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Portland art blog + news + exhibition reviews + galleries + contemporary northwest art
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Monday 06.29.09 Links of perception The NYT's
takes on the Walker/MOCA developed Dan Graham show now that it has hit eastern shores.
Sanford Wurmfeld's very interesting painting/installation. Eva Rothschild's work reminds me of this months show at Tractor. Needless to say perceptual/kinesthetic experience art is everywhere again. Arguably, the three artists mostly responsible for this renewed interest are Robert Irwin, James Turrell and Olafur Elliason. A lot of interest in Portland for this kind of work as well. Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 29, 2009 at 10:21 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 06.24.09 Linked I really liked Michael
Kimmelman's piece on the Elgin Marbles in the Times... for once having New
York's supposedly chief art critic in Europe pays off. What's more the writing
is sharp, with the kinds of critical angles he seems to soften when writing
at home.
Lisa Radon's excellent review of Anna Gray and Ryan Wilson Paulson's Pearl District debut speaks volumes to Portland's sizable booklovers crowd. Jerry Saltz describes a Portland-esque art experiment... 'cept we've been developing this way for years. Here it isn't a single site, it's the way our scene operates and it is different if the art develops this way instead of an episodic situation. MoCC's Call and Response website gives everyone a chance to respond to the changes we've seen in the Portland art scene over the past decade. I'll be making a presentation on this at another museum this summer as well, so my response was quite brief. Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 24, 2009 at 10:28 | Comments (2) PermalinkTuesday 06.23.09 Entropy is good for art links Things are tough for art galleries and The New York Times chronicles the shift
to a
market that favors collectors vs speculators. When I was in New York last
March I noticed a vulnerability I've not noticed before... frankly this might
be a good thing because though the art market boomed during the past 7 years
it has produced little art of consequence. At least Portland galleries have
lower rents and aren't used to selling unknown artists for 10K+.
Edward Winkleman discussed the NYT's gallery woes article from his own very personal angle. In Venice Bruce Nauman surprised no one by being top of the heap. Jerry Saltz discusses how a phase of art that is dying in Venice might be a good thing. Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 23, 2009 at 11:36 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 06.18.09 Links of reknown The Tribune has a nice piece on MoCC's
Call and Response... with a lot of smart stuff quoted from curator Namita
Wiggers. But, define reknowned? ...in my book only Chris
Johanson qualifies, though many more international artists are getting set
to move here... (being international isn't enough either, we have lots of internationally
active artists in Portland now, for me it's the probability of a solo show at
MoMA some day that is the litmus test).
Jessica Stockholder's park installation shows just how good she is. Local artists like Jenene Nagy, Stephanie Robison and Jacqueline Ehlis are all quite influenced by her... and she's actually from the Northwest... so will we ever get a solo show of hers here in Portland? If there is a critic in Portland who is more interested in sexualized identity politics than... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 18, 2009 at 11:43 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 06.17.09 PNCA names new chair of MFA program At PORT we've all known for a while that our pal MK Guth was stepping down as PNCA's MFA chair, especially after being in the last Whitney Biennial. What wasn't clear is if they could get some similar star power to replace her, yet they needed it. Now with noted curator (SF's Yerba Buena) and artist Arnold Kemp, it looks like they have the star hire they needed. In fact, Portland's professional portfolio of leaders just continues to improve... here's PNCA's release:
Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) announces the appointment of Arnold J. Kemp as Chair of the Master's of Fine Arts in Visual Studies program. "We are so pleased to appoint Arnold Kemp, with his great strengths in so many spheres of the art world," said Greg Ware, Provost, PNCA. "We feel confident that he will bring diversity, richness and depth of experience not only to our MFA students, but to Portland's art community... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 17, 2009 at 13:03 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 06.15.09 Archer Gallery anounces new director Over the years, the Archer Gallery has become one of the more daring college
spaces in the metro area and I was saddened last year when Marjorie Hirsch made
it clear it would be her last year as director. Her efforts like Ellen
George's impressive solo show and the recent Considered
Space put the Archer Gallery on the map... but there's always more room for a risk-taking and professional curatorial program as Portland's institutions continue to catch up to all the very worldly artists who have moved here in the past decade or so. I also wondered, what would the Archer be like without her?
We are about to find out, since Clark College has announced that the new Director for the Archer Gallery is Blake Shell.... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 15, 2009 at 15:10 | Comments (1) PermalinkTuesday 06.09.09 The deal with John Wesley  John Wesley at Chinati 2009 John Wesley confuses the hell out of people but I really like his work, the Times has a piece on him here today. Of course Donald Judd liked his work too and upon a recent viewing of his installation at Chinati I could see why. He was also an excellent addition to Robert Storr's 2004 Site Santa Fe Biennial on the grotesque, fitting right in with R. Crumb, Carroll Dunham, Robert Gober and Tony Oursler. Wesley's work certainly does create a kind of "Soul Dizzyness" Storr described in the biennial's text. So what is it about Wesley that keeps him an insider's favorite? For me its his clean clear fugal forms of composition, his blurring between the private things we all notice but don't speak about and bland things we always seem to discuss... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 09, 2009 at 11:41 | Comments (3) PermalinkFriday 05.29.09 RACC, CAN and does emerge in 2010 with a strong budget Even in these tough times Portland is beginning to make arts funding a priority by
announcing yesterday that the:
Portland City Council approved the FY10 city budget with a $4,325,300 allocation to the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC), including whole funding for most RACC programs. The budget, which was approved 5-0, also includes additional one-time funds for the Creative Advocacy Network to deliver a regional, sustainable dedicated funding solution for arts and culture funding as well as The Right Brain Initiative to support integrated arts education programs. Yes PORT can be hard on RACC for not being challenging enough sometimes (for public art and individual project grants), still this is a major victory for them in these difficult times. They have been making steady progress in the past few years and this only consolidates their gains. Congratulations are in order as this allows them to continue the momentum. If you want to count more beans there is more info from RACC here. Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 29, 2009 at 0:00 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 05.26.09 Wrong-headed linking Is the Hybrid Bridge dead? It better not be! Portland Architecture reports there is a rising possibility of an all out war
between Portland's design community and Trimet, which many suspect has rigged
the Hybrid Bridge over the Willamette to fail
while negotiating Trimet's rather design-blind decision making criteria.
Seriously, something is very wrong in Portland's civic process if good design
isn't given serious attention for its bridges like the new Willamette
Span or the Columbia
River Crossing. If Portland is to continue being the international design
hub it has increasingly become, we must walk the walk. Besides, in "bridge city"
we need especially well-designed bridges not just functional eyesores. Seriously,
this simply cannot stand and the design/arts community needs to pool all of
their networks and fight for good civic design. (aka the Rosales designed Hybrid
Bridge and a design
competition for the CRC). The process is broken, fix it! Tell Trimet what you think here.
 Francis Bacon's "Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X" 1953, Des Moines Art Center, Iowa Roberta Smith takes on the Francis Bacon retrospective at the Met and massively oversimplifies the painter. Though it's an important feature of the work, the male on male aspect isn't Bacon's only claim to preeminence... remember post WWII Europe was an open sore of burnt out cities...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 26, 2009 at 10:39 | Comments (6) PermalinkThursday 05.21.09 mary henry  Mary Henry, "Full Moon Over the Mendocino Headlands," 1971 Sadly, PORT has just learned that painter Mary Henry passed away yesterday. Read Arcy's interview with her on PORT. Then go see an installation of her works from various periods @ PDX across the hall. Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 21, 2009 at 9:09 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 05.04.09 Monday Links Brandeis' The
Future of The Rose Committee is not inspiring confidence and drawing comparison's
to Stalin's committees even. How can the Rose be a functioning museum without
a director and curators? How can this committee be anything more than a desensitizing
tool if it doesn't have suggested members from outgoing Rose staff? To answer
one question... would it be a permanent black list... yes almost certainly!
This will be remembered as one of the most foul museum raids by caretakers in
recent memory.
PORT pal Tom Webb opines on a better use for the memorial coliseum... and better design of the concrete wasteland aka the grounds is key. David Adjaye will designing the new National Museum of African American History and Culture. Surprise surprise, it's based on sculpture... and though the design is decent it's hardly mind blowing... maybe that is the point, the building will have to stand on its programming ultimately. Portland Architecture has joined PORT in calling for a design competition for the Columbia River Crossing and gives the Governor a lesson in the difference between aesthetics and design to boot. Design Competition Now... right now the process has been driven by very unimaginative, extremely orthodox... even rigid thinking and we won't get an actionable design until some serious architectural talent is brought to bear. This job is beyond the capabilities of all but the best architects working in conjunction with innovative engineers. Right now it is being driven by standard engineers and nominal architectural talent. A design competition will bring some real solutions quickly for quite a bit less than millions that have been wasted already in this false design process. C-Monster digs Huang Yong Ping's snake tower... we do too. I wish more Chinese art had Ping's thing, but alas... Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 04, 2009 at 9:39 | Comments (0) PermalinkSunday 05.03.09 Gauguin for Portland Art Museum  Gauguin's Vue d’un jardin, Rouen (1884) Longtime Portland arts patron Melvin Mark has given the Portland Art Museum an early Gauguin,Vue d’un jardin, Rouen (Garden View, Rouen) in memory of his recently departed wife, Mary. It's an important impressionist acquisition for Oregon's art going public, which has had limited access to any Gauguin works. The painting was exhibited in 2003 at the Portland to Paris exhibition (which also sported another later Brittany era Gauguin, also from a private collection). The work went on display Sunday on the 1st floor of the Jubitz Center for Contemporary art (Mark Building). Gauguin is one of my favorite artists and interestingly ambitious before he so famously found his way to the south pacific and his most iconic works. In 1884 (same year as PAM's Van Gogh) he was busy trying to ingratiate himself amongst the impressionists (having collected their works etc), then the most vanguard artists at the time (until Gauguin, Van Gogh and Cezanne took that title as the top post impressionists). In 1883 Gauguin had decided to become a professional painter, before that having been a stockbroker with a real talent for art...so considering this is a pretty good painting from that early makes it a bit of a catch. You can see how Gauguin makes even a winter scene look exotic. Thanks to the Marks for making it possible to finally see a Gauguin on a regular basis at the Portland Art Museum (completing the trinity of early works by the major post-impressionists). Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 03, 2009 at 16:07 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 04.28.09 Tuesday Links The Art Newspaper discusses why social
networking is important to museums. In a related tangent you can follow
PORT on twitter
here.
The Guardian considers why "schlocky", "teutonic" self portraitist Martin Kippenberger goes over well with women? It is an odd question. Honestly, my take on him has nothing to do with gender; he's a good artist but not terribly original... he's a kind of permissive force for lesser artists following in his wake. After seeing his retrospective at MoMA recently I feel even more strongly now that his importance (or self-imposed unimportance) seems to rest on his follower's somewhat dubious merit more than his own. Also, I agree the Simpsons have really lost their edge... even if a majority of the characters are named after Portland streets. Archidose takes apart their architectural ponderings here. I kinda wish it would stop before it gets worse. Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 28, 2009 at 10:10 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 04.23.09 Portland and Place My second response to the meeting last night about the integration of the Museum of Contemporary Craft and Pacific Northwest College Craft (PNCA) was that art institutions should consider becoming more specific rather than more general in regards to their programming. It might seem counter-intuitive but there is a term used in retailing called "death in the middle". The term suggests that the way that most people shop for things today is very selective and generally at either the top end or the low end with rarely anything in the middle. The result is that one might see a $500 hand bag being carried by a person wearing a $5 shirt. Either someone really wants something and is willing to invest in it or they need it but are not really emotionally attached to it and therefore it should be as cheap as possible. In other words this is a good market for stores that sells things at the upper end that might be expensive and at the very low end where things are inexpensive, but for the stores in the middle, like department stores that try to be everything to everybody, it is a very difficult time. Just to be clear, these analogies are about the relative price of goods, and maybe the emotional attachments to some products, not indicator of friendliness or approachability. These stores are equally accessible to anyone. It is a good example that we all live in extremes, and that a general audience does not even really exist.
More...
Posted by Arcy Douglass on April 23, 2009 at 15:48 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 04.22.09 Design Competition for I-5 crossing... Now 
Zaha Hadid's Shiekh Zayed Bridge... it is still time to up the ante on the new I-5 Columbia River crossing So the Oregonian has continued to report on Sam Adams and the Columbia River Crossing without much critical authority here (because they don't have an architecture critic and need one desperately). For example they fail to note that major architects have built better and quite iconic bridges without tall features like the Hadid designed one above. Basically, the proposed design is laughably bad (I've called it a casino in the past) and proves the design process is broken and backwards... overall requiring a fix. Why? because the architects involved are clearly out of their league, designing an inelegant and patronizing monstrosity that resembles the car Homer Simpson designed (The Homer).... essentially decoupling aesthetic form from function. Major architects know better, hell even minor ones do... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 22, 2009 at 13:00 | Comments (2) PermalinkThursday 04.16.09 Favorite small painter: Paul Klee Tyler Green has been making links to tweets about people's favorite small paintings, here, here and here.
Though I don't have a favorite small painting per se, I do have a favorite small scale painter, Paul Klee. He's ultra influential these days with his lyrical pre-minimalist and fairytale theatrics, which relate to artists like Chris Johanson, Mark Grotjahn and Tomma Abts etc. Even architects like Steven Holl with his perforations, Rem Koolhaas's irrationally rationalized materials, Zaha Hadid's fugal curves and Herzog & de Meuron etc. They all owe him a great deal.  detail Clarification, Paul Klee (1932) Berggruen Collection at the Metropolitan Museum Right now I currently have a crush on Klee's...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 16, 2009 at 12:10 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 04.13.09 Monday links and good advice  Mickalene Thomas at Lehmann Maupin's Glamour Project One-time (before grad school at Yale) Portlander Mickalene Thomas had a whole page in the times last week, look for PORT's in depth interview with her in the coming days. Jen Graves put the smack down on Seattle's art scene. Frankly, I think... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 13, 2009 at 10:00 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 04.10.09 Talkin bout the next Jesus?  New Museum, new show, new sign art? Jerry Saltz takes on the Younger Than Jesus show at the New Museum and particularly liked Ryan Trecartin, whom weve seen a couple of times at Igloo and TBA. He also explains why postmodern theorists look just as hypocritical as modernist idealogues. Frankly, in many ways it looks like the same old thing weve seen for years and something tells me no institutionally sanctioned "ennial" will define the next really big thing, we need a cleaner break. For the Times Holland Cotter seemed to have the same feeling all critics always have when seeing a survey of young art, they look for energy and trends. Just a note, PORT will have a trio of big interviews this next week so keep your eyes peeled. Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 10, 2009 at 9:58 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 04.09.09 Mark Woolley Gallery to close The WWeek has the scoop, another sad day... Mark Woolley Gallery to close after 15 years in business. (Yes close is the right word this time, galleries often reinvent themselves but that isn't the case here.)
PORT reviewed the gallery's excellent 15 year anniversary show in December 2008 and hoped the recently relocated space had found its footings again after losing most of its top artists to other galleries as of late... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 09, 2009 at 17:49 | Comments (4) PermalinkWillamette bridge follow up  Pedestrian view from proposed "Hybrid" bridge, courtesy Rosales + Partners/Schlaich Bergermann and Partner LP Brian Libby at Portland Architecture has a great follow up on the hybrid bridge unveiling. I couldn't make it but this more detailed design is much better and Rosales is correct in that this hybrid cablestay/suspension design is more transparent experience for users (see above) than the wave design. My overall concern centers around how this future Portland icon is getting less aesthetic attention things like former Mayor Potter's beard or Randy Leonard's bass-akwards fixation on a neon sign. Aesthetics matter and it seems like design is trying to be snuck in through the back door of the discussion. This is the same problem with the I-5 bridge, which needs a top tier architect to pull off with any kind of hope for success. Barry Johnson over at the Oregonian, is also discussing Willamette bridge appropriateness with some good thoughts. Still, his focus on height is a bit of a red herring, it's about a design that stands up to context rather than pandering to it. A more tailored cable stay design could be even more elegant and appropriate than the wave or hybrid design and declare that pedestrians/bikes and mass transit are the most celebrated modes of locomotion in the city. In my mind this bridge was considered an engineering and budget driven project above all else. The aesthetics are being added at the end... a kind of hail mary attempt by the architect to save the process from itself . That strategy is appropriate for the architect but frankly it's bad for a "city planning"... ironically what the bridge will come to symbolize. All things considered this "hybrid" design should be Trimet's first choice (let's see). All that that said this Willamette span issue clears the path for stronger discussion of the I-5 bridge, which is currently a blind man's elephant in dire need of an architectural competition to gain clarity. Also, the Oregonian still requires a real architecture critic to take the lead in this discussion, healthy civics require major and experienced critical framing. Art criticism is more of an insiders game and PORT is just offering an aesthetic assessment on a larger issue... our focus makes us more limited in major civic discussions. Important yes, but we are just voices from the vis art community. Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 09, 2009 at 9:30 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 04.08.09 Wednesday Links Portland Architecture has weighed
in on the Hybrid
Bridge model for the Willamette we gave you a peek at last weekend. It seems
like the consensus is the Trimet process hasn't taken design seriously enough,
even though that bridge over the Willamette is likely to become a major symbol
for the city. I can say PORT has gotten image requests for the seemingly out
of the running wave design and none for the other options.
If you want some cultural blood sport, Tyler Green's play by play over deacessioning between Christopher Knight and Donn Zaretsky. My feelings about this are that museum deacessioning should only occur if it if the work is unrelated or secondary to the Museum's primary focus and or the museum already has significant holdings of that artist rendering the work a second class citizen. Deacessioning should be rare and done to support the museum's mission... which is not the case with The Rose, which is just a money grab.... pure and simple. Richard Speer reviews Matt King's Science Diet at Fourteen30 with panache. It is one of the best shows in Portland right now. And filed under "why repeat the effort": C-Monster has a great list of links to check out today. Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 08, 2009 at 10:52 | Comments (0) PermalinkSaturday 04.04.09 New Bridge Model Unveiling -updated  advance look at "Hybrid Bridge" model courtesy Rosales + Partners/Schlaich Bergermann and Partner LP On April 7th at City Hall, architect Miguel Rosales will unveil his latest bridge design, the first new span over the Willamette in over 35 years. There will be a scale model unveiling at 6:00 and a lecture by the architect at 7:00. PORT has followed this design closely and I liked how the most recent hybrid cable stay/suspension bridge cut an elegant European profile across the Willamette... though it felt unfinished from an on bridge perspective, lacking enough monumental verticality (something that can be resolved hopefully). *Update below the model views look more resolved ...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 04, 2009 at 10:38 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 03.31.09 Greener bridge over the Columbia? 
Image of the New St, Andrews bridge, an uninspired design but interesting eco-concrete (seen in bad sculpture) has potential The New York Times has a fascinating article on green minded, pollution scrubbing cement being used on the St. Andrews Bridge in Minneapolis. Yes it's the replacement for the one that collapsed...but might it have an application for our Columbia River Crossing on I-5? Mayor Adams has made a promise of A Better Bridge and his political future rests on delivering it. The St. Andrews project only uses the cement on sculptures but a Portland bridge design could possibly incorporate it more fully? This Columbia River Crossing is still a vague blind man's elephant and as I've mentioned numerous times it is going to take an architect to really bring this project some coherency and make a truly better bridge. How about a design competition? Right now the two mayors are the leading voices on the design issues and frankly that's just wrong. What the politicians need is an architect whom they can torment into being on time and on budget while the architect can create designs that do more than simply speak to one issue or group. A design competition gives people a visual, till then the discussion is about lanes, dollars, concrete, wind turbines, bridge heights, where people live and other red herrings that only see part of the picture. A good design has to address all of those things and much more, a politician can duck or steamroller issues but a bridge embodies them and I think the two mayors should avoid their current situation. Let the designs embody the discussion so the politicians can politic. Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 31, 2009 at 9:38 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 03.30.09 More links Tyler Green indicates that the Hirschhorn has undertaken a series of rolling
gallery closures because of a lack
of security gaurds.
Jerry Saltz discusses who is looking a bit dated or artificially enhanced as the less buoyant art market casts their recent work in a more sober light. Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 30, 2009 at 10:59 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 03.27.09 Correction: Pulliam Deffenbaugh, reinventing itself Correction: Ok never trust the Oregonian (I should know better) Pulliam
Deffenbaugh Gallery is not closing just adjusting its current form. Basically they are leasing out some space during slower months to PDX comtemporary, next door. I've been out of town but have known about the restructing for a few weeks.
What should be noted is that Pulliam Deffenbaugh is an essential core gallery and founding PADA member, but of all the main Portland galleries, I've been most concerned about them. For the past year the gallery has been doing mostly group shows (some stellar but red dot sales have been noticeable slower than many other PADA galleries). It's been a long time since they had a blockbuster solo show sales-wise too. *Disclosure I showed in one of the better selling group exhibitions last year. For more background, a few weeks ago MaryAnn Deffenbaugh announced she would be leaving the daily operations of the gallery to work in development for OCAC. Like a lot of Portland galleries, a large portion of their sales in recent years have came from outside the city (now likely effected by the economy) and yes some key local collectors have been hit hard in the financial crisis. *Update Rod Pulliam and MaryAnn Deffenbaugh have yet to figure out what the new business arrangement will be... so basically this whole story broken by the Oregonian's doom patrol seems a tad premature. Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 27, 2009 at 13:22 | Comments (1) PermalinkThursday 03.26.09 Rothko in Portland Today is the 95th anniversary of the passing of Mark Rothko's father Jacob Rothkowitz on May 27, 1914. Rothko was 11 at the time and had only been in Portland 7 months before his father passed. The house that they lived in at the time was in 834 Front Street in Southwest Portland. I have been rereading James Breslin's excellent biography of Rothko and found this quote on page 34: Rothko spent "his youth in front of the endless space of the landscape of Oregon lying covered by the wintry snows, in front of the monumental emptiness that is nothingness and and at the same time part of it 'all'". Posted by Arcy Douglass on March 26, 2009 at 20:19 | Comments (0) PermalinkLinks of DOOM It looks like the horrible Atlantic
Yards development is dead, according to Frank Gehry. That's good news, for
once!
The Guardian reports on Berlin's art market downturn. AFN reports that Bergamot Station is in potential danger. Honestly, I can't believe that would really happen. Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 26, 2009 at 9:57 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 03.23.09 Escaping to and from New York + links Well, I'm back from New York and now catching up on all the better coffee and
significantly less polluted and overall greener environs of Portland.
But New York does have great architecture and museums. I'll have lots of interviews, reviews and pictures for you later but below is a di-opical summary of my trip: 
Steven Holl's psychology building staircase at NYU 
Arthur Segal's wonderful and still fresh Strasse auf Helgoland II (1924) at the Met. Also, here are a few links that caught my eye while away...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 23, 2009 at 11:51 | Comments (0) PermalinkSaturday 03.07.09 speak and(in) sign(s)  Alexander Nemerov Yale professor of art history Alexander Nemerov is speaking and leading two workshops on the practice of art history at Reed College this week, all free and open to the public. On Monday, he'll lead a workshop based on his essay Seeing Ghosts: The Turn of the Screw and Art History, from Michael Ann Holly and Marquand Smith, eds. What is Research in the Visual Arts: Obsession, Archive, Encounter (2008). On Tuesday he'll present the lecture Helen Keller: Making Contact, asking "What is the relation of Helen Keller to the visual arts in America? Which artists from her time perceived the world in the way she did? What would their work look like if they did share her views, and why would this matter to us now?" And finally, on Wednesday he'll present another workshop, this one guided by his essay Fragments of the Home Front, from of Icons of Grief: Val Lewton's Home Front Pictures. Monday workshop • 4:45pm • March 9 • Vollum 110 Tuesday lecture • 7pm • March 10 • Vollum lecture hall Wednesday workshop • 4:45pm • March 11 • Library 41 Reed College • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. (More: Kathleen Dean Moore at PNCA, Book signing for MoCC at Powell's, J. Morgan Puett for PMMNLS.) Posted by Megan Driscoll on March 07, 2009 at 13:15 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 03.03.09 Linkage: Zombies, Creatives and Science Frenchy but Chic, gives his hilarious
report on the College Art Association's annual zombie conference in LA last weekend.
Chris Burden is having some trouble getting his gold. Barry Johnson discusses Portland's Coraline economy. One correction... Portland's is the same as the Warhol economy, only Portland has less cocaine and better coffee than New York version (ie more supportive than inherently status driven). Essentially, Portland is analogous in the global creative economy... there is no one center but there are popular centers. During the last few recessions Portland has typically gained a lot of new talent fleeing San Francisco, the Midwest and Seattle. PDX is also appealing to those New Yorkers who want to concentrate more on the work than the rat race. You can definitely network here but it's even better if you already have a network. Also, with creative efforts following the New York or LA style "quick buck" style of project development doesn't always lead one to something lasting and new... as we hope Laika will be. Lastly, Coraline economy doesnt work as a term... because they are hardly the only game in town, Portland's creative economy is actually more centered around small businesses, but Laika is a welcome change. Ziba, W+K, Nike, Addidas etc. are at least on par with Liaka if not moreso so lets not act like this is a new thing with only one major player. Tyler Green uses Brought to Light to refute one of Brandeis' biggest and most faulty assumptions. PORT's in depth review of Brought to Light, by Bean Gilsdorf makes it doubly clear. Arcy's review of the big Olafur Eliasson show a while back is also a case in point, though Eliasson can be a bit more of a funhouse. For historical examples we should point out that Robert Oppenheimer was a collector of Robert Motherwell and Da Vinci was in many ways the first scientist, utilizing Bacon's New Organum way before Bacon was born. Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 03, 2009 at 10:51 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 02.26.09 Save the Oregon Cultural Trust from political raiders  Oregon Cultural Trust license plate, a program that has raised 1.3 million of the 1.8 in jeopardy Notice, if you gave funds to the Oregon Cultural Trust that money is in danger of being reappropriated for things other than culture, RACC has the info here. What's even mindbogglingly worse the 1.8 million dollar war chest the trust has already built up over the years is in danger of being "recaptured." This would effectively kill the program's credibility with donors for all time by breaking their trust. This is the same sort of short sightedness that constantly puts cultural funding at risk, but it's far worse because it decimates a successful program that is trying to pull Oregon out of the bottom 5 for funding of the arts. Time to dig in, sharpen your teeth and definitely click here and let the politicians know what you think. Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 26, 2009 at 11:25 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 02.24.09 More institutional linking One of my favorite art writers, Adrian Searle, has some
issues with how a Picasso show has been presented.
The New York Times reports on how some very successful artists are using their art as collateral for loans in these troubling times. Ok it's another newspaper schadenfreude story but it reminds me why museums should act differently than artists do towards their own work. It's the artist's right to gamble with their work, a museum like The Rose isn't an asset to be liquidated. It is a museum holding work for the public in trust. Jerry Saltz discusses White Column's contributions and mission on their anniversary. Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 24, 2009 at 10:00 | Comments (3) PermalinkSunday 02.22.09 New PNCA and MoCC integration details and analysis Here's a follow up on the PNCA/MoCC
merger. In the past week I've spoken with both Tom Manley, President of the Pacific
Northwest College of Art and Kathy Abraham Chairman of the Museum of Contemporary
Craft's Board... so PORT has some important details for you now. I apologize for
this having taken me so long but I've got some major projects of my own at the
moment.
