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Portland art blog + news + exhibition reviews + galleries + contemporary northwest art
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Openings & Events | August 1st 2013
Isaac Layman is known for his large format, hyper real images of objects from everyday life. His new body of work includes photographic constructions and curated objects. These works honor the idea of loss and hint through multiple perspectives to the possibility of the afterlife.
Yoonhee Choi's elegant collages are notable for their unlikely materials. Drafting supplies from her days as an architect and city planner. In her hands, line tape, lettering sets, masking tape, and other supplies transform into expressive marks. For rePLACING Choi has added delicate graphite lines, some unexpected material choice, and a dramatic shift in scale from 2.5 inches square to 11 x 30 feet. Each of Roya Motamedi's abstract images is a meditation on place: "Afghanistan, Japan, New York, Mexico and Portland have created structure in me which carries through to my paintings," she says. This will be her first Portland show. Born to an Afghan archeologist father and a Japanese art historian mother, Motamedi and her family spent time in both parents' homelands. At 18, she departed for college in the U.S. Later, with her husband and son, Motamedi lived in a small town outside Guadalejara, and for the last five years in Portland. These intimately scaled oil paintings are glimpses into her wayfaring life. In her words "the colors of murals and dry earth at Bamiyan where Buddha once stood; the mossy temple of Kamakura; the sun of Mexico; the dusty road where dogs nap; and the color of now-the quiet gray of Portland". Motamedi and Choi, share a fascination with place, an affinity for working small, and a playfulness with color and space.
For three years, artist Sage Sohier interviewed and photographed patients undergoing physical therapy for partial facial paralysis at a nerve clinic in Boston. These patients were seeking treatment related to a variety of conditions, and many of her subjects have spent a lifetime suppressing their outward emotions, for fear that they might only serve to magnify their imperfections. "As a visual artist, I find myself fascinated by the intensity of glimpsing two expressions simultaneously, a literal 'two-facedness' that mesmerizes by its terrible beauty. At the same time, I hope these pictures bear witness to the incredible courage required to deal with medical afflictions, especially when they affect one's primary appearance. Even minor facial problems challenge and potentially diminish a person's sense of self; the poise and inner strength that it takes to deal with this, while at the same time presenting oneself to the world, is remarkable. As I've listened to and photographed these people, I've been struck by how much complex feeling is revealed in their faces and gestures. Their brave self-presentation to the camera, at a time when they are most vulnerable and camera-shy, elicits something wistful, tender, and deeply human." Our skin reveals everything that differentiates us. Each person has their own unique patterns of freckles, wrinkles, scars, or tattoos. No one escapes these marks that time has left behind. For his Torso Series, artist June Yong Lee photographed and digitally manipulated the midsections of his subjects to create unconventional large-scale portraits of bodies. Lee's images tread the line between fact and fiction. "Bodies record personal stories and suggest the ways that we remember. Skin, in particular, reflects who we are and tells stories that we might not always recognize. Memories, like scars on skin, are fragile. Some scars last longer than others while some heal but never disappear, helping us preserve memory. We use tattoos to engrave memories under our skin and make them permanent. We change the form of our bodies by losing and gaining weight. Although memories deteriorate and denature with time, our skin never forgets."
Emerging Tactics is a three-part series of programming facilitated by RECESS from August through October focusing on artists and projects that operate as catalysts for social change. The first part of the series, Public Schools, is an artist-run free school that invites existing alternative education platforms to take over PNCA's Swigert Commons during the month of August. Ephemera from these participatory free workshops, lectures, and classes will be added to the built environment. Source material for each event will be compiled into a reader downloadable from the RECESS website. Hardcopies of the reader will also be available in the Commons.
Posted by Emily Cappa on July 31, 2013 at 11:00 | Comments (0) Comments Post a comment Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
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