Before the floods of Pinot-sipping gallery owners, PNCA art kids and philanthropic collectors descend on the Pearl for First Thursday, art shows give sneak-peaks at first Wednesday previews.
This Wednesday was a study in contrasts. We give you: a tale of two art scenes.
At the pristine Portland Art Museum, Pink Martini headlined the VIP preview for Paige Powell's The Ride. Across the Morrison Bridge, Holocene took a midweek break from bumping and grinding to host the RAW Artists Showcase of local creatives.
Both had bars. One had significantly better beers.
Both had patrons in fashions like Cirque du Soleil costumes. They were walking art at one. At the other—that's just what you wear on a Wednesday night.
Both had live music. People only danced at one.
Both let visitors take art home. It was a only free at one.
Take your guesses.
Portland Art Museum
PAM's most renegade installations—Paige Powell's The Ride and Kenny Scharf's Cosmic Cavern—are all about putting people in boxes.
Unseen prints of a young Jean-Michel Basquiat palling with Andy Warhol, home video footage of Warhol at a street market and black-and-white prints from 1980s elite art parties in New York City make up The Ride.
But the best part is a nook lined—floor, four walls and ceiling—with Powell's photos of the underground art scene in NYC, from when she moved there from Portland to work at Warhol's Interview magazine in the 80s. Prints of Basquait, Warhol, a pug and a pair of embroidered smoking slippers hang on pegs on the wall. They're yours to take.
Scharf's "cavern," a room built within the museum and filled with an explosion of neon tchotchkes, leaves you with a different take-away. It feels like diving in to Mary Poppin's bottomless valise—if Julie Andrews was packing shrooms, LSD and the contents of the Peculiarium.
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RAW Artists Showcase
Sourcing local (read: Oregon City and beyond) creatives for a multifaceted, cocktail-attire showcase of art, RAW fills Holocene with jewelry designers, oil painters, hairstylists, dance troupes and full bands every other month.
November brought duck eggs painted in pearlescent pastels and decorated with crystals. There was a blown glass bra, grown-up coloring books, Marie Antoinette-style hair art and a singer named Mike Rodri who sounded a little like Creed.
"I just totally retired, so now I can work on my Etsy store," said Jeanne Kelley-Brown, who makes intricate mosaics on coffee tables and mirrors. "That's how the RAW people found me—through Etsy."
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With much less panache than Dickens, here's the list:
PDX art = NYC @ PAM & DIY @ RAW
Willamette Week