Shirin Neshat, still from "Possessed," sound / video installation

PAM's much-anticipated exhibition DISQUIETED opens this weekend: "Artists have always reflected and reacted to the world around them--and contemporary art, through its form or content, often disturbs as much as it provides solace. In DISQUIETED, a roster of renowned contemporary artists explore our social condition and respond to the most compelling issues of the day, challenging our preconceptions and exposing our vulnerability in turbulent times." Featured artists include (but are not limited to): Shirin Neshat, Andreas Gurskey, Charles Ray, Jaume Plensa, Doug Aitken, Bill Viola, Tracy Emin, and Takashi Murakami. The exhibition will run from February 20 - May 16, 2010.

On Sunday, Bruce Guenther, curator of modern and contemporary art at PAM, will present A Wary Eye: Art in Troubling Times, a discussion of DISQUIETED and the ideas and concerns that shaped the artwork in the exhibition.

Curator lecture • 2-3pm • February 21
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

The Archer Gallery presents Alight, an exhibition of works on paper by Aili Schmeltz and Laura Vandenberg. "Schmeltz's drawings are part of La Fuente de la Vida, an international collaborative art project centering around the Fountain of Life in Monterrey, Mexico. These drawings tell the story of the fountain's fall from grace in the eyes of the city, and the fictional journey of the fountain's characters as they search for a new place for their monument and home...Vandenburgh's paper works are fictional lands that develop and unfold throughout her working process. Hinting at landmasses, pools, and mountain ranges, Vandenburgh created her works as if they were actual places developing, without a predetermined plan and with each aspect leading into the next unexpected creation." The exhibition is on view February 16 - March 14, 2010.

Artist reception • 5-7pm • February 27
Artist talk with Aili Schmeltz • 7pm • March 3
Archer Gallery @ Clark College • 1933 Fort Vancouver Way FAC 101, Vancouver, WA • Penguin Union Building



Melody Owen, "the weight of a tiny bird," video installation

Melody Owen's So Close to the Glass and Shivering is opening this weekend in the main area at the Marylhurst Art Gym. For this exhibition, Owen uses drawing, video and sculpture as "quiet ruminations on whales and exploration...she is interested in the records that explorers keep and in making her own."



Paula Rebsom, Photo documentation, house facade, North Dakota

Paula Rebsom's If We Lived Here is opening in Gallery 2 of the Art Gym: "For If We Lived Here, Rebsom, who lives in Portland, Oregon, but who was raised in western North Dakota, has devised a project that uses technology to tie one place to another. Late last summer, the artist returned to North Dakota to begin work on her first permanent outdoor installation. She built a 16-foot high and 40-foot long 'billboard-like replica' of her grandparents' original homestead. In December, she went back to film and outfit the site with recording equipment. Those recordings will be used for presentation and projection in The Art Gym's Gallery 2."

Exhibitions • February 22 - April 9, 2010
Opening receptions • 3-5pm • February 21
Gallery talk • 12pm • March 11
The Art Gym @ Marylhurst • 17600 Pacific Highway, Marylhurst, OR • BP John Administration Building



Holly Andres, "The Discarded Photograph"

Holly Andres will be exhibiting photographs from her Short Street and Sparrow Lane series at the North View Gallery at PCC Sylvania.

Exhibition • February 18 - March 19, 2010
Artist reception and talk • 12:30-2:30pm • February 25
PCC North View Gallery • 12000 SW 49th Ave • CT 214 Building

Patty Chang, "Shangri-La (Mirror Mountain Billboards)," 2005, photo by Patty Chang and David Kelley

PNCA's next MFA in Visual Studies lecture: Patty Chang at MoCC. Chang is a performer and image-maker whose "performances, or time-based sculptures, are examinations of the female experience."

Artist lecture • 6:30-8pm • February 18
Museum of Contemporary Craft • 724 NW Davis




UO's Architecture department presents a lecture by Sergio Palleroni examining "the integration of sustainable practices to improve the lives of traditionally underserved communities worldwide." Palleroni is a UO alum.

Architect lecture • 12-1pm • February 19
White Stag Building • 70 NW Couch • Room 451



Jenene Nagy, "Tidal" installed at Disjecta

Jenene Nagy's has been hosting informal Friday happy hours at Disjecta for people to experience and chat with her about her Tidal installation. This week she's offering a more formal presentation on her work in the form of a Q&A with artist Avantika Bawa. "The conversation will range from practice in general, site-specific and project-based works, Tidal in particular and how it came to be, and the influence of curatorial practice on artmaking."

