OregonLive: Is It Art? [ 2005 Archive ]
12/30/05
2005: SIMPLY THE BEST(ish)
 |
Best of Lists Are Boring
(or 50 of My Favorite Things)
Visual Artist of The Year: Ty Ennis
DIY Art Collective of The Year: Peripheral Produce
Installation Artist of The Year: Chandra Bocci
Most Gorgeous Work of the Year: Ellen George
Film/Video Artist of The Year: Ryan Jeffery
Exhibition of the Year: Jaq Chartier Testing at Elizabeth Leach
Worst Exhibition of the Year: Portland’s Pollock (Everett St. Lofts)
Most Jam-Packed Group Show: drawing(s) (Art Gym)
Best Local Arts Cheerleader & Curatorial Wizard: Jeff Jahn
Best New Gallery In Town: Small A Projects
Most Improved Art Gallery, Content-wise: Alysia Duckler
Best Gallery in Greater Portland: New American Art Union
Snazziest Gallery Facelift: Pulliam-Deffenbaugh
Most Anticipated New Gallery Hotspot: Guestroom (@ Wonder)
New Gallery Very Honorable Mention: Chambers
Best Academic Gallery: Reed’s Cooley Gallery
Best A-list Gallery: Elizabeth Leach (is there another?)
Best Downtown Art Spot: Basil Hallward Gallery @ Powell’s
Most Art Smart: Terri Hopkins (Marylhurst University)
Most Welcome Visitation: Antony & the Johnsons (at TBA)
Film of the Year: Brokeback Mountain
PDX Snapshot to International Photo Finish: Photo Lucida
Overexhaustive (but still damn good) Artist: Tom Cramer
Best Blog in Portland: Never Loved Milk
Soundest Asset: Holocene
Best Architectural Makeover: Portland Art Museum (I like the thin halls)
Best Secret Getaway: Rimsky-Korsakoffee House
Artists to Watch in 2006: Scott Wayne Indiana & Abi Spring
Sexiest Artist/Female: Marne Lucas (whip-smart too)
Sexiest Artist/Male: David Eckard (he’s got a certain somethin’ somethin’)
Saddest (But For The Best) Moment of the Year: Gallery 500 closing
Most Consistently Edgy Cinema: Clinton Street Theater
Local Record of the Year: The Sensualists Fajada Strands (self released)
Coolest Art Guy In Town: Mark Brandau
Art Media Diva: Eva Lake
Best Kenneth Anger Impression: Chas Bowie
Most Cherished Local Celeb: Todd Haynes
Best Up-n-Coming Arts Writer: Isaac Peterson
Best All-Around Arts Publication In Portland: Port
Most Fashionably “Scandalous” Writer With A Flair: Richard Speer
Most Romantic Restaurant: Il Piato
Get Yer Groove on Best Drinking Establishment: Apotheke
Smokiest Bar: Dante’s
Mine, and Now Everybody’s Favorite Color (& Beverage): Chartreuse
Best New Restaurant: Masu
Best Art Cafe: Stumptown
Simply the Best Veggie Joint: Farm
Dessert for Days: Staccato Gelato
Best CD/Record Shop: Anthem
Best Place to Buy Artful Gifts: Motel
Coolest Place To Buy Me A Gift: Just Be/Compound
12/29/05
LAST THURS: NITE ON THE TOWN
Rasmussen |
Argentina Kaleidoscope
Onda Arte Latina
@ 2215 NE Alberta
Reception: 6-9 PM (through January 24, 2006)
Photos by Sabrina Guitart, Claudia Howell, Jingzi Zhao and Randy L. Rasmussen
“Queer Art” |
The Know Presents
QuArt & Dreck
2026 NE Alberta, 8PM
QuArt Pdx works to unite the creative queer communities by building partnerships, curating group exhibits, hosting art parties, and facilitating workshops. This presentation features diverse time-based work by Richard Schemmerer.
DRECK |
Dreck Megazine (edited by Tony le Tigre) is a fruit salad of wicked humor, interesting writing, and delicious eye candy that aims to be a document of Portland’s dynamic alternative queer arts community (very broad of “queer”). DRECK will be distributed quarterly with the first issue just released. Among the first issue’s highlights are a thought-provoking essay Gay is Dead by Jack Malebranche and a sex-advice column by Spittles the Clown! Come and get a free limited-edition first issue!
12/28/05
BEST OF!
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Willamette Week has selected their BEST OF 2005. Blush!
[ ps: mine are coming soon... ]
12/28/05
A JUMP TO THE LEFT
Lips… |
Tympany please……and watch the rice and toilet paper…as I am blushing to report that the TRANSylvanian cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) starring Susan Sarandon and Tim Curry, has officially been added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry! After 30 years of entertaining international audiences in every which way the irreverant edgy film is seated in history alongside other such icons as Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate and The Manchurian Candidate! Referring to the film as “the penultimate midnight movie” that “revolutionized prevailing notions of audience participation during film screenings”. It’s Astounding…!
12/27/05
THE WHOLE WORLD’S A SCREEN
The Producers |
The Producers is typical irreverent Mel Brooks comedy faire. Vividly directed by choreographer Susan Stroman this is one of the better attempts yet to present the stage on the big screen, coming to life in bright va-va-voom color.
Taking the Broadway smash to celluloid is a reversal of fortune so to speak. Brooks, normally a filmmaker, took his film to the stage first and with this Tony-award winning hit (pulled a John Waters, sorta verse vica) remodels a Chicago meets Rent meets West Side Story treatment, and the audience gets to choose their own seats. Set in the late 1950’s the premise is for two Broadway producers Bloom (a former deadweight accountant, coyly played by Matthew Broderick) & Bialastock (a sorta shyster producer who victimizers old women patrons, played by the incomparable Nathan Lane) venture to make lots of money while creating a stage flop. Of course the whole thing is a big old re-re-make of the original 1968 film which starred Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder (time to dig through the annals of classic film again).
Ferrell |
The two (who originated the actual real Broadway roles) attempt to stage the worst play they can possibly find, which happens to be an incredibly tasteless tribute called Springtime for Hitler written by Franz Liebkind a neo-Nazi kook (hysterically played by Will Ferrell). With the assistance of the gayest, most glitzy “big production number” semi-retired director Roger De Bris (flamboyantly portrayed by Gary Beach) the press find the satire sensational and completely foil their plans. When it turns on itself, in bright comic ways, they turn on each other. Along the way there are some fun production numbers, one big Swedish blonde bombshell named Ulla (played by Uma, Thurman that is) who walks her way into acting stardom, and plenty of high kicks, brash singing and general yuk-yuk reverie. Very special nods in a special stand out by Lane singing Betrayed while locked up in prison. The anti-semetic shell to this farse just tears through every imaginable stereotype, virtually shredding Hitler’s sinister presence, by rescripting him to be frivolously queeny. It’s awkwardly funny, and garishly homo-over-the-top and doesn’t attempt, in any way, to either be politically correct or to be anything but entertainment, even at the expense of anyone involved. Certainly brings new meaning to Men In Tights!
