TRUST: PNCA Alumni Exhibition 2012 Published by the Office of Communications at Pacific Northwest College of Art Essay by Victor Maldonado Art Direction and Project Management: Isaac B Watson Graphic Design: James Hill ‛11 Copy Editor: Lisa Radon Typography: This catalog is set in Linden Hill Regular & Italic and Gotham HTF Book, Book Italic, Light & Black Printed by Lithtex Printing Solutions in Hillsboro, Oregon Š 2012 Pacific Northwest College of Art Individual copyright to the works published in this catalog are held by the respective artists; images attributed individually in captions. All rights reserved ISBN: 978-0-9844562-4-4
1241 Northwest Johnson Street Portland, Oregon 97209 pnca.edu
PNCA as a Creative Trust INTRODUCTION BY TOM MANLEY, PRESIDENT, PACIFIC NORTHWEST COLLEGE OF ART
I
am often asked what our students do after they graduate from PNCA, and I like to reply: “Our alumni practice creativity.” I then wait as those words are absorbed before providing any number of examples of how the studio arts education we offer has been put to work, so to speak, over so many years and across so many fields. And make no mistake, the practice of creativity involves work and a lifelong commitment to developing mastery. The works on display in TRUST: PNCA Alumni Exhibition 2012 are a testament to this dedication to creative work formed around a strong studio arts education. PNCA has long served as a platform for the practiced work of creativity. From its founding over a century ago by Anna B. Crocker to the remarkable trajectory of growth and achievement of the past decade, the College has been the leading source for innovation and arts-based learning in the Northwest. We are proud of our record, and we are particularly proud of our alumni, who are the greatest exemplars and ambassadors of PNCA’s mission to prepare for a life of creative practice. We believe their aggregated work adds to the world’s Creative Trust. And why is the practice of creativity and the development of a Creative Trust important? Because in our view, there is no more powerful or sustainable resource at hand than the ideas and ingenuity human imagination unleashes and no more effective way of generating those resources than through the disciplined practice of creativity. It is a formula for transformative problem solving that so often eludes us. What makes the College’s increasing enrollment, expanding faculty and academic programs— five new graduate and three new undergraduate programs since 2007—and its developing North Park Block Campus so exciting is the strength that it adds to PNCA’s educational platform and its potential to further support the powerful practice of creativity. Nowhere is that strengthened base going to be more evident than in the renovated old post office building now destined to become the College’s gateway facility as the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design. With a most generous $5 million lead gift from alumna Arlene Schnitzer and the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Care Foundation, the Creativity Works Here campaign is off to a roaring start.
[figure 1]
Landscape Painting in the Expanded Field (performance still) Samuel Rowlett '02 Archival digital print 2012 19" x 13" Courtesy of the artist
Among the multiple generations of PNCA alumni whose work we see in TRUST—beautifully curated by PNCA faculty member Victor Maldonado—are studio artists, educators, designers, entrepreneurs, cultural leaders, filmmakers, and writers. We are proud of all our alumni and honored to host this exhibition showcasing some of the best of what can be made of a life of creative practice. Tom Manley
TRUST: PNCA ALUMNI EXHIBITION 2012
VICTOR MALDONADO, EXHIBITION CURATOR
[figure 2, previous]
Sunshine Route Lucinda Parker '66 Acrylic on canvas 2012 67" x 97" Courtesy of the artist and Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR Photo by James Lommasson
[figure 3, above]
A Quiet Time at the Pool Side George Johanson '50 Oil and acrylic on canvas 2012 48" x 72" Courtesy of the artist and Augen Gallery, Portland, OR Photo by Aaron Johnson
T
