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Thursday 03.11.10

 

Suggested reading

The Judd Conference now has its own blog and Arcy has laid out a very helpful reading list with links. Remember to register early, the cost goes up after March 22nd and space is limited. If you are an installation artist, designer or architect this event will be of capital interest.

Todd Eberle is doing some fine blogging and always great photos on Marina Abramovic's latest.

Nicolai Ouroussoff's fascinating article on Claude Parent is definitely worth a read, contextualizing the architect who has influenced younger designers like Jean Nouvel and Rem Koolhaas. Call him the father of the current strain of counterintuitive (yet good) architecture.

Tyler Green contemplates the ethical legacy of curator Edward Fry in the Gugg's new Contemplating the Void exhibition.

The WWeek reviews the Blakely Dadsen show at Chambers.


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Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 11, 2010 at 11:20 | Comments (0)


Portland2010 Biennial

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Portland's latest stab at a Biennial begins this weekend. Curated by Cris Moss and running from March to May 2010, exhibitions will be held at Disjecta, Elizabeth Leach Gallery, the Marylhurst Art Gym, Rocksbox, the Templeton Building, the Leftbank, the Alicia Blue Gallery, and Alpern Gallery. You can already see shows at Elizabeth Leach and the Art Gym by Melody Owen (both), and the following is opening this weekend:


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Ditch Projects

Are You Ready for the Country? brings Ditch Projects to Rocksbox. "Finding inspiration in the apocalypse of vacancy that marks urban failure, Are You Ready for the Country identifies and celebrates the urban center's sudden and full submission to the rural margin. Refusing the iconography of idealized naturalism, the members of Ditch Projects opt, instead, to frame rurality as the physical lack of constant urbanity."

Opening reception • 6-10pm • March 13
ROcksbox Fine Art • 6540 N Interstate • 503.516.4777


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Bruce Conkle and Marne Lucas

Six shows will be opening this Saturday at Disjecta (the hub of the Biennial): Bruce Conkle & Marne Lucas' Warlord Sun King, David Corbett's New Work, Sean Healy's Muscle Car Memory/Carcinoma, Tahni Holt's Culture Machine (in progress), Crystal Schenk's Recent Work, and Crystal Schenk & Shelby Davis' West Coast Turnaround. While you're there, pop over to the Vestibule to see Evertt Beidler's Cured of Second Chances (not part of the Biennial).

Opening reception • 6-10pm • March 13
Disjecta • 8371 N Interstate • 503.286.9449


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Posted by Megan Driscoll on March 11, 2010 at 9:28 | Comments (0)


yellow luck

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MP5 presents Avantika Bawa's yesterday. Yellow. Bawa writes: "My altered and seemingly 'perfect' construction aims to transform the objects beyond their perceived banality into a dynamic phenomenon that reinvents the mundane. Ordinary, discarded material is used to construct a landscape, where the common place is glorified. Here, the flawed is perfected and the familiar obscured, rendering an emergent and difficult communication to be examined and relearned." The exhibition is on view from March 12 - April 30, 2010.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • March 12
MP53 • 900 NE 81st Avenue • Gallery space of lofts building


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Shaun Jarvis

Alpern Gallery presents Shaun Jarvis' Hard Luck. The photographs are part of a decade-long ongoing project photographing the artist's associates in available light without post-production.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • March 12
Alpern Gallery • 2552 NW Vaughn • 503.477.7721


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Posted by Megan Driscoll on March 10, 2010 at 15:04 | Comments (0)


Interview with Bill Gilbert

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Bill Gilbert

Bill Gilbert has been the Lannan Foundation Chair in the Land Arts of the American West program at The University of New Mexico since 2000 and is the author of Land Arts of the American West. He took time to answer a few of PORT's questions on the eve of his talk for The Museum of Contemporary Craft this coming Wednesday at PNCA:

Alex: Michael Heizer has indicated he'd like to fix Double Negative because it has deteriorated, isn't that the Land art equivalent of George Lucas redoing Star Wars? How do you feel about artists tinkering with their early earth art?

Bill: Heizer has gone back and forth on this one. I really appreciate his ability to be inconsistent and answer depending on how he’s feeling or who his audience might be at any given time in the over the forty years it has been since the piece was completed. We artists all have complicated relationships with our work. So, I understand the... (more)


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Posted by Alex Rauch on March 09, 2010 at 7:01 | Comments (0)


talks

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Whiting Tennis, "Bitter Lake Compound," 2007

PAM's artist talk series continues this week with Matthew Stadler, a novelist who also writes about art and architecture for various publications, including Frieze, Artforum, Volume, Fillip, and Domus. Stadler will discuss Mark Tobey's Western Town, 1944, and Whiting Tennis' Bitter Lake Compound, 2007. The group will meet in the Hoffman Lobby, walk around the museum, and return to the lobby for happy hour after.

