Tuesday, January 26, 2010

January 31 The Cult of Arduino Induction

The Arduino project was founded by artist Massimo Banzi of the Interaction Design Institute in Ivrea and the graduate school of design Domus in Milan, now merged. The phrase Cult of Arduino may have been coined here at Portland Dorkbot, which makes a minimalist and thrifty prototyping kit, the Dorkboard.

Why?

We live in a magical world where a single electronic touch can trigger a cascade of events indistinguishable from magic. Artists are incorporating the electronic magic into their work by figuring out Arduino and writing or finding on the Internet small software programs for it, intimate spells that make the magic.

This is one of the regular, affordable, Portland workshops where artists can gain an introduction and leave the same day with a working project. No experience necessary!

Details and registration at Learn Scandinavian Voodoo at Arduino Cult Induction. Workshop at PNCA www.pnca.edu Room 205 1PM-5 $35

January 27 Union Pacific

Portland is a photography town of many. Perhaps it was the residence of Minor White for a time, forests felled in service of photographic paper, maybe it is the light, or that transcendental Western landscape. A certain factor is the Blue Sky Gallery, a gathering place for the photography community since 1975 and of which Craig Hickman was one founding member.

Union Pacific is Hickman's project as artist in residence at the South Waterfront. He launches it with a talk tonight about his photography and his physical computing projects. At the South Waterfront art projects office 3623 SW River Parkway x Gaines in the John Ross Building. See the website for details. 6PM-8 Free

Thursday, January 21, 2010

January 25 Contemplating the End of Privacy

Hasan M Elahi is a media artist working themes of surveillance and privacy; his subject, himself. And he has a great sense of humor. After false accusations of terrorism, he created the Tracking Transience project www.tacckingtransience.net. The website tracks his location. He documents every quotidian moment of his life in photographs which he sends to the FBI and posts on the web site.

His project is wry comment on self surveillance and surveillance by institutions. He replaces security by obscurity with security by ubiquity.

While logic proposes that government and industrial institutions can perfect decision making with ever more information, even Hoovered illegally, data has time and time shown that acting on existing information is the problem.

Meanwhile we are in a love affair with self surveillance as personal brand: Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, web sites and blogs. In fact, we place tremendous value on discovering and exploiting each emerging channel. It's an example of signalling theory in psychology.

In the words of Eric Schmidt “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

There are many excellent public interest organizations working on privacy issues including the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Hear Elahi speak about this and other projects at the nexus of technology and art for which electronic media is the raw material. It's part of the PSU Art Department Monday Night Lecture Series, your best entertainment value for the dollar!

Talk in the Shattuck Hall Annex out front, 1914 SW Park Avenue, at the corner of SW Broadway and Hall on the PSU campus. 7:30PM Free

January 24 $5 Stock

Stock is sold out. They didn't sell out, but they are sold out. Though they do have standing room tickets.

Stock is an open source funding vehicle for Portland artists modeled after Chicago's Sunday Soup granting project. The social practice art organizers prepare a simple meal involving soup and salad. Diners, you, dine upon it in conversation for the price of $10, while discussing a handful of artist proposals with the artists and your fellow diners. The diners vote to award one artist a grant of the proceeds of the night. The artist then reports back at a future dinner the results of their project.

This month, artists Vanessa Renwick, Eric Steen, Forrest Martin, Marshall Berg, Nicole Lavelle, the Research Club and Chris Haberman present proposals for funding. Previous grant recipients Public Social University and Dafna Margalit report back.

The "standing room" tickets, a vote but no food for $5 are still available by mail: portlandstock at gmail. Event 6PM-8.

January 23 Not Photo Op

This is Not a Photo Op is a collection of photographs from Alaska, California, Brazil, Japan and Ireland by Mark Whiteley. Whiteley, longtime editor at SLAP, chronicles in artful psychological collage, his personal journey over years through the subcultures of the skate ecosystem. Local skater Chris Johanson provides music. Whiteley signs books recording the exhibition. At Cal’s Pharmacy www.departmentofskateboarding.com 11 Ne Hancock 7PM-10 Free

Monday, January 18, 2010

January 22 Free PAM, Tidal, Fontanelle Swan Song, Objectified

Every fourth Friday, the Portland Art Museum is free for all, in the evening. Free is good! At the Portland Art Museum www.pam.org 1219 SW Park 5PM-8 Free


Jenene Nagy is a Portland sculptor who excels at idea-driven minimal sculpture and installation. Pure thought shape. For many years she was half the great Tilt Gallery in the Everett Station lofts. For this show she has lebensraum at Disjecta to go big with Tidal. She takes full advantage of one of Portland's largest spaces with subtle lighting and overlapping planes spilling from the ceiling, floors and walls. Nagy engages a thoughtful process in planning each irregular shape from every viewer angle. At Disjecta. www.disjecta.org 8371 N Interstate near Paul Bunyon. All the time 6PM-10. Free


