Mark Menjivar has a show opening on the 23rd at Ampersand Vintage. The show is called You are What You Eat. The photographs examine the interiors of refrigerators of homes across the country. Mark is a part of the slow food movement.

Tom Cramer has a new show opening at Laura Russo this week. He will be my guest tomorrow on Art Focus. His exhibitions keep pushing forward into new territory and this one in particular has a big variety of approaches. Some seems Byzantine; his silver and gold is better than ever. One work is like an oil slick, reminiscent of Arts and Crafts and Tiffany. There are loads of Art Nouveauish sexy loops and plantlike shapes. He's doing this all-over wood burning thing too which is subtle from afar and intense close up.

Ryan Pierce has a show up at Elizabeth Leach called Written from Exile. The work addresses a post-industrial world.

Mary Josephson has a new show at the Laura Russo Gallery called Beneath the Surface. She talks about mosaic, painting, embroidery in her work.

Modou Dieng talks about his work at the Marylhurst Art Gym. The show is called Black Star. Dieng also runs Work/Sound and teaches at PNCA.

Leslie Miller is co-director and curator for Fontanelle Gallery in SW Portland. She discusses the new group photography show, "Queer Gaze."

Brad Rogers talks about the new show at his gallery, B. Rogers/Plan B, "Collecting History." It is a show of Daguerreotypes.

Stephen O'Donnell has a show at Froelick Gallery in the Desoto BLDG called Dix Huit. The paintings, for the most part, are historical gender-bending self portraits.

 

Rocksbox is presenting Action Art this month. You can catch these artists in performance: Mathew Green, Michael Reinsch, Sarah Johnson, Alicia Love McDaid and Sean Patrick Carney. It was Patrick Rock, director of Rocksbox, who suggested I host a panel of them all on KBOO as opposed to just interviewing one artist and I liked the idea. They also give small performance bits during this show...

Tim DuRoche, who curated at the new Oregon Jewish Museum The Shape of Time: Accumulations of Place and Memory, was my guest. This exhibition of photography works around Jewish history in Oregon via specific location and public memory. The photographers include Sika Stanton, Dr. Stu Levy, Bobby Abrahamson, Jeff Amram, Dr. William Galen, Carol Isaac and David Latham Reamer. Judith Margels, director of the museum, was also with us. The museum has just opened at 1953 NW Kearney.
 

Laura Russell is an artist who is also the founder and director of 23 Sandy, a gallery on NE 23rd. Here she talks about artist books and her current exhibition, a group show called The Assignment. The book here is by Karen Kunc.

Joe Sacco has a new book out called "Footnotes in Gaza." He talks about the research behind the book and how he draws his panels. Sacco gives a reading and book signing at Powell's the same evening.

Linda Tesner, curator of Lewis and Clark's Hoffman Gallery, talks about "What is a Trade?" This is a show by Donald Fels who collaborated with Indian sign painters to address globalization in India. The xhibition has large scale paintings, intense with color and graphics.

Felicity Fenton and Michael T. Hensley have formed Soul Recovery Systems, a project which helps us get rid of our inner trash. They talk about their videos, photo documentation and examples of this work.

My guest this week on Art Focus was Corey Smith. I've caught his shows here and there and now he's at Worksound, showing !Obsolete Dreams, all mixed media pieces. Smith is an Oregon artist who moved to Los Angeles - a lot of the work riffs on the deterioration of the California Dream (and our country in general). The flag here is made of remotes.

Bonnie Laing-Malcomson, president of the Oregon College of Art and Craft and Joyce Campbell, co-chair of the event Art on the Vine were our guests for Art Focus. We talked about the auction, the history of the college and how craft thrives in the Pacific Northwest.

This week's broadcast is around the exhibition Proof: Art : Women : Science at Beppu Wiarda . My guests include the curator Lorna Nakell, the art historian Elizabeth Bilyeu and gallerist Gail Beppu. Throughout this month the gallery is presenting discussions every Sunday afternoon around women, art and science.

Timothy Scott Dalbow has an interesting show up at the New American Art Union called “I Don’t Know Anyone in Paris.” The artist moved into the space, using it as his studio, painting mostly at night. On the opening night, there was only a big white, bare canvas, a couple of rockers lined up as if they were to view the ocean, some small ink drawings and signs of preparation and anticipation. The ongoing process of creating a big painting while viewers come and go over a period of six weeks is the show.

