News

Johannes Girardoni: Francis J. Greenburger Award winner

Presented by Alice Aycock, Charlotte Kotik, Lili Chopre, Marianne Boesky and Anders Schoeder at The New Museum April 1st, 2019.
Congratulations Johannes !

Marie Watt exhibits at Portland Community College's Helzer Gallery

Marie Watt, Placeholder, 2017, reclaimed wool blanket, clear transparent Czech seed beads and thread, 56 1/2" x 140 1/4"

Marie Watt
"Artifact"
April 1 - May 14, 2019

PDX CONTEMPORARY ART is pleased to announce, "Artifact," a solo exhibition of Marie Watt's work at the Helzer Gallery at Portland Community College, Rock Creek Campus. In conjunction with her exhibition, Marie Watt will be an Artist-in-Residence from April 23rd - 25, 2019. Join Marie for a talk and reception on May 1st at 11am.

Wes Mills and Jeffry Mitchell: DRAWING NOW Art Fair, Paris

PDX is excited to feature drawings by Wes Mills and Jeffry Mitchell in our booth at the art fair DRAWING NOW.
March 28-31
Le Carreau du Temple.
4 rus Eugène Spuller
75003, Paris

Bean Finneran: Exhibition at kunstverein Reutlingen

Terry Toedtemeier: Sun, Shadow, Stone Exhibition, Portland Art Museum

Sun, Shadows, Stone: The Photography of Terry Toedtemeier
MAR 9 – AUG 4, 2019

Lifelong Oregonian Terry Toedtemeier (1947 – 2008) was a dedicated photographer, photography teacher, and the Portland Art Museum’s first curator of photography. His many notable professional activities—from cofounding Portland’s Blue Sky Gallery to rapidly growing the museum’s photography collection—never took away from his deep passion for making his own photographs. Toedtemeier’s artistic legacy is explored in Sun, Shadows, Stone, the first exhibition to feature works from all phases of his career.

A self-taught photographer who studied geology in college, Toedtemeier began experimenting with the medium during the 1970s, focusing on his friends and colleagues as subjects. By the 1980s he attracted wider critical attention through his landscape images, which were influenced by his deep understanding of both the photography traditions of the American West and the land’s underlying geology. He traveled throughout Oregon, paying particularly close attention to the Columbia River Gorge, the coastline, and the arid southeast, enthralled by the diversity of terrain contained within the state’s borders. Digital and color photographs created shortly before the end of his life demonstrate Toedtemeier’s ever-present willingness to experiment and see anew through the
camera’s lens.

Organized by the Tacoma Art Museum and curated by Rock Hushka, TAM’s Deputy Director and Chief Curator. Curated in Portland by Julia Dolan, Ph.D., The Minor White Curator of Photography.

Marie Watt: 2019 Honolulu Biennial

Marie Watt to exhibit in the 2019 Honolulu Biennial, March 8 - May 5 ...

D.E. May: 1952-2019

D.E. May

Dan May passed two nights ago, just one month before his 67th birthday. He dearly wanted to be 67, 77, and 87. When Dan was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he was given just months to live. No one could have guessed that he would make it almost 3 years. He was quite well this past year, until a few weeks ago. His friends in Salem loved him and took such good care of him. His doctor and other medical staff gave him both excellent clinical care and kindness.

The first time I saw Dan May‘s artwork, I instantly loved it. I was amazed at how he managed to make abstractions with such feeling and emotional content. Shortly after that, I met Dan and again felt love and amazement for his his truly original mind and spirit. I was blessed to work with him for many years.

Dan spent many hours in the library looking at books and magazines. He said he didn’t read, but I think he was reading in his own way. He was gathering visual information, just as he did on his long walks and bike rides around “Island Salem,” as he called it. There was really no separation between the man and his art. Being in is live-work space was like being in one of his artworks. It was full of stacks of cardboard document boxes, each carefully marked in black ink; small cellophane bags of found paper scraps, hanging in neat order; a cardboard screen over the window, and very few signs of domestic life. He was blessed with the complete clarity that art was his lifework, his preoccupation, and his destiny.

Dan was humble, charismatic, and much loved by his friends and peers. He was incredibly devoted to both his relationships and his art making.When going into his studio, I would see a piece that I thought was wonderful, and he'd say, 'Oh no, it's not done.' The next time I'd come, the piece would be finished, with just one small precise line added. He would wait until a piece was just right--until it looked like it'd evolved itself over time without the overly conscious intervention of an artistic hand. Dan had little patience for art speak. He wanted his art to speak for itself, and it did. It is a testament to the quality and trueness of his work that those who pursued it were serious collectors, other artist galleries, and people in the arts.

Anna Gray and Ryan Wilson Paulsen recounted how important Dan was in giving them confidence in their own work. It is just the kind of story one hears over and over about Dan. We will all miss him but remember his way of being and of course and most importantly to him remember is artwork.

The photo is of Dan and Curtaor Amanda Hunt arranging his grid of drawings for the Disjecta 2014 Biennial. He didn't like pictures of himself but he did like this one.

Conversation with the Artist: Heather Watkins at Front of House Gallery

Join us at Front of House Gallery at Jessica Helgerson Interior Design for a conversation with Heather Watkins about her most recent exhibition, "Drawing Room."

Saturday, February 23rd at 11am

Iván Carmona: Interview on KBOO Radio

Listen to the lovely interview between Joseph Gallivan and Iván Carmona on KBOO radio about his work in "Imprint of Place" at PDX CONTEMPORARY ART. Carmona speaks about his introduction clay in Puerto Rico and his deep interest in the landscape and abstraction and what brought him to Portland, Oregon to study at Oregon College of Art and Craft.

https://kboo.fm/media/70976-joseph-gallivan-interviews-sculptor-ivan-car...

Ellen George and Jenene Nagy exhibit in the Bellingham National 2019

Jenene Nagy, heavy sunshine 1, 2017, graphite on paper, 68 1/2" x 43 1/2"

PDX CONTEMPORARY ART is pleased to announce Ellen George and Jenene Nagy’s participation in the Bellingham National 2019, Water’s Edge: Landscapes for Today, juried by Bruce Guenther and on view at the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, WA.

February 2 - May 19, 2019

Whatcom Museum
Lightcatcher Building
250 Flora Street
Bellingham, WA 98225

https://www.whatcommuseum.org/exhibition/bellingham-national-2019/

Anna Gray + Ryan Wilson Paulsen | Public Art Commission at Karl Miller Center, Portland State University

PDX CONTEMPORARY ART is pleased to announce Anna Gray + Ryan Wilson Paulsen’s public art commission, How Can We Assemble Ourselves? at the Karl Miller Center at Portland State University.