ELIZABETH MALASKA: RECENT GRANT

A beaming “congratulations” to Elizabeth Malaska for her recent Money for Women Grant from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund! 

About the Fund from their site: Barbara Deming (1917-1984) was a feminist, lesbian, poet, writer and nonviolent activist in the civil rights, anti-war and women’s movements. She founded the Money for Women Fund in 1975 to give financial and moral support to creative women. Money for Women is the oldest ongoing feminist granting agency. After Barbara’s Deming’s death in 1984, we became a memorial fund. While other grant sources have come and gone, our fund is in its third decade. We are still feminist and still willing to take risks. The fund gives encouragement and grants to individual feminists in the arts (writers, and visual artists). The Fund relies on a volunteer Board and judges to collaborate in making awards.

JONATHAN CASELLA / EVERYTHING WE EVER WANTED / IMAGES

Jonathan Casella, The Fizz, 2015, acrylic on panel, 30.5 x 24”
Jonathan Casella, What’s After the Great Escape? Loneliness and Something Else…, 2015, acrylic on panel, 30.5 x 24”  
Jonathan Casella, Once Hidden in Time, Twice Forgotten Until Found Near the Pressed Flowers, 2015, acrylic on panel, 13 x 10”
Jonathan Casella, A Benevolent One, but Anyone Who Understands This Vault Wasn’t Made Pinching Pennies, 2015, acrylic on panel, 13 x 10"
Jonathan Casella, Jewish Girl from Florida. Her Nose., 2015, acrylic on panel, 14 x 10 1/2”
Jonathan Casella, The Drive Saw Palm Trees (right), 2015, acrylic on panel, 17 x 15”

BIO
Jonathan Casella is a Texas born painter now living in Portland, OR. He’s studied art in San Francisco and has shown at CAMH in Houston, the Luggage Store in San Francisco, Galerie C.O.A. in Montréal, QC, and in various pop-ups set up in New York hotel rooms.

SARAH MIKENIS / EVERYTHING WE EVER WANTED / IMAGES

Sarah Mikenis, Everything We Always Wanted, 2014, oil on canvas, 48 x 42", sold
Sarah Mikenis, Shifting Back, 2014, oil on canvas, 48 x 36”
Sarah Mikenis, Untitled (Confetti Party), 2015, latex, acrylic, spray-paint on canvas, 32 x 24”, sold

BIO
Sarah Mikenis currently lives and works in Eugene, OR while pursuing her MFA at the University of Oregon. Born and raised in Portland, she has shown locally at the White Box and the Gallery at the Jupiter Hotel, and is a member of the artist run Ditch Projects in Springfield, OR. Congrats to Sarah who is spending the summer at the renowned Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in Maine.

"THE INS AND OUTS": SHORT REVIEW

We were pleased to meet Megan Harned, the newly appointed Visual Arts writer for the Willamette Week, last weekend. Here’s her short review of Emily Counts’ The Ins and Outs:

“To answer my own question, Emily Counts new work is Freudian and feminist, weird and queer. As the name of the show suggests, The Ins and Outs has a great deal of sexual subtext, but these works aren’t simple iterations of mortars and pestles. Some are freestanding sculptures in the round and others are strung together and hung up like unwieldy ritual ornamentation. Segmented ceramic rope is a unifying motif that causes the viewer to recall intestinal tissue alongside gilded phalluses and perforated cervices. Counts handles her medium well and creates a variety of contrasting textures through manipulation and glazes. They heighten the physicality of the work and bring out our own desire to touch, fondle, and caress the sculpture on display.” 

EMILY COUNTS: A FEW DETAILS

These are just a few of our favorite moments from Emily Counts’ sculptures now on view until June 1 in her show, The Ins and Outs.

THIS WEDNESDAY: A READING BY TOM SPANBAUER

Nationale proudly presents a special reading by Portland writer and teacher, Tom Spanbauer this Wednesday, May 20 (7:30 p.m.) at the gallery.