 PNCA President, optimist and soon to be craft/design Museum President Tom Manley Despite all I've heard, I'm still just as cautious as before... though I feel PNCA is less in danger of jumping the shark and damaging itself. The school also develops an opportunity to launch its curatorial studies program much faster. That's important since I consider PNCA's fate to be nearly analogous to Portland's goals as a serious art city. Some of the new information: Museum retains separate 501.c3 status and governing board PNCA undertakes fundraising campaign and slightly alters 5 year plan to address museum's financial situation and lack of endowment. ...(more details) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 22, 2009 at 21:39 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 02.18.09 Julie Bernard 1st recipient of PADA service to art award  Julie Bernard at her home surrounded by art by Cliffird Gleason (the large red painting) and others The Portland Art Dealers Association has announced its inaugural recipient of its Award for Service to the Visual Arts, Julie Bernard. Julie has been a fixture in the arts community supporting various arts organizations and with her radio program Art Focus on KBOO radio, which she hosted for a staggering 25 years, (it continues on with other hosts). Frankly, I can't even remember how many times Ive been on it but the half hour show was always a blast, focusing on local and national art figures alike. She has a subtle wry wit and knew how to push peoples buttons. Bernard stepped down in 2008 and it is wonderful that PADA is acknowledging her contributions. Here is Joseph Gallivan's interview with Julie Bernard in the Tribune. Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 18, 2009 at 18:49 | Comments (1) PermalinkMaking the best of a bad situation links Once again Tyler Green has some great analysis, this time on how the so called
victory
of a 50 million dollar arts stimulus inclusion... isn't one. The US is going
to need a new cultural plan to help us gain a new competitive edge in a world
economy where new ideas will determine who is on top. We can't beat China for
workforce or manufacturing but we can innovate. That takes supple minds, a majority
of which need culture to develop.
In Britain there is a slack space movement. This has been happening in Portland for at least a decade but the city could encourage it more. Zach Feuer is downsizing his gallery stable. Frankly Tal R was one of his best artists (and very influential on all of the others), so this might be a good thing for him to step into a bigger spotlight. As ever, Edward Winkleman does a great job discussing the ways gallerists are digging in to hang on. It isn't solid doom but nobody should be underestimating the current situation. The active gallerists will create their own luck. Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 18, 2009 at 10:10 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 02.10.09 Links and leadership First off, Tyler Green's two part interview with Rose Museum board chair Jonathan Lee is a must read for anyone on a non-profit board. Christopher Knight's historical addendum to Tyler's posts also brings the situation into greater focus. It is an incredibly cautionary tale and if this museum is as they say "monetized" it could set off a flashflood of short sighted anti-cultural profiteering. Long standing institutions keep things in trust for the public and its the public that loses when museums are destroyed for convenience. Leadership means looking at the heuristics of the situation, not simply some cause an effect and if Brandeis does move forward I suspect the lawsuits from those who donated to the Rose will make them wish they hadn't. Second, frequent PORT reader and our favorite writer over at the Mercury Matt Davis has a report on the I-5 Bridge. It's good that Sam is taking his measure of this thing and not moving too quickly. Still one major issue remains, the project will need a major architect. An engineer simply cant juggle the competing desires, politics and functions of a project like this and PORT was one of the first to really make this case a long long time ago... pre scandal Sam heard it too. Hopefully our beleaguered mayor can show some leadership on this very important issue and bring more intelligent discussion, but something tells me he needs an architect to take that role over from him. Here's a start: a major bridge design competition will allow architects to help the public understand the bridge in ways this project hasn't manifested yet. A bridge is functional philosophy and the architect takes on the role of whipping boy (freeing politicians to do other things like torment the architect the hired). Last but not least PORT is still thinking about the MoCC/PNCA merger and PNCA has even thanked us for forwarding a more intelligent discussion on the subject (see O we aren't slagging, we know what we are talking about and we were criticizing the plan to make it better, now if that only worked everywhere else). I'm simply cautious about this situation and combining a museum with an art school is tricky business, it can be done right but I don't want PNCA to inadvertently hurt itself and Portland in turn. Here are some more thoughts:... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 10, 2009 at 23:07 | Comments (0) PermalinkSunday 02.08.09 Better late than never on the MoCC PNCA merger Looks like at least
someone at the Oregonian is finally willing to start asking more questions
about the PNCA/MoCC merger. Good, but is it too little too late? (PORT asked these questions and more on the 1st day)... and essentially
Row is reversing his earlier
rather wishy washy approach with a slightly harder line? (something I've
been grousing
about and wish I didn't have to, these are basic questions that should have
been asked weeks ago by everyone, not
just PORT).
OK so let's now look at how the University of Wisconsin, University of Washington and Univeristy of California Berkeley all got their top notch university museums and collections too. These university museums somewhat define the schools they exist within, and it would be doubly true for an art school. Depending on the choices made, PNCA could really enhance or screw itself up... but without a separate endowment and serious autonomy for the museum it is definitely even more difficult to get it right. ... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 08, 2009 at 18:35 | Comments (1) PermalinkFriday 02.06.09 Fontanelle gets NADA Congratulations to Fontanelle who was just accepted into the prestigious NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) gallery club. PORT reviewed their last show here. It's associations like this which will help young galleries survive. See it isn't all bad news in Portland gallery world (Tom Cramer is still selling too btw).
Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 06, 2009 at 1:32 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 02.02.09 Linked up Tyler Green has a
great recap of the whole Brandeis situation as well as a pointing out Harvard
Art Museum Director Tom Lentz's interesting
interview in the Boston Globe. Seems like Harvard isn't trying to get all
LACMA and try to collect the Rose's collection, obviously Tom Lentz is a class
act.
Yes the Brandeis story has hit the New York Times and Roberta Smith comes out swinging. To corroborate her condemnation... I'm a direct product of universities who had nice art galleries and museums like UW Madison's Elviehjem (now the Chasen), ISU's galleries (which exposed me to serious contemporary art), IWU's Merwin & Wakeley galleries, Eccles Museum at USU (where I learned to love H.C. Westerman). Smith is right to point out Brandeis' myopia towards the teaching value of such an institution at a liberal arts university. Oh and its isn't merely fear that has tongues wagging about the planned PNCA/MoCC merger as Barry Johnson at the O claims, it's very real "institutional culture" head scratcher. PORT pointed out some very real best practices issues over separation of institutions, autonomy and the differences between Museums and Universities... all now highlighted further by the Brandeis' decision. At least the O is now raising some questions, but to date PORT is the only place that has really looked at the organizational delicacy of the situation and like any merger the devil is in the details. C'mon, if Christopher Knight worked at the O he'd be all over this and it's part of the reason Portland institutions have problems... our arts coverage of institutional intricacies is weak (mostly it is just some reporting and little analysis... even when there is research, it isn't contextualized or given simple cautionary case study comparisons... cough, Brandeis, cough). Paul Goldberger looks at Diller Scofidio + Renfro renovation of Pietro Belluschi's Alice Tully Hall. Belluschi, who lived in Portland during his early-mid career ...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 02, 2009 at 14:06 | Comments (2) PermalinkWednesday 01.28.09 Arts Management Links Tyler Green has a superb and timely
interview with the Rose Art Museum's director, Michael Rush. It's a must
read for those following Brandeis' reprehensible decision to liquidate the Rose's
collection and dissolution of the museum. What becomes clear from the interview
is that this decision has nothing to do with the Rose's own financial standing
and everything to do with Brandeis' situation. The Rose even has its own healthy
endowment. Of course this is extremely relevant to Portland as PNCA
and The Museum of Contemporary Craft are pursuing a merger, for which I
urge extreme caution (Arcy's outright against it).... and this is partly why.
Look, even established gallery programs like Reed's Cooley and Lewis and Clark's
Hoffman gallery face ambivalence from important sections of their university
so visual arts programming is always a tricky balance, even without a formalized collection.
Art Scatter has a relevant article on arts management everyone should read too. Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 28, 2009 at 11:01 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 01.27.09 Economic and Cultural Crisis Links By now everyone has heard that Brandeis
University is planning to sell off its art collection. (I've had tons of
emails about this since last night and Tyler
is definitely on it). In short, this is reprehensible... just like the idea
of selling off the University
of Iowa's super important Guggenheim Mural by Jackson Pollock was. It also
underscores my concerns about a PNCA/MoCC merger. Institutions are defined by
their priorities and a University has to be very stable to consider having a
formalized collection under its care. Also, I believe that is where Obama's
stimulus package needs to think beyond financial institutions. Museums and Universities
are just as much the job creating entities that the automakers and lending institutions
are, in fact they will likely outlive them.
Here's what one recent museum world layoff recipient has been up to. AKA, if the model is broken, make a new model. Jerry Saltz discussed this interesting strategy for museums trying to deal with the current economic crisis, while still providing new programming. Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 27, 2009 at 15:10 | Comments (2) PermalinkSunday 01.25.09 Sammy Stays 
The AP is reporting that Sam Adams, our newly elected mayor is staying put amid some sex scandal I have barely any interest in other than I like living in a US city where sex scandals are kinda passé. Good for him and good for Portland. No, Adams isn't popular with all of PORT's staff or sponsors for the lies and a perception that he can be a bit "phoney" but I think this is a good development for Portland because there is work to do. Adams got elected in part because of his commitment to the arts as key to Portland's identity. Though his savvy in such things as artist live/work space and arts organizations is sometimes questionable, at least he is interested and any earlier pre-mayoral mistakes are educational opportunities. At least he has shown he is interested in listening to good and very obvious advice regarding 4.3 billion dollar bridges from PORT. Here's how we see it, PORT just doesn't care about sex scandals. We do care about art, design and aesthetics and we will evaluate him on those matters alone. Who knows, maybe a slightly humbler Adams will be a more effective mayor. Clearly he's going to have to regain confidence from a lot of people and some head scratching pet projects like the convention hotel are probably dead for now. Also, what does the mayor think about a 70 year old Portland art institution merging with a 100 year old one? LA's mayor definitely wasn't for MOCA merging with LACMA a few months ago. Also, note to the New York Times. The map you ran on Saturday is incorrect, that dot is near San Francisco, not Portland. Please make note of the correct dot in blue below. 
Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 25, 2009 at 23:17 | Comments (3) PermalinkThursday 01.22.09 PNCA and Museum of Contemporary Craft become one? 
PNCA's Goodman building, one of 2008's two real estate acquisitions Isn't 2009 dynamic? maybe too dynamic. Still, Portland really can't let one of its major institutions, the Museum of Contemporary Craft, fail and PNCA still isn't quite whole yet after splitting from the Portland Art Museum in 1994 (disclosure PNCA is a PORT sponsor and I had a solo show there last April). Now this merger solution is being seriously considered by the boards of both MoCC and PNCA. My cautionary stance is thus: this proposal puts a lot of eggs in one basket and requires a lot of discipline to pull off. Put it this way, Portland loves to collaborate but it isn't great at creating well-defined (and thus fundable) institutions. Only PAM under Ferriso's tenure has really gotten things right in the institutional discipline sense and that example goes back only 2 years.  The Museum Of Contemporary Craft (photo Basil Childers) The idea of PNCA merging with (ie absorbing) the troubled Museum of Contemporary Craft has been kicking around for a few weeks and I feel cautious about this elegant solution of necessity becoming the mother of invention. For example, nobody wants PNCA to get overextended in juggling such a multinodal approach as they are already dealing with growing pains. There is a reason Reed, PSU, OCAC, PAM, PICA, L&C and PNCA don't combine into one silly Voltron like multi-robot, multi-acronym cultural monstrosity. Autonomy has advantages too, but in this case that might mean MoCC's demise and a continued hole in PNCA's progam. ...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 22, 2009 at 0:05 | Comments (6) PermalinkTuesday 01.20.09 Linking to History  A Shepard Fairey sticker The Art of Obama blog ran the inaugural address through wordle today. It probably isn't great art and definitely pales in comparison to the actual swearing in of Barak Obama but it's interesting how Presidential words get fetished. Americans only elect extremely strong leaders when we really need them like; Washington, Lincoln, the Rooseveldts and now Obama. As a historian I've felt weve been in need of our own Marshall Plan level reprioritization of our civic, cultural and individual values. Not since FDR have we had a President that is both willing and charged with such a task by his election mandate. In a cultural context, art does best when humans reconsider their priorities and instead of the straw man and rather deserved scapegoating of Bush the art world will need to truly investigate our options more fully than the past 8 years or so have given us. Art also needs peace and a certain stability to fully flourish, may the next four years provide it... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 20, 2009 at 11:30 | Comments (0) PermalinkSunday 01.18.09 Quality Pictures Closing-definitvely  It is official, one of Portland's newest and best art galleries, Quality Pictures, will close this coming Saturday (*Update to Update - it's going to take a bit of time before anything definitive can be stated. It definitely seems like business partnership restructuring drama and the gallery is currently closed with a contact on the door). It's best to just let this play out. ...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 18, 2009 at 21:01 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 01.15.09 Distinguished Guests in Oregon Museums 
Robert Motherwell, Elegy to the Spanish Republic (Basque Elegy), 1967 Oil on canvas 82 ¼ x 138 inches, Private Collection. Location: 2nd floor, JCMCA Portland Art Museum It has been a a year or two since we've seen a nice Robert Motherwell "Elegy" at the Portland Art Museum, but this latest guest is by far the nicest one I've seen in Portland in the near decade I've been living here. In case you are unfamiliar, Motherwell... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 15, 2009 at 12:02 | Comments (2) PermalinkTuesday 01.13.09 Vogels give 50 works to Portland Art Museum  Richmond Burton, Untitled 1997, The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: 50 works for 50 States The Portland Art Museum has been given a generous gift of 50 works from super collectors Dorothy and Herbert Vogel. The Vogels, known for championing cutting edge minimalist and conceptual work are dispersing their 2500 work collection to 50 museums in 50 states. If you are unfamiliar with their story, it's worth checking out here and here.  Dorothy and Herbert Vogel living within their collection The Vogels weren't wealthy and lived in a small New York City apartment, yet managed to be some of the best collectors of artists like Richard Tuttle and Robert Mangold. Among the 50 works going to the Portland Art museum is Richmond Burton's "Untitled" from 1997, it's one of his best known works (probably because of the Vogels) and dovetails nicely with the Clement Greenberg Collection, acquired in 2000. Other artists included are John Hultberg and Dike Blair. PAM's Northwest Film center will screen Sasaki's documentary Herb and Dorothy on March 28th and 29th. Thank you Herbert and Dorothy Vogel for generously sharing your personal obsession with us, may you inspire others to follow your incredible example. (PS I always love it when PORT gets a scoop simply by reading the museum's membership magazine. Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 13, 2009 at 11:41 | Comments (1) PermalinkThursday 01.08.09 Think Links Tyler Green's wonderful
remembrance of Betty Freeman illustrates the all important difference between
being a just a collector/donor and being a true patron. It's a deep... quantum level of involvement and personal investment in the artists and cultural organizations that makes a huge difference. I'm working on a historical
post that looks at influential patrons (a hot topic in Portland these days).
Randy Gragg interviewed Miguel Rosales about the two possible Willamette river bridge options. Man I miss Randy's contributions to the O, whose architecture coverage since his departure has flagged (though this piece by Brian Libby is a start... there really is no replacement for an architecture and design critic, except a full-time architecture and design critic... especially in a city where design is a major industry). Here's what PORT had to say on the new bridge designs a while back. We want new pictures of the wave design so we can more fully assess it... maybe there will be new images at Rosales upcoming talk on Monday night at Jimmy Mak's (door opens at 5)? Jerry Saltz ponders MoMA's recent sex change Yes, Ill have PORT's 2008 roundup posted by Saturday night (now that the show I've been assisting on had its wonderful opening last night... it is always art first). Here's Richard Speer's take on 2008. Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 08, 2009 at 12:25 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 01.02.09 First Links of 2009 Roberta Smith looks
at an artist who turned obscurity into art. What this says to me is the
art world is looking to challenge the current cannon of noteworthy names...
again (I think this recent spate started with the rediscovering of Lee
Bontecou and James
Lee Byars).
Artnet had a good overview for the art world in 2008 here. The O has posted their 2008 roundup... I'll have PORT's very detailed, multifaceted roundup posted soon (I'm helping install a very technically demanding show). PORT's analysis should give everyone something meaty to chew on. Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 02, 2009 at 10:06 | Comments (6) PermalinkThursday 01.01.09 Last Weekend Ok it's 2009, but it is also the last weekend for these four interesting shows
held over from 2008.
Livia Marin, Form Follows Variation The Museum of Contemporary Craft's Manufractured. There are a lot of highlights in this massive group show, including Regis Mayot and Jason Rogenes (a personal favorite). Show runs through January 4th (it's free too but consider becoming a member) ...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 01, 2009 at 17:11 | Comments (1) PermalinkTuesday 12.30.08 Looking back at 2008 on PORT 2008 may be the year that most everyone I know can't wait to leave behind but
it was easily PORT's best year ever. Tomorrow I'll post PORT's annual year in
review.
Till then, here's a list of just a few of our standouts from 2008: Arcy and I interviewing Brad Cloepfil in a marathon 2-part art and architecture geek fest... we kinda good cop/bad cop'd him but the man is a aesthetics machine Arcy's interview with Ed Ruscha, AKA the world's greatest living painter Ryan's interview with Storm Tharp, ending with the most intriguing hamburger discussion of the year Amy's critical takedown of Ethan Jackson's Couture show at NAAU My review of Paul Sutinen at 9 Gallery Arcy's historical piece on Donald Judd at the PCVA... uncovering an important show in Judd's development. Arcy's review of Robert Rauschenberg's final works at Bluesky My review of the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards Megan's heartfelt review of Jim Lommason's Exit Wounds at NAAU Arcy's digestion of Shiro Nakane's lecture at PNCA My interview with Fritz Haeg at Reed College Alex's interview with Garth Clark Amy's review of Video Gentlemen at NAAU (see a trend here, the Couture series has been a critical favorite) My review of Keith Boadwee at Rock's Box My review of Jacqueline Ehlis at NAAU Arcy's essay on Barnett Newman's 18 Cantos Megan's tough but fair analysis of Disjecta with some very constructive advice... which happily seems to have gotten through My analysis of PAM's new direction with Brian Ferriso My review of Gertrude and Otto Natzler at MoCC Amy's interview with Jonathan Lasker.... this is a clinic on how to do a smart, informed interview for an art audience. My analysis of the I-5 Columbia River Crossing, AKA the 4+ billion dollar bridge Ryan's interview with MK Guth Arcy's interview with Vito Acconci So please bear with me, it's time for me to be "The Publisher" and toot our own horn: ...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 30, 2008 at 13:53 | Comments (3) PermalinkTuesday 12.23.08 Yes Virginia there is a MOCA in 2009 Great news,
MOCA will survive as an autonomous institution... when it is Govan vs. Broad,
Broad
always wins. Also, why is there even a Govan vs. Broad dynamic? It isn't just
that Broad has the money, it is that he is a smart donor who forces institutions
to do the right thing. It takes involved and principled donors, not just people
who write checks. I can also add that it's way easier to deal with the Broad
Foundation's press office than MOCA's.
I think Tyler's analysis is spot-on. No need to duplicate it... here's what we had to say earlier. Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 23, 2008 at 8:59 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 12.19.08 Snowy Hopes  Snowy Portland 2008 Before the calendar takes a break for the holidays, I wanted to share a little good news from the RACC. They have collected record funds to award in grants in 2009 to artists, nonprofits, and arts education. Eloise Damrosch, executive director of the RACC, reminds us that supporting the arts is essential to the health of the community in difficult times: "Without question, artists and arts organizations make our community a better place to live, and they need our support now more than ever. Just imagine what it would be like if we didn't have the arts to get us through this difficult time; the arts bring us together, to challenge and entertain us. The arts give us hope." Enjoy the snow, I'll be back December 29. (PORT will still be updated but have more sporadic posts during the holiday week) Posted by Megan Driscoll on December 19, 2008 at 11:30 | Comments (0) PermalinkYour morning MOCA It looks like MOCA is going to be saved (in the most culturally responsible
way), here's the LA
Times report. It looks like director Jeremy Strick might be out.
Here's Tyler Green's take. PORT had this to say initially about the whole situation.  Carl Andre, 8 Blocks and Stones, 1973 Concrete blocks and river stones (from Portland), Each: 11 1/2 x 11 3/4 x 3 1/2 in. (29.2 x 29.8 x 8.9 cm) The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Barry Lowen Collection 85.36 Later, we visited Michael Heizer's iconic Double Negative, part of MOCA's awe inspiring collection... which also includes a portion of the piece Carl Andre did for Portland's equally awesome PCVA back in the 70's. May MOCA avoid the PCVA's fate... this is encouraging. Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 19, 2008 at 11:08 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 12.12.08 Thank You Terry Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 12, 2008 at 10:05 PermalinkThursday 12.11.08 Terry Toedtemeier passes away  Terry Toedtemeier speaking at the Wild Beauty press conference PORT is extremely saddened to report that Terry Toedtemeier, the Portland Art Museum's indispensable curator of photography has passed away. More details to come but his life's work can be seen in what I consider to be the year's most important show, Wild Beauty. He died last night and collapsed while speaking in Hood River about the Wild Beauty show. Also, he had a recent history of heart problems. It is a terrible and tragic loss, he had such a sweet presence that was coupled with an utterly contageous passion for photography, geology and life. We will all miss him and our thoughts are with his family and loved ones. The community has lost a giant but we gained immeasurably through his efforts. ...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 11, 2008 at 10:03 | Comments (5) PermalinkTuesday 12.09.08 Tweet & more Miami photos Yes, PORT has been twittering for a bit... alerting you to our more substantial posts and other more behind the scenes things.
...and it makes sense that a text artist like Jenny Holzer would really make good tweets. and I just updated our 2008 Miami art fair photoblog Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 09, 2008 at 10:29 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 12.08.08 Overreacting and Underreacting Last night I really enjoyed Morley
Safer's interview with Julian Schnabel on 60 minutes... mostly for the artists
hilarious meltdown over what Robert Hughes wrote years ago. First Schnabel was
offended that Safer even brought his nemesis up. Then Schnabel wouldn't drop Hughes as the subject.
(tsk tsk, overreacting to a critic is a telling sign of massive insecurities and
a more self aware artist knows how to take a punch...). As far as press goes Safer
is a pretty pleasant interviewer... why get all Khan vs Kirk with him, why attack
Safer so personally as a proxy for Kirk (erm I mean Hughes)? Still, I admire Schnabel
as a film director (though all the footage which was lost then resurfaced in
Downtown 81 certainly
laid the groundwork for Schnabel's own Basquiat
film) but as a painter he's a second or 3rd rate practitioner compared to his
contemporaries Basquiat and Anselm Kiefer. Still I need to see his latest film The
Diving Bell and The Butterfly.
Yes, the calls to action for saving MOCA (and calls for new leadership) as an autonomous institution keep growing. Here is the new non-facebook mobilization page. Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 08, 2008 at 11:52 | Comments (2) PermalinkThursday 11.27.08 Infiltrating the holiday 
I always enjoy it when an artist sucessfully finds a way to infiltrate more mainstream events and Keith Haring's balloon, (Untitled) Figure with Heart, in today's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade gave me reason to watch a little bit of the otherwise very top 40 spectacle. It continues Macy's Blue Sky Gallery Series of contemporary balloons, you can watch it here. Often, I find post-mortem work like this problematic but Haring had expressed an interest in this before his untimely demise. Also, someone like Paul McCarthy would make it a parade to remember for sure! Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 27, 2008 at 14:49 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 11.26.08 Saving MOCA Tonight Tyler reports that MOCA's board is gonna gather tonight with the purpose solidifying MOCA's vulnerable position. They may dine together as a group, but the whole affair is about not eating crow.
Here is an online petition so you can voice your support for MOCA. Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 26, 2008 at 9:50 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 11.25.08 Linkage Dave
Hickey amusingly addresses the excesses of 2007's Freize and Art Basel Miami
Beach art fairs in Vanity Fair.
Jerry Saltz discusses the latest from Cindy Sherman. The recently unveiled Powell's redesign isnt that good. cmon... a building housing that many architecture and design books just can't look like a suburban strip mall in Northbrook Illinois! Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 25, 2008 at 13:40 | Comments (1) PermalinkMonday 11.24.08 MOCA & Broad recap In case you missed it Eli
Broad tabled an offer to save MOCA, frankly the LACMA
idea just never made any sense.
Tyler digested Broad's offer here. Eli broad takes a lot of heat but he has done a lot of good for LA and for that matter Portland too. It is interesting that board members of a very important institution are being held to task.... also a heads up, PORT's Arcy Douglass was out at Double Negative (part of MOCA's collection) a few weeks ago and his post on it will be up in an hour. Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 24, 2008 at 9:57 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 11.21.08 Before the weekend  Pipilotti Rist's Pour Your Body Out (7,354 Cubic Meters) @ MOMA It looks like Pipilotti Rist is the first artist to fully make use of MOMA's newish atrium's scale. That figures, it isn't a major step forward for her in scale but it is an exciting step for MOMA... whose atrium has dominated formerly enormous Monets etc. Tyler is focusing on the singularity of MOCA's superb collection and he also points out there is now a facebook page for the saving of MOCA. Here is Artnet's coverage of MOCA's excellent Kippenberger show. Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 21, 2008 at 10:37 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 11.19.08 MOCA's troubles & uncertain fate  MOCA Tyler's post on MOCA's fate is the must read art news post of the month. He's right, in my mind MOCA has supplanted The Walker, The Guggenheim and The Whitney as the world's most cutting-edge art museum programmatically. Speaking of cultural mergers, I don't think the Guggenheim is in any position to merge with them as their LA satellite. Overall, with a dwindling endowment and no recent expansion or capital campaigns one wonders at the strange lack of ambition in LA (a place with no shortages of such). Here's the LA Times on the subject. I might add more to this later today, but it is uber-odd that such a major institution would be facing such last ditch decisions... of course cultural institutions should raise alarms when they are in trouble but if they look confused it doesn't help. It does help that MOCA's progamming warrants saving. *Update: Christopher Knight's "seething" open letter says quite a bit of what needs to be said, earlier this year PORT's look at PAM showed the alternative strategy. The lesson.... endowments protect museums and more specifically, the nature of the endowment (not merely its size) often defines an institution. The talks of a merger between LACMA and MOCA also seem terribly strained to me... MOCA losing its excellent collection also clips its wings for any future growth, branding it as a failed experiment. Like Knight stated, the first steps are a staff reduction as a good faith move then they need a bridge loan and a smart capaital campaign. Punting on MOCA is bad for LA, and the entire US... how about a bridge loan from the city rather than a weakened (merged) MOCA? *Updated reactions: FBC Jeremy Strick's initial response Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 19, 2008 at 10:17 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 11.18.08 Long Term Thinking Finally, there will be a new Sol
LeWitt wall drawing retrospective... which will be on display for 25 years.
PNCA has a new Vice President for College Advancement (fundraising), Deborah Hopkinson. With 20 years of experience with OSU etc. she is a smart move. In 2 years PNCA takes over the 511 building from the government and their 32 million dollar centennial campaign will need a very steady hand using long range planning for major gifts during these difficult financial times. The campaign should be in overdrive by the time the economy is crawling out of the anticipated slump for the next year or so. 
Skylab's Root Award's winner (office space) for North Portland Architecture discusses Portland Spaces Root Awards for design. Sorry, but I can't help making some weak pun about how design has been putting down ever deeper roots in Portland. See the first Root Awards here. Overall, I'm still mulling over my reaction to the awards... they were a lot like the first Contemporary Northwest Art Awards, not bad... but not a revelation either. The important thing is that awards enhance a sense of achievement by spotlighting it, that is what cities do... they give talent a platform. Awards are a type of recurring platform. Now if only the O would stop turning editors into writers and hire an achitecture and design critic... the single most important writing job in the city can't be left to freelancers because follow-through is key! Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 18, 2008 at 10:50 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 11.11.08 Linking and thinking The similarities between Michael
Heizer's Rift and Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin are striking...
though it is a somewhat fractal form and the commonalties shouldn't surprise
us, fractals repeat even when we think its human creativity at work.
