Joanne Teasdale, Twins, 2010
fusible film and kilnformed glass, 13.25 x 14 x .25 inches
Photo: J. Vokoun
The Portland art scene in 2010 had a Dickensian “best of times, worst of times” duality. Among the setbacks and sadnesses were veteran gallerist Laura Russo’s death in February from esophageal cancer at the age of 66 and, on Dec. 12, the death at 83 of philanthropist Ed Cauduro, one of the Northwest’s pre-eminent art collectors. Also this year, several notable galleries closed their doors: Beppu Wiarda in July, Ogle in October, and Fourteen30 Contemporary in November, although the latter gallery is restructuring and, according to director Jeanine Jablonski, will reincarnate in some fashion come springtime.
Despite the rough patches, there were reasons for optimism. In May, artists Blair Saxon-Hill and John Brodie opened the heady and chic art-book store, Monograph Bookwerks (5005 NE 27th Ave., 284-5005), a big shot in the arm for Portland’s cultural credibility. Also in the spring, curators Arcy Douglass and Jeff Jahn mounted the world-class scholarly conference and exhibition Donald Judd: Delegated Fabrication at UO’s Portland campus in Old Town.
And in November, the eminently promising YU Contemporary Art Center held a preview touting its cavernous exhibition space and big, if thus far ill-defined, ideas for programming. Then there were the gallery, nonprofit, institutional and museum shows that continue to make visual-arts offerings in Portland so consistently varied and vital. These were some of our favorites.
Best glass: Joanne Teasdale’s hauntingly elegiac Imprints at Bullseye in April.
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