Early Bird Gets Worm

OFFICE opens new show of work by Amy Ruppel

Tomorrow night, OFFICE (2204 NE Alberta) opens a show of new work by designer and artist Amy Ruppel, “The Early Bird Gets the Worm.” She’s known for her sweet figurative encaustic works (sometimes mixed media) pairing a modern sensibility (and lots of birdies) with the patina that encaustic brings. In the new work, the birdies are breaking through to three dimensions. Ruppel will be showing more than 100 works in and amongst the “quality products for the modern office worker” at OFFICE. She’ll be at the reception Thursday, October 26 from 7-9 PM.

See also Ruppel’s collaborations with Seattle jewelry designer Amy Bengston:

updated Wednesday October 25 2006 14:49

Mr. Popovic at PICA

PICA’s current Artist in Residence is Croatian artist, Viktor Popovic who creates glowing installations with lights (argon gas tubes, say) illuminating found and industrial materials. He also makes sculptures of and paintings on lead.

The result of an arts-institutional buddy-system we’re happy to see, Popovic will be making an installation at the Portland Art Center (32 NW 5th) during his residency. It opens November 2 with a reception from 6-10 PM.

Meet the artist this Wednesday at PICA’s Resource Room (224 NW 13th). He’ll be giving an artist’s talk at 6:30 PM.

Gertrude at Vendetta

design: Philip Iosca

ultra loves smart conversation with a visual culture bent almost as much as we love the namesake of this new arts salon. Hail Gertrude, a new salon devoted to visual culture, put on by Organism, Portland’s newest arts presenting institution with big ambition and promised international scope. Organism director, Jeff Jahn calls the salon, “an adult form of show-and-tell,” for artists, designers, architects, etc. and those interested in their experiments.

The debut Gertrude was a month ago, the second, with video work by Mac Mcfarland, is Tuesday, October 24, 7 PM at Vendetta (4306 N Williams). Chat about the state of the arts, get a sneak preview of Organism’s inaugural show in November. Jahn (who perversely enjoys instigating a “who?” guessing game) promises “roadkill, Al Jazeera in a Beusysian spiritual melange,” from an unnamed artist recently featured in Frieze. Clue: Jahn says, “Work is being shipped from Britain.” New Deal Vodka and Vendetta provide support for the evening.

“The change in that is that red weakens an hour. The change has come. There is no search. But there is, there is that hope and that interpretation and sometime, surely any is unwelcome, sometime there is breath and there will be a sinecure and charming very charming is that clean and cleansing. Certainly glittering is handsome and convincing. ”
Gertrude Stein, from Tender Buttons (1914)

An Hour On The Sun

Diana Puntar’s solo show at Small A Projects

Tonight, Laurel Gitlen’s Small A Projects (1430 SE Third) opens “AN HOUR ON THE SUN,” a solo exhibition of new work by Diana Puntar. Brooklyn-based Puntar has done furniture-like sculptures in synthetic materials that mimic the real (faux-woodgrain laminates, say). The best of these are like a weird dream of IKEA-esque ultilitarianism with a witty subversion of functionality. Witness:

The sculptures we’ll be seeing at Small A Projects (top) are constructed from laminates, and mirrors, plus (and this could get interesting because Gitlen’s scheduled “nightviewing” hours during which you can view the exhibition in the dark) fluorescent and phosphorescent pigments. There’s a reception tonight from 6-9 PM.

Debrief: Show2006

design: Thunderbolt. photo: Sarah Henderson

Don’t miss show2006, currently on view at PNCA. It’s a great survey of some of the high-powered furniture and object design talent working in Portland today. This showcase of “innovative and functional furniture design” by Portland-based designers opened with a standing-room-only reception at the Pearl District showroom of Design Within Reach then moved lock-stock-and-end-table to PNCA for the duration of the month.

How’s this for serendipity: we’d just made our way through the capacity crowd of design-lovers, noting Kari Merkl’s cool slatted bench “Camber Seat,” Material Furniture’s “BOXER,” mod room divider/shelves, and coming to a rest beneath Esque’s devastating mirrored drop lamps. motel gallery’s Jenn Armbrust introduced us to Thunderbolt designer Ryan Thomson, and he was explaining that when his killer “res table” (that we wanted to cart home then and there) went into production would be made in resin and a Baltic birch.

At that moment, fix studio’s Chris Bleiler somehow managed to silence the room to announce the judges’ selections for Best in Show and runners up. Bleiler noted that ShowPDX had received 70 submissions of which the jurors selected 43.

design: Kari Merkl. photo: Sarah Henderson

designer Kari Merkl. photo: Sarah Henderson

Honorable mentions were given to Kari Merkl for her “Camber Seat” and Artisan Metalwork’s “TABLE table.” Ben Ediger was third runner up with his “O.U. No. 2.” Esque’s “Silvered Pendant lamps” took 2nd and Study Hall was 1st runner up with “a simple planar table.” When Bleiler finally got to Best in Show, it was awarded to none other than Ryan Thomson/Thunderbolt for the “res table.”

Ryan Thomson and Chris Bleiler. photo: Sarah Henderson

design: Tomita design.build. photo: Sarah Henderson

Kudos to Bleiler and Jen Jako of fix studio (with commissions including clarklewis, Gotham Tavern, and the Doug Fir) for pulling the Show together year after year. As Bleiler noted, it�s a much-needed chance for designers to get out of their studios and connect, as well as an introduction for these designers to a broader audience.

– Lisa Radon�

photos: Sarah Henderson