Drapes No. 6 and 7

Drape No. 7

These paintings are not particularly "about" anything, save I can make color do interesting things. In the past I made work about the landscape or about a journey, but really I am just after an experience via paint. Here, I feel like I came across something interesting and so I painted it. That's all really.

Drape No. 6

Cynthia Mosser on KBOO

Listen to the interview here.

A few years ago I had Cynthia Mosser on Artstar, my old show at KPSU. She told me back then that she liked luxury and one of her luxury items was time. I think this is still evident in her work, which is up a Augen Desoto this month (disclosure: I show with Augen too). This current show is all about the egg, small and large pieces, layer upon layer of the oval. Some of the pieces are egg-shaped too. She'll be my guest this week on Art Focus.

Drape in August

Drape No. 1

Soon I will show a small body of work at Augen called Drape. It will be seven paintings, all 30 inch square, which will wrap around the corner of the back gallery.

Speer on Tempus Incognitus

Thanks to Richard Speer for the fabulous review in the Willamette Week, all well deserved for Brad Carlile at the Independent.

Andrea (Ray) Boyle and Sarah Farahat on KBOO

Listen to the interview here.

Tomorrow my guest on Art Focus is Andrea (Ray) Boyle, who curated Coffee with Cardamom at Place II at the Settlement in Pioneer Square. This show includes the solo exhibition Can You See Me Now? (Part One): Reflections on Palestine by Sarah Farahat, who will also be my guest. Coffee with Cardamom also includes the group Exhibit Mirrors: A Middle Eastern/ American Collaboration.

Tempus Incognitus

From the moment I saw Brad Carlile’s Tempus Incognitus online, I knew it was special. At the time I had no idea how it was made. Those concerns were not primary – I’ve always gone with my gut first. But the more I know about it, the more it makes sense that it would be made the slow way, just like slow food. Days and hours of light and time pour in to make a single image.

There are many reasons why great paintings are great. I always felt that an artist literally pours themselves into the work. Over time the sweat, the blood, the spirit, the DNA, it all gets transferred into the piece. You can actually feel this in great paintings – a spiritual and physical presence is there, it’s not our imagination. That’s why museums feel so good. They house a myriad of surfaces which are far from merely surface. You don’t even have to lay your eyes on something to know that from the moment you entered the space, everything changed.

These photographs register similarly. They are not just a matter of a moment with a shutter (not that there is anything wrong with that). Their drenched reality is reliant on the slow time, light, patience, mind and sweat of the artist.

Thanks to everyone for coming out these past few days. I'll be sitting there Friday through Sunday all this month.

Oregon Arts Watch

A shout-out and thank you to Lisa Radon, who wrote a nice bit about the Independent in the extremely new Oregon ArtsWatch. All art press is very welcome here! Oregon ArtsWatch is the brainchild of Barry Johnson (photo from the site, via our great show of photographs by Brad Carlile).

Brad Carlile at the Independent

The Independent is pleased to present photographs by Brad Carlile as our inaugural exhibition. Carlile was one of the winners of the 2009 Hearst 8x10 Photography Biennial, an international competition for emerging photographers. The Hearst Biennial judges Peter Lindbergh, Mary Ellen Mark, Steve McCurry, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, & John A. Bennette, III. chose 8 photographers from over 1,000 entries. Works from Carlile’s Tempus Incognitus series will be on view from July 7th through August 7th.

Empty hotel rooms from all over the world form the basis of these works, all shot in multiple exposures over time in slide film, with no post-exposure or digital manipulation. The rooms are electric with acidic color, yet spare and detached by virtue of their transient energy and occupation. The perimeters of space and time are blurred, giving a result both classic and contemporary. Gallery Hours: Friday through Sunday 12 – 6PM and by appointment.

the Independent

This is a great year. I had a wonderful time at reCover in New York and I hope I will be back. But all along I have been plotting out another adventure here in Portland.

More than once I've interviewed on Art Focus an enterprising curator or artist behind a pop-up. Every single time I was inspired and lusted after one of my own. Now is the time.

On July 7th the Independent will make its debut, presenting the award-winning photographs of Brad Carlile (more on him in the next post). The name is important for too many reasons to state - nonetheless I thank a few key people who really helped make this happen. I was there today in the sunshine of a day, sweeping floors and scheming.