Friday, August 18, 2006
August 19 & 20 Art Antics
Iron Artists Compete at N Vancouver & Failing SCRAP
SCRAP collects stuff and you can get it for cheap or free. It's super useful for schoolteachers on an art material budget, which is just about every public school teacher in Portland. Today they stage a very fun fundraiser the IRON ARTIST team competition. 10 teams receive a collection of materials to which they add their secret ingredients. They have 3 hours to sculpt an art-like structure to be judged by a celebrity panel. The winner is awarded the coveted Cup du SCRAP. Cheating is allowed. The teams and audience are encouraged to wear costumes. There will be a beer garden, food, kiddish things, a raffle with of things you want to need, bands and DJ's. Cheer your fav team to victory! Gates open at 12:30. At 1 the theme is announced and the teams begin their mad competition. The sculptures must be finished by 4 and the judges go to work. Around 5:30 your votes are due for the "People's Choice". Slightly afterwards the judges critique each piece and announce the recipient of the Cup du SCRAP. The raffle drawing is held. The event ends about 8. See the website for pics from previous years to get an idea and start planning your team for next year!
$5-10 donation (it's a find raiser)
Mostlandian Games at Col. Sanders Park
This is hard to explain. M.O.S.T. is a social art group. They are having an Olympics of unusual competitions: http://www.mostlandia.com/pages/championship.htm
Rose City Rollers Rollerderby at Portland Expo Center
Rose City Rollers teams Guns and Rollers, the Heartless Heathers, Break Neck Betties and the High Rollers, face off. This wacky and highly entertaining sport does have rules in which one each of the team members, designated by a different helmet color try to pass the other team members from behind. But those mean girls try to elbow them aside, hog the court and otherwise keep from being passed. Sort of like junior high. Meanwhile an all ages and varied crowd, some costumed to support their favorites, hoot, yowl and otherwise carry on. The cheering and jeering somehow seem more real than at a pro sports event. Expensive PBR supports county programs - that would be social services and jails. A most entertaining half time show, sometimes with the Sprockettes and the Zoobombers, means that with the pairings of four teams, the event runs from 6 to 9:30 or 10. Doors 5. Portland Expo Center - go by train on the light rail as parking is expensive. www.rosecityrollers.com $12 advance, $15 day of show and $20 for VIP's, though how that applies to Rollerderby I'm mystified.
Sunday August 20
Exchange Project at Homeland
Portland is one of the world's centers for social art. Artists such as Harrell Fletcher, Red 76, M.O.S.T, Miranda July and others work in this space.
Sunday for a few hours, Portland will be host to Vancouver, BC's Nancy Nisbet's Exchange Project. With a nod and a wink. perhaps, to eToy's traveling cargo containers, the Exchange Project is a free store of stories in objects on a semi truck.
You are invited to bring objects and exchange them with others on the truck. Each object comes with a story from its previous lifetime, in turn, your story, of your object will be recorded for its future journey of highways, truck stops and even border crossings.
The Exchange Project adds sly commentary too, on privacy and surveillance: each object is taged with an RFID - a tiny radio "bar code" which can be read at a distance of feet by anyone with a reader. (Note in recent news RFID tags have been demonstrated to be able to carry small computer viruses.)
Visit the Exchange Project at the Homeland squatter headquarters at 916 SE 34th Ave, across from the Belmont Stumptown anytime between 4 and 7PM. http://www.galleryhomeland.org
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Antarctica and Minnesota in Photographs by Friends
Until 8 4637 N. Albina Ave at Blandena
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Outdoor Art Installations Saturday Aug 5 - One Day Only
Indiana's show is reminiscent of Mathew and Maxine Lennon's Horsehead Project in Seattle in the 90's. I only visited the last one held out in the woods. Searching out the art with no maps brought pleasant surprises in the woodland's nooks. That year the organizers sponsored a raffle with the prize being the privelege of smashing a Chihuly sculpture. I didn't win
Artists making work include: Abi Spring, Adam Graves, Blinglab (Marne Lucas/Bruce Conkle), Bonnie Fortune, Brenda Mallory, Carolyn Zick, Gretchen Bennett, Gwenn Seemel, Hamish Grieve, Harvest Henderson, Jacqueline Ehlis, Justin Oswald, Marty Schnapf, Megan Scheminske, Micheal Keenen, Mylissa Fitzsimmons, Paige Saez and TJ Norris.
http://www.39forks.com/inCLOVER.htm
Noon-7 Mt Scott Park SE 72nd and Woodstock Free
Eastside Art in August
Yes shows "Maximum Warriors", post aesthetic impressions of '80's cultural excursions, curated by Seattle's Devon Varmega and featuring the art of Dearraindrop (New York), Andrew Jeffrey Wright (Philladelphia), Zeloot (Rotterdam), Seripop (Montreal), Matt Lock (Austin), Devon Varmega (Seattle), E*Rock (Portland) and Brent Wadden (Berling, Germany). E*Rock's 1999 unit and Romancing play.
Renowned shows printmakers working in silk-screens, photogravure, intaglio, wood-block, and lithography in styles they term "New Brow". Artists include: Jennifer Leong, Erik Sandberg, Tony Zepeda, Yoko Tanaka, Bowen Park, Pamela Henderson, Thomas Lee Bakofsky, Julie Murphy, Alex Gross, Youshi Li, and Seth Drenner. Most of the artists are associated with Art Center Pasadena, formerly known for for its automobile design programs, now it is a powerhouse art school all around. These prints are quite good.
http://www.renownedgallery.com
Redux recyclers/reusers/repurposers show show Lucia Johnson. http://www.reduxpdx.com
Moshi-Moshi/the Grass Hut Gallery show work by Seattle's Le Merde - lowbrow cute. http://www.moshi-moshi.com/
Small A continues their group show until mid month but closes at 6 this evening. 1430 SE 3rd http://www.smallaprojects.com
NAAU shows paintings by Mazana Bruggeman, her abstractions of landscapes, "You are Here". To me they feel like Google Earth, something that could not be said a year ago. From the artist: '"You Are Here" is an exploration of the relationship between physical environment (in this case Portland) and mental space. Both affect each other and seem to inform each other. A slight shift in attitude, emotion, intellect (mental)? can change the way you notice and interact with streets you move through and visual stimuli you encounter every day. The reverse is also true. This work is about creating a view of these spaces, an unattainable perspective that makes it possible to see the chaos in the grid and the grid in the chaos.' Perhaps this is what NSA is grappling with daily. I say let's paint secret message art on our roofs. http://newamericanartunion.com/ 922 SE Ankeny
Burnside Proper presents "First Friday Under the Big Top" with "clowns (!?*#), music, games, prizes freaks and magicians" as well as handmade goods by Patrick Powell, Hubris and Sophrosyne, Emily McHenry and Moving Circus. 624 E Burnside 7-10pm
Meanwhile over at the Woolley Gallery at the Wonder Ballroom there will be a show themed on motorcycles. There are a myriad of motorcycle cultures, here's hoping the scoot gangs of Portland will softly roar in this evening. I'm not sure if the show will finesse the culture-commerce balance but their announcement sketches out the evening:
"The opening night event begins with the gallery opening at 5:00 pm. At approximately 7:30, motorcycles design and build will be presented by 4 motorcycle designers, including Michael Czysz and his "C1"...the new American Superbike, and Paul Gaudio and the new Norton Commando. After the Design and Build, local film artists including "Lines" will present their motorcycle Film Extravaganza. The opening will conclude in the Wonder Ballroom with Portland's premier DJ Mr. MUMU and DJ Teenage. Admission is free and all ages are invited to attend"
http://www.markwoolley.com http://www.wonderballroom.com 128 N.E. Russell
Newspace photo continues their curated national group show. http://www.newspacephoto.org 1632 SE 10th
Westside Art in August
We have a new batch of commissioners in City Hall and they are shaking things up. Live bands on the steps. Art openings early on first Thursdays, from 5-7. This one I recommend and it's a chance to talk to city staffers about what artists need in Portland.
