Portland2010 is ON

Here we go. Portland2010, a biennial exhibition of contemporary art curated by Cris Moss and organized by Disjecta kicks off this weekend with a double hit: new exhibitions with a powerhouse group of artists opening at Disjecta and Rocksbox Fine Art. Portland2010 is really a series of exhibitions in several Portland venues rather than a single venue/multiple artists. Eighteen artists were chosen from a field of 300 and shows will happen at venues ranging from established galleries like Elizabeth Leach to the Left Bank to the Templeton Building (hell, yes, bring back the Templeton Building!). All kicks off tonight, 6-10 PM at Disjecta and Rocksbox.

What I’m most interested in for this first round of openings is to see Are You Ready for the Country? by Springfield, OR’s Ditch Projects at Rocksbox Fine Art (6540 N Interstate). This artist collective runs a space in Springfield where they’ve been putting up what look like really strong shows for some time. And I’ve never been able to get down there. So I’m glad the mountain comes to Moses. I’ve seen great work by a number of Ditch members like Mike Bray (at Fourteen30) and Donald Morgan at the Hoffman Gallery at OCAC. The current members of Ditch Projects are: Julie Berkbuegler-Poremba, Mike Bray, Jared Davis-Haug, Damon Harris, Tim Meyer, Donald Morgan, Dave Siebert, Robert Smith, and Jesse Sugarman.

There exists a separation between the rural and the urban, a relationship of margin and center in which the urban assumes the position of primary focus. Are You Ready for the Country rejects this relationship, offering in its place an extraction of the phantom presence of the rural from within the facade of the urban. Finding inspiration in the apocalypse of vacancy that marks urban failure, Are You Ready for the Country identifies and celebrates the urban center’s sudden and full submission to the rural margin. Refusing the iconography of idealized naturalism, the members of Ditch Projects opt, instead, to frame rurality as the physical lack of constant urbanity. This expanded arcadia offers an alternate interpretation of provinciality, an opportunity for country objects and backwoods instances to be birthed from the crises of urban decay. Are You Ready for the Country displays the trappings of this neo-rurality, creating a buck hunter’s trophy wall of crude plaza monuments and high-tech folk art.

Bring it.

And at Disjecta (8371 N Interstate), Bruce Conkle & Marne Lucas further explore their trademarked(!) Eco-Baroque concept they’ve worked with before at The Art Gym and at PSU. The artists’ statement:

‘Eco-Baroque’ is a maximalist aesthetic approach and style based on natural forms in which magnificent opulence is created using ornate or decorative materials, and mixing in simple natural materials when possible or practical. Exploring this concept, the aim is to inform and amuse while questioning our consumption of energy, (tanning beds, grow lights, and by extension – nuclear fusion), resources, and humanity’s ever-changing relationship to the environment, drawing analogies between complex beauty as found in nature and the luxury goods with which mankind seeks in order to try and separate himself from the animals.

We draw inspiration from moss, lichen, crystals, minerals, honeycomb, coconuts, Native American culture, reflections, gold leaf, fountains, dioramas, chandeliers, most shiny things and psychedelic patterns found abundantly in nature. Our collaborative process is very spontaneous and allows us to push the boundaries of each of our individual oeuvres, often to absurd dimensions. We share a similar sense of humor, political, social and eco-based attitudes about the world and making art. Individually, we have produced work that explores Pacific Northwest regionalism with both humor and reverence for the place where we have been raised and live.

Also at Disjecta (8371 N Interstate), we’ll see work by David Corbett (who recently had work in The Quadratic Logogram of Everything show at Half/Dozen, Sean Healy, who most recently did a project with Joe Thurston at Gallery HOMELAND’s EAST/WEST Berlin, Crystal Schenk & Shelby Davis who I think are reinstalling West Coast Turnaround, their installation from Milepost 5, and dancer and choreographer Tahni Holt whose “Culture Machine (In Progress)” performance will be developed and performed over the course of Portland2010 (more on that shortly).

Ongoing are two exhibitions of work by PORTLAND2010 artist Melody Owen, Letters from Switzerland through March 27 at Elizabeth Leach Gallery (417 NW 9th) and So Close to the Glass and Shivering through April 9 at The Art Gym at Marylhurst University (BP John Administration Building, 17600 Pacific Highway).

