The Upper Gallery waiting for e-merge.

In the basement the registrar and preparator are still unpacking and entering  data on the e-merge pieces that continue to arrive from around the world.

(Mary Kay’s group will soon publish images of all the finalists’ works. For now, here’s a peek at a few pieces from as far away as Italy, England and Ireland)

I’ve always liked the Upper Gallery as a space to show glass. Its rough crude walls work as a foil to the natural shine, delicacy and “prettiness” of much glass.

Except that in recent years a lot of artists have also been challenging these qualities in the art they make with the material.

Nothing foreign about this work: I recognize it from my old neighborhood.

So there’s the new challenge for the installers: white cube meets brick wall.

Ryan, Michael, I can’t wait to see what goes where!

FYI:

This is the first year that e-merge will be mounted at the Bullseye Gallery. In prior years the exhibition has shown at the smaller Resource Center gallery adjacent to the Bullseye factory.

We decided that 2010 was time for e-merge to emerge into the Pearl District, to leave the semi-industrial neighborhood where it spent its adolescence and join the grown-up gallery scene  with its chi-chi restaurants and First Thursday mobs.

So, here it is: out of a semi-industrial neighborhood – into a semi-industrial cube.

Our Registrar rises from the Bed of the Undead to talk about the e-merge 2010 entries he’s seen so far.

As Director – and the person that the gallery crew has to humor with these endless questions – I always enjoy hearing how they respond to the art we show. Because of the broad range of work selected, e-merge is often a banquet of visual tastes.

Fresh from running the MFA gauntlet at Cranbrook, Michael is probably used to being put on the hotseat for his opinions on art. And I couldn’t resist putting his feet to the fire on what he’s seen so far of the e-merge 2010 entries (barely half the entries had physically arrived at the gallery by the start of this week)

“Many of the selected works are tactile and nostalgic ….. intimate.  The works I’ve seen so far evoke fragility, but not in the expected ‘glass is fragile’ way,” he responded.

“It is more of an emotional or psychological fragility.  Labyrinths, out-dated objects, remnants, and physical representations of theoretical geometry, all, to me, manifest a world of confusion, nostalgia, loss, despair and beauty. (with Michael Rogers and Jeff Wallin as jurors, I’m not surprised that this group gives me this feeling)”

Thanks, Michael. And thank you, Cranbrook

In a nutshell. Each separate e-merge competition / exhibition will inevitably say as much about the aesthetic of the jury and the individual jurors as it does about the separate works selected. This is part of the reason why considering any juried art show simply a list of “The Best” is a pointless approach to a complex composition.

One of the most ubiquitous forms in kiln-glass is the platter or vessel. Like women and Avis, they really do have to “Try Harder”. I’m always thrilled to see one make the cut.

Contributing further to the personality of any show is the installation itself. I asked Michael what he was most looking forward to on his way to the install.

“Installing group shows is really exciting for me” he replied.  “Each artwork has its own story, but when you put one next to another, the story changes a little bit.  The emerging artists that have been selected for this year’s competition bring so many perspectives; it will be interesting to see what type of narrative the exhibition will create. “

And so the story builds. One box at a time, one chapter at a time. I am dying to read it all. In time.

I hope you’ll visit the gallery sometime during the run of e-merge 2010 for a reading of your own.

When: March 23 through June 19, 2010

Where: Bullseye Gallery in Portland, Oregon

Note that I did not say “best” when describing the art-makers selected for exhibition in e-merge. Nor did I say “young” or even “new”. Note that I did not say a lot of things about how e-merge is structured or what it is. Or who gets in. Or who doesn’t

I promise to discuss all that in later posts. For right now I want to start the conversation with a tour behind the scenes on the gallery side of Bullseye.

If you entered e-merge, you will be familiar with all the rules for entry and the irritating directions you were asked to follow if you were selected (ok, ok, ok! more about selection…later) – all those hurdles we asked you to jump just when you thought you’d gotten to the finish line.

I’m starting this series of posts at what may look to you like the finish line. Not.

For the gallery team – the starting gun is still ringing in their ears.

