|
Something to chew on for the weekend
Portland Architecture has a great post on PSU's Social
Practice classroom on Alberta. An innovative project, the structure will
be designed to be moved from site to site, interracting with the various neighborhoods
that Portland is famous for.
 Nan Curtis at Linfield (detail)
It's that last weekend for The
Dancer at PAM (an excellent scholarly effort) and Saturday is the last day
for Nan
Curtis' show at Linfield
College, always worth the drive and extra fun if you work in some wine tasting
in the area.
Roberta
Smith chimes in on the 55th Carnegie International... her complaint is its
lack of teeth. Tyler Green seems to have seen a different show, partly because
the Vija
Celmins did something for him. (Celmins usually delivers but what about
the newer names?) The elephant in the room is this question, "are all these
international shows the same uninspired show created through a preapproved list
of familiar names and or ideas? Has brand, inclusivity of various practices
and global ubiquity trumped the shock of the new?" Look, it's a change
election year and similarly I suspect many people simply want a different art
world... the Carnegie is proabbly allright but when
they went to Mars it looks like they brought the same old artists. All of
the biennials are suffering from a fatigue of the overly familiar (brought on
by a smaller world and a lot of shows). Artblog
also has some nice coverage.
Oh and in case you missed it Jerry
Saltz wrote about a restaging of a seminal Dan Flavin show... back when
real ground was being broken.
Read More
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on May 09, 2008 at 17:04
| Comments (0)
PCC's ArtBeat

Harry Widman, "Mother and Daughter"
PCC's ArtBeat Week starts next Monday. The annual festival, which has run since 1989, boasts over 80 events on PCC's five campuses, all of which are free and open to the public. This year's featured artist is internationally recognized painter Harry Widman, whose work Mother and Daughter (above) has been added to PCC's permanent collection.
The festival runs May 12 - 16 on the Cascade, Rock Creek, Southeast Center, and Sylvania campuses. For a list of artists and activities and a schedule of events, visit the ArtBeat website.
Read More
Posted by Megan Driscoll
on May 09, 2008 at 11:50
| Comments (1)
Infinitus

TJ Norris, "Infinitus" (still)
The next Couture exhibition opened this week at NAAU. TJ Norris' Infinitus, the third and final component to the installation series Tribryd, is a "multimedia video lounge" that asks you to experience "the entire globe manifesting itself through interconnected man-made mini malls." The show runs May 7 - June 22, with an opening reception this weekend.
Opening reception • 6-9pm • May 10
New American Art Union • 922 SE Ankeny St. • 503.231.8294
Read More
Posted by Megan Driscoll
on May 08, 2008 at 13:53
| Comments (0)
Jess

Jess Collins
Reed's Cooley Gallery presents an exhibition of work by seminal Beat Generation artist Jess Collins, known simply as "Jess" (1923-2004). Originally a chemist who worked on the Manhattan Project, Jess abandoned science and became an artist to protest nuclear weapons. Jess: To and From the Printed Page explores his relationship with printed materials, "as food and inspiration for his literary, esoteric vision." The traveling exhibition was organized by iCI.
Exhibition • Tue-Sun 12-5pm • May 9 - July 20
Cooley Gallery • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. • Reed College
Also: Don't miss the artist talk by Margot Voorhies Thompson at Laura Russo, in conjunction with her Inventing/Adapting exhibition.
Artist talk • 11am • May 10 •
Laura Russo Gallery • 805 NW 21st AVE • 503.226.2754
Read More
Posted by Megan Driscoll
on May 07, 2008 at 13:15
| Comments (0)
New Sponsors
You may have noticed PORT's many new sponsors over the past 6 months and it's
time to point them out if you haven't. Our sponsors are important part of what
we do, making informed art writing like this, this and this possible as well
as our constant stream of news, openings and other events. Portland is a busy
art city, that has only gotten busier and more serious in just the last 6 months,
even our list of new sponsors tells that story.
Portland Art Focus
is a coalition of for profit and non profit art exhibitors (PAM, PADA, Reed,
MoCC, PICA, OCAC, Lewis and Clark, PNCA etc.) dedicated to increasing Portland's profile as visual
art destination on the international stage. You'll be seeing ads in the New
Yorker and Art in America shortly and you might have already seen ads in Art
Ltd. Also, important is PAF's connection to Travel
Portland bringing package deals to The Rose City. Cultural tourism is a
major and growing industry for Portland (and a little known fact, Portland's
weather is incredibly nice from mid May-mid October).
Art Media and
Utrecht are two
of the most popular art supply stores in Portland (a city full of artists) and
we are proud to have both of them on board as sponsors as well. Not just businesses,
they are often where artists neighborly run into eachother.
Thanks to all of our sponors, you make PORT possible... check them out at the
right of the screen.
Read More
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on May 07, 2008 at 10:47
| Comments (0)
Judy Cooke and Amanda Wojick at Elizabeth Leach Gallery

