Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 28, 2007 at 10:39 | Comments (4)

Monday 12.24.07

Holiday reading

Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 24, 2007 at 17:00 | Comments (2)

Wednesday 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)

Monday 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)

Friday 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)

Wednesday 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)

Tuesday 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)

Friday 11.30.07

Dave Time

Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 30, 2007 at 12:05 | Comments (0)

For your consideration

Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 30, 2007 at 10:40 | Comments (0)

Tuesday 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)

Monday 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?" I consider it an opportunity for MoMA to "grow a pair", so to speak so please don't let Taniguchi design the galleries?$@! We live in a pluralistic age and MoMA needs an architecturally pluralistic campus. Don't even get me started abouthow lame this other new york project is.

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)

Friday 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)

Tuesday 11.13.07

Contemporary Northwest Art Awards: 5 finalists announced (PORT Scoop)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 13, 2007 at 16:30 | Comments (2)

More-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)

Tuesday 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)

Thursday 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)

Friday 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)

Wednesday 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)

Tuesday 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)

Monday 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)

Robert 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)

Monday 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)

Thursday 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)

Tuesday 10.09.07

NAAU is the time for Couture

Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 09, 2007 at 11:56 | Comments (0)

Saturday 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)

Thursday 10.04.07

Around the web, now with more feedback

Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 04, 2007 at 11:13 | Comments (0)

Tuesday 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)

Wednesday 09.26.07

What Portland Needs to do to become a world-class arts city?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 26, 2007 at 9:10 | Comments (10)

Monday 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)

Thursday 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)

Monday 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)

Wednesday 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)

Thursday 09.06.07

Director's chair

Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 06, 2007 at 9:55 | Comments (0)

Tuesday 09.04.07

We left our museum director in San Francisco

Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 04, 2007 at 9:52 | Comments (1)

Thursday 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)

Tuesday 08.28.07

Contradictions

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 28, 2007 at 11:26 | Comments (0)

Thursday 08.23.07

Some things to check out

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 23, 2007 at 11:24 | Comments (1)

Monday 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)

Wednesday 08.15.07

Art market thoughts and unsolicited design advice

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 15, 2007 at 10:29 | Comments (0)

Monday 08.13.07

Further developments? & the role of culture in real estate

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 13, 2007 at 9:50 | Comments (3)

Wednesday 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)

Tuesday 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)

Friday 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)

Wednesday 08.01.07

Participating galleries for Affair @ the Jupiter Hotel Art Fair 2007

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 01, 2007 at 13:05 | Comments (0)

Be sarcastic, or not?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 01, 2007 at 9:53 | Comments (0)

Monday 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)

Friday 07.27.07

Contemporary Northwest Art Awards list shortened

Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 27, 2007 at 10:01 | Comments (0)

Wednesday 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)

Thursday 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)

Tuesday 07.17.07

Interesting combinations & feedback

Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 17, 2007 at 17:10 | Comments (2)

Monday 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)

Friday 07.06.07

Transformation

Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 06, 2007 at 10:38 | Comments (0)

Wednesday 06.27.07

WSJ way off base on Robert Storr

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 27, 2007 at 15:37 | Comments (5)

Tuesday 06.26.07

Press

Posted by Megan Driscoll on June 26, 2007 at 8:27 | Comments (0)

Monday 06.25.07

Great to be back

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 25, 2007 at 10:51 | Comments (13)

Wednesday 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)

Tuesday 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)

Monday 06.18.07

Venice Biennale 2007: Aftermath

Posted by Megan Driscoll on June 18, 2007 at 9:07 | Comments (2)

Thursday 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)

Wednesday 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)

Monday 06.11.07

Keep your pants on

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 11, 2007 at 23:45 | Comments (0)

Gravitating 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)

Thursday 06.07.07

Arts = Prosperity?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 07, 2007 at 16:28 | Comments (10)

Monday 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)

Friday 06.01.07

PORT turns 2

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 01, 2007 at 0:26 | Comments (3)

Wednesday 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)

Tuesday 05.22.07

PNCA Benefactor To Lead a Major Cultural Breakthrough for Portland

Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 22, 2007 at 12:13 | Comments (2)

Monday 05.21.07

Oregon Biennial, not so dead?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 21, 2007 at 10:25 | Comments (17)

Friday 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)

Wednesday 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)

Thursday 05.10.07

Bore me with the details?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 10, 2007 at 10:37 | Comments (0)

Tuesday 05.08.07

Around the Web

Posted by Megan Driscoll on May 08, 2007 at 17:37 | Comments (0)

Sunday 05.06.07

PNCA Launches MFA Program

Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 06, 2007 at 18:36 | Comments (3)

Friday 05.04.07

Weekly Reader

Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 04, 2007 at 10:45 | Comments (0)

Tuesday 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)

Thursday 04.26.07

Just what Miami needed

Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 26, 2007 at 20:38 | Comments (2)

Tuesday 04.24.07

Some things to chew on

Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 24, 2007 at 22:45 | Comments (2)

Friday 04.20.07

Around the web

Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 20, 2007 at 12:49 | Comments (15)

Monday 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)

Saturday 04.14.07

The end of the Oregon Biennial and the beginning of something else

Posted by Jeff Jahn on April 14, 2007 at 10:55 | Comments (0)

Monday 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)

Wednesday 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)

Tuesday 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)

Thursday 03.29.07

Two things that never change: money and more change

Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 29, 2007 at 17:26 | Comments (2)

Tuesday 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)

Sunday 03.25.07

O! brother where Art thou?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 25, 2007 at 13:58 | Comments (0)

Wednesday 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)

Friday 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)

Thursday 03.15.07

Portland art scene gets around in 2007

Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 15, 2007 at 10:51 | Comments (0)

Monday 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)

Friday 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)

Thursday 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)

Wednesday 03.07.07

School of hard Knox

Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 07, 2007 at 10:49 | Comments (0)

Tuesday 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)

Monday 03.05.07

Round the web

Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 05, 2007 at 19:01 | Comments (0)

Thursday 03.01.07

Marching Curatorial Madness

Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 01, 2007 at 10:01 | Comments (0)

Sunday 02.25.07

New York new work?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 25, 2007 at 17:08 | Comments (0)

Saturday 02.24.07

Congratualtions PICA!

Posted by Melia Donovan on February 24, 2007 at 8:49 | Comments (0)

Thursday 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)

A little butterfly told me, Damien Hirst has a new show

Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 22, 2007 at 14:54 | Comments (4)

Wednesday 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)

Is Liverpool the next Portland?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 21, 2007 at 11:15 | Comments (4)

Monday 02.19.07

What would LBJ do?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 19, 2007 at 10:18 | Comments (2)

Thursday 02.15.07

Aloha: the surf is up at PORT

Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 15, 2007 at 18:45 | Comments (0)

Au Revoir, Mes Amis

Posted by Jennifer Armbrust on February 15, 2007 at 18:44 | Comments (0)

John Buchanan and the curse of King Tut

Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 15, 2007 at 18:01 | Comments (0)

Tuesday 02.13.07

American Architectural Valentine

Buildings need love too and since Tyler Green's doing a collective intelligence experiment on the 5 best bits of American architecture, why not? Here's my list and as usual it is tinged with personal affinities, besides 5 is too few for a historical sample:


1) Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple (1907), Oak Park Illinois. The approach to the temple is exactly that, its sets the pace, mood and expectations on a level with Mayan or Egyptian structures, then raises the bar (yeah scary). It was one of Wright's favorite buildings and highly innovative for its use of concrete at the time. The central hall is just dumbfoundingly good, debatably the best room ever designed by any architect. Pictures consistently fail it. Wright called it a, "jewell box." It is both massively uplifting and contemplative as an incredibly democratic yet enlightened community space. I wonder if Donald Judd ever experienced this space? There aren't many rooms similar to this, only Brad Cloepfil's Weiden and Kennedy building strikes any comparison, which is very good but Wright's is a class or two above that effort. Also, Unity Temple requires restoration, so please click here to help, it's a national treasure...