The acting is great, you will notice many here are graduates from those late nights on SNL, so the casting couch was fairly within range at all times. And aside from the somewhat claustrophobic set, which seems like an actual stage setting, New York’s Central Park and Avenue take center screen. One slapstick, choreographic scene captures the magic of the city and includes a herd of faded Rockettish old maids all donning the same frock and walker. It’s pretty damn hysterical.
Fun for the whole family…OK, maybe just 2/3 of them, but you get the idea.
12/21/05
RUGGED ROMANCE / SILVER SCREEN
Ledger |
Gentlemen do not always prefer blondes but is Aussie actor Heath Ledger the most gorgeous man on film?
Brokeback |
OK, so this is about the new Ang Lee vehicle, Brokeback Mountain set in the rural wilderness of Wyoming. From a short story penned by Annie Proulx (The Shipping News) it’s basically something of an unspoken love story between two straight, married cowboys. Or so they thought.
Ang Lee |
Taiwanese director Lee (The Wedding Banquet, The Ice Storm) is quite an interesting filmmaker who truly builds raw character stories, isolated and real, funny and paralyzing. In Brokeback Mountain (Focus Features) he captured the great outdoors and the silences between nature and its inhabitants - and between the characters themselves. The film captures the craggedly testosterone-fueled relationship between two men who meet in the Summer of ‘62 while working as sheep herders. The two, wide-eyed amateur rodeo guy Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Ledger), a down-on-his-luck strong, silent type, fall deeply in love, albeit at a safe distance. And though it’s not “love” at first sight, it builds like a campfire. Over time as careers and relationships and responsibilities emerge, they slowly grow apart, living in Texas and Wyoming, and both in and out of marriage with children. They keep in contact via postcard, which adds to the ultimate, deep romantic edge to the film. They meet up a few times annually for so-called “fishing trips”. The look is dusty, filled with open air and the essence of the wild west. The film depicts flailing, stale, failed, and otherwise quirky dry relationships in a matter-of-fact way (except for the energy between the two leads). And what they have is certainly a secret unto only them (well, almost).
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A simple shirt is a metaphor for unrequited love. The women in the film (Roberta Maxwell, Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams) all play a specific and pivotal role in making magic happen on screen, for adding an allure of silent understanding, domestic tension and even implied deceit. The film portrays the beauty of innocent passion without the use of blatant sex scenes (not to say that wouldn’t have been welcome) nor any implication of stereotype. They murmer about the possibilities of a life together, mull it, fear it, and nearly forget it. The life the two lead characters share is in the open wilderness of God’s country, portrayed in a staccato, vacation-style fleeting temporaryness. Momentary slices in time.
Despite being set in the 1960’s, the film points out the honest side of keeping secrets without being intentionally homophobic, and to some degree depicts a time when acting on your passion may not have felt like a political action, but more of a social taboo. Ledger stands out dramatically (award-winning performance) and is unbelievably real in his character. Though of few words, his physical performance is genuinely emotive and rooted in a gritty, self-loathing, very human, powerful man somewhat on the edge!
Judging by the near sold out crowds lining up to see this flick, on four screens no less, at the Regal Fox 10, I recommend you may want to try and catch it before its general release. A rare cinematic glimpse into the life of two men who realize that life on and around the plain is anything but.
12/19/05
Wintery Waters Weekend
How’s that for a “www”? This past weekend the hysterically funny filmmaker/artist John Waters graced the smoky, crowded room at Dante’s with laugh-after-laugh of gut-splitting Xmas humor. I mean, he just laid it on real thick like Taffy (pun intended - see Female Trouble).
Sticky Mink |
lipservice |
His travelling A John Waters Christmas is a must-see in any town that follows. Last year he released a CD of the same title with tracks by Tiny Tim, Alvin & the Chipmunks and a range of other quirky tunes that treat the spirit (um, er spite) of Christmas with mutterings of unbalanced glee, greed and various hiccups in between explatives. The theme, however tawdry and wry, is the sarcasm built around a universal commercial circus that the holiday has become. So, Waters talks about gifts that he wants, mostly rare books, and other deeds that are slapstick and performative (like dubbing porn onto Blockbuster titles and returning them as “gifts”). At nearly 60, he definitely still has a tight, angsty edge, which is why anyone, even outside of the last few eras, can still adopt a form of love or loathe for the man. Either way, he wins.
Mr. Wonderful |
He also earns some respect (and controversy) for being a blatantly flamboyant gay man who denounces the right to “marry” as same-sex couples. He sees it being for “straight gay people” (the type that probably shop at Walmart!) - given that this act, in and of itself, may be foreseen as a right unprotected by the law - in essence keeping queer people above or below its shelters. He longs for the older days when gays were outsiders and non-assimilated. He makes some great points in his flat faced, dead-pan style. He talks about the “ugly people” of his real hometown, Baltimore and his meanderings in the West Hollywood Tower Records parking lot overlooking Dianne Linkletter’s former highrise home on a past Christmas Eve. Parked alongside him, he spies Johnny Mathis in a fluffy sweater. He reminices about how you never see “Mr. Wonderful, Wonderful” in the public eye, and how remote it was to see him out that fateful night. Just one of his many ships-passing-moments…Waters reflections.
Toilet Training |
Donning a fetching feather-light red velvetine sport coat Waters kindly met with fans to sign autographs on virtually anything (he even joked during his set about signing a Tampax and admitting it was his first “unsafe” signing). I had his ear for a few moments as we discussed his upcoming exhibition at Marianne Boesky in New York in April (she also represents Takashi Murakami). We talked about his work in past shows at one of my favorite Ptown haunts Albert Merola and his 18-hour film vigil at the long-defunct Charles Theater in Boston just after Divine passed back in ‘88 (I told him I still had the scratch-n-sniff card somewhere, he smiled). We talked about the fact that he can still be seen regularly pedalling up and down that Cape Cod Commercial Street when he Summer’s at Pat de Groot’s joint.
He signed my CD, posed for a picture taken by my bud Paul, and I just shined like Rudolph all the way home!
In his own words: “Have a merry, rotten, scary, sexy, biracial, ludicrous, happy little Christmas.
