Hannah B. Higgins is an Associate Professor at University of Illinois at Chicago.
She is also the daughter of the Fluxus artists Alison
Knowles and Dick
Higgins and noted author of Fluxus
Experience, and will be lecturing in tandem with Gestures of Resistance
this Thursday at 6:30 pm at PNCA.
> Is there a right or better way to experience "primary phenomena or
ecological information?"
The point of a primary information orientation is not that there is one way
or a better way to access it. Walter
Ong's writing on sense ratios and hierarchies demonstrates that the ranking
of sensations is cultural (the primacy and isolation of vision, the low rank
of smell, for instance, reflecting western values). So sensation is always filtered
through values and value systems... (more)
Over at Artnet Ben Davis discusses Jessica
Jackson Hutchins breakout at the Whitney Biennial. I like Hutchins
work of course but feel she has a ways to go before growing beyond her current
Kienholtz meets Franz West filtered through Voulkos and George Ohr charm and
really hits on something major and completely her own. The thing is, from our
talks I definitely feel she has it in her and I particularly like the fact she
isn't terribly self-satisfied (a disease amongst young artists today).
Lisa Radon catches Richard Flood talking about something he
knows nothing about, blogs, facebook etc. Personally, I avoided the talk
because I feared he might say something like this (Portland is one of the most
tech and word savvy cities on earth so I figured it was covered and I could
do something productive). Honestly, I hope the New Museum can turn things around
because right now it seems to be undergoing death by a thousand cuts in the
court of critical opinion. No institution with new in its name and mission statement
can afford such repeated stumbling. I disagree with the muckraking critiques
too... instead, the real issue is the lack of curatorial compass the institution
seems to have (not the less than pretty sausage making process that trustees
and museum's must undergo). I could care less about the collector and Koons
involvement other than they seem so poorly tuned to the times. So far the NuMu
has had one critical slam dunk, Unmonumental. They need a few more so they can
outflank the Whitney and other institutions by doing serious and eye opening
solo shows that nobody else has done (or seen coming). Right now the NuMu looks like a lone figure swatting at a swarm of bees. Jerry Saltz answers Flood here.
And Seattle chimes in too, I love the fact that Seattle is the most sarcastic city in the USA and the Stranger is ground zero.
A Voyage of Growth and Discovery Installation view, Image c. 2009 SculptureCenter and the artists Photo: Jason Mandella
Voyages are an incredibly rich subject, let's briefly consider;
The Odyssey, The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, King Kong, Francis Alÿs's
paseos, Kubrick's 2001, The Heart of Darkness, Moby Dick, Thor Heyerdahl's Kon
Tiki, numerous HG Wells stories, Watteau's Pilgrimage to Cythera, Gulliver's Travels,
Richard Long's walks, Star Wars A New Hope, Star Trek's 5year mission, Spinal
Tap, Christina Rossetti's The Goblin Market, Swan Lake, The Wizard of Oz, the
trials of Heracles, the quest for the Holy Grail, The Canterbury Tales, Saturday
Night Fever, The Exodus, The Lord of the Rings, Pierre
Huyghe's A Journey that Wasn't, Beowulf , The Epic of Gilgamesh, Leif Erikson,
Gordon Lightfoot's the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Battlestar Galactica, The
Ballad of John and Yoko, The
Hajj, The Apollo program and Martin Luther King's march to Washington and
subsequent I Have A Dream speech…
Needless to say voyages both fictional and real are a defining aspect of the
human experience.
Not surprisingly then that Mike
Kelley and Michael Smith's new show at SculptureCenter was the highlight
(living artist wise) during my own recent travels to New York. Titled, A Voyage
of Growth and Discovery, this joint show consisting of Burning Man video of
Smith as Baby Ikki, stuffed animals, custom playground equipment, lights, streamers,
a scrap metal sculpture of Ikki and dance music successfully conjured the engine
of constant infancy that makes the United States what it is... (more)
An interview with Gregory Green in his installation on Sunday.
WCBS Radio Caroline
The voice of the New Free State of Caroline 96.7fm Portland Oregon.
A .5 watt "pirate" radio station for the period of 09/06/09 -12/13/09 stationed in the Hoffman Gallery at Lewis and Clark College.