rust is the bedrock of a creative practice. Possessing a confidence in skill and an informed perspective can be the difference between overcoming and succumbing to adversity. When students attend PNCA, they expect to be taught the fundamentals of art and to be prepared and challenged through example and experiment by the many faculty members who will mentor them along their academic path. In turn, PNCA trusts that our alumni will continue their creative practices and continue to engage their communities in ways that both honor and help shape the “public trust” and bring value and perspective to life. I chose TRUST as the title for this exhibition because its multiple meanings touch on all that this alumni exhibition represents for PNCA. I was asked by PNCA to curate a juried exhibition that would celebrate our alumni’s commitment to creative practice. With the exception of 15 graduates whose work had been formally acknowledged by the College in the past five years, all the selections were made by a jury of esteemed members of Portland’s creative community including: Randy Gragg, Editor, Portland Monthly; Namita Gupta Wiggers, Director and Chief Curator, Museum of Contemporary Craft; Sarah Miller Meigs, Founder, lumber room; Deanne Rubinstein, Member, OHSU Art Committee of the Marquam Hill Steering Committee; and Stephanie Snyder, John and Anne Hauberg Curator and Director, The Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College. Working with this accomplished group of critics, collectors, and curators was an exceptional privilege. Out of the 186 alumni who submitted work to be considered for this exhibition, 45 were selected by invitation and by jury for the quality and merit of their work and for an ongoing commitment to a life of creative practice. The outpouring of entries received by the jury embodies the trust that our alumni continue to invest in us, and I thank all those who submitted work. It is my hope that the exhibition rises to the task of celebrating the creative excellence that makes PNCA a school of influence locally, nationally, and internationally. Exemplifying a life of creative practice are alumni such as Lucinda Parker and George Johanson who each contributed paintings that continue to develop their signature styles, blending and breaking familiar forms of the land and those who inhabit it.
[figure 4]
Wood Dragon Carl Annala '87 Pastel on paper 2012 18" x 24" Courtesy of the artist
Parker’s Sunshine Route [figure 2] presents a familiar and perilous mountaintop emblazoned by storm clouds like some kind of supernatural graffiti. Built up and arrived at through the phenomenology of her viscous and layered earth-toned color palette, Parker’s perspective is fixed on a monumental and moving landscape, cold and unforgiving. Abiding and adapting without fear seem the rules in Parker’s canvas.
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10 [figure 6]
Mount Hood View Sherrie Wolf '84 Oil on linen 2012 60" x 90" Courtesy of the artist and Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR Photo by Peter Lovely
Within A Quiet Time at the Poolside [fig. 3], Johanson deploys figures evoking allegorical compositions depicting a society mad with repose and entertainment. Unlike early PostImpressionist compositions like George Seurat’s pointillist masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, where Seurat makes much work of color theory and a bucolic gentry, Johanson’s canvas questions our values through his use of transparent folk and anonymous figures set into foggy schemes of surreal joy and folly. Unpacking the hidden meaning of a celebrity culture is what sets Michael Curry’s kinetic and multimedia sculpture, Sammy [fig. 48], into motion. Curry grew up enraptured by Sammy Davis, Jr. as a gifted showman. When working on a commission for Radio City Music Hall in New York about the Rat Pack, Curry discovered a fraught individual shaped by an entertainment industry who demanded single dimension personas built of glamour and the spotlight devoid of the turmoil and anxiety inherent in human lives. With its 3.5-minute loop sampling soundtrack of much performed and covered “Mr. Bojangles,” Curry’s celebrity portrait rings with the same intensity but serves as an updated version of Andy Warhol’s portraits of icons such as Marilyn Monroe. Distant and invisible cultural forces reach a picturesque but violent catharsis in Rebecca Campbell’s photo-sourced depiction of explosive annihilation, Boom 5 [fig. 5], and in the impossible resolution of Sherrie Wolf’s tromp-l’œil painting Mount Hood View [fig. 6]. Both paintings painstakingly and playfully disclose influence acting as measure of the limits of bearing witness and vision itself. Campbell presents the ultimate image created by total war, a mushroom cloud rising in the distance, emanating unstoppable power and awesome beauty. For Campbell and Wolf, painting as a medium can offer the viewer an opportunity to stare into breathtaking and sublime vistas each designed in their respective signature styles of Expressionism and Surrealism. The landscape continues to hold the attention of Gabriel Liston, whose Oh My Captain Do Not Go [fig. 7] relays a grey and soggy beach-side wreck indicative of a land soaked in rain and shaped by the forces of nature. Echoing this is Carl Annala’s pastel on paper thicket, Wood Dragon [fig. 4].
