January 3 Drift Dog

Drift Fence are paintings by Wes Mills and Give a Girl a Dog are mixed media by Elizabeth Knight.

At PDX Contemporary Art https://pdxcontemporaryart.com/ 3PM-5 Free RSVP requested

January 1 A pen must move for the ink to flow

Not our usual but unusual. Stelo offers a viewing and journaling workshop with admission for New Year's Day. It is an opportunity to write and think about video diary making.

Films by Vivienne Dick, Holly Fisher, Isa Hesse-Rabinovich, and Edward Owens will show on film. In the interstices, write on the film or whatever you like. It is all explained in the link.

Diaries, Notes, Sketches: A Film Screening & Journaling Event for the New Year https://www.steloarts.org/stelo-events/diaries-notes-sketches at Stelo Arts https://www.steloarts.org 412 NW 8th 6PM-9 $10-25

December 21 Tri-nature

Public Nature is a performance series, a few times a year, sign up for their announcments or follow their socials. Each event is a collaboration between a mover, a writer, and a sound artist, working together for the first time, one time. High risk, high reward.

This one is Dao Strom, sound, Rachel Slater, movement, and Stephanie Adams-Santos, word.

It is at a private residence covered garden you can join by looking up Public Nature and messaging them for an invitation, then RSVP to participate.

At Public Nature 7PM $5-15, all to the artists.

December 20 Shad Experience Dump Bunko

The show, Shad Mode, at ILY2 closes today. Kids will love the salmon cannon. Shad Mode is the result of NY artist Sasha Fishman as artist in residence on the Columbia River studying its fish. Strongly Recommended.

At I Love You 2 - ILY2 https://ily2online.com/ 925 NW Flanders 11AM-5PM Free


Society starts a new show and downstairs is Mother Foucalt's birthday party. Charles Stobbs III opens Experiment on Yourselves.

"Although the prompt is the title is a work in the show, we could say the exhibition is centered on a work entitled The Car Becoming The Deer, The Cart Becoming The Horse, and The Carrot Becoming The Donkey (2025). It won’t be too much of a spoiler to tell you that this film is a carousel of 80 35mm slides produced through a process involving Xeroxes and packing tape and gridded scans of the ersatz animal skins of deflated inflatables.

This is a show of echoes and afterlives, traces, shadows (and light), vestigial technologies, and what remains.

The crux here may be the relationship of photographic and print technologies to those of the moving image. And what it means to think of that in the digital era. Or perhaps we could say something about the long tail of post-Fountain deskilling and/or/also щөiяd reskilling (as opposed to the usual conceptual or intellectual reskilling, but that too). Or perhaps something about the role of the hand in a work otherwise in the shadow of the work of art’s mechanical reproducibility."

At https://societysocietysociety.com/ 711 SE Grand upstairs above Mother Foucault’s. 7PM-9 Free

Dump Magazine, a local project that has open calls for art and writing, dumps their current selectees. That is in the form of a magazine and a wall art show. Neither the magazine or One Grand has published the names of the artists in plain text, and we are not going to do any work they should have done.

Upstairs at One Grand Gallery www.onegrandgallery.com 1000 E Burnside 6PM-9 Free


Bunko closes at Virtua and is part of many alt-santa portrait opportunities throughout the mall. Think noon-5 Free

December 19 Honey

Wasps were carnivores, eating other insects. About 120 million years ago they went vegan, living on nectar and pollen. What unfolded was the coevolution of honey bees and flowering plants. Bees are fast learners and have a sense of smell exceeding bloodhounds. Much of our food is pollinated by bees, and what the world needs now is more flowers. Let's not kill bees off, please.

Antler and Talon holds their holiday party and show. Anna Rogers joins the gallery in curation.