2,3 &


photo credit: Jeff Jahn

4) Rem Koolhaas: Seattle Central Library, (2004) One of the best things he's ever done...

5.... (more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 13, 2007 at 19:56 | Comments (3)

Monday 02.12.07

See this

Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 12, 2007 at 20:28 | Comments (2)

Saturday 02.10.07

More PAM Aquisitions

Gene Davis, Angel Fish (1970)

The Portland Art Museum has announced yet another acquisition... actually it's a total of 350 acquisitions.

The estate of Elvin Duerst has bequested 350 art objects, from an important early Gene Davis, "Angel Fish"... to Spanish colonial, Asian and contemporary Latin American works. Duerst, a McMinnville Oregon native lived in Washington D.C. for the last 65 years having worked for the United Nations, and the State Department. Duerst was intimately connected to the Washington Colorfield school and dovetails nicely with the museum's acquisition of the Greenberg Collection in 2001 (which had many important holes like Morris Louis, Barnett Newman and Gene Davis). Many have remarked that the Greenberg Collection should have ended up in the DC area and now they've got to be wondering how Portland has become such a magnet for 60's and 70's formalism. Let's just say we like abstraction, many of the best selling artists in town deal with formal abstraction and then there is the fact that Mark Rothko grew up here.

Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 10, 2007 at 14:12 | Comments (2)

Thursday 02.08.07

Below the radar no more

Here are two architecturally involved exhibitions that have flown below the radar:


Carolina Aragon's "A Portland Cloud" at the Portland Building's gallery space may not be very original because it reminds me a lot of Cornelia Parker. Then again, I love Cornelia Parker and this atmospheric piece certainly holds my attention. Aragon is a Harvard educated landscape architect for Walker Macy. Show ends tomorrow February 9th, see it if you can during the building's very limited hours till 6:00 PM


The Portland chapter of The American Institute of Architects has a show on the construction of the Aerial Tram ...(more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 08, 2007 at 20:04 | Comments (0)

Wednesday 02.07.07

Bohemian Rhapsody, like you?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 07, 2007 at 21:09 | Comments (9)

Tuesday 02.06.07

Not everyone is a critic

Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 06, 2007 at 20:10 | Comments (0)

Thursday 02.01.07

A 21 @ sign salute for Visual Codec, RIP

Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 01, 2007 at 17:26 | Comments (7)

Tuesday 01.30.07

Rose vs Cloepfil, Plagens vs. Green: who owns whose e-ass?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 30, 2007 at 8:54 | Comments (2)

Friday 01.26.07

The O counts to 10

Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 26, 2007 at 17:09 | Comments (7)

Tuesday 01.23.07

East Side live/work space & funding cuts?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 23, 2007 at 20:11 | Comments (4)

Impending Doom?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 23, 2007 at 10:32 | Comments (0)

Monday 01.22.07

Art Talk Radio on KPSU

Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 22, 2007 at 11:08 | Comments (1)

Friday 01.19.07

Rauschenberg acquisition for PAM

The Portland Art Museum has announced the purchase of a major assemblage sculpture by Robert Rauschenberg, "Patrician Barnacle (Scale)." The deal was originally conceived to bring 1 million dollars to the Blue Sky photography gallery, which boasts board member Christopher Rauschenberg (the artist's son). It's a very nice work, a steal at that price and a cultural momentum building exercise for both sides. The deal is noteworthy as this fundraiser for Blue Sky could have raised more on the open market or at auction, but Portlanders understand money isn't the only thing... just a tricky thing! Major kudo's to the thoughtful donor Carol S. Hampton and chief curator Bruce Guenther, he's sweated this one out for over a year.

It is to be installed in the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art...(more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 19, 2007 at 10:19 | Comments (3)

OSP in Seattle: prompts looking at public art in Portand?

The Olympic Sculpture Park opens this Saturday in Seattle and at a time when many Portland citizens question whether our public art is both too insensitive and not sophisticated enough. Many Seattlites complain it's just trophy-ism, showcasing Microsoft money that doesn't really invest in the people of Seattle... a kind of high end art ghetto? One thing is for sure with public art, it's practically impossible to please everyone.

*Update Jen Graves at the Stranger, Regina Hackett at the PI and Shiela Farr at the Seattle Times review it.

Also,Tyler Green aggregates info on Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park here.

It's your typical Seattle public project (expensive as hell and slick), just with art.... but it is exciting on paper because I like Serra, Roxy Paine and Calder but how does it all gel? I'm curious how all the very disparate art works together? Is it just another blue chip art park? To date my favorite bit of Seattle public art is Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk in Red Square. Weve been a little distracted because Portland's aerial tram opens on the 27th, it is public art, weirder, only slightly less expensive and a lot more useful. Still one has to say Seattle takes public art more seriously than Portland does. There are lessons to be learned by both cities from one another.

Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 19, 2007 at 9:50 | Comments (0)

Wednesday 01.17.07

Julie Orser returns to PNCA

The snow has been keeping most everyone from traveling much beyond their neighborhood but if you are near the downtown check out Julie Orser's latest multi-channel video installation "Anna Moore" at PNCA's Feldman Gallery in the Pearl. A 99 PNCA alum with an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2005, Julie's one of the hotter new video artists in LA. I've been looking forward to this show for months and it's a shame there was no opening on the 16th. She will be back in PDX for a free talk on January 31st. See it @ 1241 NW Johnson.

Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 17, 2007 at 9:56 | Comments (1)

Monday 01.15.07

Fear and Loathing in Philadelphia

After heading to sleepier parts of Pennsylvania for the winter holidays, I had the chance to visit two of America's premier East coast cities--New York and Philadelphia. My New York coverage will be posted in the near future.


Co-joined twins from the Mütter Museum, Philadelphia

Former resident David Lynch has described the City of Brotherly Love as "a very sick, twisted, violent, fear-ridden, decadent, decaying place," "filled with violence, hate and filth" and, "the sickest, most corrupt, decaying, fear-ridden city imaginable." Lynchian hyperbole aside, I have to agree that Philadelphia is a mad, gritty city. Nonetheless, it's filled with of cultural treasures. While pretty much everything was closed during my New Year's visit, I've cobbled together a mini-tour of my former home's artistic offerings based on memory, research and rumor....................(more)

Posted by Jessica Bromer on January 15, 2007 at 12:23 | Comments (0)

Tuesday 01.09.07

In Agreement About Some Things

Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 09, 2007 at 11:34 | Comments (0)

Tuesday 01.02.07

From The Walker With Love

Walker Art Center, photo Jeff Jahn

PORT was just listed as one of the top 10 art blogs on the Walker Art Center's off center blog and declared, "The undisputed champ of the regional art blogs." That is some serious competition.

Thanks Tyler, it is time for all of PORT's staffers, sponsors, and readers to take a bow!

We realized we were trying to do something new and evolve the personal art blog but the sheer quality and amount of activity in Portland warranted the effort. At the same time there is a lot of work to do in terms of presenting the rest of the world to Portland. It is a two-way street and Ive said it before, "everything is local on the internet."

