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The New Faces of the Portland Art Scene
Whether the economy is bubbling or collapsing Portland continues to attract new faces (often with new spaces). With more and more leaders to our ever growing and evolving scene there is most certainly yet another new wave in effect. Here are just a few of the new faces everyone should have on their
radar (I'm certain there are many more... it's impossible to keep track of the in flow so feel free to nominate them in the comments).
The attention getting Jhordan Dahl caught our attention as an artist in 2007
at the Affair at the Jupiter hotel in Mark Woolley's bathroom (while still a
PNCA student) and her most recent curatorial effort White
Noise. She's serious, smart and sweats the details with a lot of edge...
setting her apart from most of the softer slacker/hipster wannabe artists we spend
a lot of time ignoring. I'd like to go on the record stating there haven't been
enough young, independent female curators active in Portland... (a few years
ago it seemed overbalanced with to many alpha male efforts.. many of which were
more alpha male territorial exercises than concerted curatorial efforts). Let's
hope she pulls together a solo show of her own work or another group show this
summer.
Justin Bland is a
2008 PNCA graduate who has been very active as a curator of shows like Monster at
Appendix Project space and the impressively professional Green
Oregon (a much bigger survey like this is in order). In Miami's 2008 art fair
he participated in Deitch Projects... (much more)
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on July 01, 2009 at 15:00
| Comments (2)
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STORE For A Month
 Taking a page from Claes Oldenberg, artist and local businessman John Brodie gave a large crowd of Portland artists and collectors reason to celebrate a little, despite the down economy with STORE For A Month. The work was affordably priced with some real gems. Works by Paige Saez (the gold cutouts) and PORT's own Arcy Douglass (the stark black and white paintings) were some of my favorites.
...(more)
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on June 06, 2009 at 8:42
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Seeing the Sun Tunnels another way

Obviously, looking at land art is very different than your typical gallery experience and the environmental conditions exert a powerful, ever changing influence. Generally that environmental presence is part of the piece and while on a land art sojourn PORT's Arcy Douglass found a particularly dramatic way to take in the normally quiet Sun Tunnels by Nancy Holt... (more)
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on May 28, 2009 at 9:09
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Journey To The Center Of The Universe
Yesterday, I visited The Center of The Universe, a hilarious Bruce
Nauman piece on the University of New Mexico's campus. Never has the search for
a large chunk of public sculpture been so amusing. Just image 3 critic and curator
types wandering around a large campus asking students about where "The
Center of The Universe" is located... (more)
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on May 12, 2009 at 11:09
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Installation art or architecture?
Ok, yesterday I pointed out how top architects were often doing more intellectually and visually engaged installations than the installation artists who emerged during the past 2 decades have.
To counter my own argument, here are three artists who can and do often out-install most of those architects:
 Cornelia Parker's Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991) ...(more)
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on April 30, 2009 at 10:50
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Architecture or installation art?
This has been nagging at me for at least 5 years now, but are the best architects today doing better installation art than our installation artists? For your consideration:
 UN Studio
...(more)
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on April 29, 2009 at 12:21
| Comments (8)
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CAN can at Creative Capacity Town Hall
Last night's CAN (creative advocacy network) town hall meeting last night, ran long... had some interesting new info and was somewhat encouraging, even in this
difficult economic environment. In general (as in past
meetings) it was about creating a public funding source (via taxes) that
has a chance of being passed. Many are understandably skeptical but this isn't
being run like an arts organization, it's being run like a political campaign.
Here is a detailed PDF of the plan. I liked the focus on suitcase funds for artists, greater cultural tourism support and more focus on emerging artists for RACC (that's a major change from RACC a decade ago when I first moved here, but there is always more work to do).
 Pointing out the obvious, while planning to jump start 20 million in funding for the arts. Denver is so high because they passed an arts funding measure similar to what Portland is planning.
