Alice McLean’s May Installation Debuts @ Alberta Street Earth Day Cleanup
March 18, 2012 § Leave a Comment
That picture's not sideways, folks! It's an award AND a hat hook!
In the spirit of the Earth Day festivities, Alice constructed her installation entirely of reused materials. The result was gorgeous, graceful, and crafty as hell. For more photos, visit our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/artonalberta. Or, if you have to check it out in person (and who can blame you?) you can also find RED ROVER at NE 21st St. between Sumner & Emerson (just 1 block north of Alberta). RED ROVER will also be brought to several events throughout May, so keep your eyes peeled 
RED ROVER + Susannah Kelly + Neil M. Perry = Sept Last Thursday Installation Extraordinaire!
September 26, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Stilted Ambitions from our fave dynamic duo
About the artists:
Susannah Kelly and Neil M. Perry are an artistic duo currently practicing in Portland, Oregon. They have collaborated on murals, paintings, and now installations. This is the first 3D exhibit the pair has constructed and, although the process was not without difficulty, both artists feel they have learned a lot about their own skills and their working relationship. They hope we enjoy the installation. We know we will – and we’ll surely keep an eye out for their future collaborations around Stumptown.
About the installation:
Expectations about modern lifestyles are strongly ingrained but weakly supported. Even though we live in a world experiencing the repercussions of overwhelming debt and financial decay, notions of success have not shifted. What was once attainable is now beyond most people and the many are made to feel inadequate, due to the failings of the few. Owning a family home is the quintessential symbol of contemporary success, and we are made to want it, even if it is unsupportable. Living beyond one’s means has become the norm, and people struggle to support the tenuous systems they were made to believe were sustainable. Rather than return to building our lives on stronger foundations of a more realistic lifestyle we seem content to use taller, less sturdy stilts which are ever more likely to collapse.
RED ROVER’s next installation by Colleen Flanigan debuts at Last Thursday August 25th on Alberta Street
August 26, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Join Art on Alberta in viewing its mobile art gallery, RED ROVER, during Last Thursday on Northeast Alberta Street this Thursday, August 25, 2011. Each month the trailer presents artwork from local artists. This month’s featured artist, Colleen Flanigan, will showcase an installation simulating a Biorock® reef ecosystem in the unique space on public display through September.
- WHO: Colleen Flanigan
- WHAT: Living Sea Sculpture: Contemporary Art as Coral Refuge
- WHEN: Last Thursday
August 25, 2011, 5pm to 9pm - WHERE: Art on Alberta’s RED ROVER, a mobile art gallery
“Art Square” sponsored by Radio Room - 1130 Northeast Alberta Street (across the street from Radio Room) Portland, OR 97211
With the help of artists from Gossamer Fiber Arts, Ms. Flanigan crocheted corals and felted fish to create art as ecology. Also on exhibit is a 1:12” scale model of the Living Sea Sculpture built for the Museo Subacautico de Arte in Cancun. This installation in the RED ROVER roving gallery space may be viewed during Last Thursday (5:00 pm to 9:00 pm) at 1130 Northeast Alberta Street.
On September 20th RED ROVER will make its way to the Mission Theater & Pub at 1624 NW Glisan Street for OMSI’s Science Pub where Colleen will present Living Sea Sculpture: Contemporary Art as Coral Refuge. Thereafter, the exhibit may be seen through September 26 on Northeast 19th Avenue between Going and Wygant Streets.
Artist Statement
How can art play a central role in solving our ecological problems? By moving the paradigm from “art about ecology” to “art as ecology,” and giving voice and form to science and solutions. With Biorock® mineral accretion, scientific inquiry and engineering meet with emotion, compassion, and composition to provide coral life support, shore protection, and marine habitat. Years of jewelry and mixed-media sculpture making, plus a exploration with electroforming and gardening, led Flanigan to discover this creative niche. In this installation, Flanigan simulates a Biorock® reef ecosystem. The crocheted corals and felted fish are by artists and crafters through Gossamer Fiber Arts. Also in the exhibit is Flanigan’s 1:12″ scale model of the Living Sea Sculpture built for the Museo Subacautico de Arte (MUSA) in Cancun. You can see a video of her process and work here.
Colleen Flanigan
Visual, performing, and environmental artist
Currently living in Portland, Oregon, and raised along the Monterey Peninsula in California, Colleen Flanigan has been listening to the ocean tide for much of her life. Her background is in design, jewelry, steel sculptures, conceptual and interactive mixed media, and ball-and-socket armatures for stop-motion animation (including for the LAIKA feature movie, “Coraline.”) Through her socio-ecological alter egos, Miss Snail Pail and Amphitrite, Flanigan has joined the voices defending our natural resources as an interventionist artist. The documentary, “On the Trail with Miss Snail Pail” has been screened at four environmental film festivals since 2009. As Amphitrite, goddess of the sea, Flanigan leads coral restoration re-enactments. Working with an international team in Cancun this summer, she built a steel sculpture inspired by DNA for the underwater Museo Subacuático de Arte (MUSA). Colleen is in the first class of TED Senior Fellows.
