The live auction starts at 7 pm at PNCA. Gallery artists and PNCA alumni Delaney Allen, Ty Ennis, and Elizabeth Malaska all have contributions. Tickets can be purchased HERE. The event benefits PNCA's scholarship fund.
CARSON ELLIS NOMINATED FOR A GRAMMY (FOR ALBUM ART)!!!
Congratulations to gallery artist Carson Ellis on her Grammy nomination. Our fingers are crossed for her tonight!
TY ENNIS AT WILLIAM H BOTHY IN LOS ANGELES
One of Ennis's three new paintings for the Bothy, LA, and his notes about the series.
Thanks to a Career Opportunity Grant from the Oregon Arts Commission, gallery artist Ty Ennis is off to Los Angeles for William H Bothy's inaugural exhibition, sub Jove Frigido featuring two other West Coast artists, Shaun O'Dell and Alessandro Pessoli. Join him on Saturday, February 13 in Highland Park for the reception (4 pm on).
NATIONALE IS CLOSED THIS THURSDAY FEBRUARY, 11
STUDIES / A GROUP SHOW OPENS THIS SATURDAY
For this exhibition, we've asked a group of artists to respond to the idea of a “study,” as either a single stage in a larger process, or as a continual meditation on a single subject, both being a place to test out ideas and experiment. The result is a diverse group of styles, perspectives, and ways of working.
Although every piece is representative of a small moment in a larger body of work within each artist’s practice, they are also objects and worlds unto themselves with their own formal and conceptual concerns. With their stops and starts, imperfections, ruminations, and empty spaces, these collages, sketches, and paintings are visual notes offering a rare and intimate view into the creative process.
Join us this Saturday, February 6 for the reception (3—6 pm). More info & bios HERE
DELANEY ALLEN / TY ENNIS / ELIZABETH MALASKA IN "SPANNING HISTORIES"
From left to right:
Elizabeth Malaska, MFA '11 / Venus Leo (After Rossetti)
Delaney Allen, MFA '10 / Recreating the Heavens in the Swimming Pool
Ty Ennis, BFA '03 / Pulp
Gallery artists and PNCA alumni Delaney Allen, Ty Ennis, and Elizabeth Malaska are all featured in Spanning Histories, PNCA's first ever Alumni Art Auction curated by Nan Curtis, Emily Ginsburg, Matthew Letzelter, Lennie Pitkin, Killeen Hanson, MK Guth, and Mack McFarland. Please join us all this Friday, January 29 at PNCA for the auction's free preview. For more information, visit the event's page.
DREAM SHELF
Just a few of the amazing books currently in stock...
Marcel Dzama: Behind Every Curtain ($22)
Sophie Calle: Detachment ($25)
Sophie Calle: Suite Vénitienne ($34.95)
Jessica Jackson Hutchins: Confessions ($45)
Louise Bourgeois: The Spider and the Tapestries ($40)
Dorothy Iannone: You Who Read Me With Passion Now Must Forever Be My Friends ($45)
Wolfgang Tillmans: The Cars ($30)
Wolfgang Tillmans: Abstract Pictures ($50)
Agnes Martin ($55)
Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia ($55)
Feelings: Soft Art ($35)
Mary Ellen Mark: Tiny, Streetwise Revisited ($50)
Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series ($50)
Brad Cloepfil / Allied Works Architecture: Case Work Studies in Form, Space & Construction ($19.95)
THE NEW LAPHAM'S QUARTERLY IS HERE
Now in the shop
SPIES!
Here are some of our favorite excerpts:
"To send a confidential note to Cyrus the Great along heavily guarded roads, sixth-century-BC Median noble Harpagus inserted a paper message into a dead hare’s belly and ordered a servant to pose as a hunter to deliver the corpse."
"Even a paranoid can have enemies." -Henry Kissinger, 1977
"Walter Kirke, British deputy head of military intelligence in France, noted in his diary in October 1915 that the chief (“C”) of the Secret Intelligence Service had come upon a solution for how to send secret messages: “Heard from C that the best invisible ink is semen,” Kirke wrote. The substance, it turned out, was hard to detect by the common revealing method of iodine vapor. The chief’s name: Mansfield Cumming."
