PORT - Portland art + news + reviews

Ty Ennis

NAAU presents the next installation in the Couture series: Ty Ennis' You'll Love It Here: The Lilac City Track Murders '96-'98, a multimedia installation of drawing, photography, and sculpture. Ennis' "preparation for this exhibit has involved one of the most thorough examinations to date of Spokane's most infamous serial killer, Robert Lee Yates. His nearly 2 year endeavor documenting murder sites, scouring of all available literature and fleshing out the lives effected during this capsule of time in Spokane, demonstrate a type of artistic discovery that questions the role art can play in the historical record. By lending a sympathetic and informed eye to the memory of events more so remembered through hard-line fact alone, Ty builds a revisionist history using unique visual and written documents."

Opening reception • 6-9pm • July 3
New American Art Union • 922 SE Ankeny • 503.231.8294

Jennifer Locke presents CRISIS 40, a performance at Rocksbox. The exhibition will remain up through August 2.

Opening performance • 9pm • July 4
Rocksbox Fine Art • 6540 N Interstate • 503.516.4777

Michael Brophy, "Start"

Michael Brophy presents Silence, an exhibition of recent paintings at Laura Russo.

Opening reception • 5-8pm • July 2
Laura Russo Gallery • 805 NW 21st • 503.226.2754

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From Jeremiah Zagar's "In a Dream"

This weekend, the Northwest Film Center presents the first of their summer artist spotlights. They're screening In a Dream, a film directed by Jeremiah Zagar about his father, artist Isaiah Zagar. They'll be showing it twice on Saturday and once on Sunday.

Film screening • July 27 & 28
NW Film Center • 1219 SW Park • Whitsell Auditorium

Varnithorn Christopher

Varnithorn Christopher presents Free Space at PSU's MK Gallery. The project is "is a non-curated gallery experiment by based on the belief that everyone is an artist. From Monday, June 29, 2009 to Thursday, July 9, 2009, Christopher invites anyone to come and exhibit their artwork at the MK gallery." A complete catalog will be created at the end of the exhibition.

Exhibition • M-F, 9am-5pm • June 29 - July 9
MK Gallery • 2000 SW 5th Avenue • Art Building, 2nd floor rm 210

Floating World Comics presents the 3rd annual animation festival at the Holocene, featuring "mind melting video art and psychedelic animation from the secret world of motionography." Visit their website for more info on the 3+ hour line up of Flaspar, Deelay Ceelay, Show Cave Best of Videocation and more.

Animation festival • 8pm • June 25
Holocene • 1001 SE Morrison

The ever-changing art at Store for a Month

The final week of John Brodie's Store for a Month is kicking off with a lecture by Philippe Le Blanc. "The Strategy of Sur-Distinction: building a cathedral inside the megastore" is loosely based on Le Blanc's work for sale at The Store, I Win, You Lose: The art of Art in capitalist culture. If you haven't made it down to the store yet, don't miss your chance - its last days are Wednesday, June 24 through Sunday, June 28, 12-7pm.

Artist lecture • 7pm • June 24
Store for a Month • 1216 SE Division • 503.235.8029

Elizabeth McClellan

Appendix presents Sediment, a collection of indoor/outdoor drawing environments by Elizabeth McClellan. Due to size and showing constraints, Outdoor works will be up through June 27th.

Opening reception • 6-10pm • June 25
Appendix Project Space • South alley b/w 26th & 27th on Alberta

Justin Gorman

Justin Gorman's ThirtyThousandSecons opens this weekend in Milepost 5's MP5³. "This photo documentation project derived from an increasing interest in pedestrian patterns on eight-second avenue and the responsibility of local government to stop or control these patterns..." Work by Anthony Conrad, Kalina Torino, Jessica Weitzel, and Luke Heinrich will also be opening in the Hallways spaces.

Opening reception • 7-9pm • June 20
Milepost 5 • 900 NE 81st • 503.998.4878

Gorm Studio

MoCC presents Call + Response: "Drawing on the musical concept of 'call and response,' this exhibition provides a platform for artists and art historians to engage with each with other in dynamic conversation. This multi-layered exhibition features works by eight pairs of art and art history faculty members from colleges and universities who have taught in Oregon for roughly ten years or less. Through multimedia content, contextual writing, the presentation of studio works and public programs, this project celebrates and provokes the recent influx of ideas [on craft] brought to Oregon by these faculty members..."

Exhibition • June 18 - October 31, 2009
Museum of Contemporary Craft • 724 NW Davis • 503.223.2654

Continuing the tradition of slightly fluffy summer group fun, Fourteen30 presents Summer Show, featuring Mike Bray, David Corbett, Hamlett Dobbins, Alex Felton, Corey Lunn, Jenene Nagy, Devon Oder, Nicholas Pittman, Patrick Rock, Jennifer Shimatsu, and Nick Van Woert.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • June 19
Fourteen30 Contemporary • 1430 SE 3rd • 503.236.1430

This month's ArtSpark is presented by local art collective Nowhere at Rontom's. The theme is Icebreaker: "an easy way to meet new people involved with Portland arts."

Art social • 5-7pm • June 18
ArtSpark at Rontom's • 600 E Burnside

PSU & Disjecta present It's Possible, an exhibition by graduating students in the MFA in Contemporary Art Practice program at PSU. Exhibiting artists include Katy Asher, Steve Baggs, Vanessa Calvert, Varinthorn Christopher, Damien Gilley, Bethany Hays, Avalon Kalin, Laurel Kurtz, Sandy Sampson, Rebecca Shelly, Cyrus Smith, and Eric Steen.

Opening reception • 4-8pm • June 14
Disjecta • 8371 N Interstate • 503.286.9449

Amar Kanwar, from "A Season Outside"

The Cinema Project is screening a series of films by New Delhi-based filmmaker Amar Kanwar. His films "exist at the crossroads of documentary, visual poetry and philosophical meditation; linking legends and ritual objects to new symbols and public events, which trigger emotional and intellectual disturbances in the viewer." The first night features two mid-length films, the second night features several shorts.

Film screening 1 • 7:30pm • June 17
Film screening 2 • 7:30pm • June 18
Cinema Project • 11 NW 13th AVE 4th Floor • 503.232.8269

Kevin Yates

Ditch Projects presents Kevin Yates' Alluvium. Yates "uses photorealistic miniature sculptures to intricately render a delicate disaster, creating a destroyed suburban landscape and the solemn reflections of the flood that ruined it."

Opening reception • 6-9pm • June 13
Ditch Projects • 190 S. 5th St. Springfield, OR • info@ditchprojects.com

Portland Art Museum

Editor-in-chief of Portland Spaces Magazine Randy Gragg is lecturing at PAM for the next installment of the Artist Talk series. He'll be discussing the museum's main building as a work of art, exploring the collaboration between architect Pietro Belluschi, Museum Curator Anna Belle Crocker, and Harry Frederick Wentz, a teacher at the Museum Art School, which brought the building to fruition in 1932. The talk meets at 6pm in the Hoffman Lobby.

Artist lecture • 6-8pm • June 11
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

Aloïs Godinat, "Déchirure (Tear)," 2007

Swiss-born artist Aloïs Godinat is exhibiting at Pied-à-terre from June 11 - July 2, 2009.

Opening reception • 6-8pm • June 11
Pied-à-terre • 904 SE 20th Ave Apt 5 • info@pied-terre.com

M.C. Escher, "Relativity," 1953

Virtual Worlds: M.C. Escher & Paradox is opening tomorrow at PAM. "Printmaker Maurits Cornelis Escher (Dutch, 1898-1972) created visual puzzles that astonish with their mathematical rigor and their patent absurdity. This exhibition traces the development of the artist's work from his early stylized depictions of landscape and architecture to his later use of repeated geometric patterns..."

Exhibition • June 6 - September 13, 2009
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

Louis Bunce, "Harold Street #4," 1974

Also opening at PAM tomorrow: PNCA at 100, a retrospective of the the artist-faculty, students, and alumni of PNCA, formerly the Museum Art School, since 1909. "Ranging from portraiture and regional landscapes to modernist abstraction and postpainterly idioms, the artists of the school introduced ideas from the larger world of art to Portland and made them part of the vocabulary of Northwest art."

Exhibition • June 6 - September 13, 2009
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

Attush ceremonial robe, Ainu textile, photo courtesy of Sanae Ogawa

Parallel Worlds is opening tomorrow in the pavilion at the Japanese Garden. Held in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Portland-Sapporo Sister City Association, the exhibition features traditional ceremonial robes created by Ainu artists from Hokkaido and Native American artists of the Pacific Northwest.

Exhibition • June 6 - 28, 2009
Japanese Garden • 611 SW Kingston Avenue • 503.223.1321

John Brodie's much-anticipated Store for a Month is having its opening party for First Friday. This art project and temporary retail storefront is open from June 3 - 28, 2009, Wed-Sun, 12-7pm. Store for a Month features work by over 60 local artists made specifically for the store, and occasional fresh-baked pie.

Opening party • 6-10pm • June 5
Store for a Month • 1216 SE Division • 503.235.8029

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D.E. May, "Marker"

D.E. May presents Black Page, new drawings at PDX Contemporary. All of the work is presented in thick, plastic archival document holders, which offer "a surprising tactile quality and a screen-like presentation: x-ray, film, radar." May was a finalist in PAM's 2008 CNAA's.

Opening reception • 5-8pm • June 4
PDX Contemporary • 925 NW Flanders • 503.222.0063

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Social practice artist Laurel Kurtz has collaborated with local unofficial street vendor Bill Harrelson to help realize his dream of a backscratcher museum. "Harrelson and Kurtz will debut the curbside museum in the gallery setting in order to highlight their collaboration and share Harrelson's collection with others. Also on display are nine drawings of Harrelson's 'imaginary' backscratchers that have been put onto paper by the artists Lori Gilbert, Mark Jondahl, Walter Lee, Ralph Pugay, Ben Rosenberg, Sandy Sampson, Amy Steel, Vicki Lynn Wilson and Jason Zimmerman." The exhibition runs at PSU's MK Gallery June 1 - 12.

Closing reception • 6-9pm • June 12
MK Gallery • 2000 SW 5th Avenue • Art Building, 2nd floor rm 210

Micki Skudlarczyk, "Well Finished," installation view

Micki Skudlarczyk's Well Finished is currently on view at Launch Pad. During her artist residency in Mexico in 2008, Skudlarczyk "developed a relationship with the small slaughter community in & around the village of Cholul, where she experienced the process of animal slaughter from start to finish first hand. Well Finished investigates the artist's philosophical & emotional struggle between her reverence for the animals that we eat & her dismay at the pain & fear they sometimes experience at the moment of death." She'll be giving an artist talk and slide lecture on the experience and installation this weekend on the final day of the show.

Artist lecture • 1pm • May 31
Launch Pad Gallery • 534 SE Oak St. • 971.227.0072

Joshua Pavlacky

Joshua Pavlacky presents Towards the Scrambled Egg, "an installation exploring landscape and spatial manipulation" at Appendix Project Space.

Opening reception • 8pm-12am • May 28
Appendix Project Space • South alley b/w 26th & 27th on NE Alberta

The ZooBombers' Holy Pyle minibike sculpture has found a permanent home. Designed in conjunction with local artists Brian Borello and Vanessa Renwick, the Pyle has been relocated to 13th & W Burnside. The unveiling party this weekend starts at the Holy Rack at 10th & SW Oak at 4pm and will parade to the new location around 5.

Public art party • 4pm • May 29
ZooBombers • Downtown

Beth Van Hoesen, "Sally," 1979

California artist Joseph Goldyne is lecturing this week on northern California printmaking and its relationship to Beth Van Hoesen's prints, on view at PAM through August 16, 2009.

Arts lecture • 6-7:30pm • May 28
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

Anna Karina, 1966

The NW Film Center presents a special screening of Jean-Luc Godard's Made in USA, his final collaboration with Anna Karina. "Boldly cartoonish, from its color schemes to its quotation-marked characters to its treatment of screen violence, Made in USA is dedicated to American crime movies (specifically those of Sam Fuller and Nicolas Ray), and is a politically fueled deconstruction of the genre." There will be two screenings every day this weekend.

Film screenings • May 22 - 24, 2009
NW Film Center • 1219 SW Park • Whitsell Auditorium

Katy Asher presents Box Set: The M.O.S.T. Remastered at PSU's Autzen Gallery. For the show, "Asher reconfigures the gallery space into a museum displaying the complexities and rewards of working as part of a collaborative arts group." Box Set creates an "interpretive archive space" exploring the activities of the former M.O.S.T. art/social group. The show runs May 18 - May 29, 2009.

Closing reception • 6-9pm • May 29
Autzen Gallery • 724 SW Harrison Street • Neuberger Hall, 2nd Floor, rm 205

Sandy Sampson presents Parallel Conversations at PSU's MK Gallery. The show "is not so much an exhibit as it is a hub of activity. Sampson will introduce you to some people she has met and learned from. The events scheduled are all participatory, she invites you to engage with each other and the neighborhood around the gallery, and bring what you know to share with others." It runs from May 18 - May 29, 2009.

Closing reception • 6-9pm • May 29
MK Gallery • 2000 SW 5th Avenue • Art Building, 2nd floor rm 210

Mierle Laderman Ukeles

Mierle Laderman Ukeles is giving the final 08-09 PSU MFA Monday Night Lecture next week. Ukeles is a New York based artist "known for her feminist and service oriented artwork. In 1969 she wrote a manifesto entitled Maintenance Art Proposal for an Exhibition, challenging the domestic role of women and proclaiming herself a 'maintenance artist'."

Artist lecture • 7:30pm • May 18
PSU • 1914 SW Park Ave • Shattuck Hall Rm 212 at Broadway & Hall

Matthew Green presents Hunks and Punks at Rocksbox, a "humorous exploration into the myths, constructs, and visual tropes surrounding contemporary male identity."

Opening reception • 7-11pm • May 16
Rocksbox • 6540 N Interstate Ave • 503.516.4777

Sanford Biggers, "Blossom," installation view

Sanford Biggers' installation Blossom goes on view at PAM this weekend. Exploring themes of identity and history, Blossom is a "mixed media work incorporating a massive tree, found piano, and Biggers' compositional reworking of Billie Holiday's 1939 jazz anthem Strange Fruit, a harrowing portrayal of lynching in the American South." Keep an eye on PORT for a fantastic interview with the artist.

Exhibition • May 16 - August 30, 2009
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

Thelma Johnson Streat, "Red Dots, Flying Baby, and Barking Dog," 1945

Art on Alberta's 10th annual Art Hop is happening this weekend. They're featuring the work of Thelma Johnson Streat (1911-1959), an internationally acclaimed artist from Portland and the first black woman to have her work exhibited at MOMA. 50 of her paintings will be on view at venues throughout Alberta. The Art Hop's theme this year is "Coming Home," and there will be a wide variety of art exhibitions, street performers, vendors, music, dance, and theater.

Street fair • 11am-6pm • May 16
Art on Alberta • 17 blocks of NE Alberta

Pat Boas, "Reading & Writing #4 (Mildred's Hand)," installation view

Local artist and writer Pat Boas is speaking this week for PAM's artist talk series. She'll discuss a work in the museum that "delights, puzzles, or inspires her." The talk departs from the Hoffman lobby, and returns after for conversation and happy hour.

Artist lecture • 6-8pm • May 14
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

901 Jefferson, ongoing project by Pyatok Architects

Architect Michael Pyatok is speaking this week at the UofO on The U.S. Housing Crisis: The Role of Design. He'll speak in Portland and in Eugene.

Architect lecture • 6:30-7:30pm • May 13
White Stag Block • 70 NW Couch St. • Event Room

Gerhardt Knodel

Artist Gerhardt Knodel is lecturing on Examining Fiber and Material Studies in Contemporary Art and Culture this week at OCAC. Inspired by the keynote address he gave at the 2008 International Fiber Symposium, Knodel's talk explores the subject of "materiality": the meaning of material-based experiences in contemporary life.

Artist lecture • 6pm • May 15
Oregon College of Art & Craft • 8825 SW Barnes Rd. • Catlin Gabel Cabell Center Auditorium

Matt Bors

Art Beat Week 2009 at PCC starts Monday. Highlights include lectures by editorial cartoonist Matt Bors (May 11), photography critic Chas Bowie (May 12), and local artist Storm Tharp (May 14). Check out the schedule of events for more info.

Frances Stark

LA-based artist Frances Stark is speaking on Monday for PMMNLS. She works in drawing, collage, sculpture, and textual commentary.

Artist lecture • 7:30pm • May 11
PSU • 1914 SW Park Ave • Shattuck Hall Rm 212 at Broadway & Hall

From Approx L

Worksound presents Approx L, a "cumulative project involving performance, curation, installation, sound and video," spearheaded by Bethany Ides. "Aiding in the project are approximately 15 participants from across the US and Canada all born with (some variant spelling of) the name, plus a coterie of non-natural L[indsay]s who have adopted transitional monikers for the project."

Opening reception • 7-11pm • May 8
Worksound • 820 SE Alder • mojomodou@gmail.com

At Pied-á-terre

Ongoing at Pied-á-terre: New York-based artist and writer Ben Carlton Turner presents The Sound of 500 Speer 9 mm. Luger Shells Dropped from a Height of 119 Inches at 550 West 21st Street New York, NY, 10011, on April 8th, 2009, 10:37 p.m. Gallery hours are Saturdays, 12-3pm. Update: Due to popular demand, Pied-á-terre will hold a reception for the show on May 14.

Exhibition • May 2 - 23, 2009
Reception • May 14 • 6-8pm
Pied-á-terre • 904 SE 20th Ave Apt 5 • info@pied-terre.com

Dinh Q. Lê, "I am Large. I Contain Multitudes (1)"

Dinh Q. Lê is exhibiting a new body of work at Elizabeth Leach this month. Signs and Signals from the Periphery utilizes sculpture and photography to "address a system of signs that have developed in Vietnam which signal the availability of certain goods and services."

Opening reception • 6-9pm • May 7
Elizabeth Leach Gallery • 417 NW 9th • 503.224.0521

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Bruce Conner

Cinema Project, NW Film Center, and the PDX Film Fest are co-sponsoring a screening Bruce Conner's film works. In Memorium is a two part exhibition of fourteen short films by Conner, "a pioneer in the art of sculptural assemblage and found footage collage film making." A list of films and more background about Conner can be found on the Cinema Project website.

Screening Night 1 • 7pm • May 5
NW Film Center • 1219 SW Park • Whitsell Auditorium
Screening Night 2 • 7:30pm • May 6
Clinton Street Theater • 2522 SE Clinton

From "Bum Equipment" curated by Cartune Xprez

The second night of the Bruce Conner screenings marks opening night of PDX Film Fest 2009. Video installations will be at Gallery Homeland from May 6 - 24, featuring Bum Equipment, a 3-part video installation curated by Cartune Xprez showcasing work from over 20 international artists. Most other screenings will be at the Clinton Street Theater; learn more about the schedule and events here. Opening night performances at Gallery Homeland start at 9pm.

PDX Film Fest opening part • 7pm-midnight • May 6
Gallery Homeland • 2505 SE 11th

Paul Gauguin, "Manao tupapau (The Spirit of the Dead Keep Watch)," 1892

Richard Brettell, chair of art and aesthetics at the University of Texas at Dallas, is lecturing this weekend at PAM. His lecture, Paul Gauguin's Pilgrimmage: Lima, Paris, Pont Aven, and Papeete, explores the life and career of French Impressionist Paul Gauguin.

Art historian lecture • 2-3pm • May 3
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

MIT professor Anne Whiston Sprin is lecturing next week for UofO's Architecture & Allied Arts department at the White Stag building. In Daring to Look: Dorothea Lange's Photographs and Reports from the Field, Sprin documents hundreds of Lange's photos and the descriptions she wrote of them.

Historian lecture • 5:30pm • May 6
White Stag Building • 70 NW Couch

Mark Dion

Mark Dion is lecturing next week for PMMNLS: "Appropriating archaeological and other scientific methods of collecting, ordering, and exhibiting objects, Dion's often fantastical curiosity cabinets, modeled on Wunderkabinetts of the 16th Century, exalt atypical orderings of objects and specimens."

Artist lecture • 7:30pm • May 4
PSU • 1914 SW Park Ave • Shattuck Hall Rm 212 at Broadway & Hall

Stephen Slappe, from "Shelter in Place"

NAAU presents the next installation of Couture: Stephen Slappe's Shelter in Place, a 3-channel video installation that is "the culmination of five years of research... Freely combining fiction and nonfiction, this three-channel video installation focuses on two teenagers in West Virginia in the mid-1980s. The characters exist in a media environment that imposes and magnifies their worst fears. Yet even in such a hopeless world, they discover a miraculous way to share subcultural influences. While referencing a specific time and place, Shelter in Place presents a thematically timeless allegory of connectivity and cultural exchange."

Opening reception • 6-9pm • May 1
New American Art Union • 922 SE Ankeny • 503.231.8294

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Lincoln Barbour, "Loading Dock"

Office PDX presents My West Coast. A group of photographers were asked to take a series of images that define the West coast with Polaroid Land Cameras. Five Polaroids will be showcased from each of the following photographers: Alicia Rose, Barbara Kinney, Chris Walla, Jan Sonnenmair, Jeff Selis, Jon Jensen, Lincoln Barbour, and Tony Secolo.

Opening reception • 6-8pm • April 29
Office PDX • 2204 NE Alberta • 888.355.7467

Maggie Casey, "Stairs"

Fiber artist Maggie Casey presents a new site-specific installation at Appendix. Casey explores "a space-based narrative in 3-dimensional drawing."

Opening reception • 6-11pm • April 30
Open critique & discussion • 7pm • May 6
Appendix Project Space • South alley b/w 26 & 27th on NE Alberta

Basil Childers, image of the Museum of Contemporary Craft

Part 5 of 5 of the PNCA+MoCC community conversations regarding PNCA's acquisition of the Museum of Contemporary Craft is happening this week. Panelists include Victoria Frey (executive director of PICA), Linda K. Johnson (founder of South Waterfront Artist in Residence program), Elizabeth Leach (owner of Elizabeth Leach Gallery), and Tom Manley (PNCA president).

Panel discussion • 6:30pm • April 30
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson

Local filmmakers Joanna Priestley and Joan Gratz are screening Words Worth a Thousand Pictures: Contemporary Animation About Language this Thursday. Priestly's Missed Aches and Gratz's Puffer Girl will be premiered in addition to five award-winning international films on the use of language and text in animation.

Film screening • 7:30pm • April 30 • $9
Hollywood Theater • 4122 NE Sandy

MP5 is having their bi-monthly opening this weekend. In MP5³ they're featuring Jenevieve Tatiana's Parlor Games: "Those in play here are between modernism and marginality: the endgames of the monochrome and the game theory of social networks, a-chronologically articulated through found web 2.0 information and reshuffled salon-style as sculptural elements." In the hallways there will be installations by Gary Wiseman and Meredith Andrews, Christine Bailey Claringbold, and John Graeter.

Opening reception • 7-9pm • April 26
Milepost 5 • 900 NE 81st Ave • 503.998.4878

Doug Blandy

Doug Blandy, director of the institute for community arts studies at the University of Oregon, is speaking this Monday for PMMNLS. He'll address community engagement, research, and education in arts institutions.

Artist lecture • 7:30pm • April 27
PSU • 1914 SW Park Ave • Shattuck Hall Rm 212 at Broadway & Hall

Basil Childers, image of the Museum of Contemporary Craft

Part 4 of 5 of the PNCA+MoCC community conversations regarding PNCA's acquisition of the Museum of Contemporary Craft is happening tonight. Panelists include Nan Curtis (PNCA faculty), Stephanie Snyder (Cooley director & curator), Linda Tesner (Hoffman director & curator), and Namita Gupta Wiggers (MoCC curator).

Panel discussion • 6:30pm • April 23
Museum of Contemporary Craft • 724 NW Davis

*Update: Mayor Adams reverses his Coliseum position and will take another week to explore alternative sites for minor league baseball stadium. Still the basic issue will focus on the details of this "Entertainment District". Will is be a disneylandish-faux-downtown model (ugggh) or something more civic and rewarding?

Brian Libby over at Portland Architecture has been all over the ridiculous plan to demolish the Memorial Coliseum, one of the very few truly excellent mid-century modern buildings in Portland. He even interviewed one of the original SOM architects behind it.

Portland reflected in the Coliseum's curtain wall of glass

The question is, does Portland want to become known for tearing down excellent buildings for the sake of minor league sports teams? Or instead, is this an opportunity to find a better use for a civic jewel that we haven't made full use of recently? Why not turn this civic space into something even more civic?