It’s the sound of RECEIVING ART.

Most e-merge art arrives at the gallery’s front desk, dropped into the assistant director’s hands by a UPS, FedEx or other Smiling Delivery Dude. It’s Jamie’s job to look over the package and note immediately – before Smiling Dude dashes out the door – whether there is any damage to the exterior of the package.

Making note of what may seem like insignificant dings and dents to the outside of a box can make the difference in collecting insurance – or not – if the contents later turn out to be damaged.

Why not ask the Smiling Dude to wait while it’s unpacked? You’ve never dealt with FedEx, have you?

That notation about exterior damage (aka “scuff” or “ding”) on the Smiling Dude’s delivery receipt is usually a CYA formality that is quickly lost in the rest of the receiving process.

Unless that insignificant little notation on the receiving slip manages to find its way thousands of miles back the shipping labyrinth to the artist. Which happened in the case of an unfortunate New Zealander who was informed by his carrier that his artwork had arrived damaged.

We could hear his head hitting the wall on our side of the Pacific.

I suspect his head was more damaged than the art (which was fine – just packed in a box with a small scuff on it’s exterior.)

But let’s talk good news.

Poorly packed work is a gallery’s eternal nightmare. Bless the artist who does it right. Like this one.

I could hear the preparators’ hands clapping all the way across town. THIS is great packaging! Note the placement and shape of the handles means that – most likely – the box will travel in the proper position. Note also the little “match-up” arrows where the lid meets the sides of the crate? That means that when ready for re-packing, we’ll know how to line up the lid. (It’s these little details that make a gallery’s staff love you, believe me)

That’s Michael our registrar looking shocked at the sight of such immaculate crating. A deer in the headlights was never so paralyzed.

And no, a gallery doesn’t just take the work out of the box, set it on a pedestal and collect the cash from the line of eager buyers waiting at the door.

Even if you provided the specifications of your object, all measurements are taken again and entered into the gallery data base. The work is inspected front, back and upside down for any chips, scuffs, cracks, or other issues – all of which are photographed and entered onto a condition report.

Then the entire work is photographed – a working shot for our records. More extensive photography may be required later if you haven’t provided the “professional image for promotional usage” as requested. (But if you didn’t provide “professional quality photography” it’s also sadly likely that your work didn’t get through the jurying process. Yes, more later)

Is it pedestal-ready yet? Not quite. But the supposedly simple process of physically getting an artwork into the gallery system is enough for one blog.

And for Michael. For now.

Next: So,  it’s not broken. Now what?

“You want me to work where? Doing what?” – moi, circa 1985

Today there are over 120 of us. I am the Gallery Director. I hardly know anyone at the factory anymore. It makes me sad sometimes.

As the last post proves, I even – almost – miss noticing some pretty incredible artists who work  in the belly of the bull.

Then someone sent me this link yesterday with the note: “New warehouse employee that is apparently an amateur photographer. I found this on his blog:”

Doesn’t look very “amateur” to me.

I love this one. And this one:It’s so ……Portland.

Welcome, Austin.

I don’t know you, but I sure like your eye.

(Don’t anyone ever give me grief again about the time I spend on Facebook! If it hadn’t been for a Facey friend, I’d have missed this Richard Wright beauty that was intentionally destroyed the day after we viewed it.)

(detail Kapoor Hexagonal Mirror, a dizzying stunner that we caught at PAM the day we returned to Portland)

Then a few days ago someone emailed me a link to a new website by one of our Bullseye people whose work I knew from the last couple of Working Glass shows here at the factory.

It was a helluva wake-up call. Sure, I’d seen Stacy Lynn Smith’s work before, but seeing it again on her new site really drove it home: sometimes some of the best stuff is right under our own noses.

(Detail of Stacy Lynn Smith’s “Selection”)

Go  HERE. Check out this glass. And watch out, Anish!

- Lani

PS. Like Wright’s fresco, Smith’s “Selection” was designed for destruction – a fiendishly attractive trend that we hope catches on in the studio glass movement. “Destructivism” …..hmmm, hard for glass peddlers not to love the sound of all that breaking material…