Jeff Jahn

Jeff Jahn (born 1970) is a curator, art critic, artist, historian, blogger and composer based in Portland Oregon, United States.

Jahn's cultural activities in Portland Oregon's art community defy any single definition but they often receive attention outside the region on CNN, Art in America [Plagens, Peter. "Report From the Blogosphere: The New Grass Roots", [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_10_95/ai_n25439329 "Art in America"] , November 2007.] and Art News etc. Jahn has often been described in the press as "outspoken and provocative", [ [http://www.ultrapdx.com/zero/2006/04/28/ultra-q-jeff-jahn/ ULTRA] ] and curatorially as, "a clarion call for Portland's new guard of serious artists—the ones creating a dialog that exceeds the bounds of so-called regional art." [Henderson, Harvest, "The Oregonian", May 16th, 2003.] He originally took up art criticism when then Modern Painters editor Karen Wright asked him to contribute to the then London based magazine in the late 1990's and in 2005 he co-founded PORT, a noted visual arts blog that acts more like an art magazine than a personal outlet.

Also, though an apostitate academician he lectures on art history or critiques regularly at; University of Oregon, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland State University, and Lewis and Clark College. Since 2002 Jahn has served as a board member of the Portland Art Museum's Contemporary Art Council beginning in 2002 and was elected to the vice president's post for a three year term 2005-2008. In 2006 he launched the visual arts non-profit Organism, which has hosted the work of artists Jarrett Mitchell, [Gallivan, Joseph, "Portland Tribune" December 2006.] Pipilotti Rist, Yoram Wolberger, Weppler & Mahovsky and Hank Willis Thomas.

Exhibitions

As a curator Jahn has been behind challenging high profile exhibitions like: "Play" (2002), [Bancud, Michaela. [http://www.portlandtribune.com/features/story.php?story_id=13334 Game plan: Local arts champion Jeff Jahn assembles a show that focuses on our innate need to play.] "The Portland Tribune", September 6 2002.] "The Best Coast" (2003), "Symbiont Synthetic" (2003), "Fresh Trouble" (2005), "Model Behavior" (2007) [Speer, Richard. [http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3344/9548/ Organism's sophomore show impresses with restraint.] "Willamette Week", September 12 2007] and Volume" (2008) [Motley, John. [http://www.portlandmercury.com/visualart/renegotiating-space-with-volume/Content?oid=886872] "Portland Mercury", September 4 2008] etc. Jahn's art has been exhibited in the United States and Germany. Since 2007, his photography [Art News (review of and image from Zeitgeist at Pulliam Deffenbaugh gallery) September 2008] [ [http://data.racc.org/visualchronicle/details.php?id=2800.11&PHPSESSID=ab3d8d90e164e9d8d7ed3b7df5e9b2bc Portland Visual Chronicle] September 2008] , and spatial installations have received increasing attention. His most recent solo show "Eutrophication" took place at "Pacific Northwest College of Art's" Manuel Izquierdo Sculpture Gallery in April 2008 in a space orginally designed by a young Brad Cloepfil, then later modified by faculty. Jahn's project highlighted and loaded the adhoc accretions that the altered space had aquired.

Publications, reviews and interviews

Jahn has been published, reviewed and or interviewed in, "Art in America", "Art News", CNN [Brown, Aaron. [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0409/28/asb.00.html] "CNN", September 28 2004] , "Modern Painters", "Art Critical", "NY Arts Journal", "Clear Cut Press", "The Oregonian", "Portland Tribune", "Portland Mercury", "Willamette Week", "The Stranger" and Diesel music magazine. As publisher and chief critic of PORT, he helped to increase the number of art writers in Portland, both quantitatively and qualitatively, prompting Stuart Horodner to state, "In the ecology of Portland he is an important independent player....He's calling for a level of seriousness." [Row, D.K. "The Oregonian", September 5, 2002.] His critical writings and photos for "Northwest Drizzle" and PORT are detailed documentation of the recent changes in the Portland art scene.

On September 5, 2002, "The Oregonian" said, "…Jahn's laser focus on the present moment emphasizes one important thing about him: He's the voice of right now." [Row, David. "The Oregonian", September 5 2002.] On December 20, 2006 Richard Speer stated, "Jeff Jahn has the smarts to mount quirky conceptual shows by nationally known artists…" [Speer, Richard. "Willamette Week", December 20 2006 [http://wweek.com/editorial/3306/8343] .] The "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" described "Fresh Trouble" (which included China's Cao Fei) as "impressive." [Hackett, Regina. [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/visualart/243793_portlandart.html Wake up, Seattle. Portland's art world is gaining on you.] "Seattle Post-Intelligencer", October 10 2005.]

References

External links

* [http://www.jeffjahn.com Jeff Jahn homepage]
* [http://www.portlandart.net PORT:portlandart.net]
* [http://www.portlandart.net/authors.php?author=2 His PORT articles]
* [http://www.nwdrizzle.com/drizzle/archives/Criticalindex.html His critical i articles]
* [http://www.artorganism.org Organism]