April 30 Grass Hut Moving Event

The Grass Hut is moving from 811 East Burnside to Floating World Comics in Old Town. So this is closing party for the entertaining Balls Out show, and an opportunity to help Bwana slim down his inventory of originals, prints, zines, tees and toys. At 811 E Burnside 6-9ish

April 29 Alberta

The Alberta neighborhood adjacent to and extending South of Almeda was at one time German. The destruction of Vanport by flood brought African Americans. Low prices brought artists. Artists brought the mix we have today. A few of those artists hew to contemporary art vectors - idea driven, conceptual, minimal, illustration, video art, installation. Prime exponents of art with direction are two small spaces, Appendix Project Space and Little Field Gallery, ally garages with smart curation. They are cooperating now in their programming. See the shows on the alley between 26th and 27th, South of Alberta and between 28th and 29th North of Alberta. www.appendixspace.com 6-10ish Free

The False Front Studio also does great programming. It's 4518 NE 32nd 7-10 Free

And over on Killingsworth, the other Alberta, Melody Owen has curated a show around the artwork in her book The Disappearing Book. How appropriate as oil threatens Gulf estuaries. At the Container Corps containercorps.com 1322 N Killingsworth 7PM Free

April 28 Damali Ayo

Damali Ayo asks questions and pushes buttons with her identity-based art: installation, performance, writing and speaking. After Brown, she was here, now she operates from LA's larger platform. Her newest book is Obamistan! Land without Racism; she reads from it tonight. It's a serious work of humor, an au courant entrée into discussion of things not quite right in politics and society. Think Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, except better, in a more socially active way, real, did I say funny? She is also a gifted clothing designer with a progressive business model. Highly recommended, see her speak at Powell's Burnside www.powells.com 1005 W. Burnside 7:30PM Free

April 27, 28 Cinema of Leonard Retel Helmrich

Indonesian filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich creates documentaries of everyday life in Indonesia. For a time, everyday life included political crisis surrounding a long ruling undemocratic government. Those threads are woven in long takes gathered over years with the same families. Shot and shown on 35. Tuesday is The Eye of the Day, Wednesday, Shape of the Moon. The filmmaker will present his films in person. Films at the Art Museum Whitsell Auditorium, www.nwfilm.org-cinemaproject.org 1219 SW Park, 7PM $8

April 27 Up for Grabs

Dance, improv, non-traditional venues, collaboration, film, sound. Yes. This experimental event has all. It is a periodic evening curated by Danielle Ross, which tonight includes Lena Munday (sound), David Bryant (film), Tim Duroche and Reed Wallsmith (sound), Danielle Ross and Jean Paul Jenkins (sound/movement), Karl Lind (video), Nathan Warner (movement), and Future Death Toll (sound). All this at Valentines 232 SW Ankeny. 9PM Free

April 26 Tuvan Throat Singing

Chirgilchin comprises Aidysmaa Koshkendey, Igor Koshkendey, Mongun-ool Ondar and Aldar Tamdyn, Tuvan throat singers, performing for over 13 years. We have written about Tuvan throat singing.

Chirgilchin's musicians are recent arrivals, maintining close connections to their mountain homeland where music carries a long mystical connection to the landscape. They are master collaborators and bring fellow musicians to visit. Their speciality is subtle ensemble work and melodic instrumental accompaniment of ethereal vocalization across several Tuvan traditions. You can listen to some samples of their work on Myspace, and see some YouTubes on the main ensemble website. Their Song for Goats About People project is humorous and brilliant.

Tonight Portland throat singer Soriah joins Chirilchin, some of his teachers, on the bill.