Other back issues in stock (all $17): Fashion / Family / Swindle & Fraud / Foreigners / Sports & Games / The City / Arts & Letters / Celebrity / Intoxication / Food / Travel / Time / Animals / Death
DELANEY ALLEN IN "A PERSON IS A NOUN" IN MILWAUKEE, WI
Delaney Allen from the series, Painting a Portrait (2012)
Nationale is pleased to announce that Delaney Allen is included in the group exhibition, A Person Is a Noun opening this Friday evening at Dean Jensen Gallery in Milwaukee, WI. Like last year's inclusion in Through the Lens at Elizabeth Leach Gallery, here again Allen is in fantastic company with Natalie Krick of Seattle, Lisa Lindvay of Chicago, Tom Zust of Sydney, Australia, and Kyle Seis of Milwaukee. A selection of work from Sally Mann’s Family Pictures series will also be shown. Congratulations, Delaney!
RIKKI ROTHENBERG AT PAM IN LOS ANGELES, CA
We are excited to share with you the news of Rikki Rothenberg's LA debut this coming weekend. Please do not miss her performance and installation, Divinjnowshoe at PAM Residencies.
Using movement, an installation of glitter paintings, and poetic language, dancer Rikki Rothenberg performatively explores her understanding of the self as synchronistic, contradictory, and inherently meaningful.
Rikki Rothenberg is a visual & performance artist and a psychotherapist. Rothenberg earned her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2004 and her MA in Counseling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2015. In 2005 she co-founded the performance group Woolly Mammoth Comes to Dinner in Portland, OR, with Katie Arrants and Kathleen Keogh, which presented work at the Performática Festival in Mexico, Bumbershoot in Seattle, the Portland2010 Biennial (in collaboration with Oregon Painting Society), Pieter in LA and PICA's TBA festival. Rothenberg has shown her visual art work both in solo and group exhibitions in various Portland, OR, galleries, including New American Art Union and Nationale. Divinjnowshoe at PAM is her Los Angeles debut.
—
January 22nd and 23rd at 8:30pm
RSVP to info@pamresidencies.com
5-10$ suggested donation
PAM Residencies, 5810 1/2 North Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042 (free parking behind radio shack off ave. 58)
ELIZABETH MALASKA RECEIVES ARTIST FELLOWSHIP FROM THE OREGON ARTS COMMISSION
Elizabeth in her studio. Photograph by Gia Goodrich
Congratulations to Elizabeth Malaska on her recent award from the Oregon Arts Commission! Elizabeth, alongside 12 other amazing artists, was just awarded a 2016 Individual Artist Fellowship.
About the Fellowship:
The Arts Commission’s fellowship program is available to more than 20,000 artists who call Oregon home. Fellows are recommended by a review panel of arts professionals from Oregon and beyond who consider artists of outstanding talent, demonstrated ability and commitment to the creation of new work(s). This year visual and design arts were reviewed. The 2016 review panel included gallerist Amy Adams, artists MJ Anderson and Modou Dieng, curator Yaelle S. Amir and museum director Scott Malbaurn and was chaired by Arts Commissioner Christopher Acebo. Their recommendations were approved by the full Arts Commission.
The following visual artists were awarded 2016 fellowships:
Natalie Ball, Chiloquin (Joan Shipley Fellow)
Fernanda D’Agostino, Portland
Laurie Danial, Portland
Tannaz Farsi, Eugene
Julie Green, Corvallis
Laura Heit, Portland
Michael Hensley, Portland
Aaron Flint Jamison, Portland
Jim Lommasson, Portland
Elizabeth Malaska, Portland
Brenna Murphy, Portland
Ronna Neuenschwander, Portland
Blair Saxon-Hill, Portland
Read more about the program and the artists honored here.
