Art
Headless Trophies for Our Cultural Decadence
PORTLAND, Oregon — What can a herd of headless deer painted gold with gaudy tinsel tails teach the 1% and the rest of us? The answer is a lot.
Portland
Interview
Spectacular Geography and Studios in the Kitchen: Michelle Grabner on Curating the Portland Biennial
This year’s iteration of the Portland Biennial, organized by the Disjecta Contemporary Art Center and curated by artist Michelle Grabner, claims to be the most complete survey of contemporary art in Oregon ever.
News
Treatment of Adjuncts Spurs Protests at Pacific Northwest College of Art
Students and teachers at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon, protested on campus this week, demanding that adjunct professors be rehired with contracts after some of the college's most influential educators were unceremoniously left out of next semester's class schedule.
News
Why the Closing of the Museum of Contemporary Craft Is a Major Loss
The next time you find yourself hate-reading a fawning profile of a photogenic young Brooklyn potter whose hot-pink-rimmed wares are transforming the “stuffy world of ceramics into a cool new craft” (or something to that effect), navigate yourself away from there, and instead visit the website of th
Art
When the Art Just Can't Compete with the Architecture
PORTLAND, Oregon — Entering Disjecta Contemporary Art Center's main space feels more like visiting a dance hall than a gallery, with its vaulted timber ceiling and 15-foot-high walls.
Performance
When Drag Queens Crowd Surf
PORTLAND, Oregon — Pepper Pepper went crowd surfing at her recent drag ball. Declaring to the crowd that it was all about collectivism, she dove out into the sea of hands with a large set of balloons attached to her back.
Art
A Visit to Portland's Graffiti Haven
PORTLAND, Ore. — When I asked artist Rx Skulls where to shoot graffiti and street art when I came to town this past April, his most emphatic suggestion was Taylor Electric.
Art
Seeing Past Portland's Whiteness
LOS ANGELES — I didn't mean for my trip to Portland to have such a focus on race.
Art
Kara Walker Lands in Oregon
EUGENE, Oregon — The Black Portlanders, a project initiated by Intisar Abioto that focuses on the black people of Portland documenting one another, recently posted an open letter asking for help raising $15,000 to keep alive their project.
Art
Reading the Rituals of Performance
PORTLAND, Oregon — On a trip to Portland last month, I encountered a number of artists who use writing’s structures and processes to order performance behaviors. But for Lisa Radon, it’s reading, not writing, that serves as the moment of performance.
Art
How Writing Is Like Performance
PORTLAND, Oregon —Portland’s literary prowess is well known. Home to the truly amazing Powell’s bookstore, a number of high caliber small presses, and host to many readings, the city is a great place for people who love words. I traveled there early this month to check out another kink in this pheno
Art
The Day Portland Stood Still
CHICAGO — Kirk Crippens's photographic series Portraitlandia is a visual manifestation of that surreal moment when quotidian life, a hit television show, and a curious photographer converge.