Basically, Sam Adams and company laid out a roadmap for increasing public support for
the arts in Portland's metro area.... (more)
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on April 14, 2009 at 12:13
| Comments (10)
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Zombie Art Crawl - New York March 2009

Helen Altman's dead eyed zombie goldfish simulacra at DCKT
contemporary seemed to capture the lingering mood of vulnerability in New
York City recently. It was also a hilarious update on Damien Hirst's shark which
rocked the art world in 1992 from London (version 2.0 is at the Met, I'll touch
on that later in this post).
If we are talking trends, zombie-like figurative art and prismatic crystalline
aesthetics have been big in the art world for years and New York in March 2009
mostly gave us more of the same. It isn't bad but there was zero surprise from young artists and I do see more energy and less
group think in LA and sometimes yes...episodically better shows in Portland
(our best shows... every month or two are as good as or even more original than
NYC's current standards). What was consistently better in New York was the presentation,
which beat out LA spaces and generally had less of that annoying overcrowding
I often find in Portland spaces (in all but our best shows by mature, fully
developed artists). In New York even immature artists try to emulate mature
artists by not overcrowding. Maybe it's just that presentation is more important
when you have 400 plus serious galleries in one city and the gallery staff insists
on uncluttered presentations from young artists?
The other thing I noticed was a general drought of installation art in New York
galleries this month. It wasn't until I hit The
Sculpture Center that I was happy to find a lot of installation art by younger
artists... (much more)
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on March 26, 2009 at 22:45
| Comments (0)
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Art Basel Miami Beach 2008
Vernissage ABMB 2008. The orange piece is Ai Weiwei's
Cube Light, 2008 Meile All photos Vanessa Calvert
The hall was packed and work was selling at the Vernissage according to Vanessa Calvert, who took pictures of Art Basel Miami Beach's main event fair this year. Will things be as brisk throughout the weekend? Last year ABMB did well while satellite fairs were less robust and I expect that trend to continue, the art world isn't going to simply stop buying art. I suspect it's the relatively expensive young rising-star artists whose markets will get hit hard. The speculation days are likely gone but people who love art still love art and will support it... (more)
Posted by Guest
on December 04, 2008 at 10:47
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North Coast Seed Building Open House 2008
Last Saturday night the North
Coast Seed building held its anual open house for its many artist studios
and creative workspaces (one of several important studio buildings owned by
Ken Unkeles), here's a little photo tour:
Cynthia Lahti...(more)
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on November 03, 2008 at 17:55
| Comments (0)
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Falcon Artist Community & Suddenly Booklaunch
There have been a host of events in the past week, but here are some pics of the Falcon Art Community's open house on the 18th and yesterday's Suddenly: where we live opening + booklaunch & psychedelic sprawl at Reed.
Falcon Art Community
The Falcon Art Community by developer Brian Wannemaker may be the most successful new attempt at artist live/work space in Portland. Being at the busy intersection of Albina and...(more)
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on September 22, 2008 at 12:56
| Comments (0)
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They Say Everything's Bigger in Texas
Dan Flavin, "Untitled" (detail foreground), 1996
Photographic highlights of my recent trip to Houston, featuring the stunning Menil Collection. (much more)
Posted by Megan Driscoll
on April 25, 2008 at 8:45
| Comments (10)
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Report From Berlin by Bean Gilsdorf
clockwise from top L: Gabriele Basch, keychain from Guggenheim
Berlin, Raymond Pettibon, Holocaust Memorial, graffiti, Hamburger Banhof visitors
Place is a fundamental concept. There is something about a change in geography
and language that reveals to the traveler a whole new way of thinking, a unique
aesthetic. "Culture shock" is the relatively pejorative term we use
for breaking out of our paradigm of living, but sometimes shock is both essential
and welcome; an unfamiliar cultural environment is a wake-up call to those of
us operating on autopilot.
Like me, you might be sorry to see this perspective cast aside with a dismissive
wave in last week's NYT Style Magazine. A Travel Spring 2008 article proclaimed,
"Expats in Berlin have turned the city into one big arty party," as
though the best reason to go to an international arts hub is for the revelry.