"RELAXO PATIO" THIS SUNDAY (1—4PM)
Phone Porn, 2015, oil on air dry clay, 7 x 4.5"
Please join us this Sunday, January 10 (1—4pm) for the reception of Relaxo Patio, Lindsay Kennedy's third solo exhibition at Nationale. Inspired by the lush life of Miami Beach, Relaxo Patio with its pastels abstractions and luxurious floral textures, is a welcome visual respite from the icy, grey days of winter. The exhibit showcases Kennedy's diverse yet fully realized style, as it fluctuates between the grid-like "knit" paintings composed of hundreds of dabs of paint, alongside paintings of looser, textured brushstrokes.
THIS SUNDAY AT THE ART GYM: and from this distance one might never imagine that it is alive
Pat Boas, Three Triangles and Three Colors, Sumi ink on paper, 2015, Courtesy of Elizabeth Leach Gallery
Join us for the opening reception of and from this distance one might never imagine that it is alive at The Art Gym this Sunday, January 10 from 4-6pm. Represented artist Amy Bernstein has work in the show alongside a number of amazing artists. Amy will also be giving an artist talk with fellow-painter, Michelle Ross on February 24 at 11:30am. Press release below.
and from this distance one might never imagine that it is alive // January 12 - March 5, 2016
Opening Reception - Sunday, January 10, 4-6pm
Conversations on Painting -
Amy Bernstein and Michelle Ross - Wednesday, February 24, 11:30am
Pat Boas, Calvin Ross Carl, and Michael Lazarus- Tuesday, January 26, 3:30pm
Jack Featherly and Grant Hottle- Friday, February 12, 10:30am
Roomful of Teeth event in partnership with the Music Department - January 29, 7:30pm
The Art Gym at Marylhurst University will present and from this distance one might never imagine that it is alive from January 12 to March 5, 2016. This group exhibition will feature ten artists of the Pacific Northwest working with abstraction in painting. The artists included in the exhibition work in a broad range of formal and conceptual abstraction, and within a broad definition of painting.
and from this distance one might never imagine that it is alive, curated by Blake Shell, includes works by Amy Bernstein, Pat Boas, Calvin Ross Carl, Jack Featherly, Ron Graff, Robert Hardgrave, Grant Hottle, Michael Lazarus, Michelle Ross, and Amanda Wojick.
An opening reception will be held from 4-6 pm on January 10, 2016. The Art Gym will publish an accompanying catalogue, designed by Sibley House, that includes an introduction by Blake Shell and essays by art writers Graham W. Bell and Sue Taylor.
The Art Gym is supported by the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation, the Collins Foundation, the Oregon Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Art Gym’s publication fund is supported by the Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation and Linda Hutchins and John Montague.
This exhibition and publication are made possible in great part through the generosity of The Ford Family Foundation. Other individuals and businesses provided additional support.
INTERVIEW: JD BANKE
We recently caught up with Seattle-based artist, JD Banke about his current show at Nationale, THE MEANING OF LIFE IS LIVING.
Gabi Lewton-Leopold: THE MEANING OF LIFE IS LIVING, the title of your current show at Nationale, is a bold and seemingly simple affirmation that can be so difficult to heed in our daily lives. Can you talk a bit about what it means to you in relation to the work on view?
JD Banke: It's a play on words in regards to one of the still lifes in the show and the tradition of vanitas painting. I was imagining some Dutch master in some long ago time laboring for years on a masterpiece painting of fruit and a skull, and I thought it was funny that somebody would spend so much of their life making a painting about death. I try not to take art making so seriously and I thought the title should mirror the attitude of the paintings.
Feast for the Eyes #1, 2015, acrylic on wood, 22 x 14”
GLL: Your paintings remind us of how prevalent symbols are in our world, and how easily a simple sign can create a specific meaning. There are overt ones in your work like: logos, four leaf clover, playing cards, magic eight ball, and so forth. The symbols you use are often times also cliches or characters: Bart Simpson, Santa Claus, an abstract painting, or a human skull. There’s humor within your work partially because you use these familiar signs and mixing of “high” and “low” cultural references. Can you tell us about your interest in signs and symbols and how you view them within your work?
