Storm Tharp: PORT First Thursday Pick

After the 2016 presidential election the constant stream of intolerance and hate has made it difficult for many artists to produce work (and have been collecting pitchforks and torches instead). Still, the mark of a true artist is they need not a vocational requirement to make art, its simply what they do. Storm Tharp is one of those artists and he has been busy. This work, provides the viewer room to breathe as well as vent... a series of large scale prints, it is very different from anything we have seen from him before, though the lumpy forms do evoke his sculpture... recalling the work of Morris Louis and Ellsworth Kelly it is surprisingly Apollonian. In particular I like the way the text based work melts words into form... as the shape of meaning can be either generous or oppressive Tharp lets the words sing and sting without being oppressive.

Ma'at Mons | February 28 - March 31
First Thursday Reception: March 1, 6-8PM
PDX Contemporary
925 NW Flanders

http://www.portlandart.net/archives/2018/03/first_thursday_121.html