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Portland art blog + news + exhibition reviews + galleries + contemporary northwest art
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Wednesday 02.29.12 Rupture: Reed Arts Week vis art picks 2012 This year's Reed Arts Week, Rupture through March 4th, has a lot of interesting visual arts related programming. Here are my 3 top picks:
 Rainy Lehrman,Labor Byproduct, west end of Eliot Hall "Brooklyn based Rainy Lehrman creates grass sculptures that protrude from the ground, showing layers of dirt, sawdust, and earth material, creating a veritable rupturing of the earth. The effect is a defamiliarization of space, inciting a new understanding of quotidian geography and providing a new understanding of the physical references from which we base our experience of time."... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 29, 2012 at 22:00 | Comments (0) PermalinkPortland's relationship to Rothko 
Rothko holding untitled (1954) ''I realize that historically the function of painting large pictures is something very grandiose and pompous. . . .The reason I paint them however. . . is precisely because I want to be intimate and human.'' Mark Rothko 1951 To say that Mark Rothko haunts Portland's collective civic psyche is perhaps an overstatement but there is a lot of evidence to the contrary (especially if one is sensitive to such things). This is partly because Portland as a city has bucked the predominant wisdom of the second half of the 20th century (we are pro approachable scale, anti corporate greed), just as its most famous son was. Portland is a city of shopkeepers rather than corporations as well as parks and public transportation, three things Rothko was also quite fond of. Rothko worked for his uncle, a shopkeeper and he painted subways, bridges and aggregate streets full of the masses. In short he was interested in the machine of civilization but sought a personal response amidst the modern impersonal grind. ... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 29, 2012 at 6:32 | Comments (0) PermalinkHistory on the Kaufman Rothkowitz on display at PAM  Mark Rothko Beach Scene, ca. 1928 Oil on canvas board 14.5 x 16 in. Reed College Art Collection Kaufman Memorial Collection Gift of Louis and Annette Kaufman Mark Rothko's family emigrated from Russia to Portland in 1913. Home life was intellectually rich and Rothko was fluent in Russian, Hebrew, Yiddish, and English by the time he attended Lincoln High School with Louis Kaufman, graduating with honors in three years. In 1921 Rothko was awarded a scholarship to Yale, but found Yale elitist and conservative. In response, Rothko and fellow student Aaron Director published the satirical review The Yale Saturday Evening Pest. Rothko withdrew from Yale his second year... (more) Posted by Guest on February 29, 2012 at 6:17 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 02.28.12 The Infectious Corruption of Color  Left: Sara Greenberger Rafferty, Right: Mike Womack On Saturday it is time to toast the artists in The Infectious Corruption of Color; Calvin Ross Carl, Laura Hughes, Sara Greenberger Rafferty, Amanda Wojick, Mike Womack. It is likely another worthy group show from the Archer Gallery... the gallery with perhaps the best group show track record in the past three years. I'm personally terribly disappointed that Director Blake Shell's run is coming to an end in June due to budget problems (more on this at the end, first let's discuss this show). The PR says, "Color is messy; it is corporeal. It bleeds and overwhelms. It opposes the contained, neat, and clinical. It may show us the natural world in comparison to the manmade, or, in turn, it may become the hyper-real and psychedelic in our perception... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 28, 2012 at 0:21 | Comments (3) PermalinkMonday 02.27.12 Extra Credit: Rothko and Nauman Maybe you were or are one of those students who always took the opportunity to learn a little more and get a few extra points... if so these events are for you:
 Red at PCS So, you haven't overdosed on Rothko yet with the retrospective and are very interested in how his time growing up in Portland might have effected him? Tonight at 7:00PM at Mcmenamins Kennedy School for "Portland and the Art of Mark Rothko" join PORT's own Arcy Douglass (who penned this important historical look at Rothko and Portland) in conversation with Daniel Benzali the actor portraying Rothko in the fictional historization that is the play Red now running at PCS. Arcy is very aware of Rothko's well documented disdain for entertaining the wealthy and anything that wasn't 100% serious so this should be an interesting and difficult dance. (P.S. PAM's Chief Curator Bruce Guenther and I will be on OPB's Think Out Loud radio show discussing Rothko on Wednesday at 9:00 AM).  Eleanor Antin For February 28th and 29th at 7:00PM check out, Is It My Body: Conversions, Transgression, and Representations. The series was curated in response to the current exhibition BRUCE NAUMAN: BASEMENTS on view at the Cooley Gallery. The program includes work by Vito Acconci, Denise Marika, Ursula Hodel, Eleanor Antin in addition to early video by Nauman. It's in the Pearl at 937 NW Glisan and it's free. Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 27, 2012 at 16:12 | Comments (0) PermalinkSunday 02.26.12 An Interview with B. Wurtz  B.Wurtz, Portrait of the Artist by Amy Berntein, 2012 B. Wurtz is a lyrical formalist, a classicist, and a provocative senator of the mundane. He poetically points to the sidelines of our daily lives in an effort to point out the beauty and significance of an immense reservoir of objects discarded as refuse. From what we regard as worthless, he culls a rich vocabulary with which to form his oeuvre. Talismans of culture are formed out of plastic bags and wire as Wurtz asks us to pay attention to our surroundings and to the moments that actually make up our lives. . .(more) Posted by Amy Bernstein on February 26, 2012 at 23:13 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 02.24.12 Kenneth Price dies at age 77  Kabongy Balls (2002) It seems like we lose a great artist every week or so these days. The latest is Kenneth Price at age 77. Perhaps no artist bridged the craft/fine art divide like he did and his jewel like surfaces were a key component in Dave Hickey's paradigm shifting Beau Monde Site Santa Fe biennial in 2001 ending what seemed like a 25+ year unofficial ban on beautiful art. His work was never just pretty though. It was sexy but a little grotesque and by avoiding the self consciousness of a lot of craft based work it transcended that genre's often cloying need to be taken seriously by simply stealing the show every single time they were shown (that's telling). Price's works were so outstanding, with forms so self assured and relaxed in their own perfect skin that they transcended the technical geekery of the craft world, putting all of their considerable aesthetic weight into the viewers mind and response. Thus, how it was made was always tertiary but integral to the encounter, similar to a lot of non western art. I always found them compelling, as if Price gave unlikely life to a pile of puke while imbuing it with the moves and curves of Cyd Charisse. In fact, Dave Hickey's Site Santa Fe install could have easily been likened to a dance between Charisse and Fred Astaire, it was just that good. He will be missed, but not forgotten... a 50 year retrospective will begin at LACMA in the Fall. *Update: Roberta Smith of the NYT's fascinating obituary . I found these quotes quite interesting, "crafts-dogma hell," and, "'I can't prove my art's any good,' he added, 'or that it means what I say it means. And nothing I say can improve the way it looks.'" Indeed... Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 24, 2012 at 10:12 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 02.22.12 Edgar Arceneaux lecture 
Edgar Arscenaux's "The Algorithm Doesn't Love You" (2010) Today, Edgar Arceneaux visits PNCA as part of the 2011-2012 Graduate Visiting Artist Lecture Series. I tend to think of his very contemporary work as a mutant cross pollination between present tense anthropology and surrealism. The presser says, "Los Angeles-based artist Edgar Arceneaux's conceptual program uncovers meaning in unexpected adjacencies of past and present and of history and memory. He uses drawing, photography, sculpture and filmmaking for the unorthodox installation scenarios he has developed and refined over the last decade. His work resists simple explanations, creating sets of relationships that arent easily resolved as a way of wrestling with randomness." Artist Lecture | February 23rd 6:30-8:30 PNCA Main Campus | Swigert Commons 1241 NW Johnson St. Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 22, 2012 at 23:55 | Comments (0) PermalinkTen Thousand Things at PCC Sylvania  At PCC Sylvania's Northview Gallery PORT's very own Arcy Douglass is certainly interested in systems of vastness, his last solo show sported a video that would take trillions of years to watch in its entirety. Now he's filling the vast Northview Gallery with Ten Thousand Things (it has a huge bay window co-opting a view of treetops in the distance.) Here's what the press release says: "The North View Gallery presents a new large-scale video installation by Portland artist Arcy Douglass. There will be an opening reception on Thursday, February 23rd from 2-4 PM, and Saturdays, March 3rd and 10th from 12-4 PM. The show will run through March 23rd, 2012. Arcy Douglass' Ten Thousand Things uses the repetition of a simple formal vocabulary to reflect the complex structure of natural systems. Resembling the depth and expanse of the starlit sky or the gridded streetlights of an urban metropolis, Ten Thousand Things presents a field of lit points perpetually emerging into and escaping from our vision. Complimenting the exhibition, PCC dance students under the direction of instructor Heidi Diaz will be performing improvisational responses to Arcy's installation on Tuesday, February 28th and Thursday, March 1st from 2-3:20 PM, Tuesday, March 6th from 12:30-3:20 PM and Thursday, March 8th from 12:30-3:00 PM. Arcy Douglass earned a degree in architecture from the University of Southern California in 2007 and attended the Arts Student League in New York from 1999-2000." Receptions: February 23rd 2-4 PM | March 3rd and 10th from 12-4 PM North View Gallery at PCC Sylvania Campus 12000 SW 49th Ave. Portland Hours: Monday - Friday | 8-4:00 PM, and by appointment Through March 23rd Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 22, 2012 at 12:07 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 02.21.12 Preserving Washington State's Public Art  Washington State's most famous bit of public art, Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk (1963)technically not at risk but it is a slippery slope The idea to sell off works in Washington State's public art collection is such a bad idea. Also, the wolf in sheep's clothing tactic of using sales to fund scholarships and more art acquisitions doesn't make it any better. Weve been down this road before with both the Rose Art Museum and the Oregon Cultural Trust. Both of which ended up getting support from conservatives and non arts people... here's why: 1)Public collections are kept in trust for the public. The thing about trusts is that you don't go radically altering (in this case selling) the asset kept in trust. If you treat a trust as a rainy day fund it simply ceases to exist. 2) This is particularly short sighted since the elements of the collection are acquired for the way they engage and complete specific sites and buildings. That context building is a sort of running civic commentary and selling said works becomes tantamount to book burning of civic memory. Often the artwork outlives the original buildings and provides a thread through the past. 3) Selling works when you think they are worth a lot of money is foolhardy. For example, though... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 21, 2012 at 10:48 | Comments (1) PermalinkMonday 02.20.12 Presidents Day Links Ok it was an epic visual art weekend in Portland with Rothko and Nauman events and exhibitions (more to come on those). Till then, here are some Presidents Day Links:
A hilarious project and article on the world Google didn't intend to show you with its electronic 9 eyed panopticon? Is there a neurological link between fear and the appreciation of the sublime or abstract art? Holland Carter looks at the New Museum's latest more international triennial The Ungovernables. Reminds me a bit of my Fresh Trouble show in 2005 (probably the stick by which Portland measures group shows) but with an update from the Arab Spring, etc. Fact is the world has seemed much more restless since the WTO demonstrations in 1999 where new electronic media allowed faster and more global disseminations of information and dissent. The Getty gets a new Director but has some of the same old problems. Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 20, 2012 at 10:36 | Comments (1) PermalinkFriday 02.17.12 Weekend Picks  A view of the Rothko retrospective (photo Jeff Jahn) The Mark Rothko retrospective at the Portland Art Museum opens to the Public Saturday February 18th. I've seen it and YES it lives up to expectations for the profound and even throws in a painting or two that have never been shown in retrospectives before. No it doesn't break much art historical ground (it could have and other institutions are developing that scholarship, some of which originates from PORT articles). I'll delve into into a more detailed discussion soon but for now I'll quell any fears you might have. First off, about half of the show consists of major late period works installed nicely. Yes the layout allows both a chronological walk through and a more intuitive path, both are musts for any aspiring artist of any genre since they show a somewhat talented but uniquely driven mind at work relentlessly trying to unlock the potential of not only himself but art in general. PORT has easily covered Rothko in more depth than any area publication and these two posts on; Rothko's connection to Portland and some aesthetic sensitivities as a consequence of that upbringing are the best places to prep for the exhibition. It's an auspicious homecoming which moves PAM into a new phase and fulfills some of the heightened expectations that the museum now enjoys and must consistently live up to. That's the thing about greatness, it places demands on viewers, patrons, institutions and discourse. In those respects Rothko both delights and challenges all of us in a way that has been a long time coming. Mark Rothko a retrospective at The Portland Art Museum Through May 27th  Kyle Thompson's SONIC REDUCER / SCALAR COUPLING Yes, without Rothko it would seem like Kyle Thompson month here at PORT but he does have an opening tonight at Half/Dozen for SONIC REDUCER / SCALAR COUPLING. "Thompson will present documentation of a two-day performance that... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 17, 2012 at 12:01 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 02.16.12 Trickle down inspiration: the economy of Bruce Nauman's Basements at Cooley Gallery  (left) Violin Film #1 (Playing the Violin as Fast as I Can) 1967-68, (right) Flesh to White to Black to Flesh, 1968 (photo Jeff Jahn) As I entered the Reed College library, I could see a woman sitting in the foyer of Cooley Gallery. She waved me around through the library check-out area and stood as I approached. “Welcome to Cooley Gallery!” I did feel welcomed, entered into the darkened space, and was pleasantly surprised to see that there were several works on display. I would also like to mention the sounds that greeted me, even though that will lead me astray of my thesis. Let me just say that it was a pleasant cacophony, not inappropriate to the time these pieces were made, that is, when John Cage was showing us how to listen to sounds anew. (Or, for that matter, the movement in some of the videos appreciated because of Cunningham’s innovative ideas about choreography.) My sentiment, if it can be called that, would be parenthetical were it not for the relative place Nauman holds in the overall history of art, and specifically in regards to film and video performance work, And, as with Setting a Good Corner, I was, metaphorically speaking, at home. Nevermind that the title for this exhibition is Basements and my studio is in my basement, or that these pieces contain what become ritualized activities and that I burn incense while I work. No, these similarities are too simplistic. I felt I knew his mind, meaning that there is a point in the very early stages of a creative process where one says to oneself, “Do anything. Build from there.” Busy, busy, busy are these pieces; but merely busy work made into art? No, they are purposeful, even if the points of some are elusive... (more) Posted by Patrick Collier on February 16, 2012 at 7:02 | Comments (1) PermalinkWednesday 02.15.12 Slifkin on Bruce Nauman 
"Bruce Nauman Going Solo," a lecture by Robert Slifkin, Friday, Feb. 17, 7 p.m. at Reed College is a must attend event. I don't know how much prodding PORT readers need (Basements is one of the best shows I've ever seen at Reed) but to sweeten the deal everyone who attends Robert Slifkin's lecture on Bruce Nauman also receives a free book. This will be packed so plan on arriving early. Robert Slifkin was a Reed College Assistant Professor of Art History and Humanities (2007-10) and is currently Professor of Fine Arts, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. His lecture is in conjunction with the exhibition Bruce Nauman, Basements, Early Studio Films,1967-69, on view at the Cooley Gallery through March 9, 2012. The gallery will be open additional hours from noon to 9:30 PM on the 17th as well. "Slifkin's lecture is being published in book form—the first in a new series of pocketbook readers published by the Cooley under the imprint Companion Editions, designed by Heather Watkins in Portland, OR." Lecture: Friday, February 17, 7 pm | Reed College Chapel + Public Reception at the Cooley Gallery after Free and open to the public, the Chapel is located in Eliot Hall. The Cooley will be open Noon to 9:30 P.M. ON February 17th Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 15, 2012 at 10:37 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 02.14.12 Travis Fitzgerald and Gary Robbins at 12128 
if it is a crown it means it belongs to a king at 12128 New births are the most portentous of all events in humanity. Socially the child is considered completely innocent, for both the first and last time in their life. The child's potential is impossible to gauge and the pride of the parents along with the effusive adoration from others is unassailably justified... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 14, 2012 at 22:26 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 02.13.12 Monday Links Michael Kimmelman's best writing in ages on the civic importance and humiliation of Penn Station. He's wrong about Calatrava's PATH station though, it's the only architecture at the WTC site that actually lives up to the challenge of the site and it costs 4 billion because of the complications of building there and the fact that Calatrava is NEVER on budget... it will be fantastic though, everything he wishes Penn Station could be, just without the immense foot traffic. It may set the bar higher for Penn Station? Is the Columbia River Crossing going to be a civic/design failure similar to the destruction of and burial of Penn Station? If this humiliation in concrete is constructed it will be.
To prepare for the Rothko retrospective/homecoming at the end of the week at the Portland Art Museum. Re-read Arcy's crucial post from 2009 on the artist's history in Portland and perhaps this letter to the NY Times from Rothko and Gottlieb. Overall, I hope people take this seriously and don't go overboard on the distasteful marketing of Rothko, which he would have hated. No Rothko face painting, no Rothko snuggies and NO Rothko toast art please! I shouldn't have to say this (but I think I have to say this esp with the Red marketing). Simmer down, with greatness comes the responsibility to respect his legacy and Rothko was one of the least commercially oriented artists of all time. Check out these early photographs that a young Stanley Kubrick did for Life Magazine. Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 13, 2012 at 10:32 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 02.10.12 Indispensable Replica Links Did you catch this interesting article by Christopher Knight about replicas being used for exhibitions?
