William Kentridge WEIGHING. . . and WANTING, (installation view the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, two drawings and a video projection charcoal, pastel and gouache on paper)

The cultural heavy hitter of Portland's fall visual arts season isn't at PAM, Reed or PNCA.... it's William Kentridge at Lewis and Clark College. I've been aware of Kentridge forever but have never been able to take in a large exhibition of his work, which though rooted in 90's identity politics seems to remain very valid today...showing the way for current hotshots like Raymond Pettibon, Marlene Dumas, Peter Doig, Cecily Brown and even Germans like Daniel Richter and Neo Rauch's psychedelic/contemplative figuration. The fact that Kentridge does it all mostly with charcoal is impressive and pretty much outclasses all but Pettibon and Richter as a preeminent existential figurative artist.

Here's what L&C has to say:

Wiliam Kentridge: WEIGHING...and WANTING is a solo exhibition of the internationally recognized South African artist William Kentridge in charcoal drawings and video projection. In the film, Soho Eckstein Johannesburg, one of the recurring characters who inhabit Kentridge’s work, looks inward, with MRI scans of his brain representing a conceptual terrain of loss, regret, and reconstruction. The landscape drawings are those of the derelict mining areas outside of Johannesburg.

A truly interdisciplinary artist with a background in political science, philosophy, theater, and fine art, Kentridge funnels the conceptual and aesthetic concerns of these disciplines into his installations, which combine the projected and drawn image.

November 1 – December 16, 2007
Opening reception: 5 to 7 p.m. November 1, Curator's Talk, 5 p.m.
Hugh M. Davies Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

This exhibition is made possible by Davies, whom I got to meet in San Diego a few weeks ago. Thank you!

If you've never seen Kentridge's work, this is a great opportunity. I've only seen it in monographs and DVD's so I'm totally pumped to see this stuff in person. Totally amazing.