Sunday, March 29, 2009

PDX ART: Double Vision

Opening First Thursday April 2 at Everett Station Lofts Virtuoso Studio



We don't see the same way when we see the same thing.
We don't feel equally strong about anything but still we manage to align our self’s to each other’s needs and visions.
Science has begun to proof that our minds are able to synchronize their frequency if we align for a common cause.
Teams have moved mountains; artists have collaborated to create works in unison.
Our realm is dubbed Duality but our goal seems to be unity in Oneness.
There are at least two aspects to everything fighting for recognition.
The world can be separated in black & white, have and have not's, the Age of Enlightenment or the Dark Ages and we inhabit an environment divided by day and night.
We argue the pros and contra’s on every encounter and supposedly end up in heaven or hell.
"Double Vision" is an idea about two painters playing in one room creating twin pieces or art work that relates too or discards the others vision.
Light handed strokes on heavy wood and dense ideas on floating canvases play for our attention to be judged as good or bad, successful or disappointing.

Ultimately it doesn't matter what the outcome is because the effort has already been rewarded by the interplay of idea and its consequential materialization.

The audience is the witness to the act and opinions are the result of the dare as styles mix and mingle with shapes and forms of expression.

All is offered as a gift to the observer so that he too can be part of this process we call Art while others might call it vanity.
The story behind its purpose will stay secret, a secret that can only be revealed by serious engaged contemplation.

Everyone’s opinion doubles as someone else’s vision in this realm of duplicity where we are at heart mirror images of each other.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

PDX Art: Claudia Porter & Richard Schemmerer " Double Vision"

Opening April 2, 6 till 10 PM
presented by
Back Room Project Space & THE VIRTUOSO STUDIOS
323 NW 6th Ave., Portland OR 97209
info@thevirtuosostudios.com
503.810.2219

more info at
http://thevirtuosostudios.com




















Saturday, March 21, 2009

PDX Art: Richard Schemmerer at PDX Contemporary Art Gallery


Opening:
First Thursday
April 2 from 6--9 PM


Artist Statement

“Never good enough”

We are born precious, treasured, loved, and priceless; growing into something judged less desirable, not pretty slim tall or blond enough.
When we turn on the TV we find out that we are not compatible. When we open a magazine we feel like we can’t compete with all the air brushed beauty.
After awhile we start to feel inadequate, less worthy than others and we compensate by buying into a failed strategy thinking that there is a product or a procedure or an alteration that works as a miracle to make us more than we are meant to be.
We hire designers, schedule appointments with stylist and getting dependent on external fulfillment.
We become beggars for attention and suckers for Mega-conglomerates which promise us a vast array of products, must haves that are supposed to make us feel worthy.

Even religion chases us deep into our psyche claiming that we are born with a flaw and doomed to miss the mark.

We have the power to turn off this spin cycle and to realize that each person is unique and lovable just the way they are and that everything else is just manipulation to make some companies very rich.

This installation is not trying to trivialize the issue and is only a small attempt to shine a light on this dark spot in our consumer mentality and to create awareness that equality has many more layers than just race or sexual orientation and that we live in a society that constantly discriminates on some level without ever being conscious of it.
Sincerely
Richard Schemmerer



"Never good enough "
window installation
by
Richard Schemmerer
contact
www.pdxcontemporaryart.com
PDX Contemporary Art

Hours
Tuesday - Saturday
11 am - 6 pm

Address
925 NW Flanders
Portland, Oregon 97209

Google Map
http://maps.google.com/...

Telephone
503.222.0063

Fax
503.222.3068

Email
info@pdxcontemporaryart.com

member of PADA
Portland Art Dealers Association

Monday, March 9, 2009

PDX Art features Hoffman Gallery: "reGeneration"

reGeneration: 50 photographers of tomorrow
January 22 - March 15, 2009
Opening reception: 5 p.m. - 7 p.m., Thursday, January 22

contact
http://www.lclark.edu/dept/gallery/exhibit_current.html










Sunday, March 8, 2009

PDX Art presents Kate Fenker at MP5 -- Mile Post Five

Eclectic, elegant, sophisticated those are words that come to mind seeing Kate's beautiful installation at MP5 Cube
curated by TJ Norris
for more info contact
www.Katefenker.com
www.TJNorris.net
www.milepostfive.com







Friday, March 6, 2009

PDX ART: " Naked Ambition"


