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Paul Pfeiffer lecture at PSU
Paul Pfeiffer's Vitruvian Figure (2009)
The Paul Pfeiffer lecture on Thursday looks like a winner for Portland artists interested in architecture and multimedia technology (a large portion of the scene), here's the PR:
"New York-based multimedia artist Paul Pfeiffer will deliver the final presentation in the inaugural lecture series, titled 'Firsts,' given by the Department of Architecture, Portland State University. Paul Pfeiffer will speak on Thursday, May 17, at 7pm, at Shattuck Hall Annex (at SW Broadway and Hall Streets) on the Portland State University campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Paul Pfeiffer is a New York–based artist whose groundbreaking work in video, sculpture and photography uses recent computer technologies to examine the role that the mass media plays in shaping consciousness. Pfeiffer prompts audiences to reconsider attitudes about the body, race, identity, faith and architectural space in contemporary society. His work has been exhibited internationally at renowned museums and galleries and is in private and public collections worldwide. He is the recipient of numerous awards and, notably, he is the inaugural recipient of the Bucksbaum Award, given by the Whitney Museum of American Art (2000)."
Artist Lecture: Paul Pfeiffer
PSU Department of Architecture
Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 7:00pm
Shattuck Hall Annex
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Posted by Jeff Jahn
on May 15, 2012 at 11:44
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Barnes Storming
Interior of the original Barnes Foundation
I've discussed the Barnes Collection numerous times over the years, and now it is open to the public in a new building in downtown Philly. I haven't seen it yet but on principle I believe it is important to weigh in.
Christopher Hawthorne of the LA Times doesn't dig the building. Frankly it was an impossible commission, part of the charm is the destination, the old building smells, creaky floors and less than perfect light.
But even more fascinating is this very well written piece by Jerry Saltz that I nearly completely disagree with.
Though I generally applaud Jerry's sentiment that no collector should dictate the terms for best viewing the art (especially after they die) in this case I can't agree. Very few collectors deserve equal billing with artists but in this case I believe the incredibly idiosyncratic Barnes did. What is lost by creating a pseudo structure that makes the works more accessible is to lose part of the story of modern art and thus the roots of how we decoupled the power of the image (art, advertising etc.) from the institution and the state... (more)
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Posted by Jeff Jahn
on May 14, 2012 at 12:24
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Friday Links
I have expanded my thoughts on Peter Plagens' article in the Wall Street Journal. The repercussions of which should be felt for years because Portland does a lot of great things as an incubator and needs to consolidate those successes with rethinking its support structure and the way institutions calibrate their eye on the scene's often very unrelated strata.
Tyler Green takes a look at some fantastic Rembrandt self portraits.
Brian Libby looks at the most exciting new building in Portland's skyline... did I just type those words? Yes, Portland actually has an exciting new addition to its skyline.
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Posted by Jeff Jahn
on May 11, 2012 at 17:02
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Chase Biado at PSU's White Gallery
Chase Biado has a truly enigmatic sense of delivery and it comes through in his work. A while back he presented a video of a hilarious talking mushroom performing a long, off the wall diatribe (by Tom Cruise) at 12128 so I'm very curious to see his latest solo show at PSU's White Gallery, Spider Veins. There is an opening tonight 5-8PM.
To give you the flavor here is his Press release statement:
"I've been seeking out a certain line, a vein. It's a squiggly line ~~~~~ an uneconomic line, like an excess of time allowed for the line to be dragged. The pencil is held with slack. The line meanders towards its destination.
The spider vein is the wandering line that is too old to care ~ that has lost a destination and keeps going.
The spider crawls up the wall ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ spider dance. The spider makes a line that is not necessarily choice. The drawn squiggly is not necessarily a choice, but tension held in the body.
I've tried to draw a line like veins crawling up the legs of old men and old ladies in their old swimsuits on the old beach, getting older. This is not a streamline.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There's a relationship in the line between time and tension. The spider vein is on vacation time. Its tension is drawstring tension.
The line defines the relationship: body to out-of-body, bound-self to unbound projection.
The line says, 'I am the spider, you are the web.'
varicose ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ varicose ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ varicose
Spider Veins
Artist's Reception: May 10 5-8PM
Littman & White Galleries| Portland State University
1825 SW Broadway #250 | 503 725-5656
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Posted by Jeff Jahn
on May 10, 2012 at 12:45
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Monograph turns two
Sure Portland has some great big bookstores but there's this little one just off NE Alberta that has my heart... So join Monograph Bookwerks for their second anniversary. There will be Prosecco beverages and snax, book giveaways, friends and cheer to celebrate Monograph as it enters its "terrible twos"... never grow up little one and may everyone be lucky enough to witness an art book tantrum!