Fontanelle has been an earnest purveyor of art by emerging artists, book arts and musical performance by friends. They made an elegant thing and left a path of beauty and community in the Portland art thicket. It is time for them to wrap up their successful experiment, and they do so tonight. The last show, Julianna Bright, is up and there will be music. At Fontanelle www.fontanellegallery.com 205 SW Pine 7PM-9 Free


Objectified is a documentary by Gary Hustwit, also behind Helvetica. Objectified is an examination of industrial design, through interviews with designers and thinkers across the globe. I've seen it it is a gentle and engaging introduction to the behind the scenes thinking that goes into everyday manufactured products. The film focuses on Chris Bangle, BMW; French designers Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec; design curators Paola Antonelli and Andrew Blauvelt at MOMA the Walker, respectively; IDEO founders Bill Moggridge and David Kelley, creative director Jane Fulton Suri and current leader Tim Brown; Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby designers and professors at London's RCA; designer Davin Stowell and Dan Formosa of Smart Design; noted Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa; Apple VP of design Jonathan Ive; Dutch designer Hella Jongerius; Australian jelly bean-style superstar Marc Newson; Braun design giant Dieter Rams; versatile designer of just about anything, Karim Rashid; as well as international design journalists Alice Rawsthorn and Rob Walker. Helvetica and Objectified are part of a planned design film trilogy. Perhaps for the third film, Hustwit will take on designers working on the design challenges of developing countries, the theme of the Design for the Other 90% show, out of Cooper Hewitt. Sponsored by the Industrial Design Department, a welcome addition to creative education in Portland. At the Art Institute of Portland, 1122 NW Davis, 7In the main space on the second floor, 7PM Free

Friday, January 15, 2010

January 15 Eliza Fernand at Nationale

Eliza Fernand combined sculputure and performance at PNCA. She has continued, including working in costume, fabric construction and animation. Her work has a feel of playful oddity. "Fernand is inspired by the human body and its functions; craft supplies; eating; the effects of gravity; and changes in weather, seasons, and climates." For this show, Clad, she has crafted wall pieces from fabric, fabric of her high school clothes and the last clothes of a late grandmother. The pieces were made with her grandmother's house as studio. Music opening evening on clarinet, 6:30. At NATIONALE nationaleportland.blogspot.com 2730 E Burnside 6PM-8 Free

Thursday, January 07, 2010

January 11 PSU+Portland Future?

Portland State University has a new president, Wim Wiewel from the Netherlands. With degrees in urban planning and sociology, he is in a great position to expand the impact of two of the school's strongest programs, Urban Planning and Social Work. He is visible in the university and the community, for instance addressing the smart grid conference. He even may be found bicycling to the campus. PSU has a significant impact on planning too, controlling dozens of SW Portland blocks, interwoven by major transportation facilities. Hear Wiewel's thoughts on PSU and Portland as America's most European city. It is part of the Bright Lights series sponsored by the local architecture magazine Portland Spaces and the City Club, a thoughtful public interest group. At Jimmy Mak's, 221 NW 10th. Doors 5:30PM, discussion 6. Free

Monday, January 04, 2010

January 10 The Dregs of Actual Things

The Marylhurst Art Gym repurposes a gym at a university to a large flexible art gallery, how sensible! In the past they have specialized in Portland mid career artists. They have expanded their vision as Portland's art world has expanded. This show is an example. The Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things is an installation by Anna Gray and Ryan Wilson Paulsen documenting the remains and results of house fire where they lived. A more expansive piece is The Dregs by Brandy Cochrane and Paul Middendorf. Cochrane's grandparents passed away with a lifetime household of actual things, some of which were not sold in the estate sale. Cochrane and Mittendorf have arrayed them and used them as materials in a series of fantastic globes and references to family secrets. We all have old relatives, the interesting question is what will be in the future the digital dregs. At the Marylhurst College Art Gym. 17600 Pacific Highway (Hwy 43-McAdam Blvd.) The gallery is in the top floor of building A. Reception 3PM-5 Free

Saturday, January 02, 2010

January 8 Eastside Art Openings+

The art is resting in January. Many galleries are continuing shows from December. A few are not opening this evening.


I am excited about the socially conscious branch of social practice art. It's artists working with others to create social or political change. There are plenty of challenges we face as a society which can benefit from those positive changes. An outstanding example is Project Grow, of which we've written. The vegetable beds are sleeping. The goats, chickens, yogis, artists and clients are not. Tonight will be one of their irregular events for the art community and those interested. Founder Natasha Wheat speaks on the "The Tensions Between Utopic and Dystopic Constructions". It is a heady question for humans and artists. The Sprockettes, Portland's choreographed bike dance team, founders of the genre which has spread to several other cities, perform. At the Port City Development Center. 2124 N Williams Ave at Tillamook. Enter in the back of the building on either Tillamook or Thompson. 6PM-10 Free


Liz Obert is an idea-based photographer. She shows Mapping Marnay-sur-Seine tonight at a gallery sited in a long running Portland studio for photographers. It has a similarity to a project in which she collected artifacts at a North Portland intersection. At Alpern Gallery www.alperngallery.com 2552 NW Vaughn


23 Sandy, which specializes in photography-based art, and the book arts, hosts a closing show this evening. The show is The Assignment, co-organized with the College Book Art Association. So that would be books. At www.23sandy.com 623 NE 23 at Sandy 5PM-8


The Grass Hut has bright cartoon-style illustrations by lowbrow artist Skinner. At Grass Hut www.grasshutcorp.com


Nemo is a branding concern, so their art events often have a tie-in. That would be the case tonight for a snow/skate-themed art show and fundraiser. At Nemo Design www.studionemo.com 1875 SE Belmont

January 7 Westside Art Openings

The Everett Lofts and associated spaces are recommended, as always, for your viewing pleasure. See them in the block bounded by NW Everett, Broadway, Flanders and 6th.



