Storm Tharp, Pigeon (after Shunsen) (2009), ink, gouache, colored pencil, graphite, charcoal, and fabric dye on paper
  • Storm Tharp, Pigeon (after Shunsen) (2009), ink, gouache, colored pencil, graphite, charcoal, and fabric dye on paper
The opening is tonight, and the handicapping of the show simply called 2010 has begun. Jerry Saltz's review's not yet out, but on Facebook, he told people not to bother going. Charlie Finch of Artnet, meanwhile, says it's golden. Linda Yablonsky's got a great take on the work by the ladies in the show—since this is the first time the ladies have outnumbered the guys. Nothing by Roberta yet. Ben Davis takes to Slate on the single artist the curators say is the star of the show (is that even cool?), George Condo.

Yesterday I got an email from PDX Contemporary Art, which represents Storm Tharp, the Portland artist in the biennial. It had four images of the four paintings he'll have in the show attached; a second email announced that after the show, the paintings will come back to Portland (freshly revalued, of course) for sale. Tacky? Then again, the paintings are something.

UPDATE: Vanity Fair sleepwalked through, declaring it the Ambienalle (with pics).