Summer Arts Preview – Visual Arts
June 9th, 2011Travel Portland is working with Oregon Arts Watch, a new, nonprofit journalism enterprise, to cover upcoming art exhibits, performances and events in the city.
During summer in Portland, the arts take on the attitude of the city as a whole: casual and celebratory. The full experience of the first-rate Chamber Music Northwest festival, for example, involves a pre-concert picnic, and the monthly gallery walks feel even more like street parties when it’s warm out. Amid these less formal and more adventurous offerings, the art experiences can still be profound.
Here are some of the visual arts highlights (see music and theater highlights):
Chris Antemann, Feast of Impropriety, 2010, 3-section centerpiece, dining table with 16 figures; porcelain with decals, luster and china paint
The Contemporary Northwest Art Awards
Portland Art Museum
June 11-Sept. 11
A replacement for the Oregon Biennial, the CNAA showcases the work of seven Northwest artists in greater depth than the museum’s previous survey show of state artists, and it awards one the $10,000 Arlene Schnitzer Prize. From figurative porcelain vignettes to large-scale sculpture, video installation and glass, works by Chris Antemann, John Buck, John Grade, Jerry Iverson, Susie Lee, Megan Murphy and Michelle Ross demonstrate the broad spectrum of work being done by the region’s artists.
The Allure of the Automobile
Portland Art Museum
June 11-Sept. 11
The Allure of the Automobile showcases 16 luxurious and beautiful automobiles designed by Bugatti, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and others between 1930 and the mid-1960s. The swooping silver curves of the 1937 Hispano-Suiza owned by French aperitif baron André Dubonnet contrast with those of the convertible 1957 Jaguar XK-SS Roadster once owned by Hollywood legend Steve McQueen, together telling the story of the evolution of the design and engineering of the high-end motorcar.
The Shape of the Problem: 30th Anniversary Celebration
Elizabeth Leach Gallery
Aug. 3-27
Since 1981, Elizabeth Leach Gallery has presented prominent Northwest and internationally established artists side by side, fostering a rich conversation between Portland and the greater art world. A group show, “The Shape of the Problem” traces this conversation as it weaves through 30 years of issues of form, identity, optimism, accumulation, exuberance and deconstruction.
Unfinished Business: Terry Toedtemeier
PDX Contemporary Art
Aug. 2-27
“Unfinished Business” is a not-to-be-missed exhibition of posthumously printed photos of works of American land art, including Walter de Maria’s “Lightning Field,” seen through the lens of the late Terry Toedtemeier. Toedtemeier, for decades the curator of photography at the Portland Art Museum, as well as co-founder of Blue Sky Gallery, was known for his elegant, allusive photos documenting the terrain of the Pacific Northwest.
Catalog cover image, Ninth Biennial Exhibition of Northwest Ceramics, 1960. Photo by: Museum of Contemporary Craft Archives.
Northwest Modern: Revisiting the Annual Ceramic Exhibitions of 1950-64
Museum of Contemporary Craft
Aug. 18 – Feb. 25, 2012
Juried by such nationally recognized curators as Edith Heath and MoMA’s Edgar Kaufmann Jr., mid-century “annuals” at the Oregon Ceramic Studio (now the Museum of Contemporary Craft) showcased work by then-emerging ceramicists like Betty Feves, David Shaner and Peter Voulkos while helping to define the modern moment in studio ceramics. This show re-installs examples of that era’s ground-breaking work.
Tags: automobile, cars, ceramics, oregon arts watch, sculpture, Summer, visual arts