Art discussion • 7pm • February 19
Disjecta • 8371 N Interstate • 503.286.9449




This month's Art Spark is hosted by Young Audiences at the Someday Lounge. "Young Audiences has been around for 50 years helping artists bring dynamic arts exploration to school kids. This Art Spark will showcase a little of it all with acoustic music, middle eastern drumming, vaudeville and some doodling."

Art gathering • 5-7pm • February 18
Art Spark @ Someday • 125 NW 5th

Via the Oregon Arts Commission: The University of Oregon is seeking art for the new Cheryl Ramberg Ford & Allyn Ford Alumni Center. Works will primarily be placed around the first floor fireplace hearth, and they're seeking to complement the building's "clean, modern, and technology-rich aesthetic" with "fine art which shows the hand of the artist in the materials. Works should tell a story that relates to history or place, through materials or a regional sensibility. The work is expected to be of lasting and durable materials." Applications are due on March 12, and you can get all the details here.

(More! Proposals for Little Field, gender-related art for L&C, and an open call from NY's 3rd Ward.)

Before I moved to Portland, just over a decade ago I was most familiar with one gallery, Laura Russo's… mostly through her association with Mel Katz, Robert Colescott and Gregory Grenon. They were the only Portland connected artists I was aware of from Midwest.




A lot has already been said about her sad passing too soon... a process that will continue for a long time to come, but as I type this (several thousand miles from Portland) I feel certain of her influence. She mattered so much to so many, but I'd like to state something specific and personal on why... and maybe how we can all be better when we discuss art in Portland as a large part of her legacy.

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This weekend, UO's architecture department will be exhibiting design proposals for an Old Town / China Town community arts center: "The proposed building and its program are a participatory center offering classes, studio/workshop opportunities, performance space and offices for non profit arts groups. The idea for the Center is modeled after programs at the Fort Mason Center for the Arts in San Francisco, PS1 in New York, and the Cultural Brewery in the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood of Berlin. It is envisioned as a new public 'catalyst' to further revitalization of the North Old Town - Chinatown neighborhood. Located at the corner of NW Glisan and NW Third Avenues, the proposals incorporate a vacant historic fire station into the project, reusing the existing structure and adding a new addition with more space." The exhibition will take place at the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. This sort of space in Portland has roots in places like the PCVA, and there hasn't really been anything like it since PICA closed their exhibition space in 2004.

Proposals show day 1 • 10am-5pm • February 13
Proposals show day 2 • 1-5pm • February 14
UO @ the CCBA • 315 NW Davis



Timothy Scott Dalbow, "Untitled"

Beginning their artist-in-residence series, Timothy Scott Dalbow presents I don't know anyone in Paris at NAAU: "In an act of reversal and post-studio practice critique, Timothy Scott Dalbow will move his painting studio into the NAAU beginning Valentines Day 2010. Over the course of the 6 week exhibit, the gallery space will be as active or inactive as his studio practice dictates...Evolving daily, this exhibit feels necessary in this period of contemporary art where shrinking budgets and post-studio movements increasingly raise the question: why is art important and why are art objects of such great value."

Opening reception • 6-9pm • February 14
New American Art Union • 922 SE Ankeny • 503.231.8294

Cy Twombly, "Leaving Paphos Ringed With Waves III," 2009

One of the first things that I notice when I am lucky enough to be able to stand in front of a work by Cy Twombly is the material. The paint is allowed to find a life of it's own. Very few painters use the natural character of the material with the same freedom the way that he does. It is given enough space so that it is fully allowed to express its own possibility. Twombly doesn't need to change or challenge that basic possibility; he is able to use it to forge his own language.

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Derek Faust, from the "Annotation" installation at Alpern Gallery

Alpern Gallery presents Derek Faust's Annotation: Configure, "a formal examination into the aesthetics, materials, and means of information storage and reproduction of humans. By combining image with the language of objects, Faust's new body of work explores analog and digital information through abstraction and minimalization."

Opening reception • 6-9pm • February 12
Alpern Gallery & Project Space • 2552 NW Vaughn • 503.477.7721



Still from "I Am Love," directed by Luca Guadagnino

EDIT: A belated update from the NW Film Center informs us that they'll be including a series of art-related films during PIFF, including Peter Greenaway's Rembrandt's J'Accuse, Don Argott's The Art of the Steal, Gerald Peary's For the Love of the Movies, and Don Hahn's Waking Sleeping Beauty.

