Summer Art Happenings

We’re back with another edition of Critical Viewing, and this one is a special one for a couple of reasons! We decided to combine art happenings that were occurring in July & August this year, for a special Summer edition.

Since we were planning on combining both of these warm months, we thought it would be fun to print a little booklet to that our friends and followers could take with them and have as a keepsake as they figure out what they want to go and see and do these next couple of months. We asked if people would like and pre-order this booklet if we made one, and they did! On June 27th & 28th, Lindsay Costello and Ashley Gifford printed “Critical Viewing” Summer Art Happenings with the help of Colin Davis at Outlet in Northeast Portland.

We’d also like to extend a big thanks to the following people and art spaces who supported this publication by pre-ordering it and making this idea a reality! Copies will be at the following locations on or shortly after June 29th 2019, there are limited copies so don’t wait to snag one!

May Barruel, Nationale

E.M. Fuller & BriAnna Rosen, Fuller Rosen Gallery

Brittney Connelly, Carnation Contemporary

Collin Richard, Here/There

We’d also like to extend a big thank you to Kate Bingham-Burt for helping us off-set the cost of printing by donating 50% off towards our publication.

We hope you enjoy this month’s double feature #criticalviewing and find something fresh and exciting to attend this Summer! See you out there!

NORTH

DISJECTA: Portland2019 Biennial, various artists. 

The Portland Biennial program is a major survey of works by Oregon visual and performing artists who are defining and advancing Oregon’s contemporary art landscape. The exhibition will be supported by artist and curator talks, performances, and a catalog documenting the exhibitions and events. Portland2019 will focus on the nuanced subjects of site, cultural evolution, and multifaceted histories of the Pacific Northwest region as told in eighteen projects. Participating artists include Jovencio de la Paz, Demian DinéYazhi with R.I.S.E, Ka’ila Farrell-Smith, and the Harriet Tubman Center for Expanded Curatorial Practice. August 24 - November 3, 2019.

CARNATION CONTEMPORARY: Bloom Tomb, Jessie Weitzel Le Grand.

Bloom Tomb presents the peculiar creations of the citizens of the fictional town of Ny By. Imagined as a potential afterlife or alternate dimension, Ny By is a place governed by rules unlike our own. Le Grand’s sculptures capture the objects and arrangements its citizens celebrate. Weitzel Le Grand is a Portland artist and educator. Bloom Tomb will partner with one of Disjecta's Culinaria events during the opening reception. Culinaria (Art + Food + Community) pairs artists and chefs to create unique community events, providing opportunities for collaboration, creative risk-taking and the exchange of new ideas between two very different creative realms. July 6 - 28, 2019.

HERE/THERE GALLERY: Extended Implications, various artists.

This group exhibition, with artworks by Jess Ackerman, Loretta Blue, Jonah Primiano, Nathan Paul Rice, and Molly Strohl, explores the fleeting narratives existing on the fringes of legibility and caught within the visual ether of interpretation. In art that is visually based, narratives are never wrought in stone or explicit.  The visual plane—the indescribable dimensional churn that separates the artists in their studio from the viewer in the gallery—obscures intentions and prohibits an easily understood linear narrative without the addition of textual references, a coherent temporal timeline, or other contextual signifiers that demarcate a definitive story.  The artists in this exhibition all dwell within this moment of extended implication, whereby the narratives they form are left to float in an a posteriori flux. July 12 - August 4, 2019.

NORTHEAST

PICA: Through and Through and Through, Gordon Hall.

Gordon Hall’s multimedia sculptures are accompanied by eighteen short movement scores, which will be performed by the artist and a revolving cast of Portland-based performers throughout the run of the exhibition. Through August 10, 2019. 

FISK Gallery: Subliminal Mineral, Sophy Hollington.

UK illustrator/artist Sophy Hollington’s lino-cut relief prints tackle themes ranging from meteoric folklore to alchemical symbolism. Through July 14, 2019.

Outlet: Various Workshops.

Zine Making Night

Join Outlet for a zine making PARTY in preparation for the Portland Zine Symposium! Samples from their zine library will be on view for inspiration and they’ll be offering printing tips and file setup help as needed! This is a great opportunity to get a head start on making things for the symposium, and to ask the Outlet team any questions about the event, zines in general, and riso printing. July 8th 4-8 p.m.