12/15/05
TO DO LIST [Naughty/Nice]
SOON: An Aperitif For 2005
Lovely |
1.) Tonight (12/15) @ Gallery 500 (9PM on…)
Forced Cheer Party w/Lovely
+ Justin Oswald as Santa! (Polaroids, too)
Ho-Ho |
2.) Tomorrow (12/16) @ Dante’s
7PM Dinner; 9PM Show
A John Waters Christmas
Yuck it up!
Sola |
3.) Next Week (12/20) @ Small A Projects (8PM)
Joe Sola Grin & Bear It
A discussion of his work, led by this Californian artist
LATER: Ring In The New Year, Plan Early
Hildur’s back! |
Pulliam-Deffenbaugh presents Hildur Bjarnadottir
Overlap: New Weavings, Embroideries and Other Works
January 3- 28, 2006
Opening Reception: 1/5, 5:30 – 8pm
Hiser |
Photographic Image Gallery presents Cheri Hiser
Retrospective
January 5-28
Opening 1/5 (6-9PM) Gallery Talk 1/7 (3-5PM)
Gomez-Pena |
2 Gyrlz’s Creative Process w/Guillermo Gomez-Pena
Oregon College of Art & Craft
10 Week Class, Starts January 25 (runs through April)
Lisa Newman, Instructor
12/13/05
WILD WILDERNESS CHAT
Marne’s Pearls |
Marne Lucas is every woman (remember that Chaka Khan tune?). Through the end of January, her series called Amusement is on view at SE Hawthorne’s Homestar (a cute coffee joint). The work plays with the nature of, well, nature - human and mother. Born in Honolulu, and brought up in the Portland area most her life, this thirty-something worked for Danzine, curated projects all over town and has travelled extensively to create her body of work. Here’s a look-see into what drives her engine.
TJ Norris: Hi Marne!
Marne Lucas: Hello, TJ. You have the most incredibly striking blue eyes, almost like a husky dog’s. I can say this on paper and perhaps even in person!
TJN: (blush) Well, thank you, I’m flattered. They have been called greyish-green, but never been compared to a husky, though used to wear “husky” size (from Sears) when I was in grade school. LOL.
Speaking of colors, let’s talk lichen (my favorite uber-green colors come from this form of nature!). I just stopped by your current show at Homestar. What is the premise of Amusement all about for you?
ML: Lichen is on my top 10 list as one of my favorite things made by nature! I get the lichen apprecitation from my mom, I think she can identify just about any form of lichen and moss. Amusement gives viewers an idea of how nutty I am and that boredom never strikes. Armed with a camera and some inspiring thrift store items, I can be creative anywhere, making new work while travelling - which is what I do to relax and to get wound up.
forest fun |
I’m especially excited about the image I made of a fir tree that was deformed by burls, creating a shape of two figures in an intimate position, While the Forest Isn’t Looking. That tree is real - no Photoshop tricks, so being observant is rewarding, even with trees. Some of the other photos are about the edges of things you aren’t supposed to see, as in miniature dioramas. Unfortunate Portal shows a figurine of an 1800’s Native American, staring at himself in what appears to be a reality-sized mirror. He is not supposed to see himself in such a mirrored reality, ever, a metaphor for alternate reality, time and space. I feel both sad and elated for this primitive figure who is about to be swept into the universe.
TJN: Talk about narcissus. Yeah, I noticed you captured some funny goings-on in the woods. Back into the city…what do you think of cozy cafe culture and high art meeting head on?
Cup Size? |
ML: There is no shortage of places to show art in Portland… As the former curator to the Aalto Lounge and V-Gun, I’ve found that public spaces such as cafes allow one to develop a more intimate relationship to the art work and to the aesthetics the space itself offers. Not everyone will show work in a gallery, and not everyone needs to. That being said, I am an unrepresented artist, so beyond participating in group shows in galleries, that is where I primarily show my own work.
TJN: Sorry to hear the V-Gun thing isn’t still going, though I actually love sitting down at Cricket Cafe, or Le Happy and oogling at work while I wait, dually nourishing myself. I’ve written about the need for this in the past and will be back again and again. It was a lil’ thrill going into a “back room” (for adults only) at Homestar. And since your work often deals with the body do you feel it odd or titillating to segregate works in this way, or do you find that the “pin-up” style work is more so a different body of work, therefore the separation?
ML: The Amusement series is what I planned to show, and the Pin Up Lounge came after but it compliments the space perfectly.
One of the owners of Homestar - Paul Forrest, had the idea to open the back room for my pinup work. He painted it red and made the fur bench for the room. It makes the room itself a little special and titillating, which I love. Adding my own books, postcards and glamour props as installation made the room inviting and makes one feel like they are on one of my sets or in a bedroom.
TJN: I loved the feel of it, homey and horny! Can you describe your alter-persona, Gina Velour?
Velour Diet |
ML: From 1995-2000, I had a personae while developing my Pin Up style photography. This was the mid ’90’s and I was participating in fetish culture and collaborating with prominent erotic photographers such as Steve Diet Goedde as a model. I used my birthname for my first solo show in 2000 at the Mark Woolley Gallery. I had formed the personae for a specific film project in 1995 that Jacob Pander and myself made, in fact we both took on new names for it, an infrared erotic short film called The Operation. Gina Velour just lent herself to be a great way to make separate bodies of work and maintain my privacy here in Portland.
TJN: Speaking of the body, the worshipped, fetishized body. What do you think of Portland in terms of how people project their sexuality in general?
ML: Portland has a laid back attitude about nudity and freedom of expression, therefore lots of strip clubs and there’s certainly an affluent, patina of ’sexy’ for the $$$ scene in the “Pearl Necklace District” (writer laughs!!!), as I call it. I do prefer to make intimate Pin Ups of local men and women as their sense of style and identity is very individualistic. That individuality is what I am after, even after they are half clothed under hot lights. Confidence and accessibility seems to be part of folks personality here. I don’t find in L.A. that I wish I could photograph people there for my work.
TJN: I love the word patina! And it goes quite well with lichen actually: color, time, aging….I’ve been told that Portland is the porn capital of the U.S. Does that truly hold any water?
lichen legs |
ML: Portland has been cited to have more strip clubs and employment opportunities for sexworkers per capita, in the USA. This does not translate into “porn capital” per se…that might have to be awarded to L.A. We have a very present gay culture, and almost legislated gay marriage, that and liberal politics in general help shape Portland’s sexy factor, but not outside of city limits. Oregon is conservative. I think it’s sexy to live here, and I can afford to make my art here, but the reality is that the press and the art community seems to be really hung up on my work and identifying it as prurient matter.
