“All art is propaganda.” George Orwell
Political art is now “in.” In art schools. In galleries. In museum shows. In the homes of sophisticated collectors. And now, in seventeen venues throughout Portland as our city’s revived biennale, Converge 45, begins an ambitious run through December.
Read David’s Art Letter essay, Converge 45: To repair a wounded world, featured in Oregon ArtsWatch
My phone told me to turn right, then left. I drove down a quiet east-county street that couldn’t decide if it was rural or suburban. I glanced around, hoping to see something that looked like an art gallery.
Read David’s Art Letter essay, Derek Franklin: An artist in three acts, featured in Oregon ArtsWatch
There are no quotation marks in the grammar of music or painting. But composers and painters quote from each other all the time. Sometimes they do it intentionally, but more often, the creations of others have been so absorbed into their artistic vocabulary that they can’t help themselves.
Read David’s Art Letter essay, Four chords and a dark mirror, featured in Oregon ArtsWatch
Art galleries have distinct personalities. Some are refined, quiet, and classy, where the art is so carefully curated that risk has been eliminated, and there is nothing not to admire. . .
Read David’s Art Letter essay, Chefas Projects: Fresh with color & light, featured in Oregon ArtsWatch
I write this on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. How can a sculptor memorialize a great person without sinking into cliche or banality?. . .
Read David’s Art Letter essays, The wrong way/the right way: Memorializing Martin Luther King, Jr, and Farmers in the lumber room, featured in Oregon ArtsWatch
Artists have the right to own what they create. But all art, to one degree or another, is derived from the creative work that came before and the visual influences of the prevailing culture. . .
Driving through Portland, I often pull over to look at street art, much of which strikes me as powerful creative expression or potent social commentary—or both. . .
Read David’s Art Letter essay, Graffiti: The good, the bad, and the ugly, featured in Oregon ArtsWatch
In the final moments of Goethe’s Faust, as angels lift the soul of the repentant scholar to heaven, a celestial chorus chants: “Everything ephemeral is but an allegory”. . .
Read David’s Art Letter essay, In defense of nonsense: John Vitale at Stephanie Chefas Projects, featured in Oregon ArtsWatch
Born and raised in Northeast Portland, photojournalist Bev Grant long ago moved to New York where, while Portland slept, the world was happening. . .
Read David’s Art Letter essay, Art from Tumult: Bev Grant’s Photographic Record of Radicalized New York, published by Oregon ArtsWatch
Why do Sherrie Wolf’s still lifes of flowers, fruit, vases and other commonplace objects, now on exhibit at Russo Lee Gallery and the Jordon Schnitzer Family Foundation warehouse, somehow satisfy more deeply than the real thing? . .
Read David Slader’s visual art review, Sherrie Wolf at Russo Lee: Wrong in just the right way, published by Oregon ArtsWatch