neulovers & drawing a blank

new year's was spent in portland and although i've only been living in SF for only a little while (about a month and a half), it was wonderful to be back and to see the old faces. it's been a trial ever since i left -- i've been mostly a homebody and haven't been doing nearly as much networking as i should be, but i have to keep reminding myself that i'm going through a transition right now and to give myself time and not get too frustrated.
being outside of my comfort zone will ultimately force me to grow both as a person and a curator and i think that moving away from portland's inclusive art scene will help me to understand different markets and influences of the industry.
in the meantime though, it's hard not to feel like a bum.

anyhow, it was good to be back in my old stomping grounds and everything seemed pretty much the same. a new haircut here, a new store banner there, but everyone was normal and doing their normal happy, wonderful portland-y things. lucky jerks. =P

i planned my trip so that i would be in town for the First Thursday art openings in the Pearl/Chinatown districts and i'm glad i did because i was able to catch two wonderful shows at compound gallery and backspace gallery.
compound did a show with grafuck called Neulovers. grafuck is an annual show/art book that usually happens at nucleus gallery in LA. nucleus' grafuck 3(some) had it's opening last month. compound's show was mostly japanese artists that have worked with the gallery before, so it was good to see some familiar styles working in the theme of sex/eroticism for this show.

cho-chan


kozyndan


shannon mcglothin


ena


i wish i remembered who this was...love it so much!


trip (aka meg hasegawa)


next door at backspace, they had their opening for "drawing a blank" a two-person show with eatcho and jason graham. i had seen eatcho's work before, but i wasn't familiar with jason graham. the show was....AMAZING! there was an overwhelming amount of work and it was almost too much for my eyes and brain to handle. oh my!

now, i love art, but i haven't been "what the @*&^%! OMG! ah! ah! no, what?!? *%$^#@!!!!!!" excited about a new (to me) artist in a while and jason graham was that for me. i was so excited, i ran over to the sandwich shop next door and dragged my friends (who had to swallow their prosciutto-provalone-tomato-lettuce sandwiches whole to catch up) to see the show! yah!
jason did 80 drawings and 5 paintings for this show and i just had to buy a few (despite being jobless, eek!) his drawings are so amazingly detailed though and....uh, amazing! sad that he doesn't have a website so i can share better pics! -__-

here are a few photos from the show:

jason graham


jason graham


MINE! ^__^


eatcho installation


eatcho


eatcho


the night ended with dancing and drinks at Someday lounge for "the fix" -- a weekly hip hop dance party that i used to frequent. and i even got to break in my christmas shoes:


i heart portland!