Portland art blog + news + exhibition reviews + galleries + contemporary northwest art

recent entries

Early September Links
Labor Day Weekend Picks
Museumy Links
Wendy Given at Vernissage
Mid August Links
Grace Kook-Anderson in Conversation
Portland Art Adventures
Early August Art News
August must see picks
End of July News
Alia Ali's Borderland at Bluesky
Mid Summer Reads

recent comments

categories

 

Book Review
Calls for Artists
Design Review
Essays
Interviews
News
Openings & Events
Photoblogs
Reviews
Video
Links
About PORT

regular contributors

 

Tori Abernathy
Amy Bernstein
Katherine Bovee
Emily Cappa
Patrick Collier
Arcy Douglass
Megan Driscoll
Jesse Hayward
Sarah Henderson
Jeff Jahn
Kelly Kutchko
Drew Lenihan
Victor Maldonado
Christopher Moon
Jascha Owens
Alex Rauch
Gary Wiseman

archives

 

Guest Contributors
Past Contributors
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005

contact us

 

Contact us

search

 


syndicate

 

Atom
RSS

powered by

 

Movable Type 3.16

This site is licensed under a

 

Creative Commons License

Sunday 09.18.05

« Fresh Trouble | Main | Tracy + the Plastics »

Treasure Hunting at Bay Area Bazaar

bazaar.jpg

Walking into the salon-style exhibition of Bay area artists at Pulliam Deffenbaugh, I thought perhaps The Affair had landed one month too early, on the wrong side of the river. For their last show on 12th Avenue before unveiling an impressive space on what is developing as the Pearl District's new hotspot, Pulliam Deffenbaugh invited artist Laurie Reid to curate a show of over 50 Bay Area artists. Reid, known for airy, delicate watercolors, selected work based on her own network of friends, colleagues and influences in the Bay Area. Since the show lacks an underlying concept, the work is all over the map, many very likable, some rather unremarkable. While it didn't provide more than a somewhat haphazard survey of San Francisco's art scene, there were plenty of rewards to be found among the overwhelming volume of work on display.

Charles Beronio's Color Extraction (after Betsy Ross), an American flag pieced together by all-white fabric, is at once a formal study, a reflection on the political weightiness of this symbol and a jab at appropriation art, citing the seamstress that sewed the first flag and ignoring more expected precedents like Jasper Johns' White Flag. I was dismayed to learn later that Seattle artist Jack Daws had created a nearly identical piece in 2001, since Beronio created a rich contextualization for the piece, bringing much more to the table than just an obvious set of political overtones.

fosnot.jpg

There was plenty of proof that the kinds of small, often clumsily executed crafty work that Jerry Saltz once deemed "termite art" is alive and well, including Dustin Fosnot's diminutive landscape created with cliffs of styrofoam graced by a pink cocktail umbrella. Other such work included ariel sculptures that looked like satellites and moved along a thin rope strung across one end of the gallery; a two inch high striped lawn chair; a small felt hill by Emily Sevier that reminded me of Amanda Wojik's fantastical terrains (though much less sophisticated); and a small assemblage held together with bungee cords and embellished with garish pink feathers.

pederson.jpg

Mitzi Pederson's glitter-edged cinderblock constructions come out of this same vein of work, but whereas most of the other work simply revels in its own triteness, Pederson's sculpture slyly infers other possibilities. Cinderblocks, whose corners are broken to reveal an improbably glittery interior, are stacked on top of each other. The juxtaposition of two unlikely materials result in an intriguing formal resonance between the porous grey surface of the utilitarian cinderblocks with the frivolousness of silver glitter. The architectural qualities of the constructions also recall drab 1960s era social housing, glitter evoking a world of utopian promise.

Scott Oliver also uses commonplace materials, but his labor intensive Always Daylight No 1, a lighted wall piece whose structure is formed out of its elaborately braided power cable, takes a cue from the tradition of craftsmanship rather than the intentionally shabby craftiness of "termite art."

Among the handful of more well-known names included in the show is work by Kota Ezawa, whose Chelsea debut is currently on view at Murray Guy. In the back room of Pulliam Deffenbaugh is Ezawa's work in progress, The History of Photography Remix, a slideshow documenting some of the most recognizable images taken not only from the history of photography but also from photographic documentation of conceptual art. Using his signature style - severe abstractions that fall somewhere between the vectorized portraits prevalent in graphic design right now and the crude style of South Park - Ezawa departs from the animations of earlier work like The Simpson Verdict, reinterpreting the history of photography as a slideshow. Although Ezawa generates these images on a computer, he chooses to generate the images freehand rather than by retracing the original media sources, resulting in a strange tension between the hand drawn and the digitally generated. In The History of Photography, imagery is borrowed from the expected cast of influential photographers (Ansel Adams, Nan Goldin, Bern and Hilla Becher) as well as more unlikely sources (Yves Klein's Leap Into the Void, photo documentation of Gordon Matta-Clark's Office Baroque). All seem to be cropped or redrawn as if the photo were taken from a different angle, an imagining of the real time circumstances that lie behind each photograph.

Through October 1
Pulliam Deffenbaugh • 522 NW 12th Ave • 503.228.6665


Posted by Katherine Bovee on September 18, 2005 at 23:15 | Comments (0)


Comments

Post a comment

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)


Remember me?


s p o n s o r s
Site Design: Jennifer Armbrust   •   Site Development: Philippe Blanc & Katherine Bovee