Risograph Basics

Want to learn what Risograph printing is? Want to meet others who do too? Come and learn all about the basics of the Risograph from Kate Bingaman-Burt in their two-color introductory workshop. Risograph Basics workshops are offered; July 15th 6-9 p.m., August 3rd 10-1 p.m., August 9th 6-9 p.m., August 31st 10-1p.m.

SOUTHEAST

HOMEBASE:  Opening programming, various artists.

Likely Portland’s newest art space, homebase is part gallery, part performance venue, part backyard. A soft opening on June 22 presented “I haven’t forgotten anything despite how I pretend to” featuring a mural and visuals by Katelyn Kilburg. Soon to come is a zine release with another installation, up until July 18th. Later in the month, homebase welcomes Heldáy Benjamín de la Cruz for a solo show focusing on themes of home and heritage. Opening in early September.

NATIONALE: Antigen, William Matheson.

Matheson’s fourth solo exhibition at Nationale meditates on memory, loss, and the desire to preserve life in the face of personal and societal collapse. Following the death of a close family member in 2016, Matheson began collecting related photographs, objects, and ephemera that, alongside found images, became the inspiration for this series. With a focus on photographs as subject matter, the paintings in Antigen examine what it means to hold a memory in an image, and the power objects possess in shaping our understanding of the past. Matheson is an internationally exhibited artist living and working in Portland. Through July 30, 2019.

FULLER ROSEN: flat out, Brandi Kruse.

Kruse’s solo exhibition is part of an ongoing consideration of immaterial and material intersections, investigating imagined spaces, physical absence, and how very few things are actually flat. Light, reflection, and memory are compressed and expanded into sculpture, poetry, and found objects. July 20 - September 6, 2019.

STEPHANIE CHEFAS PROJECTS: A Jug of Wine, a Table in the Sun, Tess Rubinstein.

In this solo show, Rubinstein renders moments of pure joy in their simplest forms: a stretch in the sunlight, a ripe pear, an afternoon in the shade, a tender conversation. Through July 13, 2019.

YALE UNION: Yutaka Matsuzawa, works curated by Alan Longino and Reiko Tomii.

Yutaka Matsuzawa, considered the father of Japanese conceptual art, began his career as an architect. He later wrote poetry, made paintings, and worked as an educator. Matsuzawa developed a unique understanding of conceptual art that both elevated and transcended the typical notions of conceptual art in the western, euro-centric art worlds. The Yale Union exhibition will be the artist’s first in the U.S., and alongside the exhibition, the artist’s seminal publication Quantum Art Manifesto will be re-published for the first time outside of Japan. Art historian Namiko Kunimoto will speak on the collaborative work between Yutaka Matsuzawa and the female Butoh dancer, Tsujimura Kazuko, during the exhibition. Through August 18, 2019.

NORTHWEST

UPFOR GALLERY: Dear Lucy, April Bey, Bean Gilsdorf, Michelle Grabner, Faith Wilding (with subRosa), and Wendy Red Star.

This group exhibition explores depictions of women and “domestic arts” by women, at the intersection of the intimate and the political. Ranging from portraits of recognizable public icons, to people unknown to the viewer, to abstraction, the works offer different perspectives on feminism, female archetypes and gender at current and past cultural moments. The artists, who vary widely in conceptual interest, medium, age, place, and background, are united by their use of iconographies and materials that embed social critique, theory and direct action deep in their artworks. July 3 - August 31, 2019.

PDX CONTEMPORARY: IT’S SUMMER!, various artists.

This group exhibition brings together the work of 28 artists fresh from their studios, including Jeffry Mitchell, Storm Tharp, and Iván Carmona. July 2 - August 31, 2019

PNCA: Portland Zine Symposium, various artists.

The Portland Zine Symposium is an organization that hosts, among other events, a yearly free conference and zine social exploring facets of independent publishing and DIY culture. This event, founded in 2001, hosts over 150 tablers (including our friends at Outlet!) from around the world each year, as well as many free workshops, panels, and discussions. July 20 - 21, 2019.

