Zeitgeist

“Tram,” Katherine Bovee

We’ve been thinking a lot about history, particularly art history, how it is that we now what we now about the people, the work, and events we know about. It’s so interesting to look at not the artists but the selectors: gallerists, curators, collectors, influencers, writers. He painted it, she talked about it, he bought it, she wrote about it, wrote about it again, and wrote about it again when he donated it to the Museum. It’s such a complex equation that yes, includes the good hard work, talent, vision, ambition of the artist, but is moved many degrees in multiple directions by the motivations, choices, actions of so many other players.

And too, consider selector events (and the motivations of their organizers) that either take measure of the times or make an assertion and to greater or lesser degree, mark those whose work we’ll be talking about in years to come. The Armory Show, say. Or here in Portland, the Oregon Biennial or something like Jeff Jahn’s Best Coast. Gallery-based survey exhibitions too can make interesting statements, ask us to consider some work more seriously or in a different light (or in relation to the work of that by contemporaries), and introduce us to artists we may not know. And they do their part in selecting with a capital S.

So it is with interest that we consider some of the artists we consider important in Portland, and whether, when we (or you) look back to write the history of the next 25 years of art in the city, these few will still be on our radar (if so, why? if not, why?) or relegated to distant memories.

Some of these artists are featured in Pulliam Deffenbaugh’s (929 NW Flanders) current exhibition, “Zeitgeist: a changing landscape.” It’s a good snapshot, through a particular lens, of Portland art now featuring a dozen Portland-based artists. The gallery sees this as presenting recent “highlights” in recognition of the general amping up of the visual arts in Portland, highlights like work by Ty Ennis, Anna Fidler, and Katherine Bovee, whose whose pinata tram (“Tram”) is characteristic of her work that is smart enough to explain itself to you (even though it may deliver several explanations, toying with you ambiguously just to keep things interesting) as well as deliver an immediate visual punch that can take your breath away…think “Save Point” at Disjecta or “Rainbow” at Fresh Trouble. Bovee rocks.

Featured artists include the above, Brian Borrello, James Boulton, G. Lewis Clevenger, Kay French, Richard Hoyen, Jeff Jahn, Raul Mendez, and Daniel Peterson. The show opens tonight, Thursday May 1 with a reception from 5:30-8 PM. Check it.

POSTED: May 1st, 2008 | AUTHOR: lisa | FILED UNDER: art | TAGS: art, portland art, visual art | No Comments »

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