If you have ever visited the bins, you are aware of fashion's resource intensive short life. Cotton requires large doses of pesticides to grow while synthetics are made of who knows what. Vegans eschew wool, leather and all manner of skins too. So one approach is reuse. The artist Pipiloti Rist, in a 1998 interview, proposes people "sew labels into their clothes; on the labels they would write where the clothes had been worn, what happened when they wore them and so on. Every piece of clothing would carry with it a full record of everything it had experienced." Last summer the Red 76 art collective produced their own version of this idea. Some of the clothing isn't landfilled but ends up in Africa as detailed in "How Susie Bayer's T-Shirt Ended Up on Yusuf Mama's Back", the oddessy of a piece of clothing traversing continents by returned Peace Corps volunteer George Packer.
Portland designers who reconstruct clothing are tapping this reuse meme too.
Another approach is to use bamboo fibers or fiber mixes and this is the approach Anna Cohen and Sameunderneath have taken. So for more information, just go to the event:
Portland Designers Anna Cohen, Sameunderneath and Saffrona show clothing of sustainable fabric.
Accessories of sustainable fabrication will be shown by Entermodal, Lucina, Nora Catherine and DoubleCross Belt Co..
Artists showing work include: Roll Hardy, Faulkner Short, Miss Mona Superhero, Pasha, Mary Culbertson, Shirley Barley, Shannon Richardson , Matt Raufman, Alia Smith, Colleen Coover, Jennifer Hazzard, Brian Parnell, David Burkvan, Saska Schmidt, and Terence Healy.
They will have food and drink too.
City Hall 1221 SW 4th Between Madison and Jefferson 5-7pm Free
The Music Population Project plays new chamber music in he street on NW 13th between Davis and Everett. Expect two sets, one at 7 and one at 8. L&C music schooled composer, conductor, director, Brede Rørstad, creates cinematic music from traditional classical instruments and sometimes electronic sounds. The Music Population Orchestra only performs a few times a year, so see this. http://thempp.com details the project's raison d'être. 7pm and 8pm sets, NW 13th between Everett and Davis. Free.
The Laura Russo gallery shows watercolors by Henk Pender. Pender is known for somewhat dark interior landscapes with perhaps a touch of surrealism. Dutch, he extends the masters' traditions into much more psychologically complex territory. Until 9 805 NW 21st Ave http://www.laurarusso.com/
Augen shows very bright geometric paintings by Eva Lake. Some would call them op-art, art that taps the base mechanisms of the retina and lower visual cortex in our very complex and not well understood visual system to produce a sense of vibration in the image. Until 9 817 SW 2nd http://www.augengallery.com/
Leach Gallery shows work by late career artist Lee Kelly. Kelly is welll known for large stainless steel sculptures installed outdoors around the Northwest. Any art that involves a crane is worth extra points with me. Where would we be without Sera's Tilted Arc or Seattle's Hammering Man? Perhaps there are clues for Portland's emerging artists, how do you get to late career and working large in stainless steel?
Also on view are works by Hans Haacke, Dinh Q. Le, Ken Lum and Kimsooja inspired by their relationship to their home countries. Le, from Viet Nam, is known for weaving photographs of Viet Nam War cinema stills and photojournalism snaps; he was born in 1968 and relates to that wartime through its artifacts.
Until 9 417 NW 9th http://www.elizabethleach.com
PDX presents Sun Spots, new landscape paintings by James Lavadour. Lavadour is known for his individualistic abstract landscape paintings inspired by Eastern Oregon vistas.From the artist's statement: "Every painting talks about some ancient thing that is as old as ground we walk on and connects us all in a shared existence." If you are interested in landscape painting, you might want to take a look at Lavadour's work.
Until 8. 925 NW Flanders Street http://www.pdxcontemporaryart.com
The Everett Station spaces are always worth a look. I rarely get the whole scoop ahead of time, but did get word of these:
Tilt Gallery shows Freeway Hypnosis paintings by Jonathan Leach and soft sculpture-prints by Amy Steel.
625 N.W. Everett St., #106
Melissa Armstrong shows Entomology 211 themed on bugs in the lobby 625 N.W. Everett St.
Love Punk is a show of visual art and music by hey Lover http://www.heylovermusic.com. Music at 8. Hovercraft 328 NW Broadway #114
Influence, a show by Nicky Kriara, Hadley Hutton & Winnie McDonnald will be at Backspace.
http://www.backspace gallery.com 115 NW 5th to midnight
Just be design presents a new show by Kobe's Digmeout design collective. Details at http://www.justbedesign.com/JBD03/compound/0806_digmeout06/digmeout06.html . Please someone in Portland, let's get something like this going here. 107 NW 5th
Motel Gallery shows Wind Inside by Liz Harris, a show of drawings and a drawing installation. I'm interested to see how this relates to Linda Hutchins work of a few months ago. Harris recently relocated from Oakland to Portland. http://www.motelgallery.com NW Couch between 5th and 6th.
Upper Playground of San Francisco, as we have written previously, opens a store in the old Fashion Incubator space. Artist designers Herbert Baglione, Sam Flores, Jeremy Fish, Mike Giant, Estevan Oriol and Saber will be showing their work. They are out and about Saturday doing graf-murals and then having a book signing Sunday. Stop into the store or check their web site at http://www.upperplayground.com for details. They are a store with a blog too: http://upperplayground.blogspot.com/ Corner of Couch and NW 5th
The Portland Art Center presents several shows in their new space: a show of Art Media employees, past and present, with 40% of sales going to support PAC; Eclipse, a sound installation by David Abel and John Berendzen in the Light and Sound Gallery; Waiting Room, an installation by Scott Wayne Indiana; and Focus Group, an installation by Houston. http://www.portlandart.org 32 NW 5th
Kendra Binney, a talented lowbrow artist, maybe a kindler and gentler Mark Ryden* crossed with some serious kawaii sensibility, shows her paintings at Berbati's. Usually I view this type of work with a jaundiced eye, but in this case it's well executed and I like it. Oh, and very reasonably priced too. 19 SW 2nd until late
http://www.berbati.com/
*Ryden has gotten darker as his painting skills have advanced; in the style of filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet who made Delicatessen and City of Lost Children. Binney's work works for children as well as older children while Ryden's and Jeunet's works are strictly adult.
Sonia Kasparian shows dreamy portraits, rendered in layers. Sometimes the layers are window screen, patterned with bright pigments, suspending the images' highlights in parralax. Also outstanding is a full scale wedding dress in window screen. In lesser hands this subject material would be merely mythical, however Kasparian tempers this tendency by mixing industrial materials and a sensitive touch. http://www.buttersgallery.com520 NW Davis
Valentine's present a show by Alicia Cortney Eggert. Music by Gary Wiseman, Tre', and Bark, Hide and Horn
From Valentine's press release: "Alicia Cortney Eggert was born and raised in New Jersey as the daughter of a Christian minister, and spent four years of her early childhood living in Cape Town, South Africa, where her parents were missionaries during the Apartheid. She studied Scandinavian architecture and design at Denmark's International Study program in Copenhagen, and graduated from Drexel University, in Philadelphia, with a degree in Interior Design. Using common household objects and accessible materials, her artwork explores the essence of human nature in modern society, revealing it's presence and impact on aspects of every-day life, and examining it's relationship to the natural world. In addition to creating and exhibiting her own work, Alicia also organizes and curates multidisciplinary art events in Portland, Oregon, under the name of Kitchen Sink.
All My Clothes is a series of studies relating to the ideas of ownership and identity that focus on the artist's personal wardrobe. Every item of clothing was scrutinized, catalogued and drawn in detail. Each and every tag and label were removed from the clothes and sewn together one-by-one to create a vague shape of the artist's physical profile. The project's culmination will be an installation consisting of every single clothing item tied together to form an enormous mass, which will hang on the wall and be on display for the entire month of August."