Peter Schjeldahl looks at both Franz West and Mary Heilmann. I'm continually impressed with West but Heilmann (whose show I saw at OCMA) is frankly pretty uneven and not that surprising. Throw in Chris Johanson, Rachel Harrison and Carol Bove and there is a real case for a Paul Klee fanclub revival going on as of late. The Oregonian gives more details on the downsizing at the Museum of Contemporary Craft (a PORT sponsor). All of this just seems like prudent preparation much like the direction the Portland Art Museum undertook last year (another PORT sponsor). One big problem though is the lack of an endowment, it's tough to be a true museum without an endowment. Only once they have an adequate endowment can the MOCC transition fully from a sales gallery with an exhibition program into a full museum. It is also worth reminding everyone that the MOCC's supporters still have significant means and the museum shouldn't water down great programming like the Natzler show or the more contemporary lexicon in Manufractured. Still, MoCC needs both types of shows (classic and experimental) to remain valid... Our Garth Clark interview makes that necessity as plain as can be.... and it is also why curator Namita Wiggers is the most necessary person at the institution. She brings their programming to the museum level, now they need an endowment that matches the curatorial seriousness. Wiggers is simply one of the best curators in her field and key. Ill have something on Portland's creative economy soon, there are sobering facts that everyone already seems prepared for as well as some serious opportunities. In general, Portland typically gains a lot of entrepreneurial talent during recessions. The Portland Art Museum finally has a new website. It might not win awards but it is a step up from the vintage 1998 look. Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 11, 2008 at 11:09 | Comments (2) PermalinkFriday 10.31.08 Friday Links Roberta Smith has an interesting piece on theanyspacewhatsoever
show at the Guggenheim, rightly questioning why it is comprised of, "a
group of the usual suspects," who seem to show up in blockbuster contemporary
museum shows frequently. Looks like a fine show that we've seen many times before
in London
and even Portland
way back in 2000. Maybe with "Change" being the active term in
this election cycle the art world will be forced to find some new names in the
Post-Bush era?
Also in the NYT's Holland Carter calls Miro an artistic "serial murder"... I don't buy that, he seems more like a satirist of human ideologies and habits... kind of the Steve Martin of Spanish modernists, it's definitely physical comedy with a flair for the philosophical. Miro's work could have easily said, "Wellllllll EXC-ccc-CCC-UUUUUSE MEEEEEEEEEEEE!" while wearing an arrow through the head hat while playing the banjo. A lot of so called "balanced" journalists try to make it seem like the sky is falling (panic is good for selling dead trees... hmm?) so it's good that Tyler Green pops a few of the WSJ's doom balloons in his discussion of museum economics in these erratic financial times today. (I'll discuss local economics next week) To be sure some institutions are going to be challenged (especially SAM which partnered with Washington Mutual) but institutions like the Portland Art Museum saw this coming (and likewise so did most of their major patrons). Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 31, 2008 at 10:10 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 10.28.08 Reading between the bridges  Bridge architect Miguel Rosales @ AiA Portland Architect Miguel Rosales Urban Design Board presentation at AIA's Portland HQ's today was interesting... and it should be, it was about the new light rail and pedestrian bridge across the Willamette weve been following. The meeting wasn't about revealing anything new about the design or process, it was more of a "read between the lines" moment and getting a measure of the architect and project. Here's a PDF that details where we are now and covers most of the presentation today. What came out "between the lines" was this: 1st priority is following all of the federal guidelines... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 28, 2008 at 21:52 | Comments (1) PermalinkTuesday 10.21.08 Tuesday Links In a kind of victory for serious blogging, Christies
just used PORT's interview with Ed Ruscha as reference material for a lot. You can read Arcy's Ruscha
interview that was sourced, here.
Roberta Smith reported that the Frieze art fair has chilled, but the international art market hasn't been frozen solid yet. Best Of in Seattle has a mighty fine art blog and likes pointy murals. And this is just completely awesome. Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 21, 2008 at 17:06 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 10.10.08 Market Schmarket Links  Basquiat's Boxer Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich is selling his excellent Basquiat "Boxer." My favorite part of this NYT's piece is Lar's quote, "It’s perhaps the last frontier where the best of the best will not go the way of the rest of the economy.” Is it possible that improbable quality and artistic dedication are recession proof? ...well I think it only holds true for "Basquiats", not lighter weights like Matthew Day Jackson. Sure he's sincere but he isn't that perceptive or poetic. My take is that Basquiat is on another level and his values will probably only improve. Other proven, transcendent artists (Justine Kurland, Chris Johanson) will transcend this financial crisis and those that follow art market trends will follow broader financial market trends. Also, in the NYT's Roberta Smith explains why Elizabeth Peyton matters. I concur, seriously at what time were beauty and youth not worthy of our attention? Peyton transcends the stupider tabloid stuff in the media and exemplifies why we find young and beautiful people perpetually fascinating. At Peyton's best, she gives her subjects a grace and existential fragility they never really had but for a moment. Some think this is slight but it's like arguing against flowers, you can do it... but at the cost of acknowledging you might have a dead black heart. Frankly I find viewing a Peyton painting more satifying than TMZ's celeb gawking. Finally, Tyler and I disagree about Peyton. It seriously freaks me out that we both like so many of the same artists like Clifford Still, enjoy tennis, blogging and kick ass architecture etc. Maybe it's our Midwestern/West Coast roots? Also, check out Jen Graves WACK post. Though I find the ads at the left that state, "find your inner slut," a bit incongruous with the post. Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 10, 2008 at 10:41 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 10.06.08 Monday Links C-Monster says cruise ships are, "Like
Lautner. Only blingier."
Dracula Vs Eisenstein points out a nifty advertisement for Wario Land on Youtube. Nice shake up of spatial configurations. Salvatore Reda has started a new blog, "Always, Forever, Now" anthologizing art related stories in the press. Jerry Saltz thinks Martha Rosler is stuck in the 60's. A lot of collage art has this problem. Listen to PAM curator Terry Toedtemeier talk about Wild Beauty on OPB with a link here, a great interview. Wild Beauty is THE must see show for anyone who loves photography or nature on the west coast. Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 06, 2008 at 11:36 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 10.02.08 Primer and welcoming committee for Reversed Reality As Megan mentioned earlier Reversed
Reality opens tomorrow and Worksound plays Portland host to 5 of the 6 artists.
Here's a little primer on the artists from Hong Kong and Senegal. I'm certain youve seen some of these artists at recent Portland openings but let's give them a big Portland welcome tomorrow.
When I spoke to them today, the four artists from Hong Kong, all thought Portland had a young art scene with a more relaxed attitude than Hong Kong... focusing more on the work rather than purely career driven pursuits: 
For this piece, Doris Wong collected postcards from Portland art events and assiduously copied each of them. Wong's copies are on the right, the originals are displayed on... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 02, 2008 at 16:16 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 09.26.08 Cloepfil's 2 Columbus Circle  Cloepfil's MAD @ 2 Columbus Circle amongst its neighbors. Photo Michael Paul Oman-Reagan Brad Cloepfil's incredibly contentious 2 Columbus Circle opens tomorrow and the NYT's gives it some pretty faint praise along with a fair amount of criticism. Personally, I feel the project flies in the face of all these highly performative and histrionic buildings architects have been putting up lately and that is bold in a different way. The real question is how does it reframe the Columbus Circle and how well do its galleries work? It just seems like everyone wanted this thing to do a jig but what Brad has done is create a more useable and subtle building. I think there is room for subtle in New York. The architect aquits himself well in this interview from Architectural Record at Business Week's site. Also, check out part 1of PORT's interview with Brad Cloepfil and get ready for the super massive part 2, it's the longest interview we've ever done and I hope to have it up very soon so check back. Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 26, 2008 at 10:43 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 09.24.08 The Henry announces The Brink art award The Henry in Seattle has announced The Brink,
a biennial art award (funded by the Behnke's) that will go to a single deserving
artist from Oregon, Washington or British Columbia. Similar to the CNAA's
it will take nominations from local art worlders. Check out the details at The
Stranger. I'm particularly tickled that they are including Canada in the mix.
Art awards galvanize a more civic discussion over an artists work as well as the
region's overall support for interesting new art, so you can never really have
too many art awards.
Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 24, 2008 at 14:28 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 09.16.08 Jennifer Gately Resigns Word has it PAM's first Arlene Schnitzer Curator of Northwest Art, Jennifer
Gately has quit. She certainly has had a challenging role to fulfill (bridging
historical and contemporary concerns) and PORT thinks her record of mostly positive
reviews here says it all... it certainly gives an accurate picture of what kind
of curator she is. Also her recent re-install of the Hoffman galleries is spacious and uncluttered (if only the rest of the collection were the same... I hear a re-install is coming). Her eventual replacement will inherit an exciting and
challenging situation in one of the country's most active art scenes.
Here are our reviews and other posts in chronologically descending order: 2008 Contemporary Northwest Art Awards Jenene Nagy Marcus Rothkowitz ...a painting that should be in the collection Wes Mills Chris Johanson Roy McMakin 2006 Oregon Biennial Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 16, 2008 at 17:30 | Comments (1) PermalinkMonday 09.15.08 Crap art, condos, wind towers and green art Donald Kuspit considers the history
of shit in art.
Despite the crashing stock market today there will be new condos by HdeM and OMA in NYC... both have already broken ground and something tells me the people who already bought their penthouses will still be able to afford these. Funny how NYC can get cool condos by HdeM and Koolhaas but hasn't been capable of realizing museums designed by these two topnotch talents. Architecture is always defined by the client and though I'm sure the condos will be nice... no high density residential design can hope to take very many chances... and certainly not as many as a museum project could conceivably afford. Portland Architecture discusses a potential 600 foot observation tower in Portland's city's center (it is also a wind power generator). I want to see pics ASAP... this could be great if the design is up to snuff (an icon of Portland's new and bolder commitment to a better way of living) or tragic if it isn't. *Update Brian Libby has published the images and weighs in. Also, Randy Gragg of Portland Spaces has interviewed the developer. In a related post Edward Winkleman explores the effect of global warming on art and design. Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 15, 2008 at 10:54 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 09.12.08 Hirst's Castle Yes, I'm still on the road but we will have a great review for you saturday. Plus I have reviews of Jeff Koons at the MCA, an interview with one of the most exciting young artists today, then there's part II of PORT's interview with Brad Cloepfil (here's part I) and a round robin of exciting museum shows in the Midwest. Dang that is a lot of stuff... Plus PORT's other writers are covering Portland.
 Damien Hirst's The Kingdom of The Father at PAM last Fall To tide you over Tyler Green considers some of the latest Hirst coverage in Time. My take, "journalists" are primarily a knee jerk reaction in the written record and they are probably pretty sick of having Hirst jerking them every month for the past 15 years. They are kind of addicted to him but nothing they say about him changes anything anymore... so it feels like everyone is on automatic pilot and everyone feels a little used. I'm a historian so I don't have the twitchy fingers of a journalist... so I'll make this historical prediction, Hirst is going to be THE artist of the 90's and likely the aughts as well. Sure not all of his work is great but a great deal of it is very good compared to the rest of Chelsea's best fare. My favorite stuff was in the 90's (way better than Matthew Barney in the aughts) but I still think he turns out enough good work to take seriously now... just like Koons he's in it for the long haul and has entered that point where he's competing only with himself. Hirst is still the artist who best exemplifies our age. Life, death, Pop, minimalism, media tweaking/manipulation etc... he has it all. Including a penchant for avoiding museums. For more Hirsting here is Arcy's review of Hirst's show last year at PAM and my review of a then newly unveiled Hirst in a group show at PAM. Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 12, 2008 at 9:56 | Comments (2) PermalinkTuesday 09.09.08 Tuesday links I'm in beautiful Des Moines Iowa, home of the fantastic Des Moines Art Center and Ill have some things for you later today and tomorrow. Till then here are some links.
Jerry Saltz takes a look at the somewhat indecisive curatorial directions of MoMA and the Guggenheim... with some analysis on how it might change with new leadership situations. The Capital A art blog from Glass Tire has a pie graph of geographical distributions for the Texas Biennial. Ahhh some things never change, like the statistical analysis of survey shows. Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 09, 2008 at 9:13 | Comments (2) PermalinkFriday 09.05.08 Friday links I'm traveling right now but I'll have several posts for you in the next two days, including a review this weekend. I've already seen an incredible show called Sensory Overload in Milwaukee and I've yet to make my way through Chicago etc. Till then check out:
Holland Cotter's take on official Chinese propaganda art Time's interview with Ann Temkin, MoMA's new chief curator of painting and sculpture It's nice to see the WWeek doing artist interviews again and the recent interview with Sean Healy is hopefully the sign of more to come. Here's PORT's review of Healy's last solo show for comparison's sake. Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 05, 2008 at 9:30 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 09.01.08 A lil reading The Guardian got
ambushed at the Rothko Chapel.
The NYT's reviews Looking at Music at MoMA... does anybody question Bowie's influence musically or visually? ...or is that something only his kid's might be able to do? Peter Plagens has published first two installments of his on line novel The Art Critic on Artnet. Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 01, 2008 at 19:01 | Comments (2) PermalinkThursday 08.21.08 Do The Gallery Shuffle For those who thought it was all gloom and doom when Motel and Small A galleries closed they didn't know that two new galleries run by two of Portland's smartest redheads were opening:
Fontanelle gallery and Fourteen30 (which we mentioned last week) both open in September Fontanelle is run by Leslie Miller, a former Artforum staffer who has been helping Stephanie Synder out at Reed. We are happy to see that her first show, which opens September 4th features one of Motel's best artists Meg Peterson and one of my personal faves Shanon Schollian. It's in Chambers old space. Chambers is moving across town. Fourteen30 is opening September 26th in the old Savage/Small A space. Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 21, 2008 at 19:02 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 08.20.08 Make links not war Zaha
Hadid's design for a house in Moscow reminds me of her ski
jump in Innsbruck in addition to Olympic platform diving. It also seems a tad silly like Robotech in real life.
OpenwidePDX is a new photoblog focusing on Portland art scene openings. Steve Ditko was in the NYT's book review... nothing could be more deserved both for its praise and damnation. Peripheral Vision discusses honesty and fakery and their tenuously negotiated relationship to visual media. Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 20, 2008 at 13:07 | Comments (3) PermalinkFriday 08.08.08 Friday News The big review is coming saturday morning (what a beast to write... it's basically a checkup on the state of abstract art). Till then:
The Guardian has a slideshow of Richard Serra's latest exhibition in London. David Cohen discusses the Cy Twombly Retrospective, also in London. Douglas McLennan has a great article on why newspapers are failing. Tyler reported that Richard Diebenkorn (who was born in Portland but moved at age 2) will finally have an Ocean Park series retrospective. New Gallery news: Jeanine Jablonski (who has been working for Elizabeth Leach and created GLARE quarterly) is opening a new gallery fourteen30 in the old Small A/Savage space (watch this site). First show in September will feature the work of Los Angeles based artist, Devon Oder, Breaking Light. Besides national, local and international artists (is there a difference anymore?) she will focus on art publications. Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 08, 2008 at 10:30 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 08.04.08 Must Read and OPB Peter Schjeldahl's latest
piece is a Must Read. It's one of those rare occasions where the critic's
analysis of the show is more worth while and telling than the exhibition
itself. The long and short of it is, the second artists start making gestures
at becoming very serious again we suddenly expect the work to transcend all
of the museum blockbusters and art fairs that have lowered the level of expectations
for art during the past decade. Finally, PS has taken on younger artists instead
of his typically brilliant laurel wreaths for the likes of Bruce Nauman and
Ed
Ruscha. We know those guys are good, what we want now is a new crop with
a similar level of rigor and achievement.
On a more regional level (but not strictly so), I'll be on Oregon Public Broadcasting's Think Out Loud tomorrow at 9:00 AM with curator Jennifer Gately, Dan Attoe and Richard Speer to discuss the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards and their impact on the regional art scene (though artists like Attoe have pretty bitch'n international careers already so it opens some complicated and impossible to categorize discussions of regionalism in an internationally decentralized art world). Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 04, 2008 at 17:01 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 07.28.08 Monday Links: Artvergnugen? The New York Times Sunday Book Review did
its thing on Erin Hogan's book, "SPIRAL JETTA A Road Trip Through
the Land Art of the American West. " It is a cute title that in its own
irreverence reifies a certain reverence for these often not so roadside attractions.
I got a kick out of Vanderbilt's review and the book itself is probably targeted
for the overeducated who haven't spent much time alone in a car and suspect
they are missing something of the American experience (they are).... it's no
wonder the Jetty is replaced by the Jetta. Artvergugen?
Holland Cotter takes on the expected onslaught of summer group shows. The funny thing about Portland is we have a lot of good solo shows in the summer. We get a lot of Bay Area and New York tourists during July and August so it's worth putting on good solo shows. BS Houston has had it with Red Bull. How does this compare to BMW's art cars? Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 28, 2008 at 10:43 | Comments (1) PermalinkFriday 07.25.08 Growth?  PNCA's PDXplore#2 on July 22nd 2008 In case you missed it like me, here is a transcription of last Tuesday's PDXplore discussion at PNCA. Ahh the question is... will Portland grow a pair or simply take a prophylactic approach to the coming population surge? Eunuch is eunuch... no more complacency ok? Portland isn't defined by Portland's past... it can only direct those redefining outside forces. Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 25, 2008 at 13:25 | Comments (2) PermalinkMonday 07.21.08 Monday Links Guernica
suffered a lot of wear and tear during it's travels... but this time the
condition report has a political angle. IMHO, Guernica and Jimi Hendrix's Star
Spangled Banner are the two most successful pieces of political art ever.
Powerslice enjoys some cool things. Edward Winkleman is clamping down on his comments... in the past his site has had some of the most lively debates about art in his comment section, but lately its gone south. It's true, moderating comments is a drain on time but there is an interesting dynamic to having reader feedback; it often reveals more facets to the story. About this time last year I was seriously considering removing comments altogether from PORT but after a period of clamping down I think people have gotten the gist... strong opinions are fine but no personal attacks. Last but not least mayor elect and current transpo comish Sam Adam's liked my post on a better bridge design. A lot of other people did too. My post was simple common sense from an aesthetictician, with the added power of some decent pictures. Even the Oregonian's editorial board has started to play catch up (Calatrava is good but we need something more radical like Hadid, UN Studio etc., Calatrava has already peaked and less likely to reinvent the bridge for the 21st century... he already reinvented it for the late 20th.). Actually what the O really needs is an architecture critic. Hire Brian Libby, simply using him freelance isn't enough, it's the difference between a personal body guard and a rent a cop... for the O to do it's job during this major design upheaval in Portland it needs someone who would take a bullet. Randy Gragg did heroic things like insist on a design competition for the Tram. BTW that's exactly what we need for the I-5 bridge, scrape together a couple of hundred grand and invite Hadid, UN Studio, Foster, Cloepfil, Toyo Ito and Monolab etc. The ideas and buzz it will generate will be more than worth it, giving the finalist and all of us a much better bridge. If an architect from outside the area is chosen no big deal, most big jobs have a local firm partnered as well. Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 21, 2008 at 10:59 | Comments (12) PermalinkSaturday 07.19.08 Rearranging at PAM: Newman, Murakami, Dunham etc.  Barnett Newman's Canto #7, full set on display now The Portland Art Museum has shuffled more than a little bit around with some very distinguished guests including Barnett Newman and Andy Warhol (a more sweeping rehang of the nearly 3 year old Jubitz Center for Contemporary Art should be expected an a year or two). Also, There's the new Marc Dombrosky show at Apex (I found it underwhelming; crafty sewing + human desperation has been done with more legitimacy and personal investment by Tracey Emin). Check it out though, it's kinda fun to sharpen one's teeth on (BTW what's with all the attention paid to weak examples of Seattle art at PAM lately?). That said the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards and the awesome Ed Ruscha show are absolutely worth a trip, even from out of state. Besides the programming you gotta check out: A complete set of Barnett Newman's 18 Cantos 1963-64. These are no ordinary prints, this is a complete set of the most important prints in the last 108 years. Simply sublime, they are fittingly are on display in the Greenberg room of the Jubitz Center beneath the Calder. Ursula Von Rydingsvard's P's and Q's is a compelling addition to PAM's strong sculpture collection (nice that PAM has made a point of collecting from artists in its two solo show exhibition series). There is also a tiny Andy Warhol shadow painting on the third floor of the Jubitz center. Other things worth ferreting out:...(much more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 19, 2008 at 14:20 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 07.18.08 Disjecta: Rematerializing?  It's Disjecta, again... and again... and again. Long time Portlanders are probably pretty familiar with this promotional routine, and have already formed their opinions. For those of you who don't know the history, PORT takes a look back and a look forward after the jump. (More.) Posted by Megan Driscoll on July 18, 2008 at 8:45 | Comments (15) PermalinkTuesday 07.15.08 Public art + publicity I'll have a pretty complicated review for you later today (*I lied, but its coming soon). Till then here are
some links:
Tyler Green is excited about Fritz Haeg, we are too and he will be showing at Reed this Fall. His talk at PSU was one of the highlights year last year, he's a major artist. (Aside) during undergrad I had a nasty habit of planting delicious swiss chard in my alma mater's many flower beds... let's just say the food service on campus did not provide a lot of things I found edible! Jerry Saltz is Jeff Koon's greatest advocate (besides Koons himself). Jerry takes a look at his retrospective here. Ill be seeing this show for myself in a bit. The Expanded Field discusses Public Art in LA. We have 2% for art up here... but we are a long way from being Chicago, which IMHO has the best collection of recent public art on earth. How good? the last time I was there my more vocally inspiring GF and I spontaneously broke into a version of the Everly Brothers "All I have to do is Dream" replacing that lyric with "Bean"... the nickname for Anish Kapoor's incredible Cloud Gate sculpture. No other public art has even a remote chance of provoking public song! (thankfully)... Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 15, 2008 at 10:31 | Comments (6) PermalinkWednesday 07.09.08 Portland City Council insists on building the right bridge for I-5 Mayor elect and current transpo commish, Sam Adams, has just released a statement
on the I-5 bridge that calls for much of what
I called for several weeks ago here by insisting that the bridge;
"Inspire a green, 'postcard-worthy' design. This should be the world's most environmentally friendly bridge in design, construction, and operations. Any bridge is an icon, and this one must aesthetically enhance the world-class grandeur of the Columbia River and Mount Hood. And it must be sensitive to its neighbors by helping knit together the two halves of Hayden Island and downtown Vancouver." Right on! As I wrote a few weeks ago there is only one way to achieve those goals, hire a world class architect to design the I-5 bridge. Design competition anyone? A competition and successful design would go a long way in convincing more world class design, technology and green industries that Portland isn't all talk... resulting in more jobs and a healthier planet strategy we can export. Sam's office also states, "The approval today only moves the bridge project proposal from one phase of evaluation to the next. It establishes the assumption for the next phase of study that the existing bridge will be replaced with no more travel lanes than exist today and that it must include an expansion of lightrail." Read more on Sam's blog. It's time for bridge city to show the world a new kind of bridge. Isolationists who would do nothing (aka turn Oregon into a fortress) miss the fact that this is a golden opportunity to do the right thing for once (with major federal $$ prioritized as one of 6 corridors of the future, meaning it doesn't keep us from getting other funding for other projects). Time to be progressive about the challenges ahead folks, not provincially anachronistic. Cars and more people will be around in 100 years (hopefully running on cold fusion, hydrogen or the hot air generated by art critics)... so underbuilding something that will outlive us isn't an intelligent option. Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 09, 2008 at 12:29 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 07.08.08 A few bits Ok Im finishing up a review y'all are gonna enjoy (or at least enjoy hating)...
till then:
Jerry Saltz on Eliasson's waterfalls, still Portland as a city has probably the best collection of waterfalls in the US (30 minutes away on I 84). Regina Hackett had a nice lil interview with Christopher Rauschenberg. I particularly liked the question about dance... because for those who are paying attention, Chris is absolutely the most awesome dancer in Portland. At Elizabeth Leach's 25th anniversary party I remember him just opening a massive can of dance whupass as a crowd of artists and curators stood watching from the shadows contemplating just how terribly unfunky we were by comparison. Yeah, that's right he dances like Travolta and sounds just like his dad. Archidose visits an awesome garden design, with a nice nod to beehives. John Buchanan continues to astound San Francisco critics , in the worst way. Tyler Green has caught the scent as well. Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 08, 2008 at 11:03 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 07.07.08 Duty bound links Edward Winkleman took on the question
of beauty, craft and its "antipode of convenience" in the constellation of artistic intent, conceptualism.
There is no right answer and for my money the best possible outcome is the one
where the philosophy and execution are capable of simultaneously undermining
and reinforcing one another. When something leans too heavilly on craft or conceptual
formula it is just dead to me, a spent force. Something has to be at risk for it to be intellectually/experientially
salient. Simply putting a marble in some cream cheese in the center of a room
or a giant gold dildo that shines like the sun isn't enough.... I want an aesthetic
and intellectual program to be presented in a way that I can both come back
to and or forget when I'm viewing. Still, the end result can't be too didactic or controlling of the viewer in making its gestalt. Perhaps, the follow through is the most important
part of visual art and at a certain point the artist fades as the work remains?
 Pipilotti Rist at FACT Adrian Searle's podcast on Pipilotti Rist's Gravity Be My Friend at FACT (Liverpool) shows just why she does video installation art and sound better than almost everyone... though this is kinda Verner Panton-y. Also, yes I am hard on the schlub... so when DK Row writes a nice piece on Robert Rauschenberg's final works (on view at Bluesky) I feel duty bound to point it out. If you are gonna be tough it helps to be fair too. I actually like defending him... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 07, 2008 at 11:57 | Comments (6) PermalinkThursday 07.03.08 Swan Song for Tilt 
Today, Tennessee, by 2006 Oregon Biennial artist Benjamin Buswell opens as the final exhibition at the Tilt gallery in the Everett Station Lofts. PORT was the first to tell you this would be a place to watch 2.5 years ago and it has really held up. Regardless whether any particular show was a success or fell flat, the trek to Tilt was always rewarding because of the surprise and professionalism that could be counted on. Tilt has had a comparatively long run at "the lofts" for the husband and wife team of Jenene Nagy and Josh Smith who have another project, TILT Export, which will do independent curation while focusing more on their personal studio time. Jenene is also curator for PSU's Autzen gallery and was PORT's business manager for 2007. Typically these alt space live/work Everett Station Loft galleries last only a year and at 2.5 years it's a good run for Tilt...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 03, 2008 at 11:00 | Comments (1) PermalinkMonday 06.30.08 Monday Links Power Slice (Portland)
and Peripheral
Vision (Seattle) are two very intelligent non-vanity additions to NW blogosphere.
