Tuesday, June 23, 2009

June 25-26 Water in the Desert Performances

Butoh dance is a recurring interest here. Friday and Saturday is a performance festival of Butoh artists from San Francisco, Seattle, Boulder and Portland along with Portland dancers pursuing independent vectors. It is a perfect opportunity to see butoh in contrast to some related forms. Friday evening Koichi & Hiroko Tamano with their Harupin-Ha Butoh Theatre, Japanese folk dancers from Portland Taiko, PSU’s Kyogen Theatre, Sahomi Tachibana Dancers, Cydney Wilkes and Sheri Brown + Douglas Ridings perform. Saturday it is Mizu Desierto Butoh Theatre, Syzygy Butoh, Christina Braun of SF Butoh Lab, Bad Unkl Sista, Wobbly, Theory1:Dance and Linda K. Johnson.

The Tamanos are very early butoh performers from Japan who worked with the founder of butoh in the 1960's. Forming his own company in Japan in 1972, Koichi Tamano and his wife Hiroko Tamano then came to San Francisco and performed the first butoh performance in the United States in 1976. In 1996 he was named as a national treasure by the Emperor of Japan. The Tamano's have been leading a workshop this week and the students will be incorporated into the performance. This is a very rare opportunity to see them. Kyogen theater provides a touchpoint to another traditional Japanese theater form in contrast. Sahomi Tachibana is a Portland teacher of traditional Japanese dance. Her troupe performs traditional buyo dance. Cydney Wilkes is a gifted Portland performer who has drawn upon landscape for outdoor performances as well as electrifying duets with Mike Barber. For the Festival she has recreated a piece in the style of Mary Wigman, a German expressionist modern dancer who inspired the creators of butoh. Sheri Brown and Douglas Ridings from Seattle started with Joan Laage and have developed powerful solo practices and collaborations.

Mizu Desierto is a gifted performer and excels in creating fantastic performances. She is also a great organizer, even of untrained dancers, and is the creator and organizer of the festival. Syzygy Butoh joins us from Boulder, Colorado. Christina Braun has many years of Duncan training as well as studying with Katsura Kan, Anzu Furukawa, Yoshito and Kazue Ohno, Akira Kasai, and Yumiko Yoshiokao. She is founder of the SF Butoh Lab and organizer of the current SF Butoh Festival. Bad Unkl Sista is a long time collaborator with Mizu Desierto. She is creator of fantastic costumes. Wobbly is a collaboration of partners Eric Ferguson and Yulia Arakelyan who have broken barriers in movement for those beyond the conventional concept of the dancer's body. Theory1:Dance is the creation of Portland dancers Tracy Broyles and Meshi Chavez. Linda K. Johnson is a modern dancer, artist and organizer in Portland's art world.

Details on the performances may be found at waterinthedesertfestival.org. At the Portland Center for the Performing Arts Winningstad Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway. $25 each evening; students, artists & seniors $18; (both nights: $35 available at the PCPA Box office only)

June 25 Floating World Animation Festival

Portland is the Floating World sometimes, yukio. Edo novelist Asai Ryōi describes in his tale, Ukiyo Monogatari, a floating world in which Buddhist transcendence focused on the next life was replaced by a transcendence based upon living this life as if each day was the last. When Ryōi wrote, Kyoto was the capital, a city of creativity, craftsmaship, art, gardens and pleasure, maybe not unlike Portland.

The Floating World is also a comics store here. Tonight they offer an animation festival for your pleasure. There is a continuity between sit down cinema, music visuals and video art and this material spans all. Animators Yoshi Sodeoka, David O Reilly, Bruno Dicolla, Barry Doupe, Kirsten Lepore, Tim & Eric Wareheim, Eric Fensler, Doug Lussenhop, Devin Flynn, Aids 3-D and Hazel Hill produce psychedelic animations. Accompanied by musicians MEGA*CHURCH, Flaspar link and DJ Bobby Dangerous.