Totally unrelated: The Portland International Film Festival starts tomorrow. Opening night features a screening of I Am Love by Italian director Luca Guadagnino, followed by a snazzy opening night party in the lobby of the Newmark Theater ($25 for the party). The event kicks off two weeks of international film screenings, featuring 117 "compelling new films," coordinated by the NW Film Center.

Film festival • February 11 - 27, 2010
PIFF via the NW Film Center • Full schedule here.

Nancy Reddin Kienholz and Edward Ralph Kienholz, "Useful Art #5: The Western Motel," installed at PAM

Director and artist Joan Gratz, who pioneered the animation technique known as clay painting, will speak at PAM this week for their artist talk series. She'll address Helen with Apples by George Segal and Useful Art #5: The Western Motel by Nancy Reddin Kienholz and Edward Ralph Kienholz. Artist talks meet in the Hoffman lobby, tour through the museum, and return to the Hoffman lobby for "happy hour."

Artist lecture • 6-8pm • February 11
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811



Shashi Caan

UPDATE: This lecture has been postponed until April 1, 6:30pm, due to inclement weather (presumably not here).

Interior and product designer and educator Shashi Caan will lecture this week for PNCA & OCAC's MFA in Applied Craft & Design program.

Artist lecture • 6:30-8pm • February 11
MFA in Applied Craft & Design Studios • Bison Building • 421 NE 10th Ave

Melanie Pullen, "Phones"

The Linfield Gallery presents Fashion and Fiction, guest curated by Todd Johnson. The exhibition examines "the intersection of contemporary staged or constructed photography and the relationship with strategies and theories of traditional fashion photography...which has a long, rich history of creating fictitious imagery with luxuriously decadent and extravagantly ephemeral interpretations of modern culture." Featured artists include Melanie Pullen, Holly Andres, New Catalogue, Daniel Hoyt, Alex Lim, and Darien Revel. The show runs February 9 - March 13, 2010.

Opening reception • 6-8pm • February 10
Linfield Fine Art Gallery • Linfield College in McMinnville (directions) • 503.883.2804

Vantage (L to R) Layman, Pond and Slappe

The Archer Gallery's Vantage is a tightly curated and well presented rumination on the participatory rapport between art subject and viewers. As new Archer curator Blake Shell's first big show (that she programmed) it is telling that she chose to scrap all of the movable walls that once cluttered the fine space, affording all pieces sight line opportunities with one another. It's a welcome break from many northwest curators' fetish of cloistered, discreet spaces that keep works from forming interesting visual and conceptual aggregates. It also forces the show to have less work. Thus, Vantage is noteworthy for how good it looks as a gestalt. Pay attention Portland and Seattle galleries and curators, Vancouver Washington just showed you how it's done!

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Ryan Pierce, "Paradise"

Ryan Pierce is exhibiting To Those Who Do Not Know The Way at his alma mater OCAC in conjunction with his brand-new book of the same title. The show features 13 new paintings and one "disco-ball-esque" sculpture. Go see the exhibition and celebrate the book release with him this Sunday, and check out the review of his work in Art in America.

Artist reception & book release party • 12pm • February 7
Oregon College of Art & Craft • 8245 SW Barnes Rd • 503.297.5544

(More: Paul Ramirez Jonas for PMMNLS & Amazonia at the JSMA.)

Fourteen30 presents DARK: A SHOW TO WINTER, curated by the Blood Rainbow Family. "Opening during the dead of a Portland winter, Dark will include work that addresses and/or reflects this outside environment. [The street.] The grim, the cold and the black will mingle with the solitary, the contemplative and the transcendent. Explorations of dark and winter drawn from both a common visual culture, as well as more personal voids, will work together to bring the vast, seemingly endless dark winter into the confines of the gallery space." Featured artists include Sebastian Gogel, Matthew Green, Frank Haines | Francis Heinzfeller, Alex Hubbard, Arnold Kemp, Alicia Love McDaid, Thomas Moecker, Jo Nigoghossian, Sven Stuckenschmidt, and Molly Vidor.

(More: Kendra Larson + Kurtiss Lofstrom at Gallery Homeland, Corey Smith at Worksound, annual juried theme show at Newspace, Down + Out at 23 Sandy.)