Art lecture • 6-8pm • March 11
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811


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Daniel Joseph Martinez

PNCA presents a lecture by Daniel Joseph Martinez via the MFA in Visual Studies program: "A strategic provocateur with a keen intelligence and a wicked sense of humor, Martinez deploys the full range of available media in his practice, having used at various times (and in various combinations) text, image, sculpture, video, and performance to construct his uniquely tough-minded brand of aesthetic inquiry."

Artist lecture • 6:30-8pm • March 11
MoCC in partnership with PNCA • 724 NW Davis • The Lab


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Posted by Megan Driscoll on March 09, 2010 at 6:10 | Comments (0)


Land Art

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David Shaner, "Garden Slab," 1964

The Museum of Contemporary Craft presents Land Art: David Shaner. The exhibition explores the relationship between craft and the Land Art movement of the 1960s and 1970s through the work of a "potter's potter." Land Art includes works from the artist's estate and the museum's collection, as well as photos and personal notes taken by the artist, which "reveal a concurrent, domestically-scaled yet quietly sensual relationship between art and the landscape of the American West."

Exhibition • March 10 - August 7, 2010
Museum of Contemporary Craft • 724 NW Davis • 503.223.2654

On the first day of the exhibition, William Gilbert will present a concurrent Craft Perspectives lecture via PNCA/MoCC on "Land Arts of the American West." Gilbert "will discuss shifts in contemporary understanding of the genre of Land Art, tracing connections from his own study of ceramics in Montana with Rudy Autio to the innovative 'Land Arts of the American West' program he co-founded with Chris Taylor."

Artist lecture • 6:30 - 8pm • March 10
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson • 503.226.4391


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Posted by Megan Driscoll on March 08, 2010 at 9:34 | Comments (0)


NYC roundup

Roberta Smith lays it all out in a matter of fact way regarding the Koons curated New Museum show, Skin Fruit. To me it seems like a show calibrated for 2007 and people are going to hold the New Museum to higher standards because of the mission statement and presence of "New" in its name. The problem isn't Koons or the collector, it's the fact that the New Museum can't really afford to be behind the curve the way other New York Museums are... or even behind the those other institutions for that matter. Everyone wants the New Museum to be bleeding edge, but it isn't. Perhaps large group shows are simply the wrong way.

It's part of the reason PORT didn't get all Whitney-excited (even if several Portland friends are in it and the Museum linked to several of our articles). To me its like a cliff notes version of the art world and this iteration's focus on being conveniently self-conscious felt dated (anyone remember 2002?). Also,why must they always have a car or other wheeled vehicle in each version? Overall, the Whitney can get away with being a little behind the curve, in fact I think that is part of being a venerated museum and its a valuable way to intersect with those who are not 100% art world creatures. Honestly, Id like to see Museums put on more small group shows 3-5 artists... politically that's a rats nest to navigate as a curator but that is what these times require. Will the Portland Art Museum's CNAA's be up to that challenge regionally? Balancing politics and freshness is difficult for large institutions.

The NYT's also did a piece on the Armory, a confab which in my mind has somewhat overshadowed the Whitney Biennial.... even in this diminished economic climate. PORT's award winning Amy Bernstein will have a report soon.


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Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 05, 2010 at 14:46 | Comments (0)


First Friday Picks March 2010

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Stefano Minzi

Gallery Homeland presents Guten Tag Meine Fruende, a collection of six contemporary emerging and established artists living and working in Berlin. The show grew out of the ongoing relationship Gallery Homeland has been building over the past 6 months with the creative community of Berlin. Featured artists include Nicole Cohen, Ali Fitzgerald, Stefano Minzi, Holger Pohl, Adam Raymont, and Katharina Trudzinski.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • March 5
Gallery Homeland • 2505 SE 11th Ave • info@galleryHOMELAND.org

(More: Transverse at Worksound, Incubate at PNCA's Hybrid Gallery, Susan Burnstine at Newspace, and Midori Hirose at the new Nationale.)