Monograph Bookwerks
B'Day Party: Thursday May 10th 7-10PM
5005 NE 27th ave at Alberta
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Posted by Jeff Jahn
on May 09, 2012 at 20:12
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Opportunities knocking
In New Orleans the Jonathan Ferrara gallery is doing their 16th annual No Dead
Artists exhibition and they are pretty keen on having a look at some Portland
artists and increasing exchange between our fair cities. Deadline is May 15th
with high level jurors and a solo show for the grand prize. Follow this
link for full details. There's a connection here too as they represent Portland's
Brian Borello already.
With a deadline of May 8th is a call
for contemporary portrait photography for a show titled Mirror Mirror at Black
Box. Juror is Holly Andres.
Calling all PNCA alums... the call
for the 2012 Alumni exhibition looks like a doosey this year. Jurors are Randy
Gragg, Namita Gupta-Wiggers, Sarah Miller-Meigs, Deanne Rubinstein and Stephanie
Snyder. Open to all undergrad, graduate and CE certificate holders. Deadline is
June 24th.
PICA is hiring
a box office manager.
Deadline is June 1st for the second annual Industry
and Art show down at Swan Island.
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Posted by Jeff Jahn
on May 07, 2012 at 13:34
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First Friday Picks May 2012
Nathaniel Thayer Moss in progress at Worksound's Perceptual Control
We've been waiting for three months for Worksound's latest show Perceptual Control and it has been worthwhile seeing it develop over a series of talks... but it's time to see where this residency with, Nathanael Thayer Moss, Emily Nachison, Kyle Raquipiso, Jamie Marie Waelchli and PORTstar Amy Bernstein all ends up. The theme of, "exploring transcendence and perception," seems right on time.
Opening Reception: 7:00PM - 10:00PM | May 4th
Worksound
820 SE Alder Street
... (more: Customary Clothing and Dan Gilsdorf at 12128)
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Posted by Jeff Jahn
on May 04, 2012 at 11:16
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First Thursday Picks May 3rd 2012
Tori is a little busy graduating from Reed right now so I'll take this round of picks... you'll be seeing more of her sparkling contributions in the near future. From last month there are some very strong holdovers like Day Job at PNCA and Laura Fritz's Entorus. Here is what is new:
History lesson, in 1999 Heidi Schwegler's kinky work was the star of the most influential art show in Portland's recent history, the 1999 Oregon Biennial curated by Katherine Kanjo (it included video and installation art and made old timers crazy because there wasn't enough whittling, other stars Storm Tharp, Kristan Kennedy, Tom Cramer, Nan Curtis, Jacqueline Ehlis, Sean Healy etc. took part... it remade Portland's scene). Later, Heidi made a splash at the most ambitious Pearl District gallery Portland has ever seen, Savage. Then she kinda disappeared, much to my chagrin. Lately, she's turned up at the Hallie Ford Museum and snagged a well deserved Ford Fellowship. Which is all a round about way to say, welcome back to the Pearl District with this new tourism driven show The Known World... After April, The Pearl is a place that sorely needs any show that doesn't sport an endless barrage of landscape paintings.
Chambers@916
Opening Reception: 6-9 PM | May 3rd
May 3rd - June 23rd
916 NW Flanders
(...more with; Light, Ryan Pierce, Tom Cramer and LITE BOX)
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Posted by Jeff Jahn
on May 03, 2012 at 13:11
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WSJ asks if Portland is America's next art capital?
Peter Plagens visiting 12128 2 weeks ago
The Wall Street Journal has just published a fascinating report on the Portland art scene by noted art critic Peter Plagens. I was his Sacagawea, er... guide... so yes he's seen infinitely more of Portland's scene than DK Row (or any institutional curator besides Cris Moss and Blake Shell). So yes odds are he probably saw your show if it was up two weeks ago in an established venue. Plagens is a machine and a tough discerning customer who doesn't buy any BS. The first day alone we took in 9 shows scattered throughout the city. There will be some images in the print edition tomorrow but let's just take a quick once over the words right now.
Nice that he reiterated the "Capital of Conscience" term that I coined in an Op Ed for the Portland Tribune a few months ago. Because Portland is not a financial capital, NO we wont be a traditional art center like London, New York or Paris of yore. Instead, think of Portland like Weimar during during the Bauhaus years or perhaps Leipzig (the best 25 artists are definitely world class discoveries to be made, maybe only 6 are already known in Chelsea). Overall Portland is full of idealistic people doing idealistic things for the sake of ideals... giving things time to develop before money kicks in and changes things (for good and bad). Portland is a rebel base where art for art's sake is made. We have international art stars who live here too because it is a good environment to work and enjoy the company of other like mindeds.