An intimate performance at the Mississippi Studios. 3939 N Mississippi http://www.mississippistudios.com Early, doors 7PM, show 8. $15

April 24 Indian Musics

India has a centuries long tradition of classical music. Sometimes we have a chance to hear here a little, and to maybe get a subliminal dose of the spiritual underpinnings. Tonight is an opportunity. Kalakendra brings musicians from India and tonight they bring Pandit Joydeep Ghosh on surshringar, Pandit Ramesh Mishra on sarangi and Pandit Subhen Chatterjee on tabla. Pandit is an honorific bestowed on the most inspired senior performers of Indian music, many started in early childhood and studied with renowned masters. How interesting that this same evening, Bhangra DJ's Anjali and the Incredible Kid close a long running night at the Fez and Indian fusion house musicians play at Yoga Shala. Presented by Kalakendra www.kalakendra.org at the First Congregational Church, 1126 SW Park Avenue. 7:30PM $20, free for members.

April 23-25 Dancing Painting Talking Biennial

Kudos to 2010 Portland art biennial curator, Chris Moss, for including performance by artists. Tonight there are two. Tahni Holt, modern dancer, performance artist, installationalist, social practice artist and collaborator with sculptors is first. She presents Culture Machine tonight Friday, then Saturday and Sunday in the Disjecta Space.

The Oregon Painting Society has often accompanied installation with music. Tonight they do so at their sprawling installation in the Templeton Building. Joining them will be perfomalists Wooly Mammoth Comes To Dinner. One night, Friday.

Cris Moss the curator unwinds his thought process in the selections for this year's biennial. He has curated in Portland under the imprint Donut Shop since 2000. Moss talk Saturday afternoon.

Holt: Disjecta, 8371 N Interstate. Friday 6PM sharp, Saturday 5PM sharp, Sunday 4PM sharp, all Free

Painting Society Wooly Mammoth: Friday. Templeton Building, 5 SE 3rd. Doors 8PM, show 9 sharp Free

Moss Talk: Disjecta, 8371 N Interstate. Saturday 3PM Free

April 21 China

We are at a disadvantage at understanding China. But we try, and it's important. The strategy is best personal connections and learning as much as you can. It came to my attention, through a fellow Chinaphile, that Hu Yaobang has been rehabilitated. Epic. If you are in the learning as much as you can mindset, you might take advantage of the visit of American journalist-Chinaphile James Fallows, speaking tonight. At University of Oregon in Portland. calendar.uoregon.edu/showanitem.php?refid=9641 7PM Free

April 20-21 Independent Berlin Cinema of the '80's

The Cinema Project has been bringing international experimental, independent and art films from other countries for some time. Tonight they join the artistic interchange between Portland and Berlin that has been pursued by Gallery Homeland, the Elizabeth Leach Gallery, PICA and others. Berlin was divided, East and West, between 1961 and 1989. At that time, artists and citizens were subsidized to live there, it was an experimental cultural stew. There was actually a TAZ, where the Wall deviated to East territory, leaving an area adjacent to the West, and contiguous, though legally East, without law. The wall was torn down in 1989 through a sequence of uprisings in Eastern Europe into which Soviet President Gorbachev refused to intervene, perhaps disenchanted with the Soviet Afghan War of 9 years, ending in early 1989. Curated by Stefanie Schulte-Strathaus of Kino Arsenal, who will personally present the films and answer questions, the program includes artist films, many on Super8. Tuesday are shorts, Wednesday, a full length piece. Full details at cinemaproject.org At the Clinton Street Theater 6:45PM Usually $7, cash only.

April 20 Belly Dancing!

Where better than The Fez? Tonight is a bellydance showcase, Salon L'Orient, with performances by Rachel Brice, Severina, NagaSita, Ruby, Claudia, Kristnh, and the Apsara Dance Company. At the Fez Ballroom 9PM $13.

