When talking about my new work “Tempus Incognitus,” John described it as “Technicolor Noir.”  I love that description and asked him if I could use it when talking about my work.  He graciously agreed.

John is currently curating a show about the South. If you are in the Atlanta area you should see this show. http://slowexposures.blogspot.com/2010/05/southern-memory-part-i-inside-and-out.html.

John is busy working on the 2nd edition of the Hearst Biennial.  He also teaches a course in collecting at the New School in New York City.

James Turrell - The Light Inside 1999 Houston Museum of Fine Arts

I, of course, was particularly drawn to “The Light Inside,” which is a site-specific installation of neon lights, gypsum board, plaster, and glass by James Turrell (1999) it is located in the tunnel between the two main buildings of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

James Turrell - The Light Inside 1999 Houston Museum of Fine Arts

James Turrell - The Light Inside 1999 Houston Museum of Fine Arts

If in Houston, I also recommend seeing the show ” Light of the Sufis: The Mystical Arts of Islam” – fantastic show.

In addition this is the last week of “Alice Neel: Painted Truths”.

Alice Neel - Houston Museum of Fine Arts

Alice Neel - Robert Smithson 1962

This past weekend was the opening of my show at the De Santos Gallery in Houston.  Gemma and Luis de Santos hosted a vernissage dinner one night and a public opening the next night. Both were well attended.

During the opening weekend, Douglas Britt of the Houston Chronicle interviewed me about “Tempus Incognitus.”  On June 9th, the Houston Chronicle published the interview in their print edition, “Photographer Brad Carlile sheds new light on hotel rooms.”  the online version can be seen here.

The press release for the show is also online here.

Brad Carlile - Installation at De Santos Gallery

Show details:
When: now Through July 24, 2010
De Santos Gallery
1724 Richmond Ave.
Houston, TX 77098
www.desantosgallery.com
Contact: Gemma de Santos,
info@desantosgallery.com

When asked to describe this new body of work, I often say, “Think Edward Hopper interiors awash in James Turrell colors with David Lynch directing.

“Tempus Incognitus” records the day’s transitional times and shows them existing concurrently. The Cubists painted individual scenes from several different perspectives at once. In this series, I photograph individual rooms at several different times of day from a single perspective during the course of 1-3 days.

In the coming posts I’ll write more about my thoughts on the physical, psychological, and emotional detachment of hotel rooms and other ponderings on this work.

In 2009 I was one of the eight winners of that Biennial — The premiere biennial garnered more than 1,000 entries from 47 countries. I can tell you it is a high-profile well-run competition that has helped my career in fine art photography.  It was great to have my work on display at the Hearst Tower (West 57th st) in NYC.

Details at: www.hearst8×10.com.  The 2011 contest is open to all U.S. and international freelance, amateur and professional photographers and students, aged 18 to 35 years of age.

An international competition saluting the next generation of talent, which will play an important role in the future of magazines, media, the web, design and photography. Hearst 8×10 Photography Biennial is a competition to identify and promote new and emerging talent among photographers in the United States and abroad.

Selected works will be showcased in an exhibition under the title, “8×10″ in the Alexey Brodovitch Gallery and the Hearst Gallery at Hearst Tower in New York City. Winners will be published in the accompanying “8×10″ catalog and on www.hearst.com and www.hearst8×10.com.

There is no entry fee for the competition.

Hearst Corporation’s history of working with photography’s pioneers and rule breakers continues with the 2nd Hearst 8×10 Photography Biennial – an international competition saluting the next generation of talent, which will play an important role in the future of magazines, media, the web, design and photography.

Deadline for submissions is May 31, 2010.

Details for submission at: http://www.hearst8×10.com/contest.php

The ten judges for 2011 are:

* Lillian Bassman, photographer
* Bonni Benrubi, owner, Bonni Benrubi Gallery
* Michael Clinton, EVP/CMO & publishing director, Hearst Magazines
* Stephen Gan, creative director, Harper’s Bazaar, co-founder of Visionaire, and editor-in-chief of V Magazine
* Oberto Gili, photographer
* Jean-Paul Goude, graphic designer, illustrator and photographer
* Howard Greenberg, owner, Howard Greenberg Gallery
* Willis “Buzz” Hartshorn, director, International Center of Photography
* Simen Johan, photographer
* Mary Shanahan, creative director, Town&Country magazine

SQFT Egyptian Theater, Boise, ID (Brad Carlile image: 2nd row, 4th col)

SQFT is a window-based, traveling exhibition curated by TJ Norris of 2D works by 50 of the most innovative, emerging and established artists in the Northwest. It is intended as a showcase of where we are right now, and many works respond directly to the in-situ nature of being either on public display or behind glass.

