Tracey Emin is having her mid career retrospective at the Hayward Gallery. She's an artist I want to hate, but find really interesting... perhaps the most influential of any living artist amongst anyone with an MFA in the last 15 years. In her typically counter-intuitive fashion she's advocating for Britain's conservative party as good for the arts. She hasn't had a major show in the Northwest ever but if she does... it may give PORT the excuse weve needed to do a really great interview.

There was a nice, respectful expose on Rene Rickabaugh in the O! this weekend.

On Portland Architecture the Oregon Sustainability Center is looking for design imput. To me this new schematic doesn't seem cohesive and doesn't scream "Im the greenest office building on the planet" like it needs to.

Jerry Saltz thinks that, "Architecture killed the American Folk Art Museum"... which has had lackluster attendance despite being right next to MoMA. I've always felt that it was simply too subtle and unwelcoming a facade and a good example of an architect getting too close to an artistic statement that has nothing to do with the institution's needs. MoMA is buying the building.

Update: apparently the architecture critics are fighting back... they are dead wrong, for the reasons Jerry and I have already stated. Museums should serve the art and roll out the red carpet for visitors, especially when they are the little guy next to the 800 lb gorilla on the block. It was a tactical error and therefore a fatally flawed design.