NW GALLERIES
Intelligent Skin: Green Innovations from Northern Europe.
This show represents the results of architect Mark Perepelitza's research into the current Northern European boom in ultra-green building methods and his conclusions on how Portland can compete. Sounds like more of a dry report than an art exhibit, but in lieu of
WW's recent in-depth look at Portland's sustainable housing experiments (see "Futurehaus,"
WW, June 30, 2009), it's probably worth a look.
403 NW 11th Ave., 223-8757. Closes July 31. Map
Macro Stereo Fotographia.
Dr. Imre Zsolnai-Nagy is a Hungarian urologist and sometime pioneer in stereographic photography. His latest project, currently up at the 3-D Center, is an examination of the natural world in extreme close-up.
1928 NW Lovejoy St., 227-6667. Opens First Thursday, June 4. Closes Aug. 2.
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A Stereoscopic Atlas of Human Anatomy.
Get ready for a 3-D autopsy. The culmination of 3-D pioneer and View-Master inventor William Gruber's 14-year venture to photograph detailed dissections of the human body stereoscopically, this show isn't recommended for kids or "those with a sensitive nature."
1928 NW Lovejoy St., 227-6667. Closes Aug. 30.
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Allen Cox.
Allen Cox’s encaustic works are a mad rush of scribbles, loops, ovals, gestures and Sturm und Drang, deployed in a desperate search for composition. Unfortunately, the search is unsuccessful.
716 NW Davis St., 224-8182. Closes Aug. 1. Map
Ferit Kuyas.
The acidic smog in these prints is so thick that the viewer could not be faulted for coughing as he stood in front of them. Drenched in gray-brown pollution, 21 photographs from Ferit Kuyas depict the fast-growing but little-known city of Chongqing, China. Unfortunately, the chromatic and spiritual listlessness of this show is relieved only by a single piece:
Restaurant Boats, Changjiang River. Its sumptuous sfumato reflections and garish neon glamour are the exception, not the rule.
122 NW 8th Ave., 225-0210. Closes Aug. 2. Map
Klaus Moje.
If there is one thing that renowned glass artist Klaus Moje shows in this impressive solo show, it’s that he is a master of color and, more specifically, saturation. You look at his platters, bowls and vases and marvel at their impossibly rich blacks, reds, blues and yellows.... The colors are so pure, they’re practically Platonic ideals. There are passages where the color blazes forth unfiltered, bordered by equally gorgeous abstract tableaux in which milky layers overlay chunky forms like mist over a rainforest. This is the work of a master who has been innovating his art for decades and is still going strong.
300 NW 13th Ave., 227-0222., 227-0222. Closes Aug. 22. Map
Michael Kenna.
Familiar landmarks like the Brooklyn Bridge and the pyramids of Giza assume a surprising new aspect in these luminous silver gelatin prints from Seattle-based Michael Kenna. The photographs are oddly canted; the shadows are preternaturally articulated; and the effect is at once unfamiliar and satisfying.
134 NW 8th Ave., 287-3886. Closes August 1. Map
Quilts from Gee's Bend.
With nods to traditional African patterns and 20th-century influences, the fabric artists of Gee’s Bend, Ala., demonstrate that quilt making is much more than “just” craft. For example,
Housetop Blocks by Lucy Mingo presents a rhapsody of paisleys, plaids and corduroys, popping and jostling, bright turquoise and tomato red. The works also tranlsate well to aquatint. But with price tags as high as $26,000, these quilts will leave all but the wealthiest collectors chilly.
417 NW 9th Ave., 224-0521. Closes Aug. 1. Map
Aquarium Multitouch Exhibit.
The aquatic-sci-fi paintings of Yellena James have been given an interactive spin by the animation talents of Portland's Fashionbuddha Studios. James' vibrant undersea-scapes can now be manipulated (!) on a site-specific touch table, accompanied by Radium Ltd.'s atmospheric sound design.
123 NW 2nd Ave., 449-7484. Runs throughout August.
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Scott Mazariegos.
You’re the artist in
Casual Construction—well, at least one of them. Scott Mazariegos invites you the view to move around his interactive palettes on Ogle’s hardwood floors, changing the composition during the show’s two-month run. The contrast between wood colors—natural blond versus neon-painted—and the visual interplay between horizontally and vertically oriented slats makes this show a pleasure to behold…and to mold.
310 NW Broadway., 227-4333. Closes Aug. 1. Map
Catch All.
Gallery owner Jane Beebe is trooping out some of her biggest art stars for Catch All, PDX’s summer group show. Biennial darling Marie Watt, eccentric portraitist Storm Tharp, filmmaker Vanessa Renwick, abstract landscape painter James Lavadour, and multimedia mensch Brad Adkins number among this show’s featured players. Look for the show across the hall from the gallery’s main space, as part of PDX’s ongoing “Across the Hall” programming in the Pulliam Gallery space.
925 NW Flanders St., 222-0063. Closes Aug 1. Map
Ryan Burns.
