Sculpture over Portland waters

A gallery that has no home. A working studio space that has no address (well, sort of). Shake hands with The Labrador, 12128, a floating workshop/refuge/venue/studio/gallery run by four recent art grads from Lewis & Clark. The Labrador lives on the Willamette River, on Sauvie Island, and used to ship bodes back home after WWII, as well as fish frozen northern waters for crab. Sounds like a set for Ghosthunters, a place where artists go to get terrorized. Run by four (obviously)... Read More

Balinese performance art

Shadow Puppetry “Wayang” Shadow puppet theater is a thousand-year-old artform that entertains millions to this day in Indonesia & Bali. Cut from buffalo hides, puppets are placed between a tightly hung screen and an electric or fire lamp and usually tell epic Hindu tales like The Ramayana or The Mahabharata. Entire villages gather and watch the all-night tales which are accompanied by live music & narration from behind the screen. Cross legged, giggling on... Read More

MATH!

I’ve seen Nikki Graziano‘s Found Function project here and there for quite a while now, and every time I run across it, it stops me in my tracks. The images alone are striking and the mathematic observations she makes are both surprising, playful, and precise.  I like the way she looks for order in apparent chaos, and her presentation is spot on. While not exactly math these images also fall under the “order from chaos” umbrella. Taking famous moments... Read More

Josef Shulz

Mr. Shultz works out of charming Düsseldorf and is one of the best architectural photographers I have ever seen. It’s impossible to tear my eyes away. Ok let’s get this straight, this isn’t easy. To make an enormous object like a building look wafer thin, or chunkier than it is, or to appear completely foreign to its background is so precise a skill that I can’t quite fathom his process. He repeatedly performs these feats and throws them on his portfolio... Read More

Manhattan Masjid, or YMCA

Disclaimer I originally hesitated to comment on this, wondering if this was the appropriate venue to talk about a couple of pressing things. If it’s not a stretch, the subject does involve shared spaces, complex systems, and perhaps narrative storytelling. Don’t be alarmed, I’m quite a mild commentator, perhaps you share some of these views also. Headlines usually have a short lifespan for those not in them, but often we don’t realize that most headlines... Read More

Perttu Saksa

Perttu Saksa is a Finnish photographer working from his base in Helsinki. He’s got an impressive list of exhibitions under his belt and has worked for clients like Greenpeace, Nokia, Sony BMG, Universal Music, Waterhouse & Coopers, and a litany of editorial publications. I love seeing these out-of-context, especially since the majority of these seem to be editorial works. I like to imagine what their context became when they were sent to press, apart from their borderless... Read More

Burning skaters, Dear Japan

I have this crazy fantasy in my head that we’re just energy trapped inside this body. The energy comes out but we could do whatever we want. I think like that because I do some crazy things sometimes. I don’t even understand. You just have to focus on something so hard and believe that it’s possible and it will happen. What I am so in love with is the voice-over in the beginning. The direction is most excellent, but the narrations sets this epic super-hero theme... Read More

Canadian luggage tags & decals

Grabbing some fresh mountain air and incredible landscapes is usually enough. Coming home with luggage tags and decals only makes it more incredible. These socialists know how to make a take-away! Most people are familiar with the Chateau at Lake Louise, it’s such a huge icon of the Northwest. On this side of the country, however, most people have never seen or heard of Chateau Frontenac. It’s the worlds most photographed hotel and is basically an enormous castle... Read More

From Where We Stand – Portland Masjid

Islamic Center of Portland Dr. Cornel West recently said I like to be multi-contextual, which is much more important than being multicultural. I read that only a day before I visited a Mosque (Masjid) for the first time in my life. This was a heartwood trip. I’ve heard the call to prayer (Adhan) for years, I’ve even had a widget on my home computer blare out the call to prayer for about a year, much to the surprise of guests. What on earth is my context in a Mosque?... Read More

“When you have more clowns…” says Frank Chimero

Frank Chimero at Land Gallery If you are in Portland and you know what is good for you, march yourself right on down to Land Gallery and experience Frank Chimero’s show “If Someone Asks This is Where I’ll Be.” It is impossible to imagine this much work crammed into such a tight space. It makes Land feel 10x larger than it actually is, and unless you seriously pace yourself you may miss something. Frank has pieced together a show that is a joy to look at,... Read More