Still to come: work by
Holly Andres
Corey Arnold
Pat Boas
John Brodie
David Eckard
Damien Gilley
Oregon Painting Society
Melody Owen
Jenene Nagy
Heidi Schwegler
Stephen Slappe
Kartz Ucci

Alembic #8: over_here: now

The next in the Alembic series at Performance Works NorthWest (4625 NE 67th), over_here: now, choreographed & directed by Richard Decker opens tonight with performances tonight and tomorrow night March 12 and 13 at 8 PM. Decker collaborated on this interactive performance with photographer Chelsea Petrakis and lighting designer Dora Nicole Gaskill. According to the release, Decker “sculpts a transformative, ritual space with latex tubing and intense physicality, blurring the lines between dance and installation art. With philosophical and spiritual questions in mind, over_here: now utilizes lighting, still image and video technology to explore the connection between performer and audience, humans and their environment.”

Avantika Bawa: yesterday. Yellow

I’m looking foward to this. For her new installation, yesterday. Yellow, at Milepost 5 (900 NE 81st), current artist-in-residence Avantika Bawa uses “fragmented debris from foreclosed properties, abandoned spaces and close out sales” to “construct a landscape where the commonplace is glorified,” reinventing “the mundane, the forgotten, and the foreclosed.” The exhibition opens this evening, Friday, March 12 with a reception from 6-9 PM.

We’ve seen Bawa’s spare, architectural installations in Portland at Tilt Gallery and Project Space and recently as part of the Vantage show at Clark College, dealing with in part, as she puts it, “my relationship to the legacy of Minimalism and its emphasis on reductive form, modularity and literal scale.”

And artist and curator, Avantika Bawa is based in Atlanta, Georgia and New Delhi, India. She has an
MFA in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1998) and a BFA in the same from the
Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India (1995) and has shown internationally with solo shows at Saltworks gallery, the Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center, Lalit Kala Academy in New Delhi, India, and in Mumbai at Gallery Maskara this past November.

Au!

Solid gold, baby. Appendix Project Space celebrates one year of exhibitions in their alt space in a NE Alberta alley tomorrow night, Friday, March 12 from 7-12 PM. But Ben Young, Josh Pavlacky, Maggie Casey, and Zack Davis aren’t just looking backward, they’re looking forward with an eye to raising funds for upgrades to the space plus a new outdoor performance space. There will be a silent auction (7-8 PM) and raffle (9:15) of art donated by more than 25 artists (bring cash!) including:

Justin Bland, Julia Calabrese, Jill Campoli, Calvin Ross Carl, Maggie Casey, Zachary Davis, Future Death Toll, Michael DiMotta, Derek Franklin, Damien Gilley, Mariana Gordon, Josh Hulst, Jamen Lee, Chelsea Linehan, Jennifer Mercede, Nathaniel Thayer Moss, Dina No, Joshua Pavlacky, Ashley Sloan, Christine Taylor, Jill Torberson, Anni Tracy, Daniel Wallace, Gary Wiseman, Benjamin Young

Appendix is located down the South Alley between 26th and 27th off Alberta Street in NE Portland

This post has been updated.

You Too Can Have a Show at Disjecta

Disjecta is giving it away. When I first read this, I kind of couldn’t believe it.

The way I understand this, we’re going to vote on giving an artist or a curator a show at Disjecta at the next Art Spark which is going to be held at Disjecta (8371 N Interstate) on March 18 from 5-7 PM. Anyone can show up no later than 5 PM with a one page synopsis of a project + a page of images (two pages max). I’m fuzzy on the mechanics, but somehow, “The Art Spark audience will review proposals at the event and award one artist the opportunity to show at Disjecta. The three finalists will make a direct appeal to the audience.”

Sponsored by RACC, Art Spark is a monthly happy hour gathering of Portland’s arts community that each month features a presenter who does a quick little something at around 6. This is the most insane little something any presenter has done so far. Usually it’s a slide show or talk or something. Of course we’re also celebrating Portland2010, but the awesome of that is going to pale momentarily in comparison to this horse race. Or not. I guess it all depends on who shows up to the party, eh?

Oh, and I’m kind of dying to know who penned this final from the Art Spark website: “Don’t be shy; every time is a practice of rife greatness, come on give it a try, stop by!”

All artists must attend the Art Spark event and be ready to present their project to the audience if chosen. This one-time only event offers artists a direct route to obtaining an exhibition at Disjecta. Don’t miss it! Individual artists or curated group shows encouraged to apply. Work in all media accepted.