Some people dance naked to get noticed others create controversy to get attention or expose their own psychological nakedness in public spaces like on comedy shows or the many stages like real or cyber platforms street corners diaries blogs or show their true face only on Face Book.
Hemingway used to create in the nude but many others just use their body as a back drop for their social engagement or political agenda.
Raw ambition doesn't hide behind fancy drapery it flaunts its genitalia to attract a potential admirer.
Skin can be the most obvious canvas to seduce the eye into obedience.
To be or not to be is not the question anymore but to make it to break it has become the essential quest for the new conquerors.
Our bodies and minds are tied up with fame and strangled by rumors. The monkey doesn't sit on our backs any more but is driving our naked ambition into the hell hole of a glorified sanctimonious future which breeds contempt like the catholic church breeds homo priests.
Invisible hands push our overexposed desires in spite of Dr. Pills media psycho babel analysis right past the truth into high gear onto the brains Autobahn to get us to a place that gets us the notoriety we so crave.

Excitement spend its curiosity on cheap thrills only the idea of wads of money even if we deny this fact can get us high enough to orgasm free of shame.

Sex that can be bought provides satisfaction in our dis-satisfying relations. Only fame that can be stolen lifts us out from our depressive, repressive denials.

The Moon is too close the Sun not hot enough and Mars to frigid. The past and the present have disproved the hope for a better future.
The Now has wasted its glamour on shallow slogans.
Before is gone, after left a bad taste, in between I can't even remember.
The truth has been repeated one to many times and lies have lost their creative edge through plagiarism. Original sin is not very original any more and copy cats have been super seated by neo clones.

All senses collide in to one super novella.
Sense isolation is not insulating, exposure does not stimulate, allegories have mated with ideologies and gave birth to incestuous dogmatic inbreeds.
hybrids copulate with gas engines and grace lost its grip on civility.

The State of the Union is non-union every brain fights for its need for compensation on Face Book freed from all consequences.
Boundaries have discolored in an ocean of parables, tradition has been overlaid and embroidered by DIY mentality like a viral infestation of cyber space with crafty novelties ready to be put in your Etsy basket and fed-exed like the lover you dated over Craig's list.

we redecorate on minimal budget and stencil the words HAPPINESS on sponged walls and shop lift at "Red LIght"
popular culture has become its own persiflage kneeling down worshiping at its own reflection but in truth is lost in a media Fun-house that feeds back what it finds in our neighborhood mental dumpsters.

Everything is consumed by everything and new industries are created re-consuming what had been consummated before.
Green ecology becomes green economy becomes the green monster that eats its elf.
The trash of the past morphs into the treasured bandage of a bleeding tomorrow.

The cycle closes moves from bad habits to regret crossing over to good intentions to be reconfigured re-purposed relabeled and at last resold.

And we buy it because our naked ambition wants to have it because it is the latest it thing that refreshes our dull senses and is the next cheap senseless frenzy to get us high.

the scenery looks the same it still is us exploiting everything and everyone even our self.
The world we live in is the world we have created like an artist that was to lazy to learn his craft to develop the skills.
We just took what was there and rearranged it until we couldn't recognize the original in it anymore and now we can't remember what its intent was.
we look around and pretend that we are naked that we didn't do it that we had no part in it.
We got smashed and painted this giant canvas and we wake up the next morning to this insanity looking at it in disgust and start yelling who the fuck did this painted that monstrosity and like a mad man we start to slash what is still untouched by false ambition.

Ambition brought us the latest mania as if a crazy man could save us from ourselves.

Craziness has only one ambition which is to gain control.
Craziness comes in many shapes and forms. It can be a compulsive tagger or a born again believer it can inhabit a part of the brain or stir up love with envy.
Craziness has a room in all of us.
Some of us play host to it others keep it locked up in a dungeon of lies and denials.

Naked ambition is always ready to strike a deal with craziness to spin a tale to dress up in excuses with pretty arguments.
Ambition is like one of those medical ointments that promises relief but has a huge slew of side effects as a price attached to it, vomiting and internal bleeding included.

We live life as contrarians thinking one thing contemplating another doing neither.

We shuffle life as if its a deck of cards and hand ourselves a losing hand but keep on bluffing as if life is just a neighborhood strip poker game where we lose some pride but hope we can keep our skin.
I wish it was that simple but that would mean being fooled once again by my naked ambition.