But First, Let's Rally:

Put on by Mr. Libby, architect Stuart Emmons and AiA Portland, PORT readers have "been cordially invited to a rally opposing the demolition of Memorial Coliseum, one of the great landmarks of Portland Architecture and one of America's most architecturally significant arenas ever constructed - a mid-century modern gem."

When & Where: Tuesday, April 21 at 6PM at the American Institute of Architects' Center for Architecture, at 403 NW 11th Avenue

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Gustave Klimt, "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I," 1907

As part of the ongoing Jewish film festival, the NW Film Center is featuring Stealing Klimt tomorrow night. This documentary recounts the decades-long struggle of Austrian-born Maria Altmann to recover five Gustave Klimt paintings stolen from her family by the Nazis in 1938, and hanging in the Austrian National Gallery since 1945.

Film screening • 7pm • April 21
NW Film Center • 1219 SW Park • Whitsell Auditorium

Abelardo Morell, "Camera Obscura: View of Central Park Looking North-Summer"

Photographer Abelardo Morell is speaking at PAM next week for Photolucida. "A professor of photography at the Massachusetts College of Art, Morell is known for his images of exterior scenes transposed onto quiet interior settings through the use of the camera obscura."

Artist lecture • 7-8pm • April 24
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

Neighborhood Public Radio (NPR) is lecturing on Monday for PMMNLS. They're a guerrilla radio group who critique the more famous NPR through community-based, noncommercial programming broadcast streaming on the Internet or through low-power portable FM transmitters.

Artist lecture • 7:30pm • April 20
PSU • 1914 SW Park Ave • Shattuck Hall Rm 212 at Broadway & Hall

Joan Son, "Origami"

The Japanese Garden is featuring Paper Arts in the Pavilion. "Paper plays an important part of many Japanese celebrations," and the use of paper in fine arts and craft has a storied cultural history. An array of Japanese paper styles by local artists will be displayed during the exhibition.

Paper arts • April 18 - 26
Japanese Garden • 611 SW Kingston Avenue • 503.223.1321

Jim Lomamasson's "Exit Wounds" installed at NAAU

Jim Lommasson's Exit Wounds, formerly at NAAU, is currently installed at PCC Rock Creek's Helzer Gallery. In conjunction with the exhibition there will be a panel discussion with Iraq and Afghanistan vets this afternoon, followed by a gallery reception.

Panel discussion • 3-4:15pm • April 16
Helzer Gallery • 17705 NW Springville Rd. • Building 3

Still from the Ottawa Animation Festival

The NW Film Center presents the best of the 2008 Ottawa International Animation Festival. The "Best of Ottawa" program presents festival award winners, audience favorites, and other entries in a variety of genres and forms. Screenings of these short segments run from April 17 through April 25. You can view the full schedule here.

Metro Arts is leading this month's ArtSpark with a performance and discourse on arts integration for youth.

Community conversation • 5-7pm • April 16
Armory Café • Portland Center Stage • 128 NW 11th

Eric Steen presents Building in the Post Apocalypse at PSU's MK Gallery: "An exhibition that documents and explores possible options of community, collaboration, and education through socially engaged practices." In addition to the artist reception, the show features several events, including a "Public Social University" and screening of a series of sci-fi films, The Man Who Could Work Miracles and Panic in the Year Zero & The Man From Earth. The full list of events can be found here.

Film screening • 10pm • April 13
Public Social University • 3-6pm • April 16
Artist reception • 6-9pm • April 16
Film screening • 9pm • April 16
MK Gallery 2000 SW 5th Avenue • Art Building, 2nd floor rm 210

Tim Dalbow, "Hood"

The Linfield Gallery presents Volcanoes, new paintings by Tim Dalbow. He writes: "A painting is an attempt at a solution. The blank canvas is a proposed problem and the process of making a painting is a hypothesis. Painting is not an exact science but I do believe it is a science. Each painting is an excuse to ask the question again."

Exhibition • April 15 - May 13, 2009
Linfield Gallery • 900 SE Baker St., McMinnville • Miller Fine Art Center

Jessica Skloven, 2008 winner

Newspace is seeking submissions for their 5th annual juried exhibition, which will be on view in August 2009. All photographic themes and processes are accepted, but work must have been created within the past three years. Selected photographers will participate in the exhibition, and one will receive a solo show at Newspace and a $500 award. Submissions are due May 29. Details here.

(More opportunities: public art & gender identity. Larry Sultan for PMMNLS.)

Damien Gilley, "Air Math"

Damien Gilley presents Air Math at PSU's Autzen Gallery. In this exhibition, "Gilley visually reconfigures the urban environment to provide alternative viewing experiences that complicate rational space... The works question the reliability of vision through the presentation of illusionistic wall drawings, indeterminate landscapes, modular forms, and compositions that extend the parameters of 'flatness'." Gilley will be in attendance at the gallery on April 18 from 10am to 4pm.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • April 11
Autzen Gallery • 724 SW Harrison Street • Neuberger Hall, 2nd Floor, rm 205

Chen Qiulin, "The Garden No. 4"

China Urban opens this week at Reed's Cooley Gallery. This exhibition of contemporary Chinese art "explores the historical and contemporary Chinese city - as representation, model, catalyst, and socio-political construct." Before the reception begins, calligrapher Dr. Yang Jiyu will enact a public performance of the calligraphy of Hong Kong artist Tsang Tsou Choi (1921-2007) - the "King of Kowloon" - on the glass walls of the gallery. A full list of related lectures and events can be found here.

Opening reception • 7-9pm • April 9
Cooley Gallery • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. • Library

(More: Michael Knutson lectures @ PAM, MoCC & PNCA continue their community conversations.)

Preston Wadley, "The Colonial Gaze"

Expanded Narrative: The Photographic Image in Mixed Media Constructions opens this week at Clark College's Archer Gallery. Featuring work by Theresa Batty, Ian van Coller, Heidi Kirkpatrick, Nathan Lucas, Amy Pruzan, Jacinda Russell, and Preston Wadley, Expanded Narrative explores the use of the photographic image within the constructed object.

Opening reception • 4-6pm • April 8
Archer Gallery • 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver, WA • Penguin Union Building

Danielle Colen, "Untitled (panorama series)"

Pied-á-terre is featuring a pair of photographs by Danielle Colen. Interested in exploring a heightened rather than a transformed reality, Colen presents views through an anonymous office window, offering a meditation on the relationship between pictoral space, gallery space, and the outside world.

Opening reception • 6-8pm • April 5
Pied-á-terre • 904 SE 20th Apt. 5 • info@pied-terre.com

(More: SRO Video @ the Art Gym, PDX/LA collaboration @ MP5, Michael Rakowitz for PMMNLS.)

Matt King, "Tater"

Matt King's Science Diet is at Fourteen30 this month: "Seductive and sickening, King's recent sculptures aggressively assert their position as commodity while questioning the relationships between desire, comfort and the complicity that keeps the system in place. King reconstitutes the images and objects of a marketed culture in ways that reorient their latent meanings. His banal and pleasurable source materials - dollar store items, height indicator strips, drinking straws, and even cat food - feel both unexpected and significant."

Opening reception • 6-9pm • April 3
Fourteen30 Contemporary • 1430 SE 3rd • 503.236.1430

(More: Updated! Worksound.)

W.J.T. Mitchell

Scholar W.J.T. Mitchell is speaking this evening on The Future of the Image at PNCA. Mitchell, editor of the interdisciplinary journal Critical Inquiry, is associated with the emergent fields of visual culture and iconology. He is known for his work on "the relations of visual and verbal representations in the context of social and political issues."

Visual studies lecture • 6:30pm • April 1
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson • 503.226.4391

(More speakers: Okwui Enwezor for FATE and Peter Kreider for China Urban.)

Terry Toedtemeier

In April, Blue Sky is featuring Early Work by Terry Toedtemeier. This body of work comes from around 1975, when he co-founded Blue Sky. In the midst of a "brief, intense investigation of the possibilities of infrared photography," Toedtemeier was still interested in capturing gestures and the human, or sometimes animal, figure. This subject distinguishes these images from his later work, when he turned primarily to landscape. Blue Sky will also be exhibiting shows by Alexis Pike and Andy Freeberg, as well as select images by Abelardo Morell, who is in town as keynote speaker for the upcoming Photolucida conference.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • April 2
Blue Sky Gallery • 122 NW 8th • 503.225.0210

(More.)

Michael Reinsch

Sponsored by the RACC, Michael Reinsch presents a temporary installation at the Portland Building that examines notions of labor. "The project will start with piles of materials and tools and will change and develop throughout the month as he explores his relationship to his art as work, the ways in which others think about work, how his job affects his art process, and how all of this is informed by current events. Reinsch states "My work is never done.'" Reinsch is launching the project with a full 8 hour shift today (March 30), and can be found working in the Portland Building from 8-10:30am Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays for the duration of the exhibition.

Installation • March 30 - April 24
Portland Building • 1120 SW 5th Avenue

Stephen Shore's poignant and jaw dropping photo taken outside "K Falls"

MoMA's Into The Sunset show charts the persistent role of photography as commentator on the West and Stephen Shore's photograph taken outside Klammath Falls is the poster child. It opens Sunday.

Ken Johnson's NYT's review discusses the trend but this is nothing new to Portlanders.

Last year Wild Beauty provided a similarly sardonic spectacle and video artist/filmmaker Matt McCormick made this very subject the core of his last solo show at Elizabeth Leach Gallery. Todd Johnson's interesting curatorial project at Gallery Homeland in 2008 also beat MoMA to the punch. I do think Wild Beauty answered Ken Johnson's longing for something that was so bleak. Luckilly the book is still available.

MK Guth, "Ties of Protection and Safe Keeping," final installation, NY Park Ave Armory

Local artist MK Guth, who works in video, sculpture and performative social exchange projects, is lecturing this week for PMMNLS. Guth's project Ties of Protection and Safe Keeping was included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial, and subsequently installed in the APEX gallery at PAM. Guth is also a founding member of the Red Shoe Delivery Service.

Artist lecture • 7:30pm • March 30
PSU • Shattuck Hall Annex Room 212 • Corner of SW Broadway & Hall

Mr. Shiro Nakane (left) & Dr. Makoto Suzuki

Renowned Japanese garden professionals Dr. Makoto Suzuki of Tokyo Agricultural University and Mr. Shiro Nakane of Nakane & Associates will lecture next Tuesday at the Japenese Garden. They will both present on the topic The Japanese Garden: Past, Present, and Future. Tickets are $10, space is limited, reservations can be made here.

Artisan expert lectures • 6-8pm • March 31
Japanese Garden • 611 SW Kingston Avenue • 503.223.1321

In case you missed White Noise or were there during the rock'n but impossible to see anything opening, here's your last chance to catch a nice warehouse show with a lot of energy and several standout pieces by Stephen Scott Smith, Damien Gilley (probably the most talked about MFA student in Portland) and the show's curator Jhordan Dahl (another must watch artist/curator combo, she's a got a great deal of verve).

White Noise closing reception • 7-11 PM • March 26
Worksound • 820 SE Alder

Herb and Dorothy Vogel

Megumi Sasaki's Herb and Dorothy is airing this weekend. The film documents the story of Herb and Dorothy Vogel, who came from modest means but still managed to put together "one of the largest and most important private collections of minimalist and conceptual art in the world... In an age of the commodification of art by wealthy 'investors,' Herb and Dorothy offer a rare and uplifting example of people for whom art is about love, not profit." Note PORT first broke the story that the Vogel's had given 50 works of art to the Portland Art Museum here.

First screening • 2pm • March 28
Second screening • 4:30pm • March 29
NW Film Center • Whitsell Auditorium • 1219 SW Park

Alice Neel, "Andy Warhol," 1970

The final installment of the NW Film Center's 2009 art film series screens next weekend. Alice Neel, Andrew Neel's documentary about his grandmother, explores the life of the portrait painter who was a "self-described collector of souls." She captured an amazing range of cultural figures, including Andy Warhol, Bella Abzug, Allen Ginsberg, and Annie Sprinkle, sacrificing much of her own life to pursue her art.

Film screening • 4pm • April 4
NW Film Center • Whitsell Auditorium • 1219 SW Park

David Horvitz's traveling box game is coming to the Pancake Clubhouse. What's in the Box! is "a multi-stage touring project, instigated by David Horvitz and Lukas Geronimas, in collaboration with Renata Christen, The Black Hole Space and curator Terri C. Smith, The Madiman Arts interaction Center, and all those that participate in the project." Breakfast will be served at 9:30 sharp.

Box Game • 9:30am • March 21
Pancake Clubhouse Historic Township and Activity Destination for the Living Arts • 906A NE 24th Ave • pancakeclubhouse@gmail.com

The Canoe Group and the Portland Center for the Performing Arts are leading this month's Art Spark. They'll be discussing PCPA's new cultural video project, and director Robyn Williams will present new opportunities for artists and arts organizations. Art Spark's host rotates monthly. Snacks this month courtesy of PCPA.

Community conversation • 5-7pm • March 19
Art Bar • SW Broadway & Main

The Portland Art Museum currently holds quarterly Museum Family Days that feature hands-on art making activities related to the current exhibition. Thanks to a recent gift to the Art Access Endowment, PAM is now offering free admission on these days, starting Sunday, March 22.

Roy Lichtenstein, "The Head," Barcelona, 1992

The NW Film Center's ongoing art film series continues this weekend with Vincent Gérard and Cédric Laty's By the Ways: A Journey with William Eggleston. The film explores the life and creative history of photographer William Eggleston. The crew tracked him from Memphis to Rome and beyond over the course of several months, "building an incremental portrait of the world as seen through the artist's eyes."

Also coming up in the series: A double-billing of The Universe of Keith Haring and Conversations with Jean-Michel Basquiat on Sunday, March 22, and a double-billing of Roy Lichtenstein: Tokyo Brushstrokes and Ellsworth Kelly: Fragments on Wednesday, March 25.

Eggleston screening • 3pm • March 21
NW Film Center • 1219 SW Park • Whitsell Auditorium

(More: PNCA Intermedia Film Fest, films by Ben Rivers.)

Mel Katz, "Four in the Center"

Sculptor Mel Katz and painter Roll Hardy are speaking this weekend at Laura Russo in conjunction with their ongoing exhibitions. Keep an eye on this space for a very special Mel Katz interview, coming soon...

Artists lecture • 11am • March 14
Laura Russo Gallery • 805 NW 21st • 503.226.2754

François Boucher, "Conspiration de putti (Cupids in Conspiracy)," c.1740

Heather MacDonald, curator of European art at the Dallas Museum of Art, presents A Seraglio of Men: Female Patrons and Male Artists in the Age of Madame De Pompadour at PAM. MacDonald will discuss "how female patrons shaped the development of the visual arts in France during the 18th century." Of course, part of the ongoing La volupté de goût exhibition.

Curator lecture • 2-3pm • March 15
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

Tim Colley

Tim Colley presents I Remember Everything at Rocksbox. Colley's books and videos focus on the "collection, hording, and re-contextualization of contemporary media, pop-culture imagery, and mass manufactured objects re-processed through manic, tireless re-construction."

Opening reception • 7-11pm • March 14
Rocksbox • 6540 N. Interstate • 503.516.4777

Danridge Geiger, "Work in progress"

Gallery Homeland presents TransFixed, a group exhibition curated by Victor Maldonado. Inspired by "mapping the diversity and fusion of contemporary culture," Maldonado selected artists he worked with at PNCA whose work "aided [him] in understanding the value of contemporary Fine Arts practices now." Featured artists include Sara Nyquist, Laura Hughes, Danridge Geiger, Calvin Ross Carl, and Rainbow Ross.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • March 13
Gallery Homeland • 2505 SE 11th • info@galleryhomeland.org

The Oregon Department of Kick Ass presents Hunker Down to Rise Above, a series of short films curated by Vanessa Renwick. The films "focus on folks taking matters into their own hands, be it within bike culture, hobo culture, kitchen culture or just plain ol' falling in love." Admission is $5.

Films screening • 7pm • March 13
The Waypost • 3120 N Williams • 503.367.3182

Richard Serra, from Tappeiner's "Thinking on Your Feet"

The NW Film Center's art film series continues this week with Maria Anna Tappeiner's Richard Serra: Thinking on Your Feet. This film portrait depicts Serra speaking articulately on his monumental sculpture, influences, historical context and public controversy. The next two installments in the art film series are: Wendy Keys's Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight on March 14 and a double-billing of Adam Kahan's Andres Serrano and Lucy Allen's Damien Hirst: Addicted to Art on March 17.

Film screening • 7pm • March 11
NW Film at the Whitsell Auditorium • 1219 SW Park

Sol LeWitt, "Incomplete Open Cube," 1974

Local artist, curator, and writer TJ Norris will speak this Thursday at PAM on Incomplete Cube by Sol Lewitt and Marcel Duchamp's Boîte-en-valise, Series F. This is the second in PAM's new series of artist talks. The talk will depart from the Hoffman entrance and continue in the museum café after the tour for happy hour until 8pm.

Artist talk • 6-8pm • March 12
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

PSU's Autzen Gallery presents: I Hope This Finds You Fearless in the Wilderness, an installation by Evertt A. Beidler. The exhibition brings Messages From the Middle of Nowhere to the viewer: A code of ethics, a belief system, and the resolve to act upon them that was developed in isolation; where no one was watching.

Artist reception • 6-8pm • March 7
PSU Autzen Gallery • 724 SW Harrison Street • Neuberger Hall, 2nd Floor, rm 205

(More PSU! MK Gallery, Littman Gallery.)

Kim Fisher, "Lunar Eclipse"

Fourteen30 presents Under a Vanishing Night: New Work from L.A., featuring Kim Fisher, Sayre Gomez, Richard Jackson, Brian Kennon, and Natascha Snellman. Deeply connected to the city of Los Angeles and its many venerable art institutions, the artists work from the palpable energy of LA's light-polluted "vanishing night."

Opening reception • 6-9pm • March 6
Fourteen30 Contemporary • 1430 SE 3rd • 503.236.1430

(More.)

Martin Kersels, "Fat Iggy 2"

LA-based artist Martin Kersels is lecturing this weekend for RAW. Kersels works in sculpture, audio, photography and performance, and is co-director of the Program in Art at the California Institute of the Arts.

Artist lecture • 7pm • March 7
Reed College Arts Week • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. • Eliot 314

Jean-Baptiste Chardin, Les Attributs des arts et les rècompenses qui leur sont accordèes (The Attributes of the Arts and the Rewards Which Are Accorded Them), 1766

New Yorker art critic Adam Gopnik is lecturing at PAM this Friday. In Madame De Pompadour In The Age Of Voltaire, Gopnik will discuss "the world of luxury, wealth, and leisure reflected in the art of Mme de Pompadour's time and the growth of radical new ideas about man, nature, and liberty that began in the era." There will be a book signing following the lecture, and a parent discussion on Saturday.

Critic lecture • 7-8pm • March 6
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

Michael Lazarus

In conjunction with his exhibition tend to forget at Elizabeth Leach, artist Michael Lazarus will lecture Thursday afternoon at PNCA.

Artist lecture • 12:30-1:30pm • March 5
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson • 503.226.4391

Now more than ever we need to support arts education in public schools: Portland's only primary art school, Buckman Elementary, is having their annual art show & sell this Friday and Saturday. The event features food, kid-friendly entertainment, and lots of art for sale, with 30% of proceeds going to benefit the school.

Art Show & Sell • 5-9pm • March 6
Day 2 • 10am-5pm • March 7
Buckman Elementary • 320 SE 16th Ave • 503.916-3506

Mel Katz at Laura Russo Gallery

Mel Katz presents Aluminum Sculpture at Laura Russo. After 50 years of practice, Katz's work has stayed modern and clean. His sculptures have become progressively more flattened, exploring the silhouette and positive and negative space.

Opening reception • 5-8pm • March 5
Artist lecture • 11am • March 14
Laura Russo Gallery • 805 NW 21st Ave • 503.226.2754

(More.)

Ken Tomita, "body"

Project Chaboo, a collaboration between fifty artists and designer Ken Tomita, will be exhibiting reinterpreted furniture at Gallery Homeland. "Chaboo was designed with the intention of creating an affordable piece of furniture made of high quality materials that is also attractive, simple, and highly versatile."

Opening reception • 6-10pm • March 4
Gallery Homeland • 2505 SE 11th • info@galleryhomeland.org

Cliff Evans, from "Empyrean"

Multimedia and video artist Cliff Evans is exhibiting Empyrean, a digital installation, at PCC Cascade. Using appropriation and photomontage-based animation, Evans draws from pop/Internet culture to create images that are "as mesmerizing as disturbing, as unassuming as complexly beautiful, and as mechanical as organically decomposed or rotten." Art historian Christine Weber will speak next week on Evans work in the Moriarty Arts Humanities Building (MAHB 222).

Opening reception • 11am-1pm • March 5
Art historian lecture • 1-2pm • March 10
PCC Cascade Gallery • 705 N. Killingsworth St.TH 102 • cascade.gallery@pcc.edu

The Linfield Gallery presents 21st Century Iconographic Clayworks. Curated by Nils Lou, the exhibition features 24 of "some of the most masterful and influential artists working with clay in the United States today."

Opening reception • 6-8pm • March 4
Linfield Gallery • 900 SE Baker St. McMinnville • 503.883.2804

Martin van Meytens, portrait of Queen Marie Antoinette at age 12, 1767-68

In connection with the ongoing Madame de Pompadour exhibit, art historian Melissa Hyde will speak this Sunday on Painted Women In The Age Of Madame De Pompadour. Her lecture explores "representations of women and the role cosmetics and fashion played in the French court during the lives of Mme de Pompadour, Mme du Barry, and Queen Marie Antoinette."

Historian lecture • 2-3pm • March 1
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

(More: George Tice lectures at PAM, Modou Dieng speaks for PMMNLS, the nowhere art collective opens at Disjecta.)

Oregon Painting Society

Student-organized Reed Arts Week begins next week. This year's theme is SUB PRIME 2009, "a celebration of uncertainty and incompleteness, and a refusal to value the pinnacle at the expense of the ascent." From March 4 - March 8 there will be exhibitions, lectures, workshops, performances, and more, so make sure to peruse the schedule. Featured artists include Kasper Hauser, Eugene Tsui, Hot Little Hands, Jason Lazarus, Martin Kersels, Tao Lin, Sarah Ross, Dan Shapiro, Oregon Painting Society, Jorge Lucero, Neal Medlyn, Jeffrey Baker, and blackblack.

Arts Festival • March 4 - 8
Reed College • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd.

(more including films on artists and the Zero Film Festival)

Michael Kenna, "Broadway Bridge, Study 2, Portland, Oregon, USA," 2004

An unprecedented amount of photography appears in this year's TAM Biennial. Participating photographers Michael Kenna, Doug Keyes, Isaac Layman, and Susan Seubert are lecturing on the subject this week at the Tacoma Art Museum. They will be discussing "photography's role in fine art and commercial imagery." Rebecca Cummins, Associate Professor at University of Washington School of Art, will moderate a panel conversation.

Lecture & discussion • 11am-4pm • February 28
Tacoma Art Museum • 1701 Pacific Avenue Tacoma, WA 98402 • 253.272.4258

Tom Holmes, "I Make Stuff Up"

Curated by Gabrielle Giattino, I know nothing of the weather when I know it is either raining or not raining. opens this Thursday at PNCA's Feldman Gallery + Project Space. Drawing its title from Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logioco-Philosophicus, a series of statements about the nature of logic, the show highlights strategies for making art that "willingly defy the necessary usefulness of logic and language." Featured artists include Erica Baum, Ellie Ga, Tom Holmes, Justin Matherly, Andrea Merkx, Jenny Perlin, and Vicente Razo. Artist Andrea Merkx will lecture on Wednesday about the show, curator Gabrielle Giattino will give a tour before the reception, and artist Ellie Ga will give a final presentation on Friday.

Artist lecture • 12:30-1:30pm • February 25
Curator tour • 12:30-1:30pm • February 26
Opening reception • 6:30pm • February 26
Artist presentation • 12:30-1:30pm • February 27
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson • 503.226.4391

Matthew Green will perform Solo Jams at Appendix Project Space this Thursday. The piece begins promptly at 7pm, and elements from it will be on view 3-7pm for the following three Thursdays.