At Holocene www.holocene.org 1001 SE Morrison 8:30PM $7

June 25, 26, 27 String Quartets

I am not an expert in Euro-American classical music, but I was lucky to hear a lot working for the music school. It is magical to hear live in a good wood hall, it's a different experience once it passes through a microphone then the chains of compression to something like an MP3. The Guarneri Quartet has been playing together since 1964, with one personnel change, this is their last year. All teach at Curtis, America's finest school of classical music, they have the Philadelphia sound and 45 years of musical mind meld. Their last performance in the Northwest is at Reed College Thursday and Saturday. Friday a documentary film screens, with the quartet in attendance. Presented by Chamber Music Northwest cmnw.org Film at the NW Film Center 8 Friday $10-30, 7PM Performance Thursday and Saturday $10-43 8PM

June 24 French View on Store

Tonight Philippe Blanc speaks his thoughts on "The Strategy of Sur-Distinction: building a cathedral inside the megastore". Blanc is an artist with a mastery of computers in art, from game art to wry comments on our physical computing culture with an installation at Fresh Trouble. Bringing the unique French philosiphical viewpoint to Store for a Month www.storeforamonth.com 1216 SE Division 7PM Free

Saturday, June 20, 2009

June 20 Milepost 5 Tea Speaks Lightness and Shadows

Milepost 5 has the graphic photo work of Justin Gorman; paintings by Anthony Conrad and Luke Heinrich; art by Kalina Torino and sculpture by Jessica Weitzel. At Milepost 5 www.milepostfive.com 900 NE 81st (go by MAX) 7PM-9 Free


In the alt-words arena, In Other Words bookstore hosts Michelle Tea. 8 NE Killingsworth 7PM $5-10


Meanwhile 2GQ presents a broad spectrum art event, Light and Shadows, incidental to the Solstace at Yoga Shala. Details at www.2gq.org Event at Yoga Shala N 3808 N. Williams 7PM-midnight $5-20

Friday, June 19, 2009

June 19 Fourteen30 Summer Group Show

Fourteen 30 Contemporary opens its summer group show this evening with Mike Bray, David Corbwtt, Hamlett Dobbins, Alex Felton, Corey Lunn, Jenene Nagy, Devon Oder, Nicholas Pittman, Patrick Rock, Jennifer Shimatsu and Nick Van Woert. It is a big show, meaning limited pieces by each artist. Don't be afraid to inquire about their other works. At Fourteen30 Gallery www.fourteen30.com 1430 SE 3rd 6PM-9 Free

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

June 18 Vinyl Store Nowhere Words

Stephanie Simek and Adam Keller are brilliant creatives and creators of Rererato, the space where experimental music and an experimental art gallery came together for a time.

Stephanie's art, sculpture, sound and performance facets become one in an event tonight. She has cut a vinyl disk with sounds from the "jungle, lovemaking, space, and hypnotic instructions" and built her own turntable to play it. Eight tone arms with needles connected to contact pickups sample the disk's tracks and are mixed by the artist into a unique soundscape tonight only.

At the FalseFront Studio www.falsefrontstudio.com 4518 NE 32nd 8PM Free


The Store for a Month is a fantastic maze of an arcade with art, small to large, you can afford - or even make in the studio with a collection of art-making material. Proprietor-creator John Brodie talks about the store in the context of Claes Oldenburg’s “The Store”, 1961-62 tonight. www.storeforamonth.com Talk at the Artemis Cafe 1235 SE Division, and visit to the the Store for a Month, 1216 SE Division, after. Talk 6PM, store 7 Free


The Nowhere collective is Matt McCalmont, Brennan Conaway and Charissa Nile, all of whom have done projects at the Center for Land Use Interpretation outpost in Wendover, Utah. It is a little nowhere, but at closer look yields rich creative ingredients. They speak tonight as part of Art Spark, and informal gettogether of creative art world people here. www.portlandartspark.com At Rontoms 600 E Burnside 5PM-7, short talk at 6 Free


Disjecta and Tin House present Arty Words II: music, art and readings by authors. Author and editor Jon Raymond, cofounder of Plazm and author of Half-Life, Livability and Old Joy joins Zak Smith, illustrator, writer for an evening of regional folk tales. Music by Quasi. At Disjecta www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate 7:30PM $7

Monday, June 15, 2009

June 18 Deeper Smart Grid Seminar

The smart grid is a new way of thinking born of necessity and possibility. Yesterday electricity was made in large distant plants. They burned the dinosaur remains of eons of sunlight stored by plantlife. They captured heat from the decay of elements like uranium. Or they slowed, for a moment, the gravity imperative of rivers seeking unity with oceans.

