Four-layered Ovoid Lattices #2, Michael Knutson, Oil on canvas, 40" x 60", 2012

Michael Knutson's diligently lucid abstract paintings often form overlapping spirals of intersecting colors. In the new exhibition of work by this Yale graduate and Reed College professor, these lattices take on a more rounded form. As you look closely, think about the fact that this local master doesn't use tape. "The works are composed of two, three and four layers of spiraling ovals that play with actual and apparent transparency."

Layered Ovoid Lattices | Michael Knutson
Opening Reception | November 1st | 6-9 PM
Blackfish Gallery | 420 NW 9th Ave.



Interrogation 2, Leon Golub, 1980-81, Acrylic on linen, 120 x 176 inches, The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica, Art © Estate of Leon Golub/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY/Courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts.

Fighting Men looks at images of violence and masculinity through the work of three diverse macho artists. Jack Kirby produces comics with an aggressive flair, Leon Golub is a painter whose imagery recalls the barbaric, and Pete Voulkos turns the often feminine forms of pottery into something 'monumental' to suit the male-centric gaze of today's (and yesterday's) art audiences. In an essay about the exhibition, curator Daniel Duford writes "The specter of violence and the consequences of power animate this exhibition. Raw power emanates from the artwork. To watch Peter Voulkos manipulate a huge mound of clay on the wheel and rip and tear at the resulting form is a spectacle of brute force. The sheer strength required of Voulkos to make his work bespeaks extraordinary physical prowess. Power animated Jack Kirby’s superhero comics; his best known and most personal work depicted beings literally crackling with sublime cosmic energy." You might not get another chance to celebrate the work of three white men in one place, so don't miss it.

Fighting Men | Leon Golub, Pete Voulkos, and Jack Kirby
October 25th - March 3rd
Curators Talk | November 1st | 1 PM
Hoffman Gallery | Lewis & Clark | 615 S.W. Palatine Hill Road


More beyond the link: Patrick Kelly and the Peoples Library PDX

Hurricane Sandy on October 28th

Gallerist NY has pictures of Chelsea the day after Sandy in case you are curious... (not by any means that these are the people hardest hit by the storm). What I'm hearing is that Danziger was flooded and it was knee deep on 23rd. East Village looked even worse with at least waist deep water in places.

For the LES here is a report from Rivington street on the aftermath.

Here are some of the preparations for the storm made by various institutions in NYC.

Tyler Green is compiling a Museum damage report list.

In DC the Hirschhorn is giving free admission to anyone named Sandy tomorrow....????

Arch Daily asks if Sandy's deluge will get New York to redesign its waterfront?

The Times covers the Chelsea damage.

Jerry Saltz surveys the devastation. ...then follows up with a more optimistic report.

I'll update this as I find more Sandy info related to art and design. Hopefully everyone stays safe.

Great, that's exactly what the Venice Biennale has always been in need of... the Vatican!

LACMA's Kubrick show highlights some of the director's art influences, including Diane Arbus.

And keeping with the season the Guardian has a list of the 10 scariest paintings. Though I think an etching Goya's, "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters," beats most of the paintings on that list.

Matt Doyle will be playing with light and sound this weekend at Nationale. Matt Doyle is a musician, artist, and writer. He is the performance coordinator at RECESS, a copy editor for Publication Studio, a Reed College graduate, and an all-around talented guy (if not also a warm-hearted fellow). "Experimenting with the contrasts and interactions of acoustic and visual perception, Matt Doyle will present two opposing channels of video accompanied by a live audio diffusion. This will be the premiere performance of Vibrating Boundaries."

Vibrating Boundaries | Matthew Joseph Xavier Doyle
October 27th | 7PM
Nationale | 811 E Burnside

Dill Pickle Club behind the cut...

Dave Hickey is retiring, sort of... read the interview because it is pretty much the best art wordsmithing all year. Perhaps this is the final push I need to finish a little essay on art writing and writers I've had in the works?

