Author: Jeoffry Ray

This Wednesday, the Portland State art department is having something of a rebirth. Wednesday’s exhibition, titled “Say My Name, Say My Name,” will feature an array of events, including artist open studios and a bingo match.

From contemporary sculpture to eye-popping prints and visceral paintings, February’s First Thursday, had it all. Downtown residents poured through the Pearl District and Old Town for an evening packed with opening receptions, and just about every gallery had something new to show.

A couple of opening words of advice to aspiring visual artists: artists beware. Pursuing a career in the visual arts can be daunting. In an ever-changing field that often seems governed by subjectivity and social whims, it can be difficult to navigate the shifting path to success. And success is a highly dubious word in a world given to constantly evolving trends and a tendency toward self-critique.

It isn’t often that students and recent graduates get a chance to show their art at a high-end commercial gallery. Last weekend, the downtown-based Mark Woolley Gallery changed that with a disarming exhibition dominated by two of Portland State’s own.

Portland has its own late-night talk show, and some of the guests have described its host as a lecherous buffoon. Even Aaron Ross, the creator of The Ed Forman Show, had mostly scathing words to say about host Ed Forman, referring to him as a “polyester-clad self-help guru, who’s really just out there to help other people so he can get laid.

This month’s First Thursday event sported art of all varieties, but it was a printmaker’s night at several of the Northwest galleries. The Vanguard spent much of its tour at the Pearl District’s PDX Contemporary Art, viewing its current group print exhibition. It features pieces by artists working under the Ford Family Foundation’s Golden Spot residency program at the Oregon-based Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts.

Portland State’s Littman and White Galleries will put student art on display this month, and it’s not too late for aspiring artists to get involved.

The exhibition, titled “Open,” will hang from Thursday, Jan. 17, to Wednesday, Jan. 30. Works will be selected by guest juror and Portland-based art writer John Motley. The Littman Gallery will accept submissions through this Thursday.

Each work of found art in graphic design senior Elizabeth Thompson’s recently opened art show, “Unsigned,” is a medley of contributions by anonymous users consisting of scribbles, doodles, sketches and vaporous bits of text. The show features a series of collected illustration boards salvaged from Blick Art Materials in the Pearl District.

If you’re interested in checking out the Northwest Film Center’s Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival, time is running out. But don’t fret: In this, its final weekend, the center will continue to screen a wealth of regionally produced films, and tickets remain readily available.

Dreary weather didn’t put a damper on last week’s First Thursday gallery walk in downtown Portland. Patrons crowded their way across the Pearl District and Old Town, filling out the breadth of galleries dotting the city’s heart.

Appropriation, or the taking of something without right or license, is a common theme and tool in contemporary art and throughout modern pop culture. Sports teams fit their logos with imagery depicting cultural stereotypes, even as conceptual artists pilfer commercial brands for use in their own works. In some cases, these forms of appropriation can be provocative or invigorating to an icon or image. But when exactly is appropriation inappropriate?