RACC Blog

Artist and filmmaker Elijah Hasan presents “12 Degrees Black” at the Portland Building Installation Space, July 10 – August 4

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PORTLAND, ORE – The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) is pleased to present an installation by artist Elijah Hasan in the exhibition space adjacent to the Portland Building lobby. Hasan’s installation, which runs from July 10 to August 4, combines a set of the artist’s stunning films with a suite of still images. The two mediums work together to poetically explore themes of race, place, and social consciousness.

Using Portland as his stage and backdrop Hasan’s work comments on universal themes, but is rooted deep in the African American experience in Portland and the Northwest. The three films on view at the Portland Building, all written and directed by the artist, are united by their ability to reframe and freshen critical conversations about social injustice, social consciousness, and who records history. The delicate, non-verbal sound tracks (written and performed by Hasan) that accompany the visuals complement content that is at turns challenging, comedic, dramatic and poignant.

“Every one of these pieces represent a degree of departure from the pervasive mindsets that perpetuate cycles of ignorance (darkness). Each of the works have a title as well as a unique symbolic category in which they exist. Whether a work expresses the sorrows of standing in the shadows of capitalism, or the exhaust of lugging around the weight of externally imposed artificial blackness, my challenge is the same. That is, how do I navigate through the flames of these hostile environments and retain my vitality and purity as a Human Being? A worthy question for which I present 12 symbolic realms of reflection.” – Elijah Hasan

About the Artist: Portland artist Elijah Hasan is an award winning filmmaker, photographer, writer and composer. While primarily known for his films and still photography, he describes what he does more universally—as “making art.” His films often employ experimental techniques that work to blend complex concept with powerful, graceful storytelling. Hasan is also an educator and has taught videography, 3-D animation, and photography to inner city youth for many years. His film Is That Me, which is included in 12 Degrees Black, was honored at the 36th Northwest Film Festival with both the Judges Choice Award and the Audience Choice Award for Best Experimental Film. www.elijahhasan.com

Meet the Artist: Join us for an opportunity to meet Elijah Hasan and discuss his work in person at the Portland Building Installation Space on Thursday, July 20, at 4:00 pm.

Viewing Hours & Location The Portland Building is located at 1120 SW 5th Ave. and is open 8 am to 5 pm, Monday – Friday. 12 Degrees Black opens Monday, July 10 and runs through Friday, August 4. For more information on the Installation Space series go to www.racc.org/installationspace.

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The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) provides grants for artists, nonprofit organizations and schools in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties; manages an internationally acclaimed public art program; raises money and awareness for the arts through Work for Art; convenes forums, networking events and other community gatherings; provides workshops and other forms of technical assistance for artists; and oversees a program to integrate arts and culture into the standard curriculum in public schools through The Right Brain Initiative. RACC values a diversity of artistic and cultural experiences and is working to build a community in which everyone can participate in culture, creativity and the arts. For more information visit racc.org.

Williams Avenue Honoring History Project Celebrated

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On June 3, there was a community celebration for the Black Williams History Project public art installation. Many community members were on hand to share reminiscences of the neighborhood. Over the summer, take a tour of the project using this map.

Artist Cleo Davis (center) with Honoring History of Williams Ave. Committee members Gahlena Easterly (left) and Deborah Leopold-Hutchins (right)

Paul Knauls (center) photobombing artist Cleo Davis and Kent Ford.

For more information see:

https://racc.org/2017/05/26/williams-avenue-art-community-celebration/

https://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/article/641672

At the Portland Building Installation Space: Elijah Hasan’s “12 Degrees Black”

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RACC is pleased to present an installation by artist and award winning film maker Elijah Hasan at the Portland Building. Using Portland as his stage and backdrop Hasan’s work skillfully and poetically explores themes of race, place, and social consciousness. 12 Degrees Black, which runs from July 10 to August 4th, combines a set of the artist’s stunning films with a suite of related still images.