 

For contemporary art fans in this town, the last two weekends have been filled with the Portland 2010 Biennial. Disjecta is producing this secession of art events with help from a grant from the Oregon Cultural Trust. Art Focus on KBOO already broke the initial story of how Disjecta received monies from the trust to make a city-wide contemporary art show happen, with Cris Moss at the helm as curator. Moss talked about the exhibitions.
 

In April PDX Contemporary Art presents Geographies of the Same Stone: for TT by the painter James Lavadour. Here Lavadour talks about his process in painting.

Victor Maldonado has a beautiful exhibition up at Froelick, all green paintings. This installation is comprised of panels in size of all the TV screens he has ever lived with. Maldonado addresses cross cultural identity and traffic via the monochrome.

Gabriel Liston has moved his studio into the New American Art Union, producing an exhibition called Take That and Stand By for Trouble. We can watch the progress on a work and also check out his diaries from at least several years. These journals appear to be old children's books. He has ripped out the innards, replacing them with his art life. Art life, meaning not just nice drawings and ideas but all the money and struggle bits.

From May 14th through the 17th Portland will host Open Engagement: Making Things, Making Things Better, Making Things Worse. This conference says it will challenge our traditional ideas of what art is and does. It will present artists, projects and events which will mediate the contemporary frameworks of art as service, as social space, as activism, as interactions, and as relationships.

One of the events is Plein Air Smackdown (see poster above), the brainstorm of Mark R. Smith who teaches at PCC. Painting students from PCC, PSU and OCAC will have a painting competition of sorts.

Leiv Fagereng talks about his show at Froelick Gallery, Bittersweetsweet.

This month brings Judy Cooke to the Elizabeth Leach Gallery. Many artists these days say they are exploring the space between sculpture and painting, but Cooke has been doing that for years. This particular show, called In Touch, examines the ideas of the Russian Constructivists.

Wid Chambers has a show at Chambers @ 916. It is an installation of both painting and sculpture in one. the shapes are organic and colorful and are based on drawings then taken through a computer program.

Deanne Belinoff has mixed media and paintings at the Beppu Wiarda Gallery. The artist talks about her current show, her process and the history of her career.

Calvin Ross Carl - he’s got a website, a blog. .... and another website. He’s a curator. He’s an artist with a show called Purple Mountain Majesty right now at Half Dozen. He talks about it all on Art Focus.

Jeff Jahn blasted into this town over ten years ago, curating group shows with far-reaching consequences. Jeff also co-founded PORT, a website all about Portland art – and he occasionally writes elsewhere (such as for Modern Painters). He is also a practicing artist and this month he is showing Vection at The New American Art Union and we’ll talk about the work on Art Focus tomorrow.

Diane Jacobs talks about her installation called Bowing to Paradox, which is at 23 Sandy.

Julie Perini talks about her video "Girl Next Door" at Pushdot.

I am back from a hiatus for pledge drive this week - and the October show at Blackfish of Michael Knutson. What a great and easy way to return! My own enthusiasm for his remarkable paintings is evident in this video we made together a couple of years ago. In the video, he makes references to Albers, Held and Monet as he explains his process and the results. Maybe that sounds kind of dry and it isn't - he's got a sense of humor too. His new show opens this coming First Thursday.

Allan Oliver discusses his exhibition at Onda Gallery which focuses on The Day of The Dead.

12 x 16 Gallery is a collective now located in Sellwood. They have been open for five years and are celebrating by showing nearly every artist that has exhibited with them. that means over 70 artists. Founding members Cary Doucette, Luke Dolkas and Eunice Parsons were our guests. They will have a big party this coming First Friday.

Disjecta founder Bryan Suereth and Ryan Burghard of the board of directors join us to talk about the fab auction. AC Dickson and Dave Allen will hold court and get artworks to the highest bidder. Stephanie Snyder curated and selected works into the live auction.

Tim Mahan, director of Half Dozen, talks about his gallery. The current exhibiting artist is Grant Hottle (see painting), who also joined us.

Artists are taking over shuttered storefronts, transforming them into exhibition spaces. The top floor of Pioneer Place, once a hopeful shopping mall, was empty. Now we have Place, a group of galleries featuring installation and work from PNCA students. Gabe Flores and Gary Wiseman are curators behind the project and they will be my guests this Tuesday on Art Focus.

