I've been busy with several projects (inside and outside Portland)... including curating a somewhat informal Spring show in Portland this weekend. That said I have a large # of reviews to publish (soon, lots going on behind the scenes). Till then these links should tide you over:

With all of the terrible news its nice to hear something positive, C3: Initiative is leaving St. Johns to join the densest visual arts cluster of venues in Portland, right on the NW Park Blocks. We profiled C3 when they were new and they've done many great things since. Frankly its nice to see an organization grow and understand their niche.

Another bit of good news is the Historic Landmarks Commission has approved the Rothko Pavilion expansion at PAM. The real trick will be to tailor the Rothko painting exhibition space to his paintings. Often they are lit wrong, dont allow for intimate viewing and have weird lines on the floor to protect the paintings from the required close viewing. Yes, urban legends around Rothko still persist in Portland... all thoroughly debunked in this historic post by Arcy, here on PORT.

The sad news of the passing of Okwui Enwezor hits home. Amy Bernstein interviewed the man extensively for PORT in 2009. Other artworlders discuss his legacy here.

Here is a fine and challenging interview with Anish Kapoor in the Guardian. Intelligent and anything but fatalistic in his lifelong query via art his work is both generous and thorny.

Academia and capitalism... neither is working terribly well these days so combining the two seems like trying to turn two wrongs into a right?

The horse ring art project by Scott Wayne Indiana has become a Portland tradition.

Here is a fascinating critique of social practice. I've brought up similar observations over the years... especially the suspiciously polite fetish of do-gooder activities that don't challenge the viewers so much as elicit polite applause. Ultimately, where is the crisis in patting oneself on the back? Overall, the whole humblebrag phenomena is trying to insulate itself from criticism in search of faint praise. The problem is the vocational vs. the avocation aspects.

We are not buying the gist of the official statement that OCAC has finally put out on their website that small college closures are no fault and very common today. As if this closure is the natural and inevitable order to be accepted? Yes, it is very common if the board takes a hospice approach to the institution (in OCAC's case of looking for a merger or closure, without a true rally to save the school). Obviously, it is difficult to save a school via emergency fundraising if the board is fatalistic, especially since they were technically the ones who oversaw the strategies that lead to the current situation. The stronger leadership move when you are out of your depth fundraising/vision wise is to bring in a new team (august when they became spooked was the time). This board and the senior administration's curious inability to capitalize on the good name and abundant community good will for the last arts and craft college in the USA will be this board's albatross and many questions remain regarding the roots of this fatalism.