Yes, Ill have that review of the Oregon Biennial soon but it's really involved and I want to hammer a few more details, mostly because it's the kind of feedback I like to get when I curate a large group show. It's funny but only after the show's been up for a week or two do all the unforeseen emergent properties of a show become apparent to the person who put it together. Curators are a bit like surfers except they choose the elements and shape of the wave.... only after they have ridden the complex thing does a more full understanding come. In many ways it's the best part of the curatorial practice, there is this expansive feeling that you've really learned something. That's what happens when thousands of minds in a city explore a show, the combined civic intelligence (as opposed to mass idiocy) is something we often take for granted but is revealed when you survey a bunch of artists. It's a massive study in civic behavior and I think some of the artists deserve a more in-depth look too.

Till then check out Tyler Green's take on LA version of the traveling Rauschenberg combine show. Of course it's better in LA, the Smithson show a few years ago certainly was too.

Also, the Portland's Future Awesome blog has a lot of worthy recent posts... green buildings, Portland voted the only "most successful city" in the US by the Europeans etc. Those Europeans are always flattering us as a way to critique the rest of the US. Can't fault em.

Elsewhere,Edward Winkleman takes on the Stuckists. Ive been thinking about them a lot recently and maybe it's how reactionary they seemed right at the height of the YBA's dominance, like the YBA's were the boat and they were part of the wake? If artists can't produce their own effect without reacting to a more protean artist or group then aren't they essentially a sideshow? A spent force? Supporting actors? Not that it's a bad thing but in the end it becomes important to determine who the leaders are.

I wasn't able to determine if this came from PAM or the office of Robert Trotman, but it might be of interest when thinking about what the Biennial means.

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