Posted by Jeff Jahn on January 02, 2007 at 14:15 | Comments (1)

Sunday 12.31.06

PORT Staffer's Picks For 2006

Melia Donovan picks Paul Sutinen at 9 Gallery



Jeff Jahn picks New Trajectories I at Reed College: L to R works by: Stephan Thiel, David Thorpe, Eric Schmidt, Richard Prince and Tim Eitel

The Best Group show? Most improved artist? Artist of the year? Curator of the year? The lists go on and on... (much more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 31, 2006 at 13:48 | Comments (3)

Tuesday 12.26.06

Making the most of predictable end of year stories

Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 26, 2006 at 13:40 | Comments (0)

Wednesday 12.20.06

Public Art, Public Smart

Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 20, 2006 at 10:58 | Comments (4)

Tuesday 12.19.06

Truitt things have never been said

Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 19, 2006 at 11:49 | Comments (0)

Monday 12.18.06

Required Reading

Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 18, 2006 at 0:00 | Comments (2)

Friday 12.15.06

check em out

Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 15, 2006 at 9:45 | Comments (0)

Wednesday 12.13.06

I blab about art on KBOO

Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 13, 2006 at 20:40 | Comments (0)

Tuesday 12.12.06

Processing it all

Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 12, 2006 at 11:43 | Comments (2)

Thursday 12.07.06

Portland in Miami guide

a Bruce Conkle Snowman @ Jack The Pelican Presents

So, where can you find Portland galleries and artists in Miami?

Art Basel Miami Beach:

The SF based Jack Hanley Gallery represents mr. Harrell Fletcher and Chris Johanson

Aqua:

Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Small A Projects and Motel (run by PORT's co-founder/owner Jennifer Armbrust)...(more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 07, 2006 at 12:29 | Comments (0)

Tuesday 12.05.06

Sponsoring Better Art Writing

Posted by Jeff Jahn on December 05, 2006 at 22:40 | Comments (0)

Saturday 12.02.06

Round Up

Posted by Melia Donovan on December 02, 2006 at 15:53 | Comments (0)

Wednesday 11.29.06

Damien Hirst at The Portland Art Museum

Damien Hirst Autopsy with Sliced Human Brain 2004

So what is the next show after the current Pierre Huyghe video at the Portland Art Museum's Miller-Meigs endowed room in the Jubtiz Center? You may have heard of him, it is Damien Hirst (one of my all-time favorite artists and probably one of the most loved/hated people in the history of art). He's obsessed with death, was generous enough to help an entire group of Young Britsih Artists become successful and is the master of presentation, having worked as an gallery installer before he became famous. Hirst is also notable as the first major artist since Picasso to control his own market. In a time where the market controls everything, this is yet another example of how perceptive Hirst is.

This is a rare solo US museum show for Hirst, who has avoided the museum blockbuster machine, preferring to make his own weather in out of the way places. Show opens January 13.

Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 29, 2006 at 11:25 | Comments (2)

Monday 11.27.06

Cloepfil has it Still

Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 27, 2006 at 12:31 | Comments (0)

Friday 11.24.06

Weimar Litmus Test & Figurative Art

Self-Portrait with Champagne Glass, 1919
Max Beckmann (German, 1884-1950)
Oil on canvas; 25 9/16 x 21 7/8 in. (65 x 55.5 cm)
Private collection, courtesy W. Wittrock, Berlin

In the NYT's Roberta Smith had a timely review of the "Glitter and Doom" show at the Metropolitan Museum. The focus on the anxiety present in the New Objectivity movement's artists like Otto Dix and Max Beckmann is absolutely in step with the mood of today. Still, one would have to stifle a chuckle in order to compare the anxieties found in Cecily Brown and Dana Schutz to that of Dix and Beckmann (and I like Brown and Schutz). The difference, Weimar Germany had just come off of WWI and the US's war in Iraq doesn't have the same urgency, though we are in a time of decadence and wealth while a smaller scale war of attrition rages. Good that the Metropolitan put this on, with the Miami Art fairs coming up this seems like a kind of cultural litmus test. Where is our version of brutal honesty? It definitely isn't Pierre Huyghe, who has a purosefully theatrical slight of hand that's been big ever since Matthew Barney. Sure Beckmann is theatrical too, but it is infinitely more honest than nearly everything Ive seen lately. Today good intentions and entertainment seem to be a substitute for difficult critiques and self-reflexive questioning?

On to someone who could use a huge dose of Otto Dix's depth, Portlander Ty Ennis (who was reviewed on PORT a few weeks ago) has spawned a hilarious unauthorized biography and a flux 7 out on the PDX blogosphere. Catch the show tomorrow on its last day to gauge the fuss (correction Dec 10th is the last day). Ennis is a talented artist in search of stronger subject matter, though according to the flux 7 he stands by it. Good on him, let's see if he gets something from the response he's received for this show, the criticism has been valid.

Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 24, 2006 at 17:16 | Comments (18)

Tuesday 11.21.06

Existentialism, Advertising and Toast?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 21, 2006 at 11:22 | Comments (5)

Monday 11.20.06

Tom Cramer at Laura Russo

By now many collectors have received announcements that Tom Cramer, arguably the city's artist laureate, has joined forces with the venerable Laura Russo Gallery, the now (as ever) undisputed leader in historical Northwest artists. This makes a lot of sense. Tom (a good friend who left his previous gallery over 8 months ago) is probably the best selling artist in Portland and I've known about this for a very long time. Tom is particularity important since he is the link between the pre-90's art scene in Portland and the current one... I see it as one contiguous cloth and Cramer's take no prisoners approach to the sublime, kitsch and the ancient art of woodcarving make him pretty unique.

This is the first major artist shift for the Laura Russo Gallery since Henk Pander joined the stable a few years ago and an exciting development. It is a great thing as the Russo gallery just celebrated its impressive 20th anniversary (Liz Leach just celebrated her 25th on the 11th) and what I like about Russo's gallery is their no-nonsense seriousness. What other gallery in the Pacific Northwest represents the estates of so many artists? In art the follow-through is very important. Now with Mel Katz, Francis Celentano, Lucinda Parker, Gregory Grenon, Robert Colescott, Henk Pander and Michael Brophy, Cramer only adds to the most mature stable of artists in Portland while adding a dash of flash.

The announcement card indicates that he has a one-person show scheduled for October 2007 (Ive seen some of the work, he just keeps getting better).

Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 20, 2006 at 11:04 | Comments (1)

Tuesday 11.14.06

Developing Culture

Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 14, 2006 at 11:27 | Comments (0)

Sunday 11.12.06

James Chasse Jr., artist and model

James 'Jim Jim' Chasse by Randy Moe
courtesy of Chambers Gallery

At this point, most Portland residents are familiar with the story of James Chasse's tragic, unconscionable death in police custody. Out-of-towners and those who are a little hazy on the details can read about the incident here.

As a teenager in the late 70's and early 80's, Chasse was a friend of several longtime members of the local art scene, including Eva Lake and Randy Moe. In his late teens, Chasse changed dramatically after developing schizophrenia, which he struggled with until his death on September 17th, 2006. When Moe and Lake learned that Chasse had been killed, they were already preparing for an exhibition of Moe's portraits at Chambers Gallery, which Lake manages. Presciently entitled, It's a Sad, Sad, Sad, Sad World, the show has been expanded to include a portrait of Chasse and a binder filled with photocopies of The Oregon Organism, a zine Chasse created while in his early teens. Moe used an old polaroid photograph of a 14-year old Chasse, affectionately known as 'Jim Jim,' as the source for his memorial portrait...............(more)

Posted by Jessica Bromer on November 12, 2006 at 9:13 | Comments (2)

Friday 11.10.06

Exhibition space not rental space

Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 10, 2006 at 14:31 | Comments (0)

Thursday 11.09.06

Bubble wrapped bubble cars

Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 09, 2006 at 21:01 | Comments (2)

Wednesday 11.08.06

Round Up

YouTube!!! YouTube!!!

Can you believe what you can find on YouTube?

Posted by Melia Donovan on November 08, 2006 at 22:04 | Comments (1)

Name the aerial tram cars?

Commissioner Sam is giving us till the end of the month to name the new aerial tram cars, which are due to start tramming away any day now. Note, if they are named Lewis and Clark I'm gonna gag. The aerial tram is the most important structure to go up in Portland since Big Pink in terms of it being a lightning rod of civic symbolism and it's relationship to the kind of city that Portland is becoming should not be underestimated.