But for artists and arts patrons, the best Berlin has to offer isn't the party,
but the culture shock. Here are some of the highlights of what I found there
last week:...(more)
Posted by Guest
on April 08, 2008 at 19:25
| Comments (4)
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NADA and Scope Fairs 2007
 Bellwether had a successful looking single artist booth
Well Portland's galleries all seemed to do ok to great in Miami last week and
the WWeek
covered some of the social side of it. As far as the best fair goes Id have to give
the award to NADA. For years they have looked like purveyors of minor art world
insider jokes, amateur hour scribbles and a general leg humping attitude towards
Matthew Higgs. This year they grew up with numerous single artist booths and
a strange new preoccupation with modernist abstraction. Be it mirrors with AbEx
gunk on them or outright references to Suprematism or De Stijl. What's more
it wasn't completely ironic, there was a real love for minimalism, clean lines
and rewarding aesthetic experiences.
It's like Dave Hickey has supplanted Higgs (both of whom have very different
but somewhat equally narrow aesthetic preoccupations). The Scope fair was somewhat rough going
and I'll tackle them last.
...(more)
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on December 12, 2007 at 13:45
| Comments (2)
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Art Positions and the Aqua Fairs, Miami 2007
Portland's favorite chicken accessorizer Laura Lima's pagent on South Beach.
First off there were way too many fairs this year. If the fair isn't more established
like ABMB, Nada, Aqua, Pulse, Art Miami and Scope it might be time to reconsider
putting on an art fair. Depending how one counted it "21" fairs is simply an awful
lot for any human collector to hit. Fairs like Pulse and Nada really know how to attact collectors
and that is key for sattelite fairs to ABMB. Some like the Aquas seem to get by on quality,
whereas other fairs like Scope seemed to be too big by half.
Here is a rundown of Art Positions, Aqua Hotel and Aqua Wynwood. NADA (which I consider it to have been the clear winner
this year for sattelite fairs) and Scope will have another post. (I missed Pulse so take that into consideration... as well as the fact that Ive been very critical of NADA in the past)  Cris Bruch's sculpture (FG) and Sean Healy's tigers (BG)at Portland's Elizabeth Leach Gallery
...(more)
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on December 11, 2007 at 15:20
| Comments (0)
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Art Basel Miami Beach 2007
 Terence Koh at Peres Projects (mirrors were big this year)
As expected ABMB looked the best of all the fairs and the name galleries seemed to do quite well on sales, though NADA significantly upped their ante and was probably the most rewarding edgy fair now that theyve grown up a bit beyond trying to corner the hipster clique art market. Both Aqua fairs looked good for the most part and most of the Portland artists I met milling about Miami had sales to brag about. Matt McCormick has done probably the best (besides Chris Johanson). Overall, sales at the other fairs were significantly saner or worse (ie much less than 2006.. there will be a weeding out of fairs for 2008) and on the whole I felt the general quality/excitment of the work available was lower than in 2005. Scope was pretty terrible with a few notable exceptions... I'll have more on the other fairs. Right now I want to focus on the main event, ABMB:
 Kehinde Wiley & Mickalene Thomas ( a onetime Portlander) at Rhona Hoffman (one of THE best booths this year)
 Catherine Sullivan's B&W video at Catherine Bastide was the best thing I saw in Miami
...(much more)
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on December 09, 2007 at 1:28
| Comments (0)
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Jupiter Affair '07 - serene and surreal, to 80s music
The Jupiter Affair 2007 comes through for the fourth year-- possibly more serene and surreal, as opening night goers meander through a maze of fresh art, to tunes from the 80s in the background. An opening eve, more conducive to art collecting and buying than last year's Friday bash, which featured local sounds of Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. An air of excitement and nervousness as we hang on to the last days of summer. There is something about photographing art and people at this eve affair, as they move in and out of hotel rooms, that puts you in a bit of a Hitchcock-ian meets Body Heat mode of taking photos. The photos are not so much about documenting as they are about catching a feeling or a special kind of light from the eve. A gesture of a hand... a leaning up against a door. A Japanese monk sculpture smiles at you at James Harris. At a next turn, a performance artist in camo is breathing at you through the glass at 65 Grand... I liked not knowing what to expect at this Affair opening.