Skull With Cigarette, 2007 [based on a painting by Van Gogh] and Close Up
When I wrote this at 9:36:22pm on March 22, 2009 the US population, according to the Census Bureau, was 306,063,901. For the current population, add 1 person for every thirteen seconds since then. This is the mathematical frame for Chris Jordan's installation up now through the 12th of July at the Portland Art Museum's Apex gallery. The selections from his Running the Numbers series attempts to lay out the statistics from recent American consumerism, creating flawless photomontages that literally depict the specific number e.g. 200,000 packs of cigarettes, equal to the number of Americans who die from cigarette smoking every six months. The works are spotless and overwhelming to the point of becoming specter-like in their meaning, teasing an allegorical omnipresent truth of innocuousness in American consumption.
Fourteen30 presents Under a Vanishing Night: New Work from L.A., featuring Kim Fisher, Sayre Gomez, Richard Jackson, Brian Kennon, and Natascha Snellman. Deeply connected to the city of Los Angeles and its many venerable art institutions, the artists work from the palpable energy of LA's light-polluted "vanishing night."
So is this Contemporary
Northwest Art Awards deal at the Portland art Museum worth seeing? People have had their doubts and well... I've seen it and yes (unequivocally) you should too...
The CNAA's open tomorrow to Museum members as a gala and the 5
artists will speak on Sunday at 2:00. A huge, free and warmer weather bash
is planned for July 25th
The Verdict: As a collection of 5 solo shows it starts with two of the
best exhibitions we've seen in Portland in the last year before losing its nerve
(in a very professional way).
I'll save in depth formal reviews for later because it really deserves 5 reviews,
but in short here is why it does and doesn't work:
Overall it is a serious museum show, not like the somewhat ADHD style biennials,
even the stuff that falls short... falls short with well installed authority. You get to explore
precisely why and how each artist succeeds or fails.
It starts with a bang, Marie Watt really steps up with a Joseph Beuys meets
Louise Bourgeois festival of fond remembrance that utilizes the Belluschi designed
atrium space to great effect. If you like craft, spatially activated art and do-gooder social coincidence stuff (quite reminiscent of MK
Guth's Whitney Biennial piece but more crafty) then this will please you.
If you were one of the people annoyed that Watt was the only Portland artist
included and asked why her?... then her installation should answer the question
(in case you missed her Smithsonian show). Fact is it is unfair for her to represent
Portland alone... but she does a good job representing herself and this is an eye opener compared
to her consistently good
but never quite awe inspiring solo shows at PDX...(more)
PSU has launched a radio program to complement their Monday night lecture series. From 12-1pm each Monday on KPSU, hosts Alex McCarl and Cyrus Smith will be interviewing the visiting artists from the lecture series. (Note: You can stream KPSU broadcasts live from their website.) Tomorrow's guest will be Marie Watt.
Check the schedule and learn more about the interviewees on the ArtTalk Blog.
Whether you are an artist or an art lover, curators are the people in your community that you need to know and the job involves a lot more than simply selecting
who gets to show in a space.
Last
year's roundup was hugely popular and this 2008 roundup will take things
even farther. It is still by no means comprehensive as Portland has seen an
explosion in interesting alternative spaces. It goes without saying that there is a whole new crew in Portland
these days.
Participants for 2008 are: Bruce Guenther, Linda Tesner, Josh Smith, Nathan
Gibson, Patrick Rock, Namita Wiggers, Kristan Kennedy, TJ Norris, Paul Middendorf,
myself, Stephanie Snyder, and Damien Gilley... (more)
It's done now but 2007 was a big year and here is how PORT's Ryan Pierce, ex-PORTer
and new Beaverton Arts Comission board member Melia Donovan, Matt McCormick, Micah Malone, Jesse
Hayward and my own dull self rated the year... (more)
My general reaction to this list is it's... solid, somewhat conservative (except for Clifford whom I was rooting for as an underdog) and very Northwest art-ish (aka lots of wood, craft, animals and tree references). For context, more agressively contemporary and less regionally placeable artists like Alex Schweder, Sean Healy, Jack Daws and Chandra Bocci (list goes on forever) were not of the 28 finalists from which these 5 were chosen so this list isn't really a surprise and curator Jennifer Gately has a very tricky balancing act to do. Her statement that she decided on, "works that resonate on distinctively regional yet universal levels," explains things rather well... to me that means a show which big time donor/collectors can be both challenged by and yet find familiar. A completely respectable list, but not bleeding edge... (more)
Well the list of 28 artists for the 2008 Contemporary Northwest Art Awards
is out and 3 to 5 of them will make up the exhibition next June. One will be
awarded the $10,000 Arlene Schnitzer Prize...(more)
small A will hold
an off-the-normal-schedule-of-events opening for their end of March through April
show tomorrow night from 5-8pm. A solo show of work by Josh
Shaddock dubbed It goes without saying will include video, photographs,
text pieces and…one painting. Shaddock, who showed with the gallery in their
December group show Green
Light Green Light, is a New York based artist who has also shown at White
Columns, in Lisbon
and in San Francisco.