TJN: Well, that’s the rub, the friction. I think you can’t truly have a fully open and vital community with things that are “almost” - remember I come from Boston where marriage is non-segregated and rights for all truly exists, even with a Republican governor! But I digress…
The photograph of the deer behind the gauzy glass is my favorite. Do you know the one?
ML: Elk, Motel Shower was taken in the Curlywood Motel, near the Redwood Forest, in California. After driving all day from Portland and arriving at this quaint motel, I discovered my room had a frosty, textured shower door. I first photographed the elk model on the counter, then under the tub faucet as a fake waterfall, then with the door closed. It’s both like a photograph and a modernist cave painting - misty and surreal, the antlers, spindly legs and slightly focused nose are just visible enough to give the viewer a visual representation of an Elk. Deer and Elk possess a gracefulness that I envy.
TJN: The Curlywood, LOL!!!! I noticed some of Bruce Conkle’s work at Homestar as well. There is something of a common theme running through both your work, and I know you’ve collaborated somehow. What’s your relationship with Bruce?
ML: We are artists with similar interests in humor and nature. Upon meeting two years ago, we discovered that we had similar infatuations with trees, nature, fake fur, glitter, ironic humor, weird self portraiture and general bawdiness. Both Bruce and I have produced art that explores Pacific Northwest regionalism with humor and appreciation for where we were raised and now live. His art tends to be installation based and less representational and mine’s more based on intimate photographic portraiture. Creative chemistry brought us companionship and then we formed Blinglab.
TJN: What’s Blinglab (sounds gaudy)?
ML: Blinglab is an artist collective founded by Bruce Conkle and myself. Artist Jake O’Donnel is an active member and inspired us to form a group when we began a craft-based think tank at his farm.
There is a rotating roster of guest artists and members participate in making fancy, glittery things, we believe in adding humor where it didn’t exist before. We reference or rearrange history, pop culture, and fiction to suit our topical creative interests. Bruce and I will be participating in the Caldera Artist Residency in early January 2006 to work on a Lewis and Clark theme puppet show based on their ‘untold adventures’. We are planning a somewhat homoerotic, Bollywood-style musical, both Brat Pack inspired and historically based puppet show for mature audiences; as it contains explicit scenes of nature!
TJN: Ooooo. Homoerotic, and “untold”. The woods. How “seedy”! (sorry). I’m sure you will come up with something totally amusing and hystorical (pun intended). “The great outdoors”. Is that Oregon? Can you talk about the nature of your work so to speak?
ML: Nature is a spiritual, political, sensual experience for me. “Naughty by nature” could be an appropriate description of where I am coming from in my recent work. Intimacy and nature are what make me feel alive; my photographs of nature are equally intimate as the portraits I make of others. In Lichen Anklepanties, a self portrait I made in the Hoh Rainforest in the Olympic Peninsula, Washington, there is a panty-type object that is really a tangle of old washed yarn that looks like it could be an organic plant. I also had a show called Oregon’s Natural Resources which was a humorous take on the timber industry and the natural beauty for which Oregon is known- so I photographed hot girls with logs and wood products. That reception was protested by feminists, who leafleted the room with a flyer that asked: “What do George Bush and Marne Lucas have in common? They are willing to plunder women and timber!” I applaud them for their witty commentary!
TJN: Wow - I hope you documented these folks, sounds wild…oh, human nature! But why photography, say, rather than performance art - and - where do you travel to shoot some of your images?
ML: I am making work wherever I go. I make self portraits, portraits of artists, still lifes and abstractions of nature and culture. In Europe, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, the Oregon desert, forests, Vancouver BC, anywhere is perfect.
Performance art for me is a one time event that you share with an audience, unless of course you film it. I gave so much of myself when I was at the muse end of creative collaborations, that I prefer to quietly work on my own narratives and let the viewer have their own separate space with the work. I don’t personally need a stage. I do plan on making short films in the near future.
TJN: I am very curious about your east meets west (coast) lightbox work that greets you at the door, the one that was included in Fresh Trouble recently. Some folks actually thought our work was one and the same, as if we intentionally collaborated….
ML: I love that our work was positioned next to each other at that show, really perfect. Maybe we should collaborate!
E meets W |
Originally, East Coast, West Coast is part of an abstract series from about 3 years ago that I haven’t been able to afford to produce as lightboxes. I started making composited works with my own photographs to explore relationships between flesh, nature, architecture and man. I am amused by hip-hop culture, so the title is a reference to a series of self portraits about that scene. In talking to you, I think in a subtle way the idea behind my abstract series sort of reminds me of a less-developed yet similar theory to your recent show at Chambers Gallery. I love how you are reworking the familiar into an abstraction that’s beyond the mathmatics of beauty.
TJN: This is like a love-fest (and why shouldn’t it be?). I am blushing all over the place…Did you grow up ’round these parts?
ML: Yep. Since I was two. My parents are from Minnesota (friendly genes) and they moved here and raised me and my two sisters here. Seeing the trees and mountains blew them away. They instilled in us a deep love and respect for nature, literature and art. My interests in exploring intimacy in my art are not a diversion from this, I feel that to be in love with nature and intimacy is to be truely alive.
TJN: It’s one of my great muses too.
Some of your images, I want them to be much larger. Do you choose intimately sized images based on the location in which they are shown, or does size not really matter when it comes to your subject matter?
ML: Sure, this suite of photos should be large scale. Budget, location and saleability were the primary reasons for the Amusement shows’ small scale. Holiday gifts!
TJN: One of my best friends in the whole world is Kim Airs of Grand Opening, do you know her? She’s been up to quite a bit since we met back in the 80’s.
ML: Kim Airs! She’s great! I have yet to make it to her store! We have an email/phone relationship. She carried The Operation. We have lots of friends in common.
TJN: We go waaaayyy back. Can you say anything about your boy series that you did at Good Vibrations (Kim did an internship there before she opened her shop many moons ago)?
Frrrreddie |
ML: MANWICH! I am basically a fag. I am obsessed with Freddie Mercury. I love the film Myra Breckenridge with Raquel Welch!
My inner personality is 50% Freddy and 50% Racquel!
Manwich |
Manwich was my first series of pin-ups of men. They are all Portland friends. I thought it would be more difficult to come up with ideas as had always done heavily art-directed situations with women, putting on lingerie or lounging around it sumptuous situations. The guys were actually a breeze, they had less issues about their physical appearance which allowed me to stay focused on my interpretations of their personality. I’m inspired by Bob Mizer and James Bidgood.