Here are some not so serious ideas:

Peanut butter & Jelly
Paige & Plant
Bud & Vera
Ned & Homer
Necessary & Evil
Luke & Laura
Sue Ellen & J.R
Yin & Yang
John and Kristy

My absolute worst idea = Enterprise & Galactica (Millennium Falcon just doesn't work)

You can email Sam Adams with your ideas here and have until 5:00 PM November 30th.

Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 08, 2006 at 9:45 | Comments (2)

Friday 11.03.06

If you can't beat the blogsphere, join it

Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 03, 2006 at 15:02 | Comments (1)

Artist's studio spaces don't have funerals, they have sales

Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 03, 2006 at 11:37 | Comments (0)

Wednesday 11.01.06

Round Up

Brice Marden, bad architecture, Matthew Barney and Joseph Bueys and a benefit.

Posted by Melia Donovan on November 01, 2006 at 10:00 | Comments (0)

Tuesday 10.31.06

Please allow me to introduce myself...

Posted by Jessica Bromer on October 31, 2006 at 16:23 | Comments (0)

Rolling Out The Welcome Wagon

Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 31, 2006 at 11:36 | Comments (0)

Sunday 10.29.06

All of tomorrow's art-y's, W's first art issue

W magazine's first ever art issue is out with a feature spread involving Richard Tuttle, whom I admire a lot and reviewed a few months ago here. Let's just say the Eden photoshoot is mostly window dressing and its saturated glossyness seems more typical of Pipilotti Rist than Tuttle's earthier and dryer sense of humor. His work demands a simple, more elemental aesthetic in order to be successful and I don't see that here. True, the fashion world and art have a lot in common, especially these days but one has to ask, does anything stimulating come of it? In Tuttle's case...maybe not. Better than the magazine spread, here is a video documenting the production. Then there is the whole issue of the diluting popularity of the art world.... which I'm on a fence or two about. Will popular mechanics have an art issue next?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 29, 2006 at 19:02 | Comments (0)

Wednesday 10.25.06

PICA Artist in Residence to Lecture Tonight

Current PICA artist in residence Viktor Popovic will lecture on his work tonight in PICA’s Resource Room. From Croatia, Mr. Popovic creates temporal, glowing installations using light, found and industrial materials....(more)

Posted by Melia Donovan on October 25, 2006 at 13:31 | Comments (0)

Favorite Buildings in Portland?

The Portland Tribune suddenly has a lot of stories on architecture and the quality of buildings in town this week. Strange, yes we have Graves' Portland Building but generally the city is more interested in people, books, food, music, art and complaining about the lack of architecture rather than architectural excellence itself. Still there has been a shift in the last 2 years.

One sign of the change in attitude is this Trib piece on local architects picking their favorite buildings in Portland (yes it's a quiet bunch of buildings, wait till the aerial tram is done for big a paradigm shift in the outward profile of architecture in Portland). Not surprisingly, the Sacks house on NW Glisan by Brad Cloepfil took top honors. What would PORT's readers pick? My pick is the Adidas campus by BOORA or the Fox Tower (the lobby is really superb) by Thompson Vaivoda and Associates... maybe the train station even. At the Organism's Gertrude salon last night many thought the Union Bank of California Tower deserved the nod, I agree it's an under-recognized gem. Let us know what your pick; Belmont Lofts, PNCA's interior, the Doug Fir, the St. Johns Theater & Pub? The aerial tram isn't completed yet and yes I wish the giant World's Fair log cabin (Oregon State Forestry Center 1905) still existed.

Then the Trib had this piece on the Frank Gehry that never happened. Good to remind people of that and overall it seems like Portlander's are demanding more quality from the architecture. I've been working on a series of atypical architectural photographs for the last 5 years so I have my own selfish reasons for this, 9/10ths of the photos are of buildings outside of Portland. Design-wise the city does seem to be wide awake now, let's see what comes of it in terms of buildings.

Also worth a look, the Portland Architecture blog had this nice post on a couple of interesting new fire stations a while back.

Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 25, 2006 at 11:32 | Comments (10)

Monday 10.23.06

Welcoming PAM's new chief

Today, Brian Ferriso started his new job as director of the Portland Art Museum, the big kahuna on Oregon's cultural scene. The O had an interview yesterday, with a lot of thoughtfully measured answers by Ferriso. There was also the paper's general attempt at creating a huge hullabaloo over the cost of the Mark building's renovation. Let's just say Ferriso has worked (with grace) under much more difficult financial situations. Although he wasn't the man in charge, the Milwaukee Art Museum's gorgeous but hugely expensive 100 million dollar +??? Santiago Calatrava expansion caused them to take truly drastic actions. Under that kind of difficult situation he was eventually promoted from senior director of curatorial affairs to deputy director. The message, this is a talented guy who can make lemonade with lemons. PAM's situation is much better. Here are some long and short term things to consider...(more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 23, 2006 at 21:55 | Comments (6)

Thursday 10.12.06

Amy Berstein's Bio

Posted by Amy Bernstein on October 12, 2006 at 20:11 | Comments (0)

PORT's latest addition

Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 12, 2006 at 11:30 | Comments (0)

Monday 10.09.06

Affair followup

Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 09, 2006 at 10:25 | Comments (1)

Friday 10.06.06

Do Something Nice

Start you weekend off right and feel good about yourself by helping others. The Children's Heart Foundation is holding their 2nd annual fundraiser, PULSE. Watch as 40 artists work for eight hours to make a piece that will later be available to bid on at a live auction. The impressive list of artists include Mark Andres, Troy Briggs, Rebecca Scheer, and Andi Kovel to name a few. $100 will get you into the preview party that features food by local favs clarklewis and Andina as well as an opportunity for secure bidding. $45 will get you into the Pulse party at 7pm.
Pulse • Children's Heart Foundation fundraiser
Saturday October 7
Preview Party • $100 • 5p
Pulse Party • $45 • 7p
2537 NW 29th • Portland, Or

Posted by Jenene Nagy on October 06, 2006 at 22:11 | Comments (0)

North Mississippi growing pains

Brian Libby at Portland Architecture has a great post on the fate of Holst's new building on North Mississippi. Both sides have good points this time but cant they work things out? Will this BDS decision have a withering effect on good design in the city and lead to a bunch of crummy, designer outlet store approved faux historic travesties? Or can the anarchists and design gurus make nice by realizing that modern design can actually highlight the funkier historic buildings in a kind of anachronistic-modern tango? The middle of the road way leads to homogenized aesthetics and Brian is right to be concerned. What is at stake here is what I call Portland's "Freak Factor" and I think everyone needs to stop thinking purely in terms of, "what fits?" That kind of thinking leads to self-parody and the apple store decision on NW 23rd was simply sad. Instead, decisions should emphasize what stands out. A modern building coexisting next to an anachronist collective just slays me, it should happen and would be sooo Portland.

Holst architecture does very sharp yet inviting work and previous projects like the Belmont lofts look great on that funky street in the SE... so why not in NoPo with a few possible changes? Look, change is coming it can either celebrate excellence or mediocrity.