Opening reception • 6-10pm • February 26
Appendix • NE Alberta • in the south alley between 26th & 27th

Jerry French and Charles S. Anderson

PNCA and Office PDX present a lecture by design leaders Jerry French and Charles S. Anderson. French is the founder of French Paper, the only independently owned paper mill in the US, and Anderson is the founder of CSA Design, a firm that "approaches design as a continuous evolution inspired by the highs and lows of art and print culture."

Design lecture • 6:30-8:30pm • February 25
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson • 503.226.4391

Althea Thauberger, "La Mort e La Miseria," digital video still

B.C. media artist Althea Thauberger is speaking this Monday for PMMNLS. Her recent video and photography work features collaboration with her subjects, "inviting both sympathetic and critical reflection of tropes relating to individualism and self-expression, romanticism and nature and aspects of youth cultures with which she identifies."

Artist lecture • 7:20pm • February 23
PSU • 1914 SW Park • Shattuck Hall Room 212

Artist live/work space Milepost 5 is launching two new bi-monthly exhibition series, MP5 Cubed and The Hallways. Curated by TJ Norris, MP5 Cubed will feature Kate Fenkertitled's Strange Attractor. On the first floor of the hallways, which are curated by Sara Cella, Derek Franklin and Calvin Ross Carl are showing Against Peter Halley : Reconsidering Rothko. Nicole Linde is exhibiting Flights of Fancy on the second floor, and Chris Haberman's El Corridor of Love will be on the third floor. Opening night features a live musical performance by Color Guard. The shows run through April 10.

Opening reception • 7-9pm • February 21
Milepost 5 • 900 NE 81st • 503.998.4878

Bruce Conkle & Marne Lucas, "Sleepwalking Salmon Woman and Primitive Artist," as played by Lucas and Conkle

The Marylhurst Art Gym presents Bruce Conkle and Marne Lucas's Warlord Sun King: The Genesis of Eco-Baroque. Coining the term "eco-baroque," this collaborative duo "seeks to combine a sensibility to the natural world that includes acknowledgment of many of its baroque, over-the-top manifestations that are not unlike the excesses of the Baroque era. If you imagine the Palace of Versailles crossed with the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, you will be ready for Warlord Sun King." The exhibition runs through March 25.

Preview reception • 3-5pm • February 22
Marylhurst • 17600 Pacific Highway Marylhurst, OR • 503.699.6243

Glenn Adamson

In case you missed the note in Alex's fantastic interview of Glenn Adamson, here's a reminder: He'll be lecture at the University of Oregon in Eugene on Friday, and at their Portland White Stage building this weekend for the Museum of Contemporary Craft's ongoing Craft Perspective series.

Lecture 1 • 4-5:30pm • February 20
U of O • Lillis Hall • 955 E. 13th Ave. Eugene
Lecture 2 • 2:30pm • February 21
White Stag Block • 70 NW Couch Street

Liza Ryan, "SPILL," installation view

In conjunction with her ongoing exhibition at the Cooley Gallery, SPILL, artist Liza Ryan will discuss her work this Friday in Reed's Eliot Hall.

Artist lecture • 6:30pm • February 20
Reed College • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. • Eliot Hall Room 304

An installation by Anna Gray & Ryan Wilson Paulsen, from OpenWidePDX

PNCA alumni Anna Gray and Ryan Wilson Paulsen have made art out of tragedy with their new book, Integrating a Burning House, which focuses on the September 2008 fire that destroyed their home. They'll read from the book tomorrow.

Artist book reading • 6:30pm • February 19
Allied Works Architecture • 1532 SW Morrison

Lise Graham, "Untitled (red)"

Considered Space opens tomorrow at Clark College's Archer Gallery. This group exhibition explores "the presentation of space in painting, real and perceived." To examine this question, artists use techniques ranging from traditional tools of perspective and scale to the integration of three-dimensionality through materials and constructions. All featured artists are regional: Jesse Hayward (Portland), Mark R. Smith (Portland), Grant Hottle (Portland), Adam Sorensen (Portland), Cara Tomlinson (Portland), Ben Buswell (Portland), and Lise Graham (Seattle). The show picks up a thread from curator Jesse Hayward's The Hook Up at NAAU almost two years ago. Spatial exploration has since become a hot theme around this town - in the words of another PORTstar, is this space camp? Considered Space will run from February 17 through March 14.

Opening reception • 4-6pm • February 18
Archer Gallery • Clark College, Penguin Union Building, 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver, WA • 360.992.2246

Daniel Payavis, "Shadow of a Book"

For its inaugural exhibition, east side space Pied-à-terre presents two works by Daniel Payavis. Shadow of a Book and Book draw from recent movements such as Suprematism, Russian Contructivism, and early Abstraction, as well as the ancient tradition of still life, to become "playful and thoughtful, aligning a respect for tradition with a dedicated interest in pursuing the new." This project by McIntyre Parker is open Saturdays and by appointment.

Exhibition • Through February 28
Pied-à-terre • 904 SE 20th Ave Apt. 5 • info@pied-terre.com

Portland's Japanese Garden

On Monday (for President's Day), the Japanese Garden is having a free admission day. Take advantage of the opportunity to experience what has been described as the most beautiful Japanese garden outside of Japan, and while you're there, catch the beginning of the 2009 season of the Art in the Garden series. From February 15 - February 22, calligraphy by Master Calligrapher Yoshiyasu Fujii of Tokyo will be on display in the pavilion with work by members of the Meito Shodo Kai. You can find the Japanese Garden above the Rose Gardens at 611 SW Kingston Avenue.

(More... Lectures by: Clement Tobias-Lange, and PMMNLS with Mark Beasley.)

Launch Pad's 4th Annual Love Show

Launch Pad Gallery presents their 4th Annual Love Show. With a staggeringly long list of participating artists, this year's open-call salon exhibition on the complexity of love has outgrown its britches and moved to the Olympic Mills Commerce Center. Partial proceeds from the show will benefit the Oregon Food Bank and Buckman Arts Elementary. See a list of participating artists and participatory events on Launch Pad's website.

Opening party • 7pm-12am • February 13
Olympic Mills Center • 107 SE Washington

Looking for something heart-free to do on VDay? Don't miss the opening of Shoot You - Shoot Me at Rocksbox. This joint exhibition by Moudou Dieng and Damien Gilley "examines the relationship between contemporary guerrilla warfare, high fashion, and the artist's approach to the creative process, while attempting to breakdown the predictability of perceived artistic production, display, and the consumption of mass imagery." This short term exhibition will be open from February 14 through March 1.

Opening reception • 7-11pm • February 14
Rocksbox Fine Art • 6540 N Interstate • 503.516.4777

Eugene Delacroix, "Christ on Lake Genesareth"

PAM is premiering a new artist talk series with MK Guth this week. At 6pm, Guth will lead museum visitors from the Hoffman Lobby on a tour through the galleries to discuss Eugene Delacroix's Christ on Lake Genesareth and Jeff Koons's Lifeboat. Afterward there will be discourse and happy hour until 8 in the museum café.

Artist talk • 6-8pm • February 12
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

Also, UPDATE: We apologize for any confusion, the Sara Greenberger Rafferty lecture is this Thursday. Rafferty is an artist/comedian who lives and works in New York, is co-editor of North Drive Press, and has published widely on art and comedy.

Artist chat • 12:30-1:30pm • February 12
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson • 503.226.4391

George Johanson

PNCA emeritus professor George Johanson is lecturing tomorrow on An Artist's Look at Lascaux. Johanson will discuss his recent trip to France, re-examining the prehistoric cave art of Lascaux in terms of "what these mysterious images tell us about the nature of painting and the nature of homo sapiens as visual thinkers."

Artist lecture • 6:30-8:30pm • February 10
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson • 503.226.4391

Rick Lowe in front of duplexes designed by Rice students as part of Lowe's Project Row Houses, from the NY Times

Artist / activist Rick Lowe is speaking at Jimmy Mak's this Monday for the second installation of Portland Spaces' Bright Lights Discussion Series. Lowe is the founder of Houston's Project Row Houses, "a nonprofit arts organization, established by African-American artists and community activists to create a positive presence in Houston's Northern Third Ward community." Lowe's mission is to use art and the community it creates to revitalize inner city neighborhoods, and he'll be speaking about "the new intersections of art and urbanism." The Bright Lights Discussion Series happens the second Monday of every month at Jimmy Mak's.

Artist discussion • 6pm • February 9
Jimmy Mak's • 221 NW 10th • 503.295.6542

Julie Ault & Martin Beck, "Installation" at Secession 2006

Artist, author, and curator Julie Ault is speaking Monday for PMMNLS. One of the co-founders of 30-year-old social arts collective Group Material, Ault's work "emphasizes interrelationships between cultural production and politics."

Artist lecture • 7pm • February 9
PSU • 1914 SW Park • Shattuck Hall Room 212

François Boucher, "Les Confidences Pastorales," 1745

La volupté du goût: French Painting in the Age of Madame de Pompadour opens tomorrow at PAM. "Organized in collaboration with the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tours, France, this international loan exhibition celebrates the patronage of Madame de Pompadour. As the official mistress of Louis XV, Pompadour indulged her 'voluptuous taste' in art to inspire some of the most sumptuous and sensual paintings in history." Among the most famous mistresses in history, Madame de Pompadour was an influential 18th century arts patron whose tastes often dictated the fashion of the day. The exhibition includes over 50 paintings commission or collected by Pompadour, including works by François Boucher, Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre, and Carle Vanloo.

Exhibition • February 7 - May 17
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

(More: Gallery Homeland, MK Gallery, Autzen Gallery.)

Worksound presents White Noise, a group exhibition on stagnation. Inspired by Portland snow and the struggling economy, 23 artists from the Pacific Northwest & Los Angeles have interpreted this broad theme through video, installation, and other multimedia works. Featured artists include Kevin Abell, Jaclyn Campanaro, Thor Drake, E*Rock, Danridge Geiger, Damien Gilley, Evan B. Harris, Danielle Higgins, Yoni Kifle, Sarah Jane McKinley, Sarah Meadows, Tamar Monhait, Mason Poole (LA), Nick Raffel, Noah and Nathan Rice, Kent Richardson, Rebecca Shelly, Stephen Scott Smith, Corey Smith (LA), Rebecca Steele, Aaron Thomas (LA), and Dylan Walker.

Opening reception • 7-11pm • February 6
Worksound • 820 SE Alder • mojomodou@gmail.com

(More - updated.)

Sarah Greenberger Rafferty

Sara Greenberger Rafferty is lecturing at PNCA this Thursday as part of their MFA Chat series. Rafferty lives and works in New York, is co-editor of North Drive Press, and has published widely on art and comedy.

Artist chat • 12:30-1:30pm • February 5
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson • 503.226.4391

Eva Lake

Eva Lake will be exhibiting Target Photomontages at PCC Rock Creek's Helzer Gallery. Building on her lifelong obsession with targets, which as a teenager she would steal from the Ashland Police Rifle Range, Lake has layered these target images with beautiful women from nostalgia to modern pop stars, exposing the complex femininity beneath the "babe."

Artist lecture • 3pm • February 6
Opening reception • 4-6pm • February 6
Helzer Gallery @ PCC Rock Creek • 17705 NW Springville Road • Building 3

Sandy Roumagoux, "Stonefield Beach Quartet"

In celebration of Oregon's sesquicentennial (150th birthday), Blackfish presents Oregon Seen. This group exhibition of Blackfish members celebrates Oregon & Oregonians, offering artists the opportunity to express both pride and concerns about their home state. On February 14, Oregon's birthday, long time Blackfish member Paul Missal will lecture on Oregon's artistic heritage. Special Oregon Modernist works will be on loan for the lecture, including works by Charles Heaney and Louis Bunce.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • February 5
Blackfish Gallery • 420 NW 9th • 503.224.2634

(More - UPDATED.)

Vanessa Renwick, from "Toxic Shock," 1983

Watch: Curator Marc Moscato presents A Not Too Distant Past: Film & Video From Underground Chicago, a collection of short experimental and documentary videos examining the Chicago's radical history. Featured filmmakers include Vanessa Renwick, Frédéric Moffet, Dara Greenwald, Kartemquin Films (a 1970s student group at the Art Institute of Chicago), The Videofreex (a late 1960s underground video collective out of upstate New York), and Marc Moscato. Tickets are $5.

Video screening • 8pm • February 5
The Waypost • 3120 N Williams • 503.367.3182

Film: Like to make film? Like to bicycle? (It's Portland, of course you do.) The 7th Annual Filmed By Bike festival is soliciting bike-themed shorts. All submissions must be under 8 minutes, and the deadline is February 15. Read all about it here.

Brain Awareness 2k9: OHSU's The Right Brain Initiative is hosting a lecture on learning, the arts, and the brain next week. The panel discussion will be moderated by John Frohnmayer, former chairman of the NEA. Featured speakers include two leading researchers on the arts and cognition, Drs. Michael Posner and Helen Neville, and two members of Portland's creative community, famous advertiser Dan Wieden and Chris Coleman, artistic director of Portland Center Stage. After the lecture there will be a "creativity reception" with major Portland/Oregon arts groups. Tickets are $20 + fees.

Panel lecture • 7pm • February 2
Portland Center for the Performing Arts • 1111 SW Broadway • 503.248.4335

Edgar Arceneaux, "The Alchemy of Comedy... Stupid" at the 2008 Whitney Biennial

LA-based multi-disciplinary artist Edgar Arceneaux is speaking at next week's PMMNLS. Arceneaux "explores the origins and laws of our physical reality, using strategy in which linear logic is subverted and destabilized to create a space of experimentation." Recent works include The Alchemy of Comedy... Stupid at the 2008 Whitney Biennial, featuring actor David Alan Grier working out an introspective and frequently awkward comedy routine.

Artist lecture • 7pm • February 2
PSU • 1914 SW Park • Shattuck Hall Room 212

Liza Ryan

Reed's Cooley Gallery presents SPILL, a film and photography installation by LA-based artist Liza Ryan. Ryan's work explores the liberation of the human psyche from the dimensions of reality, focusing on the psychological experiences of release and dispersal. The exhibition continues through March 8, featuring an artist talk in February in Reed's Eliot Hall room 314.

Exhibition • January 29 - March 8
Artist talk • 6:30pm • February 20
Cooley Gallery • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. • Hauser Memorial Library

Stephanie Robison, "Oversight"

The Tacoma Art Museum's 9th NW Biennial opens this weekend. TAM has had one of the more enduring annuals featuring regional artists, but in past years it has been a bit overcrowded and Seattle-skewed. Once again, there are only 5 Portland artists represented, but there should be some goodies. Stephanie Robison will be taking over the courtyard with a majorly expanded version of the above installation. (Note: Due to tinted glass, her piece will not be visible at night during the opening, so make the trip north early to see this gem in daylight.) The exhibition runs through May 25.

Opening reception • 7:30-10pm • January 31
Tacoma Art Museum • 1701 Pacific Avenue Tacoma, Washington • 253.272.4258

From "Undone"

Karl Burkheimer and Jenene Nagy have organized a group show of work by post-bac students at the Oregon College of Art & Craft. Undone showcases projects in wood, ceramics, metals, photography and drawing and painting by a group of artists who have come to OCAC to "further their artistic practice in an art and craft environment," in a "re-investigation of art and learning." Featured artists include Soraya Sayani, Molly Purnell, Jacie Friedkin, Matt Wicks, Kimo Nelson, Pat Krishnamurthy, Johanna Keefe, Suzanne Lussier, Betany Porter, and Stephanie Brachmann. The show will run at Disjecta from January 31 through February 14. Gallery hours are Thu-Sun, 12-5pm, but watch out for unexpected closures- Disjecta's had some scheduling issues with performances and gallery availability in the last few shows.

Exhibition • January 31 - February 14
Disjecta • 8371 N Interstate • 503.286.9449

Appendix gallery is opening its 2009 season with Pushup: new work by Calvin Ross Carl, Zack Davis and Joshua Pavlacky.

Opening reception • 6-10pm • January 29
Appendix Project Space • In the alley b/w 26th & 27th on NE Alberta

Janice Vitkovsky, "Beneath the Surface II"

Bullseye presents an exhibition of work from Scotland's North Lands Creative Glass. Due North celebrates the legacy of glass making in Scotland's highlands, featuring Jane Bruce, Lisa Cahill, Mel George, Deborah Horrell, Steve Klein, Dante Marioni, Catharine Newell, Robin Provart-Kelly, Bruno Romanelli, Louise Tait, and Janice Vitkovsky.

Exhibition • January 27 - March 21
Artist panel • 2-4pm • March 22
Bullseye Gallery • 300 NW 13th • 503.227.0222

Shigeru Takato, "Cologne V.," 2004

Lewis & Clark's Hoffman Gallery presents reGeneration, a group photography exhibition. Selected by three curators from Musée de l'Elysée, the show highlights some of the best work from emerging photographers around the globe. In an effort to explore the future of 21st century photographic practices, the curators used one question to guide their selections: Will this image be known in twenty years? Amongst over 150 remarkable images, featured work includes Keren Assaf's Untitled (Israel), an attempt to understand Israeli culture through the comparison of its aspirations with the American dream; Shigeru Takato's Cologne V. (above), part of his Television Studios series that exposes the hollow and blatantly artificial environments of the studio; and Untitled from Nicholas Prior's The Age of Man, where the photographer explores childhood as a social, not biological, construct.

Exhibition • January 22 - March 15
Hoffman Gallery • 0615 SW Palatine Hill Rd • 503.768.7687

MK Guth, Ties of Protection and Safekeeping

MK Guth will speak in the APEX Gallery at PAM this weekend about her installation Ties of Protection and Safekeeping. Read about the installation at the Whitney Biennial here.

Artist lecture • 2-3pm • January 25
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

Michael Brophy, "Day"

PMMNLS is back with celebrated local artist Michael Brophy, who paints vivid and often desolate images of the Northwest landscape.

Artist lecture • 7pm • January 26
PSU • 1914 SW Park • Shattuck Hall Room 212

Jesse Durost, "Flags, Smoke, Comfort and Conflict"

Fourteen30 presents the work of Portland-based Jesse Durost and LA-based John Sisley. Durost's Fabrications explore his "own vocabulary of architectural forms." In ENDGAMES, Sisley also creates a new spatial language, through "the erased or destroyed photograph, the lost or, unseen film, and the damaged record."

Opening reception • 6-9pm • January 23
Fourteen30 • 1430 SE 3rd • 503.236.1430

Two new exhibitions are opening Thursday at the Museum of Contemporary Craft:

Mandy Greer, "Dare alla Luce," installation shot

Mandy Greer presents her installation Dare alla Luce. The term is an Italian idiom for giving birth that translates to "to give to the light." Simultaneously "mythical and mundane," the installation uses sewing, crochet, braiding, and beading processes to "collapse the language and materials of the ordinary with the spectacular and the epic."

Exhibition • January 22 - May 31
Museum of Contemporary Craft • 724 NW Davis • 503.223.2654

Darrel Morris, "COACHES and athlete"

MoCC will be the first West Coast institution to exhibit Darrel Morris' large embroidered works, featuring pieces from 1999-2008. Best known for "intimate and nostalgic snapshot-sized pieces," with this body of work Morris approaches new territory in scale, color, and line. Clipping figures from print media, Morris creates sharply graphic line drawings with thread.

Exhibition • January 22 - May 31
Museum of Contemporary Craft • 724 NW Davis • 503.223.2654

Don't miss the panel discussion opening night. Stefano Catalani, curator from the Bellevue Arts Museum, will join MoCC curator Namita Wiggers and artists Mandy Greer and Darrel Morris for the latest lecture in MoCC's Craft Perspectives series.

Rachel Whiteread

Internationally renowned British sculptor Rachel Whiteread will be exhibiting recent sculpture and works on paper in the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art at PAM. Using a variety of casting techniques, Whiteread "works with the empty and unexamined spaces" of domestic objects "rendering negative space as positive sculptural form." Her work explores both the form and reimagined meanings of quotidian objects and the materials she casts them in.

Exhibition • January 17 - May 3
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SE Park • 503.226.2811

This month's Art Spark, hosted by the Gilt Club, features Oregon College of Art & Craft president Bonnie Laing-Malcolmson. She will discuss the future of OCAC, and its relationship to the Portland arts community.

Discussion group • 5-7pm • January 15
Art Spark at the Gilt Club • 306 NW Broadway

Theresa Redinger

PCC Sylvania's North View Gallery presents Making Camp, a group exhibition that capitalizes on the campus's treehouse setting. Featuring two artist-made tents, this 13 person show celebrates the outdoors with a wide range of media, from watercolor to video.

Opening reception • 11:30am-1:30pm • January 15
North View Gallery • 12000 SW 49th Ave • CT 214 Building

Chelsea Geringer

Curator Gail Brown presents The Next Iconoclasts at OCAC's Hoffman Gallery. The group exhibition focusing on altered expectations and revisionist identities, "features dramatically innovative work with evolutionary responses to historic precedents."

Opening reception • 4-7pm • January 15
Hoffman Gallery • 8245 SW Barnes Road • 503.297.5544

Darth Vader Tries to Clean the Black Sea With Brita Filter, 2000

On Monday, Bulgarian-born artist Daniel Bozhkov will speak for PSU's MFA Monday Night Lecture Series. Classically trained, Bozhkov incorporates his skill in Old Master techniques such as fresco to provide a basis for performance, video, and conceptual projects. Bozhkov invades modern worlds - from genetic science to shopping malls - as an "intruder/outsider" who introduces new strains of meaning into closed systems.

Artist lecture • 7pm • January 12
PSU • 1914 SW Park • Shattuck Hall Room 212

Stephen Chalmers

First Friday got lost in the holiday shuffle this month, but there are several interesting shows opening this weekend. Newspace is featuring the work of photographers Stephen Chalmers and Nan Brown. Chalmers explores "psychologically charged spaces... while he coolly detaches such imagery from its popular tropes." His series Transience depicts Snowbirds, and the culture surrounding full time RV habitation. Brown's work looks at a similar American subculture. Trailers Collected depicts "the individualism and freedom intrinsic to American rural life," combating the trailer trash stereotype with an honest look into the diverse community of trailer owners and travelers.

Opening reception • 7-10pm • January 9
Newspace Center for Photography • 1632 SE 10th • 503.963.1935

(More: Autzen Gallery, MK Gallery, PAM.)

Jason Adkins

PCC's Cascade Gallery presents Modern Salvage, a group exhibition that reexamines late Modernist formal aesthetics. The show asks what it means to create work in this vernacular when it has been co-opted by the sleek commercial lines of IKEA. How do we reconcile the "classical" reductive aesthetic with the highly marketable department store Modernism? Featured artists include Matthew Letzelter, Kim McKenna, Sterling Lawrence, Matthew Green, Jason Adkins, and Jeff Koons.

Opening reception • 5-8pm • January 9
Curatorial lecture • 4-5pm • January 26
PCC Cascade Gallery • 705 N. Killingsworth • Terrell Hall Room 102

The Social Practices students in PSU's MFA program present Extraordinarily Ordinary in PSU's White Gallery. The exhibition is the first in an experimental series showcasing the ongoing work of the Social Practices students. Student work and interactive projects will be on display in the White Gallery on a rotating basis - and this week's opening reception features a larger-than-life crossword.

Opening reception • 5-8pm • January 8
PSU White Gallery • 1825 SW Broadway • Smith Building South Wing 2nd Floor

Drake Deknatel, "Watch the Night," 2003

Elizabeth Leach presents Berlin Portraits, an exhibition celebrating the life and work of Drake Deknatel (1943-2005). Deknatel began this series after discovering a photograph of himself as a child, dressed in his father's flight jacket. The paintings explore childhood memory and experience, repeating the forms of child and adult until representational figures begin to blur back into abstraction, recounting the greater narrative of the image. Deknatel lived and worked in Seattle for over 20 years, but continued to maintain a studio in Berlin, where he exhibited widely.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • January 8
Elizabeth Leach Gallery • 417 NW 9th • 503.224.0521

(More.)

Laura Fritz, Evident (installation/detail view)

The first big show of 2009 opens this week: Laura Fritz will launch the 2009 segment of NAAU's Couture exhibitions with Evident, one of the most anticipated shows of the series. Conceived and designed specifically for Couture, Evident also marks Fritz's first full scale solo appearance in Portland since 2003. (Although Interspace and Caseworks 13 made notable appearances.)

Critically well-received, Fritz's installations elegantly manipulate and distort their surroundings, exploiting the cognitive dissonance created when space is subverted and no explanation is provided. She retains a high degree of control over her material even as she leaves meaning fully open ended, allowing "human nature to expose itself as a response and rationalization of the unknown."

