BFA Thesis Exhibition
May 28 - June 21, 2009

The 2009 Bachelor of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition presents work by seven BFA candidates: Sanna-Lisa Gesang-Gottowt, Sean Hollenhors, Rochelle Kulei, Miriam Meacham, Grace Merritt, Camille Mongeon and Helen White. The exhibition includes sculpture, drawing, painting and mixed media works.

Image: Miriam Meacham, Ruffled Feathers, 2008. Ink on paper, 11 x 14 inches.

Slideshow image: Sanna-Lisa Gesang-Gottowt, Mindset Expand, 2009. Acrylic on canvas and board, cardboard, wood, photographs mounted on foam core, plastic grid, 84 x 102 x 31 inches.

Call + Response
June 18-October 31, 2009

This exhibition draws on the musical concept of "call and response," pairing pairing eight art and art history faculty members from Oregon colleges and universities to engage in dynamic conversation. Through multimedia content, contextual writing, the presentation of diverse studio works and public programs, this intriguing project considers what role these individuals, and their institutions, play within the state's shifting creative landscape.

Image: Karl Burkheimer, Five Fourths, 2008; Courtesy of the artist

Slideshow image: Josh Faught, no fats or femmes, please, 2009; Courtesy of Lisa Cooley Fine Art and the artist

BENT
New work by Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Peter Kreider and Donald Morgan
July 2-August 23, 2009
Opening reception on Thursday, July 2 from 4:00-7:00PM

In its 102nd year, OCAC moves forward with its vision for the future: to become the principal center for the invention of modern craft. The artists featured in BENT were chosen with this vision in mind; their contemporary art practices embody new genres and directions in craft. The enigmatic physicality of each artwork, their relationships to the human body, and the artist’s use and response to everyday mundane objects all become strong ties within the exhibition. BENT is curated by OCAC alumni Jeanine Jablonski, owner and director of Fourteen30 Contemporary, a commercial gallery in Portland, Oregon.

Portland Art Dealers Association (PADA) includes the state's foremost contemporary art galleries committed to the highest standards of representation. One will find the region's leading artists exhibited alongside renowned national and international artists. PADA hosts city-wide public receptions on the first Thursday evening of every month.

Members are Augen Gallery, Beppu Wiarda Gallery, Blackfish Gallery, Bullseye Gallery, Butters Gallery Ltd, Froelick Gallery, Charles A. Hartman Fine Art, Elizabeth Leach Gallery, New American Art Union, PDX Contemporary Art, Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery, Quintana Galleries, Laura Russo Gallery, and Mark Woolley Gallery.

Image: Butters Gallery; Rudy Autio, "Figure Vessel", 1978, ceramic, 28 inches tall

Virtual Worlds: M.C. Escher and Paradox
June 6, 2008 - September 13, 2009

The popular, puzzling, and mysterious works of M.C. Escher will be on view at the Portland Art Museum this summer in the exhibition Virtual Worlds: M.C. Escher and Paradox. Comprised of some 90 objects, many never before presented in Portland, the exhibition will include several of Escher’s most iconic prints—including a version of the 20-foot-long tour-de-force Metamorphosis III. This color woodcut, printed from some 30 woodblocks on nine sheets of paper, is an example of Escher’s famously morphing forms and figures, including a flock of birds that turns into a school of fish, which then becomes a fleet of ships.

Image: M.C. Escher, Snakes, 1969, Color woodcut, printed from three blocks, Private Collection, M.C. Escher’s "Snakes" © 2009 The M.C. Escher Company-Holland. All rights reserved. www.mcescher.com

Slideshow image: M.C. Escher, Day and Night, 1938, Color woodcut, printed from two blocks, Private Collection, M.C. Escher’s "Day and Night" © 2009 The M.C. Escher Company-Holland. All rights reserved. www.mcescher.com

PICA Presents The 2009 Time-Based Art Festival
Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s annual convergence of contemporary performance, dance, music, new media and visual arts projects in Portland, Oregon. Now in its seventh year, the Time-Based Art (TBA) Festival is presented from September 3-13, 2009 with visual art installations running until October 1. Examining and celebrating every form of contemporary art, TBA:09 is the only festival of its kind in North America.

Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA)
PICA is about the activity generated by a community using its energy. Since 1995, we have been committed to presenting diverse works by artists in various disciplines from all over the world. PICA develops exhibitions and residencies, stimulates conversation, commissions new work and encourages the simmering of new ideas.

The Black Market Type & Print Shop
May 7 - June 27

The Black Market Type & Print Shop starts with a collection of 30 type-fonts extracted from the artwork of well-known of artists. Scanned and converted into working computer fonts, these letter forms are available for use by visitors to the exhibition via a free print shop. To take advantage of the free printing services, visitors are obliged to use the types in at least part of their design.

Utilizing the Black Market Type, a group of 15 artists have been invited to make a text-only poster, to be posted in the public areas surrounding the gallery. In the gallery these posters serve to incite the imagination of the visitor, offering possible formats and outcomes for their own ideas to take shape in the print shop.

China Urban
April 7 - June 7, 2009

The Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery is proud to present China Urban, a multimedia exhibition of contemporary Chinese art exploring the historical and contemporary Chinese city—as representation, model, catalyst, and socio-political construct. The artists in China Urban are each uniquely notable for the manner in which their work explores the conflicts, tensions and symbolic shifts underlying the creation of a "new" China, one dependent upon the initial and irrevocable reconfiguration—and often destruction—of China's architectural and cultural traditions. Using a wide range of media, the artists in China Urban address the constant flux and transient nature of the new Chinese city, examining the city as a complex of both real and imaginary spaces.

China Urban is curated and produced by the China Urban Collective, a collaborative organ initiated by Reed College Assistant Professor of Art Lisa Claypool and Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery Director Stephanie Snyder, and including the students of Claypool's Art in Contemporary China course (currently underway at Reed College) and curatorial research assistant Molly Dilworth (NYC).