Josh Shaddock • It goes without saying small
A projects
Sat • Mar 31 • 5-8p
Marie Watt, Ledger: Tread Lightly, 2007 Reclaimed wool blankets, satin binding thread, 92 1/2" x 121"
Wool blankets are hung on the walls and piled on the floor of PDX Gallery like well-worn, well-traveled canvases. They've been claimed and reclaimed, frayed , cut, recut, unraveled and resown. Some have been altered out of existence, with wood or cast bronze replacements left in their stead................(more)
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)
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)
Visual artists in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho are encouraged to apply for the prestigious Betty Bowen Memorial Award, facilitated through the Seattle Art Museum. Not only is this an unrestricted cash prize (the last few years have seen an $11,000 award), but this is also a great opportunity to have your work seen by SAM curators and Betty Bowen committee members. Past recipients include Victoria Haven, Marie Watt, and Brian Murphy. And here's the best part, they are reviewing digital submissions as well as slides! So, you have no excuse. Here are the details: (more...)
Arnold J. Kemp, Untitled (Played Twice series), 2001
This week, Harrell Fletcher welcomes Arnold J. Kemp, artist, writer and former associate curator at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. During his 10 year stint at YBCA, Kemp was involved in curating the first three Bay Area Now shows, Rapper's Delight, and solo shows by Laylah Ali, Tracey Moffat and Mark Dion. His own work has been shown at the Studio Museum in Harlem, The Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts and Chisenhale Gallery. Kemp is represented in permanent collections at the Met and the Studio Museum. From PICA's press release: "Kemp is currently at work on several projects including a series of paintings and a radio-film inspired by Dada and what curator Thelma Golden has called the 'post-black.'"
Monday, February 20th • 7 p
PSU 5th Avenue Cinema • 510 SW Hall St. Room 92 (on the corner of 5th & Hall)
Sponsored in part by PICA, PNCA, and Reed College
So what does 2006 hold for Portland Art? For Bruce Guenther Chief Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art (Portland Art Museum), "2006 will be a year for building the collection and the endowments... so the resolution is to 'buy more art'"
Artist With The Biggest Year in 2005: Matthew Picton. He sold well in LA and San Francisco but sold only one piece in
his February 2005 show in Portland. Later, he was added to the new De Young museum's collection.
Other projects are in the works. With great reviews from the LA Times' Christopher Knight and most everyone else he is Oregon's hottest artist.
Saturday afternoon and evening marks the all-day print marathon and studio sale,
Prints for PICA. More than
50 artists spend the day creating and collaborating for a floor-to-ceiling jam
packed studio sale. Prints range in price from $100-250, and are sold on a first
come, first served basis. Expect hidden gems and steals-of-a-deal! All proceeds
benefit PICA and the artists.
Prints for PICA • December 17, 4 to 9 p
Studio 333 : 333 NE Hancock (@ MLK)
Participating:
Patrick Abbey, Kevin Abell, Brad Adkins, Rachel Allen, Nat Andreini, Megan Atiyeh,
Josh Berger, Philippe Blanc, Patricia Boas, Christine Bourdette, Katherine Bovee,
Michael Boyle, John Brodie, Chris Buckingham, Liz Calderon, Bruce Collin, Nan
Curtis, Tim Dalbow, Laurie Daniel, Daniel Duford, Ty Ennis, Karen Esler, Alexander
Felton, Shawna Ferreira, Anna Fidler, Harrell Fletcher, Gilles Foisy, Carla
Forte, Kay French, Ken Frink, Scott Gallatly, Pedro Galvan, Robert Gamblin,
Chris Gander, Ellen George, Emily Ginsburg, Ellen Goldschmidt, Cecilia Hallinan,
Rob Halverson, Levi Hanes, Bob Hanson, Stephen Hayes, Sean Healy, Midori Hirose,
Joe Hockett, Robin Hoffmeister, Deborah Horell, Marty Houston, Chris Hutchinson,
David Inkpen, Joe Thurston, Kristan Kennedy, Una Kim, Kendra Larson, Patrick
Long, Mark Mahaffey, Rae Mahaffey, Khaela Maricich, Mike McGovern, Bill Park,
Nathaniel Price, Scott Porter, Driscoll Reid, Blair Saxon-Hill, Randell Sims,
Stephen Slappe, Marty Schnapf, Stephanie Snyder, Adam Sorensen, Johanna Seligman,
Blake Stellyes, BarbTetenbaum, Storm Tharp, Andrea U'ren, Elise Wagner. Morgan
Walker, Heather Watkins, Marie Watt, Stephanie Wilson, Christopher Young, Fredrick
Zal, Renee Zangara
Tonight Michael
Brophy speaks at Powell's on The Romantic Vision of Michael Brophy,
a recently released book edited by Rock Hushka. The book explores how Brophy's
art reassesses the historical events and decisions that shaped the American
West. Brophy is best known for his quietly haunting landscape paintings addressing
forest ecology and history (he is currently showing sumi-ink drawings at Laura
Russo).