April 19: Mckibben and Miyoshi

Bill McKibben is a well known writer on the environment, first at the New Yorker, now in rural New England. His first book, The End of Nature, laid out for the first time, to a general audience, the impact of global warming, in 1989. His speciality is an exploration of the cultural evolution of our predicament and its solution. He discusses and signs his new book Eaarth tonight. It's a manifesto for individual scale behavior change to reverse global scale climate change. Sponsored by Powell's Books www.powells.com At the Baghdad Theater 7PM $24 includes the book



Akihiko Miyoshi is a photographer, sculptor and illustrator at the intersection of art and infographics. It works well for visual thinkers. He has used a computer background to create the work, including illustrating over photographs something resembling how electronic images are compressed. This material is a good match to Reed, where he teaches. Talk in the Shattuck Hall Annex out front, 1914 SW Park Avenue, at the corner of SW Broadway and Hall on the PSU campus. 7:30PM Free

April 18 Mothers' Art

Source of life. More than a few Portland artists are doing it. These are some artist-mothers, theme of this show. Included are Julianna Bright, Nan Curtis, Fernanda D’Agostino, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Linda Hutchins, Shelley Jordon and Dianne Kornberg. Their art stands on its own; their art is informed by their experience. At the Marylhurst Art Gym at Marylhurst University www.marylhurst.edu/theartgym/ Check the campus map to find it. 3PM-5 Free

April 18 Whither Museums?

Some people don't like the Art Museum, but we like the art museum. The mission of art museums is to collect, contextualize and conserve. But they run necessarily behind now. Every artist is building upon, even by rejecting, and rebelling against, past art. Many moldy masters were doing exactly that in their time. Actually the Portland Art Museum does a good job at explaining this in the Masonic Temple Building, where you can trace 130 years of art by walking from the lower floors to the top. Another lesson of museums is that artists have patrons, AKA customers, who needed a portrait, pre-photography, or creative works inspiring the crown, even in the age of ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome or China. Same for the pre-Columbian Gods or African spirits, they needed art.

Today's lecture explores the role of museums, previously private or even imperial collections, now reinventing themselves. What is their place when people are interconnected in milliseconds to one another, to share and evolve culture? Personally I believe that there is a value to walking around art in real life. But we now have the screen (with pretty poor color and dynamic range capability, monoscopic, so far), connected to the world Internet of culture today.

Today's speaker, Iwona Blazwick, director of the London Whitechapel Art Gallery knows it. She has made a lively place of museum. Check the blurb.

Hear it at the Portland Art Museum www.pam.org 1219 SW Park 2PM $12, $5 members.

April 17,25 Judd Related

Noted minimalist sculptor, Donald Judd, is dead. But in his career he firmly established the idea that artists can hire fabricators to make work. It's now commonplace, even in painting. He established the iconoclastic, now iconic, Judd center in Marfa, Texas. Marfa is home to artist retreats, from which many Portland artists have benefited.

Portland artist, curator, writer, Jeff Jahn has organized a conference on Judd in Portland. There are a series of talks and a distinguished panel at the UofO on April 25. The April 25, day long conference, features distinguished architect Arata Isozaki; noted curator, writer and academic Robert Storr; first person fabricator of Judd's work, now restorator, Peter Ballantine; and chief curator at the Portland Art Museum, Bruce Guenther. It's hosted and cosponsored by the University of Oregon, the intent is to lay down original material for history.

April 17, a panel of Portland artists bring home Judd in a discussion of the intersection of Judd's ideas and their own work. Included are Storm Tharp, Laura Fritz, Victor Maldonado, Arcy Douglass and Anna Gray & Ryan Wilson Paulsen and Jeff Jahn.

April 17 Talk at PNCA www.pnca.edu, Room 201,
1241 NW Johnson. 3PM Free

April 25 Conference at University of Oregon Portland White Stag. center.uoregon.edu/conferences/WSB/judd/registration 70 NW Couch. 9AM-5PM Includes lunch $85/35 students

April 17 Art Bar Concept

Local entrepreneur Ashley Bernatchez is opening Portland's first bar dedicated to art making. Many locations have been great exhibition venues for visual artists. Portland's Blue Gallery, its motto, "Art Music Beer" operated over 20 years ago. Today most self respecting bars have active art display programs, some consistently curated, such as Valentines, The Goodfoot, Aalto, Press Club and The Know. There are several regular figure drawing events at bars and sometimes design, animation, graffiti and live painting.