Louise Bourgeois at the Guggenheim looks great in the NYT's... check out their slideshow. The Guggenheim does amazing things to sculpture shows, yet this reminds me of how lame Matthew Barney's show there was by comparison. Tyler Green is right about these Gertrude Stein's twins, makes me wonder what a whole show of Gertrude Stein portraits would be like? Kind of like an intellectually superior night of the living dead?! Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 30, 2008 at 10:23 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 06.26.08 A Better Bridge over the Columbia River
Zaha Hadid's Shiekh Zayed Bridge... it is time to up the ante on the new I-5 Columbia River crossing On Tuesday night it was announced that the Columbia River Crossing Taskforce has recommended that an entirely new bridge be built to replace the aging pair of bridges that constitute the only remaining lift spans on I-5. What hasn't been discussed much are the opportunities that the estimated 4.2 billion dollar project opens for a new type of bridge, one designed to meet 21st century ecological and humanistic pressures. By not putting an onus on smarter design the project has negatively polarized some that would otherwise welcome a better bridge. Yes the bridge is controversial but it's also the single best opportunity for Portland to put its money where it's mouth is, ethically, aesthetically, ecologically and technologically about being a progressive city. We aren't fond of cars here or more people, but they are unavoidable. Portlanders do however prefer better design, mass transit, human scale experiences, nature and green building ideas. The Tribune's article today emphasizes how the project must have MAX train mass transit. Ok that's a start, but it needs more...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 26, 2008 at 14:59 | Comments (8) PermalinkTuesday 06.17.08 For your consideration First off, irony has ebbed now that the Art
in America art blogging roundtable from last November by Peter
Plagens... (which PORT participated in) is now
on-line.
Second, we don't usually plug fundraisers on PORT but PSU's online auction provides scholarships for their students. Some of the artist's included are Chris Johanson, Robert Pruitt, Fritz Haeg, Jim Drain, James Lavadour, Storm Tharp, Bruce Conkle, Dan Attoe, Mads Lynnerup, Harrell Fletcher and Rigo 23 etc. It's a great opportunity to help PSU art students and score some good pieces. Also, we hear Harrell's "The American War" was recently added to MoMA's collection. Peter Schjeldahl has a nice piece on the Jeff Koons retrospective (which I intend to see). Lastly, this interview in the O simply wasn't fit to print. Apparently the editors over there either don't care that they have a credibility problem or simply want to heckle Portland's art scene. Either way it's shamefully passive aggressive and a wasted hatchet job effort. Soliciting JV level questions to ask the curator was a cop out too. Note, Jen Graves of the Stranger is more respected in the area arts community and got a much better interview. Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 17, 2008 at 12:05 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 05.30.08 Friday links In the
New York Times Roberta Smith gave a nod to Portland's Jessica Jackson Hutchins (scroll down),
bringing up many of the same things I pointed out in PORT's
review of her show at Small A Projects last February. Her show at Derek
Eller looks a lot more filled in than the Portland show, but that makes
sense... experiment at home and tune the idea for the New York showcase. The
homey subject matter definitely isn't your typical NYC fare.
Adrian Searle loves "Psycho Buildings" at the Hayward Gallery in London. This is a definitely a show I'd love to catch. Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 30, 2008 at 10:43 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 05.28.08 Who's the big bad wolf now? Sorry we've been a little quiet, don't worry PORT is about to unleash a deluge of interesting content as we approach our 3rd year (June 1st). As a calm before the PORT in a storm here are two fine things from the New Yorker: Peter Schjeldahl's take on Action Painting and abstraction show at the Jewish Museum discusses the how writers got mixed up in all of that paint. Greenberg, being the most important has a Portland tie in of course... his personal collection forms the cornerstone of the Portland Art Museum's modern holdings. Yet there are gaps, we dont have a major Pollock, Still or most naggingly a major Rothko... despite the fact that Rothko grew up here and had hist first solo show at PAM. I love the fact that we have a very good Krasner and Richard Pousette-Dart on view though. PAM's current display doesn't exactly follow Greenberg's dictums but an expanded worldview. It is interesting that Greenberg is no longer considered the big bad wolf of modernism, the art museum world is no longer made of straw. Paul Goldberger looks at Chinese architecture and the message it sends. Note the China Design Now show will come to PAM October 2009. Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 28, 2008 at 8:09 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 05.23.08 Friday links Stay tuned, Ill have an exhaustive Sam Adams/Portland zeitgeist post coming
soon.
Till then here's: Zaha Hadid's new skyscraper for Warsaw Poland it was just announced that her design is the winner. A very well written review of TJ Norris' Infinitus show at NAAU by Richard Speer. BTW the WWeek is starting to have more art coverage again and I think ditching the listings for a few short reviews is better... it's about time, what about some features? Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 23, 2008 at 14:05 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 05.19.08 Connecting excellence  Last Friday the City Club hosted Tom Manley with Brad Cloepfil and Sohrab Vossoughi of Ziba Design to discuss Portland's "Creative Grid". Basically it was about networking Portland's creative institutions, firms and individuals. You can listen to it here. Overall this is an important shift in Portland's strategic future as the city is networking the hell out of itself in a way that lets creative types get in on the ground floor. I liked several things about this rather 19th century style public forum at the City Club. First the word "excellence" was used frequently (if only both of our Mayoral candidates did the same, whoever gets the job needs to take their cues from these 3 Portlanders and a few others...). Second, Brad Cloepfil made a great point about being honest about our goals and instead of trying to do it all (like some arts institutions attempt) we need to focus on what we can do that is truly excellent. Finally, the best bit was when Cloepfil responded to a the question about money and funding (a red herring) by stating that Portland needs to "Get Over It" and should focus on doing things at a high level instead (I suspect that will bring more money in 5-10 years). The trick is to not get self satified or think that spending lots of money leads to excellence. I've been saying the same thing for years, the actual amount of money matters less than how it is used. We simply need to ask better questions like my favorite gripe, "are the projects and institutions we are funding raising the level or of discussion, ideas and execution rather than simply existing to create communities of mediocrity. Communities are good but they matter most when they challenge themselves to be better rather than self-congratulatory. Roberta Smith looked at a show of artistic mash-ups. Sounds like people are looking for something new and trying to see what happens when 2 artists are artificially put together. Of course when its not artificial as in Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg (rivals, lovers etc.) that's when art gets radicalized in exciting ways. I don't think those days are gone. Last but not least Art Blogging LA has unleashed its redesigned site. Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 19, 2008 at 10:28 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 05.15.08 Windows on many world views  Photo: © Gerhard Richter, Koln / Dombauarchiv Koln, Matz and Schenk Recently, Peter Schjeldahl took a fascinating look at two stained glass window projects by Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter. Here's the Koln Cathedral's webpage for the Richter project. Personally, I've always loved stained glass and learned how to execute art deco designs when I was 8 because my Mother was doing the same. Later, I was near contentiously exposed to Frank Lloyd Wright's work and eventually boned up on historical examples like Chartres, La Sainte-Chapelle and Matisse's project in Vence. As for the sacred/secular debate, I don't think it matters much... many Christian artists were pretty heretical while pursuing their work. I also think there is an odd double standard, nobody cares if an architect of a church like Philip Johnson, Moneo or Frank Lloyd Wright were religiously compatible with the congregation's beliefs. I always appreciate it when churches choose to employ top talent, it is a civic responsibility and the poetics of talent producing tolerance are undeniable. Brian Libby over at Portland Architecture gave a welcome recap of Brad Cloepfil's chat at Jimmy Mak's. Interesting how he appreciated the Pearl District as a decent effort that sets the stage for some possibly superb buildings in the future. Right now the only above average architecture is his W+K headquarters, a couple of galleries and the Holst architects projects of PNCA (with a stellar paintjob by Randy Higgins) and Rivertek. With the 511 building and Holst's Ziba Design HQ's there is a sense that some exiciting work is about to be built. Also, what is Powells gonna do with their remodel/addition? The Portland art scene can always use more interesting exhibition spaces and even the new condo's have interesting lobby installation opportunities. The Mercury reviewed the Jess show. After the Cornell retrospective at SFMOMA last year and an unrelenting string of lesser shows in Portland I'm gonna have trouble taking in more collage art. Still, this sounds promisingly obsessive. With collage art I remain wary... "more" seldom is MORE, with Cornell being the benchmark for how to do it right. After Rauschenberg's death I'm feeling even more picky, though Anna Fidler is really starting to take off. Come to think of it collage is a lot like making a stained glass window. Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 15, 2008 at 11:45 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 05.13.08 Remembering Robert Rauschenberg  Canyon, 1959, Combine on canvas, 81 3/4 x 70 x 24 in. Robert Rauschenberg has passed away at age 82 of heart failure, here is the New York Times obit. A great artist and massively influential, PORT's thoughts are with his friends and family. With his ultra influential combines and even moreso silk-screens, Rauschenberg's place in history is secure as one of art's great alchemists. Without Rauschenbergs's mental muscle and protean reinvention you wouldn't have Warhol (silk-screen), Johns or even Sigmar Polke (silk-screen), Anselm Kiefer (combines) and Jean Michel Basquiat whose cypher-like pictorial organization owed much to seminal works like Factum I and II. My favorite Rauschenberg would have to be Canyon, a work so loaded of with rich associative properties it may be the most telling American representative of Post WWII... it's simply all there; ironic nationalism, stylistic conflicts, poetic hypocrisy, personal asides etc. Hilariously, the fact that Rauchenberg used a bald eagle insures that the work cannot be bought and sold (a protected animal). Also, turning that eagle into a magpie.. a predator turned into imposter... a symbol becomes a chameleon etc.. is simply unbeatable when discussing art and American politics/life. I think the best recent piece of writing on him was Jerry Saltz's Our Picasso? review of the combine show. >Feel free to leave your thoughts on the man and his art here... (more Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 13, 2008 at 10:58 | Comments (6) PermalinkFriday 05.09.08 Something to chew on for the weekend Portland Architecture has a great post on PSU's Social
Practice classroom on Alberta. An innovative project, the structure will
be designed to be moved from site to site, interracting with the various neighborhoods
that Portland is famous for.
 Nan Curtis at Linfield (detail) It's that last weekend for The Dancer at PAM (an excellent scholarly effort) and Saturday is the last day for Nan Curtis' show at Linfield College, always worth the drive and extra fun if you work in some wine tasting in the area. Roberta Smith chimes in on the 55th Carnegie International... her complaint is its lack of teeth. Tyler Green seems to have seen a different show, partly because the Vija Celmins did something for him. (Celmins usually delivers but what about the newer names?) The elephant in the room is this question, "are all these international shows the same uninspired show created through a preapproved list of familiar names and or ideas? Has brand, inclusivity of various practices and global ubiquity trumped the shock of the new?" Look, it's a change election year and similarly I suspect many people simply want a different art world... the Carnegie is proabbly allright but when they went to Mars it looks like they brought the same old artists. All of the biennials are suffering from a fatigue of the overly familiar (brought on by a smaller world and a lot of shows). Artblog also has some nice coverage. Oh and in case you missed it Jerry Saltz wrote about a restaging of a seminal Dan Flavin show... back when real ground was being broken. Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 09, 2008 at 17:04 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 05.05.08 Looking around Andrew Goldstein wonders what
P.S.1 will be like without Alanna Heiss? As of late the institution has been
morphing into more of an establishment venue with the Greater New York shows
etc. and a connection to MoMA... it's the way things tend to go. Really anything
that isn't a fusty musty academic institution will tend
to fall victim to its own successes (see MoMA, Dia, Guggenheim) and it's why
Judd took to Marfa and even that outpost has become a fetish of remoteness.
Look, if Walter Hopps could somehow mellow and take on an old sage-like patina in his last
years anyone and any institution can...it's just part of the metabolism of culture.
Speaking of Judd, Tyler Green is still in the running for Judd head of the month, both bits are interesting, especially the bits on why Smithson was more favored in the academy. Kim Davenport of Rice University has 10 bits of sound advice regarding installation art. You definitely have to take a greater leap of faith and trust the atrist more for site specific projects... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 05, 2008 at 11:38 | Comments (0) PermalinkSunday 04.27.08 Exciting TBA festival visual arts lineup announced Last night PICA announced their "On Sight" visual arts lineup for
the TBA festival September 5-14. Overall,
a much stronger and more rebellious visual arts lineup than last year (there
were grumbles and bad installs) with a real vis art festival feel than just some appended element
to primarily performance oriented TBA lineup. For the first time since they
canned their year round visual arts exhibition program I'm truly excited. Overall the curatorial
arc has lots of recent Whitney Bi approved names.
Mike Kelley Day is Done ... Kelley's aesthetic can be found in a lot of the other artists here. The Yes Men Co-presented with Pacific Northwest College of Art Fritz Haeg Co-presented with Reed College... hmmm a rebel gardener in Portland, frankly I'm most excited about this. Haeg's talk last year was a highlight. Ryan Trecartin I-Be Area... seen last year at Igloo in the Everett Station Lofts. It needed more attention, so good to see again... a fantastic video artist Lizzy Fitch Residency / Commission of new work / Installation + Performance... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 27, 2008 at 13:41 | Comments (2) PermalinkThursday 04.24.08 9 years & last chance for an impressive April gallery junket 
April marks my ninth year in Portland and it is really satisfying to say that this was probably the single best month of shows I've seen since moving here. What's more there were strong offerings in every genre imaginable.(list of strong shows ending this weekend below). A lot has changed since 1999, now there really are several scenes not just one... ... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 24, 2008 at 16:36 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 04.21.08 Weekend developments  The West Side Railyards Project with pink cultural mystery box (lower right corner) Nicolai Ouroussoff of the NYT's had an interesting dissection of developer renderings on Sunday. In this case he was taking it to Helmut Jahn's renderings of the recently awarded West Side Rail Yards project in New York. I particularly liked the Ourousoff's "Cultural Mystery" description where, "neither the developer nor the government have any idea who would occupy the so-called cultural building." Apparently the developer Tishman Speyer has an art collection too... though it isn't like New York needs another corporate art museum. (mmm and yes HJ and I are cousins) This railyard redevelopment reminds me a bit of the South Waterfront project in Portland, which is actually bigger and more expensive than this New York Project... though SOWA doesn't even have a cultural mystery box, though to be fair they do have Linda K Johnson's AIR residencies. Of the AIR projects I think Horatio Law's "China on the Willamette" in May is gonna be a real treat because it draws a correlation between Portland's mega-development which is tiny compared to China's mega-developments (not that bigger is necessarily better from a human use standpoint). Tyler Green had a nice bit on intellectually supercilious museum shows that support contemporary gallery markets. I nominate the Paul Klee/Devendra Banhart travesty at SFMOMA as the single worst example of this "museum becomes hipster" malaise... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 21, 2008 at 0:00 | Comments (0) PermalinkSunday 04.13.08 PNCA seeks to purchase its currrent home as well 
PNCA's current main building PNCA has always wanted to buy its current home in the Pearl district, even before plans were announced to acquire the 511 building. Now the college has announced they plan to acquire the current building for an undisclosed sum (read about the details here). I'm guessing it's an undisclosed amount because air rights are valuable and real-estate valuations are currently in complicated flux. Also, Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works (the schools master planner and architect of the 511 building) will oversee some light architectural modifications. Needless to say this positions art as a major industry for Portland, one of my pet subjects. Yes, all of this capital campaign activity is great but here are a few suggestions:<br> Modify the Feldman Gallery space to make it a more coherent for showing larger scale work (it's a bit tight and the wainscoting's gotta go), also endow its sometimes awesome exhibition program with at least 2 million with fully endowed curatorial position (PSU should do similar things for its galleries). Endow department chair positions and have more full time positions with salaries in line with national standards. Overall though PNCA has become the most ambitious business/cultural enterprise in the entire state of Oregon... it makes me wonder how many places can claim that their flagship art school sits at such a pole position? Yet this makes sense Portland's high profile employers like Nike, Adidas, Ziba Design, W+K etc... all need a very serious art school. Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 13, 2008 at 21:21 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 04.10.08 A comprehensive Robert Irwin retrospective at MOCA and MOMA? it's about time 
Light and Space (2007) being looked over for the first time by Robert Irwin at MCASD Tyler Green and Jen Graves are still talking about Robert Irwin's awesome Primaries and Secondaries retrospective at MCASD last year. I called it the best show of the year and the fact that people are still pouring over it is a good indication of why...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 10, 2008 at 14:37 | Comments (1) PermalinkMonday 03.31.08 Cauduro scholarship for PNCA, Portland invests in the future but loses a Warhol 
Oregon's single best art collector, Ed Cauduro... and arguably the best eye north of San Francisco has given PNCA a 1 million dollar scholarship endowment. When he was active he tended to collect early and presciently and his collection has included the likes of Warhol, Judd, Schnabel, Terry Winters, Jasper Johns, Jeff Koons and Basquiat (who even did a portrait of the elusive collector). Cauduro has given many important works to PAM (like the Peter Young etc.) but none of the listed heavy hitters are currently in PAM's gap-filled collection. Cauduro also owns Short Stop, John Chamberlain's first crushed car sculpture... something every art museum on the planet is interested in (Cauduro is 81 and must be slightly annoyed with the dynamic sets up). In response he's been setting up a lot of charities, including this incredibly generous scholarship endowment for PNCA. I've known about this for a while and it's a major benefit for the college and the art community. PNCA is on a roll with its 511 building, Hallie Ford gift (FIVE program) and MK Guth in the 2008 Whitney Biennial. The Ed Cauduro Fund for Pacific Northwest College of Art of The Oregon Community Foundation (OCF) will provide up to four $10,000 annual scholarships, beginning with two scholarships for the 2008-2009 school year and one in each of the following two years. The endowment will also provide approximately $5,000 annually for students to use in purchasing art supplies and materials they would otherwise be unable to afford. Having a scholarship like this helps PNCA compete with other schools for particularly promising students... many might not realize this but it is a competitive advantage they have been lacking....(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 31, 2008 at 11:49 | Comments (12) PermalinkWednesday 03.26.08 PAM acquisition: Tom LaDuke 
The latest contemporary addition to the Portland Art Museum, Tom LaDuke's Private Islands (2007), is now on display on the 4th floor of the Jubitz Center for Contemporary Art, nearby the recent Tanya Batura acquisition. LaDuke has been getting a lot of attention lately from Tyler Green and other museums and his work first appeared in Portland in PAM's New In Town exhibition back in 2002. The thing that has always struck me about LaDuke's work is how there is always a phantom presence... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 26, 2008 at 13:35 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 03.25.08 It's how one lives not "in what" that is defining  Jean Nouvel's 100 11th Ave. in Chelsea Last weekend Nicolai Ouroussoff opined about the rash of preening new condos in New York. One telltale problem is how the interiors are extremely conventional... there was a time when ground breaking design actually pushed those who lived inside to reconsider how they lived (whereas this is just a surface form of avant-garde). The only project that seems truly inspired is Jean Nouvel's 100 11th ave project which sets up a generous visual rhythm externally that actually carries into the interior spaces. In contrast to most of these "surface" projects I've been photographing the Belmont Lofts building by Holst Architects in Portland a lot lately and it strikes me that that condo building doesn't turn its back to Belmont street, it is semi-permiable and urban ... it isn't a barrier, fortress or some status symbol, it's emblematic of an engaged civic lifestyle and very Portland. Also, the recent Casey project in Portland is more notable for its platinum LEED rating than its novel but slightly dull exterior. Also last week, More Ways to Waste Time did her own art tour of Portland, and managed to find way more nooks and crannies in the art scene here than say the New York times has in their frequent stalkings of Portland. She ate a lot of stuff too... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 25, 2008 at 12:13 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 03.21.08 Congratulations Michael Patterson-Carver 
Bush visits Portland, 2007 Congratulations to Portlander Michael Patterson-Carver who is one of the recipients of the 2008 Altoids art prize, he gets 25,000 and a joint show at the New Museum. Previous recipient Harrell Fletcher was one of the *nominators. The award is somewhat unique in contemporary art as artists select other artists for the award, hence the reason the award doesn't have the musty and necrotic smell that most art world prizes have... that and Altoids sponsors it. Carver is represented by Small A where you can see more of his work. *clarification Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 21, 2008 at 10:48 | Comments (4) PermalinkThursday 03.20.08 PAM's latest contemporary acquisition: Batura + some guests  Tanya Batura, Sourire en Bois, 2007. Clay and acrylic. 10 in x 17 in x 10 in. Portland Art Museum. The Portland Art Museum's latest contemporary acquisition, Tanya Batura's Sourire en Bois is on now display on the 4th floor of the Jubitz Center for Contemporary Art. The title translates as, "to smile out of wood." The double entendre is probably intended, but it also references how the sculpture has a wooden texture where the torso normally would start... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 20, 2008 at 17:29 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 03.12.08 Rothko in Portland 
Marcus Rothkowitz, Landscape (View of Portland), ca. 1928 courtesy Michael Rosenfeld Gallery The Portland Art Museum is host to yet another distinguished guest, in fact it's a work painted in Portland by our most famous local artist, Marcus Rothkowitz (aka Mark Rothko). The painting is currently on display in the third floor of the Schnitzer Center for Northwest Art. The ca. 1928 oil painting "Landscape (View of Portland)" was made long before his signature style of the late 40's and depicts the then new Ross Island Bridge from Pill Hill, a moody grey sky and Mt Hood. Overall, it is most strongly influenced by Cezanne... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 12, 2008 at 12:08 | Comments (3) PermalinkTuesday 03.11.08 PNCA gets the 511 building 
In what will probably be the biggest Portland art news of 2008, PNCA has announced they have been given the green light to acquire the historic 511 building by the GSA and Department of Education. PORT reported in detail on this last fall (and were the first to recognize the importance of it to the local art world). PNCA is tied to both Portland's hot new design economy (Ziba, Allied Works, W+K etc)and the West Hills money that recently funded PAM's 100,000,000+ expansion and continuing endowment campaign... so yes they can do it. This is a major investment in Portland's future not just an art school realestate opportunity. What this likely means: -Big new Brad Cloepfil project in the architect's home town... we were just discussing his Clyfford Still Museum last week. Im about 99.9999999% certain Cloepfil will get the job, he's the campus' master planner. Hell his office even overlooks the 511 building a lil. -More public galleries on the North Park Blocks giving Portland an opportunity to extend the Park Plocks in the future into a world class cultural enclave.... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 11, 2008 at 10:05 | Comments (1) PermalinkWhitney Biennial Backlog 
Ok, the typical Whitney rigmarole has given New York something to talk about again (though it seems quieter and less engaging than usual, the Whitney needs to radically change the show to increase its relevance). Frankly it doesn't excite me at all, but so far Ben Davis on Artnet has done the best job of capturing the issue at hand. His best summary, "the whole thing does seem to represent an interest in homeopathic medicine! That is, it offers to simulate a negative effect to cure the larger disease; as if to fend off harsh critical attacks, the show embraces a defensive self-abasement. It is willfully half-baked." Though his Neo-Hippie tag isn't quite news...truth be told the last 4 (including 2008) have all been Neo-Hippie late 60's and early 70's fests. One could point to the adoption of Devendra Banhart into the art world as making it rather official (and therefore dead). That nostalgia also underscores why people aren't that whipped up over this Biennial show, there is no real shift at work here. Despite that, Portland's own MK Guth is racking up all sorts of critical notice doing the important thing in any group show, standing out (Davis and the New York Times single her out as a favorite). Though Holland Cotter's Times piece labeling of her work as "new agey" seems like a New Yorker projecting funny expectations on a Portlander. Truth is MK pisses a lot of Portlanders off because she isn't very dippy-hippy newagey, she's often hard core but romantic with an eye for entropy and not new agey at all.... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 11, 2008 at 9:30 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 03.05.08 More Cloepfil/Still and More of everything else  Brad Cloepfil's latest Clifford Still Museum design Portland's top starchitect Brad Cloepfil has unveiled a more finalized design of his Clyfford Still Museum. We saw an early model of it here and it looks like the heavy basalt-like look has been retained. There are two Cloepfil's, heavy Brad (Weiden + Kennedy HQ) and dematerializing light Brad (1 Columbus Circle). Heavy Cloepfil is way better and after spending some time at Kahn's Salk Institute last Fall... I understand why... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 05, 2008 at 8:14 | Comments (3) PermalinkMonday 03.03.08 Whitney Time - Yawn, Guth Time - Yeah! It's Whitney
Biennial time again... and Portland has had someone in 3 of the last 4.
The 2008 show opens Thursday and even PNCA is doing an event in New York.
This year the Portlander is MK Guth, whom PORT interviewed in depth earlier this year. Joseph Gallivan just did a nice piece on Guth for the Tribune...we will surely miss Gallivan's contributions to that paper. His accessible but engaging arts writing made most of the other newsprint in town look tragic. It's true some worship the WB as some sort of art career Deus ex Machina while the show's overall importance has waned as of late. Still, some 2-5 artists seem to emerge from each iteration and artists like David Altmejd, Forcefield, Chris Johanson and Harrell Fletcher have all gone on to make more serious contributions after the show. My point is the Whitney B in itself isn't as important as the follow through after. In many ways Portlanders are simply over being excited about The Whitney but we love the fact that MK gets to do her thing. I also keep thinking that a west of the Mississippi Biennial might be in order some day as well. Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 03, 2008 at 12:30 | Comments (1) PermalinkThursday 02.21.08 Jupiter Hotel Fair, resurrected?  Ok, I knew this wasnt going to just die, Portland is just too ambitious and organized. Besides the fair itself was solid, one senses the organizers themselves just ran out of steam for a big side project. According to Jupiter hotel owners The AFFAIR @ the Jupiter Hotel art fair may not retain the same organizers, name or look, but there is a momentum in the Portland art community for continuing the popular art fair headquartered at the Jupiter Hotel since 2004. According to Jupiter Hotel co-owner Kelsey Bunker, "While it is true that Stuart Horodner and Laurel Gitlen will not be running the AFFAIR @ the Jupiter Hotel, we are excited about the new opportunities this allows us to support the art communities both locally and nationally... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 21, 2008 at 9:44 | Comments (36) PermalinkWednesday 02.20.08 Considering Johns in Gray  Jasper Johns Between the Clock and the Bed, 1982-83 Encaustic on canvas (three panels) Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond © Jasper Johns/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY Photo: Jamie M. Stukenberg/Professional Graphics Inc., Rockford, Illinois Jasper Johns is one of my all-time favorite artists and unlike Richard Prince he tells jokes so great they become poetry before they become punchlines (Prince starts with the punchline and then tries to reverse engineer them). Sadly, Im not all that convinced by Johns' later work but I consider paintings like "Between the Clock and the Bed" to be great art. It is a cypher of space and a semipermiable abstraction... like the sea it doesnt give up its secrets or it's dead. Im not afraid to utter the dreaded term "great" in the presence of a body of work like this. In Portland we are intimately acquainted with the color gray so the Jasper Johns: Gray show at the Met is of special interest... that and we still have tons of encaustic painters here. Jerry Saltz has a wonderful wonderful take on the Met's current Johns show. Donald Kuspit's take is dense and possibly a tad turgid on Artnet (with some great show photos worth checking out). Roberta Smith's take on Johns is worthwhile too (as always) . PORT's own Arcy Douglass wrote on Johns last year here. Carol Vogel generally leaves me disappointed and her personal look at Johns is no exception... where is Kimmelman (the Times chief hagiographer) when you need him?... Europe! Hagiography has its place (though it isn't a replacement for critique). Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 20, 2008 at 10:59 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 02.18.08 Affair at the Jupiter Hotel, RIP  White Columns @ Affair at the Jupiter Hotel 2007, Photo by Sarah Henderson Well, everybody on the inside of the Portland art scene has known for months that there wasn't going to be an Affair at the Jupiter Hotel Art Fair in 2008. I could have pressed the organizers on this but hoped it might be given over to other hands. Now it is officially over. Most dealers were upset with 2007, which seemed to be an afterthought compared to 2006 and many key players simply weren't going to... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 18, 2008 at 18:19 | Comments (12) PermalinkFriday 02.15.08 Weekendings  Turrell @ Roden crater, photo Florian Holzherr Tomorrow (Feb 16th), James Turrell will speak at PNCA's huge Swigert Commons space to kick off their Idea Studio talks. Reservations are sold out but a limited # of standing room only slots will be available, doors open at 3:00 first come first served. Talk is at 4:00 (reservation holders need to be seated by 3:50 to retain their seats). While you are at it read PORT's in-depth review of James Turrell's Pomona College show to prepare. Also, it's the general opening of the BCAM at LACMA and the New York Times smells blood. Neither Ouroussoff nor Roberta Smith were that impressed and one senses that an unmitigated triumph at LACMA would have forced New York Museums to step up...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 15, 2008 at 11:51 | Comments (6) PermalinkThursday 02.07.08 Some New Hypocrisy, same as it ever was The Mercury has penned a story about Rererato's
zoning problems and looming closure by the city. I notified Sam Adam's office
of this last week (Commissioner Sam show us your your arts muscle? You wanna be Mayor...
as Mayor Vera saved a fake horse on NW 23rd, as Arts Comissioner why not save a good art venue?)... look
something needs to be done. This is the type of scrappy art venue that makes
Portland great and they have been doing good things. Don't let the letter of
the law usurp the intent. As an arts city its hypocritical for the city of Portland
to shut down Rererato. So readers please email: chamberlainj@ci.portland.or.us and let the city know what you think.