TJN: Marne, we have too much in common. One of my favorite films of all time is Pink Narcissus (I have the DVD if you ever wanna come over and watch it)!!! I had a huge teenage crush on Freddie myself (all that leather and hair!). In fact, Queen Live Killers (1979) was the first ever cassette tape I ever owned. And my old friend Thom Fitzgerald made this great film called Beefcake some years back, have you seen it?
ML: Yes we have loads in common! I would love to see Pink Narcissus, I love Bidgood’s use of simple, stagey props, a glittery cave wall, some fur, a big gold telephone, lots of buns…
TJN: Indeed, the larger cultural history of bling! You are shooting local studs! I did not know that, I’d love to flip through those images to see if there are . Artists and friends as centerfolds. It’s a bit like what Jeff Koons did with Cicciolina. Once upon a time, one lesser thing known about me, I did theatrical lighting for Annie Sprinkle once. Recently, I was doing an interview with Andrew McKenzie (The Hafler Trio) and connected back up with her to share some of her history (they were lovers once). As a sex activist, are you familiar with her work?
ML: I heart Annie Sprinkle! She and Sharon Mitchell are my porn moms. Candida Royalle is like my porn sister. These women have been so supportive of my work and the work of the now defunct non-profit Danzine, who I volunteered for and served on their advisory board. The sex worker community has heightened my awareness about a socially marginalised group of people. Sex workers and drug users are in our families, they are our friends and should be cared for publically.
TJN: Anything you want to share with our captive audience about today, tomorrow, next week?
ML: Activism, humor, nature, intimacy. That’s what I am about, that is what my work is about.
TJN: Shall old acquaintences be forgot? Any resolutions?
ML: Oh heavens no! I tend to be the one to hold up both ends of long acquaintanceships, wondering if it’s really worth it. But many acquantances are gracefully just that: not close friends and it’s ok that you have grown into -or- out of things in common. Sometimes acqauintances will transform into deep friends once I run into them abroad or out of town as you have a new context together. Portland is overwhelming in it’s social scale; it’s easy to want to avoid art openings or cultural events because of the sheer numbers of people to make small talk with. I prefer one on one conversations, but I’ve learned how to chit chat as I have always tended bar for a living and have art shows to be at. I find that old acquaintances show up in your life and give you a good laugh or new perspective on something, usually around the time you have just removed them from your email list or address book! (laughs)
12/12/05
FURRY GLITTER
Talk about the warm fuzzies!
OK, so, maybe if I stretch performance art to the nth degree, this purposeful clash of masculine/feminine at last night’s Bears, Beauties & Bombshells may be art(?). This was, in fact, a hair raiser, of both the beehive and hirsuit varieties. Produced by the Oregon Bears and hosted at THE drag institution in town, Darcelle’s, together they brought out the glitterati for this annual fur-raiser ($4K+ raised last night) to benefit The Friends of PWA Foundation. Performers included the lovely and knee-slapping, whip smart humor of Poison Waters, assorted Court Prince and Princesses, septegenarian Darcelle XV raising more than her own ‘brows in a rousing rendition of Hava Na Gila, the very ruby red Celeste Towers and the adorably bedazzling Suzy Snowflake in a fluffy metallic frock dripping in ornamental glitter.
Lotta Poison |
There, up on stage, were various leathermen crooning like Peter Brady in a broken pre-pubescent voice (remember that episode?), red-hot Latino faire with a midrift and more moves than the Pearl District has lofts, Oregon Bears prez Rick Vandecar hysterically stage crashing as “Lotta Man” in the Annie Get Your Gun classic Anything You Can Do, in what can only be referred to as “skag drag” - and all the typical pageantry you have grown accustomed to behind the doors of 208 NW 3rd. Auctioned were limited edition dolls and stuffed critters, gift certificates and some fine art in pencil and glass. To get into this special holiday event you could pay a nominal cover charge (like $5) or bring in a teddy bear to be given to kids in need this holiday season.
What I really liked about this whole event was that it brought together an extremely diverse population, on both sides of the stage, all ages, skins, sizes and abilities were represented - a real community effort. Funny, furry and feathery (hey, watch that boa!). A sparking night was had by one and all!
PS: The pre-show Santa Polaroids with Mr. Oregon Leather will be collectable, FUR sure!
12/10/05
SM[ART]
Is art shown in colleges and universities necessarily “smart”. Aside from the inherent educational environments in which they are poised, what lends to an assumed level of aesthetically critical thinking for the immediate student community and beyond? My recent scope of Portland’s current offerings certainly try to stretch and test those theories, so to speak.
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SOMETHING SKETCHY: Marylhurst University’s Art Gym presents a wonderful, albeit quite cramped, presentation of drawings(s) by over 40 artists. Many of the works are by younger artists currently in the public eye like Ty Ennis, Melody Owen, Brad Adkins and Joe Macca, showing rightly alongside established artists like Lucinda Parker, Michael Brophy, Henk Pander and Judy Cooke. It’s a 25 year anniversary of the space, and to celebrate director Terri Hopkins decided to show works that dated back into the very early 80s, some of which have stood the test of time quite vivaciously, others that are a bit crude and dated to some degree, and others quite forward-thinking. It’s a historical look at what drawing has been and can be including sketches, sculptural work, digital output and even documented on-site envionmental art.
Educational by way of expanding the genre in the minds of the viewer (and the maker) from the pencil to the performance. Stand outs certainly go to Linda Hutchins for her elegant typewritten works on tracing paper, Reiteration, scrolls of patterns of words and reflections laid out like a museum find from another era. Pat Boas‘ eerily (sur)real Mutatis Mutandi pieces playfully (?) substitute animal and amphibian skins in contorted pretzel shapes beyond reason with intense detail, realistic coloration and a floating 3D quality. David Eckard’s boney meets organic monotone paintings are illogical science and play with the ultimate colorfield of 50’s wallpaper while silently dabbling in the macabre. Marie Watt’s playful, dot-to-dot freefall white ink drawings on light gray papers are as minimally simplistic as they are frenetically repetitive. This is collected chaos, all about mapping the kinetic lines of communication. When the works blur edges between genres (Kristan Kennedy, Dana Lynn Lewis and D.E. May) something is magically triggered.
Mel Katz’s totemic charcoal drawings on plain brown paper are seriously simple patterns, iconic almost, refined, though would have done much better to be centered with ample gallery white space. That said, aside from a packed salon style show with some exclusions (but where would they fit?), this array of work is one large breadth of the region, the pulse of the artful heart of years upon years of creative hand/eye coordination. In addressing historical transparence of twenty-five years of presenting top-notch regional art, Hopkins and her staff have assembled an exhibition that breaks barriers of how technology and technique can easily subsume each other on the whole. - Through December 11 (Info: 503-699-6243).