Opening reception • 6-9pm • January 7
New American Art Union • 922 SE Ankeny St. • 503.231.8294

Lucky Dragons photographed by Michael Demeo

PSU's MFA Monday Night Lecture Series (PMMNLS) returns next Monday for winter quarter. The first presenter of 2009 will be the music/performance/installation group Lucky Dragons. Made up of Luke Fischbeck, Sarah Rara, and collaborators, "Lucky dragons are about the birthing of new and temporary creatures--equal-power situations in which audience members cooperate amongst themselves, building up fragile networks held together by such light things as skin contact, unfamiliar language, temporary logic, the spirit of celebration, and things that work but you don't know why."

Lecture • 7:30pm • January 5
PSU • 1914 SW Park • Shattuck Hall Room 212

Left: Jerry Walker, "Target For One," Right: cary doucette, "blau 1 (detail)"

12x16 is bringing in the new year with Jerry Walker and gallery member cary doucette. Walker was a Portland Pop Pioneer, who adopted the 1960s & 70s NYC Minimalist edge. Although he exhibited in the Portland Art Museum, his work remained largely obscure until his estate sold the collection after his death. Complementing Walker's Minimialist constructions are the parts and pieces of cary doucette. This show exposes the concept behind his work through raw materials, presenting unfinished structures like an architect might present a model.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • January 2
Artist reception • 2-4pm • January 4
12x16 Gallery • 8235 SE 13th #5 • 503.432.3513

Terry Toedtemeier's Soliton, Oregon Coast, 2004

The Northwest Photography Archive has established a memorial fund in honor of Terry Toedtemeier, which will fund a book of his photographs, more info on the fund at the bottom of the page here.

The NPA site also states that a memorial service will be held at the Portland Art Museum on Sunday, January 4. It will begin at 2 p.m. with a viewing of the Wild Beauty exhibition, followed by a memorial program at 3 p.m. in the Fields Ballroom in the Museum’s Mark Building. The program will include remarks by friends and family and a slide show of Terry’s work.

Suggestion for the cabin fevered in our unthawing city... if you do nothing else this weekend check out Wild Beauty at PAM, the show ends January 11th.

Ready to brave the snow? Catch the artist reception for Mixed Magic at PSU's Autzen gallery. This group exhibition uses comedy and playfulness to address more complex subject matter, approaching humor as an important tool to get us through difficult social and economic times. The show closes on December 22.
Update! The reception is canceled due to inclement weather. Check to see if PSU is open before stopping by to see the show.

Artist reception • 6-8pm • December 19
Autzen Gallery at PSU • 2000 SW 5th Ave • 2nd Floor Neuberger Hall

KBOO's Art Focus will hold a tribute to Terry Toedtemeier this Thursday morning. Guests include Jane Beebe of PDX Contemporary (his dealer), John Laursen (co-author of Wild Beauty), and his widow and co-curator, Prudence Roberts.

Radio Tribute • 10:30-11am • December 18
KBOO 90.7fm in Portland

Ben Peters

The 46th Ann Arbor film festival is coming to the NW Film Center. The longest running experimental film festival in the country, this year's tour features 31 of the best short films in the festival, split into two programs. Wednesday's program features works from Ben Peters' Frog Jesus to Josh Rankin's I Met the Walrus. Thursday's program includes Kelly Sears' The Drift, Semiconductor's Brilliant Noise - and many, many more on both nights.

Film Screening Part I • 7pm • December 17
Film Screening Part II • 7pm • December 18
NW Film Center • Whitsell Auditorium at PAM • 1219 SW Park

This weekend, a group of PNCA students will screen movies, a collection of short experimental film, at Gallery Homeland. Featured artists include Jacob Winfield, Ryan Tesar Freeman, Kevin Tinnell, Morgan Alexandra Ritter, Joey Lusterman, Chris Bovden, Bryan Colombo, Adrienne Huckabone, Israel Lund, Sarah Burke, Julia Perry, Brennan Broome, and Jim Hill.

Film Screening • 7pm • December 12
Gallery Homeland • 2505 SE 11th

Fourteen30 presents Impossible Instruments / Future Flags, a group exhibition organized by artist Nathaniel T. Price. Using science fiction as a point of departure, the show takes on manifestations of the uncanny and the strange in human experience. Exhibiting artists include Alex Felton, Kristan Kennedy, Corey Lunn, Chris Johanson, M Blash, Dana Dart-McLean, Rob Halverson, Steven Wirth, Jo Jackson, Nathaniel T. Price, Arnold J. Kemp and Bobo.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • December 12
Fourteen30 Contemporary • 1430 SE 3rd • 503.236.1430

The Mmm...Video series has started at PSU's MK Gallery. Lasting through most of December, the series begins with Robert Barta's Capri (through the 7th), followed by Alex Hubbard's Collapse of the Expanded Field 1-3, and Matthew Green's Home of the Radical.

Video series • December 1 - 22
PSU MK Gallery • 2000 SW 5th AVE • 2nd Floor

Michael McManus and Alexandra Schmidt

The Cooley gallery presents a performance orchestrated by Stephanie Gervais and Alexandra Schmidt. In Love: Personified, Schmidt and fellow performer Michael McManus "embark upon a journey from one kind of fear to another." This romantic/erotic performance, exploring youth and beauty, begins with the blast of a shofar, and ends with the pair embracing in a bathtub "replete with a thousand goldfish." The performance will be followed with music by Zoe Roller from 5-6pm. After the music, stay at the Cooley for Dreamtime with David Reed - bring your sleeping bag, and get comfy in the gallery to watch a screening of two video works by David Reed, in conjunction with the end of David Reed's Lives of Paintings at the gallery.

Performance • 4-5pm • December 8
Music • 5-6pm • December 8
Screening • 6-9pm • December 8
Cooley Gallery • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. • Hauser Memorial Library

Alexander Herzog, "picture 10"

Alexander Herzog presents I Found the Cure at 32 at Gallery Homeland. He writes that his work is "a collision of cultural anthropology and phenomenological experience." Extrapolating many formal elements from the history of painting, Herzog "pushes and pulls the segments of the image into space."

Opening reception • 6-9pm • December 5
Gallery Homeland • 2505 SE 11th • info@galleryhomeland.org

(More.)

Tony Fry

Australian design theorist Tony Fry will be the next PNCA+Five Ideas Studio speaker. Design Futuring, Culture and the Coming Age of Unsettlement will address two major questions: "How can design, as a positive force for change, be made to happen? And, how can design become a re-directive practice leading towards sustainment?" Fry is a contributing editor to the Design Philosophy Papers as well as director of "sustainability consultancy" Team D/E/S.

Design lecture • 12:30pm • December 5
PNCA • Gerding Theater at the Armory • 128 NW 11th Ave

Stephen Scott Smith, "Bunnysmith"

The Mark Woolley Gallery is celebrating their 15th anniversary this month with Stephen Scott Smith's Selections from ME9. Smith's provocative work explores identity, competitive art world marketing and artist branding, narcissism, modernity vs. nature and more through photography, video, installation, performance and painting.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • December 4
Mark Woolley Gallery • 817 SW 2nd Ave • 503.224.5475

(More.)

This Monday, come to the Holocene to celebrate the release of Psilo Design's 3rd Portland Funbook. The last two were fabulous proof that art and music in Portland are fun, and this year's is even oversize. Monday's release party will also be a benefit for Amnesty International.

Funbook3 Release Party • 9pm • December 1
Holocene • 1001 SE Morrison • $9

Orlo, publisher of the Bear Deluxe magazine, is celebrating their 15th birthday this Wednesday at the Someday. Exploring a variety of methods to "use the creative arts to explore environmental issues," Orlo's primary recent focus has been on Bear Deluxe. They'll release issue 28, their special contemporary arts issue (featuring images by PORT's own Ryan Pierce), at the party. The party will also feature cupcakes, cake, games and a placard-drawing contest. Free to Orlo members, or $5-$10 donation.

Orlo Birthday Party • 6:30-10pm • December 3
Someday Lounge • 125 NW 5th AVE

Hamza Walker

Before the Funbook party, don't forget PMMNLS! This week's lecture features curator Hamza Walker, interviewed a couple of years ago on PORT here. Since 1994, Walker has served as Director of Education/Associate Curator for The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago, a non-collecting museum devoted to contemporary art, and has received the 1999 Norton Curatorial Grant and the 2005 Walter Hopps Award for curatorial achievement.

Lecture • 7:30pm • December 1
PSU • 1914 SW Park • Shattuck Hall Room 212

Still from "Zidane"

This weekend, work off the holiday madness from the perspective of famous soccer player Zidane. The NW Film Center is screening Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, directed by Douglas Gordon and Philippe Pareno, on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. You can learn more about this ground breaking experimental film from Arcy's September review. Check out showtimes, and buy tickets online, at the NW Film Center site.

From "Wild Beauty" at PAM

In conjunction with PAM's ongoing exhibition, Wild Beauty: Photographs of the Columbia River Gorge, the NW Film Center will present three film series that reflect the history of the Columbia River and the enormous changes the river has undergone. The first is happening this Sunday, and features three short films: The Columbia River Gorge: A Natural History, Sagebrush Sailors, and Singing Waters: Where Rolls Oregon. Visit the NW Film Center for showtimes and more information, and keep an eye on their site for the next two installments, on December 14 and December 28.

Matthew Higgs, tonight's PMMNLS speaker, will be following his lecture with a dance party at SE industrial night club Branx. Sponsored by the PSU Art dept., "Art is to enjoy disco" features Matthew Higgs on the decks, and a last chance to shake your tailfeathers before weighing them down with turkey.

Dance Party • 10pm-2am • November 24
Branx • 320 SE 2nd

François Boucher, "Portrait de Madame de Pompadour," 1756

Patrice Marandel, Chief Curator of the Center for European Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is speaking this Sunday at PAM. Marandel will explore Madame de Pompadour, trendsetter in 18th century French culture, in a special advance lecture for PAM's February exhibition, La volupté du goût.

Curator Lecture • 2-3pm • November 23
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

Matthew Higgs, "What Goes Around Comes Around"

Next week's PMMNLS features NYC-based curator, critic, and artist Matthew Higgs. Since the early 1990s, Higgs has sought to explore the overlapping connections between the three practices, developing an ongoing, inter-generational dialogue between artists through exhibitions and his own work.

Lecture • 7:30pm • November 24
PSU • 1914 SW Park • Shattuck Hall Room 212

Rae Mahaffey, "Fig. 704 Brackets"

Rae Mahaffey and Sherrie Wolf are speaking this weekend at Laura Russo. Mahaffey's Engineering, an exhibition of painting, prints and glass, and Wolf's Animal Life paintings are on view at the gallery through the end of November.

Artists Lecture • 11am • November 22
Laura Russo Gallery • 805 NW 21st • 503.226.2754

Jiro Yonezawa, "Araumi"

Jiro Yonezawa's Dream Weaver is on view in the pavilion at the Japanese Gardens through November 30. Traditionally trained in bamboo arts in Beppu, Japan, Yonezawa lived and worked for many years outside of Portland before his recent return to Japan. His bamboo basketry and sculpture combine a mastery of traditional forms with a unique, elegant contemporary sensibility.

Exhibition • November 15 - 30
Japanese Gardens • 611 SW Kingston Avenue • Garden Pavilion

Allora & Calzadilla, still from "Under Discussion," from "Beyond Green" at Lewis & Clark

Next week: Stephanie Smith, director of collections and exhibitions and curator of contemporary art at the Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, will speak at PSU. Smith, who has published and curated widely on issues of art and sustainability, curated Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art, originally exhibited at the Smart Museum, currently on view at Lewis & Clark's Hoffman Gallery.

Lecture • 7:30pm • November 17
PSU • 1914 SW Park • Shattuck Hall Room 212

The Boxlift Building artists are having their annual open studio. Come by this weekend for music, refreshments, and work by 16 artists, including Eugenia Pardue, Mark and Rae Mahaffey (who has a show up at Laura Russo this month).

Open Studios • 4-10pm • November 15
12-5pm • November 16
Boxlift Building • 333 NE Hancock St. • boxliftbldg@gmail.com

Icelandic artist Asmundur Asmundsson's The Good Works opens this weekend at Rocksbox. Asmundsson "creates a subterfuge," believing that "our foundation as a civilized people has eternal possibilities and is despite (or because of) the dreadfulness of contemporary tastelessness, based upon freedom seeking the genuine." Asmundsson will also be lecturing this Friday at PSU.

Artist lecture • 6-8pm • November 14
PSU • 2000 SW 5th AVE • Room AB200, 2nd Floor Art Building

Opening reception • 7-11pm • November 15
Rocksbox • 6450 N Interstate AVE • 971.506.8938

Jens Hoffmann

Jens Hoffmann, international curator, art critic, and author, will present "What is a Curator? From Exhibition Maker to Author" this week at PNCA. Curating is difficult business, and this lecture should be an interesting exploration of questions of contemporary art.

Curatorial lecture • 6:30pm • November 12
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson • Swigert Commons

Don't miss this: For the holidaze, PAM is offering two for one admission every Thursday night, 4-8pm, through January 8, 2009 (the end of the Wild Beauty exhibition).

Dan Gilsdorf's Interiotrope is opening at Disjecta tomorrow. Gilsdorf "creates subtle and mysterious narratives from simple mechanisms." With Interiotrope, he has transformed the exhibition space, "infiltrating the gallery and breach[ing] surfaces which normally delineate interior space."

Opening reception • 6-10pm • November 8
Disjecta • 8371 N Interstate Avenue • 503.286.9449

(More! And PMMNLS.)

LEFT: Nick van Woert, RIGHT: Nicholas Pittman

Nick van Woert and Nicholas Pittman are bringing New Construction to Fourteen30. Responding to changes in technology and contemporary life through invention rather than reflection, the artists attempt to create a sense of order out of our times through abstract works of relief construction, sculpture, and painting. It's good to see Fourteen30 bringing this space back to participating in First Friday.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • November 7
Fourteen30 • 1430 SE 3rd AVE • 503.236.1430

(More.)

Storm Tharp, "Twins at a Funeral"

Storm Tharp is exhibiting ARM & ARM at PDX Contemporary. This new body of work continues his "lengthy investigation into the relationship between human nature and artfulness, form and function." Nine major works will be featured, exploring portraiture, painting, film, and one ambitious sculptural piece. Tharp, who was reviewed by PORT last year, named this exhibition such that "in all forms of its meaning, 'two' is revealed. 'Two' and what it conjures, is the basis by which the work for this exhibition was made."

Opening reception • 6-8pm • November 6
PDX Contemporary • 925 NW Flanders • 503.222.0063

(Many more - updated!)

Chang-Ae Song, "MASS - Black Disaster"

Pacific Currents opens this week at Clark College's Archer Gallery. The show features nine contemporary artists of Asian heritage working in a broad range of mediums to explore Asian historical traditions through modern issues and experience.

Opening reception • 4-6pm • November 5
Archer Gallery • Penguin Union Building, 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver, WA • 360.992.2246

Roxanne Jackson, "Soft Spot"

Clay As Sculpture is currently showing at the Alexander Gallery at Clackamas CC. The exhibition, which explores the use of ceramics in sculpture, features work by Roxanne Jackson, J.D. Perkins, and Micki Skudlarczyk. It is open through November 19.

Reception • 3-5pm • November 6
Alexander Gallery • Niemeyer Center, 19600 Molalla AVE, Oregon City

Sherrie Wolf, "Courbet's Allegory"

The Art Gym at Marylhurst presents Homage, re-enactments, copies and tributes by Sherrie Wolf, Brad Adkins, Christopher Rauschenberg and Michelle Ross. Originally conceived when Wolf presented her full scale copy of Gustave Courbet's 1855 oil painting The Painter's Studio: Allegory of Seven Years of My Artistic and Moral Life, curator Terri Hopkins decided to seek out other artists who were exploring imitation and homage: Rauschenberg's Eugène Atget project, Adkins's visual performance re-enactments, and Ross's Small Wild Things. Hopkins suggests that these artists projects are inspired less by a Levine-like desire to question authenticity, then an interest in homage, re-creation, and experimentation. The show runs through December 7.

Preview reception • 3-5pm • November 2
Marylhurst Art Gym • 17600 Pacific Highway (Hwy 43) Marylhurst, OR • 503.699.6243

Mammalian Diving Reflex, from "Accepting the Possibility That I May Ruin My Eyes

Next Monday's PMMNLS speaker is Darren O'Donnell, writer, director, social acupuncturist, designer and artistic director of Mammalian Diving Reflex. MDR claims to "smash ideas together at high speeds to see what pops out, inadvertently producing ideal entertainment for the end of the world." Here's to hoping the world doesn't end on Tuesday, but just in case, go see this lecture.

Artist lecture • 7:30pm • November 3
PSU • 1914 SW Park • Shattuck Hall Room 212

MK Guth's project at the Whitney Biennial

MK Guth is bringing her installation at the Whitney Biennial to PAM's APEX gallery. For Ties of Protection and Safe Keeping, Guth traveled across the country, asking community members "What's worth protecting?" Their answers were handwritten on red flannel ribbons, and incorporated into a continuous braid, referencing Rapunzel's epic braid. PAM writes that the project "poignantly embodies the diverse voices of America in today's complex times." Don't miss PORT's exclusive interview with the artist last January.

Exhibition • November 1, 2008 - March , 2009
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park AVE • 503.226.2811

The North Coast Seed Building, one of Portland's many great artist work spaces, invites the community to join them "on the wrong side of the tracks" for an open house this weekend. The building is made up of three separate warehouses constructed over thirty years, beginning in 1911. Originally zoned only for industrial use, artists working in the space in the early 1990s were nearly evicted by the fire marshal. Due to the intervention of a sympathetic member of the City of Portland's Bureau of Buildings, an artist's work was reinterpreted as a manufacturing process, and the North Coast Seed Building became an officially sanctioned artist space. Artists currently working in the building include Cynthia Lahti and Jason Traeger.

Open House • 5-9pm • November 1
North Coast Seed Building • 2127 N. Albina AVE

History of Honey

In conjunction with the ongoing Beyond Green exhibition at L&C's Hoffman Gallery, PORT's own Ryan Pierce is exhibiting The End of Death and Taxes. The large-scale paintings depict humans rebuilding society after the end of industry. It is a utopian exploration of what it would mean to create a sustainable environment by "redrafting human society around the health of natural systems." The exhibition is on display on the first floor of the Miller Center for the Humanities.

Exhibition • Through December 7
Hoffman Gallery • 0615 SW Palatine Hill Rd. • 503.768.7687

David Reed, "#453," 1996-2000, Collection Neues Museum Nürnberg

Abstract painter (and Reed alumnus) David Reed is speaking this Wednesday at Reed College. The lecture will be followed by a public reception at the Cooley for David Reed: Lives of Paintings, on view through December 9.

Artist lecture • 7pm • October 29
Reed College Vollum Lecture Hall
Exhibition • October 29 - December 9
Cooley Gallery • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. • Hauser Memorial Library

Ursula von Rydingsvard, "Damski Czepek"

Ursula von Rydingsvard will launch this year's Visiting Artists & Scholars program at OSU. She came to PAM a year ago to speak on the occasion of the exhibition of Pod Pacha last year. von Rydingsvard is best known for her extraordinary monumental cedar sculptures and installations.

Reception • 6pm • November 6
Lecture • 7pm • November 6
OSU • 875 SW 26th St. Corvallis • C&E Auditorium LaSells

Matt McCormick, still from "Towlines"

Artist / filmmaker Matt McCormick will be next week's PMMNLS speaker. Locally and nationally acclaimed, McCormick is known for such films as The Subconcious Art of Graffiti Removal, Towlines, and The Problem With Machines (That Communicate). His playful films offer "witty, abstract observations of contemporary culture and the urban landscape."

Artist lecture • 7:30pm • October 27
PSU • 1914 SW Park • Shattuck Hall Room 212

Been following development of the new bridge with us? An urban design panel is convening next Tuesday to discuss the "process, design considerations, and the next step." Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail: A New Bridge Over the Willamette will feature international bridge designer Miguel Rosales, AIA, and TriMet Design Manager Sean Batty, ASLA. You can preview documents related to the planning process on TriMet's site.

Urban Design Panel • 12-1:30pm • October 28
AIA Portland • 401 NW 11th AVE • Main Conference Room

Melody Owen, "Giraffe"

Over the past decade, philanthropist Leslie Durst has been privately commissioning a different local artist each year to create a unique edition of twelve objects. The Butterfly Effect will showcase the works publicly for the first time. The visual effect may be somewhat hodge podge, but it should be an interesting chance to see a somewhat rare example of the role of modern patronage. Artists include Christine Bourdette, Inge Bruggeman, Rachel Denny, Kristy Edmunds, Eleanor Erskine, Sally Finch, Kay French, Jörg Jakoby, Melody Owen, and Jenny Rideout.

Exhibition • 12-6pm • October 21 - 25
PICA • Leftbank Building • 240 N Broadway

Buster Simpson, "Incidence," installed at the Tacoma Museum of Glass. Photo by Russell Johnson.

Next week's PMMNLS features Buster Simpson, a widely known environmental and site-specific artist. His public installations seek to actively engage the viewer and the surrounding environment, such as Incidence shown above, which responds to ambient atmospheric conditions of light and the reflections on the water. Simpson's work includes major infrastructure projects, site master planning, signature sculptures, museum installations, and community projects.

Artist lecture • 7:30pm • October 20
PSU • 1914 SW Park • Shattuck Hall Room 212

logo ©Drive By Press

This Saturday, Drive By Press is holding a printing party at The Life, featuring their mobile print making studio. Come by, make your own print or t-shirt, and enjoy a Saturday night art party at the Everett Station lofts.

Printing party • 6:30pm • October 18
The Life Art • 625 NE Everett St. #107 • 971.544.1365

Reminder: Nominations are due Monday, October 20 for the Henry's new Brink Award. Nomination guidelines can be found here.

Todd Johnson

Ongoing: Photographer Todd Johnson's Dangerous Territory is on view at PNCA. This politically timely exhibition "revolves around the ideas of competition, survival, technology and destruction."

Exhibition • October 12 - November 30
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson

Cloud Eye Control, from "Under Polaris"

PICA presents Under Polaris, a "multimedia Arctic experience" by Cloud Eye Control. Created while the group was in residence with PICA, the hybrid performance is "a multi-media quest through expansive arctic landscapes, mythical creatures and the ethereal Aurora Borealis." Cloud Eye Control is a collaborative performance group from Los Angeles, comprised of Chi-wang Yang, Miwa Matreyek, and Anna Oxygen. Tickets to the event are $10.

Performance • 2:30-6:30pm (all ages) • 8:30pm (21+) • October 19
PICA • Leftbank Building • 240 N Broadway

Thomas Zummer, 2002, Portrait of 'Odex', graphite and pure carbon on paper, 42 x 30

PNCA & FIVE Idea Studio present "Models of Critical Production," a series of workshops, seminars, and lectures led by Saul Ostrow and Thomas Zummer. Ostrow and Zummer are both established artists, critics, curators, and scholars, and will critically examine modes of contemporary art practice. The noon-time chats are free and open to the public.

Saul Ostrow Lecture #1 • 12:30 - 1:30pm • October 14
Tom Zummer Lecture • 12:30-1:30 • October 15
Saul Ostrow Lecture #2 • 12:30 - 1:30pm • October 16
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson, in Commons • 503.226.4391

Jim Lommasson, "Arturo Franco: Wilsonville, OR"

The next NAAU Couture show opens this Friday. Jim Lommasson presents Exit Wounds, a documentation of the lives of returning veterans, exhibiting concurrently with the November elections. The exhibit combines Lommasson's photographs with photographs and words by the participants, exploring their transitions from the battlefield back to home life.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • October 17
New American Art Union • 922 SE Ankeny St. • 503.231.8294

The Linfield gallery is opening .meta, a group show curated by TJ Norris.

Opening reception • 6-8pm • October 15
Artist discussion • 4-5pm • November 12
Linfield Gallery • 900 Baker St. McMinnville • Miller Fine Arts Center

Tired of talking heads? There are some arts amazing lectures coming up in the next week.

Garth Clark, courtesy of MoCC

Craft "visionary" Garth Clark will be speaking at PNCA on Thursday. Clark works out of NYC as a gallery owner, curator, writer, historian, and one of craft's preeminent intellectuals. He'll be presenting How Envy Killed the Crafts Movement: An Autopsy in Two Parts, co-sponsored by the Museum of Contemporary Craft, the Oregon College of Art & Craft, and the Pacific Northwest College of the Arts. The lecture is free and open to the public, but he sold out the Whitsell auditorium the last time he was in town, so get there early.