Wednesday, November 9th • 7:30p Powell's City of Books
• 1005 W Burnside
drawing(s)
40+ artists / 200 works
The 25th anniversary drawing show at Marylhurst that opens today. "Old
heavyweights, mid career artists, and young turks." Including Henk Pander,
Tad Savinar, Judy Cooke, George Johanson, Michael Brophy, DE May, Marie Watt,
Linda Hutchins, Ryan Boyle, Melody Owen, and Joe Macca. While you're out there,
don't miss Brad Adkins' re-enactment of Michael Bowley’s 1979 Walking
in a Circle Until a Mark is Made, a 25ft dirt/crop circle on the
south side of the driveway into Marylhurst.
Show runs through December 11th.
The Art Gym @ Marylhurst • 17600 Pacific Highway (Hwy. 43) • tel.
503.636.8141
Tomorrow night is On The Wall, a group art show to benefit Skaters
For Portland Skateparks featuring customized Vans slip-on's and hand-painted
skate decks by local up-and-comers and national talent. All monies raised from
the sale of artwork will be donated to S.P.S. to aid them in their goal of free public skateparks
in metro Portland. Drop by the opening for DJ’s, limited edition catalogs
and posters. Work by Russ Pope, Paul Fujita, Joker, Jesse Reno, Klutch, Chad Kelco and more.
Opening reception • Thursday November 10th • 7 to 10p Local 35 • 3556
Hawthorne Ave • Tel. 503.963.8200
Also, the SE Portland Artwalk's Call to Artists continues through Nov.
15th. Apply at seportlandartwalk.com.
Laura Russo presents large, monochromatic drawings by Portland strong-holds
Michael Brophy, Mel Katz and Lucinda Parker. Brophy takes a break from two years
of focused painting offering sumi ink washes and drawings hauntingly depicting
the Pacific Northwest. Katz presents charcoal drawings depicting the realized
designs for his 3 dimensional works.
Opening Reception • November 3 • 5 to 8p Laura Russo •
805 NW 21st Ave • Tel. 503.226.2754
At Pulliam Deffenbaugh, sumi ink reappaears in Jerry Iverson's Nerve Block.
Iverson works with tissue paper, ink, rabbit skin glue and varnish on gessoed
chip-board for a result that is as much collage as painting.
Opening Reception • November 3 • 5:30 to 8p Pulliam Deffenbaugh
• 929 NW Flanders Stree• Tel. 503.228.6665
PDX has reached a milestone. The gallery that has so long resisted First Thursday
receptions finally joins the brouhaha in their new location in the heart of
things on Ninth Ave. PDX christens their new space with Next
a group show featuring gallery artists. It promises to be a strong showing with
new works by D.E. May, Eric Stotik, Marie Watt, Joe Macca, Storm Tharp, Brad
Adkins, Nick Blosser, Ellen George, Cynthia Lahti, Kevin Burrus, James Lavadour,
Terry Toedtemeier, Jacques Flechemuller and more.
Opening Reception • November 3 • 6 to 8p PDX Contemporary
Art • 925 NW Flanders • Tel. 503.222.0063
Froelick presents glass sculpture by Joe Feddersen and works on paper by Sally
Finch. Fedderson, a member of the Coleville Confederated Tribes (and faculty
at my alma matter, go geoducks!), creates hand blown glass sculpture with
traditional woven basket froms. Finch presents a collection of delicate assamblage
pieces loosely based on grids, cellular substructures, printed circuit boards
and book text.
Opening Reception • November 3 • 5 to 8p Froelick •
817 SW Second Ave • Tel 503.222.1142
Motel announces the first solo exhibition of Jen Corace. In this new body of
work on paper, Corace elaborates on her distinctive linear style by introducing
meticulously detailed scenery to otherwise minimal compositions. This exhibition
marks the most elaborate series to date from this talented up-and-comer. Corace’s
precise line work, subtle use of color and restrained composition crafts a series
that is remarkable for both its artistic and narrative qualities.
