RACC Chinese Dragons

Remember "informal" and "murky"? Still the operating principle in the City of Portland art purchases. And - it's completely complicated inserting art into architecture, or getting artists and architects to work together. There are examples around town where art works with it's surroundings - or is neutral like Georgia Gerber's wonderful water animals on the transit mall - but the more common result is a collision. Judy Pfaff's large fiberglass and metal sculpture attached to the ODS building downtown is the most horrendous example. Just feel sorry for everyone. Ruined, perverted. I've been avoiding writing about this - Randy Gragg wrote about this conflict, ... Read Full Story

RACC Public Art Manager Kristin Calhoun will give a lecture about current public art projects in Portland at the Portland Art Museum . The lecture is May 14, at 9:30 AM (how convenient!) There is a charge for non-members. Calhoun was responsible for the process which slected a controversial public artwork for Portland's downtown Chinatown, which was partially installed in December, and then partially "deaccessed" in February after local businesses and art curmudgeons complained about the artwork for a variety of reasons. The artwork remains partially uninstalled with four (I think) final granite components parts still missing. Someone needs to stand up and ask ... Read Full Story

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The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association has been a heavyweight advocate in Portland's city hall for a couple of decades now, winning most of their advocacy battles using the Historic Old Town Business Association . Rewards for public advocacy are often ironic or flubbed, and theirs is no exception. Just installed are two structures bracketing NW Davis at Fourth Avenue in the midst of what Portland calls Chinatown (truly an unhappy memory for folks 60+), created by Brian Goldbloom of Amboy, Washington. The structures are of pink granite enclosed in a stainless steel frame - from a distance is looks like a horrible dental extraction. ... Read Full Story

Amboy Washington artist Brian Goldbloom has installed two more pieces to his Chinese Dragons artwork, now ragged on by every pundit in Portland. PPA first wrote about this dustup as "Chinese" Dragons - bad job all around and again in Chasing the Meaning of Public Artwork , where the more meaningful meaning of the artworks was defined. The daily paper, local shoppers, and art + pop culture blogs have underlined the limited capacity of the work. The first two, in red granite on NW Fourth Avenue at Davis, depict a stainless steel structure atop an off-white stone dais. Caught in the tight grip of ... Read Full Story