[figure 5, left]
Boom 5 Rebecca Campbell '94 Oil on canvas 2011 48" x 29" Courtesy of the artist and L.A. Louver, Venice, CA
Taking the landscape to abstracted ends is Ruth Lantz’s painting, Grass Is Always Greener [fig. 8], where tectonic forces seem to shift and slide once-static “sides,” depicting a subtle ferocity. Extending that unruliness and slippage is Jessalyn Haggenjos’ enamel and acrylic painting, Glacier Edge [fig. 9], which suspends mountain peaks in mid-air with dangling inner workings. In Tamara English’s Spring Giddiness [fig. 10], stylized flowers emerge from winter’s inevitable end, enmeshed in pattern and symbolism.
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[figure 9]
Glacier Edge
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Jessalyn Haggenjos '01 Enamel and acrylic on panel 2012 16" x 16" x 2" Courtesy of the artist
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[figure 7]
Oh My Captain Do Not Go Gabriel Liston '98 Oil on panel 2012 36" x 48" Courtesy of the artist and Froelick Gallery, Portland, OR Photo by James Lomasson
[figure 8]
[figure 10]
Grass is Always Greener
Spring Giddiness
Ruth Lantz, MFA Visual Studies '10 Acrylic on panel 2011 20" x 20" Courtesy of the artist Photo by Dan Kvitka
Tamara English '04 Oil on canvas 2012 36" x 36" Courtesy of the artist Photo by Bill Bachhuber
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[figure 12]
Dylan Thomas Allison Bruns '07 Pen and ink on paper 2011 14" x 11" Courtesy of the artist
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15 Though most of the pieces in the exhibition are paintings, the show comprises a range of works that reconsider traditional concerns of form and process. Helen Liu’s Calligraphy Practice [fig. 13], Rainbow Ross’ Daily Lino Project: Korea [fig. 15], and Pat Boas’ The Letter n from Abstraction Machine (poison) [fig. 11], employ conceptually driven practices that employ conventional forms of art to surprising ends. For Boas, sight is the product of visual riddles. She paints a banal aerial view of a traffic circle, casting suspicion into her process and inquiry through a fantastically de-contextualized artifact necessitating more than just a passive gaze. Whether formal or conceptual, rules reign supreme in these works, and each is derived from a patient hand. United by a commitment to narrative and storytelling are works such as Julie Orser’s masterfully edited bar room brawl video, Bottleneck [fig. 16], with its technology-driven recombinant endings, Fritz Liedtke’s impeccable photogravure, April [fig. 17], and Allison Bruns’ humorous pen and ink drawing, Dylan Thomas [fig. 12]. Eric Stotik’s Untitled LR19 [fig. 46] pushes portraiture with a sitter who seems to have been marred or disfigured by a world beyond the picture plane. A respect for craft also brings together a selection of works including those by Marchi Wierson’s textile sculptures Bracelet 612 v1 and Bracelet 612 v2 [figs. 18, 19], Anne Crumpacker’s circle-centric wall work Enso– 4 [fig. 20], Jason Lee Starin’s Column Passage [fig. 25], and Yothin Amnuayphol’s elegant ceramic sculpture, Grinder [fig. 22]. Anne Haley’s Old Presses, and New II [fig. 21] marries careful printing and playful stacking of objects under pressure. By appropriating the symbolic support of painting, performance artist Samuel Rowlett’s Landscape Painting in the Expanded Field [fig. 1] documents an intrepid plein-air artist observing nature beyond the confines and safety of the studio, facing and examining the path that lay ahead. Rowlett’s stretched canvas plays the role of backpack in his uncertain expedition to find the privileged perspective he seeks.