Art 6-10, open late 232 SE Ankeny
Consider ending your evening at Holocene for Design Your Own Dance Party with actual designers spinning on the tables along with DJ SewWhat and DJ 1996 Olympics. There will be a raffle of some sweet custom clothing, a showing of 10 Minute Creations, impromptu designs, and an "I'm a top model" photo booth. $5-8 sliding scale at the door goes to support the production costs for the upcoming September Fashion Week 1001 SE Morrison http://www.holocene.org
Sunday, July 23, 2006
July 27 Art Organism Launch
Organism creates a conversation between creative artists, designers, engineers, filmmakers, architects, ecologists, musicians, entrepreneurs and scientists. Organism engages artists and creative people of international reputation through existing personal networks. In turn, the creative networks that touch Organism expand, becoming more richly interconnected.
Tickets are $15 in advance and available at the Wonder Ballroom box office. Artists in any field may become members for the coming year - it's included just this night in your admission. Early - Doors 7:30, Show at 8.
http://www.artorganism.org/
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
14-17, 20-23, 27, 29 July
Portland Modern #4 Art Show
This edition of Portland Modern, curated by Kristan Kennedy and Matthew Stadler includes artists Roberta Aylward, Amber Bell, Michael Boyle, David Corbett, Alex Felton, Anna Fidler, Caleb Freese & Justin Gorman, Sarah Gottesdiener, Liz Haley, Levi Hanes, Mary Henry, Philip Iosca, Eva Lake, Jonathan Leach, Isaac Lin, Marne Lucas, Rae Mahaffey, Jeannie Manville, Chelsea Mosher, Daniel Peterson, Shawn Records, Spirit Quest (Khaela Maricich & Melissa Dyne), Amy Steel, and Casey Watson. See the work in person, and many artists, no doubt at Disjecta. Enter on SE 3rd under the Burnside Bridge and read the signs in the neighborhood carefully, if parking a car, as there are some tricky restrictions which could result in an unpleasant tow. 7-10 Free
July 14-16
Jazz Festival at Cathedral Park in St. Johns
This all weekend festival is free! Tri Met might be a great way to get there, or by bike, easily transported on the Max. Schedule at http://www/cpjazz.com FREE
July 15
While geeks have been out of fashion, then in, free never goes out of style.
I think my earliest awareness that there was such a thing as an environmental problem was contemplating where there would be enough space to dump garbage. Well of course we've figured that out - in the ocean and in China. Although construction waste is the largest contributer to our landfills, generating 2 pounds of waste per square foot of construction, electronics waste, at 2-5% of the waste stream (see the photos of Seattle artist Chris Jordan 1,2,3), is rising the fastest. Oh yeah, it's toxic. That's why Portland is way in front of the curve with the Rebuilding Center and Free Geek.
Free Geek collects old computers. Volunteers assemble the working parts and load them with free software (Linux et al). In exchange for volunteering, you get a free computer to connect to the Internet, create your writings, mail, IM, maybe even start your own blog! You don't need any special skills to participate, they teach you everything you know. Meanwhile they are saving them from the landfill!
Those geeks like fun too, so from 1-7PM they host the Geek Fair! with entertainment by the Sprockettes, bands, sword swallowers, a dunking booth and a beer garden. Ever wanted to smash a printer with a sledghammer and YouTube it? You can there. Plenty of kid friendly events too. Details: http://www.freegeek.org/geekfair/index.html
In a related note, Dell has announced free home pickup and recycling of all Dell equipment. Since the company has a record of the exact materials that went into making each piece of equipment, it can efficiently separate materials for recycling.
www.freegeek.org
1731 SE 10th Free
July 15
Homeland River Themed Public Art Show on the Willamette
Homeland , Paul Middendorf and Paige Saez, present "Scratching the Surface" - Portland and out of town artists' responses to our relationship with the River. Artists include: Nicole Amore, Susie Bartley, Troy Briggs, Christopher Buckingham, Sara Cella Tim DuRoche, David Eckard, Eliza Fernand, Daryl Freier, Kim Hamblin, Liz Haley, Sean Healy, Ryan Jeffrey, Kristen Kennedy, Andrew Klause, Todd Kurtzman, Kendra Larson, Jonathan C Leach, Carly Leinheiser, Erin Letterman, Gabriel Liston, Shira Loa, Mary Mattingly, Lisa Maurine, Betty McEntyre, Paul Middendorf, TJ Norris, Tracy Olsen, Eugenia Pardue, Ben Pink, Public Media Works, Lisa Radon, Jenny Richardson-Greene, Ethan Rose, Adam Ross, Paige Saez, Ben Stagl, Amy Steel, Andy Stout, Jennifer J Strawn, Tucker Teutsch, Annette Thurston, Joe Thurston, Aaron HH Trotter, Max Turner, John Vitale and Vicki Wilson.
Today, Saturday, from 6:00-9:00PM the project will kick off with a reception by the River between Salmon and Main on the EAST side. You can pick up a map there to explore the installations and performances of Scratching the Surface.
More events on July 15, 19, 21, 22, 27 and 29 are listed at http://www.galleryhomeland.org/calendar.php. I believe everything is free, contact Homeland with questions - contact info is on their website.
July 17
Edward Tufte presents a seminar on information design. Details at a previous post.
July 20
The Film Center presents Portland Expose, a 1957 film noir, set here (!). It's exposure of corruption and vice is "Hotter than Phenix City Story", a potboiler of the time.
It's on the roof of the Mallory/deLux Hotel parking garage and kicks off a series of films at that location. doors 8 music 9, film at dusk. http://www.nwfilm.org/nowshowing/top_down/top_down.html $5
July 21-23
German Director Werner Herzog, who has a pretty good shelf going at Movie Madness will be sampled on the big screen at Cinema 21. To be prepared, consider renting there Burden of Dreams in advance, a film about the making of Fitzcarraldo, which will be shown at the festival in large format where it can be fully appreciated. In the film, taking 5 years to complete, Herzog recreated an historic event in which a steamship was hauled by block and tackle over a mountain in the Amazon. I am not making this up. http://www.cinema21.com
July 22
Charlotte LaVictorie of Yes and Genevieve Dellinger, Hazel Cox, and Don Jones of Denwave present a fashion show in the Yes boutique with the runway extending outside the 811 building. 811 E Burnside. Details to follow, or get them direct from our fashion friends at http://www.ultrapdx.com.
July 27
Art Organism Ecosystem Launch Party at the Wonder Ballroom - details to follow
July 27
The Film Center presents The Bellboy directed by Jerry Lewis in 1960 on the roof of the Mallory/deLux Hotel parking garage. Doors 8, music 9, film at dusk. http://www.nwfilm.org/nowshowing/top_down/top_down.html $5
July 27
See Loosers Weepers, art by Ryan Bubnis at the Missing Link. 7-10
From 6-8 it's a Dunny Trading PartyTM. First you need a checklist. OK. Now some strategy. There is a new cafe next to the missing link accommodating more art space and more creature space too, with coffee, gelatto and panini sandy's if you need some food power for the evening. 3314 SE Belmont http://www.missinglinktoys.com
July 29
Jessie Dayton's Honkytonk and Hot Rod Music Festival at the Jubitz Ponderosa Lounge
A festival at a truck stop. OK.
The Rose City Rollers will perform. I do not want to take any responsibility for this, so from the Rollers' web site:
"Beer. BBQ. Hot Rods. Choppers. Customs. Rat Rods. Clothing. MUSIC on 2 stages... One stage will be outside on 2 flatbed trailers, rawkin' the beer garden and the show... Inside, a fully stocked bar, complete with dance floor, pool tables, and plenty of room on stage for the music event of the summer in Portland!
Gates open at noon, first band @ 2pm, goes on until 1am
BANDS:
JESSE DAYTON
THREE BAD JACKS (SPECIAL PORTLAND APPEARANCE - 7PM!!!)
