Portland’s June First Thursday Gallery Openings for June
Jun 8th, 2007 by Brad
Portland’s First Thursday was pretty inspiring this month. Below are some 1st Thursday images and quick thoughts. Maybe more later.
I really enjoyed the work of Portland architect, Brad Cloepfil, at PDX Contemporary Art (925 NW Flanders St, Portland OR). I asked if I could take some snaps, which they obliged. But when I was talking to Brad Cloepfil he was a bit put off some of his images already being on blogs. I can understand this as he said in the artist statement, “In that light, these drawings are very personal.” So I won’t post the drawings, but feel the need to at least share an image of this model to tempt you to go and see the show.
Brad Cloepfil at PDX Contemporary
You should definitely stop by PDX Contemporary and check out that show. For his commercial work see www.alliedworks.com
My first stop of the evening was to see the Terri Cutz show at Centrum Gallery at Oregon College of Arts & Craft (8245 SW Barnes Road, Portland OR). Terri’s work inspires many, and she was selling very well as expected. This work needs to be seen in person as it has such amazing interactions with light. Also look at the amazing texture of the work. www.tcutzstudios.com
“Periphery”, Terri Cutz, 2007, mixed media
“Peace”, Terri Cutz, 2007, mixed media
I also went down the stairs to look the graduation exhibit. I was struck by one by Justin Nickels.
“Anatomy of Machine”, Justin Nickels, 2007, wood metral acrylic paint
I stopped by Quality Pictures to see Elizabeth Huey’s Chronophobia. While I’m glad Eric focuses on photography it is also great to see this non-photographic work. Quality Pictures (916 NW Hoyt, Portland, OR www.qpca.com) The as part of Chronophobia, I responded to “The End of the Delusion”
“The End of the Delusion”, 2007, acrylic and oil on wood panel
In the back room something that struck me was “Hysteria”.
“Hysteria”, Elisabeth Huey, 2005, Acrylic on Canvas
Anna Fidler’s show rocked. They didn’t want me taking images so I’ll just point to “Theory of Levitation” which I really enjoyed and suggest you just go and stand in front of for a while. For me it was pick of the litter. Also hanging by the office was Brenden Clenaghen’s “Follow Blind”, 2006, a great work. Pulliam Deffenbaugh (info at either link).
At Elizabeth Leach (417 N.W. 9th Avenue Portland OR) I captured Justin Gibben with his work.
At the Portland Art Center (32 NW 5th Ave Portland OR) there were many good things to look at. First, photojournalist Robbie Cooper’s portraits of gaming avatars and their counterpart (human) creators. You only have a few days to see the images, but I really like this explanation. Can you guess the image associated with these words?
Robbie Cooper, caption under image
Then I liked this one by Laura C. Hayes
“Make sure to Crush All Your Eggshells, Else the Witches Will Nest Inside them”, Laura C. Hayes, mixed media
Then I jetted over to the Mark Woolley Gallery (128 NE Russell St. Portland OR) to see Brian Mock’s new show. I had been in a group show last June with Brian Mock at the Mark Woolley gallery so I was familiar with one piece. It was good to see more. The show was, Brian Mock: “Found to Form”
I like how this one was lit to show found to “form to function to shadow”
At the Everett Street Lofts at Tilt I saw the work by New York-based artist Alison Owen. Pretty cool site-specific installation. Subtle but powerful.
Tilt Gallery & Project Space (625 NW Everett #106, www.tiltpdx.com)
I liked the images on the wall bit more than the sculpture at Oogle, but my friends disagreed. Stop by and decide for yourself.
Then stopped by Crude Things Gallery and saw Exquisite Wigs and looked out the window…
This Saturday I stopped by Chambers Gallery (207 SW Pine St. #102, Portland OR) to see the images that Oakland-based artist Chris Ashley. Chris creates art by using HTML.
See the comment for more information on what Chris was doing. In my original post I had some mis-information {thanks to PORT & the Oregonian 🙂 }. I didn’t have my camera with so you’ll have to stop by to see the work.
In my wonderings around between galleries on Thursday night, I shot this:
Brad Carlile, digital image, 2007, downtown PDX
Thanks for the mention. I’d just like to clarify: D.K. Row wrote that in my HTML drawings I am, “ultimately embracing the art of chance and serendipity,” but this is actually quite far from what I do. The images I make with HTML are composed, drawn, built- they are not about software, algorithms, conceptual systems, etc. Although I work within the limitations of the markup language, it is really no different from the limitations of the pencil, a string spanning a fretboard, the twenty six letters of the alphabet. I use HTML intentionally, and I push it to do things it wasn’t meant to do. I start and finish the drawings, not my computer. Cheers.
Thanks for the explanation, I’ve edited the original post to cut out the bad info.