[figure 11]
The Letter n from Abstraction Machine (poison) Pat Boas '98 Gouache on paper 2012 12" x 9" Courtesy of the artist Photo by Simon Boas
Delaney Allen uses his medium effectively to make problematic the clear distinctions between painting and photography. As in Boas’ practice, Allen’s photograph, Self Portrait No. 4 (From Painting a Portrait) [fig. 47], is the product of a multidisciplinary approach building on the vicissitudes of once autonomous media and processes. Though a self-portrait like Rowlett’s work, Allen’s documents a longer process and ongoing inquiry whose developing thesis complicates the acceptable and estranges the familiar.
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[figure 15]
Daily Lino Project: Korea Rainbow Ross '09 Linocuts on paper 11/2010–11/2011 Dimensions vary Courtesy of the artist and Rainboweliza Studios, Marietta, PA [figure 13]
Calligraphy Practice Helen Liu '84 Chinese ink on rice papers, collaged on matte board 2012 48" x 60" Courtesy of the artist Photo by Matthew Miller '11
[figure 16, next]
Bottleneck Julie Orser '99 HD Video, Mac mini 2011 Length: 3:26 Courtesy of the artist
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[figure 18]
[figure 19]
Bracelet 612 v1
Bracelet 612 v2
Marchi Wierson '89 Wool, cotton, found fishing rope and hemp 2012 9" x 7 1/2" x 6 1/2" Courtesy of the artist
Marchi Wierson '89 Wool, cotton, and hemp 2012 7" x 6" x 5" Courtesy of the artist
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21
[figure 20] –
[figure 17]
April Fritz Liedtke '02 Photogravure 2011 16" x 20" Courtesy of the artist
Enso 4
Anne Crumpacker, MFA Applied Craft and Design '11 Crosscut bamboo, waxed linen thread 2012 39 1/2" x 39 1/2" x 1/2" Courtesy of the artist Photo by Bill Bachhuber
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[figure 21]
Old Presses, and New II
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Anne Haley '10 Multi print media 2011 12 3/4" x 9 3/4" Courtesy of the artist
TRUST: PNCA ALUMNI EXHIBITION 2012
[figure 23]
[figure 24]
Poor Marge
Untitled
Alex Felton '05 Digital print on canvas 2011 20" x 24" x 3/4" Courtesy of the artist and Ditch Projects, Springfield, OR
[figure 25] [figure 22]
Grinder Yothin Amnuayphol '88 Ceramic, gold leaf, low-fire glaze 2012 9" x 12" x 12" Courtesy of the artist
Column Passage Jason Lee Starin, MFA Applied Craft and Design '11 Hand-built, stoneware clay, cone 6 glaze, underglaze 2011 18" x 18" x 32" Courtesy of the artist
Alex Felton '05 Garbage bag, gesso, lamp 2011 Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist Photo by Matthew Miller '11
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25
[figure 26]
[figure 27]
1000 Single Trees Can’t Be Wrong 18
1000 Single Trees Can’t Be Wrong 19
Cris Moss '99 Archival digital print 2012 40" x 26" x 1" Courtesy of the artist
Cris Moss '99 Archival digital print 2012 40" x 26" x 1" Courtesy of the artist
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[figure 29]
Flying Geese Pyramid-Michigan T-Dock Eliza Fernand '06 Archival digital print 2012 12" x 18" x 1" Courtesy of the artist
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[figure 28]
Waterways (A Taxonomy of Economies) Mary Mattingly '02 Chromogenic dye coupler print mounted to dibond. #1/5 2009 30" x 40" Copyright Mary Mattingly, Photo courtesy Robert Mann Gallery, New York, NY
Cris Moss uses photography for taxonomic ends with 1000 Single Trees Can’t Be Wrong 18 and 1000 Single Trees Can’t Be Wrong 19 [figs. 26, 27], which observe and expose the radical environmental changes affecting discreet micro-climates, such as when urban borders encroach upon once thriving farmlands. Moss’ photographs gaze patiently, recording and responding to a disappearing landscape. Mary Mattingly’s photograph, Waterways (A Taxonomy of Economies) [fig. 28], tracks our post-millennial economic landscapes. Capturing monstrous freight ships and port architecture, Mattingly’s photograph represents the extent of our pursuit of mass production and global distribution while still tolerating mass poverty and marginalization within industrialized societies like our own. Mattingly exposes systems of distribution whose monumental industrial design transgresses national identities to create international ports that have more in common with each other than the local cultures where they reside. Eliza Fernand sets up public interventions along her cross-country trip by installing and documenting her Flying Geese Pyramid–Michigan T-Dock and Flying Geese Pyramid–Michigan Dunes [figs. 29, 30]. Her work relies on her fine art and craft skills as well as her ability to socialize and enfranchise participants along the way. Fernand’s eventual goal is more social practice than object production. Social engagement is precisely what is demanded by the 2-channel video, 5 Days in July [fig. 31], by Esther Podemski and her collaborator Chuck Schultz. The video presents scenes from a time in our recent past when racial segregation and xenophobia sparked violence and upheaval in the face of the disempowered to gather and “show our strength.” 5 Days in July asks the viewer to consider the role of freedom in our society: are we “free to be poor” or “free to live in the neighborhood of our choice?”
