Lindsay Costello

September Art Happenings in Portland, Oregon.

The Time-Based Art Festival (TBA), Portland Institute For Contemporary Art’s annual ten-day festival of performance, music, food, film, workshops, lectures, and late-night events, is renowned for its intensity and commitment to the experimental. This year, amidst a strong calendar of diverse performances, two pieces, ALL – a physical poem of protest and Water Will (in Melody), stood out as engrossing contributions to the ever-evolving medium.
Oslo-based choreographer Mia Habib purp...

A red glow hovers over the works in Jane Wong’s exhibition After Preparing the Altar, the Ghosts Feast Feverishly at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle. The lighting choice seems artificial, particularly when cast over Wong’s installations of plastic “Thank You” bags, fake flowers, and snack food packaging. Yet it also feels warm and comforting. This duality is emblematic of the intertwined territories Wong navigates in her work.

Wong is a Seattle-based artist and poet whose creative an...

Aggregate article of notable Portland, Oregon contemporary arts happenings for July/August 2019.

At Erickson Gallery in Portland, Oregon, artist Meredith Hamm’s We Are Shapes explores matter as an expression of energy through a series of fiber sculptures and ink drawings. Hamm asserts that the flow of matter can be embodied in physical form, or through emotion, sensation, and other intangible human experiences.

In ‘Plane of Scattered Pasts’ at Upfor Gallery in Portland, Oregon, artists Heidi Schwegler and Quayola explore object histories and the fragmentation process with sculptural works and video. Schwegler amends, recasts, and highlights aged objects to reframe their value. Quayola’s video piece ‘Strata #1’ (2008) invigorates the exhibition with immersive sound and vivid colour. While the show focuses on the fragmented form, ‘Plane of Scattered Pasts’ is conceptually complete.
Upon entry, the exh...

Aggregate article of notable Portland, Oregon contemporary arts happenings in June 2019.

In What Was Always Yours and Never Lost, Ho-Chunk/Pechanga filmmaker Sky Hopinka curates a diverse selection of film and video works that shine a light on the contemporary Indigenous experience. The exhibition at Yale Union, which will also be featured at this year’s Whitney Biennial, consists of films that explore native identity within and beyond colonial history. Some engage with semiotics, resulting in an experience of collaged sounds rather than direct language translations. Others focus...

Aggregate article of notable Portland, Oregon contemporary arts happenings in May 2019.

Emily Endo, a multimedia artist based in Portland and Joshua Tree, has returned to the city of Portland for the opening of her solo show Immaterial at Bullseye Projects. Endo’s most recent works explore the materiality, purification and beautification of the body with cast glass and natural materials. 60 Inch Center contributor Lindsay Costello interviewed the artist to learn more about her influences, modes of material research, and themes of transcendence in the exhibition.

In-depth, critical perspectives exploring art and visual culture on the West Coast.
In Soft Shades at Nationale, Lilian Martinez’s first solo exhibition in Portland, the paintings feature larger-than-life figures in sun-soaked, radiant relaxation. Pastels, philodendron leaves, and domestic settings abound, conjuring a familiar, joyful softness. A duality of quietude and poise in Martinez’s works is emblematic of a widespread contemporary culture celebrating wellness and leisure. Martinez’s fi...

A week ago, while disembarking from a small commercial whale watching boat on Orcas Island, I noticed a thick length of rope coiled neatly into a perfect circle. It stood out amongst the subtle disorder of the busy dock, creating a moment of harmony and visual rest. I took a photograph and made a note to research the technique later. It’s called a Flemish Flake, and it’s a common rope wrapping method.
I was pleased to encounter the same technique in Francesca Capone’s piece Scallop, included ...

Bukola Koiki is a mixed media artist working in Portland, Oregon. She is a graduate of the Applied Craft + Design MFA program at Oregon College of Art and Craft and Pacific Northwest College of Art. Bukola recently wrapped up her first solo show at the Portland Building, and is a current Project Manager at Scout Books. This interview is the fourth in a series conducted by OCAC thesis student Lindsay Costello.
Duplex: You were born in Lagos, Nigeria and moved to the States as a teenager. How d...

Oregon College of Art and Craft MFA graduate Hannah Newman is a multimedia artist based in Portland, Oregon. She is an Artist-in-Residence at Rainmaker Artist Residency. This interview is the third in a series conducted by OCAC thesis student Lindsay Costello.
Duplex: How did your upbringing influence your path as an artist? Were your parents artists, or did you have a creative mentor growing up?
Hannah Newman: I didn’t think much about the arts, especially visual arts when I was young. My in...

Oregon College of Art and Craft graduate Melina Bishop is a mixed-media sculptor and installation artist based in Portland, OR. She recently returned from a residency at the Icelandic Textile Center and is a participating artist with Neighbors at the Yale Union. This interview is the second in a series conducted by OCAC thesis student Lindsay Costello.
Duplex: Tell me a little bit about your childhood. Were you always a maker?
Melina Bishop: I was born at home, in a brick house in Indianapoli...