Utopia Without You by Tabitha Nikolai at Williamson | Knight
Image by Mario Gallucci
“I strive to work in modes that feel honest to this cybercultural experience and produce things that I think would have better sustained my younger self: arty non-linear videogames, cosplay, perler beadwork, and earnest rights of suburban occult.”
— Tabitha Nikolai
Read the full interview here.
Image by Mario Gallucci
“Escape and fleeing can be a really productive act because you have to reproduce the self outside of other people’s hostility, but at the same time, I’m ambivalent because I know so many gamer people or other trans people who just don’t leave their house very much because they’re wrapped into these worlds that are very addictive, particularly if other things are so hostile.”
— Tabitha Nikolai
Read more about Utopia Without You here.
Eileen Isagon Skyers' show Eyes Without a Face is featured in Willamette Week: Here Are the Five Art Openings We’re Most Excited to See This Week.
“In her essay ‘Eyes Without A Face,’ Eileen Isagon Skyers portrays technology as an illusionary comfort that could slip out from underneath us at any moment. “The relationship is one-sided, requiring only that we engage continuously with a luminous, manufactured surface that does not, and could not, reciprocate our empathy,” writes the Pacific Northwest College of Art-educated New York artist. The essay traces our desire to fuse the digital world with our own reality, from the trash can icon on your desktop to Siri and AI. But like the essay that it takes its name from, Skyers’ multimedia exhibit is intended more as an open-ended inquiry than a forecast of doom.”
James Knowlton of Art Practical reviews Paula Wilson: Floored at Williamson | Knight.
“Muslin, printed to mimic wooden floorboards, takes the place of typically white exhibition walls and becomes the backdrop for several prints. These pieces take the shape of rugs. Some depict a formalist appreciation for patterns, while others feature gestural bodies and patterns in movement, working in tandem. Throughout the show there is an impression of lively, spontaneous gesture and movement in the form of dance.”
— James Knowlton
Image by Mario Gallucci
Derek Franklin and Don't Shoot Portland's exhibitions at Williamson | Knight are mentioned in Marylhurst University's News and Featured Stories.
Hayley Barker, AMPM, 2017, oil, pastel and colored pencil on panel, 16 x 10"
Long a familiar presence in the Portland art scene, painter Hayley Barker has for the last three years been based in Los Angeles. In the mixed-media paintings that comprise AMPM, she depicts a goddess-like figure who confronts the viewer with an implacable visage, crowned by a floral headdress. Who is this proto-feminist idol, and is she a totem of pulchritude, fearsomeness, or both? Barker leaves such speculations to the viewer.
Read more here.
Image by Mario Gallucci
Contributor Tai C at Compose Yourself Magazine wrote about Don't Shoot Portland's art and activism as protest, community healing, and a platform for families affected by police brutality.
"Naturally, art and protest are one in the same, as they both draw communities from all backgrounds to inspect and immerse themselves in one another’s cultures, lifestyles and personal obstacles."
The whole article can be found here.
Sheida Soleimani was recently featured in Humble Arts Foundation's list of the top 29 photographers to follow on instagram.
The full list can be found on HAF's website.
“I think a lot about the cultural difference as a motivation for my practice — having been raised as an Iranian in the West, I became aware of the differences between cultures as well as the West’s viewing and Orientalizing of the East at a young age. Through portraying the stereotypes of Middle Eastern culture by the West, I aim to re-condition how we have been taught to view the ‘other’.”
— Sheida Soleimani
Read the full interview here.
“The latest Download commission, by Sheida Soleimani, laments the death of Reyhaneh Jabbari, who was convicted and hanged in Iran on October 25, 2014 for the alleged murder of her rapist. to oblivion.zip, a dirge-like work that eulogizes Jabbari’s untimely death, consists almost entirely of Jabbari’s own written and spoken words. Once expanded, the ZIP file presents a multi-layered work of nested folders that contain execution records, letters, photographs, and voice recordings. Soleimani has been creating photographic and sculptural works focused on human rights violations in Iran since 2015. This is the first time that she has used a digital download to publish her work.”
Check out the full article here.
“Arts funding instability is a nationwide problem. What makes Portland unique is the number of people here who love art enough to fight for it.”
Check out Willamette Week's list of Portland Art Institutions that are closing, opening, or moving this season.
Derek Franklin's To Leave No Trace is Artforum's Critics' Picks (Portland).
“Like the body, Derek Franklin’s newest sculptures have a shelf life, combining food and inorganic materials in arrangements that feel simultaneously solemn and funny. In Being Mediocre Is a Virtue of Survival (all works 2017), for instance, shiny new crayfish traps rise in a modernist stack with occasional slices of bacon inserted into their mesh exteriors. Catching crayfish with bacon is a common childhood activity in the Northwest, but dry-docked in the gallery and emitting the acrid scent of pork, the work feels forlorn: We’ve got traps and bait but no ecology, no quarry.”
— Stephanie Snyder, Artforum
Check out the full review here.
“Williamson Knight has taken over the Pearl District space formerly occupied by Hap Gallery with ambitions to bring radical and marginalized voices to one of the city’s most monied neighborhoods. Co-director Iris Williamson became a significant part of the operations at Hap during its successful run, and when owner Judy Jacobson wanted to retire the gallery, she offered to subsidize the space for Williamson and John Knight’s vision. Even with help, running a Pearl district gallery without funds on hand isn’t economically feasible. So they’ve designed an equitable model of distributed ownership that puts the artists first. This dovetails with their curatorial vision to provide a platform to voices and radical themes that are rarely seen in their neighboring galleries.