As Brian pointed out: the Portland Landmarks Commission will hear an appeal of the BDS rejection on Monday at 1:30pm (1900 SW Fourth Avenue, 4th floor - be there.)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 06, 2006 at 16:02 | Comments (0)

Round Up

Randomly Random

A bit ago, there was mention of Damien Hirst not exactly following directions resulting in the need to replace the shark in “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”. On the Time’s website there’s a video of the removal of the shark, which is somewhat fascinating....(more)

Posted by Melia Donovan on October 06, 2006 at 10:05 | Comments (0)

Wednesday 10.04.06

PSU’s MFA Monday Night Lecture Series Begins

Robert A. Pruitt to open the series October 9th


Low Rider Art, 2004
stool, crushed velvet, bicycle wheel, chrome
57 1/2" x 16 1/4" x 9"

Posted by Melia Donovan on October 04, 2006 at 20:18 | Comments (2)

Tuesday 10.03.06

Last Chance

Biswas at Reed

There are several important shows closing this weekend so make certain to catch any of these that you may have missed:

The Portland Art Museum's 2006 Oregon Biennial. A good, if elegantly tame show by Portland's new standards. Yes, that is a good development on the elegance factor and the tame problem stems from the too abbreviated installations (Brittany Powell is the biggest victim, girl needs more than one wall) and an overabundance of works under glass. Portland has one of the most spatially activated scene's out there and we normally only see this much glass at the Affair Art Fair. Next time everyone will expect major installation "environments" and video art that isn't ghettoized in the back. Still, it's a good show especially if you arent an avid art scene aficionado, a good bit of catch up. Just know that installation art in Portland isn't normally so limited space wise. The show succeeds as the dignified museum show everyone had been asking for. Next time the museum needs to challenge expectations not just meet them. Ends Sunday October 8th.

Sutapa Biswas: Birdsong at Reed College's Cooley Gallery. I really enjoyed the first video "Magnesium Bird"... it is perfection, and although the new dual channel video "Birdsong" has its moments it feels a bit overcooked. The purposefully out of synch video images in Birdsong work particularly well when zoomed in close to the child's face but by actually showing the horse it spoils the mystery and uneasy mood, more Bruckheimer than Hitchcock. The narrative seems to have imbedded imperatives that are choking the art. It is worth seeing though, I loved the green room with bird paintings as one enters the gallery as well. Ends Sunday October 8th.

Also, don't miss the PICA TBA holdovers. If you miss Harrell Fletcher's The American War, you've missed one of the best contemporary art shows on the planet. Maria Abramovic's Balkan Erotic Epic may be the weakest art she has ever produced (by turning director, the performance artist is branching out) which gives you some idea of how great she is because this rates well as good festival fodder (still more tolerable than anything Bill Viola has done). Theo Angell, Red 76, PORT's own Katherine Bovee and Philippe Blanc and Matthew Day Jackson's work are on display through this week as well. Ends Friday October 6th except Blanc and Bovee on Saturday October 7th.

Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 03, 2006 at 10:47 | Comments (1)

Monday 10.02.06

Because brilliance still matters

Drawing by Leonardo da Vinci (image © Queen Elizabeth II/V&A)

Here are a few things that rise above the current (but ever popular) cult of mediocrity:

Walter Robinson points out out why Murakami kicks just so much ass on ArtNet, the secret to his talent is his G E N E R O S I T Y. He doesn't put on airs of passive aggressive shyness and gives others a chance to shine. One can be great and generous, no other living artist on the planet comes close to this kind of effect and Ill be there for his mid career retrospective at MOCA a year from now. Where Americans got all soft when adopting the kawaii (cute) culture, Murakami (and the original Japanese version) had teeth.

Also, Artinfo had an interview with John McCracken a while back, a brilliant artist of the asymptote (lines that reference infinity).

And last but not least Leonardo's (no not the Ninja Turtle) show at the V & A gives Adrain Searle a mental workout. Somehow da Vinci makes others raise the bar for themselves and Searle's quick phrase of "knight'-move thinker" has me smiling. In these times when people consider mere sincerity an adequate stand in for intellectual acuity this does my heart some good.

Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 02, 2006 at 10:28 | Comments (0)

Friday 09.29.06

Have an affair or be square

The Affair at the Jupiter Hotel Art Fair starts tonight. Be there or be square. The quibblers and naysayers said it would never last but here it is. Will it be be overfull of massively derivative, follow like sheep, self-conscious doodle works on paper that aren't even good enough to be on the cover of the Mercury? Sure, it wouldn't be an art fair if it didn't but it can't possibly have as many as last year. There are much better things on hand as well.

$100 gets you into the posh 6-9 PM opening but $10 gets you in at 9:00 PM tonight (PORT will be covering). Saturday and Sunday are nice if you want to browse and schmooze more casually...(more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 29, 2006 at 0:12 | Comments (0)

Wednesday 09.27.06

Round Up

Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci, circa 1503–1507
oil on poplar, 30 x 21 in
Musée du Louvre

I keep thinking about that small, tiny conversation that took place a couple of months ago here about gender equality in the local Art world and wonder, since it’s in the air in bloglandia, if it might be time to bring it up again.

Posted by Melia Donovan on September 27, 2006 at 22:34 | Comments (19)

Tuesday 09.26.06

Some-thing for everyone?

Bruce Nauman, Life, Death, Love, Hate, Pleasure, Pain (1983), Collection Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Gerald S. Elliott Collection

Here are some things to take in:

Richard Polsky discusses being an art broker and knowing where the bodies are on Artnet. Although he thinks Murakami's prices are out of whack he misses the point that Murakami is probably the most important artist of the last 15 years and his importance goes deeply into graphic design in a way a pure art market person might not get.

Matt McCormick loves Portland, nice to have you back MM. I think a lot of us have similar moments after traveling a lot.

Brian Libby looks at Brad Cloepfil's design for UMMA here. I think Cloepfil is great but his museums and gallery spaces often annoy me a little in their floaty non-corporeal use of natural light (it can and does work but it requires intervention to keep the space from muting a show's thunder). I prefer Ando's galleries... maybe SAM's addition will turn that view around.

I also really enjoyed David Cohen's take on Bruce Nauman and the other artists who use neon words (with diminished effect). I agree, Ive seen a lot of prank art with neon and most of it is forgettable. Only Joseph Kosuth and Jason Rhoades seem to do it with any worthwhile effect, for most others it's an easy way to make C+ grade hack conceptual art (every city has 2 or 3 of em and they are interchangable). Rhoades' solution works because his scenic route style absurdity rivals Nauman's anti-scenery. Kosuth makes it work because of its incredible bluntness rivals Nauman's blunt obfuscation. Still, Nauman is the man because of his relentless, pitiless existentialism and I can't wait for his travelling neon show at the Henry in 2007.

Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 26, 2006 at 12:04 | Comments (3)

Monday 09.25.06

What's with that big new gallery at 916 NW Hoyt?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 25, 2006 at 9:52 | Comments (2)

Wednesday 09.20.06

Round Up

Image of a termite mound courtesy of the Collective or
other Institution Emergence as found on Wikipedia

continued from last week…….

Posted by Melia Donovan on September 20, 2006 at 22:03 | Comments (0)

A resurgence in the Everett Station Lofts

With so many artists and a lot of new spaces popping up in unexpected locales there is a wild-westness and an equally pervasive camaraderie to the Portland art scene. Over the years the Everett Station Lofts have been the most important breeding ground and networking... (more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 20, 2006 at 12:08 | Comments (5)

Monday 09.18.06

Warhol Documentary

The NW Film center is screening Ric Burns' Andy Warhol Documentary tomorrow night. It clocks in at 4 hours with Laurie Anderson as the narrator and then there is the wry casting of Jeff Koons as the voice of Andy Warhol... kinda like casting one of the members of Oasis in a Beatles documentary. Should be interesting in a tragic Warholian sort of way. Here is a link to what the Village Voice said.


6:30 PM, September 19th
Northwest Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium at the Portland Art Museum: 1219 SW Park Ave.
Admission Prices: $7.00 General, $6.00 Members, Students, Seniors

Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 18, 2006 at 15:18 | Comments (5)

Friday 09.15.06

Reviewing the week

Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 15, 2006 at 11:00 | Comments (4)

Wednesday 09.13.06

Round Up

Here and there Portland artists are donating their work to fund organizations that benefit the arts communities in Portland and beyond. There’s a conundrum in that, which is neither here nor there, but the beneficiary in this case is you. Where else would you have the opportunity to buy a t-shirt designed by Miranda July with a picture of you both against the word PEACE? Or have the opportunity to buy a work from a current Oregon Biennial artist for 100 smackers?

