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Marie Watt created new prints during a recent residency at Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts in Pendleton, Oregon. Watt previously completed residencies in 2002, 2003 and 2005, during which times she created a combined 12 mostly sold-out editions of lithographs and woodcut prints.

August 19 – December 31, 2011: "Counting Coup" - at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, 108 Cathedral Place, Santa Fe, NM 87501. Counting Coup is a form of prestige, pride and power. “Counting coup” is an expression originating from Plains Indian tactics of intimidation, and an act of bravery that accounts for survival originating from personal victories in non-violent battle exploits. The evidence of confrontation, interaction, and risk encountered through incessant forms of colonization are recorded as experiences and achievements etched in memory, heart and spirit. Counting Coup will include works by artists from the United States, Canada and Australia and range in media; sculpture, paintings, ceramics, textiles, photography, installation, film and video, and poetry. Artists include Courtney Leonard, Shelley Niro, Teri Greeves, Duane Slick, Alfred Young Man, Marty Gradolf, Carl Beam, Marie Watt, Maria Hupfield, Alex Jacobs, Vern Ah Kee, Tom Jones, Jesus Barraza, Ryan Red Corn, Jim Denomie, Greg Staats, Jason Garcia and Nigit’stil Norbert w/ Paul Wilcken.

“Wild Kingdom" Exhibition dates: August 24 – September 22, 2011 Texas State University – San Marcos San Marcos, Texas

Reading.Writing. August 5 through September 9, 2011 galleryHOMELAND, 2505 SE 11th, Portland, OR Click image for more info

Open one weekend only! Friday August 12th - Sunday August 14th. Click on image for more info.

We love Vanessa's energy and broad participation in community. Here, Vanessa and her daughter Montana are showing in a small very "Portland" produce store. Cherry Sprout is a locally owned and inspired neighborhood market. Not only is it a place to get great deals on produce, healthy snacks and tasty beverages, but Cherry Sprout is also a community space hosting a variety of art, music and cultural happenings. Check them out at www.cherrysprout.com. Saturday July 30th: 8pm - 11pm at Cherry Sprout Produce, 722 N. Sumner St. Come to Vanessa Renwick and Montana Merida’s photos and videos art opening! Lots of new photos by Vanessa and Montana. Super special musical guests Lori Goldston and Marisa Anderson playing together! Come hear the crazy amazing cello and guitar sounds! Also, screening of Renwick's Portrait #2:Trojan, Portrait #3:House of Sound, and Richart! (co-directed by Dawn Smallman) If it is nice out, the music and movies will be outside in the park. Otherwise inside in the bulk section! Oregon Department of Kick Ass t-shirts will be for sale at this event! Saturday nite 8pm – 11pm at the produce market! FREE and All-Ages

Thursday, July 28, 2011: Arnold J. Kemp on Mary Heilmann's Fire and Ice Remix Arnold J. Kemp, poet Meet in the Haas Atrium before moving into the galleries. 6:30 p.m. Inspired by The Steins Collect, this series of readings honors poet Gertrude Stein and her relationships with the visual artists of her day. Each Thursday evening, a leading contemporary poet gives a reading, performance, or talk on a single artist or artwork on view. Readings last 20 minutes. Part of Pop-Up Poets. Free with museum admission. Source: http://www.sfmoma.org/exhib_events/events/1909#ixzz1TRaGdQgO San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

FRIDAY, JULY 15, 6:00 - 7:45 PM. Join Contemporary Northwest Art Award recipient Megan Murphy for a discussion and tour of her work in the exhibition. $5 members; $12 non-members. Space is limited to the first 45 ticket holders. Advance tickets available online at https://pam.spotlightboxoffice.com/purchase/step4?ticketID=59895 and on site.

Johannes Girardoni: “Light Matters” at PDX Contemporary Art It’s perhaps best to start in the back corner of the second gallery devoted to Johannes Girardoni’s “Light Matters” at PDX Contemporary Art. It is there that Dripbox - Yellow White is installed in a small white alcove. It is there that the reflection of light bouncing off the butter yellow wax thickly coating the rectangular volume on a rough, grey wood box subtly colors the white of the walls and ceiling as if Girardoni had captured the scope of the program of a Carlos Cruz-Diaz or James Turrell and embodied it in a sculptural object. Dripbox - Yellow White demonstrates the power of light interacting with pigment: an effect highlighted in the series of works—made of thick, monochromatic beeswax poured over weathered wood forms including curved trough, block and gate—shown in the first gallery under more conventional circumstances, as object rather than installation. The rough nature of the wood and the sloppy drips of the wax smartly play against the smooth wax surfaces’ visual legacy of finish fetish-ism. With absolutely nothing in common with precious encaustic painting but the delicious smell of the beeswax, Girardoni seems to ask, what if we took most of the painting out of painting and most of the sculpture out of sculpture? What would remain? As an endpoint, or perhaps naked counterpoint to the wax-drenched forms, Girardoni leans a wood frame against one wall, letting the gallery lighting complete the shadowed geometry of the piece to serve as a stark reminder of the apparatus of visual perception and the role light plays in it all. A second series, Exposed Icon, consists of large-scale photos of the flipside of advertising billboards in desert and city, as if to point out their ubiquity while refusing to consume their visual pitches. The images are layered with digitally created double exposures; the ghosted second images offset enough to make one feel as though one’s eyes are crossing. These images are overlayed with screened-back blocks of color and painted forms that echo those of the billboard’s outlines, transforming oddball roadside photos into architectural studies in form. —LISA RADON