Chris Doyle projects Presto! at Disjecta Contemporary Art Center // Lita Albuquerque and Robbie C. Williamson’s 20/20 Accelerando at Disjecta Contemporary Art Center // Chris Johanson installation for YOU IN MIND (PNCA) // KSMoCA International Art Fair // Ellen Lesperance reading from her novel Peace Camps, Portland Art Museum, Crumpacker Family Library.
Converge 45, 2017. Exhibitions at PNCA, Disjecta Contemporary Arts Center, Cooley Gallery, Reed College; Hoffman Gallery, Oregon College of Arts and Craft; Littman Gallery, PSU; KSMoCA at King Elementary; the Portland Art Museum, and the public realm. Guest Artistic Director: Kristy Edmunds
Converge 45 presents its second year of programming under the direction of Inaugural Guest Artistic Director Kristy Edmunds, Executive and Artistic Director at the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA. Edmunds’ curatorial framework for Converge 45: YOU IN MIND, brings artists, curators, collectors, and the general public to the Northwest with the goal of engaging in critical conversations.
26 artists from California, New York, Oregon, and Ohio have been invited to present new and existing works throughout eight venues and the public realm, each responding to Edmunds’ framework of “YOU IN MIND.” With this direction, Edmunds has engaged artists who amplify the voice of others, care for the creative commons, and projects that exist without constraints of a market center. Exhibitions have been shaped by local curators in partnership with the artists and Guest Artistic Director. Many of the participating artists have been in conversation with the project since a three-day Artist Congress was held in Portland in 2016
2017’s participating artists include Lita Albuquerque and Robbie C. Williamson, Laurie Anderson, Drew Cameron, Demian DinéYazhi’/R.I.S.E.: Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment, Chris Doyle, Brian Droitcour with home school (Victoria Anne Reis + manuel arturo abreu), Tannaz Farsi, KSMoCA, MK Guth, Ann Hamilton, Stephen Hayes, Jessie Henson, Jim Hodges, David Horvitz, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Chris Johanson, James Lavadour, Ellen Lesperance, Catherine Opie, Claire Pentecost, Yassi Mazandi, MSHR, Jennifer Steinkamp, Storm Tharp, and Sharita Towne.
A special four days of extensive programming was held August 9–12 to view exhibitions and installations, attend lectures and special events, with participating artists and Kristy Edmunds.