Visual Arts "There he is," the professor says, "the enemy." Dr. Richard Brettell points at the first painting one sees upon entering Paris to Portland, a pastorale by late-19th-century academic painter Willia ...   More

Visual Arts Things are bound to get a little screwy when First Thursday falls on Second Thursday. Since First Thursday fell on Jan. 2 this month, gallery owners cut Alka-Seltzer-plopping art lovers some slack ...   More

Visual Arts 1. Best abstract show: Terrence La Noue at Butters Gallery La Noue rips apart his old paintings and slaps their tiny shreds onto new ones. Up close, his latest works resemble the mosaiclike surfaces ...   More

Visual Arts There is something odd about an artist with an M.F.A. degree painting local spare-changers and street kids, then turning around and selling those paintings in a gallery for $2,300 a pop. But maybe ...   More

Visual Arts It is a formidable Organ, 24 inches long and half as wide, and although it is not particularly thick and comes only once every two months, it still aims for penetrating engagement with the people ...   More

Visual Arts Rain and sex are in the air as I embark upon my monthly jaunt through downtown and the Pearl. I hadn't expected a carnal/creative theme to develop tonight, but it should come as no surprise. Sex ...   More

Visual Arts Gavin Shettler, Bryan Suereth and Sam Gould work, play and get loaded together. They show up and throw up on each other's doorsteps at odd hours of the day and night to enthuse and rant--but most ...   More

Visual Arts At best, the phrase "corporate art" sounds like an oxymoron. At worst, it conjures visions of neutral-toned landscape prints in Olan Mills-style frames, hanging benignly over the cubicles of Dilbe ...   More

Visual Arts It's 5 pm, and I'm on the first of my monthly reports on First Thursday. There's too much ground to cover to indulge in a proper meal. Tonight I'll feast on gallery scraps: brie, havarti, crackers ...   More

Visual Arts We Americans are terminally adolescent and proud of it. From our former president, a would-be rock star complete with a full-figured, full-service groupie, to our current commander in chief, whose ...   More