Posted by Melia Donovan on September 13, 2006 at 22:26 | Comments (4)

Tuesday 09.12.06

Two must reads

Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 12, 2006 at 0:54 | Comments (0)

Saturday 09.02.06

Free Day at Portland Art Museum

Marcy Adzich's "The Divide" from the Oregon Biennial

Top your holiday weekend off with a free trip to the Portland Art Museum. The museum will be open free of charge Monday September 4, from 10-5pm. Still not sure what to think of the Jesse Hayward piece? Well here's your chance to give it another look. Along with the Oregon Biennial, exhibits include Through Rustling Grasses: Nature in the Japanese Print and the must see Richard Rezac work. Throughout the day museum docents will be leading free tours of several of the exhibits.

Free Day • Portland Art Museum
Monday September 4 • 10a-5p
1219 SW Park Ave • Portland, OR

Posted by Jenene Nagy on September 02, 2006 at 10:12 | Comments (0)

Friday 09.01.06

Weekly Web Roundup

Summer is ending and everyone’s excited about the coming Fall exhibitions. Opportunities abound throughout September for thoughtful and intelligent visual and performative culture in Portland. With everyone’s eyes to the immediate future, here are some tidbits from around the web pertinent to the roundup....(more)

Posted by Melia Donovan on September 01, 2006 at 21:34 | Comments (0)

First Friday September 2006

Greg Turco at Newspace

Yes it's one of those wierd inversions when First Friday comes before First Thursday. Of course it isn't the end of the world, it's just the beginning of September

Rachel Shapiro & Greg Turco • The View From here
Newspace is the most consistent 1st Friday stop and this duo of photographers only adds to the tradition.
Newspace Photography • 1632 se 10th portland, or 97214, 503 963-1935...(more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on September 01, 2006 at 13:56 | Comments (0)

Wednesday 08.30.06

Huyghe the entertainer?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 30, 2006 at 12:16 | Comments (1)

Monday 08.28.06

The effect?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 28, 2006 at 10:46 | Comments (1)

Friday 08.25.06

What to see?

James and Joey Lavadour at PDX Contemporary Art

What should you absolutely see this weekend? If you haven't caught James and Joey Lavadour's show at PDX gallery, do so. If you've seen it already, go and see it again, it's James' best to date. Look for a full on review next week from another PORT staffer (I've already called him the best abstract landscape painter alive today, what else can I say?... OK maybe that Joey's baskets work perfectly with this show too and should be reviewed together). D.K. "Death" Row reviews him favorably in the O's A&E... but some of the artists he compares him to seem more than a bit forced, there is nobody like Lavadour. Also, what's up with the Arthurian comparisons? The Columbia River Gorge etc. looks nothing like England or the north of France... (oh well)

Also, make a point to check out the multi-channel video piece by Dan and Bean Gilsdorf at Portland Modern's tiny but excellent corporate headquarters at 1715 NW Lovejoy....(more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 25, 2006 at 10:26 | Comments (3)

Thursday 08.24.06

Weekly Web Roundup

This week’s roundup is short and sweet. A couple of items that are curiously linked made their way across the information super highway to the sprawling offices of PORT.

First, an article in the New York Times on Saturday got me thinking about politically/socially engaged art as a catalyst for change and how that change doesn’t always equal the artist’s enthusiasm for the cause. Though the man in the article, Duraid Lahham, is an actor his sentiments cross genres. In context with the announcement, at the end of the Roundup, that PICA sent out, it seems a perfect opportunity to engage in a dialogue about political art and the expectations that artists have for their work...(more)

Posted by Melia Donovan on August 24, 2006 at 7:41 | Comments (1)

Tuesday 08.22.06

New Director of the Portland Art Museum is Brian Ferriso

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 22, 2006 at 16:02 | Comments (0)

2006 Oregon Biennial Awards Announced

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 22, 2006 at 15:11 | Comments (0)

Blogging the process

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 22, 2006 at 10:11 | Comments (0)

Monday 08.21.06

Surf's up on charisma?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 21, 2006 at 11:40 | Comments (0)

Wednesday 08.16.06

Gragg's Slag

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 16, 2006 at 17:43 | Comments (1)

Weekly Web Roundup

There are a lot of great resources for researching art and ideas online and around town. Academic, as well as public libraries hold an incredible supply of information in the greater Portland area. In addition, online resources grow daily and the ability to peruse through a catalog in New York or LA is incredibly easy. Please feel free share the resources that you know of by adding them to the list below in the comments that follow this entry...(more)

Posted by Melia Donovan on August 16, 2006 at 8:00 | Comments (0)

Tuesday 08.15.06

Last Chance

This week is your last chance to head down to Chinatown and see Wind Inside by Liz Harris at Motel. The gallery space proper is taken over by a pink and blue tape web, shifting the perception of the space. Accompanying the installation is a series of really nice works on paper where marks accumulate forming mass and structure. Hard fine lines of black pen intersect, jump and intertwine with gently ominous and organic spills of black iridescent ink. The black and white pieces play with optical perception where the close proximity of the multitudinous lines causes the drawings to “move” of their own accord.

Originally hailing from Northern California, Harris is a recent PDX transplant that I am sure we will see much more of.


Liz Harris, Wind Inside • Motel
Through August 19, 2006
19 NW 5th Avenue, Suite C • Portland, Oregon 97209
Located on NW Couch Street, between 5th & 6th Avenues

Posted by Jenene Nagy on August 15, 2006 at 15:11 | Comments (2)

Sunday 08.13.06

O! Vey

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 13, 2006 at 13:07

Friday 08.11.06

Drop in if you are in the neighborhood?

Bruce Conkle's latest show, conveniently located in nearby Iceland?

If you just so happen to find yourself in Iceland this weekend Bruce Conkle will be gracing Reykjavik's Living Art Museum with his latest show, "Landscape and Assassination." It opens tomorrow. Bruce has been talking about JFK's assassination, whale blubber and alumninum smelting so prepare yourself. Also, I love that visit Iceland website which contains statements like, "Iceland is not only closer than you think..." Uh, no it isn't, it's actually really far from the US and that's part of the attraction... (more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 11, 2006 at 12:41 | Comments (4)

Thursday 08.10.06

Weekly Web Roundup

Though it may have seemed that the recent question about those selected for the 8th Northwest Biennial in the comments area was sloughed off, it got me to thinking. Often the question of gender comes up when a list like this comes out. In an effort to allow ourselves to judge the quality of the work rather than the quantity of men vs. women, I thought I’d try to gather some visual information...(more)

Posted by Melia Donovan on August 10, 2006 at 22:08 | Comments (12)

PAM acquires video art from Biennial

Still From Jo Jackson's History: the Complete Drawings

Surprise, the Portland Art Museum will acquire video art from the Oregon Biennial. Last night in a very close vote, 65 members of the museum's Contemporary Art Council (disclosure I am one of the Co-VP's) gave the nod to Jo Jackson's, "History: the Complete Drawings." Its an excellent piece, chronicling the birth and death of various nation states. It's 45 minutes long and is flash based. Curators, Bruce Guenther and Jennifer Gately seemed very excited about the acquisition and the technical challenges of maintaining the work when the computer that runs it needs to be replaced in 5 years or so. The council was very interested in the # of video works in the collection and this decision certainly adds to its holdings significantly.

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 10, 2006 at 11:34 | Comments (1)

Wednesday 08.09.06

A sense of scale

image and thermogram from current Mt. St. Helens eruption

For those who might be taking the erupting volcano in Portland's backyard for granted, check this out (that's less than a month folks and the area is massive)... Richard Serra's got nothing on Mt. St. Helens, but who does?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 09, 2006 at 1:03 | Comments (1)

Tuesday 08.08.06

9/11's effect on art?

