News
Storm Tharp: "What Needs to Be Said" at The Hallie Ford Museum of Art
Storm Tharp is exhibiting at The Hallie Ford Museum of Art as a part of the Hallie Ford Fellows in Visual Arts exhibition, "What Needs to Be Said," curated by Diana Nawi. Of Storm's work, Diana Nawi writes, "... Storm Tharp's 'Cadre' (2017) contains a quality of pathos, communicated through dynamic gesture and bodies and visages that make visible sentiment and sensation. For Tharp, seriality yields both juxtaposition and cohesion. While a breadth of gestures is contained in this suite of thirty-six works on paper, ranging from total abstraction to clear figuration, from grinding black lines to washy inks, together they form an expressive, almost linguistic set of images that holds contradiction and grace side-by-side." ('What Needs to Be Said,' Diana Nawi, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University, 2019, Page 17)
Congratulations, Storm, and thank you to The Ford Family Foundation for their generous support of Oregon Artists through the Hallie Ford Fellowship program!
September 14 - December 20, 2019
Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University
700 State Street
Salem, OR 97301Tuesday - Saturday
10:00 am - 5:00 pmSunday
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1:00 pm - 5:00 pmGus Van Sant: Recent Paintings, Hollywood Boulevard at Vito Schnabel Projects
Vito Schnable Gallery,
43 Clarkson Street
New York, NY 10014
"Vito Schnabel Projects will present Gus Van Sant: Recent Paintings, Hollywood Boulevard, an exhibition of new works by Los Angeles-based artist and auteur Gus Van Sant (b. 1952, Louisville, Kentucky). On view will be a series of large-scale watercolors on stretched linen that collapse dreamlike impressions of urban Los Angeles with specific narratives inspired by the people and events Van Sant has observed since establishing his home in the city in the 1970s.Recent Paintings, Hollywood Boulevard is Van Sant’s first solo painting exhibition in New York.
Admired internationally as a filmmaker, painter, photographer, and musician, Van Sant received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence in 1975. Since that time his studio painting practice has moved in and out of the foreground of a multi-disciplinary career, becoming a priority again over recent years. Van Sant’s work in different mediums is united by a single overarching interest in portraying people on the fringes of society. In this exhibition, dreamlike hybridized scenes depict male nudes in shimmering, fractured cityscapes—obscure objects of desire whose presence suggests a mythological dimension hovering within the everyday world.
Many of the paintings on view in the exhibition feature a solitary young man striding past, standing before, or slumping beside a driverless automobile. Roads, buildings, vehicles, and body parts dissolve into one another, yielding a persistent sense of displacement that is heightened by Van Sant’s palette of pale pastels punctuated by deftly placed lines and spots of vivid color. Defined brushstrokes and carefully rendered details give way to veils and washes on linen, resulting in a deceptively gentle mien that seduces and then confounds. The erotic and unsettling effects of these scenes recall the words of Van Sant’s multi-disciplinary predecessor, the filmmaker, painter, poet, novelist, designer, and playwright Jean Cocteau: “I’ve always preferred mythology to history. History is truth that becomes an illusion. Mythology is an illusion that becomes reality.”
Van Sant’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland, Le Case d’Arte in Milan, Italy, and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon in Eugene, among others. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions since the 1980s, presenting drawings, paintings, photographs, video works, and writing. Among Van Sant’s many internationally acclaimed feature films are Milk (2008); Elephant (2003); Good Will Hunting (1997); My Own Private Idaho (1991); and Drugstore Cowboy (1989)."
Read moreJeffry Mitchell exhibits at the Victoria and Albert Museum
September 4 - May 10, 2020
"Blanc de Chine, a Continuous Conversation"
Featuring historic and contemporary ‘Blanc de Chine’ - white porcelains made in Dehua, China.Thursday, September 5, 2019 – Sunday, May 10, 2020
10.00 – 17.30
Ceramics, Room 146 & China, Room 44This display showcases historic pieces from the V&A’s Asian and European ceramics collections, as well as a selection of new works by contemporary makers including: Babs Haenen, Lucille Lewin, Liang Wanying, Jeffry Mitchell, Su Xianzhong, and Peter Ting. Retelling the story of porcelain-making in Dehua, this display will build a bridge between the past and the current, tradition and innovation, and breaking the boundary of Chinese and non-Chinese ceramic practices.
