestingly, the show's inspiration and title Making Camp came from the gallery's sylvan view and location, which holds a vague treetop Swiss Family Robinson air about it. The gallery's installation is dominated by the large works of Maria T D Inocencio's Canopy, Paula Rebsom's View of Mt. Hood from the Gallery and Theresa Redinger's The American Dream in Under 100 Pounds. Sadly, this show about camping doesn't take full advantage of the windowed forest aspect of the gallery's giant bay windows, but - for a last-minute show - it is amazing how many pieces are included in the space. ...(more) Posted by Alex Rauch on January 23, 2009 at 12:00 | Comments (0) PermalinkLooking Forward  Shigeru Takato, "Cologne V.," 2004 Lewis & Clark's Hoffman Gallery presents reGeneration, a group photography exhibition. Selected by three curators from Musée de l'Elysée, the show highlights some of the best work from emerging photographers around the globe. In an effort to explore the future of 21st century photographic practices, the curators used one question to guide their selections: Will this image be known in twenty years? Amongst over 150 remarkable images, featured work includes Keren Assaf's Untitled (Israel), an attempt to understand Israeli culture through the comparison of its aspirations with the American dream; Shigeru Takato's Cologne V. (above), part of his Television Studios series that exposes the hollow and blatantly artificial environments of the studio; and Untitled from Nicholas Prior's The Age of Man, where the photographer explores childhood as a social, not biological, construct. Exhibition • January 22 - March 15 Hoffman Gallery • 0615 SW Palatine Hill Rd • 503.768.7687  MK Guth, Ties of Protection and Safekeeping MK Guth will speak in the APEX Gallery at PAM this weekend about her installation Ties of Protection and Safekeeping. Read about the installation at the Whitney Biennial here. Artist lecture • 2-3pm • January 25 Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811  Michael Brophy, "Day" PMMNLS is back with celebrated local artist Michael Brophy, who paints vivid and often desolate images of the Northwest landscape. Artist lecture • 7pm • January 26 PSU • 1914 SW Park • Shattuck Hall Room 212 Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 23, 2009 at 11:04 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 01.22.09 Durost + Sisley  Jesse Durost, "Flags, Smoke, Comfort and Conflict" Fourteen30 presents the work of Portland-based Jesse Durost and LA-based John Sisley. Durost's Fabrications explore his "own vocabulary of architectural forms." In ENDGAMES, Sisley also creates a new spatial language, through "the erased or destroyed photograph, the lost or, unseen film, and the damaged record." Opening reception • 6-9pm • January 23 Fourteen30 • 1430 SE 3rd • 503.236.1430 Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 22, 2009 at 9:35 | Comments (0) PermalinkPNCA and Museum of Contemporary Craft become one? 
PNCA's Goodman building, one of 2008's two real estate acquisitions Isn't 2009 dynamic? maybe too dynamic. Still, Portland really can't let one of its major institutions, the Museum of Contemporary Craft, fail and PNCA still isn't quite whole yet after splitting from the Portland Art Museum in 1994 (disclosure PNCA is a PORT sponsor and I had a solo show there last April). Now this merger solution is being seriously considered by the boards of both MoCC and PNCA. My cautionary stance is thus: this proposal puts a lot of eggs in one basket and requires a lot of discipline to pull off. Put it this way, Portland loves to collaborate but it isn't great at creating well-defined (and thus fundable) institutions. Only PAM under Ferriso's tenure has really gotten things right in the institutional discipline sense and that example goes back only 2 years.  The Museum Of Contemporary Craft (photo Basil Childers) The idea of PNCA merging with (ie absorbing) the troubled Museum of Contemporary Craft has been kicking around for a few weeks and I feel cautious about this elegant solution of necessity becoming the mother of invention. For example, nobody wants PNCA to get overextended in juggling such a multinodal approach as they are already dealing with growing pains. There is a reason Reed, PSU, OCAC, PAM, PICA, L&C and PNCA don't combine into one silly Voltron like multi-robot, multi-acronym cultural monstrosity. Autonomy has advantages too, but in this case that might mean MoCC's demise and a continued hole in PNCA's progam. ...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 22, 2009 at 0:05 | Comments (6) PermalinkWednesday 01.21.09 Contemporary Textiles Two new exhibitions are opening Thursday at the Museum of Contemporary Craft:
