The Portland Art Center
Tonight only, Paint and Copter perform in white, in a white room, the walls and the musicians the screen for video projections inspired by the palace Fontainebleau.
In "Second Skin", longtime Portland artists JD Perkin and Anne Thomson, mashup the scene of a campout in the woods with an exploration of materials for representing it, including earplugs, cigarette butts, beer cans, animal hides, tires, rose petals, human hair, fake fur, doug' fir, antlers, and leaves.
That sounds like a good counterpoint to "Art & Ecology in the 5th Quadrant", art by Peg Butler, Cecillia Cannon, Clare Carpenter, Jedidiah Chavez, James Jack, Laura Foster, Courtney Frisse, Susan Harlan, TJ Norris & Abi Spring, Liz Obert & Mike Suri, curated by Art on The Peninsula, North Portland artists.
In the Light and Sound Gallery, installation sound artist Dan Senn presents "Many Pairs Sounding", involving tuned resonators driven by Senn's compositions.
http://www.portlandart.org/ 32 NW 5th Avenue til 10, maybe later. Free, your best entertainment value
Michael Chelbin shows portraits on the fringe of mass culture, highlighting our quirky USA. Dennis Chamberlin shows "Screen Culture" portraits in which his subjects are illuminated by television, computer and film screens. The light mimics that of softboxes, a lighting tool now visually familiar from feature films and portraiture, screen illuminated portraits are no stranger to Myspace either. Other artists also have captured the intense concentration in the faces of gamers absorbed in play. http://www.blueskygallery.org/ 1231 NW Hoyt until 9, maybe a bit later
Jim Riswold shows Mao Home and Garden. Former adman, Riswold is known for his paint by number Last Supper. Mutually overloading pop culture and historical figures is a delicate business. He did it well with the Last Supper, and we wish him he best with Mao. http://www.augengallery.com 817 SW 2nd til 9
Compound/Just Be Toys shows "4 Dreams": Amy Sol, Audrey Kawasaki, Mari Inukai & Stella Im Hultberg. Curated by: Monica HW Choy. At Compound/Just Be Toys http://www.justbedesign.com/ 107 NW 5th until about 9:30
PDX shows Storm Tharp's "We Appeal to Heaven", Baconesque portraits and caricatures in light washes. PDX Contemporary Art http://www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 925 NW Flanders Street til 8:30?
Quality Pictures shows photographs by David Hilliard. Hilliard studied and taught at Yale and stages situations, photographing them on large format negatives as does fellow instructor Crewdson. Hilliard is less over the top than Crewdson, your choice on whether that is better or other. http://www.qpca.com 916 NW Hoyt to 11
Rake mounts a group show of works on paper. http://www.rakeart.org 325 NW 6th Ave
Brett Superstar shows his giant robot at the B-Street Gallery at the corner of NW Davis and 13th.
Elise Wagner, one of the region's encaustic luminaries, shows new work in a group show at Butters 520 N.W. Davis, Second floor til 9
Laura Russo shows "Early Northwest Artists", Louis Bunce, Kenneth Callahan, William Givler, Sally Haley, Charles Heaney, Arthur and Albert Runquist, Mike Russo and Mark Tobey. This show is a good complement to the contemporary permanent collection hang at the art museum that places generations of Portland artists in the context of East coast art happenings of the time. So a history lesson. http://www.laurarusso.com 805 NW 21st Ave. til 9
These shows are up all month.