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Last week marked the opening of yet another major "bi-annual" exhibition. While its organizers are reluctant to call it a biennial, Portugal Arte 10 is Lisbon’s attempt to snag a place in the art world’s summer calendar. (And why not — the seaside city is a perfect summer destination.) While the first (and perhaps only) edition of this "survey" is overly ambitious, entirely unorganized, and confused … that’s not to say that it doesn’t have a lot of promise.

The "multi-platform international survey" presents art "interventions" in the cities of Lisbon, Grândola, Portimao, and Vila Real de Santo António, but really the breadth of the show is in Lisbon, in the Portuguese Pavilion designed by Pritzker-winning architect Alvaro Siza Vieira for the 1998 World Expo, as well as public art pieces — by Sterling Ruby, Robert Melee, and street art collective Faile, among others — dotting downtown Lisbon. The press materials claim that the exhibition, coinciding with the country’s 100-year anniversary of Republicanism, reflects the historic occasion, but, where and how? It feels more like a survey of contemporary art in East Coast and West Coast USA, with a few Portuguese artists sprinkled in and a side plate of Cuban art, undercooked and unseasoned.

"Personal Freedom," on the ground floor, is the best use of the gargantuan Pavilion space, and curator Johannes VanDerBeek, who is also an artist, managed to finesse the large rooms just as elegantly as he did the small rooms. The 28-year-old artist-cum-curator’s bent was artists born in the 1970s and ‘80s (with a few exceptions), including several of his Cooper Union peers (Aaron King, Ernesto Caivano, Max Galyon, Nancy Lupo), former Zach Feuer artists like Justin Lieberman, and artists he may have searched out at Columbia or Yale MFA degree shows. This exhibition was refreshing and engaging. Works that particularly stuck out were the elegant ink-on-paper pieces by Caivino, including "Diptych Arbor Axis (Body of Leaves)," 2006, which was hung solitary on a wall overlooking an atrium; Anya Kielars visceral collage assemblages; Stephen G. Rhodess historical un-coverings; Valerie Hegartys warped, mutated, burned and/or slashed installations; David Kennedy-Cutlers magpie sculptures; Portuguese artist (one of only five in the whole exhibition, I might add) João Pedro Vales ironically camp and crafty works; and of course, VanDerBeek’s own monumental "Ruins," 2007, made of Life, Time, and National Geographic magazines and which debuted at Zach Feuer Gallery in 2007.

Upstairs "Inside/Outside," curated by Swedish gallerists Martin Lilja and Amy Giunta, is the most cohesive exhibition in the Pavilion, with a focus on New York and New England artists who have embraced the taboo — earnest appropriation of pop culture, cartooning, and neon colors, for example. Neolithic Joe Bradley paintings and Cory Arcangels personal abstract large scale "paintings" based on Photoshop’s gradient tool share a room with Jim Drains gnarly (in a wonderful way) Orange Shadow, 2007. In a small room, early works by Tauba Auerbach exude an innocence that seems to have oozed out of her recent works. As seen beside Providence-based artist Ara Petersons kaleidoscopic and hypnotic "Tube," 2008, and wall reliefs, Auerbach’s work seem tame and delicate.

Almost jarringly dissimilar is the dreamy, laissez faire, and at times disconnected neighboring exhibition "California Dreamin’," a sprawl of work meant to epitomize California life — namely beach life, surfing, and drug culture. Tie-dye paintings by Michael Phelan, a large-scale photograph of surfers by Olaf Breuning and Til Gerhard's LCD-inspired paintings of hippie culture are more direct, while works by California art collective Date Farmers, part of the Beautiful Losers street art scene, cull particular movements that have arisen in the "Eureka" state. While the majority of this exhibition felt humorous (Phelan’s Bock beer-drinking bears), light, and, well, dreamy — job well done — it was the video works that gave it some weight, with usual suspects like Bruce Nauman and Mike Kelly and then less expected works like Bruce Bickfords claymation "Prometheus’ Garden," 1988, and Kate Gilmores "Wallflower," 2006-2007.

A painting exhibition titled "Gradation" and the obscurely organized "Points of View" are less inspiring, and the delicate, thoughtful, though somewhat anachronistic works in the Cuban exhibition "Serendipity" was gobbled up by the sensory overload of its neighboring exhibitions, especially the roaring techno music spewing over from next door’s addendum to "California Dreamin’," a coma-inducing cavernous video room that could enwrap a viewer for hours. Marco Brambilla's "Civilization (Megaplex)," 2008, which one might recognize as the seductive videos in the elevators of the Standard Hotel in New York, shines (or rather hypnotizes) in this room of overstimulation.

Artistic director Stefan Simchowitz, a fixture in the celebrity photography and film world (and son and step-son of art collectors Manfred and Jennifer Simchowitz), emphasized the words "integration," "coordination" and "participation," and whilst the latter seemed to fit with the overall essence of the exhibition, the integration and coordination aspect felt a bit gritty, something that needs to be more finely tuned. No doubt Simchowitz managed to get some very interesting curators and artists involved — having lost quite a few on the way — but he has also managed to make some enemies in the art world, something he talks about quite openly and a situation that added to the difficulty of organizing such an ambitious exhibition. But Simchowitz is as open to say that he doesn’t give a shit what the art world thinks of him; he’s setting the mark for "creative cultural entrepreneurship." I appreciate his zeal, however I question whether his enthusiasm has longevity. Is this just another one-off project for Simchowitz, like a film, or is it an attempt to make an art exhibition that’s brand-able? "We’ll take Portugal Arte to Angola," he says enthusiastically, ignoring my question of where the Portugal aspect would fit. I can’t tell, but my recommendation would be that if the exhibition does want to get some solid legs, a clearer direction and a strong community foundation (and artistic inclusion) are necessary. With the hopes of securing the magnificent Pavilion space for future editions, a major financial sponsor (Portuguese energy giant EDP) and one year under its belt, Portugal Arte 10 has all the logistical ingredients for a must-see exhibition. But we’ll just wait and see.