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Posted by Megan Driscoll on March 04, 2010 at 17:00 | Comments (0)


Major Annoucement, Judd Conference and Exhibition in Portland

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Poster for Judd Conference featuring image of Judd's 1974 piece at the PCVA (photo Maryanne Caruthers)

The University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts and PORT are pleased to announce what promises to be a major highlight of Portland's 2010 cultural calendar; a scholarly conference and exhibition, "Donald Judd: Delegated Fabrication; history, practices, issues and implications" on April 25th 2010. With keynote speaker Robert Storr and other notables like Peter Ballantine, this promises to be a conference where Judd's most radical artistic contributions are examined and discussed. Space will be limited to encourage discussion so this wont be one of those static lecture and listen style events.

Furthermore, I'll be curating the exhibition Donald Judd, which will support and encourage the conferences discussion, it opens on conference day and runs through May 21st at the U of O's White Box gallery in Portland. The event is sponsored by the University of Oregon's School of Architecture and Allied Arts, PORT and through the generous patron support of Bonnie Serkin and Will Emery.

Official Website for registration
$65 early registration (through March 22)
$35 students

Sunday, April 25, 2010
University of Oregon in Portland
White Stag Block
70 NW Couch Street, Portland, OR 97209

...(more)


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Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 04, 2010 at 13:35 | Comments (1)


RAW Schema

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Pae White, "MetaFoil"

Reed College's annual Reed Arts Week starts today. RAW 2010's theme is Alchemy: Organized by Students to Blow Your Mind. During the 4-day arts fest, there will be exhibitions/check locations throughout campus by visiting artists Pae White, Jonah Freeman, Marko Mäetamm, and Vanessa Lang. Most will be open to the public from 12-6pm. Other public events include Saturday's Dublab: Tonalism musical event, a screening by Pierre Huyghe, a table hosted by the Independent Publishing Resource Center, and a reading by David Shields. Check the full schedule for more info on art projects and lectures.

Arts fest • March 3-7, 2010
Reed College • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd


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Jordan Tull, "Shadow Traces" diagram

OCAC's Hoffman Gallery presents Schema: Craft in Context, "the first exhibition in a series exploring the intersection of art, craft, and design in the Northwest...The artists in Schema invent images and forms that exist as the material embodiment of a conceptual framework. The interaction between form and space is primary here. While many of the selections deal with an obvious plan or structure each work can be viewed as presenting actions or directions not immediately evident. As such the pieces become systems to engage multiple possibilities rather than a fixed preconception." Among the included installations is Jordan Tull's architectural intervention, Shadow Traces: "For Hoffman Gallery, Shadow Traces is meant to disrupt visible aperture while shadowing interior surfaces. The intervention offers a shifted architectural context to experience artwork in." The exhibition runs from March 4 - March 28, 2010.

Opening reception • 4-7pm • March 4
Oregon College of Art and Craft • 8245 SW Barnes Road • Hoffman Gallery


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Posted by Megan Driscoll on March 03, 2010 at 9:35 | Comments (0)


First Thursday Picks March 2010

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Susan Seubert, "Lovejoy Fountain"

Brian Libby presents 8 x PDX: Photographs of Portland Architecture at AiA's Center for Architecture. The show features works by Jeremy Bitterman, PORTstar Jeff Jahn, Chris Hornbecker, Shawn Records, Susan Seubert, Sally Schoolmaster and Michael Weeks, as well as two pictures taken by Libby.

Opening reception • 5:30-8:30pm • March 4
American Institute of Architects • 403 NW 11th • 503.223.8757

(More: Blakely Dadson at Chambers@916, Melody Owen at Elizabeth Leach, Future Death Toll at Tractor, Wrecking Crüe at IGLOO, Brenda Mallory at Doppler PDX, and Lucas Murgida and Autzen.)


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Posted by Megan Driscoll on March 02, 2010 at 8:56 | Comments (1)


educational arts

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Modou Dieng and Damien Gallery present Flashstream: New Video at the New Video Gallery at PSU. In the lobby of the PSU Art Building or projected on the outside wall after dusk will be video works by Hannah Piper Burns, Carl Diehl, Jacob Fennell, Weird Fiction, Jaclyn Fronzack, Matthew Green, MK Guth, Ryan Jeffery, George Kuchar, Chris Larson, Bob Moricz, and Randi Razalenti.

Video exhibition • March 1 - March 26, 2010
PSU New Video Gallery • 2000 SW 5th Ave • Lobby of art building or outside at night

(More: Aili Schmeltz lectures at Clark College and Of Walking in Ice opens at UO's White Box.)


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Posted by Megan Driscoll on March 01, 2010 at 11:40 | Comments (0)


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