[figure 30]
Flying Geese Pyramid-Michigan Dunes Eliza Fernand '06 Archival digital print 2012 12" x 18" x 1" Courtesy of the artist
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[figure 32]
Can These Antiques Ever Prove Dangerous Again?
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Anna Grey '08 and Ryan Wilson Paulsen '08 Mixed media 2012 Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artists and PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR
[figure 31]
5 Days in July Esther Podemski '77 and Chuck Schultz, Co-directors and co-producers 2-channel video: 16mm film transferred to digital video 2008 Length: 10:24 Courtesy of the artists Photo credit (top): National Archives Photo credit (right): Ben Fernandaz
[figure 33]
[figure 34]
Untitled
Everyone’s Allowed a Past They Don’t Care to Mention
Anna Grey '08 and Ryan Wilson Paulsen '08 Mixed media 2012 6" x 2" 1 1/2" Courtesy of the artists and PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR Photo by Matthew Miller '11
Anna Grey '08 and Ryan Wilson Paulsen '08 Archival ink jet print 2011 47" x 32" Courtesy of the artists and PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR
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TRUST: PNCA ALUMNI EXHIBITION 2012
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[figure 35]
Duration 28 Alyson Provax '07 Monotype 2012 14" x 19" Courtesy of the artist
Anna Gray and Ryan Wilson Paulsen’s conceptually-driven, multidisciplinary projects inject a sense of inquiry into the overlap of critical research with Untitled [fig. 33], theoretical exploration in Everyone’s Allowed a Past They Don’t Care to Mention [fig. 34], and political discourse with Can These Antiques Ever Prove Dangerous Again? [fig. 32]. In the latter piece, Gray and Wilson Paulsen deploy a phalanx of 101 miniature protest signs with a panoply of slogans and perspectives. In this homogenized, essentialized black-and-white aesthetic, displays of free speech crowd one another, echoing images of historic civil rights marches, as well as the cacophony of the Occupy Movement. After all, the terrain for an artist is shifting, and the sense of impermanence is resounding, leaving Alyson Provax’s monotype print Duration 28 [fig. 35] fixed in place at least, as the text reads, “for a while.” Laura Hughes’ site-specific installation, Superposition [fig. 36], tackles the undoing of borders, disciplines, and the obliteration of the picture by wringing out of traditional forms what is relevant and effective in context. As has always been the case since our founding as the Museum Art School, PNCA’s students make use of historical tradition alongside the most cutting-edge practices available to them, now heavily making use of conceptually-driven, project-based ways of working. For Ray Barrett’s mixed media assemblage, Relax [fig. 37], that means deploying charged materials referring to notions of beauty and self-design in African American communities alongside concerns associated with monochrome painting, tribal talismans, and formalism. Other exemplars include Lydia Rosenburg’s quizzical sculpture, Fill 2 or For Having Lost So Much Material [fig. 38], and Antonia Pinter’s two works on paper, Untitled 08 6.09.12 and Untitled 06 6.23.12 [figs. 39, 40]. The erasure therein leads to a sophisticated restraint of gesture and elegant use of negative space. Molly Vidor’s intention with Odile [fig. 45], a larger than life black painting like Barrett’s monochrome, has less to do with notions of purity as it does with resistance and release. Broodingly, Vidor’s canvas is constructed through veneers of varying viscosities, a magically dark object too alluring to discount as a sweet nothing that mimics the romance and desire of the Black Swan herself. In disguise, even the most abiding love can be questioned. Vidor willingly questions her practice as a painter when painting is but one of many forms available for an artist to position within the context of her canvas.
