Peter Beste at Sugar

Sugar Gallery shows Peter Beste's stark images of Norwegian black metal musicians, a documentary project Beste completed over the past four years. "In the early 1990s, these self-proclaimed 'Norwegian Heavy Metal Satanists' burned fourteenth-century wooden churches, desecrated graveyards, and incited blood feuds as part of their campaign to rid Norway of Christianity and revert to ancient Viking customs," explains the press release.
Opening Reception • 6-10pm • Feb. 1-28
Sugar Gallery • 625 NW Everett #108 • Tel. 503.425.9628


Stephanie Robison at Tilt

Tilt Gallery (co-operated by PORT staffer Jenene Nagy, along with Josh Smith) shows Water Landing, new work by Stephanie Robison. "Calling to mind a RV camper or a float in a parade, the work exhibits a strong implication of function, referencing constructions we have created to fit, comfort, protect, house, and transport the body."
Opening Reception • 6-9pm • Feb. 1-24
Tilt Gallery and Project Space • 625 NW Everett Suite 106 • 908.616.5477


Mary Henry at PDX

Jenene will also be showing work of her own this month, an installation entitled Soft Architecture, in the PDX Window Project. Inside the gallery, PDX presents a group show of works by Mary Henry, Vanessa Renwick, Ryan Jeffery and D.E. May. Still actively producing artwork at 93, Mary Henry is a living legend of Pacific Northwest painting. She studied under Lazlo Moholy-Nagy in the 40's, at which point she developed the reductive, geometric style which has defined her output since. PDX shows a selection of Henry's paintings spanning several decades, as well as recent pastels. Ryan Jeffery will show Music Machine, a film exclusively using audio and source imagery from an automated carillon machine located in Stanford's Hoover Tower in Palo Alto California, "making for [an] ominous tone of mechanical emotion." Vanessa Renwick's film Portrait #2 Trojan and D.E May's drawings round out a promising 4-way engagement.
Opening Reception • 6-8pm • Feb. 1-24
PDX Contemporary Art • 925 NW Flanders • Tel. 503.222.0063


Greg Chann at Pulliam Deffenbaugh

The minimal abstraction continues next door at Pulliam Deffenbaugh, where Laurie Reid's bright watercolor and gouache works on paper share the gallery with Greg Chann's smoky graphite-on-vellum drawings .
Opening Reception • 5:30-8pm on the dot • Jan. 30-Feb. 24
Pulliam Deffenbaugh • 929 NW Flanders • 503.228.6665


Anna Weber at Motel

Motel Gallery (owned and operated by PORT co-founder Jennifer Armbrust) presents Ultra-Megadontia, local artist Anna Weber's first solo exhibition. "Weber presents a full set of oversized human teeth, cast in plaster and hand-painted. Installed in the gallery on three conjoining walls, these sculptural works mimic the human jaw, writ large....Weber's fascination with the subject draws from the tooth's function as an 'anatomical souvenir.'" The exhibition also features a series of three photographs, "Squirrel", "Rainbow Beard" and "Sloth", in which Weber models costumes of her own creation, captured by photographer Daniel Peterson.
Opening Reception • 6-9 • Feb. 1-24
Motel • between 5th and 6th on Couch • 503.222.6699

Portland's homeless and transitional youth frequently display great imagination and resourcefulness in matters sartorial, so the second annual celebration of the fashion and clothing creations of p:ear youth should be fun. Object and Embellishment features fashion designs by Kirsten A. Moore of piper ewan alongside 2D and 3D designs by p:ear's young artists. In conjunction with the gallery show, the p:ear annex, half a block north of p:ear gallery, will feature an open mic and guest musicians, "The Professional Man" from 7:00p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Opening Reception • 6-9pm • Feb 1-23
p:ear gallery • 809 SW Alder • Tel. 503.228.6677


David Eckard at Chambers

Chambers Gallery will host artist talks for its current show of 2D works by David Eckard and Leanne Hitchock at 7pm. Eckard has made an art form of public speaking and gives a smart, funny interview in my experience, so this should be a treat for lecture buffs. Hitchcock will speak about her photographs, through which she forms an imaginative dialogue with the history of painting .
Lecture • 7pm • Feb. 1 • Open 5:30-8:30 First Thurs. • Current exhibition runs through Feb. 24
Chambers Gallery • 207 SW Pine, No. 102 • Tel. 503.227.9398

Banks Violette got a lot of mileage out of the Norwegian satanic metal thing a few years ago but frankly im more interested in this photography than Violette's second hand evil wrapped around a Matthew Barney armature.

The focus on EVIL after 9/11 is an interesting cultural thread. Being half Norwegian means it has some solipsistic tie-ins for me too.

Picture Ping Pong at Quality Pictures might be interesting... it does seem to be milking the My Space cow... uncertain how I feel about that. Then again, uncertainty is the gateway to interesting.

I ran into David Eckard today, and we talked about how, initially, it was difficult for me to understand his new direction in his paintings. The paintings seem to move further away fromo the language of sculpture and more into the world of classical landscape paintings. As always, he was nice and didn't tell me to F off. I look forward to his talk tomorrow.

Peter Beste's metal series is ridiculously attractive. And I know nothing about Stephanie Robinson's "Water Landing," but since it's at Tilt, I am sure it will be good.

Went to David Eckard's talk to night, and it was great. Short and sweet. I didn't even have any questions to ask him, because he already answered them in his talk. His work never ceases to amaze me, and he was really the first Portland artist I became a huge fan of. I was originally skeptical of his switch to these much more narrative-based pieces, but I can see they are more clever and intelligent than ever. David described some of his work that will be following this show to me, and it sounds as if it is going to be exciting. And I applaud David for being one of the few artists that can pull off a Rauschenberg/Jim Dine-like painting. Looking forward to more David.

CRC, p.s. Rauschenberg isn't a painter.

CRC, p.s. Rauschenberg isn't a painter.

Well, I wouldn't call Rauschenberg a painter, but he did some work that you would definitely refer to as paintings. Maybe that's just my over-simplification of "things that hang on the wall," but that seems to be the easiest way of talking about them.

I do believe they were called something, hmmmm.....?

There were combines etc... but he has put pigment onto canvas (the classic early silkscreens in 1962 absolutely qualify ) so yeah he's a painter, amog other things.

Maybe we should just simply call him a "jack of all trades." That would actually be way more fitting for him. I can see it now... Robert Rauschenberg, JACK OF ALL TRADES! How is it possible that Rauschenberg was so cool?

And by WAS, I mean IS cool.