Feast for the Eyes #2, 2013, acrylic on wood, 38 x 48”
JDB: I'm interested in visual trends and what is cool on the Internet. I used to find joy in being a person who was using unique symbols; I found a small sense of individuality or something I could say was uniquely me. Then I came across work online that was doing similar things, and I lost that sense. I was oddly upset for awhile. I find myself thinking about originality and how it’s perceived and decided that I don't want to be original. I want to use cliche symbols and tropes to express my thoughts.
If I like a symbol visually, and can use its meaning in an odd way, I'll use it. I like the idea of having a weird visual alphabet to create with. Recently, I started including my own work into the symbol catalogue. In the Romeo and Juliet diptych they both have the word "yeah" painted on them with the colors inverted. Yeah was a painting I made in 2012, and it seemed appropriate for Romeo and Juliet to be saying that, so it’s in there.
Romeo, 2015, acrylic on wood, 16.75 x 14” & Juliet, 2015, acrylic on wood, 16.75 x 14” (right)
GLL: Speaking of text, I'm interested in your practice of painting text and then redacting the words, so only fragments or the shadow of what was there remains. What does this act of erasure mean to you?
JDB: For me redacting the text can mean one of two things, or both: compositionally, if the text wasn't working and needed some blocking out of the letters to look right, I'll cross stuff out and write it again. Or, I most likely spelled something wrong and Googled the word then wrote it in correctly.
I started having ideas about writing and so I started writing down those words, and that eventually turned into poetry. I like that slow cumulative process. If I don't feel like painting, it's nice to have another medium to play with. Sometimes the writing and painting overlap and it just clicks.
GLL: Although this work is clearly influenced by the still life tradition, they also have a very object-like presence, partly because they are panels that protrude five inches from the wall, and also due to your thick application of paint. This is in contrast to the traditional still life or vanitas painting which was intended to be a “window onto the world” rather than an object itself. Is there a conscious intent to subvert boundaries between mediums by creating "sculptural" paintings?
JDB: Yes, the thickness of the panel is intended to be a subversion and blur the line between painting and sculpture. I construct my own panels, and this gives the freedom to play with space the same way a sculptor or installation artist would, but it's still painting. It's fun. This show at Nationale is the first one where none of the paintings have been on the floor.
Sure, 2015, acrylic on wood, 12 x 8” & Untitled, 2015, acrylic on wood, 19.5 x 14”
GLL: You mentioned in the past that your paintings are partly about the obligation you have to being a part of the (art) world that you’ve chosen to participate in. Can you tell us more about what you mean by “obligation” and how it informs your practice?
JDB: I feel more obligated to be aware of the art world rather than to be an active participant in it. I make references to it often, and without my awareness of it my work doesn't have as much of a context. But I like the idea of making fun of the art world because so much of it feels like a dog and pony show soap opera, which I kind of love. I see it as this weird fantasy world that I could be a part of some day if I make good paintings.
GLL: Nationale currently has your painting, Dog Stroller in the backroom gallery from your series “Chairman of the Bored.” The series features a hooded, slightly mysterious character in a camo jacket shown in various public settings: park, shopping mall, museum, and so forth. As with all of your work, it seems to represent a revolt against our homogeneous, capitalist world. Who is this character you’ve created and what is he here to tell us?
Dog Stroller, 2015, acrylic on wood, 15 x 12"
JDB: The camo guy is this weird manifestation of myself. He does things that I have done, will do or have dreamed of doing. He's trying to tell people to get a grip and chill way out.
JD Banke: THE MEANING OF LIFE IS LIVING on view at Nationale through December 31, 2015
CONFESSIONS / JESSICA JACKSON HUTCHINS (now in stock)
Confessions was commissioned as part of Jessica's two-space exhibition of the same name at the lumber room and the Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College. It was made like a sculpture, layer by layer, over the months proceeding and during the exhibition. It is partially a documentary of the creation of these two shows, as well as a documentary of its own creation. It is a sheaf of hoarded collage materials. It is a zine, metastasized. It is the stuff in the room.
Designed by Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Gary Robbins, and Heather Watkins, Confessions was printed and bound at Container Corps.
216 pages / 144 x 206 mm / Edition of 450 / Printed offset in full color with various spot colors throughout, smyth sewn softbound in cloth / $ 45
CONGRATULATIONS EMILY, TY, AND ELIZABETH!
