Lately, Portland's art world has been suffering most of the same "look at this estate sale" art the rest of the world has been subjected to but no more... September gets exciting this week:


Jennifer Steinkamp's Jimmy Carter

There hasn't been much talk about it since somewhat underwhelming festival style glut-art seems to saturate the generalist press... but Open This End is a heavyweight at the Hoffman Galler at Lewis & Clark College and should not be missed. A traveling selection from Blake Byrne's excellent collection, the exhibition isn't just a scattered trophy room of; Warhol, Paul McCarthy, Mike Kelley, Gerhard Richter and Bruce Nauman. It follows several threads of intertwined societal and personal narratives. I think the installation of Jimmy Carter by Jennifer Steinkamp alone should be compelling because it isn't just the same old political art, it is subtle in a way politics usually are not. What's more, Steve McQueen's groundbreaking multi-channel Drumroll video is on display at PAM as part of Open This End as well. There isn't an opening but on September 25th there will be a panel about serious collecting (with serious collectors like Byrne), a practice Portland could have more of.

Open This End| September 8 - December 11
Collector's Panel with Blake Byrne: September 25, 4PM
Ronna and Eric Hoffman Gallery of Contemporary Art
Lewis & Clark College
0615 S.W. Palatine Hill Road



A.K. Burns A Smeary Spot (video still)

Earlier this year we reported that PICA had found a new permanent home, which it owns. Ive been through the space at 15 NE Hancock and it is immense... in many ways far more challenging yet open to anything than any of their previous spaces (for example last year's warehouse TBA show was just rough and warehouse-y but this is more like an immense sound stage or an aircraft hanger. The move also didn't give much time so this large scale A.K. Burns 4 channel video piece A Smeary Spot works for Makeup on Empty Space, this year's theme. Mostly, I am are curious to see if PICA can do something truly great again now that they know where they are (as opposed to the ok to good enough we've seen lately). To the thinskins this might provoke, what I'm saying is PICA seemed distracted by these moves and many visual art shows seemed to be cut from a similar "very improvised" cloth that blended together anonymously (Andrea Geyer being the biggest exception). It is something that happens whey you don't quite know where you will be. I'm hoping this move spurs them on to be more capital "A" Ambitious with real risks and variety and A Smeary Spot seems like a good choice for opening the conversation... rather than filling the space with 3-8 less developed ideas like most TBA's have been.

A Smeary Spot | September 8 - October 20
TBA Opening Reception: September 8, 8:00PM
PICA HQ
15 NE Hancock