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Portland art blog + news + exhibition reviews + galleries + contemporary northwest art
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Friday 05.29.09 Greer and Ides, catch these busy shows on their last days  Mandy Greer at MoCC, photo © Kenneth Aaron, Neighborhood Notes I've visited Mandy Greer's Dare alla Luce several times but it works best when a lot of sunlight streams in from MoCC's windows to create real shadows amongst the various painted shadowplay graphics on the walls. Overall, It's a daring if a bit redundant show of crocheted chandeliers that traffic in a biomemetic language that pays homage to the Pacific Northwest's rain forests and maybe a rococo inflected Eva Hesse meets yarn influence... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 29, 2009 at 13:00 | Comments (0) Permalinkslaughterhouse  Micki Skudlarczyk, "Well Finished," installation view Micki Skudlarczyk's Well Finished is currently on view at Launch Pad. During her artist residency in Mexico in 2008, Skudlarczyk "developed a relationship with the small slaughter community in & around the village of Cholul, where she experienced the process of animal slaughter from start to finish first hand. Well Finished investigates the artist's philosophical & emotional struggle between her reverence for the animals that we eat & her dismay at the pain & fear they sometimes experience at the moment of death." She'll be giving an artist talk and slide lecture on the experience and installation this weekend on the final day of the show. Artist lecture • 1pm • May 31 Launch Pad Gallery • 534 SE Oak St. • 971.227.0072 Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 29, 2009 at 9:59 | Comments (0) PermalinkRACC, CAN and does emerge in 2010 with a strong budget Even in these tough times Portland is beginning to make arts funding a priority by
announcing yesterday that the:
Portland City Council approved the FY10 city budget with a $4,325,300 allocation to the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC), including whole funding for most RACC programs. The budget, which was approved 5-0, also includes additional one-time funds for the Creative Advocacy Network to deliver a regional, sustainable dedicated funding solution for arts and culture funding as well as The Right Brain Initiative to support integrated arts education programs. Yes PORT can be hard on RACC for not being challenging enough sometimes (for public art and individual project grants), still this is a major victory for them in these difficult times. They have been making steady progress in the past few years and this only consolidates their gains. Congratulations are in order as this allows them to continue the momentum. If you want to count more beans there is more info from RACC here. Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 29, 2009 at 0:00 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 05.28.09 Seeing the Sun Tunnels another way  Obviously, looking at land art is very different than your typical gallery experience and the environmental conditions exert a powerful, ever changing influence. Generally that environmental presence is part of the piece and while on a land art sojourn PORT's Arcy Douglass found a particularly dramatic way to take in the normally quiet Sun Tunnels by Nancy Holt... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 28, 2009 at 9:09 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 05.27.09 install & bomb  Joshua Pavlacky Joshua Pavlacky presents Towards the Scrambled Egg, "an installation exploring landscape and spatial manipulation" at Appendix Project Space. Opening reception • 8pm-12am • May 28 Appendix Project Space • South alley b/w 26th & 27th on NE Alberta  The ZooBombers' Holy Pyle minibike sculpture has found a permanent home. Designed in conjunction with local artists Brian Borello and Vanessa Renwick, the Pyle has been relocated to 13th & W Burnside. The unveiling party this weekend starts at the Holy Rack at 10th & SW Oak at 4pm and will parade to the new location around 5. Public art party • 4pm • May 29 ZooBombers • Downtown Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 27, 2009 at 10:34 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 05.26.09 goldyne on van hoesen  Beth Van Hoesen, "Sally," 1979 California artist Joseph Goldyne is lecturing this week on northern California printmaking and its relationship to Beth Van Hoesen's prints, on view at PAM through August 16, 2009. Arts lecture • 6-7:30pm • May 28 Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811 Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 26, 2009 at 11:49 | Comments (0) PermalinkWrong-headed linking Is the Hybrid Bridge dead? It better not be! Portland Architecture reports there is a rising possibility of an all out war
between Portland's design community and Trimet, which many suspect has rigged
the Hybrid Bridge over the Willamette to fail
while negotiating Trimet's rather design-blind decision making criteria.
Seriously, something is very wrong in Portland's civic process if good design
isn't given serious attention for its bridges like the new Willamette
Span or the Columbia
River Crossing. If Portland is to continue being the international design
hub it has increasingly become, we must walk the walk. Besides, in "bridge city"
we need especially well-designed bridges not just functional eyesores. Seriously,
this simply cannot stand and the design/arts community needs to pool all of
their networks and fight for good civic design. (aka the Rosales designed Hybrid
Bridge and a design
competition for the CRC). The process is broken, fix it! Tell Trimet what you think here.