Why is Hickey so important? He is one of the few arts writers (besides Rem Koolhaas and a handful of others) who looks for the unspoken tension around whatever subject he takes up, then exposes it as a fraud. What is special is the way he then asks us as readers to evaluate that fraud on its merits (discredited or not)... testing the readers in a generous way. In other words he tests his subject and audience rather than simply act as a ceremonial standard bearer at some sort of metaphorical coronation. It isn't debased forms like journalism or art cronyism... it is about the process of sharpening one's thinking, which is criticism of the highest order.

Hickey also makes his detractors crazy... irritation is a rare gift and one of the most powerful any writer can hope to wield.

Vicky Lynn Wilson's Cumulus at PCC Sylvania's Northview Gallery (all photos Jeff Jahn)

October 2012 might go down as one of the best months in the history of the Portland art scene with strong solo shows from; Sigmar Polke, Kara Walker, Corey Arnold, Francis Celentano, MK Guth, Marie Watt, Linda Hutchins, Wid Chambers, Victor Maldonado, Photographer Hal, Daniel Heffernan, Jordan Tull, Isabelle Cornaro and Vicky Lynn Wilson that everyone should see if they haven't already (most end in the coming days).

Although PCC Sylvania is somewhat of a special trek, Vicky Lynn Wilson's Cumulus at the Northview Gallery is arguably the most extensive effort this month... (more)

Jack Kirby

Typically when artists curate, they pursue their own influences and interests, which brings its own kind of validity. It's borne more of the immediate coalescing agency of making work rather than engaging the predictable facets and authority of art historical discourse. It is a time honored tradition and instead of being capricious, it often interjects that often undervalued but very powerful voice of the "true fan" that is missing from most curatorial programs. Let's just say there is juice when the combinations aren't so dry and something personal in the present is at stake. Matthew Barney's interest in Houdini for instance.

Thus, I'm excited about Fighting Men: Leon Golub, Peter Voulkos and Jack Kirby at Lewis and Clark College's Hoffman Gallery. The show, "probes images of violence and masculinity," making an interesting counterpoint to Kara Walker at Reed and the Body Beautiful at PAM. Guest curated by artist and writer Daniel Duford (whose own work is a pretty straight forward synthesis of these giants) the idea of combining a painter (Golub), ceramicist (Voulkos) and perhaps the greatest comic book cartoonist (Kirby) makes perfect sense. Frankly, I've always preferred Duford's taste in influences over the work he produces and respect the balls it takes to summon these three masters, whose long shadows have dogged him critically. To be fair, of today's artists perhaps only Raymond Pettibon would be expected to stand up well to these titans and Philip Guston has already been linked with all three in art history.

Ronna and Eric Hoffman Gallery of Contemporary Art | Lewis and Clark College | 0615 S.W. Palatine Hill Road, MSC 95
Opening: October 25th 5-7PM
Curators talk: November 1, 5:00PM (Miller 105)
Exhibition run: October 25, 2012 to March 3, 2013
Gallery hours: Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For information: 503-768-7687

OCAC's fantastic speaker's series continues with Hugh Dubberly's, "Design in the Age of Biology: Shifting from a Mechanical-Object Ethos to an Organic-System Ethos." It should be an eye opening rumination on the way design, visualization and biomimesis have become enmeshed in the last decade or so. Here's a little of the PR:

"Hugh Dubberly is a design planner and teacher. At Apple Computer in the late 80s/early 90s, he managed cross-functional design teams and creative services for the entire company and co-created a technology-forecast film, 'Knowledge Navigator', that presaged the appearance of the Internet in a portable digital device. At the same time, he served at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena as the founding chair of the computer graphics department. Mr. Dubberly is best known for creating concept maps-visual models to explore and learn about complex information spaces: 'By showing everything-the forest and the trees-in a single view, concept maps help people create mental models and clarify thoughts.'"

Sounds like a winner.