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 08, 2006 at 10:50 | Comments (0)

Monday 08.07.06

Saturated Pasture

This is the final week to view Jenene Nagy’s Saturated Pasture at the Portland Building. Here she re-evaluates the constructed landscape and our relationship to it through the use of ordinary materials such as house paint, Styrofoam and painted nails in her installation in the second floor gallery.

Saturated Pasture by Jenene Nagy • The Portland Building
1120 SW 5th Avenue • 7a - 6p • Monday - Friday
Closes August 11

Posted by Melia Donovan on August 07, 2006 at 21:22 | Comments (0)

8th Northwest Biennial at Tacoma Art Museum

8th Northwest Biennial at Tacoma Art Museum

The wait is over, the artists have been chosen. Out of 900 submissions (a 100% increase over previous biennial submissions), 41 artists were selected for the “visual impact of the images, the scope of each artist’s contributions, and the stage of the artist’s career.” ...(more)

Posted by Melia Donovan on August 07, 2006 at 20:50 | Comments (6)

Sunday 08.06.06

inClover Report

unidentified bird of prey in Mt Scott Park Saturday August 5th

Ok it was a modified form of "art in a park" and on paper it sounded like a potentially terrible event, but it wasn't. Sure, some of the work was iffy but some was pretty good to excellent (Michael Keenan, Ellen George, Carolyn Zick, Harvest Henderson, Jacqueline Ehlis, Justin Oswald, TJ Norris+Abi Spring and a few others all had particularly strong works). Many had a lot of interesting references to Robert Smithson's work, utilizing a reflective/dislocating surface (Ehlis, TJ+Abi) and Harvest made a circle akin to the spiral jetty made of salad (with a name like "Harvest" it's unavoidable I guess). The fact that a couple of what I think were falcons (of the gyr variety? in Portland?) were hanging out in the park only made it... (more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 06, 2006 at 20:58 | Comments (3)

Friday 08.04.06

Weekly Web Roundup

The 2006 Oregon Biennial


For this week’s Weekly Web Roundup the focus is on the 2006 Oregon Biennial. I haven’t been in to see it yet. Lame, I know, but I’m going on Saturday. So, with that, it seems to me that a collection of the reviews might be in order. Much like the discussion surrounding the artist statement, reading a review beforehand can have a similar effect. Will it taint the way one thinks about the work and the exhibition as a whole? Surely, they will call up issues that one might not have noticed going in cold.

Posted by Melia Donovan on August 04, 2006 at 10:56 | Comments (4)

Avoiding tunnel vision

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 04, 2006 at 10:02 | Comments (0)

Wednesday 08.02.06

Rhoades Tragedy

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 02, 2006 at 10:20 | Comments (3)

Tuesday 08.01.06

Feedback Loops

Posted by Jeff Jahn on August 01, 2006 at 14:40 | Comments (9)

Saturday 07.29.06

Weekly Web Round-up

It’ll have to be a mini round up this week as I’m happily stuck in the studio and can’t tear myself away for long. I’m neglecting everything and everyone and though it feels selfish on some level – I have a family to care for and the laundry is piling up – I'm really not feeling that bad......(more)

Posted by Melia Donovan on July 29, 2006 at 12:25 | Comments (0)

Friday 07.28.06

Your Insider's Guide to the Oregon Biennial

Federico Nessi's Hero #1

The Oregon Biennial opens Saturday night. Here is your insider's guide:

(PORT brought you this Oregon Biennial list first)

As the curator Jennifer Gately states in her essay, " Those who track the scene here will find relatively few surprises." That probably means you PORT readers...(much more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 28, 2006 at 19:45 | Comments (1)

Thursday 07.27.06

Organism launch event

Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 27, 2006 at 11:12 | Comments (0)

Wednesday 07.26.06

Get a Job

Great opportunity for the smart and savvy. And, it really isn't as far away as you think.
Full-time Temporary Photography Instructor for 2006/07 year.
Teaching responsibilities will include 18 contact hours of Digital Photography and Darkroom Photography. Other responsibilities will include overseeing darkroom and computer labs and supervising Lab Technician. (more...)

Posted by Jenene Nagy on July 26, 2006 at 17:11 | Comments (0)

He Still has it after all these years

Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 26, 2006 at 14:04 | Comments (0)

Tuesday 07.25.06

Tramming it up

Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 25, 2006 at 11:50 | Comments (0)

Sunday 07.23.06

The other Washington posts on the Oregon Biennial

Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 23, 2006 at 17:26 | Comments (0)

Thursday 07.20.06

Weekly Web Round-up

Trash

When did trash become so cool? I ask you that question because as I write and edit this piece I am drinking wine out of a can – with a bendy straw.

Posted by Melia Donovan on July 20, 2006 at 22:06 | Comments (6)

We Will Link You

Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 20, 2006 at 17:12 | Comments (2)

Wednesday 07.19.06

Organism Emerges

Details of (PORT's own) Jeff Jahn's latest curatorial concoction have begun to emerge. Organism's nascent aesthetic is one of hyperconnectivity and rampant lateral growth in which different genres and ideas freely intertwine, following the model of neurons forming new and unexpected synaptic connections. For instance, in it's launch event, it creates an interchange between Rock Stars like Courtney Taylor-Taylor of the Dandy Warhols, and video art by Pipilotti Rist.

The launch is called Introducing Organism it is a fundraiser, kickoff and exhibit on July 27th at the Wonder Ballroom

(tickets are available at ticketmaster the wonder ballroom and by sending an email to organism:

Info@artorganism.org

Music will be provided by The Dandy Warhols along with Small Sails opening. There will be 1 piece of video art by Pipilotti Rist as well as more info on organism at the event. Tickets are $15 advance $20 day of, $40 VIP lounge (upstairs and includes two free vodka drinks, thanks to Portland's own New Deal Vodka).

Organism's website can be found at: www.artorganism.org

more details....

Posted by Isaac Peterson on July 19, 2006 at 6:13 | Comments (0)

Monday 07.17.06

Portlanding about

Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 17, 2006 at 22:46 | Comments (3)

Thursday 07.13.06

Cancel your plans! Art this weekend!

Friday and Saturday boast two offerings of note in Portland for art-o-philes and those that love them.

Posted by Melia Donovan on July 13, 2006 at 22:17 | Comments (0)

The Metrop$20litan Museum

Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 13, 2006 at 12:16 | Comments (11)

Monday 07.10.06

Weekly Web Roundup

Time once again for the Weekly Web Roundup....(more)

Posted by Melia Donovan on July 10, 2006 at 8:00 | Comments (0)

Sunday 07.09.06

Matt McCormick in The New Tork Times

Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 09, 2006 at 17:45 | Comments (0)

Monday 07.03.06

Holiday reading

Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 03, 2006 at 17:04 | Comments (1)

Friday 06.30.06

Local Perspective

Clifford Gleeson (far left), Milton Wilson (large center painting), anonymous sculpture (foreground)

Be certain to check out two significant historical shows that close this weekend. There's Hilda Morris's show of small sculpture and sumi ink drawings at Laura Russo Gallery and the excellent Milton Wilson and his peers at Pulliam Deffenbaugh to check out... (more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 30, 2006 at 12:25 | Comments (0)

Free day at Portland Art Museum

The Portland Art Museum is open free of charge today and yes you can take advantage of it even if your day job keeps you occupied during office hours, the Museum is open till 8:00 PM on Thursdays and Fridays.

Besides the Hilda Morris and Great Painters in Bresca shows there are some things to really take note of at the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art.

First of all be certain to check out the Richard Rezac show that PORT reported on earlier.

But the most exciting works are some of the pieces on loan. The show stopper is Mark Rothko's "Homage to Matisse" (lent by an anonymous donor) it's an essential work that needs to be included in any serious Rothko retrospective and the single most important artwork residing in the Pacific Northwest right now, yes it set an auction record for Rothko late last year.

