The View from the Edge of the Universe

One Tree Comes Home, Another Leaves

Its been 25 years since I was last in Vancouver BC and my two days here were full of great Canadian photography.  The real purpose of the trip was to return "Tree Stump, Namaimo, BC" back to Roy Arden, the artist who created it 15 years ago.  Incidentally, Roy's new work will be featured in the spring issue of Blind Spot magazine.  I was a bit sentimental thinking about the artwork and its travels over the last 15 years before once again meeting its maker.  Although I didn't get a chance to meet Roy (schedule mix up) I did get a get a peek at a terrific Karin Bubas at Monte Clark Gallery.  On Sunday, Bryan and I took in "Acting the Part - Photography as Theatre" at the Vancouver Art Gallery.  The exhibition featured works from the nineteenth century to present and featured major pieces by contemporary artists Cindy Sherman, Jeff Wall, Bill Viola, Gregory Credwson (sell NOW), Rodney Graham, Scott McFarland and many others.  The catalog is a well-organized history of the use of the staged scene in photography.
Speaking of Rodney Graham, the gallery store has this excellent limited edition print (at right) by Graham available.  The piece priced at $475 CAN  (about $425 US) is in an edition of 500.  It is a stunning print and all you modernist photography lovers out there should take note of its formal beauty as well as its conceptual depth.  I bought one on the spot. Its the tree that's coming back to PDX with me. 

Now That's a Work of Art

MoCP's 2007 prints are here!

The Museum of Contemporary Photography has released their 2007 prints. There are new works by Ben Gest, Misty Keasler, Sarah Pickering (at left) and Mark Ruwedel.  At $300 per print, they are great choices for beginning collectors.
Another great deal comes from Gallery 51 in Antwerp.  This 1995 William Klein gelatin silver print is printed in an edition of 51 and priced at 500 Euros.

I Guess I'll Take the Former

Its been an interesting transition from collector to dealer in the art world.  Everyone has an opinion.  Two people have posited unique definitions of what an art dealer is.

While Quality Pictures' artist Elizabeth Huey was in Portland organizing Picture Ping Pong, she told me that to her art dealers are "just artists who work on a big scale"

And a dear friend of mine in Atlanta put it this way:
"You are now the whore."

Based on my two months experience, I think its a little of both!

Marc Joseph at Reed College

I made time last week to take in my first show at Reed College: New and Used, a series of photos of used record and book stores by noted photographer, Marc Joseph.  Joseph made a name for himself with an earlier series, American Pit Bull.  "New and Used" is described as "a chronicle, a reader, a memento and an archive."  This most likely applies as much to the book as the exhibit.
What was most striking to me was how opposite the experience of seeing the exhibit was as compared to my experience of browsing through these used-good shops.  Where the stores themselves are usually musty, dusty labyrinths of treasures and trash, Joseph's photos could be described as "hyper-realism" or "super-forensic".  The large-format richly-colored photos, usually shot head-on in dazzling detail, are void of any sense of nostalgia or history. Its as if a scientist had to come quantify and document these locales.  I do like the contrast of the images with my experience of being there, but I'm not sure that they warrant such an unforgiving examination.  It seems sort of like going in for a cat scan when you stub your toe...sometimes a kiss is better than surgery.

I Told You So....Many Times!

I discovered this little blurb in Artnet's article about the super booming art market:

"Technological advances -- notably the internet -- have made the art market more liquid and more efficient than ever before. Once focused largely to the U.S. and Europe, the art market has spread like wildfire into Latin America, China, India and the Middle East. The result is an art boom that -- dare we say it, even in folly? -- might never quit."

If you read my blog, this comment will sound awfully familiar.

Just watch, there will be an old-school art dealer or consultant who soon will admit that the private art club that they've been clinging to now has a much broader membership. 

Let Me Show You My Baby Pictures

A Quotable Quote from Chris Verene

Chris spoke at Evergreen State College last week as part of the Gallery's grand opening events.  During the lecture, Chris made one of the more memorable comments on photography that I've heard in quite a while:

"Cameras don't take great pictures; cameras take faulty pictures. Editing makes pictures great."

In a nutshell.....you have to kiss a lot of frogs....

Quality Pictures is Open for Business

Believe it or not, this is the first spare moment I've had to breathe and really enjoy the opening of Quality Pictures.  Opening day was insane! We had art coming in for the show as late as Wednesday night.  Of course, it needed to be framed by 4pm the next day.  Thursday morning found the electrician and the furniture maker still winding up their projects.  We got our electrical approval at 10am. The inspector who came to give us final approval showed up at 3 hours before we opened only to tell me that I was one EXIT sign short!  Luckily, he gave us final approval anyway, so we were ready to go!
I showed up late (only a few minutes) for my own grand opening.  I'll be late for my funeral too.  Just watch.
The opening gala was a great night.  The art was wonderful, Chris Verene was effervescent and the food (by my parter Bryan) almost stole the show it was so marvelous.  Sorry for gushing so much, but if I'm going to allow myself to gush on my blog, its going to be over opening night.
The crowds were steady and huge.  At least 2000 people came through to see what I had brought to Portland. I shook tons of hands and remembered no names (okay, I remembered a few names).
Our DJ, Solovox, played and spun a perfect vibe.  Incidentally, he was a childhood friend of Chris' wife Ani and totally freaked out when I pointed out Ani in many of Chris' photos.  After Solovox, Trashcan Joe closed the night with original and jazz standards filtered through Portland's hip, hippie aura.
I locked the doors at 11:30 and looked forward to my first desk job in 10 years.  Come by and see me!

47 Degrees and Partly Cloudy

That's the Portland weather forecast for December 7th, the day Quality Pictures opens! Our doors open to the public at 6pm.  We'll be ready. I hope you can make it!