Craft lecture • 6:30pm • October 16
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson • Swigert Commons

Andrea Zittel, A-Z Raugh Furniture, 2007

The PSU MFA Monday Night Lecture Series (hereafter known as PMMNLS) is kicking off with a bang this Monday with Andrea Zittel. This internationally acclaimed artist focuses on creative, sustainable living through the development of hand-crafted furniture, clothing, homes, and vehicles for "contemporary consumers." The O interviewed her in anticipation of her presentation. Keep an eye on Friday posts for a truly fantastic list of weekly speakers in this season's PMMNLS series.

Artist lecture • 7:30pm • October 13
PSU • 1914 SW Park • Shattuck Hall Room 212

This might be a little far to go for a screening, but we wanted to give a nod to Portland artists abroad: United State of Mind, v.4 of the Portland-based Odds and Ends video series, will be screened on October 11 at the Taipei Biennial as part of the Urban Nomad Film Festival. Congrats to the filmmakers listed above!

Happening a little more locally: Rererato is featuring the film and sculptural installations of Brandon Boan. Preserve Then Rewind explores the disruption of history through the slow recording of the process of everyday objects changing over time.

Opening reception • 6pm • October 11
Rererato • 5135 NE 42nd AVE • 732.407.4418

April Surgent, "An Afternoon with Ethan"

Bullseye presents Traces of Ourselves, an exhibition developed through the joint residency of Jiri Harcuba and April Surgent. Harcuba is a master Czech engraver whose work explores the dialog between self, society, history, and present. During their residency, Surgent, an up-and-coming American artist, refined her technique in glass engraving, expanding upon the themes of contemporary travel and culture. The exhibition runs from October 7 through November 22.

Opening reception • 5:30-7:30pm • October 10
Bullseye Gallery • 300 NW 13th AVE • 503.227.0222

Ben Killen Rosenberg

Ben Killen Rosenberg's Thank You For Having Me opened today at PSU's MK Gallery. Last year, Rosenberg began a series of paintings to introduce the PSU Monday Night Lecture Series. The paintings vary from an interpretation of the lecturing artist's work, imitation, portraiture, etc. Open through October 30.
Artist reception • October 23 • 5-7pm
MK Gallery at PSU • 2000 SW 5th AVE • 2nd Floor

Peter HappelChristian, "Familiar Wilderness"

Peter HappelChristian's Near the Point of the Beginning opens this Thursday. HappelChristian researched a cartographic site along the Ohio River called "The Point of Beginning," which marks the beginning of a grid system that constructs boundaries in the American landscape. Through his research, HappelChristian explores human interaction with the natural world. The exhibition runs from October 9 through October 30.

Artist lecture • 5-7pm • October 9
Artist reception • 5-7pm • October 11
Autzen Gallery at PSU • 724 SW Harrison St. • 2nd Floor

Harry Dodge & Stanya Kahn, still from "Masters of None"

TBA:08 On Sight: The New Absurdists closes tomorrow! Don't miss your last opportunity to experience the installations of Tamy Ben-Tor, Harry Dodge & Stanya Kahn, Lizzie Fitch, Jacob Hartman, Corey Lunn, Jeffry Mitchell, and Ryan Trecartin.

On view 12-6pm • Last day October 4
On Sight at THE WORKS • Leftbank 240 N Broadway

drawing by Samantha Wall

Curated by Selina Ho, Reverse Reality is an artist residency and exhibition project that sent four Hong Kong young artists to Portland for a month to create new work informed and inspired by their experiences. Artists Beatrix Bang, Doris Wong, Hanison Lau, and Florian Ma translated their tradition working methods through the lens of their experiences in Portland, fostering a cultural dialogue between contemporary American and Chinese art. Included in this mix Portland artist Samantha Wall has a room devoted to her highly kinesthetic drawings of grappling women.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • October 3
Worksound • 820 SE Alder • mojomodou@gmail.com

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Alfred A. Monner, "Sand Dunes Along the Columbia River with the Snow-Capped Peak of Mt. Hood in the Distance," 1934

Wild Beauty: Photographs of the Columbia River Gorge 1867-1957 opens this weekend at PAM. The exhibition features roughly 250 historic photographs that illustrate "the majesty of the Columbia River Gorge through nine decades of profound transformation." Check the exhibition website for related lectures and events.

Exhibition • October 4, 2008 - January 11, 2009
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

Also coming soon to PAM: Making Merry: The Circus and Carnival in Graphic Art. October 11, 2008 - January 4, 2009. More details can be found on the exhibition page.

Jen DeNike, still from "Flag Girls"

Quality Pictures presents Jen DeNike's Flag Girls, the first video installation in their "Video Trifecta" series. Recreating a found 1918 postcard depicting women wrapped in the American colonial flag, DeNike's Flag Girls are able to free themselves from the flag's "oppressive hold," humming the national anthem as they unwrap themselves and exit off-stage nude. The video has been well received in England and New York, described in the Guardian as "a suggestion of American nationhood perhaps being transfixed by almost terminal self-doubt."

Opening reception • 6-9pm • October 2
Quality Pictures Contemporary Art • 916 NW Hoyt • 503.227.5060

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Bean Gilsdorf, "Tinker, Tailor"

Bean Gilsdorf's Handsome opens this week at the Albina Press coffee shop, featuring nine mixed-media panels. "Each work in Handsome features a single figure: a stylized company man in the mode of mid-century advertising illustrations. Each man observes, gestures, or manipulates as he is engaged in some mysterious pursuit, the motive for which is unseen."

Show • October 1 - 31
Albina Press • 4637 N. Albina AVE • 503.282.5214

Christopher James Brown

PCC's Cascade Gallery is featuring the work of Christopher James Brown. Tooling Around breaks free of the binary of art/craft, using glue, ink, and wood to create "non objective works of art." Utilizing extensive knowledge of furniture making and the basic forms of Modernist design, Brown "formulate(s) new conjectures of mastery." His exhibit will be on view October 1st through November 5th.

Opening reception • 4-7pm • October 1
Artist talk • 4-5pm • October 8
PCC Cascade Gallery • 705 N Killingsworth in Terrel Hall, Room 102 • 503.978.5326

Mark Dombrosky, APEX installation view

This Sunday, current PAM APEX artist Mark Dombrosky will speak about his "artistic process and intentions." Dombroksy's work examines the social atmosphere of an American town, typically utilizing found scraps of paper to offer a glimpse into the lives of strangers. This installation presents a series of cardboard homeless signs found in the streets of Tacoma and Seattle, his careful embroidery over the script "reveal[ing] as much about language and place as human relationships and individual psychology," (Jennifer Gately). The exhibit will be on view at PAM through October 26.

Artist lecture • 2pm • September 28
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

Vicki Lynn Wilson, conceptual drawing for "Fung-US"

Opening this weekend: The 2008 Natural Cycles installation on Trillium Trail at Tryon Creek State Park. A collaborative project between the RACC, Oregon State Parks, and Friends of Tryon Creek State Park, the Natural Cycles project brings temporary forest art installations to the Trillium Trail each year. The five artists featured this year are Brennan Conaway, Portland, Oregon (Invader); Lee Imonen, Dexter, Oregon (The Source Series); Julie Lindell, Seattle, Washington (Nontrivial Pursuit); Jen Pack, Warrenton, Oregon (Forevergreen Tuffet) and Vicki Lynn Wilson, Portland, Oregon (Fung-US). The 2008-2009 installations will be unveiled on Saturday, followed by a $100/plate fundraising dinner. A free family day will be held on Sunday with hands-on art activities along the trail.

Forest art installation • September 27, 2008 - Summer, 2009
Tryon Creek State Park • Close-in Portland, see website for directions

Bruce Conkle's Do You Feel Lucky Punk?

Rocksbox presents Bruce Conkle, "de facto king of the Pacific NW eco-art-geeks," currently showing Eco Takers at the State University of New York at SUNY Oswego. Friendlier Fire is "an exhibition of the prime-evil, using the primordial poop of the earth and the detritus of our caffeine fueled society hell bent on self-destruction."

Opening reception • 7-11pm • September 27
Rocksbox • 6540 N Interstate • 971.506.8938

Devon Oder, "Bleed #7 (Cloud)"

Jeanine Jablonski's new gallery, Fourteen30, debuts this Friday with Devon Oder's Breaking Light. Oder's work uses film and lenses to manipulate photography and create surreal, mysterious landscapes. The exhibition's title refers to the physical processes of breaking up the Polaroid chemical emulsion and distorting light through trees, prisms, lenses, etc. Her images challenge "both the technical processes [of photography] and the phenomenological experience of the viewer."
A specialty art bookstore will also open inside the gallery, including works published by Museum Paper (Stockholm), 2nd Cannons (Los Angeles), Nieves (Zurich), and JRP|Ringier (Zurich).

Inaugural Reception • 6-9pm • September 26
Fourteen30 Contemporary • 1430 SE 3rd AVE • 503.226.1430

Hilary Pfeifer, "Natural Selection," installed at Ogle

This week's Art Focus on KBOO will feature Hilary Pfeifer. She'll be speaking about her Natural Selection exhibition on view at Ogle Gallery this month. The installation consists of a small greenhouse, filled with plants following a very human process of mate selection. You can also hear her speak at the gallery this Saturday.

Radio Interview • 10:30-11am • September 25
Art Focus • 90.7 FM • Live Stream

Artist lecture • 1pm • September 27
Ogle Gallery • 310 NW Broadway • 503.227.4333

Eric Tillinghast, "Verticle Multichrome"

Tonight the Oregon Arts Commission is unveiling two new site-specific public works at PSU. Eric Tillinghast's Verticle Multichrome and Steven Beatty and Laurel Kurtz's JUICY II will appear in the ceiling alcove on the second floor of the Ondine residence hall. Learn more about recent and upcoming OAC public art exhibitions in this PDF.

Unveiling • 6-8pm • September 19
PSU Ondine Hall • 1912 SW Sixth Avenue

Lena McGrath Welker, "[chart] folio"

PCC Rock Creek's Helzer Gallery presents Lena McGrath Welker, winner of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation award. The latest work in her Navigation cycle, Navigation [chart] is "an intellectually and physically complex installation that investigates our responses in times of grief and loss." Using maps, texts, and symbols, Welker charts our search for answers in the night sky. Welker will speak on this and related work in early October in PCC Rock Creek's Forum (Building 3).

Exhibition • September 22 - November 12
Artist talk • 3pm • October 3
Helzer Art Gallery • 17705 NW Springville Rd. Building 3 • 503.244.6111 x3434

Hildur Bjarnadottir, "Blue Doodle"

Icelandic artist Hildur Bjarnadottir will speak this weekend at Pulliam Deffenbuagh. One of four artists currently featured in Blurring the Line: art of thread, Bjarnadottir adopts the "handwork" of her native Iceland as she "unravels its traditions within the context of contemporary art."

Artist talk • 11:30am • September 20
Pulliam Deffenbaugh • 929 NW Flanders • 503.228.6665

Also happening this weekend: Come to PAM this weekend for their annual book sale. Get your hands on art books, auction catalogs, and more for great prices and a great cause: All proceeds benefit the museum.

Saturday, September 20, 10am - 5pm
Sunday, September 21, 12pm - 5pm
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • Mark Building

From suddenly.org

The Cooley Gallery is holding a reception & "unfolding event" for Suddenly: where we live now. Swing by the gallery from 5-7pm to check out the installed works, then head over to the Student Union for Psychedelic Sprawl, "music, conversation, disorientation, food, and drink," featuring presentations and performances by Mostlandia. You can follow this ongoing series of exhibitions and public events at www.suddenly.org.

Reception • 5-7pm • September 21
Psychedelic Sprawl (Student Union) • 7-10pm • September 21
Cooley Gallery • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. • Hauser Memorial Library

From "Volume"

Don't miss Volume's curator tour by PORTstar Jeff Jahn this weekend. He'll be joined by several artists to talk about the work in the show, which was positively reviewed by the Mercury and the Willamette Week. Learn more about the exhibition here, and check out photos from the show on Flickr. Also, don't miss the lecture next week by Arun Jain, Chief Urban Designer, City of Portland.

Curatorial tour • 2pm • September 21
Lecture • 7pm • September 23
Worksound • 820 SE Alder • mojomodou@gmail.com

Fanny Van Duyn, ca. 1907

Tomorrow night, Newspace hosts an Oregon Chautauqua program from the Oregon Council for the Humanities. Carol Glauber will lecture on four distinctive female Northwest photographers between 1852 and 1917. These women emerged from at least 233 women working at the time, documenting "the Columbia River Gorge, Native Americans, and the early development of the Klamath Basin [to] provide a window into [Oregon's] history that reflects community, culture, and gender."

Lecture • 7pm • September 17 • Free
Newspace Center for Photography • 1632 SE 10th AVE • 503.963.1935

This month's ArtSpark has relocated to the ArtBar in the PCPA building. The discussion will be hosted by Arts Partners, an initiative to connect artists and arts organizations with schools. They'll be outlining upcoming opportunities for artists interested in working in classrooms.

ArtSpark • 5-7pm • September 18 (and every 3rd Thursday)
ArtBar • SW Broadway & Main • 503.432.9205

"The sculpture competition that's one part Iron Chef and two parts Junkyard Wars."
That says it all- come check out the festivities, featuring a wild and crazy sculpture competition, music, food, a beer garden, and more. All proceeds benefit the School & Community Reuse Action Project (SCRAP). More info and schedule of events can be found here.

Competition 11am - 2:30pm • Festivities until 7pm
September 13 • SE 2nd @ Main & Salmon

Michael Rakowitz, "paraSITE"

Lewis & Clark's Hoffman Gallery presents Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art. The exhibition features an international group of artists exploring "the convergence of art, design, and sustainability," and this is its only stop in the Northwest. Three overlapping themes guide the grouping of the works: objects, structures, and processes/networks. Each features a creative restructuring of humans' relationship to our world, such as Michael Rakowitz's paraSITES (above). These portable structures, inflated and heated by the air from city buildings, offer an "unconventional" shelter for the homeless. The exhibition runs through December 7.

Opening reception • 5-7pm • September 11
Hoffman Gallery at Lewis & Clark • 0615 SW Palatine Hill Rd. • 503.768.7687

PSU's second year MFA candidates in studio & social practice will be showing their work at the Autzen gallery. Side by Side features artists Katy Asher, Steve Baggs, Vanessa Calvert, Varinthorn Christopher, Damien Gilley, Bethany Hays, Avalon Kalin, Laurel Kurtz, Sandy Sampson, Rebecca Shelly, Cyrus Smith, and Eric Steen. The exhibition runs from September 8 through October 4, and there will be a closing reception for the artists.

Closing reception • 5-7pm • October 4
PSU Autzen Gallery • 724 SW Harrison St.

Jim Kazanjian

Jim Kazanjian's Untitled works seek to produce an "entropic" series of images. Fragmenting photographic space, Kazanjian attempts to break down the "linear" visual plane, and create something entirely new in its reconstruction.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • September 5
Pushdot Studio • 1021 SE Caruthers St. • 503.224.5925

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The Yes Men

TBA starts this week, and hidden amongst the opening night activities is one of the most exciting shows on this month's First Thursday circuit: The first major exhibition of The Yes Men. This artist/activist group has become (in)famous for infiltrating events like the GO-EXPO, Canada's largest oil conference, and successfully obliterating perceived limits of social and business norms. For TBA, they've installed KEEP IT SLICK: Infiltrating Capitalism With The Yes Men at PNCA. KEEP IT SLICK features "elaborate costumes, slapstick videos, outrageous posters and props ... exhibited alongside new works produced for this exhibition." The Yes Men will also present a workshop this weekend giving insight into their methods and How to be a Yes Man.

Opening reception • 5-8pm • September 4
Workshop • 3-4pm • September 6
PNCA Feldman Gallery • 1241 NW Johnson St. • 503.226.4391

Much more!

Eugenia Pardue, from "Anomaly"

Described as "almost sculptural," Eugenia Pardue's painting transforms the Linfield Gallery into a site specific installation. Using tools to "braid, mold, and weave" her thick paint, Pardue's work crawls off the canvas to interact with the viewer.

Opening reception • 6-8pm • September 3
Artist talk • 4pm • September 24
Linfield Gallery • 900 SE Baker St. McMinnville at the Miller Fine Arts Center • 503.883.2804

Portland's art community has truly been stepping up to reexamine and re-imagine our fair city as it grows, and, more importantly, to guide its growth. Continuing the discourse opened by exhibitions like last month's PDXplore and the recently opened Suddenly, PORT's own Jeff Jahn is curating Volume, which opens this weekend at Worksound. Volume, Jahn's first non-institutional warehouse show since 2005, surveys "how Portland's art scene addresses, redirects, abuses and redefines space." Housed in one of the oldest buildings on the eastside, Worksound is especially well suited to the exploration of the development of the city and its once gritty/industrial Central Eastside (Arts) Industrial District. The exhibit features a lecture in late September by Arun Jain, Chief Urban Designer, City of Portland.

Opening reception • 7-9:30pm • August 30
Also open for First Friday
Lecture • 7pm • September 23
Worksound • 820 SE Alder • mojomodou@gmail.com

More, more, MORE happenings this weekend after the jump.

$Wilcox_Manufractured.jpg$
Dominic Wilcox, "War Bowl"

Manuf®actured opens this Thursday at MoCC. The exhibition explores the use of "labor-intensive craft practices" to take apart and remold mass produced objects and materials. The wide variety of work examines questions of "overabundance, appropriation, [and] reuse." MoCC will, as always, stay open for the First Thursday artwalk next week.

Exhibition • August 28, 2008 - January 4, 2009
Lecture • 6:30pm • September 18
Museum of Contemporary Craft • 724 NW Davis • 503.223.2654

Jesse Hayward's installation, progressed

Jesse Hayward's innovative and interactive installation at Jáce Gáce has been building since it opened for First Friday. Come experience and celebrate the results this Friday.

Closing reception • 6-10pm • August 29
Jáce Gáce • 2045 SE Belmont • 503.239.1887

Artist Fritz Haeg w/ naturalist Mike Houck

Suddenly: where we live now opens today at Reed's Cooley Gallery. It is "an ongoing set of visual art exhibitions, a reader, and a series of public programs" seeking to explore new ways to shape the natural and urban landscape. Featured artists include Fritz Haeg, Marc Joseph Berg, Michael Damm, Zoe Crosher, Frank Heath, Oscar Tuazon, and Metronome Press. During TBA, curator Stephanie Snyder will lead a tour through Fritz Haeg's Animal Estates. In late September, there will be a public reception in the Cooley Gallery, followed by the "unfolding event" Psychedelic Sprawl in the Reed Student Union, put on by the citizens of Mostlandia and others. Finally, a series of symposia on the exhibit is happening in October.

Exhibition • August 26 - October 5
Public reception • 5-7pm • September 21
Unfolding event • 7-10pm • September 21
Cooley Gallery • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. • Hauser Memorial Library

Andrew Brandou

Painter Andrew Brandou presents his lush landscapes at Grasshut. Innocent at first glance, his playful animal characters often reveal a mischievous - or downright twisted - twist that adds a wicked delight to his bright colors and careful brushwork. This weekend's opening reception of from the Funk Drawer, Brandou's Grass Hut mini-show, features a breakfast catered by the Screen Door, so RSVP soon to grasshut.corp@gmail.com.

Opening reception (and breakfast!) • 11am - 1pm • August 31
Grass Hut • 811 E Burnside • 503.445.9924 • RSVP to grasshut.corp@gmail.com

Diane Jacobs, "Doing Time"

The first solo show at Disjecta's new space is opening tomorrow. Formerly scheduled at PAC, Diane Jacobs presents The Writing's on the Wall. Taking an "an interactive and experiential" approach to American racism, the exhibition looks at the impact of incarceration and the ramifications of institutional racism.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • August 23
Disjecta • 8371 N Interstate AVE • 503.286.9449

This weekend at Rererato, Dustin Zemel brings us a series of video installations titled Stare Hard. Using a variety manipulated footage and loops, Zemel's work "explores the visual density of our highly produced films and television programs."

Opening reception • 6-8pm • August 23
Rererato • 5135 NE 42nd AVE • info@rererato.com

Not coincidentally, Episode 2 of Rererato TV will air at 4pm the same day, featuring music, performance, and a discussion of Zemel's work.

Ethan Jackson, from "Polyopticon VI"

NAAU's next Couture exhibition opens this week. With Orbis Viridus Obscurus, photographer Ethan Jackson will convert the entire gallery space into a "living camera obscura." The project is a continuation of his exploration of the camera obscura in Polyopticon VI, where he used mirrors, lenses, and "baffles" to distort and convert space in an abandoned ranch dwelling in Wyoming. Jackson defines the camera obscura as a "participational optics... that defines a conceptual space that is difficult to tackle directly."

Opening reception • 6-9pm • August 20
New American Art Union • 922 SE Ankeny St. • 503.231.8294

Michihiro Kosuge, "Arbor Series Sculpture"

Michihiro Kosuge and Gina Wilson are speaking this weekend on their current exhibitions at Laura Russo. Kosuge's Recent Sculpture explores "the relationship between man and nature seen in an influence by both architectural form and the natural environment." Featured works include The Arbor Series, towering columnal forms that are "solemn and spiritual." Wilson's New Paintings are playful abstractions of the human figure, "offbeat and distinctive... soft and intimate."

Artists' talk • 11am • August 16
Laura Russo Gallery • 805 NW 21st AVE • 503.226.2754

Rocksbox is bringing us a pair of solo exhibitions by Jo Nigoghossian of NYC (left) and Natascha Snellman of LA, CA (right). Nigoghossian's Happy Hour "create(s) a psychologically charged atmosphere of visual discomfort" using "voyeuristic" video and sculpture in a psychosexual explorations of bar scenes, 70s film aesthetics, crowds, anxiety, and more. Snellman's We Children of the Zoo takes a different path through the human psyche via the "unstable frontier between what we consider human and what we still define as animal." Borrowing her exhibition title from the film Christiane F., she combines site-specific sculpture and collage.

Opening reception • 7-11pm • August 16
Rocksbox Fine Art • 6540 N. Interstate • 971.506.8938

Vicki Lynn Wilson

Surface Tension opens this month at Gallery Homeland. The exhibition features past and future artists from the gallery's annual summer series, Scratching the Surface. The series "embrac(es) the Willamette River's powerful role in promoting culture through community and exploration." Featured artists include Josh Arseneau, Vicki Lynn Wilson, Marc Dombrosky, Shannon Eakins, Tim Folland, Jesse Hayward, Sean Healy, Ben Stagl, Grace Luebke, Mack McFarland, Gary Wiseman, Dana Vinger, Jo Ann Kemmis, John Vitale, and Adam Ross, as well as video recaps of several past projects.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • August 8
Gallery Homeland • 2505 SE 11th AVE • 503.819.9656

Bobby Grossman, "Andy Warhol: Cornflakes," 1978

Traveling exhibition Bande à part (Band of Outsiders) is coming to Augen Gallery NW this month. A reference to the 1964 film by Jean-Luc Godard, the show is a collection of photographs from the New York underground scene in the 60's, 70's, & 80's. It is an "inside" look at the self-proclaimed "outsiders," including photography by Billy Name, Danny Fields, Leee Black Childers, Anton Perich, Roberta Bayley, Godlis, Marcia Resnick, and Bobby Grossman. This show is timed nicely with the Famous Faces exhibition at the Maryhill Museum.

Opening reception • 5-8:30pm • August 7
Augen Gallery NW • 716 NW Davis • 503.546.5056

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Dan Attoe, "You Are Vulnerable Just Like the Rest of Us," 2006 (View 1)

Dan Attoe & graphic novelist Craig Thompson are speaking this week at PAM. They'll present their shared artistic influences, and "reflect on the contemporary American experience." Attendees are invited to visit the CNAA galleries for a discussion following the lecture. Unfortunately, the event conflicts with the First Thursday artwalk... So scheduling might be an issue.

Artist lecture • 6pm • August 7 • Museum Admission applies
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park • 503.226.2811

Gertrud and Otto Natzler

Gertrude and Otto Natzler, "pioneers in modern ceramics," have been collaborating for almost forty years. They came to California in 1938 after fleeing from Austria during WWII, and have since produced over 25,000 works out of their LA studio. MoCC presents The Ceramics of Gertrud and Otto Natzler, a retrospective and tribute. If you missed the members-only preview, come by MoCC next week during First Thursday.

