Jeff Diteman Paints Popular Portland Faces In The Fabbri Series.

If your name is Jeff Diteman, you might be a Portland artist that has spent two years secretly crafting a series of oil paintings, waiting patiently until the opportune time and place to debut the complete collection of works. Now ready to be unveiled is Diteman’s The Fabbri Series; it will soon find displayed and celebrated with — not one, but four — events at GalleryHOMELAND.

The Fabbri Series references T.S. Eliot’s famous poem, The Waste Land. Diteman describes the idea behind its title:

The Fabbri Series takes its name from the dedication appended to the beginning of Eliot’s The Waste Land: “To Ezra Pound: il miglior fabbro.” The most literal translation is “the better smith,” but when Pound had translated the phrase in the poem Eliot was quoting, he had rendered it as “the better craftsman”. Thus, the title of this series, pluralizing fabbro to fabbri, is intended to convey my respect for the skills of the craftspeople herein depicted.

The Fabbri Series squeezes well-known faces around Portland into scenarios and situations that are just a little bit unexpected, uncomfortable, and unusual. Included in the mix are musicians (Adam Baz and Patrick Phillips of BRAINSTORM; Kathy Foster of The Thermals; John Niekrasz and Seth Brown of Why I Must Be Careful; Brian Mumford of Dragging An Ox Through Water; Daniel Menche), dancers (Lucy Yim and Jim Camou; Linda Austin), and a lone poet (James Yeary).

With such a star-studded list — star-studded by Portland standards, in any case — the four events related to the Series are curatorial experiments which seem to make perfect sense. Below the next image, you’ll find a loose schedule of the events that have been planned so far (keep in mind they’re bound to change).

Events Related To The Fabbri Series

Friday, February 3rd: Opening reception curated by James Victor Yeary, and featuring Leo Daedalus, Anna Daedalus, Mack McFarland, David Weinberg and Mark Owens. A night of theatrical poetry in the Fluxus tradition, culminating in the ambient disaster Everything Must Go.

Friday, February 17th: Dance and music performance curated by Jin Camou, featuring Lucy Yim, Thicket, and Linda Austin.

Friday, March 2nd: Video dance performance featuring Jeff Diteman and Grace Nowakoski, other performers TBD.

Friday, March 23rd: Blowout closing party, performers TBD.