 Francis Bacon's "Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X" 1953, Des Moines Art Center, Iowa Roberta Smith takes on the Francis Bacon retrospective at the Met and massively oversimplifies the painter. Though it's an important feature of the work, the male on male aspect isn't Bacon's only claim to preeminence... remember post WWII Europe was an open sore of burnt out cities...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 26, 2009 at 10:39 | Comments (6) PermalinkThursday 05.21.09 Signalled From the Periphery  Dinh Q. Lê, Signs and Signals From the Periphery, installation view The sound of rushing water greets visitors as they walk into the Elizabeth Leach Gallery. Not the calming sound of a river, but the insistent, pounding surge of a pump pouring full force into a plastic bucket. It brings just a little bit of the chaos of a street in Ho Chi Minh City to this quiet gallery on a quiet block in Portland, Oregon. (More.) Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 21, 2009 at 10:09 | Comments (1) Permalinkmary henry  Mary Henry, "Full Moon Over the Mendocino Headlands," 1971 Sadly, PORT has just learned that painter Mary Henry passed away yesterday. Read Arcy's interview with her on PORT. Then go see an installation of her works from various periods @ PDX across the hall. Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 21, 2009 at 9:09 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 05.20.09 all you need to make a film is a girl and a gun  Anna Karina, 1966 The NW Film Center presents a special screening of Jean-Luc Godard's Made in USA, his final collaboration with Anna Karina. "Boldly cartoonish, from its color schemes to its quotation-marked characters to its treatment of screen violence, Made in USA is dedicated to American crime movies (specifically those of Sam Fuller and Nicolas Ray), and is a politically fueled deconstruction of the genre." There will be two screenings every day this weekend. Film screenings • May 22 - 24, 2009 NW Film Center • 1219 SW Park • Whitsell Auditorium Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 20, 2009 at 11:09 | Comments (1) PermalinkTuesday 05.19.09 tons of opportunities  Louise Lawler, "Writers Should Be Well Paid," 1993/95 Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation are seeking submissions for their 2009 arts writers grants, which range from $3,000 to $50,000 depending on the needs and scope of the project. The program is "designed to encourage and reward writing about contemporary art that is rigorous, passionate, eloquent and precise, as well as to create a broader audience for arts writing..." Application deadline is June 8, learn more here. (More: The Grid, Krakow residency, Littman & White Galleries, PDX tattoos for PAM.) Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 19, 2009 at 10:11 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 05.18.09 more psu mfa shows  Katy Asher presents Box Set: The M.O.S.T. Remastered at PSU's Autzen Gallery. For the show, "Asher reconfigures the gallery space into a museum displaying the complexities and rewards of working as part of a collaborative arts group." Box Set creates an "interpretive archive space" exploring the activities of the former M.O.S.T. art/social group. The show runs May 18 - May 29, 2009. Closing reception • 6-9pm • May 29 Autzen Gallery • 724 SW Harrison Street • Neuberger Hall, 2nd Floor, rm 205  Sandy Sampson presents Parallel Conversations at PSU's MK Gallery. The show "is not so much an exhibit as it is a hub of activity. Sampson will introduce you to some people she has met and learned from. The events scheduled are all participatory, she invites you to engage with each other and the neighborhood around the gallery, and bring what you know to share with others." It runs from May 18 - May 29, 2009. Closing reception • 6-9pm • May 29 MK Gallery • 2000 SW 5th Avenue • Art Building, 2nd floor rm 210 Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 18, 2009 at 10:21 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 05.15.09 East Meets West: An Interview with Sanford Biggers  Sanford Biggers, Blossom, 2007 Sanford Biggers is a New York artist whose 2007 work Blossom will be at the APEX Gallery at the Portland Art Museum starting on May 16, 2009. Bigger's work is a fusion of east meets wests, Buddhism meets Hip Hop, that takes places from the train yards of Los Angeles, Zen Temples of Japan to the galleries of New York. I read that you grew up in South Central Los Angeles. What was that like? I grew in the early seventies in Los Angeles. I was influenced largely by the artwork that my parents had in their home which were prints by important American artists like Elizabeth Catlett, Charles White, John Biggers and Ernie Barnes. It was largely figurative and Afro-centric images which were influential for me as well the graffiti that I would see on the streets of Los Angeles and in the train yards. It seems like your art experiences were coming out of your home rather than say being influenced by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) or the Pasadena Art Museum. Is that true? As a kid, I mainly only went to museums on field trips, so my earliest experiences with art were in my parent's and their friends' homes. I did, however, spend time as a teenager at LACMA and California African American Museum where I took art classes on weekends. You mentioned that you remember being exposed to graffiti while you were growing up in Los Angeles and it would go on to influence your later work. What was your relationship to graffiti at the time? I spent a lot of my teenage years with a graffiti crew going out and bombing (spray-painting), various walls and train yards with graf murals. That was a big part of my early years as a B-boy and I still reflect on some of those forms that I was interested in and I try to bring them back into my work. A few years ago, I did a few different types of sand paintings, one of which was a graffiti version of the Sanskrit word/sound, "OM". It was made of colored sand, poured directly on the floor. A technique that was not too dissimilar from that of Tibetan monks. More...  