Going Green Going
MEAN GREEN GENES: Green Oregon, organized by Justin Bland and Mia Nolting is the only show in a five mile radius of PDX that could have rivaled Town & Country (through July 11) for the attentive spotlight this month, applying the quirky cerebral aesthetics around all that is rootsy green and then some. It’s closing tomorrow. Over its due course not a single critic (or blogger) has yet to compare|contrast these two shows - and why pray tell? One wonders if the eco-art aficionados of The Bear Deluxe even trundled the path over to PNCA to see it. To the gallery baring the name of Spanish octogenarian sculptor Manuel Izquierdo that is. For such a place on earth that prides itself on all that it is in its many subtle and sublime shades I’m miffed that this show, in particular, was overlooked critically. This has been the third intelligent show attempting to address the environment in the past few years in these parts. Remember Rhoda London’s The Other Portland: Art & Ecology in the 5th Quadrant? That never made it into black n’ white. Why is media so shy, the inkwell dry, about delving into the crux of this land as our land (and ‘other’) through the eyes of contemporary art? It would seem disingenuous to overlook a vision of that which draws people here in the first place: our backyards, big old trees, waterways and other natural phenomena. The many roads travelled and diversions via our landscape and its changing horizonline. Talk about urban growth boundaries! Yeah, talk. The oats hath been sown and this is Last Call!
Tags: Green Oregon, Justin Bland, Manuel Izquierdo, Mia Nolting, PNCA, The Bear Deluxe, Town & Country