Hasan’s films, all written and directed by the artist, are united by his ability to reframe and freshen critical conversations about social justice, history, and social consciousness. The delicate, non-verbal sound tracks (written and performed by Hasan) that accompany the visuals complement content that is at turns comedic, dramatic, powerful and poignant. www.elijahhasan.com

The Portland Building is located at 1120 SW 5th Avenue and is open 8 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday. The Installation Space can be found on the first floor directly adjacent to the building lobby. For more information on the Installation Space series go to www.racc.org/installationspace.

First “Fresh Paint” mural finished

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Fresh Paint is a pilot project of the Regional Arts and Culture Council’s Public Art Murals program in partnership with Open Signal: Portland Community Media.

From May 2017 – May 2018, three emerging artists will have the opportunity to paint a temporary mural that will be up for a period of four months on Open Signal’s west-wall facing the highly visible MLK Boulevard.

The first local artist to be featured is Molly Mendoza, an illustrator and graduate of the Pacific Northwest College of Art. As stated in her bio, Molly is “captivated by the relationships that she has built with friends, family, and foes alike over the course of her life. She sets out to emulate those relationships through her chaotic yet rhythmic style to make some dang-good drawings.”

To view a time lapse video of the mural’s installation, click here. The mural will be on display through September 2017.

 

Molly Mendoza painting mural. Photo courtesy of Open Signal.

 

Williams Avenue Artwork Community Celebration

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Williams Ave. was once the vibrant heart of Portland’s Black community. Formerly known as the “Black Broadway,” the corridor included a concentration of Black churches, businesses, social service organizations and nightclubs that were thriving and active community institutions.

Although the landscape has changed, there is much to remember, celebrate and build upon. In 2012, the Williams Ave. Safety Project Stakeholder Advisory Committee recommended to the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) that these stories be honored through an art history project that would have a prominent place on the corridor. Thus, the community-led Honoring History of Williams Ave. Committee and the Historic Black Williams Project were born.

Since then, local artists Cleo Davis and Kayin Talton Davis have been collecting stories, memories and histories from Black community members. Their artwork is now complete and ready for installation. We hope that this project will serve as both a visual archive and an inspiration for future community efforts. Please join us on June 3rd as we honor this history and project contributors. During this event we will have a brief speaking program and then launch group and self-guided walks of the corridor to view the art pieces. A map of the art walk will be available at the event and online post-event.

ART UNVEILING + COMMUNITY WALK

Saturday, June 3, 2017
12:00 PM – 2:00 PM (Program at 12 PM; community art walk to follow)
Dawson Park, N. Williams Ave. + N. Stanton St.
Portland, OR, 97227

RSVP: historicblackwilliamsproject@portlandoregon.gov or (503) 823-4239

Artist Helen Lessick marks the 30th anniversary of “House for Summer” with a “Tree Celebration” and exhibition

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House for Summer, artist Helen Lessick’s living tree sculpture located within Portland’s Hoyt Arboretum, is turning 30 years old! This captivating installation of birch trees, part of the City of Portland’s public art collection, has been pruned and shaped to take the form of a house, a house that changes with the seasons and is a reflection of the shelter of the forest canopy. House for Summer is a prime example of the work Lessick has done over the past three decades investigating the imagery and metaphor of plants.

Coinciding with this anniversary Lessick’s is having an exhibition at Jeffrey Thomas Fine Art and the Murdoch Exhibition Space. Titled CANOPY, the exhibition showcases Lessick’s recent works with trees across the American west and features a number of her site-specific installations as well as sculpture, artists’ books, and works on paper.

A Tree Celebration: Join us for an on-site event celebrating the 30th anniversary of House for Summer on Wednesday, June 21, from 3:30 to 5:30 pm. The Hoyt Arboretum is located at 4000 SW Fairview Blvd., in Portland—within the Arboretum House for Summer is located adjacent to the intersection of SW Fairview Blvd. and SW Knights Road. Refreshments will be served to honor the trees and will be followed by a human reception at Jeffrey Thomas Fine Art at 6 pm.

