Tori is a little busy graduating from Reed right now so I'll take this round of picks... you'll be seeing more of her sparkling contributions in the near future. From last month there are some very strong holdovers like Day Job at PNCA and Laura Fritz's Entorus. Here is what is new:


History lesson, in 1999 Heidi Schwegler's kinky work was the star of the most influential art show in Portland's recent history, the 1999 Oregon Biennial curated by Katherine Kanjo (it included video and installation art and made old timers crazy because there wasn't enough whittling, other stars Storm Tharp, Kristan Kennedy, Tom Cramer, Nan Curtis, Jacqueline Ehlis, Sean Healy etc. took part... it remade Portland's scene). Later, Heidi made a splash at the most ambitious Pearl District gallery Portland has ever seen, Savage. Then she kinda disappeared, much to my chagrin. Lately, she's turned up at the Hallie Ford Museum and snagged a well deserved Ford Fellowship. Which is all a round about way to say, welcome back to the Pearl District with this new tourism driven show The Known World... After April, The Pearl is a place that sorely needs any show that doesn't sport an endless barrage of landscape paintings.

Chambers@916
Opening Reception: 6-9 PM | May 3rd
May 3rd - June 23rd
916 NW Flanders




Installed view of Heechan Kim's work in Light

Has the summer group show season started already? Maybe not but this one is welcome, PDX Across the Hall presents Light a group showing of five largescale works by gallery artists Nancy Lorenz, Molly Vidor, and Johannes Girardoni, as well as guest artist Heechan Kim.

Opening Reception: May 3rd 6-8PM PDX Across the Hall
925 NW Flanders




Ryan Pierce's Sunscorched (2011)

Erstwhile PORT writer (then his painting career took off) Ryan Pierce has been one of those few new names to the Pearl District galleries that has injected a great deal of excitement and intellectual energy. This month at Elizabeth Leach his New World Atlas of Weeds and Rags (New paintings) holds similar promise.

"In his second solo exhibition at Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Ryan Pierce continues his investigation and depiction of a world he imagines after the impact of climate change has been fully realized. Although his paintings seem to explore a dark side of our world, the artist actually presents a more positive and colorful twist on this future scenario then is immediately evident."

Opening Reception: May 3rd | 6-8PM
Elizabeth Leach Gallery
417 NW 9th, Portland Oregon 97209





Tom Cramer's latest at Laura Russo

Tom Cramer is probably Portland's unofficial artist laureate, except that it is probably official by virtue of sheer comprehensiveness and volume. He's everywhere on cars, in concert venues and hundreds of private collections. He never sits still or becomes very comfortable and his latest show sports some of his best works ever. Yes I bitch about Northwest art being too involved in "whittling" but Tom's work isn't just about the craft and labor he's engaged with the sublime/existential on an intellectual level, similar to artists like Munch, Klee, Pollock and that other Portlander Mark Rothko. Sometimes I just love it for its sheer trippy Germaness.

Opening Reception | May 3rd | 5 - 8 pm
Laura Russo Gallery | 805 NW 21st Ave






And for something a little less Pearl Districty try out Light Box with Devon Maldonado, Mary Brossman and Randy Rapaport curated by Modou Dieng at Valentines.

"In this group of paintings I make pieces of my identity into vague symbols. My subject matter is familiar but my process is hidin. I use light to activate my paintings, and to extend painting into sculpture and installation. I idealize abstraction, which allows for my paintings to become not reproductions, but ambiguous representations of real objects. I hope my images embody the complicated dances of our generations' hustle. -Devon Antonio VanHouten-Maldonado"


Tonight May 3rd 9:00PM
Valentines
232 SW Ankeny, Portland, OR 97204