I feel it very much depends on the artist and the work. For example there was Kurt Schwitters' Merzbau that recently went on tour, where everyone was very up front about... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 10, 2012 at 12:49 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 02.09.12 Bailey Winters & Jenny Vu at PSU PSU's Littman & White Galleries present: "New and Old Work" by Bailey
Winters + Jenny Vu' s "From Life"
 Bailey Winters' Trudge 2012 Because even Bailey Winters' old work is worth seeing again at PSU's Littman Gallery he presents, "New and Old Work features paintings from three previous shows as well five new paintings which continue to demonstrate his interests in narration, the figure, and comic book art. Work that first appeared in Class (2008), Green Oregon (2009), and Ambush: The Story of the TDA (2010) borrows from political iconography and depicts situations of highly charged human interaction. Executed using a combination of techniques taken from both pop art and realism, the tightly rendered figures are precise in contrast to the surrounding bright, flat color shapes. Showing alongside these are Winters' latest pieces. Here, his small cast of characters appears in a visual science fiction where intricate line drawings and opaque hypercolors replace photo realistic fleshes. In the future, Winters will draw from these new paintings and create a short animated film. Bailey Winters grew up in Santa Cruz, California and received his BFA from the California College of the Arts in 2003. He now lives and paints in Portland, Oregon. His interests include photography and film and these heavily influence the subjects of his paintings."  Jenny Vu Jenny Vu: From Life at PSU's White Gallery According to the press release Jenny Vu has, "concentrated on drawing from life for the past few years. This show is a selection of my best work from 2011. Each piece was completed within a single sitting, ranging from a few minutes to a couple hours. My subjects are often people that I know well and feel free to draw without hesitation. I do not stage my subjects or begin with a complete image in mind. The resulting piece is not preconceived but rather born in the present moment. Jenny Vu was born and raised in the small southern city of Niceville FL. Vu attended Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota FL. During her third year of school she participated in a semester long residency program in Brooklyn NY. Vu received her BFA in painting in 2010; shortly after, she moved to Portland, OR where she now lives and works. Vu has a studio in SE and works for a non profit after school arts program for kids. She plans to live and work in Portland for the next few years, before applying to graduate school or living abroad." Openings: 5 - 8 PM | February 9th | On view through February 23rd Littman & White Galleries Portland State University Second floor Smith Memorial Student Union 1825 SW Broadway | 503 . 725 . 5656 Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 09, 2012 at 10:50 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 02.08.12 Travis Fitzgerald + Gary Robbins at 12128 
There isn't any press info for Trav-man and Robbins (yes do think about the Batman theme song) exhibition if it is a crown it means it belongs to a king but I'm willing to go out on a limb, or boat as it were to suggest this. Let's just see what Travis Fitzgerald and Gary Robbins bring? 12128 presents if it is a crown it means it belongs to a king Opening Reception | Thursday February 9 | 8-11pm 12128 is moored at: Multnomah Yacht Repair | 12900 NW Marina Way Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 08, 2012 at 11:28 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 02.07.12 New Faces of the Portland Art Scene 2012 Edition The Portland art scene is ever shifting with new artists arriving every day but it is the often thankless role of being a facilitator (as curator or programming director) that greases the wheels of the machine. For example, if I want to point out an artist I simply write a review but admins are a different story. Also, the level of artistic development of these individuals varies a great deal and is perhaps secondary to the contributions they represent (for now). Also, some new admins like Jeffrey Thomas (Director MoCC) and Bonnie Liang-Malcolmson (Curator of NW Art PAM) have been around for over a decade and have only just recently switched roles (not prominence), so I'll skip over them. I also vet the list for people making an impact beyond expectations (so I don't always pick new hires at PAM, they have to earn it). Also to make my list one has to curate or work on several shows, do more than draw attention to a few of your friends or throw a hipster party... so without further ado here are 9 newish faces you should get to know before they take your job:
