D.E. May's Untitled

…someone is always making the claim that art (or art writing) was better in days past. The sheer ubiquity of that Chicken Little statement through the ages undermines its argument. Sure, it might look that way because art from the past has been filtered through the passage of time. Time is the litmus test, sifting out the good stuff. For example there is a touring retrospective of Jean-Michel Basquiat going on right now (next stop LA July 17th), possibly making us think the 80's were so much better than today. Whereas I suspect being subjected to a touring retrospective of Julian Schnabel's 80's work might leave me hungry for the iffy mess of Greater New York Part Deux. It depends on what you focus on.

Still there is no time like the present, so try and catch at least one of three Portland related shows that come down today.

In Chelsea @ Pavel Zoubok gallery, D.E. May's Template-Grid-Inset has its last day. I like his free standing cardboard towers better than the wall works.

In Portland, it is also the last day for Gallery 500's Habitat. It's a refugee camp as an art happening that some lucky person will have to clean up. Stop in and see how the art slum has changed in the last month.

Also in the Rose City, right next to the Burnside bridge Sean Bracken has an open studio sale at 77 NE Burnside 9-7PM, June 25th and 26th. No it is not a soup kitchen, and it is probably worth a trip just to see who else has studios in the building.

Word at Pavel Zoubok is that a museum curator who visited the gallery is now interested in including D.E. May's work in an upcoming show. He also sold three pieces as of this afternoon.

Dan's show may be down, but the Portland presence in New York certainly doesn't stop there.

The New Museum in Chelsea has a new survey of selections from Rhizome.org's online archive of new media art which includes Portland's damali ayo.

The catalog's second paragraph starts:

A number of projects respond to E-COMMERCE by disturbing online consumption, often through satire and emulation. Portland-based artist damali ayo riffs on the commodification of identity in rent-a-negro.com (2003), a service that offers the companionship of an African American person for a price but free of the commitment of "challenging your ownwhite privilege."

You can read more about the show (which runs June 23 - September 10) here:
http://www.newmuseum.org/now_cur_RhizomeArtBase101.htm

Also, isn't Paul Green showing at Bellwether?

Paul's in a group show at Bellwether but it isn't up yet. It starts June 30th.