*Update: PORT has assurances from Comissioner Sam's office, "We're working on it. Promise."  BCAM Gallery Section, © Renzo Piano Building Workshop As Tyler notes it's definitely LACMA's Broad Contemporary Art Museum day, and the LA Times piece is an interesting exercise in revealing the greatness and faults of three of my favorite things on the West Coast; LACMA's crazy (with its own woolly mammoth engulfing tar pit) campus , super collector Eli Broad and critic Christopher Knight. All three are forgivably contradictory in ways only the truly talented are... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 07, 2008 at 11:41 | Comments (3) PermalinkWednesday 02.06.08 Loosely related links 
Robert Rauschenberg (American, b. 1925), Retroactive I, 1963, oil on canvas, 83 7/8 x 59 7/8 inches, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, © Robert Rauschenberg Art and politics link up more often than I find interesting but Artnet's list of Obama, McCain and Clinton contributors is interesting (though totally irrelevant to anybody but art geeks). Sure, artists like Cecily Brown and Chuck Close might support Obama and Matthew Marks might have supported Clinton but ultimately it says more about the donors than the candidates...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 06, 2008 at 13:20 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 02.01.08 News bits  Unimpressive street art creates impressive waste of tax dollars A portland artist, Ryan Birkland, has been arrested for putting up guerilla style art on telephone poles. It seems pretty ridiculous.... how about taking on the meth pushers that ride the NoPo max lines instead? This could have a chilling effect on street art like Scott Wayne Indiana's horses and this selective enforcement seems poorly defined. Jerry Saltz has reviewed Guy Ben-Ner's latest "Ikea based" video Reed's latest show Working History is now definitely open, go see it. Laura Fritz's Caseworks 13 (in the same building) has been extended to Feb 17th. Last but not least there are (solidly sourced *update confirmed) rumors that the Portland Art Museum has recieved a pledge from Gordon D. Sondland and Katherine J. Durant for a 1 million dollar gift to allow Children 17 and under to visit the museum for free. It is part of a larger endowment campaign to provide free days for everyone. Mayor Potter may have avoided funding those free days but the museum is moving forward with results. See, Portland's patrons do write checks but it is tied to the seriousness and focus of the organization's mission. If you are just showing your friends in a big warehouse (and if they aren't very good) don't expect to be entitled to that much. Seriousness + focus = funding. Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 01, 2008 at 10:59 | Comments (5) PermalinkWednesday 01.30.08 Spiral Jetty Threatened 
Important, Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty is threatened by an oil development. Check out Tyler Green's post to contact the people in Utah doing this TODAY before 7:00 PM ET. I went to grad school in Logan a couple of hundred miles away and as anyone who has ever visited the site knows the isolation of the place is important. People in Utah often don't appreciate this and plunk flame spewing oil refineries in some of the most scenic areas imaginable so this is a very real threat. Hell, I even got Chas Bowie this show at Chambers a few years ago because I though his photos of the site were important. Definitely stay tuned... Ill have PORT's 2008 curatorial roundup posted later today. Also, yes I'll post the results of PORT's bridge design contest early next week. Sorry about the backlog, Ive been very busy. Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 30, 2008 at 10:45 | Comments (1) PermalinkMonday 01.28.08 Brian Ferriso checkup: 1 year as director of the Portland Art Museum  PAM's Executive Director Brian Ferriso This January marks the one year anniversary for the Portland Art Museum's new director, Brian Ferriso. As arguably holding the most important cultural position in Oregon, Ferriso's actions have far reaching implications and set expectations both within the museum and the rest of the state's philanthropic/artistic community. It is time for an annual checkup. (disclosure: Im VP of the Contemporary Art Council at PAM and PAM is a PORT sponsor) The Ferriso effect: For contrast, John Buchannan, Ferriso's predecessor was a successful and aggressive entrepreneurial promoter (but questionable as a connoisseur), and for years many other organizations followed his lead, putting hype ahead of content. Lately, Portlanders have grown tired of the "constant PR" type leaders as purveyors of empty cultural calories. [*Note to our so-called journalists, coverage should focus on qualifications of leaders and the quality of shows (aka the only results that matter) not grandiose promises and PR glosses over inferior programming simply designed to produce attendance.] In fact, the first thing Ferriso did was cool down the board who wanted to build on the new property PAM had acquired so he could focus on solidifying the museum's fundamentals like its; endowment, collections and programming tuned to Portland's needs (more contemporary with a bustling arts scene). He's also empowered his curators and that's good for deeping PAM's intellectual relevance... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 28, 2008 at 16:26 | Comments (4) PermalinkThursday 01.24.08 Comprehension The Guardian covers a much touted show of paintings
from Russian collections at the Royal Academy (some of the Matisses are
among the most important in art history), there is even a slide show.
A group called the Atomic Age Alliance has come forward to save the wonderful Crown Motel sign. Even the TV news is tracking the story. Hopefully (if it is saved) it will stay on Interstate... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 24, 2008 at 10:47 | Comments (0) PermalinkSunday 01.20.08 What the Portland Art Center Closing Means to Me  Director Gavin Shettler in 2005 at the Portland Art Center's then new home in Chinatown For the two readers that have not heard, Gavin Shettler sent out an email yesterday announcing that the Portland Art Center is closing. D.K. Row wrote an article about it here. As an artist who showed at the Portland Art Center as they were transitioning from their old space on Belmont to their new space in the Pearl, I was happy that an institution like PAC existed in Portland... (more) Posted by Arcy Douglass on January 20, 2008 at 14:31 | Comments (4) PermalinkFriday 01.18.08 Hadid gets a university museum... so where is Portland's university museum? 
Hadid's winning entry for the Broad Art Museum I'm certain a lot of you already know Zaha Hadid has won the commission for Eli Broad's art museum at his alma mater, Michigan State University. It's a gutsy choice and I like its italicized character a lot more than her Cincinnati CAC project or any of the other contestants like Coop Himmelb(l)au and Morphosis etc. Still it seems pretty tame for Hadid, despite the fact it uses lots of triangular forms (a personal obsession). She also recently completed this interesting transit project the Hungerburgbahn (don't you just love German). It also brings up the issue of university art museum's and Portland is really underdeveloped in that department. Seattle has the Henry, the University of Wisconsin Madison has the Chazen (nee Elvejehm), Berkeley Art Museum, Eccles (Logan Utah), Jordan Schnitzer Museum in Eugene, Hallie Ford Museum in Salem etc... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 18, 2008 at 10:56 | Comments (2) PermalinkTuesday 01.15.08 PNCA Launches FIVE Idea Studios  James Turrell will speak at PNCA Feb 16 PNCA has launched a new visiting luminary series called FIVE Idea Studios. The first two visitors being: MacArthur Fellow James Turrell on Feb 16th, (PORT's Arcy Douglass reviewed Turrell's latest Pomona College project here in depth just last week) and French philosopher Jacques Rancière on Feb 29th... (he's the art world's favorite rockstar theoretician these days and between these two the college is hitting exemplars of the twin poles in art today, aesthetic experience [Turrell] and the search for new forms of social dynamic theory [Rancière]. According to PNCA (a PORT sponsor): "Idea Studios will be an ongoing and portable series of conversations, lectures and performances on the inner workings of the creative process. The series will feature internationally acclaimed practitioners from a range of fields and cultures as part of a broader PNCA + FIVE effort to highlight the importance of creativity in fostering innovation and civic imagination. Venues for Idea Studios will at times shift from the PNCA Portland campus to other locales across Oregon, the U.S. and the globe...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 15, 2008 at 0:00 | Comments (1) PermalinkThursday 01.10.08 Portland Spaces magazine unveiled Randy Gragg and I have a long history but his history with the city of Portland's
aesthetics goes back much farther than that. Though he wasn't the first to write
about me here, he was the first to pen a review on a show I put together way back in 2001. I remember he asked me, "so who is the ringleader?" My half-idiotic
response was, "I suppose that would be me?" Undoubtedly he thought
I was a yutz but wrote the review anyway (bet he wishes he could have that one
back eh?). Still, some of the art was good and that's all he cared about. Now after
leaving the Oregonian Gragg's the ring leader of the brand new Portland
Spaces magazine a kind of Dwell magazine for Portland. Fist Gragg was an
art critic, then an architecture critic and now he's an editor in a city that
is rapidly reimagining itself. If there was ever a time for such a thing it's
now.
Sure Gragg's departure from the O did prompt some major civic leaders to query if the O will just abdicate architectural and design criticism altogether but I suspect they will need to do something to compete with Portland Spaces for relevance sake. Though Randy and I don't always see eye to eye (mostly because we differ on important minutiae) I've always respected the guy and like the fact we offer eachother the opportunity to disagree (critics live for this). Also, Randy has an excellent nose for news and always seems to know where the action is... which makes his new Portland Spaces magazine tantalizing. The inaugural issue of the bimonthly has an interesting modern home by rising architect Jeff Kovel built for Karen and John Hoke (Nike VP) on the cover...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 10, 2008 at 23:01 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 01.09.08 More on Broad and the Portland connection  Eli Broad's big news in the New York Times yesterday still has everybody talking. Is forming an independent art lending institution a form of Teddy Roosevelt style cultural trust-busting (museum as monopolizer) or does it short circuit the opportunities and dialog of the works joining a larger collection? For example, curators build museum collections around acquisitions, not available loans. Also, loans aren't likely to become museum favorites that people can visit for 10+ year stretches of time (my favorite part of museum going). Still LACMA's new Broad building will have a strong presence of Broad Art Foundation loans. Interestingly enough, Portland has a stake in this story as Broad has been very active with the Portland Art Museum and by not giving the collection wholesale to LACMA it leaves the door open for further engagement with Portland's art starved but rapidly developing cultural ecosystem. Portland has been the beneficiary of the Broad Foundation quite regularly including the Damien Hirst and Camouflage shows at the Portland Art Museum in 2007. Sure we have some good collectors in the Northwest but no collection North of California on the West Coast can compete with Broad's, it really helps as a resource. By creating a lending institution and not mothballing... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 09, 2008 at 14:30 | Comments (2) PermalinkMonday 01.07.08 Think links PORT has a ton of thought provoking interviews and reviews this week but let's
kick things off with some fresh links:
Portland's Daniel Peterson posts his first image of 2008 and it is fantastic. This guy needs a solo show, best new photographer I've seen in years. Also, the New York Times had nice things about video art and snow globes. Art Ltd. a newish West Coast art mag did a nice bit on Julius Shulman. Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 07, 2008 at 12:43 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 01.04.08 David Lynch at Northwest Film Center this weekend  DAVID LYNCH IN DIRECTOR blackANDwhite'S LYNCH. COURTESY ABSURDA. JAN 4, 5, 6 FRI 7 PM, SAT 7 PM, SUN 5:30 PM LYNCH US/DENMARK 2007 DIRECTOR: BLACKANDWHITE This fascinating, indeed "Lynchian," portrait offers a rare glimpse into the enigmatic mind and creative process of the famed director of ERASERHEAD, THE ELEPHANT MAN, BLUE VELVET, and MULHOLLAND DRIVE, to name just a few of his surreal and seminal works. Filmed over a period of two years (by mysterious producers) it follows David Lynch at home and at work on the set of his recent INLAND EMPIRE with Laura Dern and Jeremy Irons... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 04, 2008 at 12:35 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 01.03.08 Last day for Yeon architecture exhibition 
Please forgive me (and the bum rush of the holidays + Miami) for not posting on this earlier but today is the last day to see the inaugural exhibit at the American Institute of Architects new Portland HQ's in the Pearl District (the old SK Josephsberg Gallery building). The show is John Yeon: in the land of influence, curated by Randy Gragg (whose Portland Spaces magazine launches next week). Brian Libby at Portland Architecture had a nice post on Yeon's Swan house a while back too. To me Yeon looks a lot like a more practical Frank Lloyd Wright without all the hubris... and his work remind's me of my parent's house in Wisconsin. Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 03, 2008 at 10:29 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 01.01.08 Best of 2007 It's done now but 2007 was a big year and here is how PORT's Ryan Pierce, ex-PORTer
and new Beaverton Arts Comission board member Melia Donovan, Matt McCormick, Micah Malone, Jesse
Hayward and my own dull self rated the year... (more)
Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 01, 2008 at 13:26 | Comments (5) PermalinkFriday 12.28.07 2007 Recap PORT and Portland's art scene had a particularly good year in 2007 with a general
expansion of interesting new venues, artists and greater national exposure all around.
In fact, weve had so much exposure outside of the city that Portlander's have
begun to refer the national media as stalkers. Even PORT
ended up in Art in America.
PORT Scoops.. here are just some major stories where we were the first Portland publication to break the news: The New American Art Union's stipend shows, which were later dubbed Couture when the final selectee's were announced PNCA makes it's bid for the 511 building, possibly the most important growth opportunity for art in Portland in the past 60 years. Other media have been playing catch up to what could be the biggest story of 2008 as well. MK Guth selected for the 2008 Whitney Biennial Portland Art Museum acquired several nice contemporary objects including a fine Judy Chicago and a really nice Gene Davis (we were the only Portland publication to mention these... but then again we are focused purely on art... so there you have it) Here are some of my favorite articles from the past year:... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 28, 2007 at 10:39 | Comments (4) PermalinkMonday 12.24.07 Holiday reading Most of PORT's staff have the week off so posts will be somewhat sporadic,
so here are some things to yule-tide you over (I know, I know, both the pagans
and the baby Jesus would disapprove of that pun):
Yesterday Roberta Smith took a shot at the word "Practice" as over-used by contemporary artists in 2007. I'm with her on this one, one has to have a receptionist and a lobby to have a practice... maybe it's all the college loans that drive artists to consider it a practice? It's probably just a nonsensical shortening of the term studio practice that gets all frothy with other pretensions (most artists are not particularly good wordsmiths so it is Roberta's job to point this sort of silliness out). It all reminds me of the original ending of Robert Hughes The Shock Of The New where he complained that art had become a vocation not an avocation... later Hughes wussed out and changed that ending. Still, he had it right the first time, even if he was wrong as could be about Basquiat (right about Schnabel though). My greatest annoyance is with the art world's meaningless use of the word "Authentic." To me its like the yuppie approved packaging on overpriced ethnic dishes one can find at high end grocery stores. It almost guarantees it isn't the real thing but it's overpriced status intends to mitigate guilt while giving it a patina of legitimacy. To use Greenberg's term it's very middlebrow. Portland Public art has a hilarious post on what won't save hipsters(?) in Portland... great stuff. Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 24, 2007 at 17:00 | Comments (2) PermalinkWednesday 12.19.07 Space is the place (externalizing the internal & its inverse) 
Joel Shapiro's current show at Pace Wildenstein Art Info has a nice interview with Joel Shapiro, whose work seems to becoming increasingly relevant and central to the age old (some would say pointless) distinction between representation and abstraction in sculpture. I love how his later work seems to activate space through inhabitation. This has always been a key element of his work but in the last few years he's developed that Picasso-like sureness and energy about his efforts. I like it much better than David Smith's Cubi series which I feel were a bit forced (though important). There is nothing forced about this work, Shapiro is the new Giacometti (as our leading existential sculptor). The New York Times had a bit on starchitects... Is it just me or are the architects today way more progressive and experimental than the artists? Theoretically, artists aren't saddled with the same kinds of compromises and restrictions... so why does someone like Julie Mehretu seem like a side dish compared to the main courses in Gehry, Koolhaas, Hadid, HdM and Libeskind's work? ...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 19, 2007 at 9:48 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 12.17.07 Report: A NW Thang at Gallery Homeland  a knitted cadavar stood out So how was Gallery Homeland's A NW Thang opening at the Ford Building on Friday night? Maybe the more important question is how was the art? Answer: pretty solid. Sure, spatially it was a ramble of large finished hallway spaces and an enormous unfinished commercial space but the art itself was what I've been hoping for over the last few years when I've gone to locally focused upstart institutional shows. Most everything I saw was well done, post MFA quality work. Of particular note was Cynthia Starr's group project where an entire human cadaver was created out of knit elements, guts and all. Yes, it's absolutely stereotypical of Portland and our surplus of knitters (and group activities) but it had an intellectual reflexiveness I often don't see in other group projects which seem to invite a lot of participants so a large crowd will show up. Karl Lind's video selections were... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 17, 2007 at 11:33 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 12.14.07 More thoughts on last week: Motel & the art fairs Overall, the art production for Miami 2007 seemed less fresh and daring than I remember it in 2005 (going to Miami every year isn't necessary) and maybe the art world is too sated. So why not ask... was 2007 in general a lackluster vintage or is it just a fair problem? Also, Jen Graves (who sat this one out) had a good "just that facts" take on Miami
this year from a Seattle perspective. Portland galleries mostly avoided
Aqua and did ok to great this year. Also, after talking to a few Portland gallerists the fairs most of them want to be in are Pulse
or Art Miami.
Overall, Art fair experiences really vary, for example Pulliam Deffenbaugh was at the somewhat lackluster Red Dot fair and yet did really well so it's difficult to characterize. The Aquas have some really good elements but need to up the ante the way Pulse and Nada have since theyve first appeared. Schwanky events, more diverse galleries and something that differentiates and makes the fair a destination. Portland's own Affair at the Jupiter Hotel needs to do the same things just to bring people to Portland. Which brings us to the question, will there be another affair?... OK I know more than Ill discuss here but many Portland dealers really want them to step up and make the event more of a destination or have a completely different fair under different management. Pairing with TBA doesn't really work, two different crowds. If it were paired with a vis-arts festival that would be more effective. 
a Motel installtion from July 2005 On the news of Motel's closing last week... Im sad of course, but this wasn't a surprise for me as Jenn and I have a rapport (As PORT's co-founder and former buisiness partner she's like the sister I never had). She wanted to concentrate purely on the gallery when her planned exodus from PORT happened earlier this year (in the works for about a year actually). There are some things Portland needs to learn from this... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 14, 2007 at 12:17 | Comments (5) PermalinkWednesday 12.12.07 It had to be done Tyler
Green has pointed out a great charitable giving vehicle that funds
art projects in schools, check it out. Portland's art programs are woefully
underfunded so here is an opportunity for our teachers. PORT generally avoids
posts on charities but here are some of the worthy Portland projects you can help fund.
Art Critical has a nice look at the Miami fairs including the two I never got around to seeing, Art Miami and Pulse. Art Miami looks like a serious contender for ABMB's top spot. Artblog.net takes a look at how the fairs have effected the indigenous art scene in Miami... reminds me of the Sundance film festival and how it turns Park City a bit upside down. 
DK Row continues to expound upon his seriously flawed understanding of non profits and Portland's current situation and this time out he's heckling Gallery Homeland. In a city where arts patronage is underdeveloped it takes an armada of small scrappy, completely underfunded institutions to lay the difficult groundwork for better patronage. It isn't about the money stupid, it's making headway in the education department. Spaces don't educate, personalities dont educate, fundraising tallies dont educate... the only thing that educates is doing good shows for over 3 years (which is the minimum amount of time it takes to develop a true track record). So with all due respect, give Gallery Homeland a break from the hackneyed misdirected analysis and pay attention to the critical worth of their efforts, that is the measure that matters (and part of why Row's coverage is hurting the development of a better patronage base). Also, Row's desire for one institution to be "the place" is totally misguided and too convenient. Portland is too busy an art city to have one central hub, you only get that in smaller scenes or when giant city governments undertake something like Yerba Buena. Portland's government and patrons just aren't there yet, it's still in the hands of scrappy individuals and volunteers. It's actually a good thing and more interesting than having everyone suck up to 5-10 extremely wealthy patrons with dubious taste. It's actually a magic moment of art organization experimentation in Portland. David, your fundamental assumptions are seriously flawed, smaller more specialized institutions dont seek to dominate, this isnt sports (want to duke it out in a game of ping pong, tennis or dodgeball, Ill whup yer ass there too). Personally, I'd rather see 10 150k a year art organizations than one stale bureaucracy with a budget of 1.5 million... so to that end I suggest everyone go out and see what Paul and Gallery Homeland can do at their opening on Dec 14. Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 12, 2007 at 10:43 | Comments (2) PermalinkTuesday 12.04.07 Guide to Portland In Miami 2007  Vanessa Renwick's Trojan #2 at ABMB Portland's art scene will be well represented during this week's Miami Art Fair madness with greater visibility than ever before. Portland galleries and artists are seeminly everwhere this time. Sure, Portland artists, curators and galleries are already veterans of such fairs but after years being stalked by the media in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Art Forum, Modern Painters and Art in America etc. it now seems Portland has buzz for being different and it shows in the art. In fact, art is central to Portland, no other large metropolitan West Coast city can claim that... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 04, 2007 at 13:34 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 11.30.07 Dave Time Ok you probably read the transcript last month but here's a
podcast of Dave Hickey's keynote address for the Frieze art fair. Good to
take in just before the massive Miami clusterf%#@ that will be happening next
week.
Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 30, 2007 at 12:05 | Comments (0) PermalinkFor your consideration Tyler
Green has been doing some great posts on one of my favorite artists Martin Puryear,
a sculptor who has done as much with a curved line as anyone in art history.
The O indicates the Portland Art Center might have found a way out of its current financial crisis if they can sell enough panels. Also, the word "restructuring" has been used... time will tell what that means but it's a time to really address some of the concerns already raised on PORT in the past. The Guardian has an intriguing review of Hans-Peter Feldman's latest show in Bristol. Portland Architecture takes on possible Sellwood bridge designs and the U of O's White Stag block in Oldtown Portland. Also, this organic extension of a building seems like something that might be great for Portland. The WWeek ran a story on Milepost 5, an innovative new creative colony for Portland's ambitions to take root in. Lastly, The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York has a new building and the New York Times takes a look. As always I found Ouroussoff's critique of culture in New York important and healthy but will the contents of the museum live up to the box? Roberta Smith has her say on that issue here too, it's a must read (partly for all of its paradoxes, which befits the show). Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 30, 2007 at 10:40 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 11.20.07 More parlor games and MoMA 
H.C. Westerman Tyler Green has been playing a parlor game centered around reimagining MoMA's galleries. My take is that Americans pretty much needed Alfred Barr to simplify the polyglot that was avant-garde art for Yankee consumption. Barr's brilliant solution was Picasso and since he had helped MoMA to acquire Les Demoiselles d' Avignon the museum was in a good position to make that case. Following curators like Rubin and Varnadoe picked a different hero artist to key the installation to; Jackson Pollock. The thing is I believe Americans are now ready for a more complex worldview and MoMA needs to accept that challenge to avoid becoming not only just a museum of 20th century art but a museum of 20th century ideology. Personally I agree that Pollock is a lynch pin argument but I also agree with Tyler that by foregrounding another giant like Clyfford Still and lesser lights like John McLaughlin it could really shake things up. Hell, I'd throw in an Andrew Wyeth and lots of H.C. Westerman's just to flay the monogenic discussion away from just one artist. Westerman isn't talked about enough, he's actually way more influential than is typically recognized. I'm all for an allout assault on monogenic thought in America... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 20, 2007 at 11:44 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 11.19.07 Building... with balls? The print media in Portland is finally starting to catch up with PORT on the very
exciting 511 building project for PNCA. Here's our initial take, and a tiny
bit from the
O this past Saturday (they've lost a lot by not having full-time architecture
columnist like Randy Gragg). To reiterate, the 511 project effectively creates a high profile arts
boulevard on Portland's North Park blocks (consolidating gains with the Desoto
Building and the Everett
Station Lofts) and if the Post Office moves out by the airport as expected
the additional 13 acres could be developed into an urban cultural boulevard...
a little bit like the Benjamin
Franklin Parkway but with the park blocks instead of the old imperial style.
Also, Brad Cloepfil did the campus' master plan and would almost certainly be
the top choice as architect for this building. Net result, a world-class art
institution effort in the Pearl District. I was at the PDC meeting (there was really no contest between the market and PNCA, the Federal Government controls the building
not PDC and thus only PNCA qualifies to apply). Hopefully, the GSA will see the wisdom
in giving PNCA the building and Portland a boost... let's just say PNCA is pulling out all the stops,
they really want this and it's the biggest news for Portland's cultural
community since I've lived here (8.5 years).
UPDATE* DK Row has chimed in as well now with a pleasantly matter of fact piece... the recent vacation must have quelled his typical need for snark, or maybe it's because this is such an important issue. Still this article doesnt really convey how this is a potentially paradigm changing opportunity. 