BLACKOUT RADIO
THE SKIRTCHASERS
EAT YOUR HEART OUT
SHAWN HAWKINS AND THE OFFENDERS
THE RAILERS
POWER OF COUNTY
HOLYSH*TRS
$12 ----For more info (503) 345-0300
The Ponderosa lounge at Jubitz 10310 N Vancouver Way, Portland, OR (right off of I-5 near Portland Meadows and the Portland International Raceway)"
Now those truck stops paid a lot of money to remodel a Masonic Temple into the Art Museum contemporary art wing, so I say, live and let live. But you might mention if you visit that biodiesel would be good for their business.
July 29
Portland Art Museum Biennial
From 800 submissions, the Museum's new curator of contemporary art, Jennifer Gately has selected 34 artists. Gately, fresh to Portland, visited studios, asked for opinions and looked at a few thousand slides. The result is a snapshot in time of what is going on here, now, many of the names will be familiar to readers.
The artists are: Brad Adkins (Portland), Marcy Adzich (Eugene), Holly Andres (Portland), Pat Boas (Beaverton), Chandra Bocci (Portland), Michael Brophy (Portland), Benjamin Buswell (Portland), Grace Carter & Holly Andres (Portland), David Eckard (Portland), Andrew Ellmaker & Mark Brandau (Portland), Ty Ennis (Portland), Anna Fidler (Portland), Emily Ginsburg (Portland), Heidi Preuss Grew (Salem), Jesse Hayward (Portland), Mark Hooper (Portland), Houston (Portland), Jo Jackson (Portland), Kristan Kennedy (Portland), Zack Kircher (Portland), K.C. Madsen (Portland), Federico Nessi (Portland), Lucinda Parker (Portland), Matthew Picton (Ashland), Brittany Powell (Portland), Shawn Records (Portland), Vanessa Renwick (Portland), David Rosenak (Portland), Storm Tharp (Portland), Mariana Tres (Portland), Laura Vandenburgh (Springfield), Bill Will (Portland), Amanda Wojick (Eugene)
This evening, view the exhibition and discuss it over a party in the Museum courtyard, with music by White Rainbow and DJ Copy. At 8:15 biennial sculptor David Eckard will perform. Attendance by invitation, RSVP by July 21 at 503-276-4299
July 29
Interkosmos Cosmonaut Romance on Film @ Film Center Whitsell Auditorium
Wow another strange thing happening the same night right underneath the Biennial party! I'll just reprint the Film Center's description, I would not know where to begin rewriting it:
'"Jim Finn’s INTERKOSMOS, a retro gust of Communist utopianism, is set to open the New York Underground Film Festival. A cosmonaut romance set aboard a 1970s East German space mission to colonize the moons of Saturn and Jupiter, INTERKOSMOS weaves together lovingly faked archival footage, charmingly under-motivated musical numbers, propagandistic maxims (“Capitalism is like a kindergarten of boneless children”), stop-motion animation (of a suitably crude GDR-era level), a Teutonic (and vaguely Herzogian) voiceover, and a superb garage-y Kraut-rock score (by Jim Becker and Colleen Burke). Finn’s deadpan is immaculately bone-dry, and his antiquarian fastidiousness is worthy of Guy Maddin.”—Dennis Lim, THE VILLAGE VOICE. How can you miss it? (71 mins.) Jim Finn will introduce his film.'
Tickets $7/6/4 - general/members/under 12 7PM
Friday, July 07, 2006
July 9 Church of Craft @ Doug Fir
Rose City Rollers Rollerderby July 8 &15
The Rose City Rollers Roll at 6. Go by Train. http://www.rosecityrollers.com
and
Seattle vs Portland Rollerderby @ Hanger 27 in Seattle
Rollers. They love to skate, they love to talk shit, they love to drink and they especially love to travel to another city to do it! So road trippin' audience and Seatown homies, see Portland's Heartless Heathers, Guns n Rollers, Breakneck Betties and High Rollers skate at Seattle's Throttle Rockets, Grave Danger, Sockit Wenches and the Derby Liberation Front. The city of roses verses the city of rats... It's at Hanger 27 in Magnuson Park. 7400 Sandpoint Way $15 advance, $20 day of show general, $20/25 reserved bleacher seats, under 12 kids $8 doors 4:30, goes to 10.
http://rosecityrollers.com/
July 8 Foster Art Walk
10AM-6PM and FREE.
If you are interested in participating contact http://www.thevisualrevolution.org or http://www.myspace.com/thevisualrevolution. Another project of this group of artists was successfully infiltrating and showing art in biff and buffyland, the Barracuda nightclub, of which we will speak no further.
July 8 Contact Improv Dance Performance and Jam
Performance Works NW- 4625 S.E. 67th
$10-$20 sliding scale
Thursday, July 06, 2006
July 6 First Thursday Art Openings
Me? I'm putting my bets on China.
First Thursday Art Openings July 6
This month there is a lot happening! Rather than arranging items in order of importance, I'm arranging the events in walking order, taking into account closing times. Go by foot-bike. Car parking will be impossible. Of course, most exhibitions can be seen later in the month, Tuesday through Saturday... Must see's are *
See early or catch up on later in the month:
The Laura Russo gallery shows Bouquet, by German artist Anne Siems, now Seattle based. Siems began her work using recycled materials as a canvas - old grocery bags and newspapers - laminated by wax and then painted with her own formula of wax medium. The new work references the formal compositions of 19th century studio photographs with a collage of dream elements. Somehow I'm envisioning a reference too, to the Wandervogel. Let's hope we are not headed in that direction as a country... Interestingly, Justine Kurland is fascinated by our Oregon Wandervogel, and their off-the-grid intentional communities, I wonder if she is going to the Oregon Country Fair ? Until 9 805 NW 21st Ave http://www.laurarusso.com/
City Hall presents some sort of Bike Art Show at City Hall early 5-7PM 1221 SW 4th
Froelick Gallery shows paintings by Nat Meade and photos by Robert Hollingsworth. Meade documents performance like actions, almost photographically. Hollingsworth captured scenes in the 1950's created by others or nature, terming them "plagraphy" - plagiarism/photography. That concept now is so accepted to not even require the acknowledgment of naming. Until 9 817 SW 2nd http://www.froelickgallery.com
Stumptown Coffee shows maze/ bird feet track abstract work, seemingly created from rubber stamps. It's not heartstabbing me, but it is still an interesting exploit of the rubber stamp aesthetic, sort of populist printmaking. It's by Abra Ancliffe. By the way, Cathy Joy Young, shows outsider-style work that has a luminous, almost oil pastel palette - think Jessie Reno, and of equal quality, at the Division Stumptown. Until 9:30 128 SW 3rd
Now time for a break, or a convenient meet point, over stimulating herbal liquors and the current art show at Apotheke. http://www.apotheke-nw.com
There is a show at W+K - Exploration of the Role of Failure in the Creative Process. You aren't taking enough risks if you don't fail upon occasion. Until 9 NW 13th between Everett and Davis.
Bullseye continues Anna Skibska's insane lampworked glass latices, suspended in freespace. Opening are photos fused into glass for you photographers seeking an archival process good for a few thousand years. Until 9 300 NW 13th http://www.bullseyeconnection.com
For a perspective in time, if not culture, consider a show of historical photographs of the Pearl District at 1306 NW Hoyt on the 4th floor with well earned food and drinks for your climb. Until 9 1306 NW Hoyt
Bluesky presents photographs by Julie Blackmon and Mike Smith. Blackmon's images depict childhood's life. Smith travels Southern Appalachia, capturing a world which to us looks so foreign. I wonder if a photographer from there came to Portland, what they would photograph that telegraphs our identity? Bike messengers outside Stumptown? The Zoobomb bike park? Jay's garage, with B99 biodiesel? Kids playing in the Jameson fountain in NW? Last Thursday on Alberta at the clown house? The Rose parade? Something to think about... regional caricature. Til 9:30 1231 NW Hoyt http://www.blueskygallery.org/
Photographer Grace Weston shows Private Thoughts, images of her miniature modeled worlds , painstakingly constructed and lit. Each is a metaphor in its content, and, in its process. Until 9 http://www.pushdotstudio.com/ 830 NW 14th Ave
The Elizabeth Leach Gallery shows late career artist Robert Calvo who uses maps as his base concept. Until 9 417 NW 9th http://www.elizabethleach.com
Blackfish shows recent art school graduates, so pot luck... 420 NW 9th http://www.blackfish.com
At PDX Gallery, Joe Macca shows Oxygen Paintings, minimalist abstractions inspired by the act of breathing: "I have developed a language of abstract curvilinear forms assigned soft gradations of color to describe this breathing. The forms intend to capture moments of pleasure, pain, tension, joy, rage, etc...I use a buildup of thin translucent coats of paint and exaggerated form and color to capture light within the surface, adding to that drama".
