Cliff Notes
Each week, our regional Cliff Notes columnists Christine Miller, Rachel Elizabeth Jones, Sam Hiura, and Nia-Amina Minor pick the most exciting events and exhibitions on the West Coast. BUT this week we had a scheduling conflict, so VW Associate Editor Ella Ray is popping in with some closing-soon and coming-soon picks from Oregon.
Dana Lynn Louis: Alchemy of Tears
Russo Lee Gallery, Portland, OR
July 3 to July 26, 2024
Dana Lynn Louis’ Alchemy of Tears is delicate, but impactful. The presented group of beaded works, textile pieces, and sculptural installations quietly plays with color and shadow, as well as form. At arm’s-length, Louis’ wall hangings appear as a wash of pigment against the white ground, but with a closer look and at the right vantage point, the artist’s intricate beaded and inked details create an earthly dialogue between the gallery’s environment and the fragile materials employed by Louis.
Louis’ attention to negative space is probably the most enticing facet of the exhibition—what isn’t there and what lives in between the objects and images is seemingly just as important as what is presented. The exhibition’s namesake work, Alchemy of Tears (2023–2024), is the most exemplary of this balance. The spiraling web of beads and wire is sinewy and entrancing, nudging the viewer to stay a while, unravel alongside these explorations of connectivity.
Reflection: What is your relationship to negative space?
Color Outside the Lines
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art: PSU, Portland, OR
August 20 to December 7, 2024
I first became obsessed with color theory in art history after reading Josef Alber’s 1963 book Interaction of Color. Thinking about colors as in conversation with each other and as a reflection of their context expanded the way I looked at and understood visual art. Color Outside the Lines, an exhibition curated from Jordan Schnitzer’s collection, explores the ways marginalized artists use color in their practices and considers the artist’s capacity to use said color as a means of reclamation. I am curious what this means curatorially and the throughlines that could be drawn across artists, mediums, and eras. The will feature works from Jenny Holzer, Derrick Adams, Caitlin Cherry, Isaka Shamsud-Din, and Andy Warhol—to name a few—and with color is the unifying factor
Reflection: What color is the most important to you?