[figure 36]
Superposition (installation view) Laura Hughes, MFA Visual Studies '10 Holosheen vinyl, spotlight, timer on a 10–minute cycle 2012 Dimensions vary Courtesy of the artist Photos by Matthew Miller '11
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[figure 39]
Untitled 06 6.23.12
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[figure 37]
Antonia Pinter '11 Graphite and watercolor on paper 2012 10" x 8" Courtesy of the artist Photo by Matthew Miller '11
Relax Ray Anthony Barrett, MFA Visual Studies '11 Oil, acrylic, enamel, human hair, hair extensions, hair accessories, hair pomade, and collage on panel 2011 48" x 36" x 1 1/2" Courtesy of the artist Photo by Matthew Miller '11
[figure 38]
Fill 2 or For Having Lost So Much Material
[figure 40]
Lydia Rosenberg '10 Gypsum cement, found blue jeans 2012 22" x 25" x 5 3/4" Courtesy of the artist Photo by Matthew Miller '11
Antonia Pinter '11 Graphite and watercolor on paper 2012 30" x 22" Courtesy of the artist Photo by Matthew Miller '11
Untitled 08 6.09.12
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[figure 43]
Study for East Landing [with East Stair profile, West’s Color] #2 Julia Fish '76 Gouache on paper 2007 22 1/2" x 30 1/2" x 1 1/2" Courtesy of the artist and Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL
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[figure 41]
Untitled Margaret van Patten '92 Graphite on paper 2012 16 1/2" x 21" Courtesy of the artist Photo by HH Click Photography
[figure 44] [figure 42]
A’s Robins Richard Rezac '74 Cast bronze and aluminum 2010 13 1/2" x 17 3/4" x 2 1/2" Courtesy of the artist and James Harris Gallery, Seattle, WA Photo by Tom Van Eynde
Sock Fight Malia Jensen '89 Cast bronze with wooden base, edition of 6 2008 30" x 45" x 29 1/2" Courtesy of the artist and Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, OR Photo by James Lommasson
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[figure 45]
Odile Molly Vidor '94 Oil on canvas 2010 94" x 76" Courtesy of the artist and PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR Photo by Matthew Miller '11
The sophistication and resolve in Pinter’s works turns to material exuberance in Margaret van Patten’s Untitled [fig. 41], in the soft/hard edge wall work, A’s Robins [fig. 42], by Richard Rezac, in the intimacy and designed detail of Julia Fish’s Study for East Landing [with East Stair profile, West’s Color] #2 [fig. 43], in the humor and patina of Malia Jensen’s Sock Fight [fig. 44], and the gleaming gold-leaf surface of Lee Kelly’s Memory 9 [fig. 49]. These works point ahead to a bright future for those adept and receptive enough to blaze their own paths and shape their own destinies. These works present an aesthetic and intellectual diversity that has been the lifeblood of PNCA’s creative commons. Without the sheer skill that Rezac or Kelly possess, there would be no foundation for experiments of form and mind to develop. Jensen’s saga isn’t Sisyphean but rather proof of the power of a playful attitude towards materials once relegated to forming the faces of gods and the bodies of heroes. Today, artists are free to fill their chosen forms with any subject and to conjure content once taboo or anathema to the concerns of high art. The only constraints that remain are the limits the artists set themselves or those with which society encumbers them.