Hugh Dubberly | OCAC Connections
October 22, 2012 | 7:00PM
ZIBA Auditorium | 810 NW Marshall
SmartPark garage adjacent to Ziba; bicycle parking and convenient to MAX

Install view of Flesh & Bone at Portland Art Museum (on right) Sophie Calle, Autobiographies/Amnesia

On loan from the British Museum, the Body Beautiful show at Portland Art Museum is creating quite a buzz with its strong classical greek depictions of the human form in sculpture, jewelry, and idols. But don't forget to see PAM's complementary showing of photography examining the body, Flesh & Bone. Pulled from PAM's permanent collection, this group of images explores the potential of the body as a site of expression in modern and contemporary photography and spans three rooms on the second floor of PAM's Jubitz Center.

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Olof Olsson, The Suburban's booth at NEXT, Photo by Paul Germanos. Image courtesy of Google Images.

The Danish-Duth-Swedish performance artist, Olaf Olsson, will be performing an entirely scripted, almost two-hour long monologue at Publication Studio. Olsson has a presence and cadence that is at once uncomfortable, cosmopolitan, and witty. "It's a meditation and celebration of the failures and perversities of language, and the body through which it resonates." There will probably be some ukulele tunes well suited for an arts crowd.

Driving the Blues Away | Olaf Olsson
October 18 | 7 PM
Publication Studio | 717 SW Ankeny St.



David Knowles @ FalseFront

David Knowles might be known around here for his sharp, contemporary graphic design skills. Beyond his repoirtoire of chic TBA posters, and well-kerned work with Publication Studio and YA5, he's honing a more conceptually-based creative practice destined to stand the test of time. His exhibition It was not so important—who did it and where they went. There was, after all, only one of them opens this Friday at FalseFront. "Out of occasional conversations with a Sears Portrait Studio technician, David Knowles constructs a dialogue, both fact and fiction, to be played in the gallery by two actors. A series of photographs made using studio equipment moves their conversation to unlit backrooms, among props and curtains. Included in the exhibition is an editioned booklet, made to document and reenact the exchange."

It was not so important—who did it and where they went. There was, after all, only one of them | David Knowles
October 19 – November 11
Opening Reception | October 19 | 7-10 PM
Viewing Hours | Saturdays and Sundays | 12-3PM
FalseFront | 4518 NE 32nd Avenue



Installation shot of Jason Doize @ Place. Image courtesy of Place.

With his sound-based installation Underlier, FalseFront owner/curator Jason Doize "continues his interest in commerce. [Here] his attention lies in the tenuous relationship between shipping and receiving." Despite an unstable global economy and chart-topping unemployment, more and more industrial labour is culled from overseas in exchange for low cost goods. Of course, when you've recently been put out of work the decision to buy the plastic lawn chair over the wooden version becomes a bit easier. Underlier makes use of audio collected from a shipping crate shipped by Doize himself. This and Black Field, an installation by Michael Endo, are opening in the Black Gallery at Place this Saturday.

Underlier | Jason Doizé
Opening Reception | October 20th | 5-9 PM
Artist Talk | November 3rd | 7 PM
Place | 700 SW 5th Ave PDX | 3rd floor of Pioneer Mall

It has been a slow art news week but at least there are lots of great shows up in Portland to see (do so). Here are a few links to tide you over, we've got many reviews and essays coming your way in the next few days.

The Nada and Untitled art fairs are sparring... which seems like a brilliant way to promote both fairs.

I really like winning Busan Opera House proposal by Snohetta. The way it features the landscape around it and opens itself to the public is interesting... even more democratic than Gehry's Disney Hall in LA. ...When the Portland Art Museum expands again I'd like to see it engage the park blocks and West Hills in philosophically similar way (not visually but as a bridge between all points in the city making it the pivot point of the downtown and park blocks).

Hyperallergic noticed that Jeffrey Deitch isn't on the top 100 list anymore. I've said it before, Deitch has to be looking for an exit strategy since he isn't being allowed to be Jeffrey Deitch.