Nouvel's proposed tower next to MoMA Jean Nouvel is designing a new tower next to MoMA. Actually, it will give a much needed expansion to MoMA's exhibition space by devoting 3 floors to the museum. This question from the Times' Ouroussoff is key, "Yet the building raises a question: How did a profit-driven developer become more adventurous architecturally than MoMA, which has tended to make cautious choices in recent years?" The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego has acquired 6 of the works it did not already own from their superb Robert Irwin retrospective (aka the best show of 2007)... this show has balls and their aquisitions do too. Last but not least Jerry Saltz is asking important questions about MoMA's lack of female artists. The Portland Art Museum actually does a good job of this currently highlighting Lee Krasner, Judy Chicago, Agnes Martin, Helen Frankenthaler, Lynda Benglis, Hilla Von Rebay, Dorothea Rockburn, Anne Truitt, Kiki Smith and Suen Wong, etc. For once PAM can claim bragging rights over MoMA (and it's something MoMA can easilly correct). Also, when will MoMA do a long overdue Benglis retro? Needless to say balls aren't everything... Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 19, 2007 at 10:37 | Comments (4) PermalinkFriday 11.16.07 MK in the WiBi  MK's portrait by Marne Lucas Congratulations to MK Guth who made the cut for the upcoming 2008 Whitney Biennial. MK is the director of PNCA's brand spank'n new MFA program and a longtime stalwart of the Portland art scene. Here's a short but recent PORT review of MK's work. Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 16, 2007 at 10:58 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 11.13.07 Contemporary Northwest Art Awards: 5 finalists announced (PORT Scoop) Today, the Portland Art Museum announced the 2008 Contemporary Northwest Art Awards exhibition recipients:
Dan Attoe Cat Clifford Jeffry Mitchell Whiting Tennis Marie Watt My general reaction to this list is it's... solid, somewhat conservative (except for Clifford whom I was rooting for as an underdog) and very Northwest art-ish (aka lots of wood, craft, animals and tree references). For context, more agressively contemporary and less regionally placeable artists like Alex Schweder, Sean Healy, Jack Daws and Chandra Bocci (list goes on forever) were not of the 28 finalists from which these 5 were chosen so this list isn't really a surprise and curator Jennifer Gately has a very tricky balancing act to do. Her statement that she decided on, "works that resonate on distinctively regional yet universal levels," explains things rather well... to me that means a show which big time donor/collectors can be both challenged by and yet find familiar. A completely respectable list, but not bleeding edge... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 13, 2007 at 16:30 | Comments (2) PermalinkMore-akami  Takeshi Murakami, Homage to Francis Bacon (Study of Isabel ...), 2002 © 2006 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Private collection. On Artnet, Hunter Drohojowska-Philp has taken on the Murkami show at MOCA with lots of nice pictures. I'm a big fan but it is odd how Ive seen most of this work in other places (I first saw My Lonesome Cowboy and Hiropon at The Portland Art Museum in 2000 even). Murakami still matters but somehow I wanted him to do something more radical than a museum show, maybe something in a mall instead of moving the mall into the museum? My favorites will always be the Francis Bacon works, DOB inflatables, toothed mushroom paintings and the wallpapers. Also,Christopher Knight of the LA times also gives his take on Murakami ...all this is well and good but the best museum show of 2007 is Robert Irwin's retrospective in San Diego. Sure Serra was real good too but there is always something problematic about Richard Serra in a museum retro. Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 13, 2007 at 9:51 | Comments (1) PermalinkTuesday 11.06.07 Establishing an anti-establishment, comparing Rinder and Hickey  So far, the two most influential art shows of the 21st century have been the2002 Whitney Biennial curated by Larry Rinder and Beau Monde: towards a redeemed cosmopolitianism curated by Dave Hickey in 2001. The art-insider-unpopular WB was a fetished kind of amatuerism that was quickly co-opted by the arts system as a style (yet ironically got Rinder exiled), whereas conversely Beau Monde was simply too perfect as an ideal, hyper intelligent yet entertaining art show that sported grafitti art and foregrounded experience (most of the art was also big ticket). Together they signified the death knell of postmodernism (which was all about disassociation and alienation) and the reassertion of both craft and street culture as more important than the academy. Yet, it is funny how both Hickey and Rinder are anti-establishment and yet so firmly of it. Though considering the fact that Rinder is now a Dean at CCA is more of a true institutionalist, whereas Hickey seems to enjoy the material for writing that the paradox generates. Rinder has a former CCA student show at Liz Leach right now and Hickey has a similar but bigger production show about his UNLV days at the LVAM. At one time they seemed like polar opposites but now they seem like omnipresent sides of the same coin. For example, Paul Schimmel's Ecstacy show at MOCA seemed like a followup to both Beau Monde and the 2002 Whitney Bi. Now, there is more from Hickey and Rinder as they look back: Tyler Green pointed out that Dave Hickey's interview in The Believer is a great read, including some provocative gems like... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 06, 2007 at 10:16 | Comments (3) PermalinkThursday 11.01.07 Portland Art Center at a crossroads Director Gavin Shettler in 2005 at the Portland Art Center's then new home in Chinatown The Portland Art Center has been attempting to fill an important role in the Portland arts community over the past five years, as a non-profit supporting the development of young artists while bridging the worlds of galleries, museums, and educational institutions. Now they're looking back to the community for support to cover a $40,000 budget shortfall. Although PAC has achieved some success with grants (a $50,000 grant from the Meyer Memorial Trust and $25,000 from the Lehmann Foundation) they have been unable to meet their sustaining private fund raising goals in Portland's difficult philanthropic environment. They're currently inhabiting an ambitious 10,000 square foot space, but the rent, although below market value, has become a heavy financial burden at $5,000 per month. As the Goldsmith building's lead tenant, it creates market pressures for developer David Gold and his bank, requiring PAC to scale up financially. PAC currently needs to raise $27,000 for back rent and $13,000 to cover salaries for its two staff members by December 1st. That isn't a lot of money considering the Portland Art Museum raised 40 million dollars back in 2005, but those people have been completely absent as major patrons ($2,000+) for PAC. Shettler describes the situation as, "at a critical point." For more information, please contact executive director Gavin Shettler at gavin.shettler@portlandart.org. Posted by Megan Driscoll on November 01, 2007 at 12:32 | Comments (7) PermalinkFriday 10.26.07 Last Chance Shows There are a large # of good shows that have gotten reviews that will be coming
down soon.
Here's a list and most (except where noted) end Saturday October 27th;  Scott Peterman, Fryes Leap (2002) C-print Charles A. Hartmann Fine Art though new is probably the tightest curated gallery space in Portland and his show of Scott Peterman's ice houses is a stunner. A very well received exhibition Brian Libby wrote on it for the O as did Chas Bowie at the Mercury. The work is haunting, desolate, funny, perfectly executed and sublime. Just blocks away Jesse Rose Vala's show at Motel is a similarly ultra tight effort. PORT's Amy Bernstein reviewed it here... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 26, 2007 at 13:42 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 10.24.07 Wearing different hats and Portland hype? 
Here's an interesting article about Wilhelm Schurmann on Art Facts (Salvatore Reda pointed it out to me). In particular I like how Schurmann confounds those who try to categorize his activities and it reminds me of all those shortsighted people who seem to complain about how disciplines like curator, artist, collector, critic, historian, gallerist, philanthropists or board member are blurred together. We live in a true era of pluralism so all of this boundary blurring shouldn't come as...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 24, 2007 at 16:53 | Comments (16) PermalinkTuesday 10.23.07 PNCA and Portland an opportunity for growth  Potential site for PNCA After almost a week in California I'm back in Portland and I've been putting a lot of thought into PNCA potentially moving onto the North Park Blocks at 511 NW Broadway. Clearly the Pacific Northwest College of Art is very interested in the property as they currently rent their space, which does nothing for their financial stability. Being denied the opportunity to build equity they are subjected to the market forces of condo development in the Pearl and the situation needs to be addressed soon...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 23, 2007 at 12:44 | Comments (3) PermalinkMonday 10.22.07 PORT in Art in America November 2007  Finally, an art magazine has addressed the varied world of art blogging and PORT was lucky enough to be included in a wide-ranging roundatable discussion put together by Peter Plagens. Besides myself, the cogent voices of gallerist Edward Winkleman, Seattle PI critic Regina Hackett, Libby Rosof and Roberta Fallon of Philly as well as that art blogging machine Tyler Green are present (who once again had the scoop). It is a great article and I'm pretty proud of everyone involved as it presents a whole new world of cultural coverage to some who might not already be aware. I think it also dispells a lot of myths and persues the potential of the format. Most of the panelists seemed to go out of their way to point out other worthy sites as well... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 22, 2007 at 12:59 | Comments (1) PermalinkRobert Irwin's Primaries and Secondaries in San Diego Robert Irwin's Primaries and Secondaries retrospective, which opened yesterday at the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art may very well be the best show of 2007. More substance than flash, each of the mature works is a pragmatically transcendent experience and everything is nearly perfectly installed, he did after all have something to do with the development of the spaces he's using. Instead of the problems even a successful retrospective often produces, it seems as if no aesthetic and ideological compromises were made and no museum hype or baggage been put in front of the art. In fact, part of the reason Irwin is so good is because his work is not merely being accommodated by MCASD. Instead, he has developed an ethical, aesthetic, philosophical and spatial rapport with the institution. This connection spans decades and it makes both he and the institution look better. It also underscores how radical Irwin is... institutions don't merely take his work into account, they evolve to establish a more meaningful sonority, which is completely different than focusing on ticket sales. Arcy Douglass will have an in depth review of the show shortly, till then enjoy these images: ...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 22, 2007 at 9:02 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 10.15.07 Van Gogh for PAM 
Allright, by now most everyone should know the Portland Art Museum has received a major gift of a Vincent van Gogh painting, The Ox-Cart (1884) from Roseburg's Fred and Frances Sohn. Frankly, such a generous gift is the only way such a painting by van Gogh could enter the museum's collection and it's worth many millions (in today's market 5-10 is my conservative guess, but that's rational thinking, at auction it maybe could have hit approached 15 or more). The Rijksmuseum has the other version of this work, which features a red ox instead of the black one here. Basically the money doesn't matter, it is the fact that its an important piece for the premier public collection in the state... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 15, 2007 at 17:48 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 10.11.07 Striving to be fresh and radical? Jerry Saltz is the kind of critic who cares about his art scene, he doesn't
just exploit it and his latest piece on the
health of New York's scene is an interesting read. He doesn't just present
the situation as pure doom though, he points out some bright spots and simply seems tired of the lack of radical
ideas.... hardly a problem exclusive to New York. The piece also seems to wish
for many of the things that Portland has (yet the Oregonian's coverage is a
tad over obsessed with our liberating lack of money without pointing out its benefits... there is a middle ground of course). No New York's scene isn't
dead and no Portland isn't the center of the universe but there are lessons
to be learned from both. The secret is simply how to be fresh or even innovative,
then get the credit for it? The words are so simple but the task is daunting.
 Proposed pedestrian and light rail bridge as designed by ZGF Also, what does everyone think of the ZGF design proposal for a new bridge over the Willamette that was in the Oregonian a bit ago? I think it is a decent design but top heavy, slightly unoriginal and a little inelegant, besides the nearby Marquam Bridge is a terrible design and the reason the Fremont Bridge is so good. The Marquam's bad design almost begs for something so good that that it is rendered invisible. Besides is "decent" really good enough for something that bridges OMSI with the South Waterfront and the Aerial Tram?... we have a design reputation to uphold and there needs to be a serious design competition. Why not invite Calatrava, Denton Corker Marshall, shop, and maybe Norman Foster to take a shot at this? Besides we have one of the best bridge collections in the the world, but it needs the highest quality addition. This just doesn't cut it. Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 11, 2007 at 12:11 | Comments (6) PermalinkTuesday 10.09.07 NAAU is the time for Couture Back in June PORT brought you the
scoop by announcing the New American Art Union's series of stipend shows,
where each artist gets $7,000 for producing a show that transforms the gallery
space and $1,000 for materials. Now called Couture,
the plan was an unheard of act of bravura, laying a direct challenge to The
Portland art Museum's Contemporary Northwest Art Awards (which should announce
its 3-5 finalists in November). It also allowed a commercial gallery to behave
more like a non commercial space. The
Oregonian (probably not wanting to be so scooped again) has the list and
promises a full article tomorrow.
The recipients are: Rose McCormick (whose current show at NAAU is a bit of breakthrough, her Wolf in the Henhouse is superb) Ty Ennis Jim Lommasson Jacqueline Ehlis TJ Norris Stephen Slappe Vanessa Renwick Laura Fritz Ethan Jackson The Video Gentlemen: Carl Diehl, Jesse England and Mack McFarland Overall, the list is heavy with perceptual experience artists like Ehlis, Jackson, Fritz, McFarland and Diehl. While Renwick and Slappe tend to create narrative tableaus with their video installation work. McCormick, Ennis and Lommasson are more traditional to their medias which are painting, drawing and photography respectively. Norris, McCormick and Lommasson are represented by NAAU but if this last year's group shows and this list are any indication, the gallery wont look anything like a sales gallery. Now all that matters is how the actual shows deliver. *Update: The Oregonian has published their digestion of the decisions and I'll refrain from discussing too many of their factual distortions but one has to be challenged... Renwick, Lommasson, Fritz and Ehlis are hardly the greenhorns David Row portrays them as. When Row states...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 09, 2007 at 11:56 | Comments (0) PermalinkSaturday 10.06.07 Last Weekend for Wes Mills  Wes Mill's Duchamp (1999) Just a remider to everyone, it's the last weekend for Wes Mills' Apex show at PAM. Here is Arcy's excellent review. A subtle show but one of the most rewarding exhibitions Ive seen since moving here 8.5 years ago...you just shouldn't miss it. It even plays well with the Ursula von Rydingsvard show. Yeah, there is a new Chuck Close print show at PAM too that I'm not very excited about.... he was Mr. early 90's and by that time was pretty much coasting on a reputation he had cemented in the late 70's. Still, if you are there why not see it too? Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 06, 2007 at 9:42 | Comments (6) PermalinkThursday 10.04.07 Around the web, now with more feedback On
The Cusp (from Indianapolis) gives Portland some feedback regardig my
follow-up post regarding the Tribune's big arts special section last week.
Yes, scene-wise I think OTC is right about us being ahead but Midwestern cities
always seem to have better museums and more established non-profits. I'm glad
he picked up on my "focus" argument it is crucial. I hope it catches
on here more.... (more)
Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 04, 2007 at 11:13 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 10.02.07 Las Vegas Diaspora & Dave Hickey's Homecoming Dance  work by Jacqueline Ehlis on view @ Las Vegas Diaspora This past weekend, Las Vegas Diaspora: The Emergence of Contemporary Art from the Neon Homeland opened at the Las Vegas Art Museum. Curated by Dave Hickey. It is pretty much the first show he's curated since the groundbreaking Beau Monde: Towards a Redeemed Cosmopolitanism Site Santa Fe Biennial in 2001 and a follow-up on some of his top students like Yek, Tim Bavington, Rev Ethan Acres, Curtis Fairman and Portland's own Jacqueline Ehlis. All of whom are personal favs and many of whom Ive curated into shows over the years. Ehlis is one of the few girls in a guy heavy group and may be the Agnes Martin ascetic wth a wierd almost Martha Graham physicality of the group. She routinely does work that makes LA's best related attempts look soft (she's up at 5:00 AM in the studio). Bavington and Philip Argent are in MOMA's collection., Acres, Yek and Fairman etc. have been widely shown. Hickey's students are only part of his legacy. Beau Monde's basic premise was that visual pleasure (and the viewer's experience) was still important to art, DUH... but back then POMO theorists had their heads so far up their council-of-trent-like asses, somebody had to remind them. Hickey's ideas though widely debated at the time have been pretty much adopted and run with by in shows like, Paul Schimmel's Ecstacy show at MOCA, Olafur Eliasson at the Tate...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 02, 2007 at 11:56 | Comments (1) PermalinkWednesday 09.26.07 What Portland Needs to do to become a world-class arts city? The Portland Tribune did a "Re Thinking Portland" special section
yesterday on "What
do we need to become a world-class arts city?" Much of it smart and
features a fun and sometimes telling series
of napkin sketches of what Portland needs to achieve that world-class arts city
status. Though I dislike the term world-class.
Also, it isn't news that right now we are institutionally underdeveloped while having a massive influx of serious talent that has continued unabated for at least 10 years. The deluge has even increased and others have noticed. I like it that the author Joseph Gallivan compared Portland to Leipzig. One thing I've noticed is that people now seem to know the money to do serious things exists here but hasn't been fully marshaled yet. I also like how the artists take the burden of educating collectors and donors on as well. A city built by artists (some world-class) rather than a few patrons simply importing culture is a very special thing...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 26, 2007 at 9:10 | Comments (10) PermalinkMonday 09.24.07 Brophy Studio Fire  Slope Sadly last weekend the studio of noted Portland painter Michael Brophy burned. Katu news has the story and blog sans artifice has more details and pictures. Michael is too nice a guy to have such terrible luck and another artist Michael Wilson was also affected by this terrible fire. Brophy was to have had 2 consecutive solo shows in December and January at Laura Russo Gallery and according to Vanessa Renwick at least some of the paintings survived. The new works were often radically different than his previous work and were some of the strongest he done to date. If any are destroyed (which seems likely) it will be a terrible loss. We hope everyone's health and work were spared. Michael and Holly are said to be ok but shaken and staying with relatives. Brophy's studio itself was probably spared the flames but the real question is water damage as the space above was innundated first (oil paintings can survive deluge but there's all the falling debris). One cat survived and two others are presumed dead. Long time friend Paul Green described the scene as "horrible." I'll post more details as they develop, including where people can send their support and well wishes. Our thoughts are with everyone during this difficult time. *Updates: I took at look at the site yesterday and the damage is pretty extensive and certaily a lot of ireplacable things have been lost. It is eerie how it looks like one of Mike's paintings, which have all been transferred elsewhere to assess their condition and for safer storage. Another cat has turned up so only 1 remains missing and Holly's computer, according to Randy Gragg is, "being dried out professionally." If it is just water damage a lot of the hard drive's contents should be recoverable (let's hope). A tax deductable fund through RACC has been set up to defray some of the rebuiding costs as insurance probably won't completely cover the costs. Checks should be made payable to: Regional Arts & Culture Council Memo: for Michael Brophy studio rebuilding fund 108 NW 9th Avenue, Suite 300 Portland, OR 97209-3318 Also, more than one artist's studio was effected by this fire and the WWeek did a piece on Michael Wilson here. Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 24, 2007 at 10:56 | Comments (2) PermalinkThursday 09.20.07 The Guggernaught, GLARE and Barney vs. Hirst  GLARE, a new international cultural publication out of Portland Now that we have recovered from the orgy of art activity in Portland last weekend we can look elsewhere again: For example, Jonathan Jones takes a gander at Matthew Barney and decides he is no Damien Hirst in The Guardian. I agree with that. Barney's objects are definitely props and don't hold up as well as the films.... and the films themselves are a bit like Salvador Dali's late work...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 20, 2007 at 13:23 | Comments (9) PermalinkMonday 09.17.07 Art hullabaloo weekend thoughts & pics White Columns @ Affair at the Jupiter Hotel 2007, Photo by Sarah Henderson Well the big Portland vis art weekend has come and gone. Though it needed a name (Critical Mass, Too Much Art etc.) the scene was combination of The Affair at the Jupiter Art Fair, last weekend of Rembrandt at PAM, Ursula von Rydingsvard at PAM, last weekend of PICA's TBA visual arts, a bunch of openings, last weekend of Hap Tivey and a confluence of lot of other shows that are up all month. I've already reported on the Affair some here. It was a better fair for art this year and instead... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 17, 2007 at 11:26 | Comments (3) PermalinkWednesday 09.12.07 Suggestions for art visitors to Portland this weekend  Obligatory photo of Portland Building Yes, there are lots of out of towners in Portland's galleries this this week and there will probably be many more by Friday. We even have Jetblue service so why not visit on a whim? In keeping with that theme some have asked for a Portland art guide so here it is: I humbly suggest using PORT's artist's guide to Portland as a way to find food, bars, coffee etc. The main art bars on the eastside will be The Doug Fir, Plan B, Rontoms and the Rocket due to their location. On the westside (by most of the galleries) Le Happy is where the in the know go but there is also the Lowbrow Lounge, Bluehour, 23 Hoyt, Portland City Grill and the Brazen Bean etc. Friday: The Affair @ the Jupiter Hotel Art Fair. Friday's opening festivities should be THE thing on your list. Saturday: If you missed the opening for the art fair do that, there is lecture at 2:00 too. What's more there are also a ton of good gallery shows open in the Pearl District and on the eastside. Those are links are pretty good guides. I think Motel's show and Mack Mcfarland's video room at PAC are also well done in Chinatown (PAC needs to execute a show as well as Mcfarland has every month) Small A will have an opening on Saturday night as well, of course there are lots of other more private parties too. For TBA's installation art shows I'd recommend, Sincerely John Head, Melia Donovan and The Lulic/Kreider show at Reed... some of the other stuff seems underdeveloped this year. The performance stuff is kinda out of PORT's focus but check it out if performance is your thing. If you want to do a winetour on Saturday hit Jenene Nagy's show in McMinneville and be sure to hit Panther Creek, probably the best winery north of Napa (burgers at Calamity Jane's is an experience you may need a doctor's note for). Sunday: I'd hit the Portland Art Museum (with Rembrandt in its last week, von Rydingsvard [who is lecturing Sunday too], Camouflage and Rock/Paper/Scissors it's an entitre afternoon you can't possibly regret and still like art. Other great Sunday options are Lewis and Clark College's really great Darren Waterston Show (a stunning campus on Palatine Hill if you want to see how grand/natural Portland can be), The Model Behavior show I curated for Organism and Reed's Lulic/Kreider show. Also, the Chinese garden is open for free this day too, that means a huge crowd though. Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 12, 2007 at 16:36 | Comments (1) PermalinkThursday 09.06.07 Director's chair We have been expecting Tyler
Green's interview with PAM's new director Brian Ferriso for a week now and it
doesn't disappoint. Nice to see press from outside of Portland give their
take on a guy we like very much and I think some of the candor Brian reveals
is a just a part of the very open, accessible civic/ethical dialog in the Rose
City. PAM's new drector has got a lot of work to do but he's making great headway. (disclosure I am VP of PAM's Contemporary Art Council)
There have been a ton of Ferriso interviews here in the last 8 months and PORT will probably do a formal sit-down with him and maybe some senior staff in the future but we really want things to be settled in more before we ask those nitty gritty and probably unique to Portland questions. I can say I know literally hundreds of people who have worked with him in Milwaukee and Portland and it is almost unanimously enthusiastic about his thoughtful dedication to the important role of museums. In short Portland has almost Roman civics and Ferriso seems to fit right in here. Museums should lead and challenge not pander to some statistical lowest common denominator audience. That strategy ultimately cheats everyone, while looking great on paper. Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 06, 2007 at 9:55 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 09.04.07 We left our museum director in San Francisco It looks like San
Francisco is questioning John Buchanan in the same way we Portlander's were
for years before
he left. The problem is that museum directors shouldn't be preempting their
curators, they are two very different jobs and from our experience in Portland
most would say that John was very hand's on. To quote the late Gordon Gilkey
a curator who predated but passed away before Buchanan's term finished at PAM,
"he's a damn micromanager." I like the idea of Gordon having the last
word.
Tyler Green has been all over this and I remember our first phone conversation about John distinctly... let's just say everything I mentioned about JB's style has come to pass. It is no secret that the serious contemporary art community in Portland really had a bone to pick with him. Still to John's credit he did create the current Rembrandt show (which isn't fluff at all), the transformative Greenberg Collection aquisition, and allowed the Miller-Meigs series of contemporaty shows at PAM to happen. Maybe John can turn it around? Still, it is a fact... by the time he had left for San Francisco Portland had outgrown him. Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 04, 2007 at 9:52 | Comments (1) PermalinkThursday 08.30.07 Up at the PAMtation: Portland Art Museum continues to redirect itself  The Portland Art Museum has leaked a smidgen of their major programming for the coming years but the best stuff isn't on the list. There are lots of gaps and omissions, including a major contemporary retrospective (it is too early to be discussed yet, curated by Bruce Guenther)... so calling this lineup a more "regional" focus as the O does misses the mark. Especially considering recent acquisitions they failed to note and the lineup for the ongoing Miller-Meigs series which are not listed (other question is why does the O seem to want PAM to become so regional or isolationist?). Don't worry that isn't happening, the museum is easilly becoming more internationally relevant, while still being more serious about addressing the regional. *Update here's a quote from Ferriso: "Our goal in developing this series has been to harness the intellectual and physical assets of the Museum and community to stimulate interest and dialogue around key global issues: past, present, and future. ....This series includes large-scale international exhibitions, some conceived at other institutions, but the majority developed through the scholarship of our own curators." From outside Portland Tyler Green is loving this anti-bombastic, non-Krensian turn at the museum and let's hope this Portland trend will sweep the nation. The list below came out from...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 30, 2007 at 18:42 | Comments (5) PermalinkTuesday 08.28.07 Contradictions The Guardian
talks to Rem Koolhaas who is suddenly getting all nostalgic for older housing
options... interesting, it sounds very Portlandish. We like our neighborhoods
but are also starting to add some interesting architecture like the Aerial
Tram. Still it is the interesting residential projects like the Lair
Condominiums that are also proving to be very compelling here. We aren't
reinventing Brasilia,
LA or Manhattan in Portland. New projects by Skylab
could further demonstrate how Portland can have the best of both worlds, vibrant
non-homogenized neighborhoods and interesting design. Um... and how about Calatrava
doing the new
pedestrian, bicycle and light rail bridge across the Willamette river?
Koolhaas provides somewhat of an example for Portland, which has to own it's contradictions without resolving them in a tidy way. On Artnet Ben Davis dives headlong into the question of whether the art market(s) need a new form or forms of critique. I agree the Marxist critique does seem terribly inadequate. Art markets are places where contradictions find consummations. I suspect the high prices of key AbEx artists wont fall much even if there is a correction... they are too historically important, rare and central to understanding America to be effected much. Living artists selling for millions will have a different story. Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 28, 2007 at 11:26 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 08.23.07 Some things to check out Eva Lake did an interview with Barbara
Takenaga, listen to it.
Brittany Powell went art camping last weekend. Portland isn't like New York or LA, when we reference the woods and camping it's more legitimate we are litterally 30 minutes from jaw-dropping wilderness landscapes. Brian Libby asks SoWhat? when he visits the new John Ross tower. Libby continues to win cool-points for conflating JR Ewing with architecture (we gotta be about the same age, some 22 year old is not gonna get why Larry Hackman matters. Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 23, 2007 at 11:24 | Comments (1) PermalinkMonday 08.20.07 Art, Architecture and California  Jason Rhoades' Twelve-Wheel Waggon Wheel Chandelier (2004) After several days in LA and San Francisco I'm blogging from beautiful Ashland Oregon on my way back to Portland, where I will be installing this show in the Pearl District. It was a trip evenly split between art and architecture, including Neutra (ugh did Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher put that monstrosity up next to the Lovell Health House?). I also saw great examples by Koolhaas, Mayne, Gehry, Frank Lloyd Wright, Herzog & de Meuron etc. The must see shows are... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 20, 2007 at 8:33 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 08.15.07 Art market thoughts and unsolicited design advice Todd Gibson, who is sitting in for Tyler Green has chimed in on
the inevitable art market correction. I agree Doig as a living artist is
not worth 11 million and may not even be worth that much 30 years from now but
it's quite possible the 72 million dollar Rothko won't lose that much value. It may have been the ridiculously high prices that made that painting available
on the market in the first place. Sadly 72M is clearly out of range for the
Portland Art Museum, yet as the first place to give Rothko a solo show (and
the city where he grew up) it's a shame.. maybe someone will want a 60 million
dollar tax write-off?
How a correction might effect younger artsts who sell for reasonable amounts between 5-$50,000 remains yet to be seen. There isn't one art market now, there are several and I suspect the new popularity of art has created a legion of new collectors who will continue to collect even if they have less $$$ to collect. That would translate to a weeding out of galleries in New York and a shrinking of art fairs at Art Basel Miami Beach... but I don't think it will collapse the sane parts of the market. In fact it might support it. Portland's art economy isn't driven by hedge funds either, it is real estate, the fact that we don't have sales tax and old fashioned interested in art for rts sake collectors. If collectors get scared of manipulated markets Portland will look more attractive as a more genuine art ecosystem too. Sure a large scale correction hurts most everybody but it wont be fatal for Portland. Christies and Sotheby's might have some rough seas ahead though. Also, Portland Architecture's Brian Libby is soliciting some unsolicited design advice for Portland's developers. How about David Chipperfield for Multnomah County's new $150 million dollar project just north of the Ross Island Bridge hmmm? Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 15, 2007 at 10:29 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 08.13.07 Further developments? & the role of culture in real estate Seattle's very corporate style real estate development has acted like a mirror for Portland's rising skyline and rents for years (with some very important differences). Now Faith Ramos, Andy Royer and Arash Shiva have produced a telling look at Seattles South Lake Union with a documentary about development and gentrification in what was once Seattle's arts cradle. It should be of interest to any art scene in any rapidly developing city as a warning. It already seems too late for Seattle (i hope not but its why I moved here 8.5 years ago). After watching Heart & Sold, I noted how different most high profile developers in Portland are... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 13, 2007 at 9:50 | Comments (3) PermalinkWednesday 08.08.07 Developers & Art: what about an Amenity Bonus Program? 
