In an act of reversal and post-studio practice critique, Timothy Scott Dalbow will move his painting studio into the NAAU beginning Valentines Day 2010. Over the course of the 6 week exhibit, the gallery space will be as active or inactive as his studio practice dictates. As mainly a night painter though, it is likely that to see him painting the visitor will need to drop by the NAAU in the evening. During day light hours it is suspected that the gallery will become an artifact of the previous night’s performance. Evolving daily, this exhibit feels necessary in this period of contemporary art where shrinking budgets and post-studio movements increasingly raise the question: why is art important and why are art objects of such great value.

I’m most recently reminded of Emily Harris from Oregon Public Broadcasting posing to her guest, MK Guth, during a “Think Out Loud” segment on July 1st: why should art matter to me? At first it would seem that in a city like Portland, Oregon, which clearly thrives in a great part because of its burgeoning cultural class, this would be an odd debate. There are certainly many aspects to this issue, but the one we will focus on in this instance is: Has familiarity bred a discontent with painting and how disconnected from the art making process in all of its performative and reverent struggle have we become? Maybe we’re not in search of hard line answers per se, but presenting an opportunity for a certain sensibility. We would like the viewer to receive from this exhibit a sense that art is part of something more.

NAAU continues with this “in residence” series through the end of May. The next artist will be Gabriel Liston.