Other highlights are an early Untitled Donald Judd lent by the Miller Meigs collection. It's absolutely extra nice with its vermilion red color and placement near an Agnes Martin.

Then there is the wonderful Hans Hofmann that really adds something to the Abstract Expressionist room.

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 30, 2006 at 0:00 | Comments (0)

Wednesday 06.28.06

Think

This Fourth of July, Sam Gould and the members of Red76 present you with an opportunity to experience an auditory glimpse into the war in Iraq.  Entitled Bring the War Home, it is the closing project for a three-month residency the group held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Bring The War Home is a simple action set into motion to help remind Americans of the war in Iraq on the Fourth of July, and provoke discussion on the topic.  Utilizing audio and video soldiers have recorded, Red76 has created a sound collage formatted into a downloadable MP3.  Download this MP3 and play it outdoors as you feast on your hotdogs and down your PBRs.  Remind yourself and your neighbors what those fireworks are all about.

As an art group with sometimes changing members, Red76 seeks to create installations, performances and events that constantly point to the outside world, creating “an atmosphere wherein the public may become hyper aware of their surroundings and their day-to-day activities”.  Established in 2000, Red76 have produced projects locally, nationally, and internationally. To learn more about Red76 and their latest project, click here.

Posted by Jenene Nagy on June 28, 2006 at 21:28 | Comments (0)

Weekly Web Round-up

Courtesy of Michael John Muuss

The heat of summer is clearly in Portland and so begins the slowing of the art season. That must be why I can’t seem to find much of interest for this week’s Weekly Web Round-up. I've got a couple of articles and a couple of activities for you to do while enjoying the lowered temperatures to come.

Posted by Melia Donovan on June 28, 2006 at 9:56 | Comments (3)

Thursday 06.22.06

Getting Tiki with it

a cool Tiki mug

Yes, PORT will have some pretty hefty content for you on Monday night (Matthew Day Jackson) but until then here is some weekend fodder to sacrifice to the volcano god:

Portland's TIKI-KON starts on Friday, click here for details. If you love kitschy pseudo Polynesian culture and strong silly drinks this is for you. Apparently they will be taking a big tour of Portland's best private Tiki bars on Sunday. The main event though is Saturday which starts at the Jupiter Hotel, features a School of Rum bus and of a tour of Portland's public Tiki bars. There's even a sneak peek of the soon to open Thatch bar. Go and appease the volcano gods!...(more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 22, 2006 at 22:43 | Comments (0)

Weekly Web Round-up

Courtesy of Michael John Muuss

Welcome to the first installment of the Weekly Web Roundup (name to change when I can think of a catchier title-any suggestions?). The plan is to post links to articles, shows and websites that are either related to Portland’s art scene, completely ridiculous or both. All I ask in return is for you to write me (melia@portlandart.net) whenever you’ve found something, written something-or had something written about you or others related to the arts in Portland that's linkable. If it's unrelated but funny, it'll probably make it to the list too....(more)

Posted by Melia Donovan on June 22, 2006 at 8:00 | Comments (3)

Wednesday 06.21.06

One Minute Film Fest @ Holocene

This Thursday night, the very trendy but actually quite cool Holocene is hosting the third annual One Minute Film Festival put on by Telegraph.  As one of the younger art non-profits in town, Telegraph strives to link artists of different mediums together and to connect these artists with an audience.  This year’s film fest features work by Ryan Jeffrey, whose evocative film was shown at PDX in May, Matt McCormick, and Jeremy Bird, among many others.  The thread to all the films is that they are only 60 seconds long, so if you decide that one might not be your cup of tea, the pain will end quickly.  

One Minute Film Festival • Thursday June 22 • 9pm
Holocene • 1001 SE Morrison
$4-$10 sliding scale

Posted by Jenene Nagy on June 21, 2006 at 22:18 | Comments (0)

Sunday 06.18.06

Tram a-lamma ding dong

*Update, The tram is now complete


The beginnings of the aerial tram's middle tower as seen from the east

The 20 story tall middle tower for the innovative and uber controversial aerial tram by AGPS architects is finally rising right next to I-5. Apart from being an impressive engineering feat it certainly does look good in its aluminum skin (yes some would rather have a log ride).

Look, I like the project... it's the first bit of really innovative architecture to rise in Portland in decades and considering how many design jobs exist in this city it may be the first real outward symbol of the sea change taking place here (sophistication wise), besides the art scene. An armada of condos alone do not make for sophisticated citzenry and Portland is learning to not hide its strengths to the outside world anymore...(more)

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 18, 2006 at 23:23 | Comments (16)

Saturday 06.17.06

The Winner of PORT's 1st Annual Pretentious Art Writing Contest

The oppressive humor archetype

The pop-art (yet neo-minimalist) etchings of Ziggy and Family Circus, both liegemen to the Lichtensteinian legacy, question their own raison d'etre. Are they visual tropes? Are they self-conscious (self-mocking/self-loathing) po-mo nombrilisme? Or are they simply (and solely) stochastic snapshots sans lexical basis? The Family Circus series can best be examined as artistic interventions against the oppressive humor archetype, whereas the unappealingly desperate musings of Cathy Guisewite's eponymous series are truly indebted to Jenny Holzer’s oeuvre. Or, as Baudrillard and Guillaume so succinctly state, “What is produced with the romantic turn…is…the…play of…masculine hysteria…of …sexual paradigms that once again must be reinserted in the more general and universal context of a change in the paradigms of otherness.”[1]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Jean Baudrillard and Marc Guillaume, Figures de l'alterite. Paris: Descartes et Cie., 1994.


Submitted by Ethan Ham, who recieved a $50 Le Happy gift certificate for this fantastic abuse of thought and words. Thank you to everyone who submitted and to Le Happy, makers of the Le Trash Blanc crepe for their fantastic generosity and food.

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 17, 2006 at 22:07 | Comments (1)

Wednesday 06.14.06

Turner Short List Announced

Tate has announced the four artists who have been short-listed for the often controversial Turner Prize 2006. The artists are Tomma Abts, Phil Collins, Mark Titchner and Rebecca Warren. The Prize, established in 1984, is awarded to a British artist under fifty for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the twelve months preceding 9 May 2006. 
This year’s members of the jury include: (more)

Posted by Jenene Nagy on June 14, 2006 at 10:01 | Comments (0)

Tuesday 06.13.06

What works in Work/Live?

Posted by Melia Donovan on June 13, 2006 at 14:28 | Comments (0)

Friday 06.09.06

Richard Rezac

Saturday, the Portland Art Museum will play host to sculptor Richard Rezac’s work for a second time. The museum’s 1985 Oregon Artists Biennial debuted Mr. Rezac’s work 11 years after graduating from PNCA’s BFA program. Twenty-one years later, he is back with a selection of sculptures and drawings from 1998-2005...(more)

Posted by Melia Donovan on June 09, 2006 at 8:00 | Comments (3)

Tuesday 06.06.06

Affair In the Air

Well, folks, its confirmed.  The 3rd Affair at the Jupiter Hotel art fair will be held on Sept 29-Oct.1, 2006.
This influential event (the Aqua in Miami has since been modeled after the Affair) should prove to be even more extensive in representing a larger slice of the national scene.  With less emphasis on Portland galleries than we have seen in the past, this year’s affair includes notables such as Modern Culture, Lemon Sky, and Saltworks.
Co-Organizers Laurel Gitlen and Stuart Horodner surely know how to get the numbers out (over 3000 visitors last year) but what remains to be seen is how much of that traffic relates to actual sales.    In any case, it’s a great event to sample galleries from out of town and to make some connections. 

This year’s special events include

more...

Posted by Jenene Nagy on June 06, 2006 at 8:26 | Comments (4)

Monday 06.05.06

Seeing the Oregonian for what it is

Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 05, 2006 at 0:00 | Comments (3)