The PDX window project presents sculptural work by Molly Torgeson: GENERATE: "a series that renders movement, transformation and growth. This installation signifies multiplicity, which is produced and launched into the atmosphere" in steel. Until 8. 925 NW Flanders Street http://www.pdxcontemporaryart.com *
Portland artist James Bolton, now half through his painting MFA at LA's Claremont, shows new paintings with a sort of fern leaf or random hatch motif, brushed and sprayed. Boulton showed large colorful abstract paintings in a previous PAM Biennial. Some of that that work seemed to reference sushi, an apt metaphor for tasty work you crave, but which requires an educated palette. He has simplified his gestural elements, and his colors too, while maintaining great strength in both. The work is titled Traffication: "The title of this exhibition comes from an invented word to describe the concurrent events that disaffect drivers from the immediate task of driving; the ones that end up changing the flow of traffic and consequently the urban architecture of time." Until 8 925 NW Flanders Street http://www.pulliamdeffenbaugh.com *
Vino Paradiso shows post ironic cartoonish scenes characters in life by Lucia Johnson. Sort of rotoscoped snapshots. Until 10 417 NW 10th http://vinoparadiso.com/art_gallery/art_gallery_july06.html
Ogle shows installations and constructions by Valentina Graziano. This gallery has established a niche showing large installations, often of organic materials, that are too large or uneconomic for other galleries. The work often taps into our Northwest instance of arte povera. Until 8:30 310 NW Broadway http://www.ogleinc.com
I love this.! A toy with a life story. So I'll just reprint it! :
"In 1955 SUG was born in a remote part of Iceland. He weighed in at a 40lbs and was an astounding 43" long. Today, the real SUG is all of 7'7" and weighs 655lbs. He continues to base his operations out of a remote location in the moonlike landscape of northern Iceland. (I guess sort of a Icelandic yeti... -R)
SUG's mission is simple: to assist the people of the world who are in desperate need of help. He has no affiliation with any one government and is not concerned with the politics of his actions, but rather views his role in global terms. His privately funded aid expeditions take him into the most dangerous areas of the world usually bringing him into war-torn regions, toxic atmospheres or other inhospitable conditions. Years of exposure to these extreme environments has taken a toll on his massive body. SUG's abnormally small noggin is a result of wearing early handmade protective suits that did not give him proper protection. As a result, his head shrank and prolonged exposure rendered his face featureless. After he realized what was occurring, modifications were made to the next generation of suits to eliminate these issues and the shrinking has stopped. His atrophied right arm is a result of a small tear in the third generation suit resulting in the brief exposure of his naked arm to a highly toxic environment while working in a subterranean location in Oklahoma. The arm was reduced in size almost immediately and is, for the most part, unusable. His current suit is the ninth iteration and appears to be nearly flawless. SUG1s bag contains 4 vials of undefined liquids. They have reportedly been gathered over the years from native medicine men, scientists and his own research. The four liquids can be mixed together in various amounts and combinations to formulate a "silver bullet" serum to cure any ailment currently known to man. SUG continues to develop more advanced serums and equipment and he continues to accept missions that put him in harms way for the good of the World."
This show is of SUG figures, produced by Portland's Derek Welch and Jason Bacon's UNKL www.unklbrand.com. Tonight, a large group of great artists present their interpretation of SUG. Artists SUGin' include: Derek Welch, Jason Bacon, Rob Mars, KOZIK, NYC Lase, Maol, Super 7, Jeremyville, Tristan Eaton, Mr. Jago, Miq, Kow Yokoyama, Ren Sakurai, Saiman Chow, Martin Ontiveros, Bwana Spoons, Corey Smith, Brian Elliot, Ryan Bubnis, Akira Wakui, Shin Tanaka, Charlie Kraft, Jesse Rend, APAK, Akira Wakui Ippei Gyoubu, Madoka, Kinoshita, Cicci, Kubota Mari, MAD BARBARIANS, BARON UEDA, PCP, Nekoshowgun and Zanpon. This will be good.
In other news, SF's Upper Playground http://www.upperplayground.com, somewhat a Just Be Design copycat, is moving to the old Fashion Incubator space across the street.
Until 10 107 NW 5th http://www.justbedesign.com/JBD03/main.html *
The Portland Art Center opens a new sound art show The Lineage of Harmonic Sensation by Adam Bailey and new work by Sarah Gunderson, the invitation has a pleasingly blurred photo of the Oaks Park roller rink. Other exhibitions continue. until 10 32NW 5th http://www.portlandart.org
Next door Backspace presents a great show. James Newell shows sculptural wall boxes themed on maps and landscape. Newell's previous show there included commemorative plates themed on America's own chemical WMD's. Kim Hamblin shows graphic representations made of thin sheets of vinyl strategically tacked. Michelle shows photo-like paintings of dark industrial landscapes. Dan Ness, who also has a show at the Goodfoot shows his paintings drawn from found graphics and photos. Until midnight 115 NW 5th http://www.backspacegallery
Then head back up toward the Everett Lofts, always recommended...
I think Rake is doing a good job. So I'm reprinting this excellent press release. I have not seen the show, so I don't know how it compares to the quality of the writing, but Rake has created a great network, so I say yea!
"Michael Endo is an international artist who has a rich, yet youthful, career. His works in oil posses the meticulous patience of the Italian Renaissance, with an edgy interplay of the abstract mood evoking atmospheric movement. He approaches his subjects as an investigator. Every painting is an attempt to better understand who we are as individuals, who we are as a community, a civilization, and ultimately, as a species. Who are we when we're not trying to be anything? What do our surroundings reveal about our personalities? This investigation has led him to the spaces that we create around and between ourselves and each other. Zeno's dichotomy paradox tells us that in order to travel from one point to another we must first reach the halfway point. Every distance can be halved, meaning that no matter what the measured distance is between himself and any other person, the space separating us is infinite.
How do we bridge the infinite divide?
Through Lines of Communication"
Until 10 325 NW. 6th Ave. Http://www.rakeart.org
Now to decompress...
Valentines shows Art is People Too: Jack Bouba, Liz Goltz, Lauren Hobsen and Rikki Rothenberg. Valentines is a good place to recap the night's art events over food and a drink, they have music too by Sustentacula. For some thoughts on their location's awesomeness... Until late 232 SW Ankeny
Save your energy, Friday's are events are equally packed...
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Future Tense July
Some musings on Joan Jett besides her appearance (which is July 16)
I cannot quite wrap my head around aging metal bands on reunion tours. I think it's more than never having my own metal phase. It seems irrelevant. But I am fascinated by the career arc of performers. So say your friends are rockers now, or maybe you are a rocker. What the fuck does 47 look like?
At 15 Joan Jet joined the all girl Runaways, blasting raw freedom out to the world. The girl that blew out every window and door for women to express themselves in music however they wanted. She produced punkers the Germs. Rejected by the major labels, she founded her own label Blackheart records, singing about it in her song "Bad Reputation". With her own band, Joan Jett was the first American rocker to perform in Eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In the 90's Jett recorded with Kathleen Hanna, Donita Sparks and Kat Bjelland, profoundly inspiring Olympia's riot grrrl breakout and influencing generations of female rockers to follow.