November 14-December 30, 2009
SQFT
60 Established + Emerging Pacific NW Artists
curated by TJ Norris
Egyptian Theater, Boise, ID
(portable/traveling exhibition)

For more information see:
http://www.bradcarlile.com/blog/my-art-update/sqft-show/

Tom Cramer Lecture at Laura Russo in October 2009

Tom Cramer gave a artist lecture this past Saturday (17-Oct) at Laura Russo Gallery (805 NW 21st, Portland, OR) where he discussed his work in his current show. There was a lot of interaction and questions on a wide range of topics. A good-sized crowd heard and inspiring talk about Tom’s work and his influences.

Tom Cramer Lecture

Tom’s new rebellion… is leading a cause to be ultra positive in these times. This is not a blind positivism but a thoughtful positivism.

Tom Rebelling

Another part of this is a deep responsibility for all of us. He talked about his reading of Schopenhauer and the need for each of us to “Think for Yourself”

Tom Cramer & the front row

He is also rebelling against “1-liner” art. In my mind a lot of 1-liner art has jumped the shark. Life is richer than that.

Tom Cramer

Below are some random thoughts from the lecture:

Art is a verb.

Music activates other senses

Tom Cramer's Scent (detail)

Other influences… Heidegger, Blake, Pacific Rim artists, poets, writers, Maurer and many others.

Tom Cramer's Scent

Especially in America he wants more support for non-mediocracy.

…more images from the show in upcoming posts.  I’m behind on posting images from October’s First Thursday’s shows, I’ll try to catch up before long…

PDX Contemporary Art (925 NW Flanders, Portland OR) is showing Nell Warren’s new work.

Nell Warren Whale Song PDX Contemporary

Nell Warren - Brink - PDX Contemporary

Elizabeth Leach Gallery (17 NW 9th, Portland OR) is showing Portland Artist MK Guth who’s work was seen at the last Whitney Biennial. Here is a peak in the door, but you must go in!

MK Guth - Elizabeth Leach

SQFT is show Curated by TJ Norris you can see outside Blackfish Gallery (420 NW 9th Ave, Portland, OR) in the Fishbowl II – Window. It will be showing August 31 – September 26, 2009.

SQFT is a window-based, traveling exhibition of 2D works by 50 of the most innovative, emerging and established artists in the Northwest. It is intended as a showcase of where we are right now, and many works respond directly to the in-situ nature of being either on public display or behind glass.

Read more about it at my previous blog posting.

Brad Carlile - the race for kicks - SQFT

Inside the Blackfish Gallery (420 NW 9th Ave, Portland, OR) I liked Carol Benson’s painting in the back.

Carol Benson - The Internet is the Devil - Blackfish Gallery

Froelick Gallery (714 NW Davis, Portland OR)

Rick Bartow - Arms Crossed Pow Wow - Froelick Gallery

Nine Gallery which is inside Blue Sky Gallery (122 NW 8th Ave, Portland OR) has an installation by Jiseon Lee Isbara called Accumulated.

Jiseon Lee Isbara - Accumulated - Nine Gallery

Jiseon Lee Isbara - Accumulated - Nine Gallery

Augen Gallery (716 NW Davis, Portland OR) was showing Andrew Young’s work.

Andrew Young - Untitled c 188 - Augen Gallery

Here was Port’s posting on first thursday recommendations for September.

Walking around Everett galleries we ran into Tom Cramer,w ho has a show at Laura Russo Gallery (805 NW 21st, Portland, OR) next month, check it out!

SQFT is a window-based, traveling exhibition of 2D works by 50 of the most innovative, emerging and established artists in the Northwest. It is intended as a showcase of where we are right now, and many works respond directly to the in-situ nature of being either on public display or behind glass.

The window will simply include the title of the show and names. The information about the pieces will be on the window ledge inside the window, just in case you go by on 1st Thursday or during the month of September!

SQFT Show

I have a work in that show “the race for kicks”

Brad Carlile - the race for kicks - SQFT

:: PRESS RELEASE ::

SQFT is a window-based, traveling exhibition of 2D works by 50 of the most innovative, emerging and established artists in the Northwest. It is intended as a showcase of where we are right now, and many works respond directly to the in-situ nature of being either on public display or behind glass. All works will be presented unframed, hung with simple bank pins in a grid pattern. The work will travel to several cities, big and small for two years and will be housed in a custom-made crate which will also be placed at each presentation site.  Other locations TBA (Seattle, Vancouver/Victoria BC, Boise, Butte, Spokane, Eugene…). Curator TJ Norris is currently working under an agreement with Gallery Homeland to be the non-profit umbrella organization helping get the show on the road. Norris will also work with regional curators as curatorial site scouts in their regions to locate best sites for the show.