Just Like Honey is a group show on hexagonal panels by Chris Austin, Juri Umagami, Daren Todd, Alex Garant, Anna Rogers, Maryann Held, Michelle Mitchell, Logan Britt, Alex Stone, Morgan Bak, Cole Lyons, Lori Damiano, Mandy Arroyo, Hickory Mertsching, Kirsten Bauer, Em Randall, Sierra Moon, Mercedes Tabish, Samantha Hensel, Nathan McKee, Amy Spassov, Jeremy Nichols, Wylee Risso, Rachel Murray, Stevie Shao, Neil Perry, Graham Franciose, Jade Sturms, Nathan Paul Rice, Rachel Warkentin, Lena Fridman, and Marjorie Snyder. They took that show with PADA to the Seattle Art Fair.

David Rice has figurative work. April Coppini has wildlife drawings. Scott Listfield brings space-suit-man visiting future ruins. Brin Levinson continues his long running themes of wildlife reoccupying the human-built world posthuman. Sarah Conti has porcelain sculptures of birds, some in flight. Casey Weldon has pop surrealist people, animals, and landscapes. Jennifer Parks brings her paintings and sculptures of figures, birds, and landscapes. Emily Kepulis has colorist botanicals.

At Antler & Talon Gallery www.antlerpdx.com 2714 NE Alberta 5pm-8 Free

December 16 Radiant Tenses

MSHR, Trigger Object, The Tenses, and Epilepsy perform. Who would not support Mission Statement Human Radiance? At Turn! Turn! Turn! https://turnturnturnpdx.com/ 8 NE Killingsworth 8PM $10-20 cash only

December 14 More on Fish

ILY2 found artist Sasha Fishman https://sashafishman.com/ in NYC and the artist was in residence on the Columbia River for a Summer. The result is the current show at ILY2, Shad Mode. This evening she is interviewed by writer Lucy Cotter at Stelo. https://www.steloarts.org/stelo-events/artisticresearch at Stelo Arts https://www.steloarts.org 412 NW 8th Avenue 5PM-7 Free

December 13 Mono Blooming Sound and Light

Mono Space has a listening session today. Chess Club hosts.

At Mono Space https://mono-space.org/ 608 NW 13th Ave Ste 102. 11AM-5PM Free (ring buzzer for entry)


PDX Contemporary has their reception for Winter Blooming from Jeffry Mitchell. Nice copywriting.

"The changing of seasons brings a new feeling. Autumn and its moribund wetness is ushered away by the bright clarity of winter. The crisp sting of cold air and the blanketing of snow draws us inward and indoors in search of warmth and comfort. This hibernation creates spaces of gathering, sharing, and contemplation. There is great delight to be found in the bleakness of winter.

The welcoming of colder seasons also brings with it an urge to decorate—adorning a tree with ornaments or making cozy a domestic space. Winter Blooming features a variety of work—drawings and prints in artist-made frames, handcrafted wooden furniture, ceramic vessels and sculpture, small porcelain and pewter figures, bronze elephants and andirons, and plaster tables. The use of different materials is important to Mitchell, who, under his grandmother’s tutelage, learned a variety of decorative design and handicraft. His affection for simple materials like pen, paper, scissors, and glue remain and he continually returns to these craft roots in his practice."

Jeffrey Mitchell https://pdxcontemporaryart.com/winter-blooming 3PM-5 Free RSVP requested


Virtua has 3 DJs + 3 visualists for VERSUS³. It's a good prefunk for Volt Divers.

Arrive promptly at Virtua_Gal nee Xhurch at Lloyd Mall Suite B216. Park, bike, or walk, entering from the Halsey Street side by Barnes and Noble, the mall is locked to the outside after 7PM. Virtua is in the former Lady Foot Locker, second level, above Zumiez and Hot Topic. Tickets https://ra.co/events/2318647 6PM-9 $10


Volt Divers was an analog synth night accompanied by live visualists. It's in our back catalog. The primary mover, a video artist from UO, moved on to more creative projects, and the night lay dead.

Volt Divers is back at the Black Water Bar

VSPR, Trust Anchor, The Volt Cabal, Trigger Object, Spines, Proxima, -Ist, Camino Acid, and Vyger make sounds. Mirror Therapy, Thomas Fang, and Cysmic Visuals make sights.

At the Black Water Bar 5115 NE Sandy Blvd 9PM $5