Photography by Sarah Henderson - www.sirenapictures.com
White Columns, from New York
Under the rain tent...
James Harris Gallery, from Seattle, features monk sculptures by Akio Takamori.
...(more)
Posted by Sarah Henderson
on September 18, 2007 at 21:13
| Comments (2)
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Radial imagery in Art
Ok, I have a lot of theories about this trend/trope. There is a sense of inward and outward motion in this type of radial imagery. It might signify a way to both leave the world and or to project an outward sense of change? It is both explosive and inward reflective. Either way it is everywhere in art right now and there are plenty of historical precedents. I'll let the images speak for themselves:
 Tomma Abts, Teete, 2003, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. © Jon Pratty / 24 Hour Museum
Mark Grotjahn Untitled (Green Butterfly Red Mark Grotjahn 04) 2004
...(more)
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on September 10, 2007 at 0:30
| Comments (7)
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Craft PDX Block Party - attracts and engages many
One more DeSoto Project posting from PORT. As you may know by now, the Museum of Contemporary Craft hosted Craft PDX: A Block Party this past Sunday. This event attracted and kept crowds throughout the entire 7.5 hour event, ending on fine musical notes of 3 Leg Torso.
- Photo essay by Sarah Henderson -
Posted by Sarah Henderson
on July 25, 2007 at 19:39
| Comments (0)
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From Daisy Kingdom to DeSoto Project: Portland's New Art Cluster
- Photography by Sarah Henderson -
 Blue Sky photography.
 Preparators and contractors continue their install for the re-opening of Museum of Contemporary Craft.
 Charles A. Hartman Fine Art features elegant photographic works by Camille Solyagua.
Posted by Sarah Henderson
on July 20, 2007 at 12:49
| Comments (0)
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Some picks from the Armory Show 2007

Installation shot- The
Armory Show...(more)
Posted by Amy Bernstein
on February 26, 2007 at 13:40
| Comments (3)
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Portland's Aerial Tram Opens - Sci-fi transpo in real life
Posted by Sarah Henderson
on January 27, 2007 at 12:10
| Comments (5)
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Miami Art fairs (part 3, favorites) by Amy Steel
Miami fair favorites...(more)
Posted by Guest
on December 13, 2006 at 17:57
| Comments (2)
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Miami Art fairs (part 2) by Amy Steel
Portland has a striking presence in Miami. Chris Johanson and Harrell Fletcher are showing at Jack Hanley at the Nova fair. Motel, Small A, and Elizabeth Leach are all at Aqua. PDX is at the Flow fair.

Chris Johanson's painting at Nova. Nova is apart of the main fair (Art Basel Miami Beach) and encompasses all the spaces on the building perimeter. Its intention is to showcase "emerging" artists. ...(more)
Posted by Guest
on December 10, 2006 at 16:11
| Comments (14)
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Miami Art fairs (part I) by Amy Steel

The part of Southern Florida im staying in is a little resort town outside of Miami called Hollywood, or "Hollywierd" as my friend calls it. It reminds of me of a David Hockney painting with its pastel colors and swimming pools- yes that tiny white dot in the background is a cruise ship.
Thus, a pool sculpture by the cuban collaborative
duo Los Carpinteros @ Sean Kelly ABMB.... (more)
Posted by Guest
on December 08, 2006 at 10:41
| Comments (0)
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An Affair to Remember ...
Jupiter Gala Rocks
 - Photography by Sarah Henderson -
 more ...
Posted by Sarah Henderson
on October 01, 2006 at 0:03
| Comments (3)
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Print That: A Studio Visit with Rae and Mark Mahaffey
Rae and Mark Mahaffey have been a persistent, if quiet, backbone of the Portland art scene for 14 years and will be the subject in a show of 14 international and local artists at PAM's Gilkey Center on Sept 30th. The 14 artists have been culled from a list including heavyweights like Hans Haacke, Dana Schutz, Tony Fitzpatrick and local legend, Gregory Grennon.