The big plants fed power through very high voltage transmission lines, the major arteries, to smaller and smaller capillaries connected to your neighborhood. It was returned through the earth whenever you turned on a light switch or the washing machine. The big plants needed to make at least as much power as the unpredictable instantaneous demand.

All this is changing. Thousands of small power plants - wind turbines, geothermal plants and solar farms are now feeding in power at the capillaries. The capability exists for variable power pricing, controlled by you, or maybe your smart clothes dryer, which can take a break when power is expensive. Plug in cars can store energy then release it back to the grid at any point there is an outlet.

The smart grid is a network of tiny computers built into your electric meter, heating, cooling, major appliances and car. They will communicate to measure how electricity is used, manage its use wisely and give you information to make decisions. Maybe they will communicate with your mobile phone. Scale wise, the number of smart grid computers required in the US is about the total number already on the Internet, worldwide. It is a perfect challenging project.

Will all of those meter readers will be replaced by legions of customer support people helping you run virus scans on your dishwasher? No, the system will need to be designed to be so reliable and secure that it should never be necessary.

Today Portland State University sponsors a seminar on the smart grid. It's all day and registration is required. But there is no charge. All the information is at http://www.extended.pdx.edu/nwsmartgrid/ 8:30AM-5PM Free

June 17 Films Chicago to Portland

There is a rich creative interchange between Chicago and Portland. Many Portland artists have been schooled there at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Tonight's film exchange is organized by Lori Felker of Chicago and and Ben Popp of Portland, who also ogranized Filmed by Bike. Included are films from Portland's Crispin Rosenkranz and Pippa Possible who are in Chicago studying at the school. At Performance Works Northwest www.performanceworksnw.org 4625 SE 67th 9PM Free

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

June 14 Father and Son Sitar Performance

The sitar is an magical instrument with main strings played on adjustable frets and sympathetic strings adding a response. It is a difficult instrument to master. It is a devotion. A spiritual experience to play, and to listen. Tonight father and son, Pandit Shivanath Mishra Deobrat Mishra, play sitar together, accompanied by tabla master Mahapunya Das. The program includes ragas, Indian classical music, plus less formal folk music.

This is a great opportunity to experience Indian music in an intimate environment. At Yoga Shala North 3808 N. Williams. reception at 6:30PM, performance 7:30. $10 advance, $15 – 20 day of

June 14 It's Possible - PSU MFA Big Show at Disjecta

Portland State University has been quietly building its MFA program. Each MFA student has shown in PSU galleries on a compressed schedule. Tonight there is an opportunity to see many in one place and at one time. It is a mix of studio art and the documentation of social practice art. 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 show their work. All at Disjecta www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate opening 4PM-7 Free

June 14 DorkbotPDX Talks

Dorkbot is people doing strange things with electricity. It's an international DIY movement. Electricity craft, if you like - and art. It is something you can do. Portland Dorkbot has informal monthly meetups, workshops and a lecture series.

Tonight is DorkbotPDX 0x03. In their own words:

"HURRY HURRY STEP RIGHT UP! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ___ ___ _____ / _ \ __ __ / _ \ |___ / DORKBOT | | | | \ \/ / | | | | |_ \ PDX | |_| | > < | |_| | ___) | \___/ /_/\_\ \___/ |____/ http://dorkbotpdx.org/dorkbotpdx_0x03 Dorkbot PDX [[People doing strange things with electricity...in Portland]] ...welcomes you to the 4th installation of its lecture series. * Where: AboutUs: 107 SE Washington St, Suite 520. * When: Sunday, June 14th, 2009 - 7pm As always, the event is free and open to the public. Feel free to bring snacks and beverages to share. Please spread the word! Andrew S. Parnell ----------------- Pieces to be discussed include Semaphore-bot, Tangólumen, and Cardiolumen: a multifaceted exploration of the data we create both consciously and unconsciously and their inherent value. Andrew S. Parnell is a Portland based digital artist. His work primarily deals with the physical manifestation of digital information using code, image capture, and electronics. Michael Bunsen -------------- Dome Control: Altering a space via physical and web-based interfaces Michael Bunsen spends most of his time on the internet but is more interested in nature and the outside world. He developed Urbanedibles.org and began exploring microcontrollers to cultivate his mission of using the computer to get people off the computer. Dan Gilsdorf ------------ A presentation featuring works from 2006 to the present, including the recent exhibitions Interiotrope, 2008 and SRO Video, 2009. Dan Gilsdorf is a sculptor and installation artist based in Portland. Using video, sound, and mechanics, his work addresses the mediating effect of technology on physical and cultural landscapes. See you there!

