Mercury 7 and the New 9 opening

Posted by: Kilwag (editor) on March 11th, 2011
Categories: Annoy, Artsy Fartsy
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Arthur Lindsey is curating an exhibit at Artery called Mercury 7 and the New 9 featuring Dave Carnie, Ashley Anson, Russ Pope, Salvador Perdomo, Ray Gordon, Kim Hamblin, Todd Bratrud, Roger Seliner, Chris Johanson, David Petersen, Andy Jenkins, Jason Adams, Chris Corales, Johanna Jackson, Chris Pastras and Sam Coomes. More info after the jump.

January 27, 2011, Portland, OR . . . On March 11, Artery will open an exhibit called Mercury 7 and the New 9, curated by Portlander Arthur Lindsey. Now in his 30’s, Lindsey has been fascinated with space exploration for decades, and had long wanted to display this theme in a visually compelling way by involving the works of his closest friends. The show will include diverse artistic interpretations of Mercury 7 astronauts and the first human spacecraft to orbit the earth, Project Mercury. The show opens with a kick off celebration at 7 pm on Friday March 11, 2011 at Artery, 2219 NW Raleigh in Portland. The show runs through May 17, 2011 and is sponsored by Vans footwear.

Lindsey’s curatorial debut was in 2006 with “Calling all Cars” at Cal’s Pharmacy’s The Dept. of Skateboarding, and since 2008 he has been regularly curating the space at 15 NE Hancock. He also runs Storyboard Projects, where he enlists artist friends to produce original art for limited runs of signed and numbered skateboard decks.

Lindsey asked the Mercury 7 artists to interpret one of the original astronauts in their artwork. The artists are Dave Carnie, Ashley Anson, Russ Pope, Salvador Perdomo, Ray Gordon, Kim Hamblin, and Todd Bratrud. In the NASA project, additional astronauts chosen to orbit the earth were called The New Nine. And for this show, The New 9 artists are Roger Seliner, Chris Johanson, David Petersen, Andy Jenkins, Jason Adams, Chris Corales, Johanna Jackson, Chris Pastras and Sam Coomes.

All artists in the show are of varying degrees of notoriety. Some, like Jason Adams and Chris Pastras, are professional skateboarders whose physical creativity lends itself to also making art. Others are skateboarding industry veterans, such as Dave Carnie (Big Brother Magazine), Russ Pope (Vans), Andy Jenkins (Girl Skateboards) and Todd Bratrud (High Five Skateboards). And some, like Johanna Jackson, Chris Johanson and Chris Corales are established artists whose prolific creations are well-known in international art circles. And, musicianship is represented in the Mercury lineup as well; Sam Coomes of Quasi fame has been a gigging and recording rock & roll musician for the past 27 years.

Although NASA’s Mercury 7 astronaut team was announced in April 1959, more than a decade before Lindsey’s birth, space voyage always captured his imagination. “The show is a tribute to the endless opportunities that space travel held for us in the 1970’s and 80’s,” Lindsey says. “It’s the reflection of wonder and adventure seen through the eyes of a 7 year old kid, combined with the innocence and dreams we had both as a nation and individually. I am happy my friends are supporting me in this vision while highlighting the diversity of their works. And coincidentally, this year is the 50th anniversary of the first man in space!”

Artwork in the show will range from $300 to $5,000 per piece. More on the show can be found at arteryportland.com.

Dave Carnie’s image from the show titled Wally Schirra as Mercury.