Add Brian Wannamaker to the list of Portland developers who add to the art community here, and now the Tribune has covered his new Falcon Art Community project. The list of conscientious players here is long and very important; Al Solheim, Jim Winkler, Ken Unkeles, Brad Malsin, Randy Rapaport, David Gold and a while back Homer Williams was involved in the Pearl Arts Foundation, which brought us the Kenny Scharf Tiki totems and William Wegman dog bowl. These developers are partially why Portland is so unlike San Diego and Phoenix. Still, I believe it is essential that the city find a way to further incentivise development of live/work and exhibition spaces. Ive mentioned this many times before but in Vancouver BC the CAG (Contemporary Art Gallery) found a new home beneath a new condo tower because the developer received allowances for incorporating that crucial nonprofit as the anchor tenant (using VBC's Amenity Bonus Program). It's the difference between a Starbucks and serious exhibition spaces... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 08, 2007 at 9:30 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 08.07.07 Taking stock  Untitled (1972) by Peter Young In case you missed it in the NYT's Roberta Smith took on the long overlooked Peter Young who has a show at PS.1. It seems fitting that with all the focus on psychedelia after Dave Hickey's Site Santa Fe show & the 2002 Whitney Biennial that some artists from the 60's and 70's might get a revival. Yayoi Kusama has already gone through the roof as have Jessica Steincamp, Chris Johanson, Karin Davie, Tim Bavington and Katarina Grosse. There is a younger group of artists like Takeshi Murata and Portlander Shawna Ferreira too. The Portland Art Museum even has an excellent Peter Young on display (fittingly in the big Greenberg room). The painting was given by the exceedingly sharp-eyed Ed Cauduro... the quality of his Warhols, Basquiats, Schnabels, Christopher Wools etc. establish him as the sharpest eyed collector in the Pacific Northwest. He even collected John Chamberlain's first crushed car sculpture, "Short Stop." Also, the projects shortlisted for the Stirling Prize in Architecture (for British architects doing great projects abroad) have been announced... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 07, 2007 at 11:00 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 08.03.07 Camouflage opens at PAM on August 4th with debut of a new Hirst  Christopher Wool, I Smell a Rat, 1989-94. Alkyd and acrylic on aluminum. 72 x 48 inches. The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica. I'm very excited about Camouflage at the Portland Art Museum, which opens this weekend...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 03, 2007 at 12:50 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 08.01.07 Participating galleries for Affair @ the Jupiter Hotel Art Fair 2007 Portland's September 14-16th art fair has announced its participating galleries.
Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 01, 2007 at 13:05 | Comments (0) PermalinkBe sarcastic, or not? If you are in the mood for art world satire, this
bit skewers international biennial culture without mercy.
The PDXpipeline site outlines the tried and true formula for writing travel articles on Portland. But it should include some cursory mention of art (it is omnipresent here afterall, and the articles always seem to fit it into their formula). For something less sarcastic... the Guardian interviews Oscar Niermeyer. Though with all the gushing over Castro and the fawning over Brasilia's exceptional architecture (while avoiding its exceptionally iffy civic design) maybe some serious sarcasm is warranted. It's the sort of power meets buildings problem that often gets architects into trouble with historians and the people who have to live in their creations. Regina Hackett is discussing animals in Northwest art. Nothing sarcstic there, animals have been a big deal in the art world since the 90's. Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 01, 2007 at 9:53 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 07.30.07 Mark Rothko gets the Schama treatment tonight at 10:00PM Pacific on OPB  Simon Schama's Power of Art series winds up today on OPB with Portland's most famous art world personage, Mark Rothko. Rothko attended Lincoln highschool (as did Matt Groening, Mel Blanc and Elliott Smith... a pretty sarcastic bunch) and had his first solo show at the Portland Art Museum in 1933. Schama's other programs have been a mixed bag; Van Gogh was a sad dry run for a made for TV movie and Picasso was a boring basic art historical regurgitation but his episode on Bernini was brilliant. His episodes on Rembrandt, Turner and David all offered great scenery and compelling stories that I found inspiring despite the requisite dramatizations. Rothko is a fitting end to the series and I have no idea whether the program will acknowledge that Rothko grew up in Portland. The effect of Portland's dramatic skies on his sense of color and use of grey are pretty undeniable, yet sadly the biggest gap in PAM's collection is indeed a major Rothko (he is depicted in a Milton Avery in the collection though). We do get see some major loaner Rothkos here from time to time though (like his Homage to Matisse last year). The city was beginning as a sad kind of cultural coma when Rothko left so nobody today questions his decision to leave. Back then you hd to go to New York, these days New Yorkers tend to want to move here. It's very different today and it always strikes me how much Rothko's writings remind me of certain Reed alumni I run into at Portland coffee houses. HDTV people can see it at 7:00 PM everone else has to wait until 10:00 PM. I know a lot of Portlanders who dont even bother to own TVs so maybe we can all meet at a Pearl District sports bar and do the unthinkable, subject the monday night crowd to cultural programming! Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 30, 2007 at 9:00 | Comments (7) PermalinkFriday 07.27.07 Contemporary Northwest Art Awards list shortened Well the list of 28 artists for the 2008 Contemporary Northwest Art Awards
is out and 3 to 5 of them will make up the exhibition next June. One will be
awarded the $10,000 Arlene Schnitzer Prize...(more)
Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 27, 2007 at 10:01 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 07.25.07 Perspectives on Desoto project and history lesson  Museum of Contemporary Craft exhibition space photo by Sarah Henderson Ok now that the big opening weekend has ended let's give the Desoto project some more sober analysis beyond the not underserved fawning weve already experienced...(much more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 25, 2007 at 13:35 | Comments (6) PermalinkThursday 07.19.07 Cook'n with PAM (and a look at the latest acquisitions) 
One of PAM's latest acquisitions: Judy Chicago's Pasadena Lifesaver, Blue Series #4(1969-70) Acrylic lacquer on acrylic It is pretty clear now that the Portland Art Museum is a very different institution than it was in 2005. PAM has taken a decidedly more intellectually engaged turn since Brian Ferriso took over. Here are some scoops and other info nuggets regarding PAM's new Director, CNAA, programming and latest acquisitions.... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 19, 2007 at 14:50 | Comments (2) PermalinkTuesday 07.17.07 Interesting combinations & feedback The Guardian reports that Saatchi has teamed up with an auction house to provide free admissions.
Steven Holl's new Nelson-Atkins Museum expansion has people raving, be it from Paul Goldberger to Tyler Green. I keep thinking somehow that the failure of the Bellvue Art Museum in Seattle cost Steven Holl the MoMA gig and we all lost out with a rather conservative museum. Hell, even the new Seattle Art Museum (which is basically a lil MoMA) seemed to be created in the shadow of BAM's sad sad failure. The very best living museum architects are (in no particular order): Herzog & de Meuron, Tadao Ando and Renzo Piano because they all seem to be able to create iconic architecture that is also ideal for viewing art (Koolhaas, Libeskind and Gehry are way more idiomatic). Is Holl about to crack into the top tier by being both fresh and subtle? PORT pals Ultra PDX do what we don't do here, focus on PORT staff outside of art making or relevant art opinions. Their latest Ultra Q focuses on PORT business manager Jenene Nagy. In the past they've asked some blond PORT people a few questions as well. Also, I Dont Know (an excellent site I just became aware of) found what I had to say about Bryan Shellinger useful for discussing Tomma Abts. I definitely had her in mind as well but I had to draw the line somewhere in that orgy of abstract painter namedropping. Always exciting when there is a little intellectual feedback, thanks... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 17, 2007 at 17:10 | Comments (2) PermalinkMonday 07.09.07 Milepost 5 I toured the Milepost 5 facilities few months ago and this could be great, yes there are rental units as well.
By providing both affordable condos and afforable live/work space this could be a model development. What is nice is they have opted to not over define what all of the common spaces will be used for. Of course the real trick will be how they determine who gets in. Bad gatekeeping (aka petty and tasteless cronyism) would be disasterous and good gatekeeping (smart people with open minds, good taste and not much pointless drama) could make this a model development. ...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 09, 2007 at 15:37 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 07.06.07 Transformation Ok we are nearing the end of the conceptual phase of PORT's redesign and moving into the actual site redevelopment. The funny thing is it won't look that different when it is done but the refinements and flexibility it will offer us will be quantum.
You should see it by the end of summer and yes we will have bash as an unveiling
+ a somewhat belated celebration of our 2 year anniversary.
Till then check out these interesting bits: This VIP garden in Slovenia is frankly awesome, something about plants and architecture really works. A restaurant or lounge like this would go over really well in Portland. Ok so the Hanging Gardens of Babylon provide a pretty good template for this type symbiotecture. This New Yorker review of the must miss but must discuss Transformers movie is most certainly a better use of your time than the actual movie. I want Wes Anderson to do a Gobots movie with David Bowie as Leader1 and Lyle Lovett as Cy-kill. Um, yes... a musical, does it deserve any less? Lastly Jerry Saltz did a good thing by avoiding the opening hooplah of the Venice Biennale and his take points out a new direction for him, having the last word rather than the first. Also, Saltz's recent take on Biennial culture is almost as funny as the whole transforming robot obsession. Jerry how about a your first broadway musical?.. call it "Biennial." Kelsey Grammar, William Shattner, Courney Love and maybe Nicholas Cage would all be good people to play curators. Allright, I've abused the whole lets turn it into a musical meme enough now. Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 06, 2007 at 10:38 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 06.27.07 WSJ way off base on Robert Storr Tyler Green is 100% right
about this. When the Wall
Street Journal questions Robert Storr's curatorial understanding as possibly anti-Semitic it comes
off as one of the most flippant, unsupported swipes I've ever seen in a major newspaper.
Look, PORT doesn't have an editor but there is no way I'd let that serious a charge pass without some hefty case building. We have a saying on the internet:
PPOR!
Plus Storr is one of the most open-minded, impossible to fathom as anti-anybody people I've ever met. Storr is a class act. Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 27, 2007 at 15:37 | Comments (5) PermalinkTuesday 06.26.07 Press A reminder to artists, galleries, and event organizers: If you want your opening, event, lecture, etc. to be posted at PORT, it needs to make it to my inbox! driscollm at gmail dot com.
Posted by Megan Driscoll on June 26, 2007 at 8:27 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 06.25.07 Great to be back Thanks for bearing with our server outages Saturday night and Sunday. BIG thanks to Philippe, Jenn and Katherine.
Here are some recent things in local publications: ... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 25, 2007 at 10:51 | Comments (13) PermalinkWednesday 06.20.07 Dates for the Affair at the Jupiter Hotel Art Fair 2007 
Simply put The Affair at the Jupiter Hotel is just one of the nicest feeling art fairs I've been to. It's also becoming more of an attractive destination each year for those outside the region. According to the Portland Art Focus web page the event is supposed to take place September 14-16th, which is during the tail end of PICA's TBA festival. That is a few weeks earlier than last year and resolves a few conflict with other events internationally while doubling up on TBA's draw. We will let you know about the gallery lineup as soon as it is available. Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 20, 2007 at 17:38 | Comments (2) PermalinkTuesday 06.19.07 An artist's guide to Portland  With a relentlessness seen in very few places, Portland's citizenry love to discuss and attempt to define Portland. It is an impossible pastime. Still, as part of our two year anniversary PORT asked 7 artists to take a shot at picking what is good and or "definitely Portland" about Portland... Also, it is a good time to visit Portland with Rembrandt and a lot of other good shows too. ...(much more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 19, 2007 at 11:09 | Comments (3) PermalinkMonday 06.18.07 Venice Biennale 2007: Aftermath Reactions to the 52nd Venice Biennal in the wake of the initial frenzy.
(more) Posted by Megan Driscoll on June 18, 2007 at 9:07 | Comments (2) PermalinkThursday 06.14.07 Around the Web: Venice Biennal 2007 Edition 
Penone, 52nd Venice Biennale "Think With the Senses - Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense." The 52nd Venice Biennale commenced last week, and everybody's talking about it. (more) Posted by Megan Driscoll on June 14, 2007 at 11:16 | Comments (3) PermalinkWednesday 06.13.07 Sammy say's get organized  Sam Adam's wears a polka-dotted tie and addresses the creative community Ok last night's well attended town hall was about what I expected, taking several hours to state what can be summed up in 5 minutes: 1) The arts are a huge...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 13, 2007 at 17:41 | Comments (3) PermalinkMonday 06.11.07 Keep your pants on I'm going to save my "routine physical" article on the Portland art
and design ecosystem till after Commissioner
Sam's shindig tomorrow night. Till then check in on Winkleman's
Venice compendium. I know a lot of Portlanders that are doing the big European
art junket this year.
Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 11, 2007 at 23:45 | Comments (0) PermalinkGravitating towards Serra  Serra's permanent installation "The Matter of Time" at Guggenheim Bilbao Peter Scheldjahl has chimed in on Richard Serra's survey at MoMA in The New Yorker here (love their new very linkable site). Jerry Saltz, Scheldjahl's gutsier, less poetic antipode says much the same but focuses better on the intimate (for Serra) work here. Like Saltz, I'm especially fond of Delineator, nothing by Serra before or since does as much with elemental gravity, if I were creating a dream collecton it would be a must have. I've had a lot of really interesting conversations about Serra recently and...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 11, 2007 at 10:18 | Comments (1) PermalinkThursday 06.07.07 Arts = Prosperity? RACC just released its latest Arts
and Economic Prosperity report yesterday here. This is the third in the
series, the second one took place in 2001.
Some interesting bits: Arts organizations are seen as key for tourism and therefore aren't so "dependent" on the larger economic climate, instead they take an active driving role in the overall economic health of the city. I realize this is preaching to the choir but studies like this might get the Portland business community more behind arts funding. Things like TBA, The Affair at the Jupiter Hotel, the Portland Art Museum and all of the exhibitions that regularly take place here do have an effect, The latest report puts the total economic contributions of arts activity at 318.26 million dollars, that is up from 262 million in 2001. That said, support for the arts is hardly keeping up with the massive increases in activity in Portland and in general the artists are completely under supported... there isn't even a decent suitcase fund for artists who wish to show elsewhere. Portland is doing well as a cultural incubator in spite of bass-akwards arts funding approaches... which plays into Comissioner Sam's talk tuesday... Im apparently jamming some guitar with Adams Saturday night for the the Bus Project "Wheelies" VIP event so this is all interesting. I'll have a very comprehensive article on the Portland art and architectural climate/ecosystem on Monday, probably the most important piece of writing I've ever done. Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 07, 2007 at 16:28 | Comments (10) PermalinkMonday 06.04.07 Sam the creative politician man?  Commissioner Sam Adams (is he running for Mayor?) The creative community in Portland is supposed to be a front burner political issue so Commissioner Sam Adam's wants your input on, "how to reach Portland's full creative capacity?" Hopefully this wont be your basic, "let's listen very closely and do nothing," approach that politicians have perfected over the years. I'll be there and yes I suspect whoever comes up with the most intelligent creative sector plan will be the next Mayor. Arts & Culture Townhall. RSVP to Polly Birge. Tuesday, June 12, 2007 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. (Doors open at 5:30) Portland Center Stage, 128 NW Eleventh Ave at Davis St. Hosted by: Sam Adams, Portland’s Commissioner of Arts and Culture; Portland Development Commission; Regional Arts and Cultural Council; and Northwest Business for Culture & the Arts Beverages and light snacks will be served. Wine, beer and alcohol available. What is Creative Capacity? Checkout Sam's website This townhall is free and open to the public but space is limited so please RSVP by Friday, June 8, 2007 RSVP to Polly Birge. If you've already RSVP'd, no need to do so again. Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 04, 2007 at 1:11 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 06.01.07 PORT turns 2 Today is PORT's second anniversary. It's still a labor of love but being the top
ranked google site for "Portland Art" plus a large readership that doubles
every 3 to 5 months is definitely rewarding. Our goal has been to provide an intelligent,
internationally relevant and critical
voice for the Portland Art Scene. Since the visual arts are one of the key
forces transforming Portland, PORT's role makes it no ordinary blog. It's exciting
how many international readers find the site worthwhile too and being influential
at home doesn't hurt either. (Stay tuned, I'll have Rembrandt post later on today)
Actually, we don't get enough chances to thank you PORT readers and sponsors. Take a bow... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 01, 2007 at 0:26 | Comments (3) PermalinkWednesday 05.23.07 Withering Criticism Ahhh, David Row over at the O blogs has yet
another insecurity filled diatribe on criticism and bloggers... which is
generally spot on in theory, though needlessly reactionary towards democratic
expression. Look, people with little worth as critics don't attract audiences
and have little opinion shaping authority. Yes, newspapers are full of near
useless critics, they also have some good ones (the O's Shawn Levy is good and
Randy Gragg recently left).... elsewhere The LA Times Christopher Knight is
superb as are Roberta Smith and Regina Hackett at the Seattle PI (who should
be lured to Portland... it will take more than breadcrumbs).
Sure, everyone is capable of being critical but a critic is someone who develops a critical practice with an awareness and responsiblity to the relevance of the words (even when the critic is just wrong, real critics risk it). I'm trained as a critic/historian and I remember the 600 level writing course in grad school as a kind of relentless hypercritical boot camp, but the truth was I was always thinking, "what does this mean?" Having been raised Lutheran didn't hurt either, but I ultimately liked the critical part more than the religious elements. It is true, good critics are really hard to find and when PORT hires someone I usually end up with these strange moments where I try to look at the gestalt of the potential critic and I think, "do they have it in them to do this month in month out?" The secret is they always have to care about the subject deeply, then back it up with knowledge... not just a reaction. There is a place for tour guide wordsmiths but they arent as influential as the critics with teeth. A critic who isn't into their subject isn't an effective critic. I'm amadant that PORT's critics have strong art backgrounds but that is just the starting criteria.  Gursky at Matthew Marks this month For example of the real deal, read Jerry Saltz's latest here. I think he's wrong about Gursky's post 9/11 importance, but I can see how this show looks out of touch. Is Gursky just whistling past the graveyard? Well maybe, but it reflects the way power and amnesia inducing commerce do act these days. Did 9/11 change consumer's appetite for Soma? No. For example there are the Global Warming Ready Diesel ads, a kind of reverse psychology ad campaign aimed at youth's ability to ignore the obvious while not being ignorant. One that Ive seen in Rolling Stone etc. sports a young, good looking couple cavorting atop a skyscraper. Below them it appears the ocean has covered the cityscape in a kind of Neroesque catastrophe (have the polar ice caps melted?) One can clearly make out that the rich have survived the deluge in party yachts sailing the ruined civilization. Is Gursky out of touch? not so much as he is in touch with the out of touch. Saltz is right that it might be getting old and watered down, but when does a lie that tells the truth really get old? As a true critic Saltz gets it wrong for the right reasons. As a fan I would like Gurksy to kick it up a notch because he's gotten a little too close to the Diesel ads so Jerry's kinda right. Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 23, 2007 at 13:23 | Comments (11) PermalinkTuesday 05.22.07 PNCA Benefactor To Lead a Major Cultural Breakthrough for Portland PNCA just received a major gift that will provide the final push in transforming it from a small, struggling school to a major force in the art world. Hallie E. Ford and the Ford Foundation will donate $15 million, twice the school's annual budget and the largest single donation to an Oregon arts institution ever. $10 million will go to building a new artist residency program, which will not only allow PNCA students to work closely with internationally renowned visual artists, it will also bring a network of innovators into Portland. The Portland art scene stands to benefit immensely both from the establishment of PNCA as an important arts institution within and beyond the region, and from the influx of artists and ideas that the residency program will contribute to the community. Read more about the donation, as well as all the recent improvements at PNCA, on OregonLive.
Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 22, 2007 at 12:13 | Comments (2) PermalinkMonday 05.21.07 Oregon Biennial, not so dead? The Oregonian has a bit on the
newest iteration of the Oregon Biennial today, it has resurfaced at the Portland
Art Center. Good move, It is a turning point for PAC because they are known
more for good intentions than authoritative programming and this forces that
issue (Gavin's honest about it and understands this as a growth opportunity).
I'm endorsing it and suggested this obvious move (with some cautionary caveats).
Yes, I've been in on this, which is why I haven't said anything till now (sometimes
scoops matter less than letting things catalyze and develop)...(more)
Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 21, 2007 at 10:25 | Comments (17) PermalinkFriday 05.18.07 Rosalind Krauss and Miranda July separated at birth?  
In my somewhat differently kiltered mind Rosalind Krauss and Miranda July are twins separated at birth... as both explore different aspects of alienation with piquant clarity. Ok so Krauss is a touch more academic… Krauss is one of the most important Modern and Postmodern critics having written, "The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths." It will be interesting to see how she's reacting to these relatively anti-theory driven (but career oriented) art times. Catch her at the Portland Art Museum Sunday May 20th at 2:00 PM. $5 members, $10 for everyone else. July is Western Civilization's 21st century postergal for the early aughts (look it just can't be Paris Hilton). Of course she's a former Portlander and yes she is speaking tonight for PICA at the First Congregational Church from 7-8PM on her new book "No One Belongs Here More Than You." Amazingly tickets are still available at the door. $10 for members, $13 for everyone else (so get em early today) Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 18, 2007 at 12:04 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 05.16.07 Complicated Complications Mark Rothko Mark Rothko (who grew up and trained as an artist here in Portland) just shattered the auction record for contemporary work... he would have hated this. Some day Portland will have a major Rothko of its own on display, dammit! Oh well, if his works keep setting records I half expect Rothko's ghost to show up and get all "Raiders of the Lost Ark ending" on the auction houses. At the same time it's probably worth the price paid. Back onto the art, I really enjoyed Peter Schjeldahl's take on Chris Burden. I like how he highlights how Burden was taking pains to be taken seriously as an artist. Most artists who admire Burden don't do the same thing, they just reference his work and do something much easier to do. The difference between Burden and Burden-lite is a sense of earning the attention by truly polarizing people rather than just trying to use the conceptual as a form of insinuation or secret handshake of initiation. Just hanging out or referencing Burden isn't in the same league. Burden put the viewer on the spot so well you don't have to have seen it to feel uncomfortable. Successful art is often complicated, great art simly is complicating... a radical agitator like Burden is a great example. Also, Schjeldahl's take on Hopper pinpoints why he's such a useful writer (at least on completely established, major artists), he's an accessible but challenging wordsmith. Schjeldahl complicates very strong work with equally deserving words. The only wordsmith better is Hickey, whose just scary even when he's not convincing (which has it's own curse). Tyler Green is probably right, the Hirshhorn is perfect for Wolfgang Tillmans. But is it a crutch? Is the installation the selling point or just packaging for the blockbuster? Now I dont think Tillmans is fluff he's real good. His more abstract stuff is consistently dazzling as are some of the portraits and still lives, but is the entertainer/installer upstaging the photographer from time to time? Does that matter?...maybe not, since the installations are often so good. Here's what I wrote on the show last year at the MCA. Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 16, 2007 at 14:13 | Comments (6) PermalinkThursday 05.10.07 Bore me with the details? It's been ridiculous for several years but the auction house madness continues.
Here is some auction house reading that tends to bore me in interesting ways:
Artnet has a nice report on Sotheby's 278.5 million dollar art-o-rama... completely boring except for the fact that Lyonel Feininger is getting some respect (he's my Mom's 3rd favorite artist, but she only likes the cityscapes, her fave is Pierre Soulages... which impresses me for it's flat out obscurity). Then there were the Christies sales, which Artnet saw as a sobering of the market. Also on Artnet is Charlie Finch (who usually annoys me), he does some number crunching on the hedge funders. Sure, doom is coming but probably in the Fall at the earliest... (it might be years from now though, egad) Today in the NYT's Carol Vogel, whom I also find really tiresome, took in some European bargain hunting. Maybe it's only a matter of time before some artist creates their own sarcastic auction house where sculptures of Tobias Meyer etc. will be sold at inflated bargain prices to Europeans taking advantage of the weak US dollar? Years ago Edward Winkleman took on the doit de suite issue, would it help artists and their heirs by cutting them in on the action? A lot of the cooler major collectors I've met hate auctions and I can see why... and yes lot of the stuff offered just isn't that good (yet goes for a premium). Auctions aren't about patronage and it distracts from the pursuit of new work and ideas. The money part bores me and isn't any more surprising than other silly crowd-feuled behavior like the Macarana. Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 10, 2007 at 10:37 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 05.08.07 Around the Web Sun Blindness? On Friday, the LA Times covered one Southern Californian's trek through Portland...
A Vision of Voyeurism: The New York Times recently covered the photography of Ryan McGinley... Paris Meets the 21st Century: An American ex-pat once told me that Paris is a dead city... Keeping His Cool: The Boston Globe this week detailed the rise of Zach Feuer... (more) Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 08, 2007 at 17:37 | Comments (0) PermalinkSunday 05.06.07 PNCA Launches MFA Program Ok most insiders have known about this forever but the Pacific
Northwest College of Art has now officially launched its MFA program, giving
Portland a much needed second MFA. Previously only PSU produced MFA's but PNCA's
program is unique in the region because it is mentor based, which a little similar
to what Goldsmiths
college's does. The 15 MFA candidates have already been selected and will
start in the Fall. Notably, 75% of the candidates aren't from Portland (which
is just about in keeping with the general population of Portland's art scene
these days). The competition should also highlight the need for PSU to get more
serious about its program (which has improved tremendously with little support).
Here's what PNCA says via MK Guth, the new MFA program's chair: ... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 06, 2007 at 18:36 | Comments (3) PermalinkFriday 05.04.07 Weekly Reader I'll have the First Friday post up for you a little later, till then here are some art good reads:
Robert Storr discusses the upcoming Venice Biennale. Storr's take on mixing the politics of the conceptual and perceptual are right on and I hope his show is extra influential. Paul Goldberger discusses a new Steven Holl Museum addition. Roberta Smith takes on Frank Stella's continuing slide into glorified mall art. I'm a fan of the pre 90's stuff, somebody stop him... he's become the art world analog of late Vegas era Elvis. Having the Met join in doesn't help. Also, Brian Libby has 2 cool bits. #1 is a post on AIA's new HQ's in the Pearl and #2 is on a dormant building with a cool facade that Brian, myself and Philip Iosca (among others) just love. Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 04, 2007 at 10:45 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 05.01.07 New Seattle Art Museum opens, designed by Portland architect  Most of you know the Seattle Art Museum is opening its new wing this week, designed by Portland's own Allied Works Architects. It opens to the public next Saturday and to members today. The building itself is pretty conservative and won't dethrone Rem Koolhaas' library as the most awesome structure in Seattle but in some ways that's good, Ive grown weary of stunt architecture for museums. Seattle is a city that collects architects and it is nice that this building is designed to deflect attention to what kind of art Seattle collects. I toured the new facilities a few weeks ago with SAM's new contemporary curator...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 01, 2007 at 22:07 | Comments (3) PermalinkThursday 04.26.07 Just what Miami needed Tyler has the scoop on the Aqua Art Miami art fair this year. It's the fair where one has traditionally found the most Portland and Seattle galleries and in general I always liked the feel, which was originally patterned on Portland's Affair at the Jupiter Hotel fair.
Now it looks Aqua is upgrading and I sense an art fair arms race, or is it a space race? It is true we here in the Northwest have a thing about space. Nice Dirk, you found a way to make Miami more competitive... sheesh Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 26, 2007 at 20:38 | Comments (2) PermalinkTuesday 04.24.07 Some things to chew on A review of
Ellsworth Kelly works in the Guardian. So abstraction isn't a big enough
crowd pleaser at the Tate Modern? egad.