Their hope is to provide space to artists they consider politically and socially relevant while creating a platform for social and economic capital when needed. The 2017 curatorial program includes exhibitions and projects by: angélica maria millán lozano & Laura Medina (also known as rolas in pdx), Sheida Soleimani, Alisa Bones, Don’t Shoot Portland, Derek Franklin, Raque Ford, Dru Donovan, and Hayley Barker.
The inaugural show, Social Learning Theory by Sheida Soleimani, was one of the more visually and conceptually complex shows of the year. The small gallery was dominated by large, blobby fabric sculptures and complex photographs of similar sculptures in constructed spaces. These used a variety of visual techniques to thoroughly confuse the spatial reading of what was being photographed. That complexity and their vivid colors led many viewers to assume the images were photoshopped rather than constructed entirely by hand. Similarly, there’s an engineered confusion to the reading of the goofy, colorful fabric sculptures. Once you understand that the images that are digitally printed on the fabric are some of the only extant images of Arabic women imprisoned, tortured and executed for political or religious views, the cognitive dissonance becomes an important, disquieting feature of the show. The material is quite heavy, and you’re compelled to look deeper.
In addition to their ambitious and intense roster of shows for 2017, W|K hopes to test their business structure in the real world this year. They’re developing a stockholder model that will allow anyone to buy dividend-paying shares in the gallery, the proceeds of which will all go directly into the day-to-day operations of the gallery and support the artist-centric business model. Contact the gallery if you’re interested in becoming a shareholder.”
— article by Ním Wunnan for Oregon Arts Watch
Derek Franklin’s To Leave No Trace makes the Oregonian’s list of “10 Portland art exhibits you won't want to miss: Fall 2017”
“To Leave No Trace: Derek Franklin’s work encompasses spare pieces of found-object sculpture and confident abstract painting. This solo show of new work by an artist who goes a thoughtfully long time between shows happily includes both.”
Check out the full list of exhibits here.
Bozo Mag is pleased to announce, “New Paintings”
by Hayley Barker at Abode.
“These are the faces of spirits and guides, goddesses, and sometimes versions of myself, disembodied, that I meet when I journey. When I meet someone new in shamanic meditation I try to feel them, their energy. I try to discern their faces, and features, but oftentimes am left with little more than a shifting impression of their facial sphere. I may be listening to one speak for a long time, but barely be able to see their face. I feel I know them, even though I cannot fully see them. They are felt, known through not seeing.
Each one tests my ability to discern subtle energies.
When I am scared I tend to want to leave my body, but these guides are teaching me to stay in my body, even when
I cannot see the being right in front of me.”
This exhibition will be on view from Sunday, July 16th, until Sunday, August 27th. An opening reception will be held on Sunday from 5pm to 8pm at 840 North Wilton Place. Opening hours will proceed on every Sunday, from 12pm to 5pm, until Sunday, August 27th.
840 North Wilton Place, Los Angeles, CA 90038
bozomag.com for more info
Derek Tyler Franklin’s standing around waiting to inhale opens at Anytime Department (Cincinnati OH) June 30th. Franklin will be exhibiting at Williamson | Knight in August. Check out the Anytime Department show here.
Source: https://www.anytimedept.com/
Shannon Gormley (Willamette Week) talks about the opening of Williamson | Knight and spotlights Sheida Soleimani's Social Learning Theory as one of the must-see shows of May.
Williamson | Knight Gallery Announces Inaugural Year of Programming
March 28, 2017 PORTLAND, ORE – Williamson | Knight, a collaboration between Iris Williamson (former Associate Director of Hap Gallery) and John Knight (former Co-Director of Cherry + Lucic), is pleased to announce its inaugural year. To introduce the space, angélica maria millán lozano & Laura Medina will be presenting rolas in pdx on April 6, 2017.
The gallery’s exhibition program launches on May 4 with a solo exhibition by artist Sheida Soleimani. Williamson | Knight’s first year of programming includes artists Sheida Soleimani, Alisa Bones, Derek Franklin, Raque Ford, and Hayley Barker.
Gallery hours starting in May 2017
Thursday–Saturday 12:00pm–5:00pm & by private appointment
rolas in pdx
angélica maria millán lozano & Laura Medina
April 6, 2017
5:15pm parade at PNCA entrance (511 NW Broadway)
6:00pm performance at Williamson | Knight (916 NW Flanders St.)
we are rolas in pdx, claiming our colOmbian identities through the honoring of nuestrxs madres, hermanxs, y tías. marcharemos y cocinaremos para nosotrxs o for ellxs?
angélica maria millán lozano is a fibers and performance artist de bogotá, colOmbia who moved to portland in pursuit of her mfa in visual studies at pacific northwest college of art. her work questions the ethical implications of social injustices that affect latinas in the home. she creates abstract and figurative compositions on distressed fabrics where she juxtaposes different remnants symbolizing experiences affected by her colOmbian and united statesian culture. she is also a co-founder at cvllejerx, a poc focused fashion collaboration.
Laura Camila Medina is an artist from Bogota, Colombia. Through different mediums such as painting, printmaking, and animation she focuses on work that is informative and educational through the use of appropriated historical imagery. The pieces usually live amongst each other as installations; pieces of a fragmented history. Her work emphasizes the questions arising from the experience living as an immigrant in the US and an outsider at home. This contrast in environment is a driving force to explore current social issues in Colombia and the US involvement in Colombian politics, through the perspective of a multi-cultural individual. She bases her practice around uprooting and migration as a response to extensive cultural, socio-political, and historical research.