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TWO EACH HER OWN: Off to Lewis & Clark College I was swirly eyebrowed at the immediacy of my assumption that I stumbled into the halls of the Audubon Society. Though through the doors of the Hoffman Gallery was actually the work of partners Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace. Call me “post-post”, call me “contemporarily too forward-thinking”, but normally when I walk into any place showcasing friezes of feathered friends neatly lit and all decoratively displayed I usually balk. Though, this time, for some odd reason I was curious, given the space-time-continuum of it all, and the fact that I was there in the moment (and I actually do like birds, just don’t eat them). So, Woodland Drawings was a beast to contend with on this cold afternoon. Though even hawks and woodpeckers and ducks, though beautiful in their own rites in nature, once depicted in art (as they have been for centuries) have to fly right in order to surpass the “scrimshaw effect” for me. Otherwise they appear as crafty or tourist art. And, though this gave it best effort for technical expertise and all, my feathers were hardly ruffled facing the works called Bird Pages. These seemed so trite to me, giving rationale for this column…is it art? But, these pieces from the collection of George R. Stroemple would be of interest to bird watchers, a creative motif for those who appreciate the docile stillness of these wonderful creatures. But, for me that’s where romancing the flicker ends and the dove cries.
To some degree, one may understand how the above appeals as “art of the Northwest” but come on, this is 2005, not the era of Ansel Adams in its wonderment of natural treasured discoveries of land and life, formerly unseen by means of another method, we simply have turned that dusty page forever. Whether we like it or not, wincing all the way, Google exists, and taxonomy is a few clicks away. So how purposeful is this sense of lopsided naiveté in our time? Have you, too, seen enough coastal art on visits to Newport (OR - or - CT)? Craft is craft (and crap is crap), aha.
Though, my criticism of this exhibition would be highly unjust if it didn’t address the fact that this pair go far beyond this one sideline series of duck-duck-goose objects. In fact, though, still with one foot in the technical craft of basket weaving, there are several quite stunning wood works here, and some that initially appear as wood but are actually bronze made to resemble wood (and these two have pulled the wool over mine eyes). What is most striking about works like Sylvic Figure (Woody), Sylvic Sphere and
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GETTING TO THE POINT: Last stop on my tour of local higher educational insititutions was pulling into Reed College’s Cooley Gallery showing Palestinian-born artist Mona Hatoum. Centering around her 1999 steel work La Grande Broyeuse (Mouli-Julienne x17), in essence, a giant vege-matic (including all appropriate attachments) the show is a collection of works in various media (steel, paper, hair, copper wire). The daunting, dark piece, which stands almost the height of the gallery’s ceiling, is immediately startling and hysterical. It’s like a huge pun in an ancient infomercial (definitely the type of work that would put Norman Rockwell out of business if he were alive and well today). This giant contraption is larger than life, bigger than a tractor and could possibly take on Mothra! There is this underlying duality to most all of the works on view here, including pieces that use paper to outline undulations of physical rubbings of kitchen carving knives, video work detailing father-daughter relationships and a not too welcoming floor mat of steel pins. She plays with dark, edgy humor in a way that escapes its one liner stream with double entendre aplenty. Always referring back to the nature and potential of cutting, piercing, tearing, in an absent, blindly threatening way. The works revel in texture, form, physicality. It’s bold, yet veiled to a degree, some depending on a excerpt of language, but what is spoken is encoded. The mere fact that she has taken metal grade school chairs and sutured them together by copper wire is heavy in more than one way, voice or language.
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Weaving long stands of human hair into fabric may seem to an nth degree to be something labourious, but when pattern takes on human chacteristics I take note as this is where craft shifts to a new higher ground. Where literally tieing together concept and (human) conflict in a bold life’s work that speaks volumes about the shame, and blame of her native people from an in/outsider’s (educated) perspective Hatoum is certainly a force to be reckoned with. This small show sharply slices and dices. - Through December 23 (Info: 503-777-7790).
12/8/05
HO-HO HIGHLIGHTS
As yule wraps its wintery fingers around our ribs and toes….
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THURSDAY, December 8, 7-10PM (tonite!)
4747 SE Hawthorne
Velour Productions‘ Winter Bazaar @ Homestar
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SUNDAY, December 11, 12-6PM
128 NE Russell
Studio TEN-fifty’s Handmade Bazaar @ Wonder
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SATURDAY, December 17, all day long
333 NE Hancock (@ MLK)
Prints for PICA, also in its 3rd year offers the live print wares of more than 50 of our regional artists from Studio 333 (and beyond). All proceeds benefit the programs of PICA. Prints range in price from $100-250. Talk about fresh paint! 
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SATURDAY, December 17, 9PM-2AM
32 NW 5th Avenue (Goldsmith Bldg, Chinatown)
Portland Art Center (who is opening their new temporary space tonight with 18 Independent Artists) will throw a Christmas Fundraising Party on December 17th, 9PM-2AM (Admission is $5 w/an artful ornament; $7 general) . Be there.
THE BIG Ho-Ho OF THIS SEASON…..
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FRIDAY December 16, 7PM
1 SW 3rd @ Burnside, ($50, w/dinner) & 9:30PM ($25, show only)
A John Waters Christmas @ Dante’s
The thin moustachioed Sultan of Sleaze will grace our presence, in person, and off his bicycle (not to mention his rocker, most of the time), to entertain the masses of tasteless PDXr’s. That’s right, everyone’s favorite freaky filmmaker (Female Trouble, Multiple Maniacs, Serial Mom), John Waters plans on bearing gifts of gut-splitting laughter to everyone who can take it! Keep in mind that you can take the opportunity to dine with him beforehand (”I’ll take 2 chicken breasts, please“) as part of an intimately informal affair. So, if you were me (and I know you’re not), just do what it takes to get yer tickets on time. This will most certainly be one holiday season never to forget once Mr. Waters’ tongue is unleashed on this unsuspecting corner of the universe. All I have to say is, if you remember what happened to Divine’s parents when she didn’t find those beloved cha-cha heels under the ole Xmas tree. Christmas spankings for all…anything could happen!
Hark the Herald(or the hooker!): Speaking of which - there is a brand-spankin’ new compilation CD (New Line Records) to go along with all your holiday revelling!