Read moreJeffry Mitchell: Snowflake Drawing #5 (Double Lotus Pod) Acquired by the Frye Art Museum
This work by Jeffry Mitchell was recently accepted into the permanent collection of the Frye Art Museum through a two-year acquisition partnership between the Seattle Art Fair and the Frye Art Museum. Congratulations to Jeffry Mitchell and the three other artists selected!
“To support not only local artists but also the galleries of our region that sustain their careers is a privilege.” —Joseph Rosa, Director and CEO of the Frye Art Museum
https://seattleartfair.com/About/Announcements/2019_08_05_SAF-x-Frye-Art...
Read moreIván Carmona: Seattle Art Fair
Iván Carmona's ceramics were a hit at the Seattle Art Fair. Established collectors and first time art buyers happily bought his brighly colored, expressive sculptures. Thank you to all who visited our booth.
Read moreJames Lavadour Awarded a Hallie Ford Fellowship by The Ford Family Foundation
Congratulations to PDX CONTEMPORARY ART represented artist James Lavadour who was named a Hallie Ford Fellow alongside Corey Arnold, Niraja Cheryl Lorenz, Jess Perlitz, and Sharita Towne! Thank you to The Ford Family Foundation for their generous support of Oregon artist and our art ecology through important gifts like the Hallie Ford Fellowship.
Read moreJenene Nagy exhibits at The Santo Foundation
PDX CONTEMPORARY ART is pleased to announce Jenene Nagy’s participation in The Santo Foundation’s 10th Anniversary Exhibition in St. Louis, MO, curated by Gretchen L. Wagner, Saint Louis Art Museum’s Andrew W. Mellon Fellow for Prints, Drawings and Photographs.
Read moreNancy Lorenz: Shimmering Flowers at Berkshire Botanical Garden
Nancy Lorenz’s solo exhibition 'Shimmering Flowers' will be on view at the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, MA, from June 1- September 30, 2019. The exhibition focuses on the artist’s lacquer boxes and works on panel, in addition to new works in bronze. The bronze pieces in the show will display ikebana arrangements in collaboration with floral designers at the garden throughout the exhibition.
Read moreEllen George: Review on Visual Art Source by Richard Speer
“Although some works are vividly hued (there are some particularly sumptuous purples and blues), mostly the palette confines itself to dusty rose, grays, eggshell tones and washed-out greens. A sun-bleached quality permeates this body of work, as if the whole lot had been left out to cure for months or years under the glare of high-desert light.” -Richard Speer
Ellen George’s exhibition, “I begin with a thin line” was reviewed by Richard Speer on Visual Art Source.
www.visualartsource.com/index.php?page=editorial&pcID=17&aID=5170
Read moreSaturday, May 4th at 11am: Conversation between Ellen George and Horatio Law
On Saturday, May 4th at 11:00 am, PDX CONTEMPORARY ART will host a conversation between Ellen George and Horatio Law. The discussion will center around Ellen George's newest body of work that will be on view for the month of May.
Read moreSusie J Lee: State of the Art Documentary on PBS
Susie J Lee was one of a select few artists to be interviewed about her work from the State of the Art exhibition at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Premiering tonight, the documentary focuses on seven artists from the exhibition who are representative of what is being made now in America. Congratulations, Susie!
Watch tonight, Friday, April 26th on PBS
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9pm EST/ 6pm PSTAdam Sorensen Awarded Mural Commission by Trimet
PDX CONTEMPORARY ART is pleased to announce Adam Sorensen’s recent mural commission by Trimet. Congratulations Adam!
Read moreJohannes 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.
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Congratulations Johannes !Marie Watt exhibits at Portland Community College's Helzer Gallery
Marie Watt
"Artifact"
April 1 - May 14, 2019PDX 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.
Read moreWes 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.
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March 28-31
Le Carreau du Temple.
4 rus Eugène Spuller
75003, ParisBean 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, 2019Lifelong 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.
Read moreMarie Watt: 2019 Honolulu Biennial
Marie Watt to exhibit in the 2019 Honolulu Biennial, March 8 - May 5 ...
Read moreD.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.
Read moreConversation 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
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