Thunderbird and Sisiutl, 2012Bill Henderson (Kwakwa’kawakw Nation)red cedar and pigment22 x 58 x 6 inches
This month’s article was contributed by Cecily Quintana of Quintana Galleries.
As Quintana Galleries celebrates its 40th anniversary this month, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what I’ve learned over the years, both by watching my parents and through my own personal experience.
This month’s post was contributed by Laura Russo Gallery.
As preparations for our current summer group show at Laura Russo Gallery were underway in July, we were even more conscious than usual of the great pleasure that comes with working with artists who live and work relatively close by in Oregon and Washington.
One tangible benefit of the proximity of our represented artists, is the frequency with which they drop in and spend time at the gallery, and the relative ease with which they can all join us for events like a First Thursday opening, or for artists’ talks, which we routinely hold during solo exhibitions on the second Saturday after a show opens. For the group show, a majority of our artists were able to join us for a festive opening, and once more for a fun group photo.
This month’s post was contributed by Blackfish Gallery.
For seventeen summers, the Blackfish Gallery Recent Graduates show has presented the newly realized works of 25-30 artists fresh from Oregon’s 15 degree-granting arts programs. For each emerging artist, it is the culmination of years of difficult schooling, and the exciting and hopeful beginning of a life devoted to exploring visual tools for expression and communication.
Each year, graduate candidates are nominated for the show by faculty or Department Chairs from their home schools. Choices are based upon a student’s high standards of achievement, and success in, and commitment to, furthering and mastering their skills. The end result is an exhibition that celebrates the best of what Oregon arts programs are turning out. Each year’s participants are primed and ready to offer the visual arts scene new responses to creative challenge, exemplar skills in traditional media, provocative innovation, and work that demonstrates they are fully capable of pushing past the known, and into the realm of the imagined.
Gina Carrington, Director
To see how Portland’s Creative Advocacy Network (CAN) plans to promote funding for a healthy art community, please click here.
Join Butters Gallery, Ltd for a fantastic Summer and Fall filled with dynamic exhibitions!
July 5-28: Silvia Poloto
Cream and Coal #2, 2008
Painting mixed media on canvas
48 x 60 inch
Just after finishing up a huge solo exhibition at the Triton Museum in Santa Clara, CA, Brazilian-born Poloto began working on a fresh new body of work for her second Butters Gallery solo show. A group of very tall vertical panel works will be part of the amazing collection that is in the works for this exhibition, entitled Flowers Blossoming.
July also brings the introduction of the newest stunning glass works by Paul Cunningham, whose work was included in the recent exhibition King Street Concentric, curated by Benjamin Moore. His newest works are more monumental and the gallery will have examples from the two newest series: Modelli and Barca.
Filed under Butters Gallery, PADA Galleries, Resources for Buyers
This month’s post was contributed by 23 Sandy Gallery.
Venture out, learn about, and celebrate Portland’s citywide focus on photography!
Please join us to celebrate Portland Photo Month. Across the city art galleries and other arts venues and organizations will celebrate the art, history and practice of photography during the second annual Portland Photo Month. Throughout the month of April, join us for the many events that will dot our great city.
THEN. NOW. HERE. is a celebration of photography as a unique medium and tool that can help us explore and examine who, and where, we are. The premise is simple: folks from all across town answered a call for entries for photographs of Portland and its people, THEN or NOW. We invited a guest juror, Raymond Meeks, to curate a slideshow from these images. This slideshow will then be projected at various outdoor spaces in different quadrants of Portland as a public art event.
Confirmed dates/times for THEN.NOW.HERE. projections are listed below. All slideshows will run in a loop for at least one hour, beginning at sunset (roughly 8-9 pm)
Friday, April 6th: Newspace Center for Photography, 1632 SE 10th
Friday, April 20th: “The Meadow” at Beam and Anchor, 2710 N. Interstate Ave. (rain or shine)
Continuous projection will also run throughout the month in the window television at Blue Sky Gallery, 122 NW 8th.
More screenings to be added at the web site as they’re confirmed. Check event dates, times and locations on the Then.Now.Here website.
