Tonight opens the next chapter in several overlapping stories. TJ Norris’ INFINITUS is both the next in the Couture series of exhibitions at New American Art Union and the third installation in Norris’ Tribryd series. It is also the first solo show in two years from an artist who has been an active and visionary gallerist (Soundvision), arts writer, curator of some of Portland’s best group shows in recent years, and multivariate maker whose work incorporates object, sound, photo, video, and….
The Couture series gives over the entire New American Art Union space to a single artist to realize an installation. Norris is building a vision of worldaround city, a non-stop, nature-burying monolithic city from horizon to shining horizon.
“INFINITUS” includes an extended soundtrack commissioned from the French electro-acoustic composer, Christian Renou titled, “Land of Confusion.” The exhibition opens tonight, May 10, with a reception from 6-9 PM at New American Art Union (922 SE Ankeny) and runs through June 22.
We’ve been anticipating invisible.other, opening tonight at New American Art Union (NAAU) (922 SE Ankeny, near the Jupiter Motel) curated by artist/curator/writer TJ Norris who has an eye/ear for building a show of arresting, somewhat still and meditative work that is sometimes unsettling (Daniel Barron), sometimes serene (Abi Spring). We’re looking forward to seeing every bit of this work (photo, painting, drawing, video, object), especially Ted Apel’s “sound bulbs” in “Potential Difference” (which, like all sound work, will be impossible to appreciate during an opening, but anyway…), Ty Ennis’ always-intriguing work, and Laura Vandenburgh’s isolated topographies. invisible.other opens with a reception tonight, Friday, April 6 from 7-10 PM.
Our whirlwind First Thursday found us dodging raindrops, never making it to half of our visual art to-do list. We started in the depths of the Gerding Theater at the Armory where Manya Shapiro’s wire dresses (mostly knit wire) hung in the Studio Theater lobby. At the Art Institute we spied through peepholes to see art by TJ Norris, Scott Wayne Indiana and others. TJ gave us a card for the show he’s curating at NAAU in April and told us not to miss Brenda Mallory performing in the PDX Window Project (we did miss her but saw evidence)....
Notable group shows were the sublime “grey|area,” curated by TJ Norris at Mark Woolley’s Guestroom Gallery at the Wonder Ballroom, “inClover,” an outdoor show at Mt. Scott Park, curated by Scott Wayne Indiana, and the Jennifer Gately-curated Oregon Biennial at the Portland Art Museum.
Good Bye And Good Luck
For the past year, TJ Norris has written "Is it Art?" (which we think of as "isi tart" for some reason) on the OregonLive.com site. And he's been one of the hardest working men in show business, the showing of art that is, making it to dozens more shows than we could dream of hitting, and writing home with clarity, point of view, and depth. But most importantly, Norris talked about an enormous breadth of shows that no one was talking about. He did much to contribute to the rising tide of delicious dialogue swirling around the visual arts in Portland. Today marks his last day.
This will clear the temporal way for Norris to get back into the studio to spend more time on his own art and curatorial activities. Norris' upcoming shows include an October exhibition at 12x16 Gallery called "Objects + Images" and curatorial projects for both New American Art Union and Newspace Center for Photography.
We were compelled, on the last day of his monumental yearlong blogging project to ask, well TJ, "Is it art?" And TJ responded, "Yes, in fact, it 'is' art after all. I guess it's like when someone yells, "soup's on"...you just KNOW it is."
Go bid Mr. Norris adieu. See also his responses to the ultra Q.
Posted by lisa on Thursday August 31 2006 17:04
ultra Q: TJ Norris
Curator, gallerist (the greatly missed, SOUNDVISION), visual artist, arts writer, TJ Norris takes a moment to answer the ultra Q in which we ask Portland's movers and makers a number of pressing questions
Opening this Friday at the Guestroom Gallery (Mark Wooley's annex gallery at the Wonder Ballroom complex at 128 NE Russell) is grey|area curated by TJ Norris. Trust Norris, whose shows at SOUNDVISION were always on the must-see list to lasso some of the more interesting artists in Portland for a show that in deliciously and typically Norris-esque fashion the kaleidescope of possibilities inherent in the notion of grey and all the in-between-ness it suggests. Look forward to seeing work by David Eckard, Scott Wayne Indiana, Ty Ennis, j.frede, Troy Briggs, Laura Fritz, Ellen George, and of course, Norris, himself. There's an opening June 2 from 6-9 PM, or more interestingly, a panel chat on Saturday June 10 at 1 PM.
Recently, Norris took time out to answer the ultra Q.
Qualities you most admire in design: _Elegant minimalism, neutralities. I am particularly fond of designers who cut to challenge the body, presenting an 'other' (being, thing). Design that conceals and may also present a layer of peek-a-boo attracts me. As a photographer, it's a voyeur thing.
Qualities you most despise in design:_Glib, crackhead design following a flash trend. Too much is too much. It may seem "fun" in the moment but if it has no sense of timelessness - it's simply recyclable.
Reading:_Beside the internet? I''ve been constantly fumbling through catalogues of work by sound sculptors Achim Wollschied, Carsten Nicolai and Christina Kubisch.
Listening to:_A new series of work on UK's Lumberton Trading Company imprint, Aphex Twin's eleven Analord EPs, and my guilty pleasure is replaying "Destroy Everything You Touch" by Ladytron!
