All these are up all month in case there is a rainy Saturday. Note however this Saturday, when it usually rains on the Rose Parade, the parade will fully occupy downtown with strangeness.
The exception is a one night book release event by Ann Ploeger and it is on the East side. Ploeger is known for large photographic portraits of local luminaries in their homes, often barefoot and in nostalgic rich Kodacolor film tones. The book: "Portraits". At No Fish Go Fish 3962 SE Hawthorne 8-11PM Free
The 333 Hancock (333 NE Hancock, above Dunes) studios are also having a one night open studio to view the work of some of the new artists creating there. 6-10PM
I don't know much about the art, paintings by Cheyenne Sawyer, but the place - jàce gàce - is an "art construction collective working with glass, wood, metal, paint, music, and futuristic restorations" and eatery featuring art, waffles and beer. (!!) Waffles and chicken are an old Harlem tradition, is this a new Portland one? 2045 SE Belmont 6PM-midnight
Anna Fidler shows new works. A PSU MFA grad, Fidler continues to evolve her fantastic colorful maybe landscape painting-collages. She is known for outdoor installations and performances on the landscape, and indoor installations of similar feel to her paintings. Her magical realism is real though. Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery 925 NW Flanders until 8PM only
New York artist Kenny Scharf is responsible for the totem pole trolley cable supports in the NW district around Jameson Square. He is probably one of the most successful lowbrow artists. His pop aesthetics may be in full play for his role in curating this show in support of the Platform Animation Festival. This part of Platform focuses on Basil Wolverton and Robby Cooper.
Wolverton (1909-1978)is an influential illustrator, well known for comic book work. His distorted caricatures influenced later illustrators such as R Crumb. Working outside established comic publishers, Crumb was the taproot of the independent comic explosion, which later grew along with the 'zine movement. Interestingly Platform now picks up independent animation as the next wave replacing paper-based independent publishing.
Robby Cooper shows photographs themed "Alter Ego:Avatars and their Creators". Avatars are folk art that represent characters in the online world of networked games and environments. In the short term, they are more lightweight than real time motion video representations of players; but they can carry the heavy weight of identity dreams. They are likely a generational change in the online world.
The Art Center hosts a reception for the show on June 29 as well.
The Art Center also shows Mapping Meg Ryan by Samantha DiRosa from Pullman in the Light and Sound Gallery.
Portland Art Center 32 NW 5th until 10
Electric Garden is a show of the works of Apak, Peter Hamlin and Betsy Walton. Their styles are complementary and perfect in energy for the spring to summer flux. Compound Gallery upstairs at Just Be Toys 107 NW 5th
PNCA's BFA thesis show is installed in the now clean and neat senior studios. NW 15th Johnson. Dryden Goodwin shows in the Feldman Gallery in the main building NW 13th and Johnson
PSU's MFA students close their thesis work at 2000 SW 5th on the third floor
The Everett Station lofts and the Rake and Ogle galleries anchoring their diagonals are recommended for your exploratory viewing pleasure. The block bounded by NW 5th, Broadway, Everett, Flanders.
Seattle artist Anna Siems was an early regional worker in wax based mediums, often making work on scrap paper, archival by virtue of the wax. Her work has added more figures glimpsing a psychological landscape. Laura Russo Gallery 805 NW 21st Ave
Jessica Bronk shows dark ochre, yellow and umber impressionistic landscapes at Vino Paradiso 417 NW 10
We spend a lifetime understanding ourselves, but rush to generalize that others' internal processes are the same. No. Now imagine a complete break in your own internals. That is what newspaper photographer John Trotter experienced when he was beaten almost to death. With severe brain injuries, he had to relearn everything. Finally resuming photography, Trotter returned to document the hospital, with new internal processes. “Having been attacked because I was a photographer I needed, as much as anything else, to learn to be a photographer again. But I had taken pictures there [at the hospital] for about a year before I understood that I was trying to understand my own completely altered experience of life.” *
Nathan Baker's "People At Work" combines digitally composited multiple exposures, Gursky-like, documenting the not so quotidian details of the work world. The wonder of our adaptability and ability to work together spans to even the most ordinary of occupations. Both photographers also speak Friday June 8 at 7 st the gallery. Free
* For another take of the work of disabled artists, see the ANP Quarterly #6 article on Oakland's Creative Growth center.
At Blue Sky Gallery 1231 NW Hoyt
An interesting contrast to Trotter's show are illustration style paintings by Elizabeth Huey. Huey is responsible for organizing the myspace art show noted in portlandorusnow in February, 2007. Huey's Chronophobia explores the history of mental difference and its still primitive treatment. Her paintings include figures, structures, and fantastic landscapes in a dreamlike melange. Stuart Hawkins also continues her surreal Nepal work, previously noted and recommended. Quality Pictures 916 NW Hoyt
Joe and Annette Thurston show their work developed with the kids at P:ear. P:ear 809 SW Alder
Architecture is art. It's drawings too have a specific impressionistic flavor. In this unusual show, architects drawings, realized, and not, are presented. Brad Cloepfil, the principal of Allied Works Architecture, is known internationally for his designs, particularly of museums. Locally he is responsible for the design of the Wieden and Kennedy advertising agency within the historical shell of an ice warehouse. Most recently his Seattle Art Museum annex within a new office tower has opened. PDX Contemporary 925 NW Flanders until 8
