Digital surrealism, Native American iconography and the blindness of the heart were the inspirations for our three new art exhibitions opening on First Friday, alongside the continuation of our Brazilian guest artist’s installation.
EVENT INFORMATION
Date: Friday, October 5th, 6-10 p.m.
Venue: Milepost 5 (850 NE 81st Avenue). Street parking only.
Cost: Free of charge
On the Web: Website, Facebook, Twitter
Schedule of Events:
6-10 pm: Galleries open
7 pm: Raven on 82nd Avenue, a cycle of poems accompanied by soundscape honoring the Montavilla neighborhood and its broad diversity, presented by Milepost 5 poets Patricia McLean and Duane Poncy, along with an interactive ekphrastic (poem about visual art) inspired by the current art exhibition (Lofts Gallery)
8 pm: Jen Anderson, classical/jazz musician (Lofts Gallery); Raven on 82nd Avenue (Denizen Gallery)
Opening in The Lofts
Selective Blindness
Paintings by Loren Nosan
Opening Reception: First Friday (October 5th, 6 – 10pm)
Show runs: October 5th – December 1st
Gallery Hours: By Appointment
Loren Nosan was born in Michigan and currently living in Portland, OR. Her work is often concerned with shedding light on the hidden, the mundane, and the overlooked.
“The inherent subjectivity of experience and memory, and the tendency (or ability) to see a moment in time from multiple perspectives can lead to synthesis or entropy. Clarity or completeness of understanding is something we claim to strive for, but we often spend more energy deluding ourselves than seeing clearly. We lie to ourselves, shaping our perception so that it conforms to our conscious or subconscious aims. In shaping our experience of a given moment, we alter the picture to suit our vision. In this series, I examine some critical moments in my life during which I chose not to look at certain details, and thus, chose not to see clearly. I refer to this experience as ‘selective blindness,’ because of the willfulness and hidden intent behind the choices I was making to remain in the dark with regard to certain decisions and facets in my life. I have always been fascinated by the relationship between time and space, past and present. Looking back at these moments through paint allows me to capture the mysterious wished‐for simultaneity of moments separated only by time. In these paintings, past and present exist and commingle. Immediacy and hindsight operate in tandem. Painting itself is a metaphor for shaping experience. Areas of the composition are blotted out, obscured, painted and repainted. Layering, laboring, and repeating—all the while avoiding choice by allowing the object of my fascination and obsession to be something I never could control—is significant and necessary in this context. Details blend together and reality merges into abstraction. The paint is a lie, and the painted surface is a beautiful façade, intricately constructed out of chaos.”
Opening in Denizen Gallery
Stealing the Sun
Prints by Kyr Westwind
Opening Reception: First Friday (October 5th, 6 – 10pm)
Show runs: October 5th – 27th
Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, Noon – 6pm
Kyr Westwind grew up in the Pacific Northwest and pursued a degree in Art Therapy before becoming a full time artist. Her work draws on her experience as a mother, spiritual seeker, and passionate environmentalist. Her images are deliberately primitive and primal evoking archetypes and visual metaphors, each one a piece of a larger narrative.
Artist Statement:
“This show was inspired by a reading of the First Nation story ‘Raven Steals the Sun.’ On its surface, this is a wonderful tale of light being brought to a people living in darkness; it also struck me, however, as a rich and layered narrative that speaks to how blessings can have dark underbellies, and the price paid – sometimes unseen by others – for our happy endings. ‘Stealing The Sun’ features recent lino-cut and silkscreen prints reflecting on my own experiences with such blessings, costs, and living with the consequences.”
Opening in Annex Gallery
Unexpected Images
Digital Art by Keith Dillon & Gene Newell
Opening Reception: First Friday (October 5th, 6 – 10pm)
Show runs: October 5th – 27th
Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, Noon – 6pm
Keith Dillon:
Milepost 5 resident Keith Dillon has 30 years’ experience in the world of photography in arenas ranging from advertising to photojournalism to editorial work. He adopted digital photography and Photoshop as his medium 17 years ago. His commercial work has been featured in such publications as Interview Magazine and Town & Country. In addition to Milepost 5, his art has been exhibited by the Atlantic City Art Museum, Talisman Gallery (Portland), and The California Museum of Photography, and is in the permanent collection of the Noyes Museum of Art (New Jersey) and the Los Angeles Center For Digital Art. Recent career highlights include: Art takes Over Times Square 2012; Photographer’s FORUM magazine (2012 Photo of the Year); and the 2012 International Photography Award (Honorable Mention).
“The word ‘unexpected’ suggests ‘coming without warning,’ ‘unlikely to happen.’ With the use of this digital medium, one can create what I call, ‘Super Surreal Art’ . . . This show will let you, the public, see these images on the wall, and give you the chance to explore this look into a different way on seeing the world, and maybe challenge what you think is real, and not real. This is Art that Makes You Think, and thinking itself is entertaining, and a learning experience.”
Gene Newell:
Artist Gene Newell moved to Portland in 2001, after 30 years of taking photos in a variety of of careers all over the small towns of America, ranging from helicopter mechanic to restaurant owner to finish carpentry.
“For some strange reason, many people seem to think that somehow film and chemical prints are superior. I am proud to say all of my images are ‘Photoshopped.’ Some are scans from negatives, some are the dreaded ‘digital,’ and some are composites of several things. Photoshop is my highly sophisticated darkroom. I ‘develop’ my files and essentially ‘dodge and burn’ just like every photographer has done since the first image came out of the primordial soup. The main difference in the process is that I do it with pixels and the others did it with chemicals. It is our familiarity and skill with the process that lets us make an image for others to see. In the end, it is the image that represents my vision – not the process.”
Still Running In Gallery 5
Drawing To No End
Art Exhibition by Bruno Cançado
Curated by Júlio Martins
Sponsored by the Brazilian Ministry of Culture
Opening Receptions: First Fridays (September 7th & October 5th, 6 – 10pm)
Show runs: September 7th – October 27th
Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, Noon – 6pm
More Info At: www.brunocancado.com
Bruno Cançado is a Brazilian artist who lives and works in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. A graduate in Communication Studies, in 2010 he received his B.F.A with emphasis in sculpture and drawing from Escola Guignard/Universidade do Estado de Minas-Gerais (The Guignard University of Art of Minas Gerais) in Belo Horizonte. Since 2008 he has exhibited in galleries around Brazil. In July 2011 he was an artist-in-residence at the I-Park Artists’ Colony in East Haddam, Connecticut. His work is held in the collection of MAC-Niterói (Museum of Contemporary Art of Niterói) in Rio de Janeiro.
Artist Statement:
“Architecture and space, the ideas of ‘in’ and ‘out’, belonging and misplacement, are recurring concepts in my work. I am interested in the physicality of things and how matter can convey a poetic message. I try with my choice of materials to work with their physical constitution but am always aware of their uses in society and symbolic meanings. Experience is also a fundamental aspect in my research. The hands-on process of elaborating a work brings unexpected possibilities. I like the idea of letting a work have a life of its own acquiring meanings that go beyond my first intentions.”
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First Friday at Milepost 5 is sponsored by KZME Radio.