12/5/05
PAINT: The New Frontier
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Anna Fidler: The new show of work by Anna Fidler at Pulliam Deffenbaugh is FRESH (beyond its surface). In Oblivious Peninsulas: New Paintings and Works on Paper she has cast some of her multi-tiered manipulated paper collages and suddenly added paint. Her former work delicately and vividly used color and shape to form painterly montages of pieced-together elements making hypothetical relationships to the landscape. In Fidler’s post-Californian residency (at Idlewild) she’s now on to newer, flowing ground. It’s her very own lava spill, so to speak, but it just oozes sheen and shape. In fact, the standout works here are two canvases where she has used metallic paint, bright and muted pinks, greens and blues, random rainbows and lightning zags. One partially resembling foamy, filmy ocean sand at high tide, another like a psychedelic mind trip through a field of cotton candy.
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Conspicuously dealing with the elements and other organics, she’s addressed a fantasy landscape in her new larger acrylic on birch pieces like Bog Magic, Glacial Fjords and the absolutely stunning Mountain Aura. In these, as well as others appearing in Oblivious Peninsulas she uses color, depth and texture to derive surreally undulating surfaces that are immediately playful. Even when Fidler runs out of paper real estate she makes white space blush and wherever possible, imparts something of mystery, a layer behind a layer. This work would fare quite well in cities like Los Angeles and Phoenix, but certainly brightens the grayest Portland day to say the least.
Enjoy Fajada Strands, a lyrical, Super-8 collaboration with Philip Cooper including a soundtrack by their duo alter ego as The Sensualists who also appear on E*Rock’s wonderful Audio Dregs label. A very limited edition DVD is available in only 10 copies. With the soundtrack fading in and out, soft washes of colorful farfisa and vocals just caress the wall works gently. Through the gallery, sound animated the space adding another important creative layer to the overall show. Portland really needs galleries open to this rich inclusion of various media. This striking exhibition, over and above, examines kitschy bliss by using nerdy rainbows and a hint of sparkle to convey something much deeper than the surface, while keeping the paintbrush poised in a place that relishes fanciful secrets just below a paper thin transluscent skin. Through December 30th.
12/2/05
IF WALLS COULD SWEAT
SHAKE: Sound Sense
DoubleVision |
The Bunnymen prevail! But I have one simple question, are Richard Speer and Ian McCulloch (probably 10+ yrs apart) related somehow (separated @ birth)? I mean, it was like a double-sided mirror image, having just seen the Willamette Week’s foremost (and stylishly bespecaled) arts writer on the SW side of town, out on the 1st Thursday beat. Then, shaded McCulloch upon the stage, that hair and all - only minutely frictitious, slight degrees of cool separation. As for the concert at Wonder - these boys were so much on fire last night they made the walls sweat. In echoes of my personal past, having seen them in the 80s, 90s and now post Y2K, they did the old standards and new classics (from Siberia) like Rescue, The Cutter and the crowd pleaser Bring on the Dancing Horses. Still in great voice with an on backing band, including the luminous Will Seargent on guitar and mandolin (?) the new just eloquently bled into the old like deep red late-night crushed velvet. Brooding, melodic, dark and wonderful.
And if you are in the ‘hood tonight Mark Woolley’s annex gallery at Wonder will showcase and preview the upcoming new space called Guestroom, the newly birthed brainchild of Katayama Framing’s Marilyn Murdoch. The new gallery will focus on contemporary art and while not representative of the forthcoming gallery, tonight’s presentation will be a benefit for PNCA to showcase the work of late collector Don Schubert. The reception starts at 6PM tonight.
RATTLE: Sense of Taste
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Shiver me timbers and tonsils! Before catching the show I was set aflame. Er, my tongue that is, still rattling after consuming the totally explosive Portland Wings (a yummy urban soy concoction) at Fire On The Mountain. With umpteen sauces (drizzled on and dipping style) than you could even attempt trying in one evening, from mild to wild, you gotta check out this fiery feast to challenge your delicate oral senses. Bring me da water….Woof!
ROLL: Sight for Your Eyes
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Talk about saucy rock-n-roll attitude! Aside from her exquisite body of new work, some quite large, others quite miniature ($90 and up make the best holiday gifts!) Abi Spring decked the halls, so to speak, at the opening of her new show in a most kinetic pair of uber-pointy haute couture salmon-brick cha-cha heels. The likes of such have most probably not been seen on these wet streets in decades (they matched her just-in-time-for-the -holidays t-shirt emblazoned with The Damnation Army). When you note that she truly uses heavy metal in the shop to create the sanded pigment and marble dust beauties donning the crisp white walls of Chambers through mid January, it boggles the mind and buckles the knees. The new work ranges in textural daliance and secret recipe processes including some stark graphites and color for days. Check out her spicy blog too. Alongside Spring’s poppy abstractions are the multicolored chrome-like photo works of the namesake gallery’s impresario Wid Chambers. These large new works on canvas take a Miro-meets-science-meets-process approach to completely obliterating the need for genre. If I were you I would put on my fattest, clonkiest boots or shiniest pumps and high-tail it down there anytime Wednesday through Saturday from 12-6PM!
12/1/05
CAMERAS 4 COMMUNITY
People in Places: A Photography Exhibition to Benefit Habitat for Humanity + Architecture for Humanity
Opening Reception, 12/2, 6-9PM, $10 donation
12/3 & 4, Noon-5PM, free
Lents Town Center, 5716 SE 92nd, Info: 503-788-5366
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People in Places is an all-volunteer project led by Kate Mytron. Some of Portland’s best known photographers, join students from Marshall High School’s Renaissance Arts Academy in presenting an exhibition to benefit Habitat for Humanity and Architecture for Humanity. People in Places seeks to raise money to meet urgent housing needs right here in Portland — specifically, the 16-unit Lents Habitat development on Lambert Street — and elsewhere. Keep your eye out for some of the photographers involved: Bill Brandt, Cherie Heiser, Stu Levy, Tamara Lischka, Jim Lommasson, Ann Ploeger and Christopher Rauschenberg. In addition to these photographers, people from throughout the community have submitted snapshots in keeping with the theme for informal window displays. Among them are Mayor Tom Potter and City Commissioners Sam Adams and Dan Saltzman.
Project Director Kate Mytron says: “The places we’ve lived and the places we’ve been become a part of who we are. Seeing people in their places is like reading a chapter of a book of each person’s life.”
The Lambert Street Habitat project is eight duplexes in a city-designated Urban Renewal District that began construction in July and plans to complete by next Summer. The project intends to transform what was once a vacant, garbage-strewn city lot into an attractive, productive community. Sponsorships and families for several of the homes are still open.