 Master printmaker Mark Mahaffey & masterful pattern artist Rae Mahaffey ... (more)
- All photos by Sarah Henderson unless otherwise noted -
Posted by Sarah Henderson
on September 18, 2006 at 0:00
| Comments (0)
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An afternoon with Paul Fujita of Zeitgeist Gallery

Zeitgeist founder and artist, Paul Fujita, spent time with PORT during his last days of living at his gallery, Zeitgeist, in the Everett Station Lofts. At 7 years in this location it's likely the longest lived gallery space in the artist run lofts long history as a cultural incubator. We talk about his life, engagement, skating and art. Next to preparing for a couple of large solo shows into 2007, he's moving into a house with his fiancee and seeking to push himself as an artist possibly more than ever. His unpretentiousness and interest in working with accessible materials such as broken skateboards, acrylic gel and... (this is the first in a series of photoblogs, click below for more)
Posted by Sarah Henderson
on May 10, 2006 at 23:54
| Comments (0)
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In the future everybody will be famous for 30 minute parking

I love these telephone pole interventions... a couple of years ago this same pole was covered in odd bits of fake fur. This one just grins and grins and grins...
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on April 15, 2006 at 14:11
| Comments (1)
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Three Galleries/Three Artists, photo essay by Sarah Henderson
Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery features dyanmic subtlety of Icelandic artist, Hildur Bjarnadottir (and her boots)...
Elizabeth Leach Gallery features backlit installations of Hap Tivey on First Thursday...
Backspace features installation creations of James Newell, there is more...
Posted by Sarah Henderson
on January 19, 2006 at 11:42
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First First Thursday Photoblog part 3
Continuing across Burnside into SW, I walked along second street to Augen Gallery. It was approaching 9 and things seemed to be winding down. I arrived at Augen and Froelick just as everything was being put away. Augen gallery has a show in the back of Marcel Dzama! I was excited to see it, but they had already lowered the lights in the next room, so instead I looked at Susan Larsen and Patrick Collentine's "Kolorbar, Present Perfect". These are landscape photographs in which a figure holds a seven foot color bar test pattern in front of their body at the same distance in every frame. The test pattern gives a true CMY RGB color reference for each photograph, which I imagine they work from when developing the pictures. The point seems to be that the photograph on display is as true to the real color of the landscape as can possibly be humanly acheived. The name of the show suggests that the photographers are trying to perfect the present, and see the tools of photography as a means to that end. This seems like a laughably futile idea, like the king in "The Little Prince" who commands the sun to rise every morning, and there is something funny about these grand landscapes with someone holding a test pattern over their head in the middle of them. And how does creating a photograph of something perfect it? Perhaps the title refers to perfecting the photograph. A perfect photograph can be thought of as a perfect record of the present.
Stephen Hawking would argue that a photograph is only a good representation of time when you use Euclidean Space-Time, in which time is one-dimensional, a line, and lines are of course constructed of a series of points. Each point could be represented by a single photograph. The perfect model for the Euclidean concept of time is of course the film, a series of still photographs. But in the Einsteinian model, which we now accept as the truth, time is simply one function of larger, inter-related phenomena. In Einstein, space, motion, gravity, mass, energy, and time are all interchangeable, all relative. So Stephen Hawking constructs a model of time as a "light cone" a set of possibilites which can be redirected as any of these factors change.
Posted by Isaac Peterson
on January 08, 2006 at 8:15
| Comments (19)
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First First Thursday Photoblog part 2
Ok, I'm going to finish my photoblog with this post, and I hope you'll forgive it being silly and jittery. Also, I really like people leaving comments and filling in the gaps in my coverage and or thinking so please continue to do that. Hopefully this will give you an overview of the experience even if it doesn't provide a thorough analysis.
So, this is PDX Contemporary. The new show is by Victoria Haven, entitled "The Lucky Ones". I only got a few images here because the delicacy of the work made it difficult to photograph. In essence, It appears to be intricate, architectural structures drawn or painted on paper. Mostly the ink or paint seemed close in color and value to the paper itself, and while this made it almost impossible to photograph, it made the images seem to float on the page. The work is simple and ephemeral, and communicates the primary rudiments of space without mimesis. When comparing it with Cynthia Lahti (the last show at PDX) it seems a curatorial arc is emerging having to do with delicate, spare drawings on fragile paper...or art as ephemera
Posted by Isaac Peterson
on January 06, 2006 at 13:58
| Comments (0)
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Heeeeyyy Yoooouuuuu Guuuuuys!