Dream project:_To show my collaborative installation work in Japan. Maybe finally bring to light the "banned work" I conceived with artist/composer Terre Thaemlitz. We were selected for an exhibition about the transgendered body slated to open simultaneously with the Summer Olympics in Athens a year or two back. I thought the concept of bringing olympic bodies into the same major city where this 'other' body was on view made for a synergistically strange fusion. The museum director nixed the show in the final hours. It was disappointing because other contributors to this exhibition designed in London also included work by Genesis P. Orridge and Joel-Peter Witkin.
Favorite virtue:_Art as vocation
Favorite vice:_Other than moochi ice cream? Probably amassing a huge music library. And lately, Matthew Barney.
Tragic flaw:_Non-stop. I need a zen garden.
Secret superhero power:_Spending hours pounding the pavement, citywide with my camera, it can be endless, and it only energizes me more. Feet don't fail me now!
That which keeps your afterburners firing:_Actually, I am working on adding a few coals on the bar-b behind-the scenes!
What you'd like to be when you grow up:_Me.
Portland's best kept secret:_mmmmmum.
Portland heroes (sung or un-):_Artists like David Eckard and Brenda Mallory. Younger gallerists like Jenene Nagy and Ruthann Brown. Breathless do-it-all guys like Paul Middendorf and Scott Wayne Indiana. Oh, I could go on...it's a great town!
Interesting on the horizon (PDX):_Opening "grey|area" at Guestroom Gallery this Friday, June 2. I am also having a small solo show in October at the still newish 12x16 Gallery on SE Division. On August 5th I will be "In Clover" (Mt. Scott Park, public art group show). In January my photographic objects have been included in an exhibition about "place" at Boise State University's Visual Arts Center. Next year I am planning curatorial projects with both New American Art Union (April) and Newspace Center for Photography (October). My biggest news is that I will travel to Sweden for my first-ever solo exhibition abroad at the Neon Gallery in Brosarp to present "Infinitus".
This coincides with the conclusion of my ongoing Tribryd series of collaborative installations and the release of the CD/DVD set "triMIX" (the original soundtracks, de-constructed by Nobukazu Takemura, Mokira, Xela and several others). This will be released on Innova Recordings, part of the American Composers Forum.
Posted by lisa on Wednesday May 31 2006 19:29
Defining Moments in PDX Visual Arts, 2005
Like Henry Wadsworth, it's a Longfellow...
...The stirring up of critical dialogue in Portland with the launch of PORT and TJ Norris' Oregon Live weblog, Is it Art?.
Axe Me If I Care
Scott Wayne Indiana's "Waiting Room" at the Portland Art Center
ultra likes artist Scott Wayne Indiana. You've seen his name recently either because of the delicious controversy over his modification of a coffee table book on Liz Taylor's jewelry collection for TJ Norris' grey|area show at Guestroom and because of the notice for his horsies. He now has a team of cowboys and girls deployed to attach all manner of inanimate horse (mostly of the plastic, eight-year-old-girl variety) to the iron rings embedded in PDX sidewalks for just such a purpose. Keep an eye peeled.
Indiana regaled us with the difficulties of embedding axes in ceilings when we saw him at the opening of the Oregon Biennial. He also talked about his upcoming curatorial effort, inCLOVER (more soon on this one-day visual art exhibition in a park in SE Foster-land). But we're interested in his installation "Waiting Room" that opens tomorrow eve at the Portland Art Center (32 NW 5th). 39 axes embedded in a 12 foot high ceiling. We dare you.
See also: our beloved poet, David Abel and the sound installation, "Eclipse," he's created with Liminal's John Berendzen AND "Focus Group," an installation by Houston.
Posted by lisa on Wednesday August 02 2006 20:30
Now We're in Trouble
Independent curator and critic, Jeff Jahn, busts out his latest, greatest warehouse show, (all 10,000 feet of it) opening this Saturday on SE Belmont. Designed to dovetail with the Affair @ The Jupiter Hotel and the opening of the new wing of the Portland Art Museum, Fresh Trouble presents work by a number of local artists that Jahn argues are better known outside Portland than here at home, plus artists from China, Iceland, Boston, New York, and Seattle.
Highlights will include the West Coast debut of Chinese artist Cao Fei's celebrated video "cosplayers." Look for work by local faves Chandra Bocci, Matt McCormick, Paige Saez, Katherine Bovee and Philippe Blanc, TJ Norris, Mark Smith, and Matthew Picton and many (many many) more.
If you saw Inertia 2005, the show Jahn recently curated for Gallery 500 (open for a few more days), you know that as a curator, he delivers. Fresh Trouble opens September 24 with a reception from 5-9 PM and continues through October 10 (S/S 12-5 PM) with special hours on September 30 from 6-9 PM. Find Fresh Trouble at 4246 SE Belmont
Posted by lisa on Thursday September 22 2005 14:08
You're Not Dead Yet...
TJ Norris' "clear-cut"...the HO-sized white trees on the grid on the concrete floor...little ghosties. We'd never seen work like this from Norris before, but maybe we weren't looking in all the right places. Now his upcoming show at Chambers Gallery is all the more exciting.
Posted by lisa on Thursday September 29 2005 22:43