A Dorkbot event. www.dorkbotpdx.org Generously hosted by AboutUs www.aboutus.org at 107 SE Washington St, Suite 520. 7pm Free

June 13 Our Farm Is Real

Project Grow is a practical social practice project involving farming, yoga, music and art for a community including people with developmental disabilities. It is one Portland instance of socially conscious social practice art. It is what we need now.

Project Grow has taken a brown field vacant lot and made a permaculture-inspired farm replete with goats, chickens, vegetables and a chicken coup that rivals the Riverdale School in architectural significance. It is all part of a micro CSA, organized by social practice artists and activists connected to PSU and the Art Institute of Chicago - the social practice art movement is broad and deep. Through Project Grow, the clients of the adjacent sheltered workshop are expanding beyond traditional factory work to vegetable gardening and making art. Project Grow has assembled a community to help out, including Street Yoga.

Tonight at the site, there will be music by Inside Voices, Why We Must Be Careful and DJ Janet Weiss. They will show a great documentary Growing Awareness tracing the evolution of community supported agriculture - CSA.


At the Port City Development Center. 2124 N Williams Ave at Tillamook. Enter in the back of the building on either Tillamook or Thompson

Salon reception 5PM-7:30, film 7:30PM Free

June 13-July 28 Summer Institute of Movement at the Headwaters & PSU

Portland has a concentration of amazing movement artists. Some of them have gathered around the Headwaters Studio which shares a space with Disjecta. Their summer festival of workshops and performances is now.

The workshops include Shadow Yoga, Javanese dance, seeing while moving, butoh, ego and the subconscious in performance and Kyogen theater from Japan. All taught by gifted teachers from here and a distance.

All the details including discounts for registering for several workshops are at the Headwaters website. Workshops take place at at the Headwaters studio and Portland State University, where some workshops may be taken for credit. Keep and eye out here for public performances, some free. Headwaters Studio theheadwaters.net/programs/ 8371 N. Interstate

Thursday, June 04, 2009

June 12 Jamin London Tinsel and Friends @ Choir

Jamin London Tinsel is a sculptor and performer. Tonight she shows her work try pod at Q is for Choir, the record and stuff shop on Clinton. Her performances revolve around eating connected to her sculptures, which is a good complement to the Portland social practice art movement. Avery Thatcher and Bren Boseman have work in the three person show. At 2510 SE Clinton opening 6PM-9 and up for a while store hours which are roughly w-f 4-7 and s-s 11-7

June 11 Design Jobs Discussion Network

Design is getting better, meaning more considered of the tribal aesthetic values of its audience(s). The tribes are pretty broad because the mediasphere, and our dense cities, mean just about everyone has seen Apple design, for example, and considers it favorably. Northern Italian design is increasingly successfully challenged by Portland design.

The design of objects spans one of a kind, few of a kind and many of a kind. As the numbers increase, the employment leverage is magnified - you can get a job as an "industrial designer". That is the realm of Core77 and its companion Coroflot.

Today is a Coroflot road show of sorts cosponsored by OfficePDX, Filter, Ziba and the University of Oregon. It starts with networking, then a panel discussion by Kirk James, Creative Director, Cinco Design; Nick Oakley, Industrial Design Lead, Mobility Group, Intel; Beth Sasseen, Senior Design Recruiter, Nike and Chelsea Vandiver, Head of Communications Design Group, Ziba Design. The topic will be hiring and retaining top creative talent, portfolio review and interviews, and building effective networks for filling positions. The afternoon will finish with cocktails.

