Let’s Pretend We’re Married…*

You’re going to have to go to The Affair @ The Jupiter Hotel (800 E Burnside) twice this weekend: once to see the people and once to see the art. The rooms around the courtyard (and beyond) have been transformed into galleries with, if years past are any indication, art that will give you something to Talk About with the hundreds of people you’ll see there (last year 4000 people visited The Affair). With Portland’s best galleries, (Elizabeth Leach, Froelick, Augen, PDX, Pulliam Deffenbaugh, Motel), new guys in town (Quality Pictures), and galleries and non-profits (Diverseworks!) from New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Houston, Seattle, and more in the house, you’re bound to see something compelling. Trust organizers Stuart Horodner and Laurel Gitlen (Small A Projects) to deliver the goods.

If you’re not the jet-setting collector, this is your chance to have some tasty contemporary art bits brought to you on a shiny platter.

You’re not at The Jupiter already, so you aren’t at the collectors’ preview. Get to the Opening Gala from 6-9 PM ($100 admission benefits the PSU Graduate Lecture Series) or meet us at the Artist’s Party at 9 PM ($10). Did you say open bar plus Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, White Boss, and DJ P. Disco?

(*…go all night. — Prince)

Mr. Warhol

Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images via American Masters, PBS

ultra is interested in the overlaps and intersections between worlds of art, design, performance, fashion, and no one personifies that ground zero better than Andy Warhol. Tonight the Northwest Film Center is showing Andy Warhol, a documentary by Ric Burns, narrated by Laurie Anderson with the voice of Warhol being provided by Jeff Koons (don’t get us started on Koons). See it tonight, September 19 at 6:30 PM at the Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium at the Portland Art Museum (1219 SW Park Ave). Be warned, it’s a four hour documentary, but hey, that’s not nearly as long as “Empire” and have you ever seen the tome that is the Andy Warhol Diaries? [ASIDE: did you read Peter Schjeldahl on "Empire" in his piece on the show at MoMA?] The Warhol documentary is also being shown on PBS coming up.

Not Your Grandma’s Doily

Hildur Bjarnadóttir, Frippery, 2004

You probably know that every Bonnie Heart Clyde piece is machine embroidered by an artisan under Emily Katz’ design direction. What you may not know is that Emily Katz is also a fine artist, employing embroidery in her work. So it is that she’ll be showing alongside heavyhitters like Louise Bourgeois (Elizabeth Leach has shown her work locally) and the incredible Hildur Bjarnadóttir (read this review of her January show at Pulliam Deffenbaugh) in New Embroidery: not your grandma’s doily at the Contemporary Craft Museum and Gallery (3934 SW Corbett Avenue)

Much of textile-based (or fiber-based) work in contemporary art (embroidery, weaving, etc.) now has moved beyond heavy-handed or monodimensional critique of women’s work. So now we find the stitch employed as tiny brushstroke, as in Megan Whitmarsh’s October 05 show, “Crystal Logic,” at motel gallery or a Bean Gilsdorf quilt with a relief print of an object like a Plymouth Valiant (full-size). Cumulatively, it amounts to a refusal to sideline traditional craft in the pursuit of art. And it can produce work that ranges from witty to muscular to sublime (see Bjarnadóttir).

New Embroidery: not your grandma’s doily at the Contemporary Craft Museum and Gallery opens this Thursday, September 21 with a reception from 5:30-8 PM.

This Is Called The Show*: Show2006

fix studio’s juried showcase of innovative furniture design

Circle Cabinet. Cristina Aucone.

Now in its fifth year, Show2006 showcases the best in Portland-designed “innovative and functional furniture.” Portland is getting national notice for our architects and artists. The Show shines that bright light from October 4-28 on work by some 30 emerging area designers selected by a jury whose members represent the fields of architecture, art, fabrication, and design. Expect to see work like the reinterpretations of coat tree, magazine rack, and wall storage pictured here.

“Designers are driven, often staying in the bubble of our studios without dialog. Show2006 gives us an opportunity to share our recent work with the public and each other,” says Christopher Bleiler, co-founder (with Jennifer Jako) of The Show.

Kibako. Tomita design.build.

Show2006 opens with a preview reception Wednesday, October 4 at 6 PM at Design Within Reach (1200 NW Everett). Designers and jury will be on hand and your $10 donation will go to support the Show. The work is moved to Pacific Northwest College of Art (1241 NW Johnson) for First Thursday, October 5 and will be on display through October 28.

Kotree. Material Furniture.

fix studio.

*Soundtrack “The Show” (1985) Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew with Slick Rick.

Tonight: Nature Theater of Oklahoma

we’re in the home stretch of PICA’s TBA Festival, here…you’ll kick yourself if you miss Nature Theater of Oklahoma tonight

Let’s just say you have never been to the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s Time-Based Art Festival. We can offer no better introduction to performances that exist in the inbetweens, (like the Osmonds “I’m a little bit country, I’m a little bit rock ‘n roll”), not theater or dance but something halfway, than Nature Theater of Oklahoma. NTOO is four supremely engaging performers engaging one another sans speech and ripping through dance routines (to Dreamweaver, Dancing Queen, and Super Bad) that will make you very happy. Full of weirdness (in a good way), surprises that you’ll be talking about for days, this show more than anything will make you want to get up and dance.

Don’t miss Nature Theater of Oklahoma tonight (and tomorrow night) at 9 PM at Portland State University: Lincoln Hall (1620 SW Park). $20.