Still from Daniel Heffernan's AE: 1 (2012)

Today Linfield College's Miller Gallery presents AE: (1+2), featuring two new video installations by Daniel Heffernan. Since it is in wine country Linfield may have the Portland area's most remote location... but it is also the area's most consistently impressive so consider a trek (and maybe some wine tasting). Here's the PR:

"Heffernan is a visual and media artist based in New York City whose paintings and video art have been internationally exhibited. The Linfield Gallery exhibition will be his first show in the Pacific Northwest.

An artist talk by video artist Daniel Heffernan will be Wednesday, Nov. 7, at 5 p.m. at the Linfield Gallery on the Linfield College campus. The presentation will be followed by a reception.

Heffernan explores the meaning and manifestations of live performance in our media saturated society. His art-making integrates various disciplines,including movement, video, music, writing and the visual arts, and draws inspiration from the rapidly evolving relationship between performance and technology.

His most recent design projects have been featured at HERE Theatre, which The New York Times credits as 'one of the most unusual arts spaces in New York and possibly the model for the cutting-edge arts spaces of tomorrow.' His work has also been featured at the Soho Playhouse, where he collaborated with legendary film director Ken Russell, and the Clurman Theater, both in New York City."

Linfield College Gallery: Daniel Heffernan - AE: (1+2) | October 15 - December 17
Artist Talk & Reception: November 7th 5PM
Gallery hours: M-F 9AM - 5PM & Saturday 12-5PM in the James Miller Fine Arts Center

Francis Celentano Gemini 15 (2012)

When it comes to hard edge op abstraction Francis Celentano is tough to beat. This octogenarian from Seattle is still going strong and his talk at Laura Russo Gallery on Saturday is a great chance to hear from one of the original op art masters about his latest show (which is gorgeous).

Francis Celentano Artist Talk
When: October 13, 11AM
Laura Russo Gallery
805 NW 21st Ave.

Paul Kos, Sound of Ice Melting (photo Jeff Jahn)

I re-learned the coin arrangements of the I Ching just for this exhibition. In that it is a birthday celebration, I thought I'd bring an appropriate gift:

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Epistemologically speaking, there are many instances wherein text is not the most suitable format for reception. Critics of the hegemony of text, such as the writer, might find more instances than most. With so many untapped visual, aural, and performative resources for expressing complex, subjective, and impacting ideas, it would behoove the cultural arbiters out there to employ them with more fervor. This is the space that the arts have carved out for themselves, or at least, it should be. We could view the arts as simply an opening up. I call for a turn towards the democratic potential within a multiplicity of mediums in favour of their (sparsely) textual counterparts. We would do well to remove the fashionable fluff and the art-therapy-esque works from the spectrum. There are two shows opening in the next few days that operate in just the way contemporary art exhibitions ought to. Leaving the viewer with takeaways that have the potential to reconfigure their orientation to the everyday. If it's not already glaringly obvious, these are two exhibitions that I've been looking forward to for some time and it pleases me to introduce them here. p. 221, Marianne Wex's Let's Take Back Our Space: "Female" and "Male" Body Language as a Result of Patriarchal Structures, 1979 The taxonomic work of Marianne Wex interrogates the force of gender on the body's presence. Appropriating found imagery from magazines and the like, she classifies the documents according to the positioning of the subject's hands, legs, feet, etc. To throw a wrench in it all, she supplements her study with candid shots taken of folks on the streets of Hamburg. In this way, her survey is at once an encyclopedia of posture and a portrait of popular poses from the north of Germany in the 70s. Among hundreds of orchestrated sets, it's easy to uncover some exceptions to the 'rules', such as men taking on effeminate knee-bends or the artist inserting a break in her own mediated continuity. Roughly 2/3 of her archive have been selected by the artist to be on view at YU beginning this Friday. From YU: "At the center of both the panels and the book is a wide disputation about how we create and present ourselves, and the degree to which gender-specific conditioning and hierarchies are reflected through everyday pose, gesture, and pre-verbal communication." To accompany the exhibition, the film Self Fashion Shown(1976) by Hungarian artist Tibor Hajas will be on loop in their brand new theatre during open hours. Tibor Hajas, acting as amateur anthropologist, films passerby on the street prompting them to find the posture that suits them most. Marien Wex October 12–December 15 Opening Reception | October 12 | 6:30 PM Yale Union (YU) | 800 SE 10th Ave Still from Roy, Three channel video, 2012 As a stylistic gesture, 'appropriation' is a method of reorganization - a movement. It is distinguished from similar notions, such as arrangement, recomposition, bricolage and others for its relationship to property. For many, it connotes a casual degree of theft. It comes from the Latin verb appropriare, 'to make one's own,' - further segmented as ad, meaning 'to' as in 'towards', and proprius, 'one's own, permanent, special, peculiar'. Inappropriate Appropriation is a group show curated by RECESS co-director and local artist, JP Huckins. The exhibition showcases talented up-and-coming artists who take appropriation, already ubiquitous in our technologically-mediated society, to its limits. Huckins writes, "the artists might not have the answers, they might be pointing at something, or they may be suggesting or nudging you in a certain direction. IA is about seeing things anew that you may have taken for granted before; it's about appropriating inappropriately so that we might appropriate appropriately." While there, be sure to ask where the inspiration for the images on Kulei's hubcaps came from and don't be too quick to dismiss Clay's La Llorona Makes Guest Appearance at Candlelit Vigil as crude culture jamming. Inappropriate Appropriation (IA) | Featuring: Crystal Baxley, Paul Clay, Sam Guerrero, Rochelle Kulei, and Kesheena Jean Doctor October 8th - October 24th Opening Reception | October 11th | 5-8 PM Littman and White Galleries | Second floor of the Smith building @ PSU