Mandy Greer, "Dare alla Luce," installation shot Mandy Greer presents her installation Dare alla Luce. The term is an Italian idiom for giving birth that translates to "to give to the light." Simultaneously "mythical and mundane," the installation uses sewing, crochet, braiding, and beading processes to "collapse the language and materials of the ordinary with the spectacular and the epic." Exhibition • January 22 - May 31 Museum of Contemporary Craft • 724 NW Davis • 503.223.2654  Darrel Morris, "COACHES and athlete" MoCC will be the first West Coast institution to exhibit Darrel Morris' large embroidered works, featuring pieces from 1999-2008. Best known for "intimate and nostalgic snapshot-sized pieces," with this body of work Morris approaches new territory in scale, color, and line. Clipping figures from print media, Morris creates sharply graphic line drawings with thread. Exhibition • January 22 - May 31 Museum of Contemporary Craft • 724 NW Davis • 503.223.2654 Don't miss the panel discussion opening night. Stefano Catalani, curator from the Bellevue Arts Museum, will join MoCC curator Namita Wiggers and artists Mandy Greer and Darrel Morris for the latest lecture in MoCC's Craft Perspectives series. Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 21, 2009 at 8:57 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 01.20.09 Linking to History  A Shepard Fairey sticker The Art of Obama blog ran the inaugural address through wordle today. It probably isn't great art and definitely pales in comparison to the actual swearing in of Barak Obama but it's interesting how Presidential words get fetished. Americans only elect extremely strong leaders when we really need them like; Washington, Lincoln, the Rooseveldts and now Obama. As a historian I've felt weve been in need of our own Marshall Plan level reprioritization of our civic, cultural and individual values. Not since FDR have we had a President that is both willing and charged with such a task by his election mandate. In a cultural context, art does best when humans reconsider their priorities and instead of the straw man and rather deserved scapegoating of Bush the art world will need to truly investigate our options more fully than the past 8 years or so have given us. Art also needs peace and a certain stability to fully flourish, may the next four years provide it... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 20, 2009 at 11:30 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 01.19.09 First Opportunities Clark College's Archer Gallery is seeking a half-time curator and manager, with the possibility of teaching in the art department. They're looking for someone with at least three years of curatorial and installation experience who is well connected to the NW arts community and prepared to hire and teach work study students. Applications are due by February 26. Download the application materials here.
Seattle's SOIL gallery is seeking artists for their upcoming season. They're looking for proposals for group shows of 3+ people. They accept rolling submissions, but the deadline for this season is February 14. Submission guidelines can be found here. Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 19, 2009 at 10:52 | Comments (0) PermalinkSunday 01.18.09 Quality Pictures Closing-definitvely  It is official, one of Portland's newest and best art galleries, Quality Pictures, will close this coming Saturday (*Update to Update - it's going to take a bit of time before anything definitive can be stated. It definitely seems like business partnership restructuring drama and the gallery is currently closed with a contact on the door). It's best to just let this play out. ...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 18, 2009 at 21:01 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 01.16.09 Rachel Whiteread at PAM  Rachel Whiteread Internationally renowned British sculptor Rachel Whiteread will be exhibiting recent sculpture and works on paper in the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art at PAM. Using a variety of casting techniques, Whiteread "works with the empty and unexamined spaces" of domestic objects "rendering negative space as positive sculptural form." Her work explores both the form and reimagined meanings of quotidian objects and the materials she casts them in. Exhibition • January 17 - May 3 Portland Art Museum • 1219 SE Park • 503.226.2811 Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 16, 2009 at 10:13 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 01.15.09 Distinguished Guests in Oregon Museums 