Congratulations to represented artists Emily Counts, Ty Ennis, and Elizabeth Malaska on their Project Grant awards for 2016 from RACC. This funding will make a significant difference for these full time working artists and/or young parents preparing for solo exhibitions this coming year.
Emily Counts / Solo Exhibition / Artistic Focus / Visual Arts ($3,609)
I am seeking funding to create a body of work for a solo exhibition at Carl & Sloan Contemporary in mid March through April 2016. This exhibition will consist of small and large-scale abstract sculptures in a variety of media including wood, concrete and bronze, with an emphasis on ceramics. The works will explore themes of connectivity and fluidity in biology, technology and culture. With these new sculptures I will expand my ongoing experimentation with sequenced, stacked and connected objects. My goal is to create for the viewer an environment that suggests a narrative format, within each sculpture and throughout the gallery space, without the use of representational forms. Wall mounted pieces in various sizes will surround a large central freestanding sculpture. It will be my tallest and most complex sculpture I have created to date, comprised of stacked individual objects that decrease dramatically in size as they rise in a 7-foot column. I believe this piece especially is necessary for my creative development and that it will be a powerful focal point for the entire exhibition.
Ty Ennis / Solo Exhibition / Artistic Focus / Visual Arts ($ 3,855)
For my March 2016 exhibition at Nationale, a gallery, shop, and performance space on Southeast Division Street in Portland, I will be working on my first solo show since becoming a father in 2013. The project currently consists of small black & white paintings on canvas that explore my present day-to-day life as an artist and young father with a full-time day job. Like most of my past work, they tell individual stories that are all part of a larger personal and reflective narrative. The final body of work presented will consist of 12 professionally framed acrylic paintings. The framing is key to my conceptual vision for the exhibition, as each frame will be sprayed a different color to match a certain detail in each painting. I will also produce a catalog in conjunction with the show that will include personal writings, reproductions of the work, and an essay by a commissioned writer. There will be a public reception at the gallery, an artist talk and conversation with the Assistant Director, and a private tour of the exhibition with a Q&A for students of PNCA (my alma mater).
Elizabeth Malaska / When We Dead Awaken II / Artistic Focus / Visual Arts ($ 4,612)
When We Dead Awaken II is an exhibition of paintings by myself, Elizabeth Malaska, to debut at Nationale in September of 2016. Nationale is a gallery, shop, and performance space located in southeast Portland. The show will consist of eight paintings on canvas: three large scale, two medium scale, three small scale.
The main themes of this body of work are a reexamination of the nude female body in the history of painting and a critique of the current global culture of patriarchal aggression. These issues are addressed in the work through subject matter, specific use of materials, and strategic employment of technique. I began this body of work in the winter of 2013. The first installment of seven paintings was presented at Nationale in November, 2014. In Winter, 2017 I will show the entire series (parts I and II) at PCC Sylvania Campus’ North View Gallery. The upcoming Nationale show will include a public reception. I will also host a gallery talk open to the community, and two lectures with student groups from OCAC and PNCA. All talks will take place in situ at Nationale.
OUR FAVORITE GIFT IDEAS...
Old Tiger necklaces with OLO fragrance
Kate Towers mega totes// Modern Women totes from LA based Sarah Gottesdiener
"REQUIRED READING": Men Explain Things to Me, Rebecca Solnit // Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates // Citizen, Claudia Rankine
Sword & Fern shadow hoops...
Henri Matisse and Frida Kahlo coloring books!
Myranda Gillies rings
Chestnut creme (jar and tube) and 5 year diary
St Eloy one of a kind hand-painted necklaces (image courtesy of St Eloy)
RECEPTION THIS SUNDAY FOR SEATTLE'S JD BANKE
So excited to offer Seattle's JD Banke his first Portland exhibition. Join us this Sunday afternoon (3–5pm) for the reception. It can be daunting to show in a new city without the support of one's community, so I hope you will help me in welcoming JD and showing him a good time.
LAST DAYS TO BID ON A CARSON ELLIS ORIGINAL
A rare opportunity to collect a Carson Ellis' original. Read more about Carson's donation to Mercy Corps below and place your bids until Monday morning on Ebay.