Jeffrey Thomas Fine Art and the Murdoch Exhibition Space are located at 2219 NW Raleigh Street, Portland www.jefferythomasfineart.com  For a map to House for Summer contact RACC Collections Manager Keith Lachowicz klachowicz@racc.org  CANOPY runs from June 10 – July 29 with an artist reception on June 10 from 4 to 6 pm.

About the Artist

Helen Lessick is a visual artist working in sculpture, installation, artists’ books and public art. She has received a Pollock Krasner Foundation fellowship, project grants from Art Matters, the Warhol Foundation and the Oregon Arts Commission and was the 2000 Bonnie Bronson Foundation fellow. Helen has been honored with solo shows at the Bellevue Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum and the Sierra Nevada Museum of Art, she has created commissioned artworks in Europe and Africa as well as across the US. Helen earned her BA in Art from Reed College and her MFA in Studio Art from the University of California Irvine. She maintains her practice in Los Angeles.  helenlessick.net

Artist Crystal Schenk presents “I’m Not a Barnacle, I’m Just a Boy” at the Portland Building Installation Space, June 5 – June 30

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PORTLAND, ORE – RACC is pleased to present a new work by sculptor and installation artist Crystal Schenk in the Installation Space located adjacent to the Portland Building lobby. I’m Not a Barnacle, I’m Just a Boy, opens June 5 and features an arresting sculpture that asks the viewer to look beyond their common understanding into the complexities of the mother/child relationship.

Schenk’s project is an expansive ceramic piece recently completed during her artist residency at Leland Iron Works in Oregon City. The work consists of a field of rocks—each handmade with black clay—which are smooth and satiny, as if tumbled by the sea. Over these rocks large white porcelain barnacles appear to have fastened themselves. The center of the field reveals a sculpture of her three-year-old son, also made in black clay with barnacles growing on his body.

“I like to let one material mimic and charade as another—as the process of discovery lends to an unfolding of understanding.” Schenk says. “Although some species of barnacle are parasitic, most are so harmless their hosts may not even notice them growing to cover their bodies. My relationship to my son has been similar. Starting as an almost unnoticeable seed in my body, he soon grew to take it over—and once on the outside he has been continuously attached to me, even now at three years old. This work was inspired by a moment while we were beachcombing, when he randomly told me, ‘Momma, I’m not a barnacle. I’m just a boy.’ The sculpture exposes my mixed emotions to being a parent, and my bond with this tiny being who is both autonomous and vaguely parasitic.”

About the Artist: Crystal Schenk has a labor-intensive and detail-oriented way of working, in which craftsmanship and material choices play a large role. Her mediums vary as she relies on a combination of material meaning and personal/cultural iconography to build concept. Her work incorporates a wide range of skills, including welding, stained glass, woodworking, crochet, beading, and casting to name a few. Woven through what may initially appear as visually disparate works are common themes of class structure, heritage, and the fluctuating perceptions of memory.

Schenk received an MFA from Portland State University in 2007, and a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999. She lives and works in Portland, Oregon and is an adjunct professor at Pacific Northwest College of Art and Portland State University. She was awarded the International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award for 2006, and was selected as the recipient of ISC’s residency program at Art-st-urban in Switzerland. In 2009 Art-st-urban awarded Schenk with the institution’s first Emerging Sculptor Award, and represented her at Art Basel in 2013 and Open 18 in Venice Italy in 2015. Locally, Schenk’s work was represented at the Oregon biennial, Portland 2010, and has been exhibited at Bullseye and Linfield galleries. This All Happened More or Less, a public art commission Schenk completed with Shelby Davis in SE Portland was recently recognized by Americans for the Arts one of 2014’s top public projects nationwide. www.crystalschenk.com

Meet the Artist: Join us for an opportunity to discuss I’m Not a Barnacle, I’m Just a Boy with Crystal Schenk in person at the Portland Building Installation Space on Thursday, June 8th at 4 PM.