CLICK HERE to view the press release in a new window or tab.
RED ROVER’s next installation by Rosalynn and Adam Rothstein debuts Saturday August 13th at the Alberta Street Fair
August 26, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Join Art on Alberta in viewing its mobile art gallery, RED ROVER, during Alberta Street Fair on Northeast Alberta Street this Saturday, August 13, 2011. Each month the trailer presents artwork from local artists. This month’s featured artists, Rosalynn and Adam Rothstein, will showcase a moving fabric installation in the unique space on public display through August.
- WHO: Rosalynn and Adam Rothstein
- WHAT: Moving fabric installation
- WHEN: Alberta Street Fair
August 13, 2011, 11am to 7pm - WHERE: Art on Alberta’s RED ROVER, a mobile art gallery
Alberta Main Street
1722 Northeast Alberta Street
Portland, OR 97211
The Rothsteins constructed fabric tunnels from the gallery windows to view an interior installation powered by atomic clocks and made of re-purposed materials. This unique installation in the RED ROVER roving gallery space may be viewed during Alberta Street Fair (11:00 am to 7:00 pm) at 1722 Northeast Alberta Street. Later that evening, the gallery will then move to Yakuza Lounge located at 5411 Northeast 30th Avenue. Thereafter, the exhibit may be seen at Multnomah Arts Center on August 20, and finally through August 30 on Northeast 19th Avenue between Going and Wygant Streets.
Artists’ Statement
This installation is made of entirely reused materials except for the fasteners (duct tape and zip ties) and batteries. Both artists place a high degree of importance on using re-used or re-purposed materials in their artworks. The artists seek to inspire a high degree of interactivity from the viewer with their pieces, whether that interactivity is tactile or conceptual. As such, they both believe in the importance of utilizing re-used or found materials in order to heighten the degree to which the audience can engage in the discussion of resource management.
Rosalynn Rothstein lives in Portland and grew up in New York. Her father worked at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and one of her first memories is drawing cats and flowers in a Pratt studio. She studied at the Parsons School for Art and Design during high school and continued her study of art at Grinnell College where she earned a B.A. in comparative literature. She supplements her current work for the city of Portland with hobbies, including rebuilding smashed objects in Jello, crocheting, knitting and baking, for which she received several blue ribbons at the Oregon State Fair. Recently her study of the Sogetsu school of Ikebana and volunteering at SCRAP has been a strong influence and developing force on her paintings and sculpture.
Adam Rothstein is involved in production, the space and time of which is certainly having some brutal times. Those who involve themselves in the enjoyment of making things are feeling pressure from the quarters of those who cannot spare energies, material and monies for such futile pursuits as production. He lives and works in Portland, Oregon and enjoys drawing trees.
CLICK HERE to view the press release in a new window or tab.
RED ROVER Debuts on Alberta Street with Artist Lauren Grube
July 6, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Join Art on Alberta in welcoming its mobile art gallery, a 1960s teardrop trailer dubbed RED ROVER, during June’s Last Thursday event on Northeast Alberta Street. Each month the trailer will present works from local artists. This month’s featured artist, Lauren Grube, will showcase photographs and a nature installation in the unique space on public display through July.
- WHO: Lauren Grube
- WHAT: photographs and nature installation
- WHEN: Last Thursday on Alberta (June 30, 2011, 5 – 9pm)
- WHERE: Art on Alberta’s Red Rover near Binks Bar @ 2715 Northeast Alberta Street
Looking through the gallery windows at her installation, Ms. Grube hopes you will examine your ongoing interaction with nature, yet momentarily within the confines of a metal trailer. The gallery may be seen on Thursday, June 30, 2011 from 5:00 to 9:00pm at 2715 Northeast Alberta Street in front of Binks Bar. Thereafter, the exhibit may be seen through July 26 on Northeast 19th Avenue between Going and Wygant Streets.
Artist Statement
Nature is wondrously alive. Across the planet we are all sustained and surrounded by its magic, whether or not we realize it or even see it. It envelops, protects and sustains everyone regardless of age, race or religion. It can comfort and solace. It imbues us with the wisdom of its ancient ways, simply by its being. I’ve always been intrigued with the power of this silent world and look for opportunities to capture its spirituality through photography. We may find it in a spectacular scenic vista or in the intricate design of a single leaf. The inner beauty of this mysterious world resonates with meaning and unity, if we only stop to notice. How does this silent world then feel inside a trailer? Does that metal barrier make us feel differently about what we see?