The Canvas Art Bar sells art materials, use there or take home, hosts weekly figure drawing and music. It's a small art store in a bar, an intriguing concept which will establish its own ecosystem, yet unknown. In the inner industrial NW, by the PNCA MFA studios. For details www.thecanvaspdx.com. At 1800 NW Upshur.

April 16 Artists Speak Site Specificity and the Biennial

The opportunity to create room filling installations is precious and rare, unless you are the Dia Foundation which has maintained an indoor artwork for 32 years. Mostly they are short lived architectures of creativity and stunning impracticality. The Portland Biennial has provided that opportunity and a few of the artists speak about their large scale works. Artists Damien Gilley, Jenene Nagy and the Oregon Painting Society, who each have large works in the Templeton Building, speak about it on site. Part of portland2010.disjecta.org. In the Templeton Building, 230 East Burnside, enter on SE 3rd, by the skate park. 7PM Free

April 15 Art Spark Pecha Cucha

Art Spark is a monthly networking event for arts. That includes artists, arts administrators and supporter-collectors. It rotates locations, tonight in the Olympic Mills Commerce Center, progeny of arts and real estate development entrepreneur Brad Malsin operating as Beam Development. The building is programmed many months with art by local outsiders Chris Haberman and John Graeter operating under the moniker Portland City Art. Tonight's Art Spark event is there. Musicians Why We Must Be Careful perform at 6:15PM. Corner SE Stark and 2nd. 5PM-7 Free



Afrter Pecha Cucha Portland #7 takes place nearby at Sandbox Studios. Pecha Cucha is an international series of short talks on design and creativity. ADD can't beat presentations of 20 slides of 20 seconds each. You will not be bored. At Sandbox Studios 420 NE 9th 8:20PM Free (donations accepted)

April 13-14 MiniGolf as Art

The annual mini golf invitational invites visual artists and other creatives to make playable mini golf holes. This year designers W+K 12 www.wk12.com, Tripper Dungan numberstar.com, Danielle Ross in collaboration with the performers myspace.com/littlefrictiondance, Scott Mazariegos www.scottmazariegos.com, John Larsen www.johnlarsen.net and Vicki Lynn Wilson www.vickilynnwilson.net, Ryan Lingard and James Austin www.rlingard.com, Amber Moss-Jensen, Nate Leigh, Carl Jansen and Jesse Pardun, Adam Keller www.adamkellerdesign.com, Pony Club Gallery www.ponyclubgallery.com, Curtis Knapp www.marriagerecs.com, Jason Kentta home.comcast.net/~gerencer/kentta and David Bertman davidbertmandesigns.com, Jack Bouba, Stacey Mairs, Chris Mulliken and finally Second Story www.secondstory.com have created a masters course in the confines of Holocene. Live music and DJ's perform each evening for your golfing pleasure. At Holocene 1001 SE Morrison 5PM to late. $5 before 7, $8 after.

April 12 Streetcars and Idea Sculpture

Chandra Brown, President of Oregon Ironworks' United Streetcar speaks on the return of streetcars, wave energy and nuclear energy. All are industrial projects afoot in Oregon, and fabricated right here. It is part of the Bright Lights series sponsored by the local architecture magazine Portland Spaces and the City Club, a thoughtful public interest group. At Jimmy Mak's, 221 NW 10th. Doors 5:30PM, discussion 6. Free



Stephanie Syjuco creates sculpture and installation and teaches at Cal Arts and Berkeley. She uses low cost materials, destined for trash, or trash itself, to create idea driven work around modern economies of consumption and value. Talk in the Shattuck Hall Annex out front, 1914 SW Park Avenue, at the corner of SW Broadway and Hall on the PSU campus. 7:30PM Free