Jett has the cover interview in the current Herbavore magazine in which she muses on eating PBJ sandwiches on the road and the "What would Joan Jett do?" T-shirt phenomena.
Now more political than ever, Jett's black punk star burns on strong today.
Jett appears as part of the Warped Tour with a million other bands. Which of those will burn with intensity 32 years hence?
This picture is from the NY kickoff for the tour.
Warped Tour Columbia Meadows http://www.warpedtour.com/ Ticket details to follow
You can have it all - beauty and clarity - Edward Tufte on Information Design July 17
See "Presenting Data and Information" by Yale emeritus professor Edward Tufte in Portland. I have attended the seminar and recommend it. Tufte is highly engaging, you will not be bored for a moment, and will take away many ideas which you can apply to presenting information on your projects.
Tufte's thesis is that in order to make decisions based on complex data, it needs to be presented clearly, not simplified to the point of stupidity. Tufte illustrates his ideas with innumerable examples, including some of the earliest movable type books on science. In the seminar I took, his white gloved assistants circulate by every attendee, so you can see the first editions of Galileo, Euclid and Newton, 4-500 years old, some with little pop up 3d cutouts! He also presents case studies where the failure to communicate information clearly has lead to disastrous consequences, for example, presentations made to support subsequently lost space shuttle launches, the Challenger and the Columbia (1,2). You may be surprised that Tufte is critical of PowerPoint, and how it is typically used. (David Byrne, who went to art school at RISD, produced a somewhat tongue in cheek counter critique of Tufte in a book of Powerpoint art entitled Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information.)
Tufte is author of 3 major books: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Envisioning Information & Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. You may find them locally to get an idea of Tufte's range or review excerpts on Amazon.com. These are handsome coffee table books, and may be helpful in explaining to your grandparents what you do in an engaging way.
If you take the course, the books are included, along with a chart produced in 1869 clearly illustrating factors leading to the failure of Napoleon's march on Moscow of 1812. That chart is way, way cooler than it sounds. (The width of the line represents the number of soldiers in Napoleon's army mapped geographically on their march. The bottom scale shows the drop in temperature, from freezing to -22F, and the resulting loss of life as the army retreated. Of 442,000 who crossed the border in today's Lithuania, 10,000 returned. War, sad as always...)
The class is $360. Groups of 10 or more registering together save 25%. Full time students may attend for $180. Note the books alone would cost $147. Registration and more detail on the content of the course is available at http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/courses
Info on the location is available upon registration. The last time it was in a big room in the Convention Center, so get there early for a seat up front.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
June Ends
At Stumptown downtown, photographer John Valls shows Cuba: a first look. His candid style, large format prints do not immediately telegraph the locale. This was Valls' aim. There are innumerable recognizable images of old Havana, with its buildings decaying in a tropical climate and '50's American cars, the ultimate icon of America's lost manufacturing might. Valls avoids this pitfall, focusing on people, who are really any country's ultimate value. The images effectively use a saturated Kodacolor palate and the exposure's depth of field to produce tender pictures. At Blue Sky, this work would be black and white, it would also have much less impact. For the print size, the prices are reasonable, here's hoping that public art programs, food businesses or a Cuban restaurant buys some. Here's also hoping that the artist gets down an editioning strategy and gallery shows. www.johnvalls.com Stumptown SW 3rd
I initially was not excited about James Riswold's show at Augen. He has created a large format print of DaVinci's The Last Supper as a paint by number canvas. I'm unsure Riswold calculated the pop culture relevance in advance, but there you have it. The work goes beyond the "one hit wonder - one idea artwork" weakness of much art. Paint by number is a conceptually rich metaphor, and the work is just fun to look at in the unpainted print form. Decide for yourself. http://www.augengallery.com/Artists/riswold.html Augen Gallery 817 SW 2nd
June 30
The art museum is free Friday June 30
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
June 24: Bus Project Party
The party Drive begins at 6 with a VIP event, then gets fully in gear at 8 with bands Liv and the Warfield Project, The Retrofits, Justin Carroll and the Time Being as well as Calvin Johnson. Later mad dancing ensues with DJ’s Ben and Ravi. They will also show the results of their competition to make a video about the Bus.
6PM VIP Event $125, 8PM Party $18/9 students at Machineworks warehouse NW 14th and Marshall
June 24: Tibetan Medicine Documentary
At Rake Art 325 NW 6th 7PM
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
June 22 - Match of the Millenium: Art vs Advertising
In Portland, where everyone is creative, this question is no joke. Sell out? Send work your artist friends way? Support a family? One band, their song becoming an ad soundtrack, explained "it's not whether you sell out, it's when".
A famous example was the fallout from the use of the Verve song "Bittersweet Symphony" (1997). The band was condemned harshly for the use of the song in a shoe commercial. In fact, the band had lost ownership of their song to the evil Rolling Stones, who claimed a licensed sample in the song was too long. Over Verve's objection, the song was sold by the Stones and the band didn't get a cent.Dickson will review examples of collaboration and antagonism between artists and advertisers. After presenting "EBay Power Seller" performances, Dickson himself was tapped by a local ad agency to create a character for a campaign by a big shoe company. Other artists have rejected corporate collaboration. The ultimate example - Adbusters, where artists and agency creatives working on the sly, produce work that is copied widely in the industry it disses.
An interesting historical perspective is offered in the book Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counter Culture and the Rise of Hip Consumerism by Baffler editor Thomas Frank.
Thursday June 22 at Disjecta 230 E Burnside Doors and taps open 5:45, match at 6:30 $10 Disjecta members, else $15 probably 21+
Thursday, June 01, 2006
June Now June
June 1
Sculptor Ellen George displays small organic sculptures of some mysterious material. She explains: "my work reflects a private life enriched with curiosity. These sculptures draw inspiration from silence, sound and the natural world, yet seem to spring forth from a world all their own." Her sculptures would like last month's drawings by Linda Hutchins as do we. PDX Gallery www.pdxgallery.com 925 NW Flanders until 9
Chris Bruch shows '80s-style muscular sculptures. Thinking of working bigger? Maybe there are clues here. This size seems to be adapted to the public art ecosystem, where mid-career Bruch has had recent success having like works fabricated in materials like stainless steel. Elizabeth Leach Gallery until 9PM www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th
The Beppu Wiarda Gallery shows the work of PNCA professor Arvie Smith. Reminiscent of Robert Colescot, Smith's dramatic and colorful paintings of a bigger than African American life would utterly fail in lesser hands. At the preopening, Smith presided, chief-like, over enpearled doyens, in a custom suit of African fabric and necklaces no doubt imbued with powerful magic, not of the motherland, but the mother continent, the sideboard groaning with box wine, KFC and watermellon. Perfect! But Smith, who has been incorporating material from visiting Mali to trace his roots, is the real deal. Smith gives an artist's talk at the gallery June 10 at 11AM www.beppugallery.com 319 NW 9th until 9
Woolley Gallery opens a group show themed "Alien and Sedition" Alien opens tonight alongside new work by damali ayo: Yarn, animated shorts and stills exploring variations on American identity as well as documentation of her Reparations project. Sedition opens Friday at the Wonder Ballroom location. www.markwoolley.com 120 NW 9th until 9:30
"All I want is everything, and I want it now" seems the Portland Art Center's meme for June, as demonstrated by this show of shows which fills the Goldsmith building's warrens, Louvre-like. 10,000 square feet is a quarter acre of space and for the official opening it will be filled. Comutatus is Oregonian editor Barry Johnson's installation. Gallery Guide exhibition I is a group show. OCAC students show upstairs. Jason Frank and Andy Brown curate Hexasion, a video and sound installation. This space in the Art Center will be dedicated to sound and video work, including installations, so if that is your work, submit. Jeff Fontaine presents "Entropy and the Arrow of Time", paintings on steel. The art center also releases its Gallery Guide covering 187 (!) Portland visual arts spaces. It's a party too, with music by Vagabond Opera and DJ Stylish. Catering by Pasha. Admission after 9 is $5. But get this: if you become a member of the Portland Art Center, you get in for free, and also into many more things free throughout the year. How much? Well normally it's $35 a year, but for this one night only - "I can't save you money if you don't see me today" - it's $25 for the most inexpensive membership. Of course you can contribute more..up to the stupendous member level! www.portlandart.org 32 NW 5th 6-midnight, art earlier, party later.