This is an invitational, open to whatever the artists I welcomed decide to do within their own ’square foot’. Of course, as would be expected, the results have been quite far-reaching. Some stunning works of art, some conceptually sly, some responding to the beckoning call of making reference to the reflectory/in-situ nature of its presentation (Ann Ploeger, Smith Elliott), others completely going into their own lofty post-Dadaist perspectives (Marc Dombrosky). Some pieces are quite intricate (Laura Vandenburgh), some are a melange, mixing the past and perhaps a touch of what’s to come (Jesse Hayward). It’s been a fun show to do, and overlapped nicely within my un/conscious of the whole grid thing. I love to think, curatorially, in sets, patterns, almost like a good game of chess. Making pairs, changing out where something lands, rearranging and keeping with the whole concept that all patterns are interchangeable, how to distort the flat plane with very diverse work in all media.

Other Sites: TBA

SQFT - Blackfish

SQFT - Fishbowl 2 Blackfish Gallery - photo courtesy TJ Norris

Jason Ehlers - All stumps go to heaven

Jason Ehlers - All stumps go to heaven

Erik Palmer had very impressive work.  The opening show had a scene that could have been filmed for movie, if you were there you know what I’m talking about.

Erik Palmer

Erik Palmer

Augen Gallery (716 NW Davis, Portland OR) was showing the amazing collages by Arless Day.

Arless Day - Sounds of Italy - Augen Gallery

Arless Day - The Dream Recreate - Augen Gallery

Laura Russo Gallery (805 NW 21st, Portland, OR) was showing Whitney Nye.

Whitney Nye - Vodopad - Laura Russo

Whitney Nye - Hit Singles - Laura Russo

Whitney Nye - Hit Singles (detail) - Laura Russo

Chambers Gallery @ 916 (916 Flanders, Portland OR) continues to have a good lineup of shows. In August & Sept it is Peter Halasz.

Peter Halasz - 7 Oblique Aerial View of Collapsed Section of the Broughton Flume Skamania Co, WA - 916 Chambers

Elizabeth Leach Gallery (17 NW 9th, Portland OR) wonderful paintings by Chester Arnold.

Chester Arnold - Afterword - Elizabeth Leach

Chester Arnold - The Fall - Elizabeth Leach

Froelick Gallery (714 NW Davis, Portland OR) showed Kelly Kievit’s work.

Kelly Kievit - Taken at the Flood - Froelick Gallery

PDX Contemporary Art (925 NW Flanders, Portland OR) was showing Terry Toedtemeier’s images from around the Northwest.  I’ve love this one of the tracks.

Terry Toedtemeier - PDX Contemporary

Ogle Gallery (310 NW Broadway, Portland OR) was showing installation by Mike Bragg.

Mike Bragg Ogle

Nine Gallery which is inside Blue Sky Gallery (122 NW 8th Ave, Portland OR) has an installation by Kim Ray called Generation.

Kim Ray - Generation - Nine Gallery

Butters Gallery (520 NW Davis, 2nd flr, Portland OR) had a summer group show. Favs included: Monroe Hodder, Michael Kessler, Andrea Schwartz-Feit, and Annette Davidek.

Monroe Hodder - Saint Valentine - Butters Gallery

Annette Davidek - 35-06 - Butters Gallery

First I start out with the mandala-like photo of Christian Rogers, “His & Hers (Predominantly His)”.

Christian Rogers, His Hers (Predominantly His) Blackfish Gallery

Below is the detail from “His & Hers (Predominantly His)”  Here you get a better view of the lozenges that radiate out from the center.  Images so thin they meld in layers.

Christian Rogers, Detail His Hers (Predominantly His) Blackfish Gallery

Next is Patricia Patino, whose work “March 24″

Patricia Patino, March 24, Blackfish Gallery

Finally I loved this one by Leah Morris. Such a wondeful gift of poison for cut little bunnies.

Leah Morris, Gift, Blackfish Gallery

I also liked Sanna-Lisa Gesang-Gottowt “Everything Changes” and Caitlin Ducey “Shapes.”

In the window project at PDX Contemporary Art (925 NW Flanders, Portland OR) is Brennan Conaway’s “In Joyful Anticipation of Catastrophic Ruin…” I didn’t capture the full title, maybe ends with “first colony”(?).  This sculpture is a celebration of a future cultural demise, to facilitate a consumerist-free rebirth.

Brennan Conaway, In Joyful Anticipation of Catastrphic Ruin, PDX Window Project

In the gallery at PDX Contemporary Art (925 NW Flanders, Portland OR) is Wes Mills’ Mondrian’s Forest.  I’m often drawn to work in grids.  The repetition of work with variations continues to build upon itself.  Each individual framed piece is subtle work on paper that is drawn, stained and wrinkled.