Filed under PADA Galleries, Photography, Uncategorized
Artists more than any other group of professionals are resourceful. They make the most of their living spaces and eat amazingly well on their often limited budgets. Surely the artist’s studio is a place of magic. This magic place is also the work space of putting one foot in front of the other, a place of not just imagination, but of labor. I remember going to Milton Wilson’s unheated live/work space and eating baked potatoes with salsa for lunch. As always, Milton arranged the table beautifully with great style and provided lively conversation. Yes, it was the “Romantic artist’s studio”, but at what price to the artist does this come? Most professional artists do not make enough money. They have the constant worry of not having enough money for rent, not having health insurance, delaying visits to the dentist, lack of materials with which to make their art, and so on.
Professional artists are just that. Their profession their livelihood is making art. Artists need to be paid for their time. When you buy a piece of art the price helps cover the artist’s expenses. These costs are often higher than the general public may realize: a tube of oil paint can be $30, a paint brush upwards of $50, a single sheet of paper is $10, professional photography of artwork is around $500, and studio rent ranges from $300-$1,500/mo. Then there are the hidden costs, the cost of education, making sure there is a flexible schedule that allows for meeting with collectors, curators, or even other artists. The largest hidden cost is time. Art takes a lot of time, to process and create. Artists need an abundance of time to contemplate and complete if they are to produce meaningful work.
Storm Tharp painting in his studio.
Megan Murphy in her studio.
This month’s post was contributed by Waterstone Gallery.
Waterstone Gallery is turning 20! That means twenty years of dedication to artmaking, twenty years of sharing our passion for art with the Portland community, twenty years of fostering that passion in the next generation of young artists at schools from kindergarten through university, and twenty years of combining the diverse visions of 16 individual artists into one harmonious whole.
Waterstone is proud to be a cooperative gallery owned and operated by its artist-members. In our society, too often people confuse the Art of Compromise with a lack of conviction or purpose. Nothing could be further from the truth. It takes a tremendous amount of conviction to work together towards a common goal. It also takes the skills of listening, talking clearly to articulate your point, and accepting the good faith of someone with an opposing point of view. The creativity needed to bring about consensus in a large group is every bit as powerful as the creativity it takes to bring a work of art into being. A group of people working together IS a work of art.
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This month’s post was contributed by Froelick Gallery.
One of the main objectives of the PADA galleries is to promote their represented artists for long-term success. There are several goals that these galleries pursue for their artists such as inclusion in prestigious public exhibitions and collections, published essays about the work, and a broad base of sales. Hometown support for an artist’s career is crucial, but to ensure vibrant, long-term success they must have patronage from other parts of the globe. Thus the agenda is to show our artists’ work to known art collectors, curators, writers, and the general public. The more eyes on the work – the better!
In an effort to connect with new audiences, we are always looking for opportunities to expand our reach in the most appropriate way. In 2010, walking around downtown, or reading business journals, it was hard not to notice the number of retail shops and restaurants “popping up” for short periods in vacant spaces from Portland to New York. Froelick Gallery invests heavily in promoting its artists work to curators around the country, but what if we had a “pop up” location in an entirely different city? It would have to be a place known to art collectors, where people could casually stroll in and see a strong selection of our artists work.
Filed under Froelick Gallery, PADA Out of Town
The PADA November blog features an article contributed by Augen Gallery.
“Art is never finished, only abandoned.” -Leonardo da Vinci
Sometimes it seems a frame is like a vise around an artwork, forcing it into a finished state with shapes and colors and textures foreign to it. But then again, sometimes a great frame can undeniably add to an artwork’s impact. A great frame can offer positives like boundaries, protection, and enhancement; it can act as a decorative bridge to the environment the artwork lives in. And sometimes most importantly, it can protect the artwork’s impact and value for decades to come. Making the best framing choices starts with an overview of the broad range of framing materials and styles, herewith, some thoughts on frames and framing. Be sure to consult a PADA member gallery with any specific framing questions or requests you may have.
Filed under Augen Gallery, PADA Galleries, Resources for Buyers
The PADA Blog 