 Jason Brown @ Half/Dozen If you can find Half/Dozen then Jason Brown's face is already familiar to you and your gallery hopping skills are well developed. In his time as assistant at Half/Dozen ... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 07, 2012 at 16:40 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 02.06.12 Richard Shiff Lecture  Paul Cezanne, The Card Players, 1890–92, Oil on canvas. 25 3/4 x 32 1/4 in. (c) Metropolitan Museum of Art Bequest of Stephen C. Clark The latest of Reed College's fantastic Stephen E Osterow Distinguished Vistors in the Arts lecture series (probably the best in the city) is art historian Richard Shiff. The talk is titled "Paul Cezanne, Loss of Subject." The title alone is interesting since art historians are often measured by the subject of their research. To wit, Shiff has completed tomes on Paul Cezanne, Donald Judd, de Kooning and a catalog raisonne for Barnett Newman, all A-listers. He's also the author of Critical Terms for Art History, so for once this will be a lecturer who can make a presentation without using jargon words like "authentic" or the slightly more meaningful but even more overused "notion." Here are Shiff's own words, which points to the real reason Cezanne is such a pivotal art historical figure, "Perhaps volatile feeling has the final say, not structured reason. Life is manifold, messy, inherently anti-ideological. This is the truth that at least some of Cezanne's early admirers believed his art confirmed. It made them tolerant of the singular opacity-or the utter banality-of images like the Card Players, where marks and their colours attracted more interest than the theme." ...and Reed's press release states, "Art historians usually classify images like Cezanne's Card Players as genre pictures: views of daily life that may reveal attitudes toward a class of society or a set of cultural practices. Can such pictures be abstractions? And if so, abstractions of what? Shiff's lecture investigates the fact that Cezanne's earliest viewers evaluated his Card Players as if they were abstractions, and by this interpretive route, the paintings gained a special social significance." Lecture: Tuesday | February 7 | 7:00 p.m. Reed College | 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. | Vollum lecture hall Free and open to the public The Cooley Gallery will remain open until 7 p.m. Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 06, 2012 at 10:24 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 02.03.12 First Weekend Picks  Joseph Beuys, Blitzschlag mit Lichtschein auf Hirsch (Lightning with Stag in its Glare), 1958–85. Cast Bronze, Iron, and Aluminium, Overall dimensions variable, Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa GBM2001.2. (c) 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn It doesn't have an opening reception but the first Joesph Beuys show in the nearly 12 years I've lived here opens tomorrow in the atrium space at the Portland Art Museum. I've heard a constant string of complaints about PAM not doing anything of interest for younger relational aesthetics artists so Im not going to be delicate... Shut your pie hole and get on down to PAM this weekend. As the most important artist in the entire relational aesthetics canon this is a not to be missed show and marks the second in PAM's series of important Post War European artists. First one was Martin Kippenberger so this is some very cogent programming. Will the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards and Apex programming ever dovetail anbd complete the circle... if not people will still have a reason to complain. Till then, see it. Portland Art Museum | February 4 - May 27 
(on view in Hypercorrection) Recess presents Hypercorrection, featuring; Paul Clay, Sokhun Keo, Krystal South, Ross Young. A show exploring misinformation and the conventions of making decisions on said information the press release states, "The artist’s use of mimicry, material transformation, and dissimulation to incite... (more: featuring; Gabe Flores, Wendy Given and a big multimedia group show) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 03, 2012 at 13:43 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 02.01.12 First Thursday February 2012 Picks  Joe Thurston's Nothing Leading Anywhere Any More Except to Nothing (photo Jeff Jahn) Joe Thurston unveils a completely new body of work, Nothing Leading Anywhere Any More Except to Nothing. I find the way it packs up his world refreshing, because after 32+ years of unpacking the world with deconstruction it's about time somebody went the other direction... (more: Martin Kersels, Jim Neidhardt, Matt Connors and Northwest Modern) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 01, 2012 at 22:14 | Comments (0) PermalinkMike Kelley 1954-2012  Mike Kelley Sad news, conceptual provocateur Mike Kelly has passed away due to an apparent suicide. I reviewed Kelley's fantastic collaborative show at Sculpture Center a few years ago. Few artists could make such an intelligent spectacle indulging in the juvenile and supposedly profane, but Kelley did so by laying bare the adult ruse as a kind of tribute to the wonder/ridiculousness of that awkward age through which all must pass and perhaps never leave. In Portland artists like Bruce Conkle, Matt "Troll" Green and Patrick Rock bear the greatest stamp of his influence. Our thoughts are with Kelley's family and loved ones, a hugely influential artist has left the building. *Update: must read Christopher Knight's epigraph on Kelley the game changer. Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 01, 2012 at 12:20 | Comments (0) Permalink |
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