At the University of Oregon White Stag Building, 70 NW Couch. Meet & Greet 2:30PM-3:30; Panel Discussion 3:30PM-4:30; Reception 4:30PM-6. $40

June 10 ICFF Report and Found Live!

ICFF is the big furniture design show in New York. OfficePDX went there so you don't have to. Tonight they report out on what they saw. RSVP to shop@officepdx.com At OfficePDX www.officepdx.com 2204 NE Alberta 6PM-8 Free

I dig Found. Its been written about before here. Tonight is the next instance of the guaranteed highly entertaining Found road show, the live stories of found notes, papers and photos. The Portland event is found sandwiched between the Seattle Crocodile, the Camas Freedom High, the Las Vegas Palms Casino and Sam Bond's Garage in Eugene! Hear Found stories at the Doug Fir Lounge. 9PM Sharp $10

June 9 Thoughts on Design Objectified

Gary Hustwit is known for his documentary Helvetica, on type deign, which premiered at the 2007 Portland Experimental and Documentary Film Festival. His new film, Objectified, directs the same gaze at the world of industrial design. Design as brand emerged in the early millenium as an evoloution of brand memes of the '90's. Writers like Kevin Roberts, Tom Peters and many others celebrated the emergence of design as the dominant brand ingredient. Meanwhile, the great Teruo Kurosaki elevated designers themselves to brands. This film is the result.

Hustwit interviews designers on their work and shows them at work. It's one of those mysterious processes that produces beautiful things.

Tonight's film, which premered at SXSW, is sponsored by the local AIGA and ISDA chapters. The filmmaker will be in attendance for a discussion. Previous reviewers have noted a good dose of caffeine might be required of all viewers, excepting dedicated acolytes of design - or just see it when it comes out on video in about 18 months.

At Cinema 21. 7PM Tickets $20, student and AIGA or ISDA members $15.

June 8 What's the Big Plan? (For Portland)

The Bright Light series is sponsored by the City Club of Portland and Portland Spaces magazine. It's a gathering spot for planners and architects to hear from speakers on planning and architecture.

Portland has had a series of "big plans". The 1904 Olmsted plan established Skyline, Terwilliger and Willamette Boulevards; Tryon Creek, Mt Tabor, Forest, Laurelhurst, Washington and other Parks, as well as Ladd's Addition. A 1932 plan proposed a Westside Waterfront Park and what became the urban growth boundary. Lewis Mumford's 1938 plan proposed a collective of Portland and surrounding towns, presaging Metro. The 1966 plan proposed a neighborhood orientation, eventually contributing to Portland's neighborhood associations; and now, the 20 minute walk goal for the distance between home and neighborhood services. The 1972 plan, influenced by the ideas of Jane Jacobs, led to the Transit Mall and Pioneer Courthouse Square replacing a parking garage. The 1988 plan resulted in the streetcar, the Pearl District, Eastbank Esplanade and large scale expansion of housing in the central city.

Of course not every aspect of these plans were carried out, that is the nature of the process. For instance, Robert Moses proposed a grid of Portland super highways in 1943 - the Going-Prescott Freeway, the East 30th Freeway, 82nd Avenue Freeway, McAdam Freeway, the Multnomah-Sellwood-Johnson Creek Freeway, St Helens Freeway and the SE Clinton-28th-Powell Freeway to Gresham, with convenient interchanges at 11th/12th, 39th, 52nd and 82nd. It was proposed to be an interstate highway. Luckily they were never built. (There is some controversy about exactly what Moses proposed and how the highway department adapted it, but this 1966 map of the Mt Hood Freeway is a monster!)

The result of all this planning, built and unbuilt, is one of the most livable cities in North America and an internationally known school of planning at PSU.

The Portland Planning Bureau has just merged with the Portland Sustainability Bureau. Susan Anderson, former head of the Sustainability Bureau, is now responsible for the combined bureau. What is her plan? How will it shape Portland as have previous "big plans"?

