Surprise surprise, the Oregonian doesn't get Chris Johanson. It's the kind of regionalist reactionary coverage we have come to expect from the O (ok they do a good job with voyeuristic photography like Crewdson etc.).

For a more balanced take this is what PORT wrote last month. I think the installation part of the APEX show is one of the better ones Ive seen him do.

Johanson at his best is a brilliant poet and not so much an outsider as an inside leader of an international trend in valuing indie cred sincerity (always a difficult thing to gage). It is related to the WTO riots. What is sad is that the O failed to explore why Portland is appealing to Johanson and thousands of other artists... the city is one giant conscientious objection to the second half of the 20th century. 100 years from now Johanson (along with Basquiat) will be seen as a voice to contend with in a sea of meganational and yuppie aesthetic slickness. (I'm coming up on my 8th anniversary in Portland and I'll be publishing a big picture piece this week discussing that very thing).

The Mercury's review of the Johanson show also makes some nice points but I felt the childlike angle infantilized the work in a way that leads to readings like that in the O. Johanson's less a child and more like someone who shuns refinement for refinement's sake.