As the oldest Habitat for Humanity affiliate on the West Coast, and the largest in Oregon, PORTLAND HABITAT FOR HUMANITY has served low-income, hard-working Portland families for over 20 years. It is currently one of the city’s only providers of home ownership opportunities to families at 30-60% of the median Portland household income level. Through competitions, workshops, educational forums, partnerships with aid organizations and other activities, ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY, founded in 1999, promotes architectural and design solutions to global, social and humanitarian crises. Included in its current projects are work in tsunami-stricken regions of India and Sri Lanka and areas affected by hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ivan.
11/30/05
ART PREVAILS: Snow, Sleet + Storm
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(this week’s picks)
If you plan on trekking into the white yonder this week, weather it be one First Thursday or another First Thursday or otherwise, keep in mind World AIDS Day (12/1) and you may want to check out my picks for…
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EXHIBITIONS
Anna Fidler Oblivious Peninsulas @ Pulliam Deffenbaugh
Marne Lucas Amusement @ Homestar
Red Hot Art Walk @ 5th Ave Suites Hotel
Abi Spring/Wid Chambers @ Chambers Gallery
Greg Simons @ New American Art Union
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LECTURES
The History of Electronic Music by Bruce Bennett
Reed College Psychology Auditorium, Tuesday 12/6, 4:15PM (503-777-7755)
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CONCERTS
Adelaide @ Doug Fir, Thursday 9PM
!!! @ Berbati’s Pan, Friday 9:30PM
Everything Is Fine @ Acme, Tuesday 12/6, 9PM
Morcheeba @ Crystal Ballroom, Tuesday 12/6, 9PM
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FILMS
Bernardo Bertolucci The Conformist (1970) @ Cinema 21
Noir Nights @ Guild Theater
Disco Dolls in Hot Skin (1976) @ Clinton Street Theater
11/29/05
LIVERPUDLIANS TAKE STUMPTOWN
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NEVER STOP! Guess who’s coming to make our puddles Liverpudlian this Thursday!?
Admittedly, I have a past with Echo & the Bunnymen. I was a wee teenage fan when I first saw the British foursome perform at Boston’s historic (and long defunct) Channel club circa ‘83/84, even managing to snap some candid performance shots that may still be in my cache.
I again saw these gents back in ‘97 and was mightily impressed with their seemingly light wear and tear and the way they used that rough-edge to rip through a few sets that brought a crowd of multigenerationalists to their feet. Channeling their youth with the ferocity of the Doors and big glam pomp, without the circumstance, their form of Brit alterna-pop rock still packs a massive whallop, yanks heartstrings and keeps tactfully targeted after these few decades. At that show, my sister, being friends of the band, got us time backstage where I was righteously entertained by the sheer rock-n-roll moment at hand. We had beer and drove the tour bus to some shabby offsite no-tell motel that kept the whole gig on the down-low, but with those boys in the room it was truly starlit, in every way.
At it since the very late 70’s, original members Will Sergeant and Ian McCulloch have had a long partnership that has seen them in and out of the band over the years. But the band really wasn’t much without leader McCulloch’s melancholy tremelo voice wavering through our vortex. He took a few years off to concentrate on a solo career, which probably boost his songwriting and technique to some degree. But, with so many classic songs like The Cutter, The Killing Moon and The Back of Love it’s fair timing to allow them to indulge in future repeaters like Evergreen and Flowers, especially rolling the treads for the new recording Siberia which, incidentally, is getting totally rave reviews.
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12/1/05 @ 9PM: Build your own rock history this Thursday…The Bunnymen grace us with their presence on the First of December at 9PM (doors at 8PM).
WONDER BALLROOM: 128 NE Russell Street, 503-284-8686 ($20, and worth every red cent!), All Ages.
11/23/05
TY ENNIS, ANYONE?
Ronald King At Easter |
OK. Even though it’s closing in just days, if you haven’t already seen the new show of drawings by Ty Ennis called What it all meant, you must get on down to the NAAU ASAP, that’s the New American Art Union located at 922 SE Ankeny. The show of some 20 or so intimately ironic, mostly pencil drawings, with mixed media, is quite promising and wry in its flat humor. On face value, the work emulates similar themes, or should I say, essential comical timing, as that seen in the work of artist Joe Biel, but there is something a bit more playfully youthful here. Though, the work is not just humourous, in fact some of these 2-D works on cotton rag could probably be seen slightly nightmareish (see: Britney Spears or Jenna Jamison and her cache of sluts tempt me. I guess I’m human. and ’nuff said). His images of women, in one larger drawing as beheaded creatures of faceless desire, cast them as auto-bots, in common with the angst of Willem De Kooning, it’s just spelled out very clearly here. A recent breakup…or maybe he just isn’t getting somethin’ somethin’?
Britney Spears |
In many ways the work pokes fun at the viewer, not righteously, just subtely, as a voyeur into his candid world. Like a Kool-Aid stain on my favorite Keds is a quirky birds-eye view of a blood cherry spill, playing on the magic of the medium, watercolor in this case. I just love the transluscent overlap of the “Kool-Aid” on the untied, single pencil line shoe, disembodied legs extending up from the bottom edge of the paper. My favorite piece is When I was a child, I cried myself a river, presumably a double self portrait in reflection of his younger self, crossing streams with say, er, the Shroud of Turin perhaps. A 2003 graduate of PNCA, this is Ennis’ second solo show with NAAU, and though he hasn’t shown outside of Oregon to date, he may be one of our locally best kept secrets, but we shouldn’t keep him to ourselves! Well, the word is out, he’s been selected for the 2006 Pacific Coast Edition of New American Paintings, since 1993, a respected international curatorial guide.
Hatoum |
I caught the show during a rare screening of some early videos by Mona Hatoum co-presented by Reed College’s Cooley Gallery and Cinema Project. Hatoum’s moving images were more than just a bit rough and heavy handed, but certainly serve as a foundation for what was to come in the more recent twenty years, her sculptural work, just stunning, as she has retooled our domestic perceptions of common comfort. Portland gets a sneak peak at Hatoum’s world at the Cooley Gallery through December 23.
NAAU |
What it all meant should be open to the all-seeing public this Friday through Sunday only from 12-7PM (don’t say I didn’t tell you so). Call the gallery with any questions at 503-231-8294.
Also, see twentysomething Ennis’ work as part of the drawing(s) show currently at Marylhurst University’s Art Gym through December 11th.
11/21/05
GOOGLING PORTLAND ART
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When typing in the following terms I received the following results, these were the very top result….
Portland Art Gallery
Portland Art
Portland Film
Portland Contemporary Art
Portland Experimental Art
Portland Film
Portland Modern