Eighteen Oregon visual and performance-based artists have been selected to present a series of one-person exhibitions at for the Portland2010 biennial at; The Art Gym, Disjecta, Rock's Box, Alpern Gallery, IFCC and The Elizabeth Leach Gallery starting March 13th.

It's a solid list... maybe too solid since many will complain the majority are already well known, omnipresent or alumni from the now discontinued Oregon Biennials at PAM. The well deserved Crystal Schenk and Ditch Projects are the only riskier new names in the list, the other inclusions just gives us an opportunity to revisit some of our favorite artists. Question is, is that enough? Portland currently is in the midst of a strong new wave of new talent that can't be found here.

Curator (and PORT pal) Cris Moss considered 300 artists and will include the following in Portland2010:

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Liza Nguyen, "Surface"

Blue Sky presents Unfolding Time: Vietnamese Photography, Then and Now, co-curated by Christopher Rauschenberg and Stephanie Snyder. The show features photography by two contemporary women photographers, Liza Nyugen and An-My Lê, both of whose works "explore the relationship between aesthetic experience, representation, place, and memory. It is not about the politics of identity per se, but about artists' and individuals' gravitation to the photographic image as a uniquely personal and fictive agent for the stimulation of personal experience and cultural critique." In late February, LA-based photography curator Sam Lee will speak on "War and Vietnamese Photography," after which there will be a community discussion with the show's curators.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • February 4
Panel discussion • 3pm • February 27
Blue Sky Gallery • 122 NW 8th • 503.225.0210

(More: Re-Present at Elizabeth Leach, Avantika Bawa at Doppler PDX, The Quadratic Logogram... at Half/Dozen, Lindsey Aucoin at Tractor, Tyler Kohloff at Tribute, multiple shows at PNCA, SUPERTRASH at Anka.)

Isaac Layman

For their ongoing artist talk series, Clark College presents Isaac Layman, whose photographs are "hyper-real, psychologically charged visions of the spaces and objects found in his Seattle home." In conjunction with the lecture, his work is on display in the Archer Gallery through February 6th.

Artist lecture • 7pm • February 3
Clark College • 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver, WA • Penguin Union Building (PUB) 161


Poet, essayist, translator, and cultural critic Lewis Hyde will lecture at PNCA on The Gift and the Commons: Creativity and the Public Good. "Hyde asks questions central to the lives of artists as well as teachers and others who serve the public good: How do we discover work that satisfies beyond financial compensation? What are our norms for reciprocity and how do gifts create bonds in communities? His current project extends these questions to the realm of the 'cultural commons' — 'that vast store of un-owned ideas, inventions, and works of art we have inherited from the past, and that we continue to create.' In his lecture, Hyde will discuss personal gifts, the creative spirit, and our shared cultural past and imagined future."

Author lecture • 6:30-8pm • February 3
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson • Swigert Commons


For TBA:10, PICA will present The People's Biennial, a new experiment in exhibition making by Harrell Fletcher and Jens Hoffmann. The project focuses on art being made outside of traditional artistic institutions and urban centers, and Portland will be the first location on a five-city tour. This weekend the curators will be in town to host a chat about their own practice and their aspirations for the show. They'll also be soliciting recommendations from the community for work that should be included.

Curatorial conversation • 4-5:30pm • February 6
PICA @ The Ace Hotel Annex • 403 SW 10th

It's only a matter of time before the New York Times makes unlimited content available only to subscribers, so enjoy it while it lasts. (I consider this a bad idea, it's why all of PORT's content is Creative Commons)

Holland Cotter reviews the choreography of Tino Sehgal at the Guggenheim.

Nocolai Ouroussoff reviews three classic films about recent starchitecture.

Then there is their art in review section with reviews of John McLauchlan, Joel Shapiro and Christian Holstad.

I tend to read The Times in newsprint at coffee shops, partially because I don't ever want a hard-copy newspaper subscription again... which constantly reminds me just how much paper recycling such a choice results in. At the same time pay to play subscriptions ultimately keep newspaper content more cloistered and won't be shared as much.

Overall, the competition for our attention and sharing of content was what made newspapers work. Granted most newspapers now are filled with such drivel we don't read them, even when free... but the times is still worthwhile. I get 95% of my information off the web and from links emailed to me and taking the New York Times from that mix seems short sighted. Information is ultimately only valuable if it can be shared. People will simply turn someplace else and I'm not certain that a deal with Apple for their devices will solve the problem either.