Sanford Biggers, Mandala of the B-Bodhisattva II, 2000 Posted by Arcy Douglass on May 15, 2009 at 22:00 | Comments (0) PermalinkChina at Reed  Cooley Gallery Entrance On opening night at the Cooley, standing at the entrance and already China Urban's aesthetic is effectively achieving a tight, busy configuration echoing the hustle and bustle of urban Chinese life. Initially I respond to the show with surprise, primarily due to the flood of people crowding in the gallery space, obstructing my view as person after person... More... Posted by Alex Rauch on May 15, 2009 at 10:20 | Comments (1) Permalinklast pmmnls of the school year  Mierle Laderman Ukeles Mierle Laderman Ukeles is giving the final 08-09 PSU MFA Monday Night Lecture next week. Ukeles is a New York based artist "known for her feminist and service oriented artwork. In 1969 she wrote a manifesto entitled Maintenance Art Proposal for an Exhibition, challenging the domestic role of women and proclaiming herself a 'maintenance artist'." Artist lecture • 7:30pm • May 18 PSU • 1914 SW Park Ave • Shattuck Hall Rm 212 at Broadway & Hall Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 15, 2009 at 10:08 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 05.14.09 weekend happenings  Matthew Green presents Hunks and Punks at Rocksbox, a "humorous exploration into the myths, constructs, and visual tropes surrounding contemporary male identity." Opening reception • 7-11pm • May 16 Rocksbox • 6540 N Interstate Ave • 503.516.4777  Sanford Biggers, "Blossom," installation view Sanford Biggers' installation Blossom goes on view at PAM this weekend. Exploring themes of identity and history, Blossom is a "mixed media work incorporating a massive tree, found piano, and Biggers' compositional reworking of Billie Holiday's 1939 jazz anthem Strange Fruit, a harrowing portrayal of lynching in the American South." Keep an eye on PORT for a fantastic interview with the artist. Exhibition • May 16 - August 30, 2009 Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811  Thelma Johnson Streat, "Red Dots, Flying Baby, and Barking Dog," 1945 Art on Alberta's 10th annual Art Hop is happening this weekend. They're featuring the work of Thelma Johnson Streat (1911-1959), an internationally acclaimed artist from Portland and the first black woman to have her work exhibited at MOMA. 50 of her paintings will be on view at venues throughout Alberta. The Art Hop's theme this year is "Coming Home," and there will be a wide variety of art exhibitions, street performers, vendors, music, dance, and theater. Street fair • 11am-6pm • May 16 Art on Alberta • 17 blocks of NE Alberta Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 14, 2009 at 11:30 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 05.13.09 calling: architects & designers  The Tacoma Art Museum is seeking concepts for the redesign of their plaza and perimeter "to create a landmark civic space that enlivens downtown Tacoma." The deadline is June 5, and you can learn all about the project right here. Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 13, 2009 at 10:36 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 05.12.09 Journey To The Center Of The Universe 
Yesterday, I visited The Center of The Universe, a hilarious Bruce Nauman piece on the University of New Mexico's campus. Never has the search for a large chunk of public sculpture been so amusing. Just image 3 critic and curator types wandering around a large campus asking students about where "The Center of The Universe" is located... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 12, 2009 at 11:09 | Comments (0) Permalinkpat boas @ pam  Pat Boas, "Reading & Writing #4 (Mildred's Hand)," installation view Local artist and writer Pat Boas is speaking this week for PAM's artist talk series. She'll discuss a work in the museum that "delights, puzzles, or inspires her." The talk departs from the Hoffman lobby, and returns after for conversation and happy hour. Artist lecture • 6-8pm • May 14 Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811 Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 12, 2009 at 9:50 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 05.11.09 educational  901 Jefferson, ongoing project by Pyatok Architects Architect Michael Pyatok is speaking this week at the UofO on The U.S. Housing Crisis: The Role of Design. He'll speak in Portland and in Eugene. Architect lecture • 6:30-7:30pm • May 13 White Stag Block • 70 NW Couch St. • Event Room  Gerhardt Knodel Artist Gerhardt Knodel is lecturing on Examining Fiber and Material Studies in Contemporary Art and Culture this week at OCAC. Inspired by the keynote address he gave at the 2008 International Fiber Symposium, Knodel's talk explores the subject of "materiality": the meaning of material-based experiences in contemporary life. Artist lecture • 6pm • May 15 Oregon College of Art & Craft • 8825 SW Barnes Rd. • Catlin Gabel Cabell Center Auditorium Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 11, 2009 at 10:10 | Comments (0) PermalinkSaturday 05.09.09 Stephen Slappe's Shelter in Place at NAAU 