Apotheke shows the work of Keri Merkle, Through this Lens. Trained as an architect, Merkle is known for her resin cast light bulbs, and the mysterious resin machine, which may be a cross between a music box and a fairy tale laboratory experiment, shown last month at PDX Gallery.
For this newest work, which incorporates steel, her resin constructions capture surface impressions of found objects' textures. The bulbs within illuminate these impressions, samples of the artist's aesthetic travels, in the world. www.apotheke-nw.com 1314 NW Glisan upstairs 5PM-midnight
Compound shows Black and White, a group show of work as named, with miQ willmOtt (TWEEQIM), THUY3 (TWEEQIM), Kenichi Hoshine | kenichihoshine.com, Martin Ontiveros | sixspace.com, James Jean | jamesjean.com, Josh Cochran | joshcochran.net, Guyburwell | guyburwell.com, Mr. H, Chris Appelhans | froghatstudios.com, Kozyndan | kozyndan.com, Mio Matsumoto | miomatsumoto.com, Zanpon | digmeout.net, Kosuke Ikeda | digmeout.net, Ben Tour |thetourshow.com, Jennifer Poon | jpoonstudios.com, Andrea Wicklund | andreawicklund.com, Tyler Stout | tstout.com and Natalia Fabia | nataliafabia.com. Many of these artists have shown at Compound before. Compound Gallery www.justbedesign.com 107 NW 5th Avenue until 9:30PM
"Four artists and one design team ... will transform Rake art gallery into an elegant foray of provocative questioning, sensual constructs, romantic de-construction-ism, and awakened spiritualism all inherent in a relationship of skin". Hmm. Photographer Kelli Pennington shows "Breathing Free Air", a show on immigration. Garrett Price shows "Elemental Decay", etchings themed on decay in urban landscapes. Rio Wren shows "Elemental", fabric work patterned by rust and touching all questions of aging. Benjamin Stagl shows "Skin", an installation inspired by plastic shrink wrap. www.rakeart.org Rake Gallery 325 NW 6th until 10
Froelick gallery presents Beastiary, a group show of paintings, photos, prints, sculpture and drawing by 30 artists. It's pot luck, but with some oh so tasty dishes, which, of course, you must judge for yourself.
www.froelickgallery.com 817 SW 2nd until 9
The PNCA thesis show is on view 11AM-6PM Monday-Saturday until June 10. Tonight it will be open until 9. Each year brings pleasant surprises, especially in installation and video, art forms in Portland too rarely seen. www.pnca.edu 1432 NW Johnson
Also at PNCA in the Feldman Gallery is Pablo Helguera's The School of Panamerican Unrest. PORT has an elegant explanation of the project which you can read there. The artist performs at 6:30. www.pnca.edu NW 13th and Johnson
Motel opens the work of Meg Peterson, Justin Williams and Juliana Bright, all new to the gallery. Peterson's work interests me the most: she crafts landscapes which make visible the invisible wireless waves which permeate them, and sometimes us. www.motelgallery.com NW Couch near 5th until 9:30
Holocene is celebrating its 3 year anniversary with some free shows. Tonight Apeshape, Rollerball, Small Sails plus Slim Moon and What Army plus plus guests perform. Check the samples and sample if it checks with your aesthetic reality.
June 2-4
SE Foster Road seems sometimes the realm of Ford's Lost Patrol. But there is a beautiful organic neighborhood there: artists amidst backyard body shops, strippers and Russian restaurants, piano stores and junk shops, tango and the neighborhood gun shop. A pioneer in the neighborhood is Performance Works Northwest, a movement studio, focused primarily on modern dance. It's the child of dancer Linda Austin - New York: been there, done that and lighting designer Jeff Forbes, Portland's best. Friday through Sunday, Austin is joined by Clarinda Mac Low from NY and Meg Wolfe from LA and Portland dancers Chuck Barnes, JB Harrison, Chris Piuma, Lilly Chamberlin, Anne Furfey, Rebecca Harrison and Paige McKinney. Modern dance, it's obscure, but so are a lot of things. Reservations 503-777-1907 www.performanceworksnw.org 4625 SE 67th $12-15 includes a free drink.
June 2
TJ Norris curates grey | area, a show themed monochrome at the Guestroom Gallery at the Wonder Ballroom. As you can see from the list of artists, there should be work worth seeing there.
Daniel Barron: http://www.danielbarron.com
Troy Briggs: http://www.portlandmodern.org/issue2/PM2_briggs.pdf
Jamie Drouin: http://www.jamiedrouin.com/microforming1.htm
Daniel Duford: http://www.danielduford.com
David Eckard: http://www.davideckard.com
Ty Ennis: http://www.tyennis.com
j.frede: http://www.jfrede.com/works_installations.html
Laura Fritz: http://www.laurafritz.net
Ellen George: http://www.pdxcontemporaryart.com/main/artists/artists_george.html
Scott Wayne Indiana: http://www.39forks.com
Chris Komater: http://www.chriskomater.com
TJ Norris: http://www.tjnorris.net
Abi Spring: http://www.abispring.com
www.guestroomgallery.com 128 NE Russell until 9
While Minnesota has the Mall of the Americas, Portland goes for sweet quality. The 811 building on East Burnside is Portland's design block. Yes, Moshi Moshi, Denwave, Renowned and Redux will be open for art shows 6-9ish It's well worth the visit. 811 E. Burnside
The New American Art Union's gone fishin', I mean is on vacation for the month.
Newspace Photo shows work by Bob Farr & Sam Devine Tischler www.newspacephoto.org 1632 SE 10th Ave until 9
Michelle Tea (b 1971), spawn of Kathy Acker, reads from her latest book Rose of No Mans Land. Acker's semantic and philosophical adventures were replaced by Tea's body mod, punk, Mission District, cheap drug, mosh pit, lesbian sexual revolution, poetry movement real life adventures in the 1990's, chronicled.
Working class, self educated, novelist, poet and icon, Tea is the organizer of Sister Spit, the SF girl spoken word events, bakes cookies for the Radar Reading Series at the SF Public Library and is proud of stirring things up wherever she goes. This event also features Portland artist, and cofounder of the Portland Zine Symposium, Nicole Georges, and music by The Golden Bears and Portland's Evolutionary Jass Band.
Perhaps Tea is a cross between Ani Difranco, Alan Ginsberg, Mary Magdaline and Charles Bukowski, but that really doesn't get it. For a better idea, Hip Mama editor Ariel Gore interviews Tea.
The event is a find raiser for the IPRC. 10PM 21+ at ACME 1305 SE 8th xMain $8
June 3
Gallery Homeland is throwing a benefit for its show "Scratching the Surface" themed on the Willamette River which will occur in July. This night's event includes a performance by bellydancers Urban Berbers and a raffle for some stuff you want. www.galleryhomeland.org 6:30-8:30PM 120 NW 9th, upstairs $5-10
June 5
Anonymous Theater @ NW Cultural Center
Theatre Vertigo and the Anonymous Theater Company present Moliere's The Learned Ladies. The play has been cast in secret, each actor has met the director, but none of the other actors. On the day of the play they go to the theater in their everyday clothes, purchase a ticket, receive a program and take a seat in the audience. The play begins and each actor emerges from the audience, delivering their first line while walking to the stage to continue the play with a cast they are meeting for the first time. This is a one night only event and fundraiser for Theater Vertigo. www.theatrevertigo.org
1819 NW Everett $20 8PM
June 8
Seaplane designers A Broken Spoke, Adam Arnold, Antidomestic, Birds of Prey, Bonnie<3clyde, Church and State, Claire la Faye, Decora, Diana Joy, DSR, Elizabeth Dye, Elspeth Vance, Emily Ryan, Fancy Poly Land, Holly Stalder, Kathryn Towers, Linea, Liza Rietz, Midge Wear, Pinkham Millenery, Saki Jane and Sara Wieck present their interpretations, from conceptual to wearable, of the little white dress. Just in time for summer. Mmm 8:30-11PM 230 SE 3rd. $5 advance at Seaplane, $8 door.
