When the Portland Art Center (PAC) held its “official” opening last First Thursday, June 1, it heralded the beginning of what could be a significant catalyst for Portland’s art scene. Although PAC has occupied the 10,000-square-foot space in Old Town for months now, the event celebrated the use of the newly renovated space as a […]
John Motley
Posted inArt
Red76’s Travelers and Record
Portland’s Red76—which is the moniker for Sam Gould’s work with a rotating cast of collaborators—organizes event-based projects that are deeply rooted in art theory, but are inclusive and unintimidating in practice. In typical Red76 form, Gould’s next “extremely ongoing and open-ended” project, Travelers and Record, focuses on an experience everyone can relate to: daily travel. […]
Posted inArt
Guy Martelet
French-born local Guy Martelet has always created tense temporal juxtapositions in his surreal but intricately rendered gouache compositions. In the first issue of Portland Modern, his spectacular “Walhalla” crammed ancient pyramids and ziggurats into the same space with a half-dozen baseball diamonds as if they were likely bedfellows. With his exhibition of new work at […]
Posted inArt
Zoe Crosher
According to Allan Sekula (one of Zoe Crosher’s professors at CalArts), Los Angeles cannot be definitively documented. Sekula believes the city can never take on a static essence because the reality of LA is constantly trying to catch up to the fantasy of what it should be. In response, Crosher spent five years photographing what […]
Posted inArt
Portland Modern, Issue #4
Since its first issue in 2004, Portland Modern has been showcasing local talent in a slight, stylishly packaged magazine. For its fourth issue, editor Mark Brandau invited Matthew Stadler, novelist and recent Artforum contributor, and Kristan Kennedy, artist and PICA’s visual arts program director, to serve as curators. Unlike previous issues, this one features more […]
Posted inArt
History & Identity
It’s a little off the beaten path, but the vaguely titled History & Identity at Clackamas Community College is worth the drive. Showcasing four artists’ interpretations of how experience and memory have shaped them, the show’s conceit seems a little flimsy, but the work on display is still strong. The self-taught painter Eduardo Fernandez presents […]
Posted inMusic
Use Once and Destroy
Destroyer Gets Precious with Rubies
THE CAREER OF Vancouver, BC’s Destroyer—the moniker for the New Pornographers’ Daniel Bejar—is best characterized by shape-shifting reinvention. With every album, Bejar manages to repackage the Destroyer sound, while retaining his inimitable earmarks as a songwriter: irrepressible melody, deeply associative wordplay, and a flair for drama and excess. The first sign of greatness was Streethawk: […]
Posted inArt
Introductions
This month’s group show at Pulliam Deffenbaugh presents new work from Portland native Yoshihiro Kitai as well as Kathryn Van Dyke and Sian Oblak, who participated in last year’s sprawling Bay Area Bazaar show. The work of these three artists share few similarities, but it’s all consistent with the gallery’s aesthetic of cool, sleek abstractions. […]
Posted inArt
New Trajectories II: expansions
The first installment of the Cooley Gallery’s survey of Michael and Judy Ovitz’s collection of contemporary art was teeming with more than 30 works by a diverse range of artists. But New Trajectories II is much more streamlined, with just nine works by two internationally renowned photographers, Candida Hofer and Gregory Crewdson. Hofer, a student […]
Posted inArt
FRESH
The curse of large-scale group shows is that they tend to be unwieldy and less than focused. Stuffed to the gills with new work from 15 artists, from local Leach Gallery staples to a few out-of-towners, FRESH is no exception. But there’s enough compelling work here—particularly from young, up-and-coming Portlanders—to help you forgive the show’s […]
Posted inArt
From Anxiety to Ecstasy
When Ernst Kirchner outlined the mission of Die Brücke, an avant-garde group of artists founded in Dresden, Germany, he did so by making a woodcut print of its philosophy to accompany a 1906 exhibition. In its brief manifesto, he declared, “Everyone who reproduces that which drives us to directness and authenticity belongs to us.” While […]
Posted inArt
Vicki Lynn Wilson
In the installation Love in the Wild, by Vicki Lynn Wilson, Blackfish Gallery is transformed into a place where the seemingly opposing spheres of wilderness and domesticity become unlikely bedfellows. This odd coupling, where stalking wolves and a polar bear share floor space with plastic lawn furniture, is what Wilson calls the “tundracondo,” the icy […]