Just out., June 01, 2007, Page 18, Image 18

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Annual exhibit reflects community's diversity
by Julie Sabatier
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or the second year in a row,
Portland City Hall will showcase
a Gay Pride-themed art exhibit
inside commissioners’ offices fea­
turing an array of work from more
than two dozen artists.
“I think it reflects the diversity in the gay
culture,” said local artist Chris Haberman, who
helped curate the show along with Pollyanne Birge,
community outreach cixirdinator for openly gay
City Commissioner Sam Adams. Haberman got
involved with organizing for this year’s exhibit after
Adams bought one of his paintings featured in last
year’s premiere Pride show at City Hall.
Haberman says he put together the list of artists
from a combination of personal contacts and ads on
Craig’s List. The 34-year-oId Portland native appears
to have a finger on the pulse of the city’s art commu­
nity. He has included established Stumptown greats
such as poet and painter Walt Curtis, mixed-media
artist Mar Goman and photographer Paul Dahlquist
alongside emerging talents like abstract painter
Angela Gay and QuArt collective members Terra
Wilcoxson and Tony LeTigre, whose work also
appeared in last year’s show.
aherman says Curtis was
Q f l among his top choices for the
City Hall exhibit. “He’s a revolutionary.
I think he brings a lot of history and
energy to the show.”
Curtis, 65, is perhaps best known for
his autobiographical novel Mala Noche,
which inspired Gus Van Sant to make
his 1985 film of the same name. Also an
accomplished visual artist, he describes
himself as a “romantic realist" and
something of a “gay pioneer.”
“I’ve always been out," he says.
“I faced off my draft board in 1966 with
telling them I was gay and resisting
going to the Vietnam War.” He didn’t
Walt Curtis' autobiographical novel Mala Noche inspired
Gus Van Sant to make his 1985 film of the same name.
end up serving, although he
says the military’s official
reason for exempting him
was the missing joints on the
middle finger on his left
hand, which he got caught
in a sawmill.
Curtis will have three
paintings in the show,
although he’s had to chixise
them carefully, as much of
his work includes nude male
bodies, and City Hall has
some restrictions about con­
tent. “It’s a public building,”
explains Birge. “We don’t
show nakedness, nudity,
penises, nipples, anything
like that.”
Haberman has worked
Walt Curtis had to choose his paintings carefully, as much of his
closely with Curtis to select
work includes nude male bodies.
pieces that are appropriate
for the space. “There’s a lot of homoerotic art and
males,” he says, gesturing toward a painting titled
things that sometimes shed maybe some negative
“Let the Waves Take Me” depicting two naked
light on gay culture,” he says. “There’s a lot more to
men back to back with swirling blue and green
gay people than sex and nakedness.”
brushstrokes. “So here we are in 2007, and why
Curtis says he’s open to compromises, but he
can’t something like that be in the show? This is
sees the male form as integral to his work. “The
not hardcore sexual or anything. It’s just the sweet­
point of my entire life has been to what? Normalize,
ness of human bodies and being close.”
romanticize male relationships, particularly young
The three pieces Curtis and Haberman picked
Celebrating a year of I
The Men’s Wellness C
928 SW Stark Street
Special Pride Weekend Events
Saturday 6/16 2 -7pm
Meet the Guy(s) of Your Dreams
The Pride fun continues as our very own Chicos Latinos
host speed dating/friending (4 - 6pm) with hostess Miss Mylar.
There will be food and drink, giveaways ar
safer sex buffet
Sunday 6/17 1 - 5pm
Pride Lounge
Come by the Wellness Center after the parade
to enjoy slices of fruit, iced tea, soft leather
couches and chill-out music. Chat with othe
guys and check out our safer sex buffet
complete with hair-netted lunch “ladies."
For more information on other
monthly events or the Wellness Center
www.cascadeaids.org/services mens ,WM
503.445.7699
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