April 10 Too Much to Do

The Art Museum has mounted a major show, Disquieted, drawing some accomplished artists from major collections, little seen here otherwise. The poster child is a very large sculpture by Spanish sculptor Jaume Plensa, In the Midst of Dreams. Three large heads, illuminated within and seemingly asleep, face one another across a sea of dusty ancient softball-sized travertine marble stones. Jaume started with real models, then merged male and female, of multiple nationality into composite faces of ambiguous identity. He speaks on his work at the Portland Art Museum auditorium www.pam.org 1219 SW Park 2PM $5 members, $12 otherwise


As part of the Portland art biennial 2010, artist, dancer and choreographer Tahni Holt is preparing a performance, Culture Machine. The performance itself is April 23,24,25; today (and next Saturday) she opens the rehersal for you to see the process. Open rehearsal at Disjecta www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate 1:30PM-4:30 Free


Of course the Rollerderby continues tonight. BodyVox continues their run.


Fashion is a battle for aesthetic supremacy, skirmishes are hidden in plain sight. It's evolutionary biology at work. Tonight the competition is made explicit. The evening, Street Flower, combines a fashion show by RoyalFits, Dirtline, gG designs, Vibration Clothing and Sirus C with a B-Girl dance battle and lady hip hop performances by Notes from the Underground and Mirrorkats. At Salmon Street Studios 109 SE Salmon 6PM-11


Belly Dancing is evolutionary biology at play too. Hidden behind the costumes producing their own music is the practical benefit of toning the abdominals. Who can deny it's fun to watch? This evening local belly dance-inspired ensemble Revel Me performs. Revel Me comprises Danielle Smith and Bevin Victoria accompanied by musicians Negara and the Underscore Orkestra. Expect a mix of Balkan, Klezmer, Gypsy Jazz Flamenco, Tango, North African & Swing for movement and music. Belly dance ensemble Znama also performs. At The Lotus Seed 6 NE Tillamook St. 7PM


Portland has a small concentration of flamenco and they are passionate. Tonight they gather for a performance of flamenco dance, guitar and voice. Mitsue "La Pura" Johnson dances, accompanied by guitarist Mark Ferguson and Jason Martinez on cajon. They are joined by singer Vicente Griego. At the Aladdin Theater www.aladdin-theater.com 3017 SE Milwaukie Doors 7PM, Show 8 $15/20

April 9 The Deep Bench of Reed's Art Collection

Most arts institutions which collect have the majority of their collections in storage or otherwise out of public view. This show from the Reed College collection includes work by Daniel Spoerri, Lynda Benglis, Robert Rauschenberg, Mary Bauermeister, Sol LeWitt and Andy Warhol. Some of the Worhols are Polaroids, an archaic instant film chemistry, now back in manufacture at The Impossible Project. The show, titled Scarecrow, is themed on the body performance. Opening reception at Reed's Cooley Gallery www.reed.edu/gallery, in the library building, 3203 SE Woodstock. 6PM Free

April 5 Agitprop Sculptor Sam Durant Speaks

Sam Durant is a sculptor and installationist working on political themes. Durant speaks as part of the Monday night lecture series. Talk in the Shattuck Hall Annex out front, 1914 SW Park Avenue, at the corner of SW Broadway and Hall on the PSU campus. 7:30PM Free

April 2 Eastside Art Openings

Worksound hosts Drawing the Slight Uneasy, a drawing show curated by MK Guth. It includes NY artists Bill Adams, Tania Cross, Frank Parga and Nicole Eriko Smith showing with Portland artists Nicolaii Dornstauder, Patrick Kelly, Michael Lee and Lynn Yarn. Music by Soft Paws and DJ Vision Quest. At Worksound www.worksoundpdx.com 820 SE Alder 6PM-10


Gallery Homeland opens 100% Organic, work by Oregon landscape artists Michael Brophy, Brian Borrello, Grant Hottle and Joseph Spangler. At Gallery Homeland www.galleryhomeland.org 2505 SE 11th x Division 6PM-9