Exhibition • August 2, 2008 - January 25, 2009
Museum of Contemporary Craft • 724 NW Davis • 503.223.2654

Jesse Hayward's installation in progress

Jáce Gáce describes Hayward's character as one "in the spirit of throwing caution to the wind and letting the chips fall where they lay," and in The Nursed Meeting of Fallen Renewal he "has created a situation of controlled chaos." His work breaks boundaries and allows the viewer to reset them, building a "living installation that will inevitably change throughout the course of the month."

Opening reception • 6-10pm • August 1
Closing reception • 6-10pm • August 29
Jáce Gáce • 2045 SE Belmont • 503.239.1887

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Andy Warhol, "Marilyn" (1981)

The Maryhill Museum of Art is exhibiting Andy Warhol and Other Famous Faces. The show features an impressive collection of Warhol's pop icon portraits. It also traces his influence on pop and contemporary art, including portraits by Jasper Johns, Chuck Close, Takashi Murakami, Robert Rauschenberg, and many more. It's worth the trek - the museum is open 7 days a week, including all holidays, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., through November 15.

Exhibition • July 19 - November 15
Maryhill Museum • 35 Maryhill Museum Drive Goldendale, Washington • 509.773.3733

Alexis Pike, "Red Chairs, Bliss, Idaho"

Photolucida promotes dialog and development in the photography community through annual spring Portfolio Review sessions between photographers and reviewers. This year, they've added a summer review session, and this weekend you can check out the work of participating photographers in the Portfolio Walk. Half the photographers will present from 6-7:30, and the other half will present from 7:30-9. In addition to the portfolios, the winners of Photolucida's first Oregon Awards (M. Bruce Hall, Alexis Pike, and Sika Stanton) will be exhibiting their work.

Portfolio Walk • 6-9pm • July 26
Art Institute of Portland • NW Davis & 11th • 2nd Floor

Brian Borrello installation view

Brian Borrello will talk about his wonderful current exhibition of paintings, drawings and sculpture, Ars Brevis, Vita Longa Saturday, July 26, 11:30 at Pulliam Deffenbaugh.

A quintessential Portlander, I often run into him in coffee shops. He is also the author of some of the most successful public art in the city, like his Max train yellow-line stops.

Here's his statement,"My work is an interpretation of the relationship between nature and man's place in its continuum. I look for the evidence of the becoming, the existence and the death of the living being - the marks and residual signs of the activity of life."

Cat Clifford

Cat Clifford, one of the recipients of the recent Contemporary Northwest Art Awards, will be speaking as part of the NW Film Center's Northwest Tracking series. She'll discuss, and screen excerpts from, her influences, from Joan Jonas' Wind (1968) to The Wizard of Oz.

Artist lecture • 6pm • July 24 • $7
NW Film Center • Whitsell Auditorium • 1219 SW Park AVE

Also, for you early birds: Happening today: Interested in learning more about Portland's alternative art venues? Rererato is chatting with Cyrus Smith on KPSU this afternoon. They'll be talking about the art space, Rererato the movie, Rererato TV, and more...

Rererato on the air! • NOON - 1pm • July 21
KPSU • 1450 AM or streaming on their website

It's Disjecta, again... and again... and again. Long time Portlanders are probably pretty familiar with this promotional routine, and have already formed their opinions. For those of you who don't know the history, PORT takes a look back and a look forward after the jump. (More.)

From Promenade, photo by Yalcin Erhan

Bill Will, July South Waterfront Artist in Residence, has collaborated with AiR director Linda Johnson on an "an unrepeatable episodic performance event." Featuring dance and lighting against Will's installation "set," they have prepared "a thoroughly orchestrated and singular event in which every gesture and offering, explicit to nuanced, is performative." The event is free, all ages, and picnics are encouraged.

Live Performance • Gathering an hour before sunset • July 19
South Waterfront Neighborhood Park • SW Moody & Curry

Melody Owen, "useless, incorruptible, secret"

In addition to her current show at Liz Leach, Melody Owen is exhibiting useless, incorruptible, secret at Caseworks in Reed's Library. She'll be lecturing on her work this week at Reed College.

Artist talk • 7pm • July 17
Reed College Theater • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. • 503.777.7251

We're notorious around Portland for our struggles with money management. This weekend: Come to Newspace for It's Not About the Money, But Let's Talk About it Anyway, a lecture by Erik Schneider of Quality Pictures. The talk explores the photography marketplace, and from the perspective of both artists and collectors.

Fiscal Lecture • 11am-1pm • July 20
Newspace Center for Photography • 1632 SE 10th AVE • 503.963.1935

Pearl District "Art Boxes"

Orlo is a non-profit organization that uses a creative arts approach to environmental issues. They publish Bear Deluxe, an environmental magazine, and have launched a new project in the Pearl and Alphabet districts. Artboxes are boxes containing Bear Deluxe magazine that have been decorated by local artists, including Chris Haberman, Jennifer Mercede, Lukas Ketner, Jason Lockett, and Annette and Joe Thurston. ("Read more" for locations.)

Also currently installed in the Pearl District: The RACC presents an installation by Scott Sonniksen. Falling Light, which is incorporated into the structure of the MachineWorks building, is constructed of concrete blocks coated with colored epoxy glaze, installed in such a way that it creates a surface that subtly reflects light. The installation looks at the interplay of light created by dense downtown building, and the use of red is "a nod to the many historic brick buildings that once populated this district."

Downtown installation • Through July 25
MachineWorks • 1455 NW Northrup

First, a party: MoCC is hosting their second annual Craft PDX Block Party this weekend. The free event features demonstrations by local craft artists, live music, lectures in MoCC's "Lab," and lots of kid-friendly activities. Last year's was a lot of fun, so make sure to come down and celebrate the beginning of MoCC's second year in the DeSoto building.

Block Party • 11am-6pm • July 13
Museum of Contemporary Craft • North Park Blocks, NW 8th & Davis • 503.223.2654

Next, some discourse: Bridges are a big deal in this city. Just as the Willamette defines our geographical (and in some ways cultural) boundaries, its bridges, as well as that "little" one to the north, define much of our city's urban landscape. PORT has long advocated for creative, aesthetic bridge design: See our bridge design contest, and recent coverage of the urgent need to build a beautiful and "green" new I-5 bridge. This Monday, Portland Spaces magazine invites you to learn more about the proposed bridge from OMSI to OHSU. It will be the first new bridge across the Willamette in "a generation," and play an important cultural role in connecting our two major science institutions. OHSU Provost Lesley Hallick and OMSI President Nancy Stueber will be presenting their proposals for the bridge, and how this relates to both institutions' future expansion plans. This is part of the magazine's "Bright Lights Discussion Series."

Bridge lecture • Doors at 5:30, Talk at 6pm • July 14
Portland Spaces Magazine Hosted by Jimmy Mak's • 221 NW 10th AVE

Gregory Grenon, "Unspeakable Hair"

Husband and wife team Mary Josephson and Gregory Grenon are exhibiting (individually) at Laura Russo this month. In Full Length Feature, painter Josephson has expanded her media to deepen her exploration of narrative and storytelling traditions. Grenson's Unspeakable Hair is a survey of lithographs and prints that take an "incredibly honest" look at the human form and character. They'll both be presenting lectures on their work this weekend.

Artist talk • 11am • July 12
Laura Russo Gallery • 805 NW 21st AVE • 503.225.2754

Cat Clifford, "Two Chairs"

The Contemporary Northwest Art Awards will be on view at PAM through September 14. They're hosting a unique event in for the exhibition: An open to the public celebration, featuring the exhibition, live music, light refreshments, and a no-host bar. The best part? It's free! But space is limited, so reserve your ticket ASAP.

Exhibition celebration • 6-9pm • July 25
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park AVE • 503.226.2811

Many eastside galleries skipped their openings last weekend due to the 4th of July, so here's our Friday artwalk picks, part II.

Taylor Deupree

Newspace is showing their annual juried exhibition, curated this year by accomplished Portland artist TJ Norris. He describes the chosen photographs as an exploration of the "essence and fragility" of the "selective and concealed moment in time."

Opening reception • 7-10pm • July 11
Newspace Center for Photography • 1632 SE 10th AVE • 503.963.1935

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Rose Bond, installation

The NW Film Center presents an evening with media and installation artist Rose Bond. They'll screen stories and images from several of her installation pieces, including her recent ELECTRO-FLUX, originally created as a multi-channel public installation for the Platform Animation Festival. Bond's work "explor(es) the intersection of high art and low art, film and architecture, and interior/exterior installation."

Screening • 7:30pm • July 10
NW Film Center • Whitsell Auditorium • 1219 SW Park AVE

Since Friday is 4th of July, many east side galleries are postponing their openings for a week (keep an eye out for those picks next week). Here's a sampling of galleries that are rocking it for the holiday weekend:

Grasshut is having an all day party to celebrate Fireworks, The Americans, a group show featuring around 40 artists and their take on Americana. Hot dogs, lemonade, beer, and fireworks will accompany the art to make you truly feel proud of your Independence.

Opening reception • Noon • July 4
Grass Hut Gallery • 811 E Burnside • 503.445-9924

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Installation view of scale photo of Portland metro, 1ft = 1 mile

PDXplore: Designing Portland opens tomorrow at PNCA. The project invites members of the local design and architecture community to reimagine Portland and construct a model of its growth in the next few years. It's being launched with a talk next week by five local designers and architects; Rudy Barton, Carol Mayer-Reed, Michael McCulloch, Richard Potestio, and William Tripp. As Brian Libby points out, Portland's at a crucial moment of development, and it's essential to get the community involved in the discussion of where - and how - to go from here.

Designer talk • 6-9pm • July 8
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson St. • 503.226.4391

There will be a second panel discussion later in the month, In the Round: Collective Leadership, featuring five local leaders: Sam Adams (mayor elect of Portland), David Bragdon (president of Metro), Tom Hughes (mayor of Hillsboro), Gil Kelley (Director of Planning, Portland), and Alice Rouyere (Executive manager, Gresham). It's a golden opportunity to actually bring design and city leadership together to confront the issues at hand.

Leader Roundtable • 6-9pm • July 22
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson St. • 503.226.4391

In a somewhat bewildering move, there's another interesting talk on the future of art and Portland's fabric conflicting with the first PDXplore talk. Milepost 5 is hosting a panel discussion on the future of living and working for artists in Portland...(more)

Robert Rauschenberg

Blue Sky Gallery will be honoring Robert Rauschenberg this month with an exhibition of some of his recent photographs. The prints originate from a trip to China in 1985 as part of the Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Exchange. Many of the images had remained unused until 2008, when he collaborated with Bill Goldston to create this series of 12 prints. It is a rare opportunity to see some of the work that was in process when this great artist died earlier this year.

Opening reception • 5-8pm • July 3
Blue Sky Gallery • 122 NW 8th AVE • 503.225.0210

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Northwest Designer Craftsmen

This Thursday, High Tech/Low Tech is opening at the Oregon College of Arts & Crafts. The exhibition, comprised of work by members of the Northwest Designer Craftsmen, explores the dichotomy of old and new present in craft design. While craft is based in low tech artisan roots, craft artists are still often "the first in the art world to explore the development of new materials and methods." The exhibition runs through August 24.

Opening reception • 4-7pm • July 3
OCAC Hoffman Gallery • 8245 SW Barnes Rd. • 503.297.5544

The influential Jacqueline Ehlis (a favorite of collectors) is the next Couture stipend show at NAAU. As always, her work explores the perimeters of painting, material and space but what really differentiates her work this time out is the fact that this is a non-commercial show. Previous solo outings at Savage in 2005 and 2002 were critically and financially successful. Thus, expectations are high as the first A-list Portland artist in NAAU's Couture series, which previously opened with the quirky Lo-Fi & geek-tastic BYOTV, followed by the ambitious but slightly scattered multimedia melange of Infinitus (decent but not quite Lee Bul or Doug Aitken's level of multimedia focus). By comparison Ehlis tends to bring a no nonsense, rigorous studio-oriented approach that makes her top shelf shows a must see (even for other dealers).... be there.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • July 2
New American Art Union • 922 SE Ankeny St. • 503.231.8294

Eva Lake, "New Duo 1 & 2" from the "Richter Scale" series

ArtTalk's summer season has started. Although the PSU MFA Monday night lecture series is taking a break, they're still interviewing artists each Monday afternoon on KPSU. This Monday, they're interviewing local painter Eva Lake.

Art Radio • Noon-1pm • Mondays through July 28
ArtTalk • 98.3FM on campus • Streaming on KPSU.org

Historic image of the Waterfront, from Linda Wysong

Linda Wysong, the June Artist in Residence on the South Waterfront, will be giving her final performance tours in her Backyard Conversations series. Footprints Along the River explores the Waterfront's history, and you can join the tour tonight at 5pm or Saturday, June 28 at 11am. Tours meet at the AiR studio, 3623 SW River Pkwy @ Gains in the John Ross Tower. Don't miss Wysong's closing reception on Saturday night, where she'll air the series of video portraits she's created to put a human face on the construction projects. You can preview an excerpt on YouTube here.

Closing reception • 8-10pm (Screening at 9pm) • June 28
AiR Studio • 3623 SW River Parkway

The closing event for the Portland Mural Show is happening this weekend. It's your last chance to check out the "snapshot of extant murals around Portland," as well as work by new Portland muralists. The rocking block party features 37 artists painting live, as well as a painting performance and a variety of musical guests.

Closing party • Noon-6pm • June 28
Olympic Mills Gallery • 107 SE Washington St.

Tahni Holt's Information Studio is happening this weekend. Participants (four at a time) will be following instructions given over headphones to the best of their ability. The "audience"-created performances will be recorded, and put online in a secret place where only you - and the people you choose to share the link with - can see. Participation is free, but spots must be reserved (see times below) by contacting Holt at hello@tahniholt.com or 503.708.5801.

Performance times: Every 30 minutes from 3pm-7:30pm Friday June 27, from 5pm-9:30pm Saturday June 28, and 2pm-4pm Sunday June 29.
PSU Smith Center • 1825 SW Broadway

This is the beginning of a series of nine interactive projects in, around, and about the Smith center commissioned by PSU through Oregon's Percent for Public Art program.

Brittany Powell

Brittany Powell's Smith Project started running last week. Powell has created six postcards of rarely celebrated views of the Smith Center, placing stacks of them at each site. The postcards are free while supplies (30,000) last, so come get one to send your loved ones a little view of PSU.

Raquel, Portland Comic

It's happening TONIGHT. Spanish friend of Worksound Raquel created a fabulous comic about her experiences living in Portland for the last three months. Worksound is throwing a release / goodbye party for her and her comic, as well as the release of Suspect Parts' 7". Music features Sad Horse, Suspect Parts, Fred Valez and Philip Kruse, and DJ: Nolita. It's also a good chance to catch the PNCA MFA show if you missed the opening.

Release Party • 9:30-midnight • June 19
Worksound PDX • 820 SE Alder • mojomodou@gmail.com

Eliza Ferdinand & Molly Enright

PNCA graduate Eliza Ferdinand is back in town for "a night of multidisciplinary artwork and fun" at Gallery Homeland. Interactive sculptures will be installed throughout the space, and Ferdinand will be debuting a duo performance with Molly Enright, followed by a musical set by her group Dang Momma.

Installation & performance event • 8pm • June 20
Gallery Homeland • 2505 SE 11th • info@galleryhomeland.org

The "cool school" of the Ferus Gallery, circa 196?

The documentary The Cool School is airing tomorrow night on Public Broadcasting's Independent Lens series. The film looks at the history of the Ferus Gallery, "which nurtured Los Angeles's first significant post-war artists between 1957 and 1966." Founded initially by Walter Hopps and Ed Kienholz, the small gallery launched and/or solidified the careers of the likes of Ed Ruscha, Craig Kauffman, Robert Irwin, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella... and on, and on, and on. The documentary of this incredibly important institution was co-produced by our very own Oregon Public Broadcasting. (And one has to wonder: If OPB has such success getting funding, why can't Portland arts institutions do the same?)

View it locally on OPB at 11pm, June 17. You can learn more about the film here, and view the OPB schedule here (look for "Independent Lens").

nakane lectures a portland japanese gardens

Shiro Nakane at work

The Japanese Gardens and PNCA are co-sponsoring a lecture by internationally renowned Japanese garden landscape architect Shiro Nakane. Nakane will address the challenges of preserving and revitalizing traditional methods with modern design aesthetics, and the unique problems presented by designing for longevity.

Artist lecture • 6:30pm • June 16
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson • Swigert Commons

Experimental music, art, and performance space Rererato is celebrating their first anniversary this weekend with Rererato TV. The above list of artists and performers will come together to create a "music and art variety show in front of a live studio audience" - you! The show will later be broadcast online.

Live TV! • 6pm • June 14
Rererato • 5135 NE 42nd • info@rererato.com

From the Ottawa Animation Film Festival

There's lots going on at the NW Film Center. This weekend, they're airing the best of the 2007 Ottawa Animation Festival. In its 32nd year, the festival drew submissions from over 70 countries, and this 90 minute screening features the best of the final 97 entries.

First screening • 7pm • June 13
Second screening • 6pm • June 15
NW Film Center • Whitsell Auditorium • 1219 SW Park AVE

On Thursday, they're screening the best of the 34th Northwest Film & Video Festival. This touring program features the best of the best in contemporary northwest film making, and several visiting artists will be in attendance.

Film screening • 8pm • June 12
NW Film Center • Whitsell Auditorium • 1219 SW Park AVE

Do you make film? The NW Film Center is seeking submissions for the 35th Northwest Film Fest. Entries are due by August 1. More info can be found here.

The final lecture for the 2007-2008 season of the PSU MFA Monday Night Lecture Series is happening tonight. Director, activist, and writer John Malpede will speak about his socially radical performance art. In 1985, Malpede founded the Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD), "the first performance group in the nation comprised primarily of homeless and formerly homeless people." Malpede's work through the LAPD and other radical performance pieces, which often include collaborations with dancers, poets, artists, architects, and other directors, has earned him a reputation as "a nationally acclaimed theater radical and social visionary." This lecture is especially relevant in light of our fair city's struggles with gentrification.

Artist lecture • 7:30-8:30pm • June 9
PMMNLS • 5th AVE Cinema • SW 5th & Hall

Susan Harlan

Susan Harlan is delivering a different take on the glass mania invading Portland this month. Her series Invisible Territories features natural specimens preserved in glass slides, then digitally printed onto fused enamel glass panels. Fusing organic specimens into glass, Harlan's work explores and exposes the natural world in a way that breaks from the "organic" forms often found in blown glass sculpture.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • June 6
Artist Glass Conference reception • 6-9pm • June 20
Pushdot Studio • 1021 SE Caruthers St. • 503.224.5925

More below the cut.

Holly Andres, "Untitled" from "Sparrow Lane"

The slightly unnerving photography of Holly Andres will be featured this month at Quality Pictures. Her Sparrow Lane series explores adolescent girls "on the cusp of acquiring forbidden knowledge" - a metaphor for the transition to womanhood, as well as a tribute to the rich fantasy life of childhood. Each photograph is carefully posed, using familiar iconography to suggest discovery, while withholding narrative cues to force the viewer to come to his or her own conclusion about the action in the scene. This mystery, combined with Andres' use of twins and other girls eerily similar in appearance, creates a strange and surreal atmosphere that invites the viewer into the other-world of the young girls.

UPDATE: Amber, the young woman in the above photograph, was recently diagnosed with Ewig's Sarcoma, a rare form of juvenile cancer. Andres and QPCA are selling 50 limited edition signed 8x10 prints of the above photograph for $50 each. All proceeds from these sales will go to Amber, as well as partial proceeds from the sales of larger prints. Please contact QPCA at 503.227.5060 or info@qpca.com to inquire.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • June 5
Quality Pictures Contemporary Art • 916 NW Hoyt • 503.227.5060

Much more below the cut, including a selection of local glass shows happening in conjunction with the upcoming Glass Conference.

Amy Yoes, "Sign Language", in Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY

Amy Yoes is lecturing tonight for the ongoing PSU MFA Monday Night Lecture Series. Yoes' work focuses on ornamental and architectural space. She has recently began to integrate animation and light, as her work simultaneously becomes more and more three dimensional.

Artist lecture • 7:30-8:30pm • June 2 • Free!
PMMNLS • 5th AVE Cinema • SW 5th & Hall

Klaus Moje, "The Portland Panels: Choreographed Geometry" (detail)

PAM's Klaus Moje retrospective opens this weekend. Spanning thirty years of his career, the exhibition explores his extensive work in glass, "from his early carved crystal glass pieces, to the development of layered patterned glass vessels, to his recent multi-panel fused works." In preparation for the show, Moje has been working at Bullseye Glass to create a special installation, The Portland Panels: Choreographed Geometry. This massive four-panel work, composed of more than 22,000 strips of fused glass, is "a stunning technical achievement."

Exhibition • May 31 - September 7, 2008
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park AVE • 503.226.2811

In June, Ted Sawyer, Director of Research and Education at Bullseye Glass Company, will lecture on the Portland Panels and their relationship to Moje's body of work.

Lecture • 2-3pm • June 8 • $10
PAM • 1219 SW Park AVE • 503.226.2811

In July, Rae Mahaffey, Martha Pfanschmidt and Tom Prochaska will lead a panel discussion exploring their own work in glass, and how it relates to Moje's work and the greater context of glass art.

Panel discussion • 6pm • July 10 • $10
PAM • 1219 SW Park AVE • 503.226.2811

Horatio Hung-Yan Law tai chi on portland south waterfront

Horatio Hung-Yan Law, "T'ai Chi for 1,000"

As part of the South Waterfront's Artist in Residence program, Horatio Hung-Yan Law presents China-on-Willamette. The project, which was exhibited for the month of May, consists of two installations, Chopsticks Terrace Rice Field and Bamboo Great Wall. With these installations, Law has sought to explore how Portland might have developed if the Chinese population hadn't been driven out by the anti-immigrations laws passed by Congress in 1882. The project culminates this weekend with a final installation, T'ai Chi for 1,000. This is a rain or shine participation event for people of all ages and levels of T'ai Chi experience - wear comfortable clothing and shoes!

Closing event • 10-11:30am • May 31
South Waterfront Park • SW Moody & Curry

Back in February, NE art, music, and delightful mayhem space Rererato was in serious danger due to zoning issues. They closed up shop for a while, but in the last few weeks they've reemerged with their experimental music series. This Friday, the art space makes its triumphant return with An Evening of Mad Science. This multimedia performance features "the off-kilter music, collaborative stage props, storytelling and thespianism of local Portland bands Les Flaneurs, Dr. Something and the Poppin' Fresh Love Engines and Spirit Duplicator." Music, drama, and audience-participating quiz shows - they're back with a vengeance.

Multimedia performance • 7pm • May 30 • $4
Rererato • 5135 NE 42nd AVE • info@rererato.com

madids by sean carney at pancake clubhouse historic township

madids by sean carney at pancake clubhouse historic township

Sean Carney, attribution unspecified

'Tis the week for exciting and eccentric performances. The Pancake Clubhouse presents Sean Carney's lecture on "the lost species Madids." The lecture is part of Carney's Modern Conditions of Production, a series of performances aimed at "retaliat[ing] against the mundane nature of our day to day lives." Carney keeps a blog of his projects here.

Performance Presentation • 8pm • May 30
Pancake Clubhouse Historic Township • 906a NE 24th AVE • 503.936.6513

Melissa Dyne, from "Glass"

Melissa's Dyne's Glass opens this week at the Museum of Contemporary Craft. Using industrially produced skyscraper glass, Dyne explores "the line between art and craft," through the properties of the window pane, glass in its simplest form.

Exhibition • May 29 - August 10
Museum of Contemporary Craft • 724 NW Davis • 503.223.2654

There will be a series of related events this summer at MoCC. This Thursday, there will be a panel discussion led by the Cooley Gallery's Stephanie Snyder. From Idea to Production: Craft in Conceptual Art Making features Melissa Dyne, M.K. Guth, and Namita Gupta Wiggers as they discuss "the relationship between concept-driven art, industry and craft." Thursday, May 29, 7pm. Free.

Three more Dyne events below the cut.

Keith Boadwee, "Intersection"

Rocksbox presents This is a New Low, by shock artist Keith Boadwee. (In)famous for anal painting and a general obsession with his genital region, Boadwee's work has been described as "intelligent and irritating, repulsive and appealing". Intensely, inescapably physical, Boadwee toys with, and perhaps overextends, the visceral metaphors of the body. It is, indeed, an "uneasy alliance."

Opening reception • 7-11pm • May 24
Rocksbox Fine Art • 6540 N. Interstate Ave. • 971.506.8938

Louis Bunce mural at PDX, 1953, from the Portland Public Art blog

There's some interesting art programming happening this week on OPB television.