Viewing Hours & Location The Portland Building is located at 1120 SW 5th Avenue and is open 8 am to 5 pm, Monday – Friday. I’m Not a Barnacle, I’m Just a Boy opens Monday, June 5 and runs through Friday, June 30. For more information on the Installation Space series go to www.racc.org/installationspace.


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The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) provides grants for artists, nonprofit organizations and schools in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties; manages an internationally acclaimed public art program; raises money and awareness for the arts through Work for Art; convenes forums, networking events and other community gatherings; provides workshops and other forms of technical assistance for artists; and oversees a program to integrate arts and culture into the standard curriculum in public schools through The Right Brain Initiative. RACC values a diversity of artistic and cultural experiences and is working to build a community in which everyone can participate in culture, creativity and the arts. For more information visit racc.org.

Temporary mural wall pilot program Fresh Paint, a partnership between RACC and Open Signal, to launch in May

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Local artists will paint temporary murals at Open Signal over the next year

PORTLAND, ORE – Fresh Paint, a temporary mural wall project, begins in mid-May as part of a new professional development initiative of RACC’s Public Art Murals programming. Three artists have been selected to paint a temporary mural on an area of the exterior west-wall of Open Signal facing the highly-visible Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. Each mural will be up for a period of four months and then painted over in preparation for the next mural.

The pilot program for Fresh Paint is a partnership between RACC’s Public Art Murals program and Open Signal, a community-driven media arts center. Artist participation required living in the Portland metropolitan area, having a consistent studio or mural practice, and not having received any public art commission through RACC nor having created an exterior mural in the City of Portland. The selected artists will receive a stipend for their participation and are offered the opportunity to engage with the myriad of resources at Open Signal.

Public Art Manager Peggy Kendellen elaborates: “This program offers emerging artists the opportunity to work in the public realm—and, in many cases, on a larger scale —with the support of both RACC and Open Signal. The partnership provides artists additional resources that they would not typically have access to as they explore working in the public sector and incorporating new approaches and skills in their artistic practice and experience.”

Open Signal is a 13,000-square foot media arts center that provides the public with easy access to media tools, training, broadcast and opportunities for experimentation. According to Open Signal Executive Director Justen Harn, “We have been working hard this year to reimagine our physical space and connect with the community in new ways through that space. We are thrilled to work with RACC to explore new forms of public engagement.”

Illustrator Molly Mendoza will be the first artist to paint. Her mural is a nod to Open Signal’s youth programs with a vibrant image of Portland youth engaging with the community through broadcasting and video media. It will be painted in mid-late May and remain up through September. The second artist will be Alex Chiu painting in the early October. The third artist will be featured in early 2018.

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About Fresh Paint
Fresh Paint is a temporary mural wall project that furthers mural painting skills and promotes digital media engagement. From May 2017 – May 2018, selected artists are able to showcase their work on an area of the west wall of Open Signal. The program is a partnership between Open Signal and RACC.

About Open Signal, Portland Community Media Center
Open Signal is a media arts center making media production possible for anyone and everyone in Portland, Oregon. Launched in 2017, the center builds upon the 35-year legacy of Portland Community Media to create a resource totally unique in the Pacific Northwest. Open Signal offers media workshops, an equipment library, artist residencies and programs five cable channels with locally produced content. Open Signal delivers media programming with a commitment to creativity, technology and social change. Learn more at opensignalpdx.org.

About RACC
The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) was established in 1995 and is funded by public and private partners to serve artists, arts organizations, schools and residents throughout Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties. RACC provides grants for artists, nonprofit organizations and schools; manages an internationally acclaimed public art program; raises money and awareness for the arts through workplace giving and other programs; convenes forums, networking events and other community gatherings; provides workshops and other forms of technical assistance for artists; and integrates the arts into K-8 curriculum through The Right Brain Initiative. Online at racc.org.