portland galleries – PLAZM

William Damiano: “Art Show” in Portland

Nora Robertson — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:20:10 +0000

Burnside Street gallery Nationale hosts the watercolors of William Damiano through the 27th of this month. While a multitude of pop-cultural and historical figures–Sonic the Hedgehog, Marilyn Monroe and Busby Berkeley among them–appear in or are referenced by Damiano’s broader body of work, Nationale’s selection, entitled “Art Show,” spotlights characters of Damiano’s own invention.

The allure of “Patricia Poodle”– a purple miniskirted, floppy-eared, gogo-booted canine–accumulates over the a series of smaller works and culminates in a larger format portrait of Patricia posing like a pinup. Damiano depicts a family of foxes–mother, father, sister, brother, cousin, baby–in a range of moods and modes: the family at work on a movie project, the family clad as Lonely Hearts Club band members.

Damiano investigates how group dynamics might manifest under extraordinary circumstances. What if the Fox Family were a poker deck? Who would play the joker? Damiano’s wry wit and wisdom are revealed through his reorientation of funny page figuration. Damiano is one of many artists working at Project Grow. Nationale’s May Barruel will curate a group show of Project Grow artist work at Stumptown Coffee this summer. —Elizabeth Pusack

Light Structures

Nora Robertson — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:50:50 +0000

Laura Fritz

Show preview by Elizabeth Pusack

Prisms, projections, and shadow play are among the previously employed strategies of the five artists featured in False Front’s forthcoming show of light installations, curated by Canadian-born Portland artist Laura Hughes. False Front is keeping the particulars in the shadows pre-show, but Hughes conjures the history of human conceptions of light in her curatorial statement.

Sydney S. Kim

“In ancient times, it was thought light was contained within the eye itself: emitting onto the seen object like aiming a lantern. We now understand light through modern science as electromagnetic radiation visible to the human eye measured by wavelength, frequency, speed, and direction.” She, and presumably the show, explore perception and visual engagement with everyday life.

Adam Ekberg

Artist Laura Fritz, who exhibited an intriguing installation at Plazm’s 20th Anniversary event last summer, contributes new work to “Light Structures.” Says the Seattle Post Intelligencer, Fritz’s work involves “the inside of your brain, the place where you process light, make memories and filter out stray things. In your account of what happened on any given day, you may not include the strand of hair that fell across your face, the inanimate objects that appeared to jump at the edge of your vision, the moth you saw trapped on a screen or the cat waiting behind a door. Those stray things appeal to Fritz.”

Also eagerly anticipated is an Adam Ekberg “minor spectacle–” his works often pass for especially charming screen-shots–as well as new works by Cay Horiuchi, Sydney S. Kim, and Scott Rodgers.

Cay Horiuchi

The show opens on April 7th, with an opening reception from 6-9, and runs through April 29th. Viewing hours are Saturday and Sunday from 12-3 or by appointment. False Front’s mission is to provide regional artists and curators with with an exhibition option beyond the conventional gallery.

Portland 2010 Opens Tonight

Joshua Berger — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:47:00 +0000

Portland 2010: a Biennial of Contemporary Art is opening tonight at Disjecta and BoxRocks.
This is the first biennial in the region since the Portland Art Museum decided to move to the Contemporary Northwest Art Award format. Plazm is an event sponsor and designed the logo, posters, ads, etc. Check it out.

There are a bunch of events running for the next eight weeks or so. The show is curated by Cris Moss. He’s selected lots of great artists including Holly Andres, Corey Arnold, Pat Boas, John Brodie, Bruce Conkle & Marne Lucas, David Corbett, Ditch Project, David Eckard, Damien Gilley, Sean Healy, Tahni Holt, Jenene Nagy, Oregon Painting Society, Melody Owen, Crystal Schenk, Heidi Schwegler, Stephen Slappe, Kartz Ucci.

Full listing of all events.

Disjecta
8371 N Interstate
Portland
6 – 10 pm

Carson Ellis at Nationale

sarahf — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 22:23:00 +0000

Carson Ellis‘ work is up all month at the lovely Nationale. Go there and support local business!