Opening Reception • November 3 • 6:30 to 9:30p Motel • Located
on NW Couch St, between 5th & 6th Aves • Tel. 503.222.6699
On the heels of last week's news that Gallery 500 is closing it's doors, it
seems obvious that you won't want to miss this, their final First Thursday reception
and what promises to be a blow-out party. Nicholas DiGenova and Troy Briggs
each present new bodies of work, DiGenova with bold detailed drawings using
animation techniques of cel painting and Troy Briggs' moody, minimal portraiture
and landscapes. Bring flowers and tip your hats as we bid adieu to Gallery 500.
Opening Reception • November 3 • 6p till late Gallery 500 •
420 SW Washington • Tel. 503.223.3951
Walking into Troca Brasil, one might expect to uncover a set of cultural cliches - lurid color, sensual forms, exotic content. Each of the five artists in the show is connected in varying degrees to A Gentil Cariocia, a Rio de Janeiro gallery whose name makes reference to the city's inhabitants as well as the traditions that permeate Brazilian culture. Upon entering PNCA's Feldman Gallery, however, one is greeted by a spacious and sparsely installed exhibition that doesn't exactly engulf visitors with sensuality or exoticism.
Portland's press have discussed the show primarily in terms of its sensual qualities, but, while there is plenty to be found, Troca Brasil is successful for its resistence to the cultural and artistic cliches of sensuousness. The artists of Troca Brasil balance a regard for sensory experience with formalism and ideas that elicit much more than just a gut-level emotional response.
The occupants of Laura Lima's chicken coop are decked out with brightly dyed feathers, typically used for carnaval, ridiculously fastened atop their own plumage. It creates a convivial atmosphere within the gallery (and during lectures in adjacent commons when intermittent cawing is heard in the background), but it's also a continuation of Lima's ongoing work exploring the ways that ritual and costume interact. Earlier work includes a gallery performance recreating a 16th century painting of a formal ball, complete with period costumes, as well as more contemporary costumes that oftentimes restrict the wearer in some way. Her Doped Woman performance at ARCO 2000 consisted of a woman cocooned in a long knit costume that was directly attached to the wall. Pieces from her Man=Flesh/Woman=Flesh series, explores the relationship of two humans constrained by a shared costume. One photographic documentation shows two nude men locked in a fighting embrace, heads completely obscured by a shared and blinding hood (find pictures at Casa Triangular's website). Lima's Gala Chickens is not the first piece she has created exploring the concept of costumes through the animal world. During "A Little Bit of History Repeated," curator Jens Hoffmann's two day survey of noted performance art pieces as translated by younger contemporary artists, Lima's homage to Yoko Ono's Cut Piece replaced the performer with a goat.
Ernesto Neto's My Little Castle...Blue (two times for infinity), a womb-like nylon structure grounded by testicular sacs of rice and sand, invite associations with the sensual and sexual terrain of the body. But just as important is the gravity-defying construction of the piece, whose lycra walls stretch nearly two stories high, with only a single, freestanding aluminum rod for support. During Neto's lecture in early September, in which he revealed an effusive charm and knack for storytelling, the artist repeatedly referred to both the role of sensuality and to his ongoing engagement with formalism that has allowed for his work to develop...
Ok, Northview Gallery curator and artist Marie Watt has finally found a way
to get me all the way out to the PCC Sylvania campus. PORT's own Katherine Bovee and her evil genius husband Philippe Blanc have another show so Euro you might need to rename yourself Per and pay $5 a gallon for fuel to really see it properly. All kidding aside, they are two of the most promising artists around here
and I watch their development closely. You can see what I mean because there is an artist lecture & gallery reception Thursday, July 28, 2 pm for their legacy: boxed version show.
It sounds promising but will it be better than Savepoint, their previous show?
They had strong, sophisticated ideas but the visual vocabulary was a bit anonymous in that outing.
Here is their statement:
"Playing with the intersection between art history, technology and gaming
environments, legacy presents an idealized landscape fashioned out of simulated
computer parts. The work included in legacy continues our exploration of the
culture and vocabulary of computers by introducing computers as aesthetic objects,
while simultaneously transposing discourse surrounding contemporary art into
terms familiar to the computer user."
During the lecture, they will discuss the implications of presenting tech art
within a gallery space as well as several current, past and future projects.
Arnold J. Kemp, Untitled (Played Twice series), 2001
Joe Macca at Marylhurst
Victoria Haven at PDX