Roberta Smith spins a wonderful web of words on Sol LeWitt. Brian Libby recaps the Street of Eames in Portland (aka design obsessed city rapidly trying to end years of bleh design... related: see new tram review). Normally I'm annoyed with focusing on the party and not the art... and I hate Pabst (because I'm from Milwaukee Wisconsin and Pabst is the beer that made Milwaukee famous... and it's no longer made in Milwaukee etc) but I just plain feel like linking to ths PDXFF blog. Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 24, 2007 at 22:45 | Comments (2) PermalinkFriday 04.20.07 Around the web Jerry Saltz's latest
article for NY Magazine proves why he's the most important art critic on
the planet. That alone should be enough for you to check it out, but if you
need more; he deals with the pacification of ideas and intent in the art world
right now. Now don't get me wrong, all of the art of today isn't just some liberal
guilt pressure valve for trustfunders but a lot of it is. Why?...because it lacks a
radical impulse. Instead, a lot of today's art is based on ingratiating itself. When other critics simply ignore this problem Jerry gets at the issue, calling PS1's bluff.
Yes, I know I've been giving him a hard time lately but DK Row has picked up one of my old saws... why isn't PSU more serious about its art department? Right now, it's the only MFA program in the city and doesn't have a full time curator despite having several nice gallery spaces. PNCA will have a MFA starting this fall and there are (unconfirmed) rumblings that Reed is looking to start one as well. This puts pressure on PSU to become serious. Also, not to nag but the Oregonian should do more of this, PORT can't do everything and we really try to limit ourselves to art criticism instead of investigative art journalism. The Willamette Week reviews a show at city hall. Note how mixing with artists has become a political move in Portland? Still, I've yet to see a single politician present anything convincing in regards to the city truly bettering the arts? Why not be like Vancouver BC which allowed the CAG to move to a new space by providing incentives to condo developers? The Mercury reviewed Motel's latest show too. Yes, someone on the forums at Artdish has noticed that there is a ton of photography in Portland with Photolucida this month. It's a nice overview that we dont do here. (PORT's focus is more on in depth reviews for individual shows). Also, Ive added yet another update to the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards news as a followup. Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 20, 2007 at 12:49 | Comments (15) PermalinkMonday 04.16.07 Goodbye Oregon Biennial, Hello CNAA 
As I mentioned earlier, the Portland Art Museum has ended the Oregon Biennial and yes they are evolving it to cover more of the Pacific Northwest in keeping with its Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Northwest Art. Last year, curator Jennifer Gately inaugurated the Apex program which has already produced nice if small shows by Roy McMakin and Chris Johanson. Though respectable, the final Oregon Biennial (also curated by Gately) seemed to be more of a recap or bookreport of a living scene that is simply too dynamic for any museum to handle en masse. Instead of leading, it was following with a fine "museum seal of approval" which is more of a kind of community tokenism that perpetuates a glass ceiling for artists here. As a reflection of higher standards in Portland it seemed like something had to change to really make the Museum relevant to the important discussions in contemporary art going on here. For those who saw the Oregon Biennial as their one hope, I hate to say it but it wasn't. Many who have been in them before saw the biennials as nice diversions but not central to their goals. Whereas something like a Turner Prize gives outsiders something they can really latch onto. Why not let some less authoritative organization take on the messy task of putting up a Portland Biennial? Basically, less focused regional shows like Greater New York or the Oregon Biennial just became tools for galleries as a way to spotlight and accentuate a mass of artists thrown at a wall and waiting to see who sticks (There are reasons MoMA doesn't host GNY and PS1 does). In New York that's fine but in the Pacific Northwest (where we have many artists who are superior to similar East Coast or even California fare) it has resulted in missed opportunities, a lack of clear routes to national exposure and seen as an overall lack of cultural conviction. The new format is way more focused and has evolved into something resembling the Turner Prize and SECA awards. Its called the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards or CNAA (phonetically it sounds like "nah" which I think is funny since this is a great deal more focused and hence exclusionary take on the show). Get used to it people. Note that the first word is "Contemporary" and the last is "Awards". To me that implies points will be given for contemporary relevance and excellence... it's infinitely more competitive, as it should be. It will effect how artists work in the studio as many will work on more ambitious projects that don't necessarily pay off in the galleries or many of the more rambling ad hoc group shows here. It encourages major statements. Here are the important details: ...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 16, 2007 at 14:01 | Comments (14) PermalinkSaturday 04.14.07 The end of the Oregon Biennial and the beginning of something else The Portland Art Museum is revamping its Biennial program and it looks like
it will expand beyond Oregon. As luck would have it I'm in Vancouver BC right
now and one thing is for certain, no Northwest Biennial could be taken seriously
without inviting them too (Portland and Vancouver have the two most distinctive
and bustling scenes but Seattle has something to offer too).
Ill have details on this development Monday but I've already brought up the need to make the Oregon Biennial more relevant and influential here... and since the Pacific Northwest is an international zone (Cascadia) with some impressive art, this just makes sense. Will it be some sort of fawning craft-driven art glass filled yard sale type show or something more focused, relevant and contemporary? Ill let you know on Monday when PAM gives details. Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 14, 2007 at 10:55 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 04.09.07 Sol LeWitt Remembered  Incomplete Open Cube (1974) As many already know, Sol LeWitt (one of my very favorite artists) died yesterday. Michael Kimmelman's LeWitt obit in the NYT's says something about the man who would rather be about his work and Tyler Green has been keeping the flame as well. *Update Jerry Saltz does the best job though. Thankfully, there are many opportunities to see LeWitt's work in Portland too. There is a wide array of his print works on display at the Portland Art Museum for Jordan Schnitzer's Minimalism/Postminimalism prints show (it's gorgeous BTW). Also there is a really nice open cube (one of my favorite series of works ever, on display at the Jubitz Center. The Liz Leach Gallery already had a selection of his prints up before the sad news too. Instead of blathering on about how I love his baroque process driven reductive art (his conceptualism wasn't so full of conceptual baggage... so it was more a form of systemic premeditation, which is more akin to engineering). I'll give you a bit from local artist Jesse Hayward, whose life was changed while working on a LeWitt project: "Sol LeWitt brought to focus a process-driven abstraction with conceptual underpinning and installation sensibility. His work, minimalist and luxurious, collaborative and depersonalized, demonstrates the depths of abstract thinking as made real through the heights of public display. Helping execute LeWitt's WALL DRAWING #214 back in 1991 changed me as an artist. Many young artists worked on his projects. Many young artists were changed. This drawing was to be made of "unstraight" lines. As a highschooler, I felt I needed a little more direction and asked the artist to clarify what kind of "unstraight" line he had in mind. Was he thinking wildly frenetic or just plane wobbly? I chuckle thinking now of that situation. He gave me nothing. An "unstraight" line is an "unstraight" line. For me, it was a moment of tremendous possibility, the horizons of my life explained through the generous conceits of a master artist. LeWitt's lineage is strong and his influence deceptively pervasive. His ideas live on in Bernard Freize's predetermined process, Sue Williams' abstract logic and, to make the largest leap, the muralistic sensibility of Assume Astro Vivid Focus." -Jesse Hayward Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 09, 2007 at 19:55 | Comments (4) PermalinkWednesday 04.04.07 PAM logo banished to the aybss of bad design  The New PAM logo... experiences the power of dissatisfaction Savvy people are applauding Brian Ferriso's decision to can the gawd awful new logo for the museum. I was the first to write about the issue but it wasn't a big secret, several trustees of the museum were not happy with it either and we had some funny kvetching sessions about it. Thankfully, Ferriso has a very sophisticated sense of design (among other things) and it's a good thing too because Portland's design industry is huge and we've been waiting for some up to date design action at Portland's top tier institutions, including the museum. Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 04, 2007 at 11:38 | Comments (2) PermalinkTuesday 04.03.07 Catching up I'm remarkably recovered from last night's incredible event toasting Portland
artists (what great vibes and turnout, thank you!), here is some stuff to catch up on:
Reed has announced the 2007 Bonnie Bronson Fellowship winner: Laura Ross Paul, congratulations! The award's ceremony is April 25 at Reed College. Edward Winkleman has a post on the "Painting Deathwatch." Hilarious... personally, I like how Tal R. once described painting as a "zombie medium" that keeps marching on... of course it's dead. You can't kill it because it is already dead and the discussion is moot because the zombies are coming to get you! Oh you can try to fight them but that puts you into a B grade horror movie with a bunch of brain eating zombies. PORT will have an interview with one of the very best painters (a master zombie maker?) alive today, stay tuned. Richard Polsky has a nice bit on the art market's evolution and the changing nature of dealer/client relationships. Jerry Saltz is leaving The Village Voice, after two nominations for the Pulitzer with no bouquet of flowers... was he being taken for granted in the newsprint world? His new gig is at New York Magazine. Jerry is the most relevant art critic on the planet because he takes risks, is willing to get it wrong in order to get it right and he's relentless. Sure, he's said nice things about me but I suspect he was trying to get a lot of Portlanders goats as well...he was trying to out do Hickey and Schjeldhal and it's a mark of distinction that he really gets into the mechanics of the cities outside of New York when he visits them. His lecture in January 2004 for PICA (Stuart Horodner's last bit of programming) was the single best lecture weve had in the 8 years I've lived here. It emphasized one thing, to be a good critic you have to be decisive and driven in addition to being a comparative aesthetics ninja. Hats off Jerry, there are two types of critics, good ones that constantly engage/challenge the process and burnouts who use a lot of crutches.  Sol LeWitt Eight Squares c. 1980. Sol LeWitt, Eight Squares, c. 1980, Color screenprint, trial proof 8/10. Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer. © 2007 Sol LeWitt/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. On Friday the O had a lot of coverage on Jordan Schnitzer's minimalist and postminimalist print show at the Portland Art Museum (Of course minimalism is a misnomer and fosters a lot of lazy rhetoric but eh it serves a starting point for discussing; hedonism, Epicurean ideals, material, systemic production and rules before the home computer became a reality, context and asceticism). The cover article on the show was fine, it's unrealistic to expect the O to be the New York Times and it is an OK primer for newbies. PORT readers might be bored with it though (treating minimalism is if isnt the omnipresent source of a lot of yuppie aesthetic porn [come on, you know which design mags] and treats it like some sort of underdog still proving itself). It's true a book and tour would have been nice, but it is not like that couldn't still happen (the timeline for a book by the opening would have been too tight though... also I wonder why no mention of the 6 page color publication???). The better bit is DK Row's interview with Jordan Schnitzer, his blog version of the story has expanded content. Maybe some of my grousing might have had an effect??? though one article doesn't reverse a trend that has most of the Portland art world writing off our largest daily newspaper's coverage. At least it's a good step. Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 03, 2007 at 11:21 | Comments (1) PermalinkThursday 03.29.07 Two things that never change: money and more change Ditto on Tyler
Green's boredom with lazy art writing that is mostly focused on money. It's
the ideas and cultural shifts that legitimize art, museums, interesting cities and the writing
about them... not so much the transaction fees (those fade). Saatchi said it best, "The rich will always be with us."
Once that is accepted (the French and Bolshevik revolutions proved it) then
the real work of, "what ideas are being explored, what are the tough questions
of the age, etc." can be tackled. Sure, one has to be a little nuts to
go against the flow, but one also has to be more than bright and talented to
change the flow of that stream.
Also, I felt Holland Cotter's piece which spurred Tyler Green's words did bring up the most important point, where is the cultural leadership? Is that kind of leadership a thing any civilization can entrust to museums? Isn't that the domain of driven individuals who want to change the world? I loved Cotter's take on cynicism as "exhausting and pacifying." Portland from 2001-2003 went through a war between cynics and optimists. The optimists won (or at least the knee jerk cynics stopped freaking out long enough to become begrudging optimists who freak out less and ask better questions). Slowly but surely the city's other organs of culture have been catching up in with the continuing growth spurt. I'm pretty sure this ride wont be smooth so don't expect anything good to come from mildness or mere good intentions. To survive in the rapidly developing arts ecosystem here, cultural productions in Portland have to foreground an informed passion and a real esoteric depth (there are no accidents in these departments). Yes, I'm still working on my piece about Portland now (on Sunday it will be 8 years) and the main tasks at hand. Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 29, 2007 at 17:26 | Comments (2) PermalinkTuesday 03.27.07 Pandering to indie filmmakers 
Jacob & Arnold Pander by Marne Lucas Yup, Portland is a hotbed for indie filmmaking, check out the latest with Joseph Gallivan's article on the Pander Brother's new movie in the Tribune. Note how the look of Portland is of such importance. The Pander brothers, Arnold and Jacob are artists as well and I had drinks Sunday night at Thatch a newish Tiki bar festooned with Arnold's awesome velvet paintings along with a bunch of former Trader Vic's statuary. Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 27, 2007 at 8:49 | Comments (0) PermalinkSunday 03.25.07 O! brother where Art thou? 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. Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 25, 2007 at 13:58 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 03.21.07 So much for a crisis in art criticism  Still relevant: Mr. Peter Schjeldahl The best bit of art writing published this March was Peter Schjeldahl's awe inspiring take on Robert Ryman and Franz West etc. He's great, even brilliant with Ryman but gets Murakami wrong of course. Murakami is uber-whoring the drama in a very professional/insidious way that makes the drama very nihilistic. He's basically outflanking the idea starved art world along with Schjeldahl in the process. Why? because he has gotten a lot of credit for the last great idea (the complete flattening of consumption and culture, best showcased at art fairs). Also, I'm enjoying their new website design too, much better and more linkable. *Update: Holland Carter of the New York Times points out the Locally Organized Gravity show along with Portland's own Red 76...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 21, 2007 at 11:05 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 03.16.07 Thinking Big and Building Better Bridges I'm curious about how people in the art community will react to the front page
story in the Oregonian about
some creatives being edged out? Clearly gentrification is a double edged
sword, combining higher rents with an opportunity for better arts patronage. The devil is in the details on this issue.
I'd call it a cultural distillation process and the city's character is at stake, the weird part of Portland needs to get distilled and weirder as well. The real corner to turn here is patronage and that means the word sophistication needs to come into play amongst developers, politicians, RACC, collectors and the press (especially the O). Art for populism's sake (which panders to an assumed audience rather than challenging it) isn't enough, it takes challenging art programming, which is frankly a lot weirder than work that merely gestures at populism while hoping it will somehow to help creatives. Sophisticated artists aren't just a little different, they are extremely idiosyncratic. Portland is blessed with a lot of very serious artists and the city government has made a lot of noise about this. Still, little has been done. In fact the Everett Station Lofts (circa 1989) are still the best hotbed for emerging visual arts culture in town. Here's a prediction, whoever wins the next mayoral election will do so because they actually have a truly sophisticated arts plan that goes beyond minor gestures.  Prince Claus bridge by UN Studio Also, the I-5 bridge is too important to nickle and dime or second guess like this story in the Tribune. We need a design competition (Calatrava, Foster, UN Studio etc.) federal funds and an attitude that this will shape the region for the next 70 years. Why not plan on spening 8 billion plus and do it right. This requires big thinking not hunting for a bargain, it will cost us sorely in the long run if we don't. Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 16, 2007 at 16:11 | Comments (2) PermalinkThursday 03.15.07 Portland art scene gets around in 2007 I've updated the list of Portland
art scenesters showing outside of the region with info on Sincerely John Head, Vanessa Renwick,
Patrick Rock and Brenden Clenaghen.
Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 15, 2007 at 10:51 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 03.12.07 Why not? Steve McQueen does the ultimate
political mailart piece, read about it in the Guardian.
the Pacific Northwest from a different angle Also, there is a discussion about the Tacoma Art Museum's art critic panel on regionalism last Saturday on Art Dish. My opinion on such discussions is short and sweet, those who wallow in the regionalism thing beget more wallowing regionalism, it's a defensive self-perpetuating cycle that becomes brittle and trite. I've said it a lot, "on the Internet everything is local." The art wold has never been so regionally level and one's focus determines their trajectory (not to say you wont have to work hard if you are in Portland or Seattle). Also, the Northwest and Portland in particular are indicative of a different kind of America and people are flocking here to find it, it isn't regionalism it's a kind of lightning rod and a conscious decision to find a new way. Really, it's a leadership thing now and the TAM biennial missed the mark there, once again giving Seattle reason to mock Tacoma. I hate being right about these things. Was the show just a ploy to get Seattle to pay attention? Also, though the Portland selections are fair it definitely doesn't give one any idea of the scope of things that are going on down here, if anything it sidesteps the most active art scene in the two states. I think the show could be important but the cramped potpourri curatorial model didn't make that case. To be fair, TAM has been doing the best job of collecting PNW artists of any museum in the area. They have even been giving them coherent solo shows, which is partly why this show has sparked so much dissapointment...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 12, 2007 at 18:25 | Comments (2) PermalinkFriday 03.09.07 Sneak peek at the new Museum of Contemporary Craft  Main gallery, Museum of Contemporary Craft Yesterday, director David Cohen gave the press and other culturalists a tour of the Museum of Contemporary Craft's still unfinished 15,000 sg ft. facilities on Portland's North Park Blocks. The main gallery will have soaring 22 foot ceilings and an impressive overlook. The other galleries are more intimate but no less refined. I'm thrilled that they are keeping the old glass as its irregularities produce cool visual distortions of the outside world activating the viewers perceptual acuity, which can then be trained on the exhibitions. The museum will also have a climate controlled archive and preparation space. The renamed DeSoto building is a commercial condo so the museum and other tenants will own their spaces. Other features include a community room for meetings and a 3,000 sq foot outside "events" deck for all of the tenants. With other tenants like Bluesky, Augen & Foelick galleries as well as a new photography gallery by Charles Hartman it should further solidify Portland's core of easy to walk art spaces on the west side. Another plus, most of these gallery spaces have soaring ceilings with lots of light, something sorely missed since the demise of the original Savage Gallery whose space was better than most in Chelsea. The new Museum space will open July 22nd and their last shows in their old space run through March 11th, so last chance. Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 09, 2007 at 14:36 | Comments (1) PermalinkThursday 03.08.07 Ethical Bruhaha in Seattle  Seattle's new Olympic Sculpture Park at dusk It's been an interesting week up in Seattle with critic Matthew Kangas coming under a full scale ethics probe on the Stranger's Blog (the SLOG) for requesting artwork from artists he reviewed. I find this practice very distasteful. I even dislike the constant use of art auctions and other situations where artists give up work for fundraisers. It's predatory and Im not just speaking for myself here, a lot of dealers and artists in Portland have absolutely had it. Good cause or not it's promoting a culture of pressuring and leaching off of artists (in a developing art economy like Portland it undermines markets unfairly). Now, The Stranger's Jen Graves has the full story on Kangas and names names ... It's the paper's lead story this week and it's a fascinating read, some thought it was wrong to blog first but I think it flushed the story out...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 08, 2007 at 12:34 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 03.07.07 School of hard Knox Portlander's pay close attention to Tyler's
take on the the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo. It is the exact opposite
situation of the Portland Art Museum, which needs to reach out to the ever increasing
young/savvy art conscious workforce that Portland continues to attract (we are
gaining rather than than losing to larger cities like New York and LA). My sense
from our jam packed lunch a while back is that PAM's
new director Brian Ferriso is well aware of this situation and plans to act
in the near future...it has been years since a major contemporary show at the
museum (Though Roxy Paine, Hirst
and Kehinde Wiley are more than just hors d'oeuvres, call em brunch?).
Also, stay tuned for my review of one of those transplanted upstate New Yorkers today. Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 07, 2007 at 10:49 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 03.06.07 Rick Steves, Chief Art Critic of the New York Times? 
Tyler Green once again has the scoop... Kimmelman is leaving New York but not the New York Times. Kimmelman just spoke to a packed house in Portland both delighting the crowd with his charm and somewhat annoying myself and others with his light travelogue style (look to the comments). Looks like there will be more travelogues, not a bad thing but does the chief art critic of the NYT's have to be the art world's Rick Steves? Yes, in my mind Roberta Smith is already the chief art critic and Ive been annoyed with newspaper art criticism that isn't art criticism for some time. I read Kimmelman to revisit an excellent writer's craft but in terms of content I end up feeling like I just read the brochure not the review. I do think Kimmelman could do excellent television shows on art travel, just don't call it criticism. Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 06, 2007 at 11:33 | Comments (2) PermalinkMonday 03.05.07 Round the web It has been a while since PORT's done a round the web.
Both The New Yorker and NYT's have covered the Jeff Wall show. The Portland Tribune reported last week on a smaller supplementary I-5 replacement bridge. I dislike this idea intensely as a cost saving measure. Ive heard figures like, "20% of US trade passes over the I-5 bridge each year," so skimping doesnt make any sense. Look, for such a project the fed's should be on board, especially since with light rail it would have such an effect on interstate traffic/commerce. Underbuilding is flat out stupid. I live on N. Interstate and I see the traffic snarls daily and it hasn't even gotten as bad as it will get. It's also the most major public works project to hit the Northwest in decades. Time for a design competition; Foster, Calatrava, UN Studios etc...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 05, 2007 at 19:01 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 03.01.07 Marching Curatorial Madness Oh a curatorial
final four, although a lot of interesting curators are missing; Robert Storr,
Phillipe Vergne (who missed the boat by not visiting Portland for the last Whitney
Biennial show) and Michael Darling?... why not add in Tobias Meyer for sheer
lunacy?
I pick: Lynne Cooke, Paul Schimmel, Thelma Golden (Whitney Biennial coming up, maybe it will be a relevant one) and Hans Ulrich Obrist (who openly acknowledges that artist curated clusters easily out pace curatorially defined constructs... which is what you find in Portland but you just cant ask one curator who to see) Tyler Green has picks too (dude no way can Higgs take Bonami ... sorry Matthew you are too much of a "dry" specialist to win this corrupt bourgeois competition) Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 01, 2007 at 10:01 | Comments (0) PermalinkSunday 02.25.07 New York new work? Maybe you weren't in New York this weekend for the Armory show, maybe you were?
PORT's Amy Bernstein was there on assignment and we will have something from
her "too much art" weekend shortly.
Till then check out Artists Unite's coverage of Scope and Edward Winkleman's Pulse coverage. Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 25, 2007 at 17:08 | Comments (0) PermalinkSaturday 02.24.07 Congratualtions PICA!
You may already know about this, since it’s been announced elsewhere,
however, in case you haven’t heard, PICA has received 3 major grants totaling
$225,000 from The Andy
Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts of New York, The
Paul G. Allen Family Foundation of Seattle, and The
Collins Foundation of Portland, all of which points to the local, regional
and national need that PICA satisfies....(more)
Posted by Melia Donovan on February 24, 2007 at 8:49 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 02.22.07 Globetrotting Portland Artists in 2007  David Eckard on the streets of Rio Despite the increasing real estate development and institutional maturation (for example Small A Projects was just accepted into NADA) Portland is still unique for being mostly defined by its people and I'm happy to report they have a rapidly increasing international reach. The artists are still the most influential and controversial force at work here and it will probably be that way for the next decade as...(much more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 22, 2007 at 16:18 | Comments (1) PermalinkA little butterfly told me, Damien Hirst has a new show There is a convenient scandal brewing, did
Damien Hirst rip off artist Lori Precious?... uh no but check it out here. Let's
just say, ideas, butterflies and even PR stunts get recycled all the time. Kinda
neat how Hirst isn't having this show in New York this Armory weekend huh? I'm a huge fan and though
I doubt this was orchestrated directly it's a testament to the guy that people think he's capable
of it (well he is, but why try when this kind of stuff can be almost counted on). The title of the show is "Superstition."
It is a show title I wanted to use someday... arrgh, but it's totally appropriate. Also, PORT's own rather involved Damien
Hirst review will be up tomorrow.
Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 22, 2007 at 14:54 | Comments (4) PermalinkWednesday 02.21.07 TAMpering with the Northwest Biennial?  Jen Graves at the Stranger has reviewed the Northwest Biennial at the Tacoma Art Museum. I saw the show this past weekend and I pretty much agree with her assessment, except the Schweder had kinda disintegrated by the time I saw it. Ive seen most of it before in...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 21, 2007 at 16:39 | Comments (0) PermalinkIs Liverpool the next Portland? I'll be posting that list of Portland artists with shows outside of town in 2007
that Ive promised (maybe later today). Till then:
The Guardian is claiming that Liverpool is like San Francisco with greyer weather? Ha, that doesn't sound anything like Portland at all does it? Actually we don't want that kind of title here and the fact is Portland is kinda the anti San Francisco. Which is why in 2005 the Norton collection's curator remarked to me, "All of San Francisco's best artists are moving to Portland." It isn't just Harrell Fletcher and Chris Johanson... there are a pile of others like Patrick Rock, Jesse Hayward, Brittany Powell, Emily Counts, Todd Johnson and even Brenden Clenaghen ...etc. (it's a huge list) who all have done stints in SF only to settle here. Sure, Portland has similarities to an older San Fransisco but it's different, we arent a financial center and we are more of an alternative to the mistakes of the second half of the 20th century. Ideologically the PDX thing is something completely different. Add in over 10,000 artists to the mix of a city this size and see what happens. The city is a rebel base and I think it's increasingly dfficult to talk accurately about Portland art without looking outside of Portland. To that end, PORT's Amy Berstein will be covering The Armory etc. this week in New York. *Update: Matt McCormick just jogged my memory, he was in the Liverpool Biennial... see why the Portlanders outside of Portland post has taken so long to come out! (PDX-ers feel free to email me with updates before I publish the list tonight) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 21, 2007 at 11:15 | Comments (4) PermalinkMonday 02.19.07 What would LBJ do? Nicolai Ouroussoff of the NTY's has denounced
the so-called Freedom Tower in his strongest words yet. I absolutely agree
and have stated many
times before how it is a massive failure of imagination. The only thing that
can do real justice to the site, city and nation is a much better design. A clumsy
restatement of the empire state building with a blast shield doesn't cut it. I
know it's probably too much to ask of the current President but if the state and
local governments can't get a developer of a national historical site to do it
right it's time for the national government to step in. (then again could they
do better? ....uggh it's times like these that I actually yearn for LBJ...
yes that is what it has come to)
On a more local public art front Portland Public Art, The Portland Tribune and the Mercury have been on top of the evolving failure of the dragon sculptures in Portland's Chinatown from early on... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 19, 2007 at 10:18 | Comments (2) PermalinkThursday 02.15.07 Aloha: the surf is up at PORT By now PORT readers, you have read Jenn's announcement that she is leaving the
publication to focus on her excellent gallery, Motel.
This is no surprise between the two of us and we have been implementing a slow
phase out of her essential role for over a year. No drama here, just change…
PORT isn't where either of us spends the majority of our time. Others who can
devote more time to this small scale but successful and innovative publication
will be stepping in to help take it to the next level. I will continue in my role. It's just a natural growth situation that we saw
coming a long time ago. PORT itself is more successful than ever with over 25,000 unique individual readers per month and is the top ranked site when you Google "Portland" & "Art." Recently, the Walker Art Center's blog singled us out as one of the 10 best art blogs on the planet… wow. Many of you come back daily and we are grateful for your eyes. With those numbers and reputation weve looked at how to grow the operation from its current small (but influential) scale to a slightly larger one. To those ends we are going to be hiring at least 1 new critic + adding some new sponsors, both big and small. In other words, weve both been doing PORT on the side and its business now demands some attention and fresh management divisions. What wont change is our focus on presenting critical content and information about art both locally and internationally. Thank you Jenn, you've been |