In the 811 Block

Nationale hosts a group photo show including Jake Arcularius, Jacques Barruel, Olivia Bolles, Mimi Dutra, Ty Ennis, Nialls Fallon, Liz Haley, William Skip Haswell, Tamar Monhait, Zachary Reno, Norm Sajovie, Anna Shelton, John Voves and Kersti Werdal. Opening at NATIONALE nationaleportland.blogspot.com


Grass Hut has a large group show Balls Out 2, also available on their web shop. At Grass Hut www.grasshutcorp.com 811 E Burnside


Redux has an embroidery show One Stitch Forward, One Stitch Back, contemporary embroidery incorporating reused material. Artists include Julie Jackson, Emily Rose Baier, Berkley Illustration, Diem Chau, Pamela Davis, Jessica Friday, Kate Greiner, Rachel Hunnicutt, Iron Pony, Tracy Jager, Emily Katz, Carla Madrigal, Andrea Majot, Johnny Murder, Beth Murphy, Penny Nickels, Lucy Peterson, Cathy Pitters, Kristen Rask, Kristen Rupp, T.J. Sabatini, Charlotte Schwennsen and Cindy Steiler. At Redux www.reduxpdx.com


Tolivar is a new shop of arts, crafts and clothing, their opening is tonight in Emily Katz's old space in back. See tolivarportland.com

All at 811 East Burnside in the front and back of the building



Up the street there are shows at the Report Lounge and Portland artist Kendra Binney has a show at Lille Boutique. Black Wagon, Compound and Lille are all great showplaces for Kendra's work. See it. 1007 E Burnside



Across the street at 6th and Burnside, SE, bSIDE6, the modern building, hosts a reception sponsored by the Lompoc Brewery of an interactive video installation by David Neevel, A 4-dimensional Sidewalk. The artist's website is unprofessional and irritating, and I'm sure there are better examples of this type work even, in Portland, by the likes of the Video Gentlemen. But there you have it. At bSIDE6, month of April, evenings, 7PM on. Reception 6PM-10. Free



New American Art Union opens another gallery as working studio experience with painter Gabriel Liston, vacating his charming home studio to use the gallery to make new work. At New American Art Union www.newamericanartunion.com 922 SE Ankeny



The Inland Empire is the vast California San Bernardino basin. Its boom and bust cycles have formed a mid-century onward history of the impact of man on land. It's not always beautiful, decay of land reclaiming structure is there too. This is a show of that by photographer Tyler Kohlhoff and includes collaborations with Portland artist Justin Gorman Nemo Design www.studionemo.com 1875 SE Belmont 6PM-10



Pushdot has Portland illustrator Jill Bliss. At Pushdot Studio www.pushdotstudio.com 1021 SE Caruthers



Mar Gorman is a longtime folk art-influenced artist. She shows new work tonight
at 23Sandy www.23sandy.com 623 NE 23 at Sandy 5PM-8

April 1 Westside Art Openings

For many many months, some of the most solid work on first Thursdays has been seen at the Everett Lofts and associated spaces in the block bounded by NW Flanders, Broadway, Everett and 6th. I'm a proponent of artmaking as a career beyond lifestyle. You will find a mix here, and that's great.



James Lavador is a gifted landscape painter. His takes on Eastern Oregon's vistas are a great example that landscape painting, done with spirit and narrative, are not dead. At PDX Contemporary Gallery www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 925 NW Flanders



PNCA has a juried BFA show, along with a show spread across PSU's Littman and PNCA's 214 gallery of PSU and PNCA students, shosen by professors of each. At PNCA www.pnca.edu 1241 NW Johnson



Compound Gallery has invited a range of artists they are known for to create tryptics, three panel works. Artists include Dave Macdowell, Brian Elliot, Jason Graham, Keegan Onefoot, Jen Lobo, Martin Ontiveros, Rob Pellicer, J Shea, Geneva Smith, Taka Sudo and Brett Superstar. At Compound Gallery www.compoundgallery.com 107 NW 5th