Robert Motherwell, Elegy to the Spanish Republic (Basque Elegy), 1967 Oil on canvas 82 ¼ x 138 inches, Private Collection. Location: 2nd floor, JCMCA Portland Art Museum It has been a a year or two since we've seen a nice Robert Motherwell "Elegy" at the Portland Art Museum, but this latest guest is by far the nicest one I've seen in Portland in the near decade I've been living here. In case you are unfamiliar, Motherwell... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 15, 2009 at 12:02 | Comments (2) PermalinkTuesday 01.13.09 Art and Nature (Or an exploration of the emptiness of form and natural ordering systems)
 Albert Bierstadt, Mount Hood, Oregon 1869, Portland Art Museum. Every time I see this painting I am a little bit surprised, it always reveals a little something more about what it is like to live in the Pacific Northwest. I think that it was painted on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge looking south to Mt. Hood. Like most Bierstadt paintings, he s interested creating a representation of the mountain that might convey a larger truth about the land, or at least as he saw it. "It is quite commonly thought that the intellect is responsible for everything that is made and done. The intellect is a hazard in artwork. I mean, there are so many paintings that have gone down the drain because somebody got an idea in the middle." Agnes Martin in "Thin Gray Line" Vanity Fair, March 1989, p.56 Artists have always tried to find ways of translating and transforming nature in their work. In the Lascaux caves 25,000 years ago, it was the animals that they saw during their hunts. For the Greeks it was the beauty of the human body although I think that they were interested in the ideal of beauty rather than particular shapes of a single, living human being. Still, it was form of beauty and perfection that was based on the expression of natural forms. For painters like Leonardo Da Vinci nature was a system to be studied to make their paintings more true to our experience of daily life. He studied botany, anatomy and hydrodynamics to make his paintings more realistic and accurate of the creative forces of nature. For the best Chinese painters over the last thousand years, the natural world could be re-created in paintings and became a unique refuge where a person could get in touch with the forces of nature and find peace from busy lives. The paintings were never representational of a specific place but were literally formed by the creative forces of nature. A visit to a waterfall or a tall mountain was the direct experience of the contrasting forces of yin and yang by understanding all of the ways that they manifest themselves in nature. For the Chinese, the direct experience of nature, rather than its representation, was proof that we were a part of nature and that we had our own place in the universe.  Hubble Space Telescope,Milky Way Galaxy,2002. This essay has attempted to reframe the terms in which it is possible for an artist to address their relationship to nature. Artists do no have to be satisfied with engaging nature in a superficial way and that it is possible to use some of the deeper systems that nature uses to organize itself to create an experience that might be called art. Posted by Arcy Douglass on January 13, 2009 at 19:45 | Comments (0) PermalinkArt Spark January  This month's Art Spark, hosted by the Gilt Club, features Oregon College of Art & Craft president Bonnie Laing-Malcolmson. She will discuss the future of OCAC, and its relationship to the Portland arts community. Discussion group • 5-7pm • January 15 Art Spark at the Gilt Club • 306 NW Broadway Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 13, 2009 at 19:03 | Comments (0) PermalinkVogels give 50 works to Portland Art Museum  Richmond Burton, Untitled 1997, The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: 50 works for 50 States The Portland Art Museum has been given a generous gift of 50 works from super collectors Dorothy and Herbert Vogel. The Vogels, known for championing cutting edge minimalist and conceptual work are dispersing their 2500 work collection to 50 museums in 50 states. If you are unfamiliar with their story, it's worth checking out here and here.  