Seriously, where is everybody? Wow, this was one of the slowest first Thursdays ever! Where are you, fleet footed denizens of the art world? Has your formerly relentless desire for visual culture finally been satiated? Are you sitting at home writing thank you cards? Its really warm out tonight! Luckily you have your little Isaac to do an extensive photoblog for you...
Posted by Isaac Peterson
on January 05, 2006 at 23:45
| Comments (6)
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Artists using Clothes part 2 - Ghosttown
The new Red 76 project, Ghosttown had its official consolidation last night, launching the Ghosttown clothing exchange.
The space is located at
338 NW 6th Ave., Portland, OR
Hours of Operation
Wednesday- Sunday 12pm - 7pm
This address is at the corner of Flanders and 6th in Northwest, an unremarkable retail space temporarily converted into a "store" by Red 76 masterminds Kris Soden and Sam Gould. The space infiltrates its surroundings. It is a quotidian brick storefront with large sheets of paper covering the windows. The way to find it is to look for the tiny drawing of a ghost on the glass door that opens directly onto the corner of the block.
Upon entering Ghosttown, one discovers that it is indeed a store. Ghosttown operates on an alternative economy, based not on the government supported symbolism of money, but rather on the currency of interpersonal emotional interaction. Which to many, myself included, is distinctly more valuable....
Posted by Isaac Peterson
on December 30, 2005 at 15:24
| Comments (1)
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Artists using Clothes part 1- Chandra Bocci
Two significant works, one having just closed and the other just about to open, have involved artists using clothes as a sculptural material or as a vehicle for interaction. These are Chandra Bocci's Clothes Towers and Ghosttown.
You may not have seen the Clothes Towers, because I wasn't quick witted enough to blog it while it was up, but having been around PNCA while it was being constructed I photographed the whole process. So now I can give you some idea of it through a retro-active photoblog, even though it has already been de-installed.
Organized by student services and the student activities council at PNCA, it was designed by Chandra Bocci and cooperatively constructed by the student body at PNCA.
This installation is easy to locate within Bocci's general artistic phenomenology. Clothes are organized according to the spectrum and attached to freestanding wooden center structures. The towers are arranged in the space organically, giving the appearance of "just having grown there."...
Posted by Isaac Peterson
on December 30, 2005 at 15:03
| Comments (0)
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Art Basel Miami Beach 2005
Barbara Kruger at Art Basel Miami Beach
Art Basel isn't all that challenging as far as viewing goes (nearly all of it is museum approved) but it does serve as a good barometer for what is overripe and what art world staples remain fresh. The Aqua and Pulse fairs were a lot fresher and with more interesting work... I'll post on those others plus NADA soon. Let's just say NADA is both trying too hard and not hard enough... Although there were a few good things there. For those who missed it here is a ABMB tour of the better stuff. In person it was a far more punishing viewing endurance experience.
Two artists that never seem to grow stale are...
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on December 05, 2005 at 2:22
| Comments (0)
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1st Thursday and Friday, photoblogging Portland Art Crawls
 Michael Brophy with some of his sumi ink drawings at Laura Russo Gallery. Fresh off several successful museum shows, a CD cover for Sleater-Kinney and a nice review in Art Forum, Brophy went for something more immediate than paintings this time.  Mona Hatoum's anti war poster on PNCA's walls (the painted rectangles by architect Randy Higgins are code for Rimbaud's "Departures")...
Posted by Jeff Jahn
on November 06, 2005 at 22:34
| Comments (2)
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Catherine Clark Gallery Photoblog by Jen Rybolt
Posted by Guest
on October 04, 2005 at 16:19
| Comments (0)
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The Affair Photoblog
Posted by Isaac Peterson
on October 02, 2005 at 10:18
| Comments (0)
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