Art Focus continues its series on local art spaces. Lately we're consumed with pop-up galleries which are taking advantage of all the vacant real estate. Tiffany Ruth has a regular art space in NW Portland called T. Ruth Artspace which is showing Chelsea Rose this month (see image). Chelsea does incredible body painting and her partner, Danny Rodriguez, works on the photo documentation. All three joined us at KBOO. Tiffany Ruth is also masterminding pop-up galleries in the NW Thurman area, with an artwalk every third Thursday.
 

In keeping with the current theme at Art Focus of the personalities behind art spaces - I am having Blake Shell join me this coming Tuesday. She is the curator at the Archer Gallery at Clark College and an artist in her own right. Currently the Archer Gallery has work up by Dan Gilsdorf and Peter Happel Christian. On the 11th of January, the Archer joins a group of community college galleries exhibiting Perimeter: We Live Here Now. These exhibitions feature works by artists from outside the USA who now live here.

Anna Solcaniova King and Graylan King, who own and direct Anka Gallery, were our guests. They have a big space and are able to present several shows at once, most of them of emerging artists.

Ben Pink is the director of Launchpad Gallery - Launchpad right now is hosting a collaborative exhibition of Chris Haberman with Scott Chase called The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (see image).

 

Originally from Oregon, Mary Adams has The Dress in NYC .... and a new book out called The Party Dress Book.

Daniel Fagereng talks about his show of constructions at the Japanese Garden.

The next exhibition at the White Box will be COLLECT FOUR: Scenes From Portland’s Bleeding Edge. This show includes four artists and is curated by Jesse Hayward. He is the subject in this interview.

Hayward claims: "The artists in this show are all, first and foremost, collectors. Ben collects moments. Jason collects motif. Midori collects abstractions while Matt collects simplicities. They are earnest. They emphasize the clean and clear display of their artwork. These are not artists who confuse, misdirect or rely on trickery for effect. These are artists who sample first and filter later. Their early careers run parallel as well.

My guests were Lisa Radon of Ultrapdx, Jeff Jahn of PORT, Barry Johnson (who wrote and edited for years at the O) and Brian Libby of Portland Architecture. We discussed art criticism in general and in Portland in particular.

In March Centrifuge, a group show curated by Chroma, opens at the Art Institute of Portland. Centrifuge explores links between art and architecture. We had the curators Jennifer Porter and Martha Wallulis, plus Caitlin Moore from the Art Institute of Portland on the radio  about the upcoming exhibition.

Bonnie Laing-Malcolmson joined us on Art Focus . She is the new curator of Northwest Art at the Portland Art Museum and has recently announced the finalists and winners of the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards.

John Motley contributes pieces to the Oregonian, Art Papers and other publications. He’ has just published a collection of critical essays that were developed alongside exhibitions at Fourteen30. The book is called Stay Time. Originally published as a series of limited edition broadsides, available only at the gallery, these essays examine the work of emerging artists from Portland, Los Angeles, and beyond.

This is an interview with Cris Moss, who curates at Linfield College. Opening this month is Bearing Witness: Daniel Heyman. Heyman is a storyteller. The exhibition features portraits of individuals who have endured great personal hardship — former Abu Ghraib detainees, African-American fathers who have been in and out of jail, and new immigrants to the United States. Linfield will also host a public Frazee Lecture with Daniel Heyman in Ice Auditorium on the Linfield campus Tuesday, April 5, from 7:30–9 p.m.

Charles A. Hartman Fine Art presented Holly Andres for their April exhibition. She was our guest and told us about "The Fall of Spring Hill." The show continues her examination of a personal feminine narrative. In large-scale, lush color images, the artist ponders the brevity of childhood, the fleeting nature of memory, and female introspection. As in her previous work, this new series is concerned with revisiting, recreating and preserving history, the interweaving of fact and fiction and finding a place in which biography and fictitious narration come together. Andres choreographs all her tableaus - she dresses her people and puts it all together.

Jim Neidhardt was our guest on Art Focus. He has a show of photographs up called Museum at Blackfish. Neidhardt captures the museum ritual of photographing the art experience rather than actually having one. Or maybe the intimate relationship we have with our cameras is deeply imbedded in whatever art experience we have, for better or worse.

Tom Cramer has a new show of Oregon Landmarks at the Laura Russo Gallery.

Friends of the Library have opened up a pop-up on NW 23rd - where the beloved Music Millennium used to be. This pop-up will have revolving art shows from a huge community of artists as well as books on sale. Lenall Siebenaler is the director of the store and Judy Lindley is on the board of directors they joined us on Art Focus .