Judy Cooke, Oil, 2007 rubber, aluminum and oil on wood 43 x 38.5 x 2"
Black Rubber has many connotations. Some of us might think tires, others its uses as a shock absorber/ dampener and others, well how should I say it, something more entertaining.
According to Wikipedia, natural rubber is an elastic hydrocarbon polymer that naturally occurs as milky colloidal suspension, or latex, in the sap of some plants. In other words, rubber is a natural substance that has found lots of uses in industrial applications: tires, tubes, gaskets, etc. We use rubber to make sure our cars stay on the road and to make sure that when we connect to pipes that don't leak.
Not to overstate the obvious but rubber is flexible, it adapts... (more)
Read More
Posted by Arcy Douglass
on May 06, 2008 at 9:46
| Comments (1)
Storytelling

Leigh Ledare
Opening this week at Small A: Every Picture Tells a Story... Or At Least is a Picture, curated by Jo Jackson and Chris Johanson, featuring the work of twelve contemporary artists.
Opening reception • 6-8pm • May 8
Small A Projects • 1430 SE 3rd • 503.234.7993
Read More
Posted by Megan Driscoll
on May 06, 2008 at 9:06
| Comments (0)
Lectures

Justine Kurland
Photographer Justine Kurland is lecturing at PNCA this week. Kurland became well known after her participating in the 1999 group show Another Girl, Another Planet, in which she displayed "large tableau pictures of neo-romantic landscapes inhabited by teenaged girls." Her work continues to explore issues of feminine identity, including her PICA exhibition in 2005. We're lucky to have Kurland around these parts quite frequently.
Artist lecture • 12:30pm • May 7
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson St. • 503.226.4391
Also: Roger Ballen is lecturing in conjunction with his exhibition at QPCA.
Artist lecture • 7pm • May 7 • $5
PICA • 224 NW 13th AVE
Read More
Posted by Megan Driscoll
on May 05, 2008 at 17:26
| Comments (0)
Looking around
Andrew Goldstein wonders what
P.S.1 will be like without Alanna Heiss? As of late the institution has been
morphing into more of an establishment venue with the Greater New York shows
etc. and a connection to MoMA... it's the way things tend to go. Really anything
that isn't a fusty musty academic institution will tend
to fall victim to its own successes (see MoMA, Dia, Guggenheim) and it's why
Judd took to Marfa and even that outpost has become a fetish of remoteness.
Look, if Walter Hopps could somehow mellow and take on an old sage-like patina in his last
years anyone and any institution can...it's just part of the metabolism of culture.
Speaking of Judd, Tyler Green is still in
the running for Judd
head of the month, both bits are interesting, especially the bits on why
Smithson was more favored in the academy.
Kim Davenport of Rice University has 10
bits of sound advice regarding installation art. You definitely have to
take a greater leap of faith and trust the atrist more for site specific projects... (more)
Read More
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on May 05, 2008 at 11:38
| Comments (0)
Paul Sutinen at the Nine Gallery
 Detail of Paul Sutinen's Sculpture in the Form of a Small Building in the Distance at the Nine Gallery
Unless you are camping or a cave dweller, buildings are the main stage for most
human activities. We humans are essentially hive dwellers and buildings are our
honeycomb.
Because of this, Paul Sutinen's Sculpture in the Form of a Small Building in
the Distance at the Nine Gallery collective (located inside Blue
Sky in the Desoto
Building) was a welcome respite from all of the sculpture du jour
(self conscious with a light touch) on view for May's First Thursday... (more)
Read More
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on May 02, 2008 at 14:37
| Comments (0)
A "Cross-Cultural Encounter" at OSU

Heejung Kim, "Karma"
This Monday, two exhibitions curated by Midori Yoshimoto are opening at OSU's Galleries. The combination of Heejung Kim's series The World Between and Sarah Pucill's video installation Stages of Mourning creates "an unexpected, cross-cultural encounter of two women artists." Kim's sculptures and handmade books, in the Fairbanks Gallery, use unusual materials to create objects that explore Buddhist symbolism and Kim's own meditations on the great questions: meaning of life, meaning of death, meaning of existence... In the adjacent West Gallery, Pucill's video installation takes a Western approach to the symbolism of death, exploring the depth of psychological anguish one experiences when trying to cope with the loss of a loved one.
Opening reception • 11:30-1:30 • May 5
Fairbanks Gallery • 106 Fairbanks Hall • OSU Campus
Curator lecture • 6pm Reception 7pm Lecture • May 7
LaSells Stewart Center • 100 LaSells Stewart Center • OSU Campus
Read More
Posted by Megan Driscoll
on May 02, 2008 at 10:55
| Comments (0)
First Friday Picks May 2008

Joe Glasglow
Newspace presents Peripheral Vision by the Inner Light Group. Founded in 1986 by Shedrich Williames, the photography group now includes over 20 members working in a wide variety of styles. This exhibition explores the physical and metaphorical possibilities when considering our visual periphery: "Does it exist only in the mind of the photographer? Or is seeing with peripheral vision a physical process that keeps one alert to all that may be happening in the corners and around the edges of an image."
Opening reception • 6-9pm • May 2
Newspace Center for Photography • 1632 SE 10th AVE • 503.963.1935
(more)
Read More
Posted by Megan Driscoll
on May 01, 2008 at 11:45
| Comments (0)
|