PNCA 511 BUILDING: Low-Res MFA Artist Lectures, various artists. 

As a component of PNCA’s Low- Residency MFA in Visual Studies Summer Intensive, a series of Wednesday night artist lectures will be held throughout July. Lecturers include Clifford Owens, Ho-Chunk/Pechanga film and video artist Sky Hopinka, YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, curator/writer/stage designer Ruth Estévez, and Helsinki-based artist Mikko Kuorinki. Wednesdays in July, 6 - 8 p.m.

NW Marine Art Works: 3rd Annual Open Studios Event, various artists. 

The NW Marine Art Works boasts 75 art studios and 100 plus artists in residence; working in painting, ceramics, photography, sculpture, dance, theatre, crafts, jewelry, textiles, wood and metal working. The building and studios are supported by a Ken Unkeles, who is also involved in The North Coast Seed Building, River St. Studios and the Carton Service Building. The open studios event is not a fundraising event, but an art community conscientiousness-raising event, however there will be art for sale. July 20th from 2 - 8 p.m.

SOUTHWEST

PORTLAND ART MUSEUM: Akunnittinni: A Kinngait Family Portrait, various artists.

This exhibition chronicles a history of narrative artistic exchange between an Inuk grandmother, mother, and daughter. Their autobiographical prints and drawings depict pop culture references, difficult memories and historically significant moments. The works are vivid and emotionally nuanced, positioned as a multi-generational reclaiming of the Inuit narrative. Kinngait, the home of these artists, is a remote Arctic community on Dorset Island, a renowned region for Inuit art. Through January 5, 2020

MELANIE FLOOD PROJECTS (co-presented by ADAMS AND OLLMAN): Free Spirit News: Fourth Dimensional Issues, various artists.

Founded in 2008 and based in Portland, Free Spirit News is a free local publication that embodies collaboration and participation from a wide array of artists, writers, thinkers, and other “free spirits" from around the world. With idiosyncratic content and a penchant for the nonsensical and absurd, each issue includes a raucous mix of comics, doodles, jokes and poetry. The playful content and lo-fi aesthetics of Free Spirit News translate to the gallery space in this exhibition that will include painting, drawing, sculpture and animation from the Free Spirit News editors and a wide circle of contributors and friends. July 12 - August 10, 2019.

STUMPTOWN COFFEE: Like a Train in the Sky, John Gnorski.

Portland-based sculptor and painter John Gnorski takes part in Stumptown Coffee’s Artist Fellowship program with this solo exhibition, which reflects on the enveloping mystery of dusk. Gnorski’s new work is born of the experience of wonder and fear as the separations between land and water, forest and void, become indistinct. Through July 16, 2019.

DAY TRIP

CONDUIT: Residencies and programming, Happy Valley.

Conduit is an artist-run art space in a residential neighborhood facilitated by Jade Novarino. This summer, artists-in-residence include Maddy Inez Leeser and Karen Lee. An exhibition in the garden, organized by Maya Rose, will feature new work by Alix Ryan. All summer.

FRYE MUSEUM: Give It or Leave It, Cauleen Smith, and After Preparing the Altar, the Ghosts Feast Feverishly, Jane Wong. Seattle, WA. 

Through her films, objects, and installations, Los Angeles-based artist Cauleen Smith envisions a world that is black, feminist, spiritual, and unabashedly alive. With Give It or Leave It Smith proposes a new rule for a better world: creating something, offering it, and gifting it—regardless if the gesture is accepted or rejected. 

Jane Wong’s poems and essays unearth silenced histories, immigrant narratives, and intergenerational trauma. For her first museum solo exhibition, Wong draws inspiration from her upbringing in a Chinese American restaurant as well as her family’s experience of hunger and poverty in rural China to consider the ways we reconcile the gaps in our lives and histories. Both exhibitions are on view through September 1.

PUBLICATIONS

SOFT SURFACE: softsurface.org

This digital poetry journal, nomadic bookshop, and website residency is curated and edited in Portland by Art & About contributor Lindsay Costello. This summer, issue two is available to read for free online, and poet Anita Spaeth writes on online dating for her residency.

Submit for the September 2019 edition (online only)

Submit for the Fall 2019 edition (printed copy for pre-order only)