Spanbauer is an American writer whose work often explores issues of sexuality, race, and the ties that bind disparate people together. Raised in Idaho, Spanbauer has lived in Kenya and across the United States. He lives in Portland, Oregon, where he teaches a course titled dangerous writing. He graduated in 1988 from Columbia with an MFA in Fiction and has written five novels, including I Loved You More (Hawthorne Books), from which he will read. Spanbauer is the recent recipient of the Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award for outstanding contributions to Oregon’s literary life.

“It is a terrifying thing to bring your inner life out of the closet and read it aloud to a group… Because I encourage excellence, and each of us has our own excellent, and excellence only comes with not being afraid of who you are. To learn to speak your truth honestly with a clear voice takes lots of practice, and every trick in the book to keep you going down the arduous, cruel, lonely, glorious path of a writer.” –Tom Spanbauer, on the dangerous writing technique.

 

 

FAVE3: EMILY COUNTS

Eliza Fernand frown vase ($25)

Eliza Fernand frown vase ($25)

“This Eliza Fernand vase is plump, shiny and makes me cheerful despite the frown. It will hold a perfect little bouquet for a frownie day.“

 

Ty Ennis, 2nd & Bernhard (Spokane, WA), 2012, ink watercolor, acrylic on paper, 15 x 11″, ($1000) framed

Ty Ennis, 2nd & Bernhard (Spokane, WA), 2012, ink watercolor, acrylic on paper, 15 x 11″, ($1000) framed

“I love visiting this Ty Ennis painting currently hanging in the back room. The bright stacked objects and dark wood grain of the floor and walls form a dramatic structure of interlocking blocks of pattern. This meticulously constructed space is the most appealing and lonely porn store I can imagine.“

 

Liam Drain ceramics ($22–$60)

Liam Drain ceramics ($22–$60)

“These gorgeous Liam Drain porcelain vessels were skillfully thrown by hand and their dark intricate patterns applied by laser. I love the combination of traditional craftsmanship and new technology. These objects are attainable treasures!“

TOMORROW EVENING: ILYAS AHMED!

Please join us Thursday, May 14 at 7 p.m. as we celebrate the release of Ilyas Ahmed’s new album, I Am All Your Own. 

“Ilyas’ music is in service to dream investigation, at once still and impermanent as an August cloud and then sweeping like a strange breeze through your thoughts. “I Am All Your Own” will wrap you in serenity but is aware that any second now you may escape. Music of a sweet morning, and unforgettable.” 
–Thurston Moore

Image Asif Ahmed

APARTAMENTO 15 NOW IN STOCK

Some images from the new issue and the magazine featured in the gallery with Emily Counts’ sculptures & in the shop with a vase by The Granite…

SAVE THE DATE: MAY 14 // ILYAS AHMED

During its first six years, Nationale hosted monthly events, from poetry readings to intimate concerts, from serious lectures to silly dance performances. We built a strong community around them and even though we had to slow things down with the arrival of baby Lou, we are back at it this month with a special record release + concert by Nationale alum, Ilyas Ahmed. Please join us on Thursday, May 14 (7 p.m.) as we celebrate the release of I Am All Your Own, his newest album on Immune Recordings.

Ilyas Ahmed’s songs exist in a sublime moment of suspended animation, calmly dwelling in between modes of music making both timeless and contemporary - deeply imbued with stillness and peace. On I Am All Your Own, his first album in three years, Ahmed employs strategies gleaned from experimental and ambient musicians, such as Lawrence English and Fripp & Eno, and applies them to song-based guitar music. Building slowly and purposefully, each individual track adds to the album’s overall, scrupulously-forged contour. His most direct work, Ahmed’s voice is brought to the fore and unobscured. Like the best work of his friend and collaborator Liz Harris (Grouper), as well as classic touchstones such as the Velvet Underground’s self-titled third album and David Crosby’s “If I Could Only Remember My Name,” Ahmed’s latest is sentimental and emotive, while remaining hushed and understated. I Am All Your Own is a record for late nights and early mornings, those times spent in solitude and reflection.

#PGFBIGSHIRT

A big thank you to everyone who stopped by this past weekend and made #PGFBIGSHIRT, our pop-up with Portland Garment Factory, such a success. It was a real delight to experience how much people LOVE clothes and to watch smart, bold, beautiful women play around in fun clothes made by the brilliant team Britt and Rosemary have built over the years.