Find out this evening. (And for something completely different, the Village Building Convergence is going on now too)

Susan Anderson speaks at the Bright Lights Series. At Jimmy Mak's, 221 NW 10th. Doors 5:30PM, discussion 6. Free

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

June 6 Films on Landscape by James Benning

James Benning is an influential experimental filmmaker known for long shots in work themed on landscape. His latest, and maybe last film, RR - railroad screens tonight. In the case of rain, the show will be in the Cinema Project space. If the weather is fair, meet at the space before 9PM and the group will proceed to the secret outdoor showing location. www.cinemaproject.org 11 NW 13th 9PM Sharp

June 5 Eastside Art Openings

In Portland art is everywhere. Including at skate shops. Cal's Pharmacy and The Department of Skateboarding Art Department hosts the first annual North County Invitational. Artists Jo Jackson, Andy Jenkins, Chris Johanson, Jason Lee, Chris Pastras, Clint Peterson, Russ Pope, Roger Seliner and Tobin Yelland are in a fierce competition with gravity to determine who is the top artist. At Cal’s Pharmacy www.departmentofskateboarding.com 11 Ne Hancock 7PM-10


Pop up shops have been itinerant blips on the pop culture radar screen for some time. Not so much in Portland, excepting some by Seaplane. That should change. It is, with Store for a Month.

Store for a Month is that and a studio experiment by artist John Brodie. Artists Holly Andres, Carl Annala, Josh Arseneau, Gordon Barnes, Philippe Blanc, John Brodie, James Boulton, Calvin Ross Carl, Benjamin Alexander Clark, David Corbett, Kerry Davis, Shelby Davis, Melia Donovan, Cary Doucette, Arcy Douglass, Anna Fidler, Danridge Geiger, Ellen George, Nathan Gibson, Damien Gilley, Jennifer Gleach, Kate Greiner, Anne Greenwood, Cecilia Hallinan, Henry Ham, Stephen Hayes, Jesse Hayward, Sean Healy, Harvest Henderson, Scott Wayne Indiana, Philip Iosca, Susan Klein, Kristan Kennedy, Cynthia Lahti, Gabriel Liston, Rhoda London, Joe Macca, Victor Maldonado, Pete McCracken, Trevor McGee, Cris Moss, Angela Muldoon, Aaron Murray, Jenene Nagy, Giles Neale, Jim Neidhardt, TJ Norris, Melody Owen, Dhani Rosa, Jack Dingo Ryan, Paige Saez, Blair Saxon-Hill, Richard Schemmerer, Crystal Schenk, Heidi Schwegler, Scrappers, Ashley Sloan, Josh Smith, Sika Stanton, Storm Tharp, Annette Thurston, Joe Thurston, Marie Watt, Carol Yarrow and Kathan Zerzan have all made work for the store. Brodie will be using the space as his studio throughout the month. Some of the artists will stop by throughout the month to make work. There will even be some baking of pies.

Store for a Month www.storeforamonth.com 1216 SE Division. Opening 6PM-10 Check the web site for hours, studio schedules and pies!



Lighthearted neomysticism is a current meme in art. It is new age mysticism remixed with antiserious intent. This show, Superstition, captures the vibe. Artists Aaron Piland, Jesse Brown, Ryan Bubnis, Cody Hudson, Brandi Strickland, Emma Trithart and Betsy Walton provide their own superstition for your art viewing pleasure. At Nemo Design www.studionemo.com 1875 SE Belmont



Natalie Phillips is cowinner this month of the copywriting award, with an interview:

"Q: So were you able to find a job in Portland or are you strictly a starving artist?
A: I was a waitress but I got fired almost immediately (for being a terrible waitress).

Q: What are you impressions of the Portland art scene so far?
A: Cool art is really spread out around here…you can see something tucked away in a little coffee shop that’s just as good as a big show downtown, if not better.

Q: You recently graduated from art school – what was that experience like for you? How did it influence your artwork?
A: Art school was frustrating because so much of my education was conceptual. I didn’t get a lot of the technical skills I wanted originally, so I’ve had to teach myself a lot. You can see this in my complete failure to understand the basic rules of perspective.

Q: If someone gave you a $10,000 grant to work on any crazy creative project you wanted, what would you do with that money?
A: I’d buy out Paxton Gate, the taxidermy store in SF, and do detailed oil paintings of all the animals. Then I’d paint the animals and pose them threateningly in front of the paintings.

Q: If you weren’t an artist, what do you think you might be doing instead?
A: I don’t have many other skills, so I’d probably be an on call daytime stripper…huddled in the back, afraid of the patrons."