Dorothy and Herbert Vogel living within their collection The Vogels weren't wealthy and lived in a small New York City apartment, yet managed to be some of the best collectors of artists like Richard Tuttle and Robert Mangold. Among the 50 works going to the Portland Art museum is Richmond Burton's "Untitled" from 1997, it's one of his best known works (probably because of the Vogels) and dovetails nicely with the Clement Greenberg Collection, acquired in 2000. Other artists included are John Hultberg and Dike Blair. PAM's Northwest Film center will screen Sasaki's documentary Herb and Dorothy on March 28th and 29th. Thank you Herbert and Dorothy Vogel for generously sharing your personal obsession with us, may you inspire others to follow your incredible example. (PS I always love it when PORT gets a scoop simply by reading the museum's membership magazine. Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 13, 2009 at 11:41 | Comments (1) PermalinkMaking Iconoclasts  Theresa Redinger PCC Sylvania's North View Gallery presents Making Camp, a group exhibition that capitalizes on the campus's treehouse setting. Featuring two artist-made tents, this 13 person show celebrates the outdoors with a wide range of media, from watercolor to video. Opening reception • 11:30am-1:30pm • January 15 North View Gallery • 12000 SW 49th Ave • CT 214 Building  Chelsea Geringer Curator Gail Brown presents The Next Iconoclasts at OCAC's Hoffman Gallery. The group exhibition focusing on altered expectations and revisionist identities, "features dramatically innovative work with evolutionary responses to historic precedents." Opening reception • 4-7pm • January 15 Hoffman Gallery • 8245 SW Barnes Road • 503.297.5544 Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 13, 2009 at 9:13 | Comments (0) PermalinkSunday 01.11.09 PORT's staff review of 2008  flying the Portland flag high in 2008 Worth the wait, 2008 was the most varied and adventurous year of art exhibitions since I moved to Portland nearly 10 years ago. You name it, I saw it; pornographic/existential beer signs, arch minimal multireferential ruminations on the corner of a room, Ed Ruscha's latest paintings, TV stations that broadcast a whopping 20 feet, videos with zebra suits, lots of photography, The Natzler's ceramics, a condo for bats, too many good lectures and lots of gallery shuffling... (more from Arcy, Ryan, Amy, Alex, Megan and Jeff) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 11, 2009 at 14:15 | Comments (7) PermalinkFriday 01.09.09 PMMNLS: Daniel Bozhkov  Darth Vader Tries to Clean the Black Sea With Brita Filter, 2000 On Monday, Bulgarian-born artist Daniel Bozhkov will speak for PSU's MFA Monday Night Lecture Series. Classically trained, Bozhkov incorporates his skill in Old Master techniques such as fresco to provide a basis for performance, video, and conceptual projects. Bozhkov invades modern worlds - from genetic science to shopping malls - as an "intruder/outsider" who introduces new strains of meaning into closed systems. Artist lecture • 7pm • January 12 PSU • 1914 SW Park • Shattuck Hall Room 212 Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 09, 2009 at 8:48 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 01.08.09 Weekend Picks  Stephen Chalmers First Friday got lost in the holiday shuffle this month, but there are several interesting shows opening this weekend. Newspace is featuring the work of photographers Stephen Chalmers and Nan Brown. Chalmers explores "psychologically charged spaces... while he coolly detaches such imagery from its popular tropes." His series Transience depicts Snowbirds, and the culture surrounding full time RV habitation. Brown's work looks at a similar American subculture. Trailers Collected depicts "the individualism and freedom intrinsic to American rural life," combating the trailer trash stereotype with an honest look into the diverse community of trailer owners and travelers. Opening reception • 7-10pm • January 9 Newspace Center for Photography • 1632 SE 10th • 503.963.1935 (More: Autzen Gallery, MK Gallery, PAM.) Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 08, 2009 at 15:33 | Comments (0) PermalinkThink Links Tyler Green's wonderful
remembrance of Betty Freeman illustrates the all important difference between
being a just a collector/donor and being a true patron. It's a deep... quantum level of involvement and personal investment in the artists and cultural organizations that makes a huge difference. I'm working on a historical
post that looks at influential patrons (a hot topic in Portland these days).
