This is the second year that the PSU Art Alumni and Friends Committee has published this ArtReach email newsletter with the sponsorship of the PSU Art Department. If this is the first one you have received it is because we have just obtained your email address either from you directly or from PSU. We want to keep you informed about our activities but if you do not wish to be on our email list just use the "Unsubscribe" feature at the bottom of this email. Please use "forward email" link at the bottom to send this to anyone who might want to receive these emails. We welcome hearing from you and your contributions of news and other information about art alumni from PSU.

 

By Pamela Morris

Alumni of PSU know firsthand what a heterogeneous range of people make up the vast body of students on campus. That diversity is retained and distilled in the art department to encompass a broad spectrum of art interests, backgrounds, ages, and approaches to art study and art-making. Department chair William LaPore asserts that over the last decade the number of art, graphic design, and art history majors at PSU has increased from roughly 300 to over 1000 students, and that the MFA program has more than doubled in size. Individuals who commit to and complete their course of studies in art at PSU retain within them an essence of their particular experience, time, and place on campus. This intelligible individual entity continues to evolve with changing perspective and may be expanded upon, added to, and developed over time. 
 
It is that dynamic element- the potential voice and relevance of every art alumnus, which the PSU Art Alumni and Friends Committee seeks to foster and highlight. With so many art graduates either navigating the waters or already immersed in productive periods of their professional artistic lives, the committee hopes to unify these diverse creative talents and accentuate their association with PSU. Organized by the Art Alumni Committee, the exhibition OUTLOOK: Portland State University Art Graduates 2005-2009 will open in the Autzen Gallery on Monday, November 2. (Opening reception is on Saturday, November 7, 6-9 pm) Guest-curated by art critic James Yood, the show represents, in a scope narrowed to the most recent five years, the distillation of PSU art endeavors interpreted through the eyes of this nationally known scholar and essayist on contemporary art. An alumnus in art history from the University of Wisconsin and the University of Chicago, Yood is Director of the New Arts Journalism program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he is Adjunct Full Professor in the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism. A longtime regional correspondent to Artforum and Art on Paper and former editor of New Art Examiner, Yood is a frequent guest curator for exhibitions on contemporary art and craft in America.      (OUTLOOK continued click here)

Justin Auld (MFA'05), Gordon Barnes (MFA '07), Carly Bodnar ('08), Christopher Clother ('06), Varithorn Christopher (MFA '09), Posie Currin (MFA '08),Shelby Davis (MFA '08),Greg Delapaix ('07), Xtal Giarth ('06), Tobias Greiner (MFA '06), Shelley Hershberger ('07), Maryetta Jaques Bietz (MFA '06), Verity Kent ('07), Namkirn Khalsa ('09), Michelle Licardo ('07), Alanda Lozano ('05), Frank Mathew ('08), Dele Mercier ('09), Yasha Renner ('06), Ben Rosenberg (MFA '07), Mandee Schroer (MFA '07), Kentree Speirs ('07), Jasmine Swisher ('07) and Nishiki Tayui ('05).

 

 An outstanding student of art history, Rebekka Rudin won the art department's Terri Barnes and Tom Norby Term Paper Prize and graduated from PSU with high honors in 2000. She went on to earn her MA in art history and museum studies at the City College of New York, CUNY, writing her thesis on the German Expressionist painter Alexej Jawlensky. While completing her studies, Rebekka interned at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, New Museum of Contemporary Art, and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Then, with her expertise in Expressionism, her poise, and fluency in several languages, she landed a position at the Neue Galerie on New York's upper east side, conducting exhibition and collection tours, often for special visitors. (Cartoonists Aline and Robert Crumb and actor Gene Wilder are among those who enjoyed personalized exhibition tours in Rebekka's company.) Rebekka also translated German documents for the Whitney Museum from the archive of artist Oscar Bluemner in preparation for his retrospective there in 2005-2006.
 
In 2007, Rebekka left New York and moved back to her native Switzerland, accepting a position as Exhibition Manager for Art Centre Basel, and then as curatorial assistant at the Fondation Beyeler, the prestigious modern art museum in nearby Riehen. "The green and the quiet after several years in NYC are incredibly calming," she wrote to her former PSU Professor Sue Taylor, and Rebekka took up gardening. She was followed to Switzerland by musician David Max, whom she had met in the U.S. The couple were married in May 2008. "Friends came from the world over," Rebekka reported, "and it was magical to see them all in one place." The most recent news, a baby is due on October 28! "No worries," Rebekka writes reassuringly, "my career will not stop because of the offspring: David will be the stay-at-home Dad." Congratulations and good luck, Rebekka and David!

 

Tell us about your news, exhibitions or just what you are doing. Send an email with the subject "news" to psuartalumni@gmail.com.
 
Jim Lommasson ('75) is having an exhibition in Portland at New American Art Union entitled Oaks Park Pentimento, November 6 through December 20, 2009. The opening reception is Friday, November 6, 6-9 p.m.
 
Crystal Schenk (MFA '07) and Shelby Davis (MFA '08) are participating in a three-month residency collaboration at Milepost 5 in Portland.  The resulting installation entitled West Coast Turnaround will be on display November 22-29, 2009. The opening party is November 21, 6-10 p.m.
 
Carolyn Cole ('77)exhibited her recent paintings in Chicago at Gallery KH. The show ended on October 27, 2009.

Marylhurst Art Gym presented Record/Record, an exhibition by Pat Boas (MFA 2000). The exhibition ended on October 28, 2009.

Marie Barton ('70) is showing her richly textured embroidery made from new and recycled materials through October in Portland at Gossamer Fiber Arts, 2418 E. Burnside.
 
Melissa McClure (MFA '92) has served as the Academic Dean at the Pacific Northwest College of Art since 2000. She taught there for twenty years prior to  her "deanship" and now supervises approximately 85 faculty and eight staff members in the 550-student program at PNCA.
 
In May of this year, Michael Endo ('06) received an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.