‘Long Live the Great (Teachings) Marxism, Leninism and Maoism’

Arts Hound

Sniffing out what you shouldn’t miss in the arts this week

As the clock ticks down to the inauguration, and the president-elect continues to play fast and loose with Chinese diplomacy, it’s an apt time to go check out Proletarian Revolution: 20th-Century Chinese Propaganda at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. The exhibit features the monumental state-sanctioned puffery of China before, after and during its Cultural Revolution (1966-76). Study it, internalize it, prepare for it, because we have a new POTUS who has already shown a penchant for self-aggrandizing portraits, like the $20,000 Trump portrait paid for via his Donald J. Trump Foundation in 2007, and a second $10,000 Trump portrait paid for again by the same foundation in 2014, which now hangs in a Trump-owned golf resort. Both instances, according to The Washington Post, probably violated “self-dealing” laws that “prohibit charity leaders from using money from their nonprofits to buy things for themselves, or for their businesses.” Now it’s not too hard to imagine Trump’s corn-silk noodle in between Mao and Stalin, is it?

Welcome back: The New Zone Gallery, which recently closed its doors on Broadway downtown, swung those doors wide open again at a new downtown location — 220 W. 8th Ave. — for its From the Ashes show Dec. 2. The Holiday Store is also up and running and gallery hours are noon to 6 pm, Monday through Saturday, through Dec. 24.

During December’s First Friday ArtWalk, OSLP Arts & Culture program premiered its latest exhibit, MAKEOVER, at its newly remodeled Lincoln Gallery, 390 W. 4th Ave. The exhibit features the work of more than 20 artists; keep your peepers peeled for the work of Larry Hurst, a self-taught local artist with a knack for painting very un-boring landscapes. More on the OSLP Arts & Culture front: Rogene Manas, who recently published Artful Paper Clay: Techniques for Adding Dimension to Your Art (see review in Winter Reading issue, 12/8), hosts Paper Clay Holiday Ornament workshops 1 to 4 pm Sunday, Dec. 18, at the OSLP Arts & Culture Studio, 390 Lincoln Street, suite 2170; $25, all tools and materials provided. And finally, OSLP has put out a call to artists to submit work to its February show, Modern Love. “We’re looking for work that conveys the tribulation and celebration of love in the modern age. Let’s fill the gallery with tenderness, inclusivity, admiration, humor and lots of love,” the press release states. Submissions are due by 5 pm Monday, Jan. 30; visit artsandcultureeugene.org for details.

Another must-see show that opened on the ArtWalk is the new works of Eugene’s oil-painting darling Adam Grosowsky up at Karin Clarke Gallery through Dec. 24. See the collection of 20-plus paintings inspired by Spanish painter Francisco Goya’s Los Caprichos set of 80 prints and etchings.