Our guest this week was Curtis Knapp of YU Contemporary. YU has been in the news a lot lately. It’s the new non-profit with grand aims and an even grander building. You can’t help but be inspired when you walk in there. The first exhibition is an archive from PCVA. Knapp discusses the space, the exhibition and various plans for YU.

The three curators from Appendix Project Space  joined us:  Joshua Pavlacky, Travis Fitzgerald and Zack Davis. The upcoming show at Appendix is Neverland by Daniel J. Glendening and Michael Welsch.

Cynthia Mosser has a show up at Augen Desoto this month. It's all about the egg, small and large pieces, layer upon layer of the oval. Some of the pieces are egg-shaped too. The show is called Eggs Obsession.

Lynda Ater has a show at Blackfish right now called Inside Out: Embelling Albers' Square. She talks about Joseph Albers, Hommage to the Square, color, patterns she made from cancer cell shapes and past exhibitions in which she investigates color.

Now there is a Recology Program where artists go to the dump and make work from it. Some of them joined us on Art Focus. The artists involved are: Ben Dye, Jen Fuller, William Rihel, Mike Suri, and Leslie Vigeant. Rihel, Dye and Fuller will joined us here.
 

Joshua Berger and Tiffany Lee Brown of Plazm talk about 20 years in which Plazm has been in print.

PICA's TBA Festival is coming up and Art Focus will devout 2 episodes to it. This week our guest will be Kristan Kennedy, PICA's Visual Art Curator (who is also an artist). The PICA Resource Room online will give you all the details about the festival.
 

Whoop Dee Doo are a part of the PICA TBA 2011 Festival. They were our guests on Art Focus  September 13th.
About the group: An all-ages, anything-goes variety show, Whoop Dee Doo enlists diverse participants and collaborates with a wild range of performers—from science teachers and Celtic bagpipers to clogging troupes, drill teams, and drag queens—all for an audience of wide-eyed children. This chaotic mix is an awkward yet endearing experience that embraces a huge range of tastes and sensibilities and strips away divisions between high and low art.

Currently Augen Gallery is showing Grace Weston's Angles of Incidents. Weston was our guest on Art Focus. We were fortunate enough to visit her studio once. She's making magic from a very small set with all kinds of wild parts.

Our guest on Art Focus was David Eckard. The Art Gym is giving him a mid-career survey which opens on October 2nd. David Eckard: Deployment will present approximately 40 artworks, including new paintings, sculpture and performances, and a selection of past sculptures, drawings and documentation. It will also include documentation and physical remnants of past installations and performances.

Portland Art Collective hosts "Open Doors" at the Multnomah Art Center on December 2nd and 3rd. Robin Olsen and Lorraine Jones of the collective were our guests.

Molly Vidor talks about her show Honeydrippers, still life paintings at PDX.

 Elizabeth Leach was our guest on Art Focus.

Local homeless youth are collaborating with artists and businesses to beautify our town, via New Avenues for Youth.

Billions and Billions of People collaborative art Installation is transforming a construction site into a work of art. With the vision and support from a premier real estate development company, TMT Development, thirty local homeless youth served by New Avenues for Youth had the unique opportunity to work alongside an internationally famed artist, earn a paycheck and feel connected to the city they call home.


That artist would be Chris Johanson.

 Robert Tomlinson is currently showing mixed media works at Guardino Gallery. He is also a curator woth many different projects.

 Todd Tubutis of the Director of Blue Sky Gallery was our guest on Art Focus.

 Brenda Mallory talks about her big installation at the Portland International Airport. The piece is called The Mechanics of Hither and Yon. 

 Kelsey Bunker has a new gallery at the Jupiter Hotel. She discusses the gallery and its programming and her journey as an artist and business person.

Prudence Roberts curated 24 artists or artist groups in the Portland 2012. The biennial is held all over the city. We talked about the show in general and some of the artists specifically.

 Bruce Guenther curated the present show of Mark Rothko at the Portland Art Museum. We talk about this show, Rothko's history and his place in Modern art.

 Namita Wiggers is the curator of Betty Feves: Generations at the Museum of Contemporary Craft. She was our guest.

 Crystal Schenk has a show called Artifacts of Memory at Linfield Gallery. She joined Art Focus, along with curator Cris Moss.

Gigi Rosenberg was our guest. She wrote The Artist's Guide to Grant Writing. She details how to write a grant and what mistakes to avoid. 

 Liz Cohn has a show called Playing with A Full Deck at the 12 x 16 Gallery.