[figure 46]
Untitled LR198 Eric Stotik '85 Acrylic on wood panel 2010 15 1/4" x 11 1/4" Courtesy of the artist and Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR Photo by Bill Bachhuber
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[figure 47, left]
[figure 48, above]
Self Portrait No. 4 (From Painting a Portrait)
Sammy
Delaney Allen, MFA Visual Studies '10 Archival digital print 2011 20" x 16" Courtesy of the artist and Nationale, Portland, OR
Michael L. Curry '81 Acrylic, carbon fiber, computer-controlled servo and mixed mechanical, audio media. Audio duration: 3:30 minutes, endless loop Kinetic duration: 24 minutes, endless loop 2012 74" x 28" x 28" Courtesy of the artist and Michael Curry Design, Scappoose, OR Special thanks to Will Curry for the audio Photo by Matthew Miller '11
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[figure 49]
Memory 9 Lee Kelly '59 Welded stainless steel with white gold leaf 2008 67" x 84" x 25" Courtesy of the artist and Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, OR Photo by Dan Kvitka
[figure 50]
Nine Black Squares Barry Pelzner '77 Charcoal, conte crayon, oil crayon on paper 2011–2012 22 1/2" x 22 1/2" each Courtesy of the artist Photo by Matthew Miller '11
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43 [figure 14]
Trompe L'œil with Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp Thomas Kenneth Conway '06 Oil on canvas on wood 2011 30" x 40" x 1 1/2" Courtesy of the artist
Acknowledging that meaning itself is what is at stake today, and because meaning is created through the analysis in dialog, Alex Felton’s Poor Marge and Untitled [figs. 23, 24] (a slouchy, half-filled, tied-off black garbage bag) both make use of the undefined and transient nature of contemporary practices where the object of art is not to create objects, but rather objects of discourse. This is also the case with Thomas Kenneth Conway’s Trompe L’œil with Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp [fig. 14]. If the opening and inspecting of a cadaver was an early, if controversial method of getting at objective fact about the operations of the human body, communal authorship too was a trusted manner in which a community of specialists could verify truth to get at objective facts. For Felton there is no absolute truth reigning over the artist’s work ethic. The anatomy of art, craft, and design is what we are witnessing. Felton’s strategy is a multidisciplinary practice that does not over-determine the outcome of his production. His interest is to question perception itself and to allow for humor to point out our collective blindness. In this manner, Berry Pelzner wrestles with artistic autonomy and creative reinvention with his works on paper, Nine Black Squares [fig. 50], developing a platform for his own creative practice. Today this includes not just the study of the art of the landscapes for which he is celebrated, but also the power of careful design and steady craft to guide him into previously uncharted terrains. It is an honor to have these artists gathered together for the first time in the way that only an alumni exhibition can. On display are many of the various stakeholders and agendas that have shaped and continue to shape PNCA. The creative trust that they offer is an opportunity for us to consider the value of culture in a time of great social strife and upheaval. This is exemplified in Michael Brophy’s enigmatic painting, Explode [fig. 51], where men reminiscent of those who filled Renaissance canvases gather, seemingly oblivious to the catastrophe they witness. Or, are they
reporting their findings through social media with their glowing cell phones? Brophy, like so many painting masters before him, proves that the medium is in fact not dead, but rather hungrier than ever. As in his painting, our collective future is uncertain. It will take the artists of today who fill our classrooms, our studio spaces, our computer labs, and even our conference rooms to imagine a new future. It will then take designers to draw out those visions and effective makers to craft and shape new forms for living. Given the examples received from history, I trust that our current students will go on to be creative exponents in their own communities