At Breezeblock www.breezeblockgallery.com Gallery 1847 E. Burnside



In the 811 E Burnside block

Redux is also cowinner of the copywriting award of the month: "I strongly believe that what you're happiest doing at five is what you will be happiest doing your entire life. Growing up, I endlessly drew and embroidered onto washcloths that my grandma gave me little creatures and animals that I desperately wanted to live in the woods of my backyard. In my mind these creatures had tiny, magnificent, ornate lairs in the trunks of old trees (which I also drew, along with maps of how to get there). And although these creatures were elusive and shy, they always decided to befriend me. Over the years, my creatures have become decidedly more design-driven, but a part of me is still just drawing little friends to have" - Ashley Goldberg; who, along with Drew Bell present work tonight in a show: Repetition Makes the Heart Grow Fonder. At Redux www.reduxpdx.com

Warmholes is a group show tackling time and space by Arbito, Brent Wick, Jessie Rose Vala, Scott Patt, APAK, Ferris Plock, Kelly Tunstal, Martin Ontiveros, Bwana Spoons, Josh Herbolsheimer, Elizabeth Haidle, Eatcho, Shawn Wolfe, Zack Soto, Michael Isaac Bushkin, Amy Rupel, Evan Harris, Kiyoshi Nakazawa, Carson Ellis and Jerome Powers. It should be all happy summer artwork. At Grass Hut www.grasshutcorp.com

Meanwhile in the back parking lot of the 811, magazine in|ur, Intentionally Urban, celebrates a year of publishing. The magazine is focused on demonstrating sustainability in materials and life are not mutually exclusive of good design. Music by A Simple Colony and Sleepy Bell.



City Body Dust includes artists Laura Foxman, Matthew Letzetler, Arrington De Dionyso and William Rihel with opening night music at 10 by Gavin Castleton and ...PISS, the Rocksbox house band. At WorksoundPDX www.worksoundpdx.com 820 SE Alder



Artist architect Ben Stagl has a solo show of video, sculpture and print work. For this show, he was inspired by folding, as in paper, from a process, product and philisophical viewpoint. A an engaging description which will make you very curious about the work is at the Gallery Homeland website. At Gallery Homeland www.galleryhomeland.org 2505 SE 11th x Division



Rikki Rothenberg has a cat themed show at Nationale. Cat lovers love their cats. Rothenberg is also a co-founder of the dance group Woolly Mammoth Comes to Dinner, a dance group which will perform the opening. Opening at NATIONALE nationaleportland.blogspot.com 2730 E Burnside 6PM-9



Liz Obert shows Cybernetic Landscapes, meditations on how we carry and use mobile devices such as phones, cameras, navigation units, in the natural landscape, at least until the power is consumed. Technology adoption is generational and what is strange today to some will be commonplace tomorrow. At Pushdot Studio www.pushdotstudio.com 1021 SE Caruthers



Tired of looking and want to move? The Disjecta complex includes artist studios and a movement studio, The Headwaters. The studio is open tonight beginning at 7 for demonstrations of butoh, shadow yoga and Viewpoints Lab - all summer class options. Then there is a big dance party afterwards. At The Headwaters www.theheadwaters.net 8371 N. Interstate 7PM Free

June 4 Westside Art Openings

Caldera is an in city and mountain art retreat program for children. Kids who would otherwise miss art programs work along side international class artists and mentors. It is truly art changing the world, one person at a time. Established artists too spend time in the Cascades creating work as the snow falls.

Words Without Walls is organized around art that starts as word. It may evolve into poetry, song, visual work or movement. Tonight is a public presentation of the result.

