- Surplus Space
- From Tending Home.
With a premium on Portland housing, many alternative arts spaces have closed their doors, but Surplus Space, on NE 7th, isn’t one of them. It’s a proudly alternative exhibition space housed in an actual house, with projects in the works to assist other alternative spaces throughout the city—something increasingly necessary when the rent is too damn high.
The space’s latest show, Tending Home, featuring local and out-of-state artists, ends this Friday, April 17, but unlike your typical end-of-gallery-run fadeout, Surplus Space is hosting a closing night artist talk. From Maggie Heath and Carly Mandel’s curatorial statement:
Tending Home represents a variety of artists working in a range of mediums, conceptual focuses, and widespread locations. The artists were selected and asked to consider their relationship to the home and examine ideas of deconstructing cultural paradigms. The hope was that a general prompt could allow for a varied interpretation and aesthetic. The interest lies in the differences between works as a way to achieve a richer understanding of the home and the many relationships we have within it.
This idea—of rethinking homes, or at least non-galleries, as artist-run exhibition spaces—is something Surplus Space has a vested interest in. Alongside their exhibitions, the space also offers a small “Neighborhood Gallery Grant” to offer “an individual interested in their own exhibition project,” with the (sad) caveat that, “As Portland becomes more and more gentrified, the availability of artist-run spaces has been greatly reduced. Focusing on resident-based exhibition projects is a way to respond to our city’s rapidly changing landscape.”
And let’s not forget: Alternative arts spaces also contain possibilities that the usual suspects don’t. Site-specific art all but requires this type of space, and the potential for art to engage with its environment isn’t something you’d get at a museum. In discussing the rationale for the grant on their website, Surplus Space’s curators make one more key distinction: Since they’re outside the traditional gallery system, these spaces offer a exhibition space that isn’t locked into the business side of art.
A handbook for starting an alternative space is also in the works, with current and former alternative space curators and directors weighing in on best practices.
Tending Home ends Friday, April 17, at Surplus Space (3726 NE 7th) with an artist talk at 7 pm.