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Joyce Ho’s ‘Finale’

Film and theater inspire many of Joyce Ho’s paintings, and her work reflects her multiple artistic passions. Ho’s work with Riverbed Theatre Productions in Taiwan influences her artistic use of “lighting, perspective and space,” she says. Her father and sister frequently appear as models in her paintings, grounding the dreamlike concepts of her work with the familial. “There is something…

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Inside the Mind of an Art Critic

Richard Speer doesn’t spook easily. As art critic for Willamette Week, Portland’s highly regarded alternative weekly newspaper, Speer has strolled through galleries in and around the Oregon city for more than a decade. He’s seen unsettling creative work, including William Pope.L’s giant reverse image of the United States made out of 5,000 rotting hot dogs. He’s also seen an upscale-gallery show featuring the paintings of Rama—a 21-year-old Asian elephant at the Oregon Zoo. Still, when Speer walked into Breeze Block Art Gallery in Portland’s Chinatown arts district last March, he felt as if he’d entered a haunted house … albeit one from someone’s bland, colorless childhood.

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Bryan Ramey’s ‘Nectar’

With a fluid combination of charcoal, ink and paints, Bryan Ramey infuses his work with the surreal. Inspiration for his illustrated dream worlds comes from “the darker, more primitive side of man: the superstitious, the imaginative, the unknown part of ourselves,” he says. Ramey attended the postbaccalaureate program at the School for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and…

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Xavier Rodés’s ‘Bay Watch’

Barcelona-native Xavier Rodés has exhibited throughout Spain and internationally, including France, England, Argentina and the U.S. He completed his art studies degree at EINA College. According to the artist’s statement, “The ground-breaking treatment of light, precise drawing and thematic originality create Rodés’ distinguished and unique style. In spite of being a figurative artist, his paintings suggest non-conventional ideas, as he…

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