W+K Words Without Walls www.calderaarts.org At the ad agency. 224 NW 13th 6PM-10


Rwanda is a small country. But it occupies a place high on the list in the late 20th century of tragic events, and their consequence. I was near the border a few weeks after, but had blocked it from my mind for a variety of good reasons. Occasional gunfire could be heard and we were not allowed to photograph the refugee camps in Uganda. It was only later, by reading, that the dimensions of what happened became clearer. Tonight Blue Sky shows photographer Jonathan Torgovnik's Intended Consequences. It is a dimension of the event in the form of portraits of mothers and their children born of rape at the time. Each is accompanied by their story. Julie Denesha also shows photographs of Roma settlements in Slovakia. Denesha speaks of her work June 6 at 3PM. At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org 122 NW 8th


Eugenia Pardue makes baroque relief paintings, often in monochrome. Her work shows in the Portland Center Stage's Gerding Theater Armory, accompanying the play Grey Gardens www.pcs.org/greygardens. 128 NW 11th. Reception 5:30PM-7


DE May is a shy minimalist maker of mixed media work. The work is in its element at PDX Contemporary Art. At PDX Contemporary Gallery www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 925 NW Flanders


Strange Bedfellows is an International Collaboration between Japan and Portland artists. That doesn't seem so strange. Art pairs include Mhak + Zach Johnson, Cho Chan + Mona Superhero, Shiori Kawamoto + Geneva Smith, Makiko Sugawa + Christopher Ross, Oeil + J Shea, Naoshi + Martin Ontiveros, Kaz + Robert Pellicer, Tenga + Tom Webb, Sowl + Eatcho, Jun Inoue + Damon Soule, Nishi + Jen Lobo, Jon Jon Green + Jason Graham and Yohei Takahashi + Keegan Onefoot. Should be a great show! At Compound Gallery www.compoundgallery.com 107 NW 5th


Carye Bye is a great tour guide to hidden Portland. She organizes bike rides and prints at the IPRC. She maintains an online museum of postcards related to bathtubs. Combining all of those ideas she presents an illustrated limited edition book, Hidden Portland: The Museums. It is a guide to some of Portland's unique museums like the vacuum cleaner museum.

Bye presents her book tonight. The original illustrations for the book are for sale too. It is at Reading Frenzy www.readingfrenzy.com 921 SW Oak. Talk at 6PM


Green Oregon and Town and Country are a pair of group shows meditating on what we think the Oregon landscape is. Froelick's Town and Country, Oregon at 150 includes conventional landscape work by Chris Bennett, Patricia Bognar, Eric Bowman, Leiv Fagereng, Paul Fardig, Kevin Farrell, Wendy Given, Stephen Hayes, Craig Hickman, Alex Hirsch, Liz Holzman, Mark Hooper, Sarah Horowitz, Marilyn Joyce, Kimberly Kolba, Sana Krusoe, Carson Legree, Gabriel Liston, Jim Lommasson, TJ Norris, Barry Pelzner, Tom Prochaska, Ben Rosenberg, Laura Ross-Paul, Bill Sharp, Mike Southern, Ron van Dongen, David Winston, Jon Wippich and Christy Wyckoff. Green Oregon is more playful overall. It includes Robert Adams, Bruce Conkle, Erik Geschke, Maria T. D. Inocencio, Marne Lucas, Justin “Scrappers” Morrison, TJ Norris, Ryan Pierce, Patrick Rock, Mark R. Smith, Bailey Winters and Christy Wyckoff.

Town & Country at Froelick Gallery www.froelickgallery.com 714 NW Davis

Green Oregon www.greenoregonshow.org at the Manuel Izquierdo Gallery, PNCA. Enter on the loading dock at 825 NW 13th



PNCA, the Pacific Northwest College of Art, has been slowly transforming itself. After decades of a classic curriculum comprising only painting, printmaking, sculpture, graphic design/illustration, the school has added intermedia, accepted performance thesis', merged with a contemporary crafts program, added an MFA program and is now adding a broader 3d design program. Not every BFA program requires every student to spend a year focused in their individual studio, grappling with aesthetics, and preparing them for a lifetime of same, as does PNCA.

The sho has been up for a while, tonight is the public reception for the artists. BFA students show their work in the studio space in which they have worked for a year, the Stevens Studio. MFA students present in the main building central space, Swigert Commons.

At PNCA www.pnca.edu Stephens Studio 1432 NW Johnson, Swigert Commons corner 13th and NW Johnson. School business hours. Free


Post Present are large scale paintings and sculpture by Alex Steckley. At Stumptown Coffee www.stumptowncoffee.com 128 SW 3rd


Always recommended for your exploratory pleasure are the Everett Station Lofts, NW Broadway and Everett