The Affair @ the Jupiter Hotel
Year 4: For some reason this year’s festival seemed even to me. Sure, I am a fan of odd, but, what I really mean to say is there was a keen balance of things. It was great to see so many familiar faces, from hi and lo-brow round town and beyond. The faces you see sporadically, the ones you see in print, the ones you’ve only seen on the net. There were some out of town perennial favorites of mine like Allston Skirt from Boston, Richard Levy from New Mexico and of course James Harris from Seattle. As far as rooms are concerned aside from the above, the absolute standouts were Electric Works, Tilt and Klaus Von Nichtssagend. Elizabeth Leach and Greg Kucera’s rooms looked wonderful and the biggest discoveries came from Triple Base, 65Grand (really nice artist books) and Western Exhibitions where there were some beary types around. I got to finally see Scott Ingram’s work in person (he drips nail polish), up close and personal (Solomon Projects) and enjoyed a moment in the Dim Sum Puppet Theater room, and even bought a book of work by Jason Fulford of his own work published by J&L Books and he was kind enough to sign my copy (and I thank Shawn Records for lending me a Jackson to make the transaction). I stopped in at the book talk, but was really more excited about seeing the work. I didn’t come across rooms for either White Columns or Motel. Maybe I have to peak by again on the ‘morrow. Some nice small pieces of work by Claire Cowie at both Harris and Leach respectively, but I think overall Tilt and Levy had the best grouping of festival type work here. And I got a free Izze, score! Really good festival all-in-all.
September 17th, 2007 at 2:12 am
Tilt definitely took the cake for me. And I finally had the chance to really chit chat with Jenene and kiss her ass about her False Flat show.
And I couldn’t agree more on the evenness of the show. By far the best curatorial effort yet for the Affair. There wasn’t really any one thing that blew me away, but that always seems to be the case at fairs. 65Grand was actually somewhat of a surprise though. David Corbett’s work was really fantastic, and Bob Jones of 65Grand said that apparently he is a Portland artist. Have you heard is name before? And thank god all the small, adolescent, naive drawings are finally on their way out.
Also, I glanced in NAAU after they were closed and saw that M_US__EUM was hanging in there. It takes on even more life when it is shown in somewhat of the “business” area of a gallery.
September 17th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Oh, yes, David Corbett moved here with Melia Donovan about a year ago. It’s always nice when artists are couples too. He was in Portland Modern a few issues back.
Thanks for peaking in the window. The piece has another context, and I like that very much.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Wow, I had no idea. You can hit anyone with a stone in Portland if you throw it hard enough. And I do remember seeing his work in Portland Modern, apparently I had just forgotten. It’s especially nice when both the people in the couple are fantastic artists.
Oh, and by the way, that probably was me at the White Eagle recently. I have been around that area quite a bit as of lately. Should of stopped and hassled me.