OFFICE presents a talk by creative product designers JDK, now Portland based and Merrill. They are talking about their design for a laptop computer bag, though the product looks a little boring, their explanation of the design process might be interesting. RSVP required www.officepdx.com 2204 NW Alberta 6PM
June 10
Rose City Rollers teams Guns and Rollers, the Heartless Heathers, Break Neck Betties and the High Rollers, all appropriately costumed, or inappropriately, face off. This wacky and highly entertaining sport does have rules in which one each of the team members, designated by a different helmet color, try to pass the other team members from behind. But those mean girls try to elbow them aside, hog the court and otherwise keep from being passed. Sort of like junior high. Meanwhile an all ages and varied crowd, some costumed to support their favorites, hoot, yowl and otherwise carry on. The cheering and jeering somehow seem more real than at a pro sports event. Expensive PBR supports county programs - that would be social services and jails. A most entertaining half time show, sometimes with the Sprockettes and the Zoobombers, means that with the pairings of four teams, the event runs from 6 to 9:30 or 10. Doors 5. Portland Expo Center - go by train on the light rail as parking is expensive. www.rosecityrollers.com $12 advance, $15 day of show and $20 for VIP's, though how that applies to Rollerderby, I'm mystified.
Vampire Ball @ Wonder Ballroom
Portland's long damp dark winters may have something to do with our crafty vector. One of those vector's components are the consummate costumers. Sewing madly in their shingled turrets or dank cellars, some produce the blackest of gothic creations, and these cinderellas, not to be left at home, convene yearly a Vampire Ball. Sort of a gothic prom. Details and pictures of previous incarnations may be had at the event's website. Serpentine, the darkest of bellydancers perform. Dress code strictly enforced, so as not to disturb this subculture, more delicate than fierce, really. http://www.vampireballpdx.com/ At the Wonder Ballroom 9PM-2AM $20
June 11
The church of craft - Crafty Wonderland - continues. Work for sale by Portland's crafty vixens complements a DIY zone for learning new skills. 11AM-4PM. www.craftywonderland.com at the Doug Fir Lounge Free
June 12
Forged of carbon in earth's magma, diamonds' value is made entirely by man. The industry which makes it happen is a bit publicity shy, and for good reason. This rock's equation of size and value, and its deposits in Africa, have spawned a generation of unspeakable bloodshed, of which I am acquainted. Al Qaeda converted bank funds to uncut diamonds in Africa in July, 2001. The film Lord of War touches upon it, a feature film next year will fully bring the issue into pop consciousness. The book covers some of diamonds' history, mining and cutting, as well as their carefully crafted mythology. If you are considering purchasing one, you might start your research with this book. Though response to the upcoming film is unpredictable, diamonds could become suddenly out of fashion. Powells Books Burnside 7:30PM Free
June 15
OFFICE presents a seminar on developing your animation portfolio by Laika. Might be useful, as Laika is hiring. RSVP required, and sooner, rather than later is suggested. www.officepdx.com 2204 NW Alberta 6PM
June 16
Rake throws a fashion show by Akiva with Stitch from Sedition Magazine. 18 and older www.rakeart.org Rake Gallery 325 NW 6th 9:00 Doors open at 8:00 $10 at the door.
June 18
Kelli Pennington will talk of her current work at Rake Gallery themed on immigration. www.rakeart.org Rake Gallery 325 NW 6th 3PM free
Church of Psychedelia is in session again. 9PM Holocene Free
June 21
The absurdity of "professional wrestling" is tiresome. The absurdity of Japan's 2000 year old national sport, Sumo is sublime. In Japan, the wrestlers are revered and they really do walk around in public in yakutas - the Japanese bathrobe - with their entourage. Now the sport has spread beyond its home country. This exhibition, by a new US-based league "Sumo Ultimate Masters Organization" features competitors from all over the world. Details and tickets at the Rose Quarter box office.
June 24
Plazm's octopus identity * magazine, font foundry, design house, identity hacker, artist, book publisher, gallery and cultural zeitgeist, has spread tentacles into Portland's creative world and far beyond. They are turning 15 years old - how many design years it that? Tonight marks the publication of Plazm#28. The content
- Legend Milton Glaser designed the cover
- Patrick Long's drawing series Cop Love. Finally published—in spite of police protests.
- Dave Thomas, the legend behind Pere Ubu, on the influence of the amazing Ghoulardi
- Julia Bryan-Wilson interviews Steven Kurtz on bioterrorism, art and the Patriot Act.
- getting lucky with Peaches
- three amazing drawings by Raymond Pettibon
- Iran's leading graphic designer Reza Abedini
- new drawings by Kristan Kennedy
- poster and packaging art by E*Rock
- anti-war graphics in the digital age
- Marlene McCarty interviewed by dramaturge Felix Ensslin and artist Sue de Beer
tells the story.
Check back for the time
June 27
FOUND Magazine publishes your finds. Love letters, hate letters, grocery lists, poems, Polaroids, homework and scribbles are windows into the worlds of their anonymous creators. Found exists as a website, a zine which grew into a book series and now, experience the FOUND Magazine's Cavalcade of Thrills Tour 2006! live. In addition to being able to peruse their books, you can listen to Peter Rothbart perform songs composed from the Found missives, and hear Davy Rothbart read some of the latest FOUND finds. Note now that FOUND is collecting found audio, though how they proceed with IM, texting, video podcasting and YouTube et al is yet to be seen. Keep those strange and sweet cards and letters coming! In association with Reading Frenzy 9PM at Holocene 21+ $8
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Artists matter
There used to be an elderly homeless gentleman who swept the sidewalks by the art school in Portland. There were a lot of trees there, so there was a pretty good supply of leaves. This was when the art school was in the Museum on the tony Park Blocks.
Stocking cap, a tan cloth raincoat, winter and summer. A shopping cart home with an assortment of brooms and rakes, he was very, very shy. Over months and years, some of the art students befriended him. They would bring him tools, lunch, a sweater, mittens. They discovered he could fix just about anything electronic - like boomboxes or radios. This was before iPods. The rumor was that he had been an engineer at the Texas Instruments electronics company. Every day he would conscientiously sweep the walkways around the school. We called him the sweeper.
One day he just disappeared. My worried friends went to the police to report him missing. They could not take a missing person report without a name! Seems like the police are, more often than not, there when you don't want them, or not there when you do. Sad, they weren't interested.
This was not the story's end. I was visiting Seattle a few years later and found the sweeper carefully sweeping the sidewalks around the Four Seasons Hotel downtown. This old school hotel has more pedigree than the Hiltons, money and class. The Seattle hotel. Here was a homeless man, who no one but a few art students cared about, making around himself, a perfect world.
My friends were happy to hear their friend was fine.
May's Venerable Showers
Free Admission @ Portland Art Museum
Free is good, that's what we say. Normally $10-15, Art Museum admission has crept up. Now they are making good use of that money by actually getting the art our of their warehouse and on the walls. The museum has also done a good job hanging the work of regional artists beside internationals.
The new Museum managemant has seen good response to and encouragement for free days, and now they do them from time to time. Like this Memorial Day. When you arrive, head directly to the upper floor of the Masonic Temple building to the Roxy Paine Painting Manufacturing Unit - check the time of the next activation (about once every 2 hours) and you can plan your tour accordingly. The machine may invoke questions of the artist's hand/lack thereof, but it is really a meditation on time, machine time, drip time, drying time. On exhibit also are some monumental, free form, bronze castings by Hilda Morris who operated in our area in the mid century. Still fresh. The Museum has a very plush library too. 1219 SW Park Avenue 10AM-5PM