AA Bronson and Nicolaus Chaffin, Ashes to Ashes, performance view

Tomorrow, from 6:30-8:30PM PNCA's MFA in Visual Studies welcomes AA Bronson as part of the 2012-2013 Graduate Visiting Artist Lecture Series. Here's the PR:

"AA Bronson formed General Idea with Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal in 1969. The trio lived and worked together for 25 years, undertaking more than 100 exhibitions and public art projects. They were known for their magazine, FILE (1972-1989), their production of low-cost multiples, and their early involvement in punk, queer theory, and AIDS activism. In 1974, General Idea founded Art Metropole, a distribution center and archive in Toronto for artists' books, audio, video, and multiples. Bronson's solo work focuses on death, grieving, and healing. He founded the Institute for Art, Religion, and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary in New York City."

AA Bronson
October 10| 6:30 - 8:30PM
PNCA Main Campus | Swigert Commons | 1241 NW Johnson St.

The Art News reports a new art space and residency for LA started by Guess Jeans co-founder. If only Phil Knight or Gert Boyle would do something similar in Portland? The thing is it takes passion for the arts so someone like Duane Sorenson is a better bet. Oregon's Sarah Meigs already created The Lumber Room, which has a show opening in November.

The strangest thing out of Britain isn't the recent Rothko vandalism (btw putting the works under glass is another kind of vandalism and would likely void the gift)... it is a mandate against aesthetic use of geometry in school buildings.

PORT readers knew last week's Kara Walker lecture would require one to get there early (because we told you)... but for those who didn't get in Reed has posted audio of the talk online here.

The city is seeking nominations for Portland's first Creative Laureate. It is a one year position for someone who can promote Portland's creative attributes and assets.

The Art Gym is re-opening on Sunday after its latest round of remodeling with MK Guth's, "when nothing else subsists, smell and taste remain." There will be a series of conversations about food with the artist during the opening and a stream of artists and scholars throughout the run of the exhibition to make the Proustian palimpsest point. Here's the PR:

"'When from a long distant past nothing subsists after the things are broken and scattered, the smell and taste of things remain.' -Marcel Proust

Inspired by Proust and a long history of artworks using and commenting on food, Oregon artist MK Guth is launching a new body of work this fall with the exhibition 'when nothing else subsists, smell and taste remain.' M.K. Guth uses art to deepen conversation. 'when nothing else subsists, smell and taste remain' will use handmade books, sculpted serving pieces and utensils to materially propose and symbolize potential dinners inspired by art, music, places, relationships or milestones."

