Time to say goodbye to William Damiano’s creatures. What a good time we had.

Very exciting: Rikki Rothenberg’s exhibition opens Wednesday. Reception First Friday.

First photograph © Kathleen Keogh.

In order of appearance: Patricia Poodle Stats, Patricia Poodle Costumes 1, Fox Family Movie Project, Fox Family Football, Fox Family 1,000,000, Fox Family Sgt Peppers.

All work 2012, ink and watercolors on paper, dimensions variable. Please email info@nationale.us for a price list and visit our website for more images.

William Damiano’s solo exhibition closes this Sunday May 27th, 6 p.m.

Come get your free, limited edition, and generally awesome Brad Adkins poster, we have a few in. It’s an announcement for a show Adkins is curating next month at Ditch Project in Springfield, OR. Awesome line-up + you have nothing to lose.

So yes, a lot is going on these days in our Inner South East neighborhood and it will be exciting to see what happens in the next couple years as the area continues to develop. In the meantime, a few folks are getting organized and have updated a map of First Friday happenings, and a First Friday Facebook page as well. Hopefully this effort will help promote our neighborhood at a time when Visual Arts listings have become so hard to get despite abiding to everyone’s press deadlines (thank you nonetheless to the Portland Mercury’s online listing, the Oregonian’s A & E section, and portland or us now in helping us reach out to larger audiences).

Events of note tomorrow night: we have new neighbors upstairs at the 811 mall and they’ve asked none other than Jason Brown of Half/Dozen, to curate their space with a great opening line-up: Calvin Ross Carl, Ashley Sloan, and Nathanael Thayer Moss??? Uh, yes please! Also upstairs, a black and white photography group show at Black Box gallery. Downstairs: Bombshell Vintage, Aequanimitas, and Julia Barbee are all staying open late, Brent Wear shows at Redux, and fashion photographer Natasha Estelle takes over HAUNT. On E Burnside: Carl Diehl’s Drone Kitsch opens at Half/Dozen, film art by Stephen Scott Smith at Machus, Julianna Swaney at Lille, and just a bit further south: W+K12 at Union/Pine and the amazing Amy Bernstein and Emily Nachison in a group show at Worksound.

But be assured, the good tunes will be at Nationale as we will be playing William Damiano’s favorite radio station: WILD 107.5!

On view May 4 - May 27, 2012 
Opening reception First Friday May 4, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.

William Damiano’s work reflects on both pop-culture and a menagerie of novel characters that should, and probably do, exist in a different dimension. For Art Show, his solo exhibition of watercolors at Nationale, initial portraiture of dog breeds grew into a comprehensive, comic series breaking the fourth wall and exploring the hilarious, obtuse, and bittersweet lives of The Genuine Dogs. As Damiano oſten shiſts artistic focus, a world-traveling family of foxes also shares the spotlight, with Damiano similarly exploring their personalities amidst different settings, times, and celebrations.

William Damiano is a 23-year-old Portland artist who currently works at the community space Project Grow. Praised by his peers as “a marvel to watch”, Damiano, headphones blasting WILD 107.5, creates highly imaginative, endearing illustrations marked by both a confident penmanship and a lively use of color. This is his first solo exhibition.

We’re spending more time on Instagram. Follow us there if that works best for you.

Shown here from the shop/gallery: Delaney Allen (Self Portrait No. 1, detail), Midori Hirose (C SQ II), Yellow Owl Workshop (greeting cards: Happy Birthday to our Merchants in Residence’s director Ty Ennis!), Libby cole (ode to Francois Truffaut tote).

Delaney Allen, Still Life No. 3 (left) & Self Portrait No. 4 (right)

More details and images of Delaney Allen’s new solo exhibition on our website…