The Art Makers explores the idea that Modern art is a century old in Portland. Although critics have a habit of positing a radical split - even conflict - between the young Portland art scene and preceding generations, the truth is that Portland has been an edge-of-contemporary art city for many, many years, and today's artists are deeply rooted in that history. The Art Makers goes back to the early 20th century to explore how Portland became such an "art-friendly place," drawing a relationship between early innovators such as Harry Wentz, C.S. Price, and Louis Bunce, and modern artists (interviewed) such as Lucinda Parker, George Johanson, Jack McLarty and the late Mike Russo. It airs at 9pm on Thursday, May 22, on OPB TV.

Earlier in the evening, you can catch this week's Art Beat, Everybody's Art. The episode explores the role of public art in Portland's community: "Whether you love it or hate it, or don't even notice it, public art is all around us. Where does it come from, who makes it, and what does it add to our communities and our state?" The show first airs at 8pm on Thursday, May 22, on OPB TV. It will re-run on Sunday, May 25, at 2am and 6pm.

From the Journal of Short Film

The Ohio-based quarterly DVD series The Journal of Short Film has featured over a hundred filmmakers in its first ten volumes, exploring a wide range of genre and video style. The first geographically-themed collection, the eleventh volume features Portland's extraordinary film culture. It was assembled by local film maker and curator Karl Lind, and will be released on May 20.

The NW film center will screen the DVD at 7pm on May 28 at the Whitesell Auditorium. There will be an after-screening party at 9pm at Valentine's, 232 SW Ankeny.

From the scavenger hunt

The students of the PSU MFA Social Practice Program are launching a weekly summer events series, A lot of ______. The events will take place each Sunday, May 18 - June 29, at Neighborhood Projects, a vacant lot on 15th & Alberta made available by architect Matthew Beitz as an off-site classroom space for the MFA students. The series aims to "engage the surrounding neighborhood by providing a platform for communication and collaboration." The first event is the Pepsi Rocket Ship Moon Voyage Launch!, hosted by Cyrus Smith. The full schedule of events is behind the cut.

Weekly Event • 3pm • Sundays, May 18 - June 29
Neighborhood Projects • 15th & Alberta • cyruswsmith@yahoo.com

Also happening this weekend on Alberta: Art on Alberta's Art Hop. The festival features four musical stages, as well as over 150 artists, guilds, face painters, and street performers. The three featured artists this year are Adrienne Cruz, Tripper Dungan, and Analee Fuentes. Alberta will be closed off for the festival between 12th and 30th on Saturday, 11am-7pm. The parade starts at 3pm.

Jess, "Echo's Wake"

In conjunction with the Cooley Gallery's Jess exhibition, the back room and Cinema Project present Jess: An evening of experimental film, music, food, and conversation. Bring your own dinner, and come discuss the work of seminal Beat artist Jess Collins, before previewing a series of films "directly or indirectly inspired by Jess."

Film presentation • Doors at 6:30, Film at 7:30 • May 16 • $6
Cinema Project • Podkrepa Hall • 2116 N. Killingsworth

Also: Come down to Reed this weekend for a public tour of the Jess exhibition with curator Stephanie Snyder.

Curator tour • 2pm • May 17 & 18
Cooley Gallery • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. • Reed College

Cyan Bott

Each year at the Oregon College of Art and Craft (OCAC) ends in the undergraduate thesis and Post-baccalaureate exhibitions. The exhibition showcases the culmination of work developed during the students' education at the college, displaying a wide range of media and multidisciplinary approaches. Because there are forty students exhibiting this year, the show has been split into two venues.

BFA Thesis: May 5 - 27
Opening reception • 4-7pm • May 16
Worksound PDX • 820 SE Alder • mojomodou@gmail.com

Post-baccalaureate: May 5 - 27
Opening reception • 4-7pm • May 15
OCAC Hoffman Gallery • 8245 SW Barnes Rd. • 503.297.5544

Also happening soon at OCAC: The Metal & Ceramics Sale. "Buy local and support Portland artists" - the sale features functional ceramic pieces and affordable handmade jewelry created by OCAC students.

Art sale • 10am-5pm • May 17 & 18
OCAC • 8245 SW Barnes Rd. • 503.297.5544

Cloepfil's Anne Sachs building in NW Portland

Tonight, local starchitect Brad Cloepfil will be the guest for Portland Spaces' bright lights discussion series. It all goes down at 6:00 at Jimmy Mak's, no cover... Doors open at 5:30 (get there early). Will Cloepfil and Gragg jam out? ....on kazoo's? ...or at least have a drummer for wise-ass rimshots?

Let's hope the increasingly bleak design outlook for the I-5 interstate bridge is addressed. We need a serious architect to shepherd this increasingly penny-wise pound foolish project... the only way to insure the billions of dollars spent on the largest new bridge project on the west coast doesn't simply become a XXL overpass. How... (more)

Harry Widman, "Mother and Daughter"

PCC's ArtBeat Week starts next Monday. The annual festival, which has run since 1989, boasts over 80 events on PCC's five campuses, all of which are free and open to the public. This year's featured artist is internationally recognized painter Harry Widman, whose work Mother and Daughter (above) has been added to PCC's permanent collection.

The festival runs May 12 - 16 on the Cascade, Rock Creek, Southeast Center, and Sylvania campuses. For a list of artists and activities and a schedule of events, visit the ArtBeat website.

TJ Norris, "Infinitus" (still)

The next Couture exhibition opened this week at NAAU. TJ Norris' Infinitus, the third and final component to the installation series Tribryd, is a "multimedia video lounge" that asks you to experience "the entire globe manifesting itself through interconnected man-made mini malls." The show runs May 7 - June 22, with an opening reception this weekend.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • May 10
New American Art Union • 922 SE Ankeny St. • 503.231.8294

Jess Collins

Reed's Cooley Gallery presents an exhibition of work by seminal Beat Generation artist Jess Collins, known simply as "Jess" (1923-2004). Originally a chemist who worked on the Manhattan Project, Jess abandoned science and became an artist to protest nuclear weapons. Jess: To and From the Printed Page explores his relationship with printed materials, "as food and inspiration for his literary, esoteric vision." The traveling exhibition was organized by iCI.

Exhibition • Tue-Sun 12-5pm • May 9 - July 20
Cooley Gallery • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. • Reed College

Also: Don't miss the artist talk by Margot Voorhies Thompson at Laura Russo, in conjunction with her Inventing/Adapting exhibition.

Artist talk • 11am • May 10 •
Laura Russo Gallery • 805 NW 21st AVE • 503.226.2754

Leigh Ledare

Opening this week at Small A: Every Picture Tells a Story... Or At Least is a Picture, curated by Jo Jackson and Chris Johanson, featuring the work of twelve contemporary artists.

Opening reception • 6-8pm • May 8
Small A Projects • 1430 SE 3rd • 503.234.7993

Justine Kurland

Photographer Justine Kurland is lecturing at PNCA this week. Kurland became well known after her participating in the 1999 group show Another Girl, Another Planet, in which she displayed "large tableau pictures of neo-romantic landscapes inhabited by teenaged girls." Her work continues to explore issues of feminine identity, including her PICA exhibition in 2005. We're lucky to have Kurland around these parts quite frequently.

Artist lecture • 12:30pm • May 7
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson St. • 503.226.4391

Also: Roger Ballen is lecturing in conjunction with his exhibition at QPCA.

Artist lecture • 7pm • May 7 • $5
PICA • 224 NW 13th AVE

Heejung Kim, "Karma"

This Monday, two exhibitions curated by Midori Yoshimoto are opening at OSU's Galleries. The combination of Heejung Kim's series The World Between and Sarah Pucill's video installation Stages of Mourning creates "an unexpected, cross-cultural encounter of two women artists." Kim's sculptures and handmade books, in the Fairbanks Gallery, use unusual materials to create objects that explore Buddhist symbolism and Kim's own meditations on the great questions: meaning of life, meaning of death, meaning of existence... In the adjacent West Gallery, Pucill's video installation takes a Western approach to the symbolism of death, exploring the depth of psychological anguish one experiences when trying to cope with the loss of a loved one.

Opening reception • 11:30-1:30 • May 5
Fairbanks Gallery • 106 Fairbanks Hall • OSU Campus

Curator lecture • 6pm Reception 7pm Lecture • May 7
LaSells Stewart Center • 100 LaSells Stewart Center • OSU Campus

Joe Glasglow

Newspace presents Peripheral Vision by the Inner Light Group. Founded in 1986 by Shedrich Williames, the photography group now includes over 20 members working in a wide variety of styles. This exhibition explores the physical and metaphorical possibilities when considering our visual periphery: "Does it exist only in the mind of the photographer? Or is seeing with peripheral vision a physical process that keeps one alert to all that may be happening in the corners and around the edges of an image."

Opening reception • 6-9pm • May 2
Newspace Center for Photography • 1632 SE 10th AVE • 503.963.1935

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Werner Herzog film still

During the month of May, the NW Film Center will be featuring A Quest for the Sublime: The Films of Werner Herzog. A central figure in the 1970s New German Cinema movement, Herzog has risen to prominence with acclaimed films from his early Aguirre to the more recent Grizzly Man. His films are characterized by his "disregard [for] the distinction between narrative film and documentary in pursuit of a more profound truth."

The series begins on Friday, May 2nd with his 2007 film Encounters at the End of the World, an exploration of Antarctica in "all its stark beauty." The film airs at 7pm in the Whitsell Auditorium.

For the full schedule and ticket purchasing information, visit the NW Film Center site.

Roger Ballen, "Untitled"

South-Africa based artist Roger Ballen will present the U.S. debut of nine images from his new series this month at QPCA. Acclaimed for his documentary portraits of the small villages of South Africa, Ballen has recently begun taking a more directorial approach. In addition to his new images, Ballen will be showing select works from his Outland and Shadow Chamber series, in which he initially began to explore the theatrical methods that allow his subjects to become active participants in the making of his photographs. There will be a book signing in the gallery following Ballen's May 7 lecture at PICA. For those up north, visit the QPCA website for the Seattle lecture date.

Opening Reception • 6-9pm • May 1
Quality Pictures Contemporary Art • 916 NW Hoyt • 503.227.5060
Artist lecture • 7pm • May 7 • $5
PICA • 224 NW 13th AVE

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The 2008 PDX Experimental Film Fest starts this week. Check out our review of last year's festival right here. For a full schedule of film fest 2008 events, visit their website.

The festival will open with a reception at Gallery Homeland for the installation Surreal Systems. Curated by Mack McFarland and Stephen Slappe, the installation features work by 13 artists "[e]xamining networks of colonialism, nature, motion, observation, pyramid schemes, and memory." Other PDX Experimental Film Fest events at Gallery Homeland include Proving Ground with Travis Wilkerson on May 1, and The First Ever Experimental Filmmaker Karaoke Throwdown on May 2.

Opening reception • 6:00pm - 12:00 AM • April 30
Gallery Homeland • 2505 SE 11th AVE • info@galleryhomeland.org

Coming up this weekend: The Fifth Annual Stumptown Comics Fest! This year's guest of honor is Mike Richardson, writer and publisher at local favorite Dark Horse Comics. Other exhibitors include Nicholas Gurewitch, Scott McCloud, Craig Thompson, and many more. And don't miss the opening party, put on by Spark Plug Comics.

Opening party • 8pm-late • April 25
Guapo Comics & Books • 6416 SE Foster Rd. • 503.772.3638

Comics Festival • 10am-7pm • April 26 & 27 • Tickets Required
Lloyd Center Doubletree • 1000 NE Multnomah

Chris Haberman

The Goodfoot is opening a duo show this week for Last Thursday featuring Chris Haberman and Mario Robert III. The two artists share a colorful, "folk"-like style, created on and with a variety of untraditional media. Haberman is a highly prolific local artist and curator, and Robert III hails from El Paso, TX, with a background in carpentry.

Opening reception • 5-11pm • April 24
The Goodfoot • 2845 SE Stark • 503.239.9292

Rudolph M. Schindler, "Lovell Beach House," Newport Beach, CA, photographed by Marvin Rand

The NW Film Center presents German experimental filmmaker Heinz Emigholz's Schindler's Houses. The latest in Emigholz's series Architecture as Autobiography, the film explores "a selection of buildings designed by the Viennese architect Rudolph M. Schindler," who completed his most important work in the 1920s in Los Angeles.

Film Showing • 7pm • April 23 • $4-$7
NW Film Center • Whitsell Auditorium • 1219 SW Park AVE

Setareh Shahbazi, "Secret Affinities"

PICA and the PSU Monday night lecture series present a talk by influential curator Regine Basha, who has worked for the past 15 years in Montreal, New York, and Austin. Her career has primarily focused on "realizing context-specific situations for the production of new work," including her work in the 90s with artist collectives Mayday Productions and the Brewster Project. Her "recent and upcoming exhibitions include an exhibition about listening with Steve Roden and Stephen Vitiello (Lora Reynolds Gallery), an exhibition with Berlin-based Setareh Shahbazi (Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara [see above]), and a town-wide sound sculpture project in Marfa, Texas called The Marfa Sessions (Ballroom Marfa)." Read more about Basha here.

Curator lecture • 7:30-8:30pm • April 21
PSU Lecture series • 5th Ave Cinema • 510 SW Hall

Jeff Jahn, "Eutrophication" (detail) site specific installation

PORT's own Jeff Jahn will be speaking next week on his site-specific installation, Eutrophication. Jahn will discuss his wide artistic influences, including Robert Irwin, Robert Smithson, Donald Judd, Paul Klee, Sol LeWitt, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as his relationship to architecture and the aesthetic effects of his musical interests.

Artist talk • 7-8pm • April 22
PNCA • 825 NW 13th• Manuel Izquierdo Gallery (3D building)

On Saturday April 19th @ 7pm, The Video Gentlemen present "Media Archeology," the second in-studio live broadcast as they continue to program their BYOTV installation at NAAU. Featuring research and analysis, questions and answers from Stephen Slappe and a really intriguing presentation by art historian Kate Mondloch (come to the gallery and phone in your ?'s):

Static Age: The Early Years of Television Culture A presentation by Stephen Slappe
This program of archival 16mm films examines the early years of television as a technological and cultural phenomenon. The program includes behind-the-scenes glimpses at television studios as well as references to television in popular culture from the 1930's to the 1960's.

Look at This: The Problem of Participation in 1970s Video Installation A presentation by Kate Mondloch
Look at This scrutinizes how media objects and their customary viewing regimes actively define the relationship between bodies and screens in media installation art. The talk complicates the notion of an inherently progressive, liberatory "spectator participation" that is celebrated in most accounts of media installation by detailing the ways in which screens are also capable of generating oppressive viewing conditions that strictly delimit the viewer's interaction with the work.

Mondloch states: "As in everyday life, screens and their illuminated moving images can offer a sort of siren song-calling spectators to largely involuntary behavior, begging them to look and pay attention, and to discipline themselves and their bodies in the process. The talk analyzes a series of influential closed-circuit video installations that intentionally explore the "architectures" of media spectatorship, including Frank Gillette and Ira Schneider's pioneering Wipe Cycle (1969), Bruce Nauman's video corridor works (1969-72), and Dan Graham's Present Continuous Past(s) (1974). I analyze how these early video works employ two apparently contradictory processes. Artists underscore the coercive nature of screen-based viewing by varying the arrangement of cameras and monitors-combining live and pre-recorded feedback, inverting viewers' images, divorcing cameras from their monitors, introducing time delays, and so on. Simultaneously, however, the technological apparatuses themselves arguably impose precise kinesthetic and psychic effects upon their audiences. This discrepancy between active and passive viewership presents an unresolved paradox for the artform's criticism."

The new Milepost 5 building is launching its arts programming this week with Self Projections. Video, film, sound and installations by 19 artists will be exhibited throughout the first floor of condos. Curated by Gary Wiseman, the show explores the idea that perception is innately personal and unique, and that art is in many ways about sharing that perspective.

The venue itself is an interesting Portland development. Milepost 5 is a new condominium development in far-out NE that is styling itself as "affordable and sustainable live/work spaces for artists in a supportive and interactive, community setting" - that is currently being pushed by Gavin Shettler. With the economic and real estate situation being what it is, one has to wonder if selling condos to build an artist's community from scratch might be even an more ambitious project than the recently closed Portland Art Center. It's another intriguing idea... But is it viable? I suppose you can come to the opening and find out.

Opening reception • 8pm-midnight • April 18
Milepost 5 • 900 NE 81st AVE • 503.724.6933

Nan Curtis

In True Colors, Nan Curtis uses quotidian objects such as cotton, lighters, and carpet to explore "family, social taboos, sex, and pregnancy." At once playful and slightly unnerving, her work challenges the social conventions that we rely upon to approach these touchy and yet utterly human subjects.

Opening reception • 6pm • April 16
Linfield Gallery • 900 SE Baker St. McMinnville • 503.883.2804

chris bennett at chambers

Chris Bennett, "Fence (diptych)"

Chambers presents New Antiquarians, a group photography exhibition. Five artists toy with 19th century "antiquated" photography techniques, updated with modern sensibilities and aesthetics. Featured artists include Leanne Hitchcock, Rachel Heath, Christine Laputa, Chris Bennett, and Sika Stanton.

Opening reception • 5:30-8:30pm • April 17
Chambers Fine Art • 207 SW Pine St. #102 • 503.227.9398

Marie Watt, "Space Between Clock and Bed"

PSU has launched a radio program to complement their Monday night lecture series. From 12-1pm each Monday on KPSU, hosts Alex McCarl and Cyrus Smith will be interviewing the visiting artists from the lecture series. (Note: You can stream KPSU broadcasts live from their website.) Tomorrow's guest will be Marie Watt.

Check the schedule and learn more about the interviewees on the ArtTalk Blog.

MidTown Arts Center, Eugene, OR

In 2005, Carole Zoom purchased a building in Eugene with the goal of providing a shared space for non-profit arts organizations. By offering them highly reduced rent for three years, the organizations were able to raise sufficient funds to purchase the building from her, and it is now the Eugene MidTown Arts Center (above), home of the Eugene Ballet and 7 other arts organizations.

Zoom is interested in creating a similar space in Portland. It would follow a similar model: She would purchase the building, non-profit arts organizations could move in for very low rent, and over time the building would be purchased from her. This is an excellent opportunity to create a much-needed hub for non-profit arts in Portland, but Zoom needs to assess interest in the project before she can go forward.

To that end, she will be hosting an informal meeting to discuss the project at 6pm on Wednesday, April 16. For more information about the project and the location of the meeting, please contact Carole Zoom at carolezoom@mac.com.

Jenene Nagy & Stephanie Robison, "Sitelines" (detail)

Sitelines, a joint exhibition by Stephanie Robison and PORT's own Jenene Nagy, explores ways that painting and sculpture can intertwine and reinvent the gallery space.

Opening reception • 3-5pm • April 13
Gallery talk • 12pm • April 30
Art Gym Main Space • Marylhurst University, 17600 Pacific Highway (Hwy 43) • 503.636.8141, ext. 3383

pdx oregon bikes

Oregon Handmade Bicycles at PDX Airport

Ten custom bicycles are currently on display at PDX airport's artOBJECTS showcase in Concourse E. The bikes are all handmade in Oregon, and "demonstrate [the] combination of engineering skills, precision metal craftsmanship, cutting edge design, and passion for cycling" that has made Portland (& Oregon)'s bike culture so legendary. Because the bikes are only viewable by passengers, a short video about the exhibit and participating framebuilders will be available at the RACC's website. You can also view pics on bikeportland.org.

Ongoing exhibition • April 3 - early October
PDX International • 7000 NE Airport Way

Damien Gilley in the Portland Building

Damien Gilley, "PlusMinus" (detail)

Damien Gilley's PlusMinus is currently on view at the Portland Building. The large-scale installation uses vinyl tape to create elegant architectural drawings on the walls, playing with "the phenomenology of perception."

Ongoing exhibition • On view 7am - 6pm, M-F • April 7 - May 2
Portland Building • 1120 SW 5th AVE

Joe Thurston, "Strenuous Life"

This Friday, the Jupiter Hotel is hosting the Buckman Bash, an art auction and benefit for Buckman Elementary, Portland's own arts elementary school. The event features emcee Andrew Dickson and solo musical performances by James Mercer (The Shins) and Stephen Malkmus (The Jicks), as well as a student art show including animated shorts. Some excellent local artists have donated their work, including Storm Tharp, Joe Thurston, Scott Wayne Indiana, Marlana Stoddard Hayes, Eugenia Pardue, PORT's own Jenene Nagy, and more.

Buckman Bash • Doors at 7pm • April 11 • $50
Jupiter Hotel • 800 E Burnside

Can't make the bash? Swing by the school for the 18th annual Art "Show & Sell":
Friday, April 11 • 5-9pm
Saturday, April 12 • 10am-5pm
Buckman Elementary • 320 SE 16th AVE

Ken Shores at Museum of Contemporary Craft

Ken Shores, "Feather Fetish"

Generations: Ken Shores opens this week at the Museum of Contemporary Craft. The exhibition "seeks a new understanding of Shores' work in the context of his role as a student, teacher, leader, artist and foundational figure in the American Craft Movement," placing his work in the context of his "home, travels, and experience."

Exhibition • April 10 - July 23
Artist Lecture • 2pm • May 4 • Free, in The Lab
Museum of Contemporary Craft • 724 NW Davis St. • 503.223.2654

MoCC's next "Excellence in Craft" lecture is also happening this week. Paul Smith, Director Emeritus of the American Craft Museum (now Museum of Arts & Design), will speak on Reflections: Twentieth Century Studio Craft Movement - Current Observations.

Lecture • 7pm • April 10 • $5
Museum of Contemporary Craft • 724 NW Davis St., The Lab • 503.223.2654

Storm Tharp, "The Duke of Albuquerque"

Storm Tharp will be lecturing tonight as part of the ongoing Monday night MFA lecture series at PSU.

Artist lecture • 7:30pm • April 7
PSU Lecture Series • 5th AVE Cinema • 510 SW Hall

Lauren Clay, "Prism Pile"

The Archer Gallery at Clark College presents Dialogue: A group exhibition of six artists whose work "spans the divide between two-and three-dimensional art, creating a dialogue on image and form." Many of the artists are Seattle-based, which adds a more buttoned-down formal quality to the show than the more energetic Portland-based work.

Opening reception • 4-6pm • April 8
Archer Gallery • Clark College, 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver, WA • Penguin Union Building (PUB) attached to Gaiser Hall

Matt McCormick, from "The Problem of Machines that Communicate"

As part of the Northwest Tracking series, the NW Film Center presents An Evening with Matt McCormick. The Portland filmmaker will be present at the screening of two of his recent films, The Problems of Machines that Communicate (2008 - premiered at SXSW), and Future So Bright (2007), as well as a series of short music videos and experimental projects.

Film Showing • 9pm • April 9 • $4 - $7
NW Film Center • Whitsell Auditorium • 1219 SW Park AVE

Kate Simmons, "Storm Warning"

The PSU graduating MFA exhibition series begins next week. The shows run in two week cycles, and feature "work ranging from obsessive marks on paper to video and mixed-media installation ... that demonstrate[s] intellectual rigor and aesthetic diversity." There will always be two shows running simultaneously, in the Autzen and MK Galleries. The first run is from April 7-18 (opening receptions listed below). You can view the full list of future exhibitions on the art dept.'s website.

Kate Simmons • Opening reception • 6-8pm • April 10
Autzen Gallery • PSU, Neuberger Hall, 2nd Floor, 724 SW Harrison St.

Amy Steel • Opening reception • 6-8pm • April 10
MK Gallery • PSU, Art Building, 2nd Floor rm 210, 2000 SW 5th Ave.

Chris Held, "Overstock," installation view

"o•ver•stock v: 1. vti to stock more of something than is necessary or desirable 2. vt to graze an area with more livestock than it can support n an excessively large supply of something."

Chris Held explores the quasi-religion built around the modern commodity in Overstock, on view this month at Jáce Gáce. Positing that in modern culture, products have replaced the promise of love and happiness that once came from religion, Held has created an immense shrine of boxed goods, topped with a microwave in place of a religious figure.

Opening reception • 6pm-midnight • April 4
Jáce Gáce • 2045 SE Belmont • 503.239.1887

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24 hour drawpocalypse at cosmic monkey comics

David Chelsea

It's a comic marathon! Comic artists from all over the region will gather this weekend at Cosmic Monkey Comics to create a 24 page collaborative work in 24 straight hours of work. Come watch, cheer them on, enjoy refreshments, and get pumped up for the upcoming late April Comics Fest.

