NW GALLERIES
Jim Riswold.
We think Jim Riswold is overexposed. We’re tired of writing about him. We’re sick of loving his work and going on and on about how witty and slyly subversive his photographs are. Problem is, he’s amazing. And witty. And slyly subversive. So we can’t help but be excited about his new show at Augen,
Art People and a Cow, which takes on the incestuous, personality-driven art world the same way Riswold has taken on Adolf Hitler figurines and “Jesus Loves You” billboards. Roy Lichtenstein? Riswold has him in his crosshairs. Basquiat? Check. Damien Hirst? Watch out. These and other sacred cows of pop and post-pop art are the subjects of the artist’s latest parody. We look forward to the day Jim Riswold’s work becomes dull and tedious. Until then, we can’t wait to see this show.
716 NW Davis St., 224-8182. Closes Nov. 28. Map
Trashed @ 35.
To help celebrate
WW’s 35th anniversary, we asked some of Portland’s hottest emerging and iconic artists to turn our newspaper covers into new pieces of art in their own unique styles. We got the idea from local artist Klutch (Vinyl Killers), whose “remixed”
WW covers caught our eye and inspired us to invite other artists to try their hand at using, well, us, as a medium. Trashed @ 35 features Klutch’s work, as well as WW-inspired art by Brett Superstar, Dan Gilsdorf, J. Shea, Alexis Mollomo, Josh Arseneau and Chris Haberman, among others. Come meet the artists, check out their kick-ass work, and toast WW at the crusty old age of 35 at the show’s First Thursday opening.
115 NW 5th Ave., 248-2900. Opening reception 5:30 pm Thursday, Nov. 5. Closes Nov. 30. Map
Jessica Loughlin.
In
Expanse, Australian phenom Jessica Loughlin continues her career-long fascination with the eternal horizon. While the show includes many of the stratified horizontal studies we have come to associate with her, it also incorporates a newer tactic and technique, as seen in works such as
Awash 3. Its vaporous wisps, rising like fingers of fog from a river, speak less of strata, more of ascent; less of stasis, more of fluidity. This piece and several others light up the room with a near-blinding bluish white, lending visual drama to an exhibition already aglow with allegory.
300 NW 13th Ave., 227-0222., 227-0222. Show runs Sept. 29- Nov. 21. Map
Giles Bettison.
Australian glass phenom Giles Bettison is no longer a wunderkind—he is a mid-career master. He has both honed and extended his technique, which consists of turning tiny “murrine” blocks into immaculate sculptures that shimmer like rapturous patchworks. Twisting, bending and dissolving like a hundred surrealist clocks, the glass cubes congeal into vessels that evoke lace and woven tapestry. This is the work of a virtuoso who damned near magically imbues small-scaled vessels with big impact.
300 NW 13th Ave., 227-0222., 227-0222. Closes Dec. 29. Map
Ted Katz.
Creamily textural and chromatically rich, Ted Katz’s paintings are the definition of sumptuous. His latest paintings are inspired by his recent travels in Ireland and aim to convey a sense of abstracted landscape.
520 NW Davis St., 2nd floor., 248-9378. Show runs Nov. 5-28. Map
SW GALLERIES
What’s our relationship to the channels of broadcast television and radio? Is the medium really the message, as Marshall McLuhan famously observed, or just a conduit for the dominant power structure?
Broadcast is a traveling exhibit spanning four decades’ worth of artists’ interactions with mass media, including June Paik’s manipulation of television news, Chris Burden’s infamous 1971 hostage-taking of a TV host at knife point and the burgeoning movement of pirate FM radio stations popping up in basements across the country.
0615 SW Palatine Hill Road., Opening reception 5 pm Tuesday, Sept. 8. Exhibit open 11 am-4 pm Tuesdays-Sundays, Sept. 9-Dec. 13. Map
Andrew Kaiser.
What sort of art do you put in an upscale swingers’ club? Andrew Kaiser’s nude portraits fit the bill, walking the line between commercial, pinup and fine-art sensibilities. In
Under St. Johns, Kaiser shows a knack for architectonic composition and moody atmospherics. There’s winning vérité in Little Lion, which gives way to sumptuous contrivance in
On the Trail, which is like a
Sports Illustrated cover sans bikini. Kaiser is a technically assured photographer who’s at his best at his most naturalistic. Club Sesso co-owner Yasmin Ling says 104 people attended the club’s first-ever art opening on First Thursday, Oct. 1, which was viewable to the public at no charge. You can view it again for free from 6-8 pm on Thursday, Nov. 5, but between now and then, you’ll have to pay regular club admission to view the art as you bang total strangers hard and deep and all night long, baby.
824 SW 1st Ave., 334-2577. Free viewing 6-8 pm Thursday, Nov. 5. Show closes Nov. 9. Map
NORTH PDX GALLERIES
NE GALLERIES
Heidi Kirkpatrick.
Cigarettes made out of the pages of old books. Ashtrays. Old wood. A naked woman’s butt. Er, huh? These and other unlikely elements make up Heidi Kirkpatrick’s multimedia sculptures and assemblages, grouped together under the title Gray Area. Using disparate found objects and her own photographs of female friends, she deconstructs gender roles to create post-feminist think-pieces that are whimsical and mercifully un-preachy.
623 NE 23rd Ave., 927-4409. Show runs Nov. 5-29. Map
What’s our relationship to the channels of broadcast television and radio? Is the medium really the message, as Marshall McLuhan famously observed, or just a conduit for the dominant power structure?
Broadcast is a traveling exhibit spanning four decades’ worth of artists’ interactions with mass media, including June Paik’s manipulation of television news, Chris Burden’s infamous 1971 hostage-taking of a TV host at knife point and the burgeoning movement of pirate FM radio stations popping up in basements across the country.
0615 SW Palatine Hill Road., Opening reception 5 pm Tuesday, Sept. 8. Exhibit open 11 am-4 pm Tuesdays-Sundays, Sept. 9-Dec. 13. Map
SE GALLERIES
Arnold Pander.
Barack Obama with a halo. Britney Spears shaving her head. Miley Cyrus posed à la Linda Blair in
The Exorcist. Michael Jackson as an angelic child, glamorous young pop star, and 50-year-old freakazoid. These are the subjects of Arnold Pander’s velvet-painting extravaganza,
Gods and Mortals. Pander has been painting on velvet since 1994 and achieves a funky, fabulous apotheosis with this critique of pop-culture stardom. The artist knows how to make the viewer laugh and simultaneously cringe at the celebrity culture we all abhor—and gleefully perpetuate.
3356 SE Belmont St., 235-6041. Closes Nov. 15. Map
Jessica Skloven.
Local artist/curator TJ Norris named Jessica Skloven the winner of last year’s juried exhibition at Newspace, and this year she exhibits her solo show of recent photographs. The Bay Area artist’s photos give only intimations of the world rather than explications. Moody and elegant, they are as intriguing for what they do not yield to the viewer as for what they do.
1632 SE 10th Ave., 963-1935. Show runs Nov. 6-29. Map
Remedios Rapoport and Gustavo Rapoport.
Buenos Aires-born Portlander Gustavo Rapoport tackles "Tangomania" with digital color photos from one Saturday evening at local dance hub Tango Berretín while Remedios Rapoport shares both her own photography as well as traditional Argentinan
filete paintings. Opening reception 6-8 pm Saturday Oct. 3, $10 cover starting at 8 pm for tango dancing.
6305 SE Foster Road., 771-7470. Show closes Nov. 30. Map
AUGEN (DESOTO BLDG)