MK Guth: when nothing else subsists, smell and taste remain
The Art Gym | Marylhurst University
17600 Pacific Highway (Hwy. 43)| Marylhurst, OR 97036-0261
Preview Reception: October 7, 3-5pm
Gallery Talk: October 18, 12pm
Homecoming artist and curator's tour: October 26, 8pm

Closed Thanksgiving Weekend: November 22-26 | Exhibition continues through December 9

Paul Schimmel literally @ Destroy the Picture

Well, Paul Schimmel's last show as Chief Curator at MOCA, "Destroy the Picture: Painting the Void, 1949-1962" has finally opened in LA. It is a great show, even if it is the martyrdom of a great curatorial program. But focusing back on the art I feel like all the focus on Greenberg from 1949-62 resulted in many of these artists and Non-North Americans like Gutai group being passed over in the history books. Artists like Judd, Flavin and Hesse were doing the related and in dialog things (from 1963 on) without really trying allowing painting to occur... so this is an important way to see how there was so much more depth in that era. Basically, the reason most academics read on Judd and Flavin is so off (undo emphasis on perfection) is because they haven't known much about the things on display in Destroy the Picture... or Judd and Flavin for that matter.

Brian Libby looks at Portland's Architecture + Design festival.

Ive known about this for a long time but OCAC has just announced that they will have a MFA program next year. This is a crucial move for Portland's most focused art school.

It is the eve of Luc Tuymans innaugural exhibition at David Zwirner's new London Gallery, giving us the opportunity to publish this interview conducted last June at the artist's studio in Antwerp.


Luc Tuymans. (c) 2012 Luc Tuymans

Gary Wiseman: It has been said that it is impossible to place you within a school of painting. However, you have been extremely influential and could be seen as having established an entirely new school of painting. What is the philosophy of the Luc Tuymans school? What is its lineage?

Luc Tuymans: Nothing, I hope, because I am not planning on making a school. Even the article, I mean, though well meant, about the Tuymans Effect [Jordan Kantor], I thought it was a bit difficult, I mean, it is not because of the fact that ten years later Havekost crops the face of which he makes a portrait the same way I did, that it is the same painting. Because it is painted totally differently. The same goes for the other people in that article. So I think that... (more)

All and Nothing @ Froelick. Photo, Jeff Jahn.

In an exhibition entitled All and Nothing, Victor Maldonado creates an empty space for the viewer to fill with meaning a la Cage's 4'33" and others. Here, though, the visual nothing that we're supposed to stack meaning atop takes root in the common motifs of his earlier work. "[Maldonado]attempts to step back from elements of his established creative practice to give the viewer room to experience as they will. The pieces in All and Nothing are humorous and pointed, such as pages from art history texts, painted over in black or chroma key green to omit, alter or highlight reproductions of well known works." Let's see if we can find something in the pastiche, in the Hal Foster sort of way.

All and Nothing | Victor Maldonado
Opening Reception | October 4th | 5-8 PM
Froelick Gallery | 714 NW Davis Street

(There is so much more to peruse behind the cut!)

Former Portlander and overall excellent person, Mickalene Thomas is having a great run in New York this Fall with articles in the NYT's here and a review here. I interviewed Thomas a few years ago at her studio. Congrats!

The decay of architecture has held human interest since recorded history and Arch Daily looks at its entropic appeal. The Romans were in love with Greek ruins rather than the original condition of their structures. Frank Lloyd Wright would often build his structures in purposefully dangerous proximity to trees and massive grape vines for the same romantic allure.

The duality of entropy and vegetative growth has been big for a while but it seem like it is THE topic right now. Portland is getting its own already world famous veg-facade with the Edith Green Federal Building renovation.