Hi friends,
A couple of weeks ago I made an illustration for this piece in the New York Times by Arthur C. Brooks about gratitude. It was in the paper the Sunday before last. Since then a lot of people have asked to buy a print of it and a few people have inquired about buying the original painting.
I'm very grateful this holiday season. For one, I feel profoundly lucky to be able to make a living as an artist. It's not a thing I ever expected to be able to swing and I don't take it lightly. So thanks very much to those of you interested in what I'm up to creatively. But even more acute is my gratitude for the health and happiness of my family. I think about this a lot. I try my best not to take it for granted. Which is why my heart aches so much for those who don't have what we have: food, shelter, safety.
Anyway, I am planning to make some prints of this painting. I'm pretty sure they'll be available in time for the holidays. Stay tuned. But! I'm also going to auction off the original painting and donate 100% of the proceeds to Mercy Corps, an organization that works to help people in need and to save lives every day. So, if you love this painting or if you want to help or ideally BOTH, you can bid on it HERE.
3|3|3: TODD JOHNSON | ELIZABETH MALASKA | STEPHEN SLAPPE
Image: Detail of a debut installation by Stephen Slappe, 2015. OUR PEACE is a 4-channel immersive video environment created from documentary footage captured in Portland, Oregon.
Nationale is pleased to announce that represented artist Elizabeth Malaska is included in 3|3|3, an exhibition curated by Cris Moss at White Box. Please join us this First Thursday, December 3, for the reception.
3|3|3
Todd Johnson | Elizabeth Malaska | Stephen Slappe
December 1 – December 19, 2015
First Thursday Opening Reception, 6:00p.m. – 8:00p.m.
White Box is pleased to present 3|3|3. This exhibition features painting, video, and photography by Todd Johnson, Elizabeth Malaska, and Stephen Slappe. Each artists’ work occupies one of the three galleries in the White Box. The exhibition runs for three weeks.
Todd Johnson is an experimental and conceptual photographer living and working in Portland, Oregon. His photographic work uses abstract metaphor, social critique, dark humor and personal narrative. Johnson received his MFA in photography from the San Francisco Art Institute. Todd is the founder and director of Black Box Gallery. Recent solo exhibitions include: The Misadventures of Ansel Adams: Garage Sales, Geotracking and General Tomfoolery at The Art Gym at Marylhurst University; Dangerous Territory at Pacific Northwest College of Art; and Malt Liquor and Cold Cuts at False Front Gallery.
Elizabeth Malaska’s paintings, with their dramatic juxtaposition of subject, material, and technique dispel normative readings, while also warning against the impending apocalypse of global complacency. Coupled with the artificiality of her statuesque female figures and geometric settings, they transition from everyday narratives into urgent allegories. Malaska earned her MFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Her work has been exhibited nationally at various institutions including Portland’s Nationale, Froelick Gallery, Disjecta, Portland Center Stage, and San Francisco’s California College of the Arts, where she also received her BFA. She was named a finalist for The Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant and the Fine Arts Work Center fellowship in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Malaska is a recent recipient of the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund’s Money for Women Grant. Malaska lives and works in Portland, Oregon, where she is represented by Nationale.
Stephen Slappe, an artist based in Portland, Oregon. Utilizing video and subversive installations, Slappe creates work that critiques technology and society’s inherent reliance on it. Viewers become immersed in environments where the parallel lines of reality and perceived social media become blurred. Slappe’s work has exhibited and screened internationally in venues such as Centre Pompidou-Metz, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s TBA Festival, The Horse Hospital (London), The Sarai Media Lab (New Delhi), Consolidated Works (Seattle), Centre for Contemporary Art (Glasgow), and Artists Television Access (San Francisco). His projects have been funded by multiple grants from the Regional Arts and Culture Council of Portland and an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission. Slappe actively organizes video and film exhibitions including Subduction Zone at The Front (New Orleans) and Out of the Great Northwest at The Horse Hospital (London). His most recent project is an iOS app, titled 8, available on iTunes.