and be the agents of change that create the foundation for our thriving society. Victor Maldonado, 2012 I would like to dedicate this essay to Melissa McClure, who taught me how to trust. Victor Maldonado is a Portland-based interdisciplinary artist who creates conceptually-driven work that deploys modern formalist aesthetics and balances humor with pointed commentary about contemporary culture. He is an Assistant Professor and Inclusions Specialist at Pacific Northwest College of Art and is a freelance writer and independent curator of Northwest art. Maldonado received his BFA in Painting and Drawing from the California College of the Arts (2000) and his MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2005). His work has most recently been acquired by the Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX. [figure 51]
Explode Michael Brophy '85 Oil on canvas 2011 54" x 66" Courtesy of the artist and Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR Photo by Brad Ness/Nessface
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS PNCA is grateful to the individuals, galleries, exhibition jurors, and foundations who helped make TRUST: PNCA Alumni Exhibition 2012 possible:
Major Exhibition Support: The Ford Family Foundation Additional Support: Oregon Cultural Trust Exhibiting PNCA Alumni
Delaney Allen, MFA VS ‛10 (Special thanks to Nationale, Portland, OR) Yothin Amnuayphol ‛88 Carl Annala ‛87 • Ray Barrett, MFA VS ‛11 • Pat Boas ‛98 • Michael Brophy ‛85 (Special thanks to Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR) • Allison Bruns ‛07 • Rebecca Campbell ‛94 (Special thanks to LA Louver, Los Angeles, CA) • Thomas Conway ‛06 • Anne Crumpacker, MFA ACD ‛11 • Michael Curry ‛81 (Special thanks to Will Curry and Michael Curry Design Inc., Scappoose, OR) • Tamara English ‛04 • Alex Felton ‛05 (Special thanks to Ditch Projects, Springfield, OR) • Eliza Fernand ‛06 • Julia Fish ‛76 (Special thanks to Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL) • Anna Gray ‛08 (Special thanks to PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR) Jessalyn Haggenjos ‛01 • Anne Haley ’10 • Laura Hughes, MFA VS ‛10 • Malia Jensen ‛89 (Special thanks to Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, OR) • George Johanson ‛50 • Lee Kelly ‛59 (Special thanks to Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, OR) • Ruth Lantz, MFA VS ‛10 • Fritz Liedtke ‛02 • Gabriel Liston ‛98 • Helen Liu ‛84 Mary Mattingly ‛02 (Special thanks to Robert Mann Gallery, New York, NY) • Cris Moss ‛99 • Julie Orser ‛99 Ryan Wilson Paulsen ‛08 (Special thanks to PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR) • Lucinda Parker ‛66 (Special thanks to Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR) • Barry Pelzner ‛77 • Antonia Pinter ‛11 Esther Podemski ‛77 • Alyson Provax ‛07 • Richard Rezac ‛74 (Special thanks to James Harris Gallery, Seattle, WA) • Lydia Rosenberg ‛10 • Rainbow Ross ‛09 • Samuel Rowlett ‛02 • Jason Lee Starin, MFA ACD ‛11 Eric Stotik ‛85 (Special thanks to Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR) • Margaret van Patten ‛92 Molly Vidor ‛94 (Special thanks to PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR) • Marchi Wierson ‛89 Sherrie Wolf ‛84 (Special thanks to Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR) Exhibition Jurors
Randy Gragg Editor, Portland Monthly Namita Gupta Wiggers Director and Chief Curator, Museum of Contemporary Craft Sarah Miller Meigs Founder, lumber room Deanne Rubinstein Member, OHSU Art Committee of the Marquam Hill Steering Committee Stephanie Snyder John and Anne Hauberg Curator and Director, The Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College PNCA Staff
Deanna Bredthauer ‛09 Exhibition Coordinator and PNCA Events and Alumni Relations Coordinator Victor Maldonado Exhibition Curator and PNCA Assistant Professor and Inclusions Specialist Mack MacFarland ‛06 PNCA Curator, Philip Feldman Gallery + Project Space PNCA Office of Advancement PNCA Office of Communications Exhibition Preparators
Emma Conley ‛13, Chloe Dietz ‛13, Cory Dimitriou ‛15, Kinoko Evans ‛12, Savanna O’Grady ‛15, Tim Stigliano, MFA VS ‛12 Special thanks to Blick Art Materials for supporting the opening reception for the Exhibition.