Comic Marathon • 10am - 10am • April 5 - April 6
Cosmic Monkey Comics • 5335 NE Sandy Blvd • 503.517.9050

Eva and Franco Mattes, "Jenna Varun"

On view this month at the Augen Gallery is Eva and Franco Mattes' Avatars and Other Images from Alternate Universes, an extension of their recent exhibition 13 Most Beautiful Avatars. The prints emerge from avatars built in the Mattes's exploration of Second Life, an online virtual world where users can create the ultimate idealized self. Borrowing from Pop Art sensibility, the Mattes have brought Warhol's influence into the 21st century, "scrutiniz[ing] simultaneous concepts of 'beauty' and 'reality', [and] pointing to the heightened relevance of a post-20th-century cult of superficiality."

Opening reception • 5-8:30pm • April 3
Augen Gallery NW • 716 NW Davis • 503.546.5056

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Katherine Ace, "Animals on the Inside"

The 19th Annual CAP art evening and auction is happening this Saturday. The auction, which features artist Katherine Ace amid many wonderful works, benefits the Cascade AIDS Project. This year's theme is Cirque (whimsical), and the event will also feature the finest in Portland food and entertainment.

Art auction & social • Doors open at 5pm • April 5
Oregon Convention Center • 777 NE MLK Blvd. • Exhibit Hall C

Jenene Nagy

Jenene Nagy will be lecturing on her APEX show at PAM this Sunday. The talk will explore "her working practice, its history, and inspirations."

Artist talk • 2pm • March 30 • Free to members, or with cost of admission to the museum.
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park AVE • Andrée Stevens Room

Coming up at PAM: The next Miller Meigs show will be Ed Ruscha - on loan from the Broad collection. As PORT pointed out when everyone was all in a tizzy over the Broad revelation, LACMA's loss is already turning out to be our gain.

Brittany Powell & Jill Bliss

Opening on Last Thursday is Brittany Powell & Jill Bliss's project Califoregon. Powell is a native Oregonian and Bliss is a native Californian. After meeting at CCA and both finding themselves landing in Portland (it's the northern expansion!), they decided to unite their native aesthetics and bring us this collaborative exhibition of drawings, cut-outs, screen prints, and more - all celebrating the growing hybrid that is Califoregon.

Opening reception • 7-10pm • March 27
Office PDX • 2204 NE Alberta • 888.355.7467

Make sure to check out the review of BYOTV below.

If you like what you read, come down to NAAU this week for the following Week One transmissions: "From infomercials to local news, genre westerns and classic sitcoms, familiar forms are aflutter. Amplified to the point of distortion, these audio-visual vernaculars are rewired by: Linda Austin, Lili White, Nerve Theory, Jesse England and Taly & Russ Johnson. This week's offerings also include abstract illusions from Marchi Wierson and elusive allusions from Ryan Dunn. And don't miss Bosko Blagojevic's typo-corrected rendition of Richard Serra and Carlotta Fay Schoolman's famous media critique Television Delivers People."

New American Art Union • 922 SE Ankeny • 503.231.8294

The Living Room Theater is launching Art Spark: Every third Thursday, interested parties gather in their lounge to chat about art. It's a private business looking to break into the art scene, but it sounds like it could be a promising event. Each month there will be a different host from the local art scene, who gets "6@6" - 6 minutes at 6pm to say or do whatever they want, followed by open discussion. March's host is Arts & Culture Commissioner Sam Adams. The event is free, but space is tight, so they ask that you RSVP.

Creative discourse • 5-7pm • March 20 (and every 3rd Thursday)
Living Room Theaters • SW 10th & Stark

ellen lupton at museum of contemporary craft

Ellen Lupton

In conjunction with PNCA, the Museum of Contemporary Craft presents a lecture by Ellen Lupton. Theorizing that design is a form of creativity that is accessible to all, Lupton's The Design-It-Yourself Revolution "explore(s) how technology is combining with social movements to create greater access to design tools and creativity."

Excellence in craft lecture • 7pm • March 20 • $5
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson St. • The Commons

The first exhibition in NAAU's Couture series opens next week with The Video Gentlemen's BYOTV. The show is in response to the U.S.'s decision to end all analog television broadcasting in February, 2009: "Pre-empting the scheduled program of obsolescence, The Video Gentlemen's BYOTV network launches a six-week season of special reports engaged with this technocultural turn." The signal will be broadcast from NAAU, and visitors are encouraged to "Bring Your Own TV," or borrow one from the gallery, "intercepting transmissions from their immediate airspace."

Exhibition • March 19 - April 27
Update! Opening reception • 5-8pm • March 22
New American Art Union • 922 SE Ankeny • 503.231.8294

If you're looking for a little more action this weekend, check out these events:

k sims fashion at pancake clubhouse

K Sims

The Pancake Clubhouse presents local designer K Sims' recycled fashion show. She'll be debuting designs that explore "deconstruction, luxury, reincarnation, beauty, and individuality," all accompanied by a saw and theramin performance.

Fashion show • 8pm • March 15
Pancake Clubhouse • 906a NE 24th Ave • pancakeclubhouse@gmail.com

UCA theater

Gallery Homeland will be hosting the United Church of America, a traveling political theater group, featuring the constitutional Prophet "BCG" and his newest political sermon "Make America." GH invites you to "Come celebrate your country with a Constitutional Communion!"

Political theater • 7pm • March 14 & 15 • $6
Gallery Homeland 2505 SE 11th AVE • info@galleryhomeland.org

Dave O'Johnson, "Loiter"

Rocksbox presents Man Friends Forever, a joint-show with California's Dave O' Johnson & Brian Wasson. Rumor has it there will be a pig roast at the opening!

Opening reception • 7-11pm • March 15
Rocksbox Fine Art • 6540 N Interstate AVE • 971.506.8938

Anissa Mack's The Last Full Weekend Each September is opening this weekend at Small A. The show collects pieces from Mack's Durham Fair and Durham Fair (10th Anniversary Edition) series. Having grown up attending the Durham Fair, for these projects Mack created pieces to enter in all 73 craft categories at the fair, exploring and interrogating American craft rituals and traditions. This show is the first time these pieces have been exhibited outside the fair.

Opening reception • 6-8pm • March 8
Small A Projects • 1430 SE 3rd AVE • 503.234.7993

In conjunction with the exhibit, Mack will be speaking for this Monday's (March 10) PSU lecture series at 7:30pm at the 5th Ave Cinema, SW 5th & Hall.

Ann Ploeger

Pushdot Studio is celebrating the gallery's official reopening in their new location with Ann Ploeger's In Between. The series reinvents the self-portrait, exploring "uninhabited spaces... in which stillness lends itself to the specificity of being there." The photographs encourage the viewer to reflect on how these images represent moments in the artist's life and self, while using light and color to create a sense of location that invites the viewer into the moment.

Opening Reception • 6-9pm • March 7
Pushdot Studio • 1021 SE Caruthers • info@pushdotstudio.com

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laura fritz at quality pictures contemporary art

Laura Fritz, still from "Interspace"

QPCA will be unveiling their fourth "Qproject." Interspace is a "fully immersive" video installation by Laura Fritz. The installation continues Fritz's exploration of what happens inside the viewer's mind as expectation and perception are manipulated by a "purposeful and provocative vacuum."

mark hooper at quality pictures contemporary art

mark hooper at quality pictures contemporary art

Mark Hooper, "Untitled (from the series There:Here)"

Also opening at QPCA: Mark Hooper's There:Here, an exhibition of large-scale photographs that "use metaphorical events and tools to address enabling and predicting change on the physical, psychological or spiritual level."

Opening reception • 6-9pm • March 6
Quality Pictures Contemporary Art • 916 NW Hoyt • 503.227.5060

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Nubar Alexanian, "Man on the Box (recreation)"

Join curators Stephanie Snyder, Stuart Horodner, and Mack McFarland this Saturday for a walk-through of the latest exhibition in PNCA's Feldman Gallery & Project Space. Untraceable explores "artists' responses to political control, violence and torture."

Artist & Curator walk-through • 11am • March 1
PNCA • 1241 NW Johnson St. • 503.226.4391

French Philosopher Jacques Ranciere's lecture at PNCA promises to be the heaviest talk we will experience in 2008. He's pretty much the art world's favorite intellectual these days. To familiarize yourself a tiny bit here's what he thought of Guantanamo Bay and here's a decent interview related to his book "The Politics of Aesthetics."

According to PNCA's press release, Ranciere as emeritus professor at the University of Paris VIII, is considered "one of the five leading intellectuals in the world today." (Either that or he has one of the five best publicists...) Ranciere will be making his first visit to Portland to speak as part of FIVE Idea Studios, and will speak on the subject of "What Makes Images Unacceptable." I rather doubt he will discuss what makes philosphers unacceptable though.... (kidding aside, this should be good.)

PNCA
February 29, 2008, 6:30pm, Swigert Commons

Fresh Impressions: Letterpress Printing in Contemporary Art @ OCAC
Opening reception on Thursday, February 28 from 4:00-7:00pm

Curated by artists Inge Bruggeman and Heather Watkins, the show explores the relevance of letterpress printing in contemporary art, while seeking to define its significance to current art making practices.

The exciting lineup of participating artists include Abra Ancliffe, Jan Baker, Amy Borezo, Sarah Bryant, Macy Chadwick, Julie Chen, Wendy Fernstrum, Heather Green, Carl Haase, Diane Jacobs, Alicia McKim, Heidi Neilson, Erin Newell, Amy Pirkle, Robin Price, Harry Reese, John Risseeuw, Regula Russelle, Wilbur Schilling, CB Sherlock, Amy Sterly, and Rachel Wiecking (an artists to watch).

OCAC's Hoffman Gallery
8245 S.W. Barnes Road
Portland, OR 97225

Miguel Rio Branco, "Blue Panther"

This weekend, Quality Pictures is hosting a lecture/brunch. Curator Erik Schneider will discuss the concept, technique, and market behind the photographic exhibition The Man Show. Admission is free, but space is limited, so RSVP to info@qpca.com or 503.227.5060. Note: It will also be your last chance to check out Brian Ulrich's Thrift.

Artist lecture & brunch • 10:30-11:30am • March 1
Quality Pictures Contemporary Art • 916 NW Hoyt • 503.227.5060

Happening further south this weekend in LA: Portland's own GLARE Quarterly is having the release party for issue #3 this Saturday at MOCA @ 4:30PM (Pacific Design Center).

Happening tonight: Photojournalist Joel Preston Smith will be lecturing at Newspace on the four months he lived in Iraq in 2003, documenting "Iraqis' daily lives, rituals, and struggle to survive-both before and after the U.S. invasion."

Artist slide lecture • 7pm • February 26 • Free
Newspace Center for Photography • 1632 SE 10th AVE • 503.963.1935

Later this week, Newspace will be hosting their third annual silent auction. The proceeds benefit their educational programs and "contribute to the strength of the organization." The auction is on February 29, and is $10 at the door for non-members. For more information, visit their website.

Reed is also hosting the final lecture in the Working History series. Kianga Ford will discuss her Counting installation, which "examines racial identity through an intermingling of textual narrative and abstract mathematics." The lecture will be followed by a closing reception for the exhibition in the Cooley Gallery.

Artist lecture • 6:30pm • February 27
Reed College, Eliot 314 • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd.

Stephen Scott Smith, "gorillasmith series"

For their final exhibition in their space below the Wonder Ballroom, the Mark Woolley Gallery presents ALPHABET SOUP: Labeling, Identity, Stigma, Pride. They're still looking for artists to submit work that explores "the external and internal dimensions of the sexual labels G, L, B, T, Q, I, A, SGL, 2S and more." The exhibition will also include a non-juried wall for all artists to express themselves on the subject.

Click here for submission guidelines. The deadline is March 1, at 5:30pm.

Opening reception & dance party • 5pm - late • March 8
Woolley at Wonder • 128 NW Russell St. • 503.224.5475

Closing party / Goodbye to the space • 5pm - late • March 21

WNTR WRKS drawing

PICA and Cartune Xprez present an animation festival with "the last breaths of winter." There will be screenings of videos by Takeshi Murata, Bruce Bickford, Josh Mannis, and more, as well as music/video/theater performance featuring Hooliganship and others, and musical interludes by DJ Beyonda.

Animation festival • 9pm • February 24 • $6, 21+
Holocene • 1001 SE Morrison

Installation Shot of Io Palmer & "Janitorial Supplies" 2007-8

Continuing the Working History lecture series, Io Palmer will speak this Friday at Reed College. Her installation Janitorial Supplies "explores the history of African American labor, class, and physical adornment."

Artist lecture • 6:30pm • February 22
Reed College Eliot 314 • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd.

Faith Ringgold will also be lecturing at Reed on her work Marlon Riggs: Tongues Untied, A Painted Story Quilt on Sunday, Feb. 24, at 3pm in Kaul Auditorium.

Philippe Blanc, from "Limelight"

There will be a curatorial talk on Limelight this weekend, featuring PORT's own Jeff Jahn. Check out the gallery website for statements on smelly cheese, video, and the excellent body of work that makes up this exhibition.

Curator talk • 2pm • February 24
Alexander Gallery • 19600 Molalla AVE, Oregon City • 503.657-6958

roadside attraction at PSU autzen gallery

Stephanie Robison, "Cloud Cover with Bricks"

On Monday, Stephanie Robison and Paula Rebsom's Roadside Attraction will be opening at PSU's Autzen Gallery. Using landscape photography and studio sculpture, Roadside Attraction "explores ways in which we, as a culture, mediate our interactions with nature. "

Opening reception • 5-7pm • February 18
Autzen Gallery • PSU, Neuberger Hall, 2nd Floor, 724 SW Harrison St.

The reception is immediately before the Monday night MFA lecture series. This week, the Center for Land Use Interpretation will be speaking.

Jenene Nagy false flat at Portland Art Museum

Jenene Nagy, from "False Flat"

PORT's own Jenene Nagy will be bringing her site specific installation work to PAM's APEX series. Open through June, the exhibition pushes Nagy's exploration of "the need to invent idealized spaces ... that blur the boundaries between built and natural environments." PORT reviewed her breakout False Flat show last fall.

Exhibition • February 16 - June 22
Portland Art Museum • 1219 SW Park AVE • 503.226.2811

Nick Cave, installation at the Chicago Cultural Center

One of the artists from Working History (previously reviewed here) is speaking this week at Reed. Nick Cave will discuss his Sound Suit installation, a series which was originally inspired in 1991 by the beating of Rodney King. The lecture is the first of four lectures from the exhibition. There will be a reception held after Cave's talk.

Artist lecture • 6:30pm • February 15
Reed College Vollum Lecture Hall • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd.
Opening reception • 8-10pm • February 15
Cooley Gallery • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd.

While you're there: Don't forget to check out Laura Fritz's Caseworks 13, which closes February 17.

Liz Obert

The Linfield Gallery will be showing Liz Obert's Observations from the Nicoya Peninsula. This is the first exhibition of Obert's work inspired by her travels to Costa Rica - and a chance for chilly Portlanders to fantasize a little about warmer cultures and climes.

Opening reception • 6-8pm • February 13
Linfield Gallery • 900 SE Baker St. McMinnville • 503.883.2804

Whether or not you're sick of the bumper sticker campaign, this is a great opportunity to bring the quirky side of Portland art to the politicos. Keep Portland Weird is looking for work for a March exhibition in City Hall. There is no submission fee, and the deadline is Friday, February 15. Visit their website for more info.

Art on Alberta Annual Meeting

If you're more interested in talking about how to keep Portland weird (or just artistic), come to the annual Art on Alberta meeting, featuring keynote speaker Commissioner Sam Adams. Buffet is $5.

Meeting • 6:30-8pm • February 13
Zaytoon in the Alberta Arts District • 2236 NE Alberta St. • info@artonalberta.org

Army Private First Class John E. Brown of Troy, Ala. (left) was killed in Iraq on April 14, 2003, Private First Class David N. Simmons of Kokomo, Ind. was killed on April 8, 2007 in Baghdad (right) Images courtesy of Kent Gallery, NYC

Ok, I must admit... I'm easilly annoyed by a lot of political art that simply rides a wave of dissatisfaction (most war art is just propoganda) but maybe Emily Prince has found a way to keep from merely "taking dictation" from the nightly news and making one-dimensional art. Sure, she makes drawings of servicemen killed in Iraq but there must have been more to this than just that if Robert Storr had decided to put her in the Venice Biennale last year. Storr is notoriously wary of political art as this pre-biennale interview points out.

5th Ave Cinema | Monday, February 11th, 7:30pm | 510 SW Hall St. (free)

Richard Deacon's Dead Leg, 2007

In 1987 Richard Deacon won Britain's prestigious Turner Prize, tomorrow he will speak on his work and concerns as they relate to his wonderful current installation in the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art. Deacon's show is part of the Miller-Meigs series (aka the best curatorial programming arc the city of Portland [or Seattle, only the Frye come close] has ever experienced... considering weve already seen Roxy Paine, Damien Hirst, Richard Rezac, Kehinde Wiley, Pierre Huyghe, Ursula von Rydingsvard and Sophie Calle. In other words, this is a must see... and you can hear the artist this time.

February 8th
6:00 PM @ Portland Art Museum's Whitsell Auditorium
$5 members - $10 nonmembers

The 31st Portland International Film Festival starts today! This 17 day festival, hosted by the NW Film Center, includes award winning film from all over the world, showing at several venues around the city. For more information, including film listings and schedule updates, visit the PIFF website.

Motoya Nakamura, "Hoop"

23 Sandy presents March Fourth, an exhibition of Motoya Nakamura's photography of the beloved Portland marching band. The highly cinematographic images explore the band performing and behind the scenes, providing a lush insight into the circus-like world of March Fourth.

Artist reception • 6pm • February 8
Slide lecture • 7pm • February 20
23 Sandy Gallery • 623 NE 23rd AVE • 503.927.4409

Cherie Hiser at 23 Sandy

Cherie Hiser, "1972"

While you're at the gallery, head back to the slide room to check out Visions of One. Cherie Hiser has been "model and muse" for many of photography's legends, from Ruth Bernhard and Jerry Uelsmann, to Lee Friedlander, Judy Dater, and Stu Levy, and this exhibition showcases her collection of portraits.

Opening reception • 6pm • February 8
23 Sandy Gallery • 623 NE 23rd AVE • 503.927.4409

In pursuit of beauty and social commentary, IGLOO presents the mixed-media work of Modou Dieng. !Hey Lover combines painting, photography, found objects, and installation to explore the "humanity, topography, and pastiche of forms" in contemporary life.

Opening reception • 6-10pm • February 7
IGLOO • 325 NW 6th #102 • 503.724.7300

(more)

Since First Friday came so quickly this month, a couple of galleries decided to bump it to First Wednesday. Opening this week:

Michael Patterson-Carver at Small A

Michael Patterson-Carver, "1967 School Children's March"

This month, Small A Projects will be featuring the drawings of Michael Patterson-Carver. State of the Union explores the history of social injustice and protest in the United States. Each drawing displays a group of protesters fighting one of the many battles that has shaped American history. By contrasting drawings of such historical groups as the suffragettes with modern illustrations of the "state of the union" (and his own struggle against the Patriot Act), Patterson-Carver seeks to highlight the dark hypocrisy at work in politics today. However, the smiling faces on the protesters reminds us that with action, there is hope.

Opening reception • 6-9pm • February 6
Small A Projects • 1430 SE Third • 503.234.7993

Julia Gardner at Vino Paradiso

Julia Gardner

A more local history can be found at Vino Paradiso. Julia Gardner will present her (literally) layered personal view on the buildings and spaces that have shaped Portland and its history. Beginning with industrial urban photographers, Gardner uses resin to layer found objects, paint, and ink, creating a uniquely Portland narrative within each work.

Opening reception • 7-9pm • February 6
Vino Paradiso • 417 NW 10th AVE • 503.284.4471

Kate Pocrass is a social practice artist from San Francisco who uses a telephone messaging service to direct people to "off the beaten path" destinations. She prefers to make people "stop and look with intention, not going from point A to B quickly." An alumnus of the Bay Area Now 4 triennial it should be interesting to hear about any off the beaten path destinations in Portland.

5th Ave Cinema | Monday, February 4th, 7:30pm | 510 SW Hall St. (free)

Lucy Orta

Designer and artist Lucy Orta will be lecturing next week at Reed College. In projects such as "Refuge Wear," "Body Architecture," and "Nexus Architecture" (1992-2002), Orta's work explores ways to visualize the concept of "Social Link." She's a pioneer in the development of "socially driven and sustainable design solutions, alternative systems, and products."

Artist lecture • 7pm • February 5
Reed College • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. • Vollum lecture hall

This group exhibition, curated by Todd Johnson, examines "the mythology and romanticism of the American western frontier." What lingering effect does the notion of the pioneer and Manifest Destiny have on the making of contemporary photography? The artists in this show explore what is still captivating about "the legends and myths of the Wild Wild West."

Opening reception • 6-9pm • February 1
Gallery Homeland • 2505 SE 11th AVE • info@galleryhomeland.org

(more)

Philippe Blanc, from "Limelight"

This weekend, Limelight, curated by PORT's own Jeff Jahn, is opening at the Alexander Gallery at Clackamas Community College. The show explores the tricks and techniques that artists use to catch the eye - and, more importantly, how an artist goes about holding the viewer's attention.

Opening reception • 4-6pm • February 2
Alexander Gallery • 19600 Molalla AVE, Oregon City • 503.657-6958

Opening this week at Rererato: Two Thousand Kilometers in Two Weeks: Photographer Michael Cogliantry Takes on India in a Rickshaw. In December 2006, Cogliantry traveled from the Malabar Coast of Cochin (Kochin) to Hyderabad, documenting his travels along the way. For this exhibition, Cogliantry presents a series of self portraits taken during the trip, forming a "unique narrative" that expresses his journey of self discovery through the eyes of a fictional character. There will also be a book signing at the opening.

Opening reception • 7-10pm • January 31
Rererato • 5135 NE 42nd AVE • info@rererato.com

Johann Neumeister

This weekend, ROCKSBOX presents Austrian artist Johann Neumeister's Psychopsychoanalysis. For this installment of the project, Neumeister will be focusing on the concept of "mother." On opening night he will be available as Dr. Herbert Dreadful, setting up office in the gallery for free Psychopsychoanalytical sessions. Neumeister cites chance, improvisation, connecting people and working with his surroundings as influences on his work.

Opening reception • 7-11pm • January 26
ROCKSBOX • 6540 N Interstate AVE • 971.506.8938

Jesse Hayward at Tilt and Tilt 2 Year Anniversary

This weekend, Tilt is celebrating two fabulous years as an increasingly integral part of the Everett Station Lofts. The party features excellent food, drink, and company, and the closing reception for Jesse Hayward's One None Done.

Anniversary party + closing reception • 7-11pm • January 25
Tilt Gallery & Project Space • 625 NW Everett #106 • 908.616.5477

Nice Trim at IGLOO

While you're in the neighborhood, swing by IGLOO for the closing reception of Nice Trim, a group show featuring animation and works on paper.

Closing reception • 7-10pm • January 25
IGLOO • 325 NW 6th AVE #102 • iglooarts@gmail.com

Arline Fisch, "Silver Anemone necklace"

This week, Arline Fisch is speaking at the Museum of Contemporary Craft as part of the Excellence in Craft series. In Elegant Fantasy: A Journey through Textile Techniques in Metal, Fisch will discuss her 50+ years weaving together the techniques of jewelry, sculpture, and metal working with the structure of textiles and fabric.

Artist lecture • 7pm • January 24 • $5
Museum of Contemporary Craft • 724 NW Davis St., The Lab • 503.223.2654

Sarah Johnson, "I Still Want to be Popular (detail)"

Chambers is launching a solo exhibition by Sarah Johnson this week. Johnson uses colorful gum drops to write billboard-sized messages, combining "candy's seductive veil with taboo confessions" to explore the conflict of expectation and disappointment.

Opening reception • 5:30-8:30pm • January 24
Chambers Fine Art • 207 SW Pine St. #102 • 503.227.9398

Kianga Ford, "Counting (installation detail)"

Working History opens next week at Reed's Cooley Gallery. The exhibition pairs work by contemporary African American artists with related historical artifacts and ephemera. As they share semantic space, the relationship between the objects reflects upon the ways that African American artists have "re-purposed historical documents, material craft histories and folk art forms as indispensable vehicles for social and political critique."

Working History: African American Art & Objects • January 22 - March 2
Cooley Gallery • 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. • 503.777.7251