The latest Couture series show at NAAU, Stephen Slappe's Shelter in Place, is the first fully linear visual narrative exhibition in the series thus far, mixing sci fi, young love and indie culture laced with 80's style media induced paranoia. Thus, it makes a huge investment in its own anachronism at a time when a great many other artists are also fetishing the 1980's to the nth degree...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 09, 2009 at 7:09 | Comments (3) PermalinkFriday 05.08.09 Art Beat Week  Matt Bors Art Beat Week 2009 at PCC starts Monday. Highlights include lectures by editorial cartoonist Matt Bors (May 11), photography critic Chas Bowie (May 12), and local artist Storm Tharp (May 14). Check out the schedule of events for more info.  Frances Stark LA-based artist Frances Stark is speaking on Monday for PMMNLS. She works in drawing, collage, sculpture, and textual commentary. Artist lecture • 7:30pm • May 11 PSU • 1914 SW Park Ave • Shattuck Hall Rm 212 at Broadway & Hall Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 08, 2009 at 9:47 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 05.07.09 el & listen  From Approx L Worksound presents Approx L, a "cumulative project involving performance, curation, installation, sound and video," spearheaded by Bethany Ides. "Aiding in the project are approximately 15 participants from across the US and Canada all born with (some variant spelling of) the name, plus a coterie of non-natural L[indsay]s who have adopted transitional monikers for the project." Opening reception • 7-11pm • May 8 Worksound • 820 SE Alder • mojomodou@gmail.com  At Pied-á-terre Ongoing at Pied-á-terre: New York-based artist and writer Ben Carlton Turner presents The Sound of 500 Speer 9 mm. Luger Shells Dropped from a Height of 119 Inches at 550 West 21st Street New York, NY, 10011, on April 8th, 2009, 10:37 p.m. Gallery hours are Saturdays, 12-3pm. Update: Due to popular demand, Pied-á-terre will hold a reception for the show on May 14. Exhibition • May 2 - 23, 2009 Reception • May 14 • 6-8pm Pied-á-terre • 904 SE 20th Ave Apt 5 • info@pied-terre.com Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 07, 2009 at 10:22 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 05.06.09 volunteer  Art on Alberta is still seeking volunteers for their 10th annual Art Hop. If you're available on May 16 and want to get involved, check out their call for volunteers. Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 06, 2009 at 12:32 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 05.05.09 First Thursday Picks May 2009  Dinh Q. Lê, "I am Large. I Contain Multitudes (1)" Dinh Q. Lê is exhibiting a new body of work at Elizabeth Leach this month. Signs and Signals from the Periphery utilizes sculpture and photography to "address a system of signs that have developed in Vietnam which signal the availability of certain goods and services." Opening reception • 6-9pm • May 7 Elizabeth Leach Gallery • 417 NW 9th • 503.224.0521 (More.) Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 05, 2009 at 11:48 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 05.04.09 Experiments in Film  Bruce Conner Cinema Project, NW Film Center, and the PDX Film Fest are co-sponsoring a screening Bruce Conner's film works. In Memorium is a two part exhibition of fourteen short films by Conner, "a pioneer in the art of sculptural assemblage and found footage collage film making." A list of films and more background about Conner can be found on the Cinema Project website. Screening Night 1 • 7pm • May 5 NW Film Center • 1219 SW Park • Whitsell Auditorium Screening Night 2 • 7:30pm • May 6 Clinton Street Theater • 2522 SE Clinton  From "Bum Equipment" curated by Cartune Xprez The second night of the Bruce Conner screenings marks opening night of PDX Film Fest 2009. Video installations will be at Gallery Homeland from May 6 - 24, featuring Bum Equipment, a 3-part video installation curated by Cartune Xprez showcasing work from over 20 international artists. Most other screenings will be at the Clinton Street Theater; learn more about the schedule and events here. Opening night performances at Gallery Homeland start at 9pm. PDX Film Fest opening part • 7pm-midnight • May 6 Gallery Homeland • 2505 SE 11th Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 04, 2009 at 12:10 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday Links Brandeis' The
Future of The Rose Committee is not inspiring confidence and drawing comparison's
to Stalin's committees even. How can the Rose be a functioning museum without
a director and curators? How can this committee be anything more than a desensitizing
tool if it doesn't have suggested members from outgoing Rose staff? To answer
one question... would it be a permanent black list... yes almost certainly!