Wes Mills is part of the NYC group show Master Drawings New York: Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Wes Mills atDickinson (19 East 66th Street, NYC). He has work in the collections Whitney Museum and MoMA (NYC)

Wes Mills, Mondrians Forest, PDX Contemporary

Detail of Wes Mills’ Mondrian’s Forest.  Here you can see the descending lines and the effects they have on the paper and the effect of the paper on them.  Also at this show is the work “Pie Set” which has sketches of pies/disks with wedges removed from them are superimposed and interlaced.  Again the paper and the drawing effect one another.

Wes Mills, (Detail) Mondrians Forest, PDX Contemporary

Blue Sky Gallery (122 NW 8th Ave, Portland OR), has a strong combination this month. Ferit Kuyas has wonderful beautiful prints – STUNNING WORK.  Colors and images are luxurious and often soft.  But the fog and the massive buildings hit you with what we have wrought by rebuilding our land and smogging our air.

Postscript: According to the artist this is actually fog not smog.  I was mislead by the smog that I saw in Beijing in my trip to China in 2005 (few snaps from that trip).  Read more at the Oregonian about an interview with Ferit Kuyas: http://www.oregonlive.com/art/index.ssf/2009/07/photos_capture_a_foggy_chinese.html

Ferit Kuyas, Restaurant Boats Jialing River Chongqing, Blue Sky

Ferit Kuyas, Cableway Cangbai Raod Chongqing, Blue Sky Gallery

Artist and frequent Blogger Amy Stein is in the back gallery of Blue Sky Gallery.

Her works are modern dioramas set out in our landscape.  These constructed  scenes she writes, “explore our paradoxical relationship with the “wild” and how our conflicting impulses continue to evolve and alter the behavior of both humans and animals.”  She continues, they “…are constructed based on real stories from local newspapers and oral histories of intentional and random interactions between humans and animals.”

Garden was a hilarious look at an American garden that is a comment on  protectionism and created nature.

Amy Stein, Garden, Blue Sky Gallery

Watering Hole is an image of Amy’s that you may have seen around the web.  It is also on the cover of her book “Domesticated” that was the winner of Photolucida’s Critical Mass book award.

Amy Stein, Watering Hole, Blue Sky Gallery

Michael Kenna has another strong show at Hartman Fine Art (154 NW 8th, Portland OR).  His black&white work is powerful as always.  You can see why they grace many museum collections.  But see them here in Portland in a great space.

Eva Lake has a very nice interview of Michael Kenna on KBOO, hear it at: http://kboo.fm/audio/by/title/michael_kenna

Michael Kenna, Huangshan Mountains Study 2 Anhui China, Charles Hartman

Allen Cox work is showing at Augen Gallery (716 NW Davis, Portland OR).  Allen is a well-known Pacific Northwest abstract painter.  Below is the painting “Landslide”.  I was also drawn to “Uncertainty Principle” which I believe is what they used on the show postcard.

I didn’t get any snapshots of Akahashi Murakami’s lithographs, but they are well worth a visit to the gallery in their own right.

Allen Cox, Landslide, Augen Gallery

Butters Gallery (520 NW Davis, 2nd flr, Portland OR) has a show called NEW DISCOVERIES, and two of them are discoveries for me.

Nicolas Guerrero magical color… trippy mandalas.  I liked them a lot.  Bold saturated colors and interesting shapes. These gain extra luminosity since they are face-mounted plexi which gives both a softer and stronger impression.

Nicolas Guerrero, Cromatico, Butters Gallery

Here are two more… Bold primary colors that can fill one’s imagination.

Nicolas Guerrero, Cromatico, Butters Gallery

Also at Butters is Jiro Yonezawa’s sculptures. He combines “traditional Japanese weaving combined with ideas of modern Western sculpture.”

I particularly liked the thin space filling works like the image below.

Jiro Yonezawa, Bond 09 7, Butters Gallery

Matthew Craig paintings were also captivating. He is recent graduate from the University of Oregon.  In this work we have layers of bold geometries with dare I say pin-stripping squiggles.  It works with great effect.

He writes, “The lines shift, the colors recede or advance, the space is at once flat and deep. Both space and color are contingent upon the formal choices Craig makes; color is affected by its surroundings, and the color and structure of the lines creates the space. The structures in the paintings never seem quite stable because of this shifting of space, this vibration of color. The work is very much about the present moment, the viewers direct engagement with the work, and their immediate perceptual responses.”

Matthew Craig, Untitled, Butters Gallery

Below is one more…

Matthew Craig, Untitled, Butters Gallery

It was a good set of 1st Thursday shows. Stop by any of these Portland Galleries and more to really spend some time with these works in person (and without the opening festivities).