PDX has three exhibitions this month. Megan Murphy shows quiet abstract landscapes combining photography and painting. Murphy is also founder of Artocracy, a website making artists prints available directly to collectors. Next door, John Mann shows mixed media sculptures made with maps and photos of map-based sculptures. The world of maps is in flux. Mann's maps are of the paper type, crafted by cartographers with the luxury of detailed print resolution and color. The resolution enables great information density, requiring the cartographer to artfully place each legend and symbol to fit unambiguously. The world of digital maps does this without art, by machine; the problem of detail and limited resolution solved by zoom and layers. It changes our relationship with maps. In the window, Shawn Records shows a sequence of travel photos titled Stupid People Love High Places: Recent Photographs of the World. At PDX Contemporary Gallery www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 925 NW Flanders



Christopher Rauschenberg has been making street photographs in Paris for many years, including a project rephotographing Atget. For many years too, his subject has been the flea markets of Paris where the material culture of the French empire accumulates, like charmed dustbunnies. This is the work he shows this month. The markets have more the feel of antique shops with a bewildering array of glass bell jars, Belle Époque objects and design artifacts of the 1960's and '70's, near antique. Longtime Portland sculptor and PNCA professor Lee Kelly known for large scale works, shows small sculptures, paintings and prints. We discussed last evening if we near the extinction of large metal sculpture. It reached its zenith with Chicago's Picasso and the minimal monuments of Serra. Today it's in the sights of a fractious culture war and target of criminal scrappers. At Elizabeth Leach www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th



Transference, the installation by Andy Paiko and Ethan Rose closes Saturday. It's a collaboration with Paiko contributing blown glass objects Rose has made into ambient instruments. Tonight Joe Cunningham and Reed Wallsmith accompany the sculpture on live instruments. Performance 6:30PM-7. At the Museum of Contemporary Craft 724 NW Davis



Rom'n Times is a show of work by Portland artists who visited Italy in the past summer on an art retreat. See the response of the participating artists Horia Bobia, Vanessa Calvert, Cassandra Dorsey, Lori Gilbert, Bethany Hays, William LePore, Stuart Mayer, Bridget Murphy, Cassie Neth, Jennifer Norton, Ralph Pugay, Rebecca Shelly, Miles Sprietsma and Cody Thomas. It is in the Autzen Gallery, Neuberger Hall (2nd Floor) PSU 725 SW Harrison. Opening 4PM-6



Chambers continues to leverage its video show space with Scott Wolniak's Patterning. The show includes sculpture, drawings and video. At Chambers Gallery www.chambersgallery.com 916 NW Flanders



Froelick has a group show themed Interiors in its broad definition. The show includes Vito Acconci, Marco Buti, Isabelle Scurry Chapman, Joe Deal, Matthew Dennison, Raymond Depardon, Walker Evans, Benny Fountain, Jeremiah Goodman, Shelly Jordan, Kevin Kadar, Andre Kertesz, Ralph Meatyard, Susan Seubert, Jeff Stuhr and Lili Wilburn. At Froelick Gallery www.froelickgallery.com 714 NW Davis



From the Northern worlds of threatened ice and snow world come two shows at Blue Sky. Céline Clanet has made portraits of the indigenous Máze people of Lappland, North of the Arctic Circle. Meanwhile Olaf Otto Becker has made large format landscape photos in Greenland. Clanet speaks st the gallery Saturday at 3PM. At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org 122 NW 8th



I usually don't make it over to the coop Gallery 114, but this month they have a group show by writers at the art blog PORT. It is a large show with Megan Driscoll showing Mysterpants, Nicky Kriara, Alex Rausch showing An Implied "Untitled" with Rhetoric, Arcy Douglass, Jeff Jahn's Asymmetrical and Minty, Gary Wiseman's Fear of getting Caught (Actaeon and Artemis), Sarah Henderson's Still Standing, Ryan Pierce, Jenene Nagy's Level, Amy Bernstein's I love You II and Jascha Owens' Strange Attractor and Mother Unit_03. All the work is recent. At Gallery 114 www.gallery114.org 1100 NW Glisan



Compound Gallery has After Hours, evening hour themed photographs from Arian Stevens, Kimi Kolba, Brian Reynolds, Thuy Duong Le, Sam Brosnan, Mike Crocker and Dominik Kruger At Compound Gallery www.compoundgallery.com 107 NW 5th