Randy Gragg interviewed Miguel Rosales about the two possible Willamette river bridge options. Man I miss Randy's contributions to the O, whose architecture coverage since his departure has flagged (though this piece by Brian Libby is a start... there really is no replacement for an architecture and design critic, except a full-time architecture and design critic... especially in a city where design is a major industry). Here's what PORT had to say on the new bridge designs a while back. We want new pictures of the wave design so we can more fully assess it... maybe there will be new images at Rosales upcoming talk on Monday night at Jimmy Mak's (door opens at 5)? Jerry Saltz ponders MoMA's recent sex change Yes, Ill have PORT's 2008 roundup posted by Saturday night (now that the show I've been assisting on had its wonderful opening last night... it is always art first). Here's Richard Speer's take on 2008. Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 08, 2009 at 12:25 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 01.07.09 Art School  Jason Adkins PCC's Cascade Gallery presents Modern Salvage, a group exhibition that reexamines late Modernist formal aesthetics. The show asks what it means to create work in this vernacular when it has been co-opted by the sleek commercial lines of IKEA. How do we reconcile the "classical" reductive aesthetic with the highly marketable department store Modernism? Featured artists include Matthew Letzelter, Kim McKenna, Sterling Lawrence, Matthew Green, Jason Adkins, and Jeff Koons. Opening reception • 5-8pm • January 9 Curatorial lecture • 4-5pm • January 26 PCC Cascade Gallery • 705 N. Killingsworth • Terrell Hall Room 102  The Social Practices students in PSU's MFA program present Extraordinarily Ordinary in PSU's White Gallery. The exhibition is the first in an experimental series showcasing the ongoing work of the Social Practices students. Student work and interactive projects will be on display in the White Gallery on a rotating basis - and this week's opening reception features a larger-than-life crossword. Opening reception • 5-8pm • January 8 PSU White Gallery • 1825 SW Broadway • Smith Building South Wing 2nd Floor Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 07, 2009 at 10:28 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 01.06.09 First Thursday Picks January 2009  Drake Deknatel, "Watch the Night," 2003 Elizabeth Leach presents Berlin Portraits, an exhibition celebrating the life and work of Drake Deknatel (1943-2005). Deknatel began this series after discovering a photograph of himself as a child, dressed in his father's flight jacket. The paintings explore childhood memory and experience, repeating the forms of child and adult until representational figures begin to blur back into abstraction, recounting the greater narrative of the image. Deknatel lived and worked in Seattle for over 20 years, but continued to maintain a studio in Berlin, where he exhibited widely. Opening reception • 6-9pm • January 8 Elizabeth Leach Gallery • 417 NW 9th • 503.224.0521 (More.) Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 06, 2009 at 9:53 | Comments (1) PermalinkMonday 01.05.09 Couture '09: Laura Fritz 
Laura Fritz, Evident (installation/detail view) The first big show of 2009 opens this week: Laura Fritz will launch the 2009 segment of NAAU's Couture exhibitions with Evident, one of the most anticipated shows of the series. Conceived and designed specifically for Couture, Evident also marks Fritz's first full scale solo appearance in Portland since 2003. (Although Interspace and Caseworks 13 made notable appearances.) Critically well-received, Fritz's installations elegantly manipulate and distort their surroundings, exploiting the cognitive dissonance created when space is subverted and no explanation is provided. She retains a high degree of control over her material even as she leaves meaning fully open ended, allowing "human nature to expose itself as a response and rationalization of the unknown." Opening reception • 6-9pm • January 7 New American Art Union • 922 SE Ankeny St. • 503.231.8294 Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 05, 2009 at 9:00 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 01.02.09 PMMNLS Winter '09  Lucky Dragons photographed by Michael Demeo PSU's MFA Monday Night Lecture Series (PMMNLS) returns next Monday for winter quarter. The first presenter of 2009 will be the music/performance/installation group Lucky Dragons. Made up of Luke Fischbeck, Sarah Rara, and collaborators, "Lucky dragons are about the birthing of new and temporary creatures--equal-power situations in which audience members cooperate amongst themselves, building up fragile networks held together by such light things as skin contact, unfamiliar language, temporary logic, the spirit of celebration, and things that work but you don't know why." Lecture • 7:30pm • January 5 PSU • 1914 SW Park • Shattuck Hall Room 212 Posted by Megan Driscoll on January 02, 2009 at 12:23 | Comments (0) PermalinkFirst Links of 2009 Roberta Smith looks
at an artist who turned obscurity into art. What this says to me is the
art world is looking to challenge the current cannon of noteworthy names...
again (I think this recent spate started with the rediscovering of Lee
Bontecou and James
Lee Byars).
Artnet had a good overview for the art world in 2008 here. The O has posted their 2008 roundup... I'll have PORT's very detailed, multifaceted roundup posted soon (I'm helping install a very technically demanding show). PORT's analysis should give everyone something meaty to chew on. Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 02, 2009 at 10:06 | Comments (6) PermalinkThursday 01.01.09 Last Weekend Ok it's 2009, but it is also the last weekend for these four interesting shows
held over from 2008.
Livia Marin, Form Follows Variation The Museum of Contemporary Craft's Manufractured. There are a lot of highlights in this massive group show, including Regis Mayot and Jason Rogenes (a personal favorite). Show runs through January 4th (it's free too but consider becoming a member) ...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 01, 2009 at 17:11 | Comments (1) Permalink |
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