This will be remembered as one of the most foul museum raids by caretakers in
recent memory.
PORT pal Tom Webb opines on a better use for the memorial coliseum... and better design of the concrete wasteland aka the grounds is key. David Adjaye will designing the new National Museum of African American History and Culture. Surprise surprise, it's based on sculpture... and though the design is decent it's hardly mind blowing... maybe that is the point, the building will have to stand on its programming ultimately. Portland Architecture has joined PORT in calling for a design competition for the Columbia River Crossing and gives the Governor a lesson in the difference between aesthetics and design to boot. Design Competition Now... right now the process has been driven by very unimaginative, extremely orthodox... even rigid thinking and we won't get an actionable design until some serious architectural talent is brought to bear. This job is beyond the capabilities of all but the best architects working in conjunction with innovative engineers. Right now it is being driven by standard engineers and nominal architectural talent. A design competition will bring some real solutions quickly for quite a bit less than millions that have been wasted already in this false design process. C-Monster digs Huang Yong Ping's snake tower... we do too. I wish more Chinese art had Ping's thing, but alas... Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 04, 2009 at 9:39 | Comments (0) PermalinkSunday 05.03.09 Gauguin for Portland Art Museum  Gauguin's Vue d’un jardin, Rouen (1884) Longtime Portland arts patron Melvin Mark has given the Portland Art Museum an early Gauguin,Vue d’un jardin, Rouen (Garden View, Rouen) in memory of his recently departed wife, Mary. It's an important impressionist acquisition for Oregon's art going public, which has had limited access to any Gauguin works. The painting was exhibited in 2003 at the Portland to Paris exhibition (which also sported another later Brittany era Gauguin, also from a private collection). The work went on display Sunday on the 1st floor of the Jubitz Center for Contemporary art (Mark Building). Gauguin is one of my favorite artists and interestingly ambitious before he so famously found his way to the south pacific and his most iconic works. In 1884 (same year as PAM's Van Gogh) he was busy trying to ingratiate himself amongst the impressionists (having collected their works etc), then the most vanguard artists at the time (until Gauguin, Van Gogh and Cezanne took that title as the top post impressionists). In 1883 Gauguin had decided to become a professional painter, before that having been a stockbroker with a real talent for art...so considering this is a pretty good painting from that early makes it a bit of a catch. You can see how Gauguin makes even a winter scene look exotic. Thanks to the Marks for making it possible to finally see a Gauguin on a regular basis at the Portland Art Museum (completing the trinity of early works by the major post-impressionists). Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 03, 2009 at 16:07 | Comments (0) PermalinkSaturday 05.02.09 What's next for Mickalene Thomas 
All she wants to do is dance (Fran) 2009 courtesy Lehman Maupin Mickalene Thomas is currently the toast of New York for her rowdy painted and rhinestone riots of patterns and personality, finishing up a successful solo show at Lehman Maupin. The work has consistently struck me as some of the boldest being done today. She's also a former Portland-based model who left to study art at Pratt then Yale (she discovered her interest in art at PSU). She still visits Portland frequently and we have a lot of mutual friends... but for a change PORT caught up with her in her Brooklyn studio to talk about her first New York solo show, her work and what is next. Jeff: Forgive me but I have to ask, why rhinestones? Mickalene: At the beginning I didn't know why. One, I always worked in different materials like sequins and glitter, all of these untraditional craft materials that I seemed to gravitate towards for my process. Once I started using... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 02, 2009 at 9:54 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 05.01.09 Ellen George's Nose Touches Twig at PDX Contemporary Art  Ellen George, Strawberry Fields Forever, 2009 I think George's vertical wall pieces are better than ever. Pieces like Strawberry Fields Forever and Sunspots demonstrate how a common vertical line can provide a powerful tool for organizing a large number of individual disparate elements. Each work is made of a nearly innumerable number of smaller units of polymer clay each with its own shape, size and color. Each unit is clearly visible and still makes a significant contribution to the whole. Everything is visible to the viewer in a clear and direct way and the work is experienced as both part and whole at the same time. More... Posted by Arcy Douglass on May 01, 2009 at 0:25 | Comments (1) Permalink |
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