Unsettling if not downright spooky, Ryan Burns’
Profane Relics: An Ossuary of the Congo Mineral Wars takes as its subject the unrelenting violence and human misery in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is an enormous wall of embedded objects, including human skeletons, machine guns, shovels, laptops, cellphones, and folk-art totems, all of which protrude as if from adobe catacombs.
625 NW Everett St., No. 110., seagallery.wordpress.com. Closes July 27. Map
SW GALLERIES
Midori Hirose and Joshua Orion Kermiet.
The organic and the geometric collide in this bold, refreshing installation by Midori Hirose and Joshua Orion Kermiet. With their burnt-meringue surfaces, Hirose’s DayGlo polyhedral sculptures resemble a baked Alaska that got nuked on the way to the dessert tray, whereas Kermiet’s immaculate shapes employ bold, argylelike cross-hatching.
205 SW Pine St., 274-7668. Closes Aug. 1. Map
The Amazing World of Claymation.
Will Vinton, the animator who not only coined the term "Claymation" but is credited with inventing the art form, will exhibit his personal collection, including his work on the California Raisins and Eddie Murphy's short-lived TV show
The PJs. This show includes everything from scripts to character designs to voice recordings.
1200 SW Park Ave., 306-5270. Closes Sept. 13. Map
My brother had an M.C. Escher poster in his room in high school. Didn’t yours? Didn’t you? I went to the preview for PAM’s
Virtual Worlds: M.C. Escher and Paradox with an editor for a magazine I write for. He’s a printmaker, and he couldn’t stop marveling at the intricacy of Escher’s woodcuts. Meanwhile, I couldn’t stop yawning. Yes, the 135 prints and drawings that make up the show are studies in gee-whiz technical mastery and visual puns (birds turning into crop fields, monkeys turning into human beings, etc.), but to my eye, Escher is proto-psychedelia without the groovy psychedelic colors: whoa-dude shroom-head phantasmagoria without the chromatic punch of Pop-era fractals and illusionism. If you’re already an Escher lover, you should check out this show; if you’re not,
Virtual Worlds isn’t going to convert you.
1219 SW Park Ave., 226-0973. Closes Sept. 13. Map
Obsessive Consumption.
Kate Bingaman-Burt is inspired by consumerism to create—she draws products, purchases and even receipts. For her exhibit Obsessive Consumption, she has "practically [created] a store within a store" at Reading Frenzy, complete with window displays and copies of her zine
What Did You Buy Today? Her work questions the relationship between person and product, but it does not condemn it; we all of us consume, Bingaman-Burt just takes it to another level.
921 SW Oak St., 274-1449. Closes Aug. 31. Free. Map
NORTH PDX GALLERIES
NE GALLERIES
Chris Haberman.
Chris Haberman paints stylized vignettes from Lewis Carroll’s
Alice in Wonderland. The pairing of artist and subject matter is apt, as Haberman’s work has a hallucinogenic quality, combining eccentric figuration, claustrophobic compositions, and a zany intermingling of image and text. Haberman, whose work seems to be everywhere all the time, may just be the hardest working artist in town.
623 NE 23rd Ave., 927-4409. July 3-Aug.1. Map
Jefferson Hayman, Photographs.
Delicately filtered and muted, Jefferson Hayman's photographs convey wear, fading and lost time. His exclusive focus on New York city may look a bit out place on Alberta Street this month, but perhaps this show will inspire Hayman to shoot Portland in the future.
2916 NE Alberta St., 805-5458. Closes July 26.
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Midori Hirose and Joshua Orion Kermiet.
The organic and the geometric collide in this bold, refreshing installation by Midori Hirose and Joshua Orion Kermiet. With their burnt-meringue surfaces, Hirose’s DayGlo polyhedral sculptures resemble a baked Alaska that got nuked on the way to the dessert tray, whereas Kermiet’s immaculate shapes employ bold, argylelike cross-hatching.
205 SW Pine St., 274-7668. Closes Aug. 1. Map
SE GALLERIES
Summer Show 2009.
The highlights of this group show are New York artist Nick van Woert’s plastic-and-plaster busts. These untitled sculptures are covered in gloopy drips that evoke caramel and melted bubble gum, pooling onto an imaginary vertical surface, as if in defiance of gravity. Witty and original, the works are playfully postmodern in the best sense. If they were the only pieces in the gallery, the show would still be worth checking out.
1430 SE 3rd Ave., 236-1430. Closes Aug. 22. Map
Tropical Plastic.
Using compact, plastic-lensed cameras to shoot life in the tropics, Portland photographer Bob Huff attempts to capture the intersection of the organic and the created in natural environments.
1021 SE Caruthers St., 224-5925. Closes July 31.
Map
City Body Dust highlights the way in which art transforms raw materials into something more than the sum of their parts. With work spanning the gamut of art media, this four-person exhibition aims to capture the moment when creativity sparks into magic.
820 SE Alder St., myspace.com/worksoundpdx. Show runs June 5-July 1. Map
3D CENTER OF ART & PHOTOGRAPHY