Accurate in that it discussed Portland as a city where creatives work very hard... not just a bunch of slow paced hipsters who are already retired and eat Voodoo Donuts. The truth is most are working very hard to stay afloat and make work... yet some are carrying on an international career.
It is true, the alternative spaces are so much more adventurous than the commercial galleries... that could be said of most cities but it's my sense that many retreated quite far in 2008 when the market crashed. Instead of trying to drum up excitement by trying new artists (when nothing was selling anyways) they went for safer stuff. Honestly that makes sense, the gallery business is so difficult but perhaps this article will catalyze a way to narrow the schizm? Collectors might be more involved if they knew what Portland's larger scene was like? As it stands Plagens has seen more of Portland than most Portland collectors, curators and art dealers and he's right the installation art and some video is our strongest suit.
He loved Crystal Schenk's Artifacts of Memory (the last show we saw) and Laura Fritz's Entorus (he spent an hour with it... 45 minutes in silence), because frankly they are two superlative exhibitions that outclass everything but the Rothko show at PAM (yeah that good). They would stand out in Chelsea and you can still catch them both, do so.
He gives Joe Macca... hell. It's karma time Joey??? PORT's Patrick Collier just reviewed Macca's show too, and didn't go easy on him. He did think Ralph Pugay was hilarious so there you go.... (more)
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Posted by Jeff Jahn
on May 02, 2012 at 14:53
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Among Friends; Joe Macca's Two Man Show at Marylhurst's Art Gym
If one were to take the two Cs in Joe Macca's last name, rotate them clockwise 90 degrees and smoosh them together, his name might then read as "Joe Mama," calling to mind the type of joke that relies on tasteless creativity in pursuit of one-upmanship. Stupid, ugly, poor, fat, or any other derogatory term these slams are built around, in the wrong setting are fightin' words. But these jokes don't always lead to violence. In organized "Yo Mama" contests, opponents compete to see who can come up with the vilest yet creative analogy. An agreement among like-minded practitioners to participate implies camaraderie and the understanding that by engaging in the activity, one must endure the abuse along with the risk that an element of truth lays therein. And even though brashness counts, if the teller of the joke fails in delivery or creativity, that would-be comedian then becomes the object of ridicule... (more)
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Posted by Patrick Collier
on May 01, 2012 at 21:02
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Last Month for 10th NW Biennial at TAM
It is the last month for the 10th Northwest Biennial at the Tacoma Art Museum, which runs through May 20th. Sure, nearly every institutional attempt at surveying a region's art production tells you more about that institution strengths and weaknesses than the art of that time and place, falling into at least one of several predictable missteps. (Also apologies, despite my best efforts I'm in this exhibition as an artist as well.) So it definitely isn't perfect. In this case the TAM show is too full but it does one thing that none of the recent spate of institutional survey shows have attempted... it has a coherent curatorial criteria, exploring the theme of multi-disciplenary art. Apparently, it helps having a consistent curator who is tasked with making the exercise intellectually viable? Novel idea! So for once this one isn't focused on "whittling" as a Northwest art staple and explores those who explore by crossing different disciplines and strategies.
What's more there more artists from Portland in it... (more)
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Posted by Jeff Jahn
on April 30, 2012 at 22:07
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Richard Milgrim and Hiroshi Senju at the Portland Japanese Garden
Richard Milgrim, Canyon, (Konko-Gama 2004) photo Jeff Jahn
Currently, the Portland
Japanese Garden is hosting a fantastic dual exhibition, Meditative Moments,
consisting of noted Chado (Japanese tea ceremony) ceramicist Richard Milgrim's
works along with paintings by “waterfall artist” Hiroshi Senju. It
is an inspired pairing. Milgrim is in fact the first and only non Japanese Master
Chado ceramicist and though this practice is by definition “traditional”
(often a pejorative in the West not so in the East) this is indeed a working
and evolving tradition of which Milgrim is one of its chief innovators. Because
Chado ceramics are an inherently Zen practice, his unique East meets West approach
(with studios in Kyoto and Concord Massachusetts) suffuses everything from his
penchant for dark brown (traditional Japanese) and creamy white glazes (his
primary glaze in the USA). Both glazes being very similar to his dark hair and
light skin to the way his name “Richard” translates to with a pictogram
of Sen
no Rikyu the founder figure of Chado. Similarly Zen in coincidence, I was
honored to be given a chance personal tour, concluding with sharing tea with
Milgrim (prepared by his wife)... (more)
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Posted by Jeff Jahn
on April 27, 2012 at 14:40
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