Signal Fire Arts creates artist residencies in the quiet wilds, camping style. Tonight is a show of all the 2010 residents, Roads Make Nice Meadows. The artists are visual and performers, and the opening includes both. The artists are Katherine Ball, Portland visual artist, curator & social practitioner; Ellie Irons, New York, visual artist; Robyn Moore, Mississippi, visual artist; Sarah Meadows, Portland visual artist; Julie Perini, Portland filmmaker; Scott Schuldt, Seattle visual artist and Portland musicians Tara Jane Oneil and Laura Gibson. At PNCA's Manuel Izquierdo Gallery, NW 13th between Johnson and Kearny. 6PM-9 Free
Longtime Portland DIY artist filmmaker Vanessa Renwick shows as easy as falling off a log at PDX Across the Hall. While Bruce Conkle has his NW eco-baroque style, Renwick has sampled NW pathos. At Across the Hall Gallery. Recommended.
And across the hall from Across the Hall is PNCA department head Arnold Kemp. Since he has a big influence on the results of the MFA program, it might be interesting to understand his own artmaking. At PDX Contemporary Art www.pdxcontemporaryart.com map 925 NW Flanders early close 8PM
It is always a pleasure to see the work together of Ellen George and Jerry Mayer. Drawing Room, at the Nine Gallery, is a pattern of quiet shadows cast by tiny wires. Maybe it's a metaphor for the Interwebs, though that is unlikely their intention. Inside Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org map 122 NW 8th
It's great to see the exchange of Korean (and Chinese, for that matter) art with Portland. An example is Gunwoo Kim from the University of Ulsan, Korea. Reception tonight at PSU's MK Gallery Room 207, 2000 SW 5 Ave. 5PM-7
Sometimes a Great Notion is a famous novel set in Oregon's woods and the name of a loosely curated art show opening this evening. Artists include Anna Magruder, Seann McKeel, Joy Leising & Molly McDavitt, Jennifer Finn, Emily Katz, Robyn Williams, Carrie Hardison, Nicole Linde, Jess Bronk, Sarah Morrigan, Elissa Tree, April Coppini, Luna Littleleaf, Karen Joy Campbell, Beth Ann Short, Jessica M. Breedlove, kerosene rose, Seaworthy PDX, S.I.D Need, Katie Veeninga, Aimee Fahey, Shawn Demarest, December Carson, Sienna Morris, Linda Rand, Suzy Kitman, Jeanne Levasseur, Anne Mavor, Noelle Ford, Jenny Siegel and Beth Olson. Music by DJ Anjali. At Albina Press SE, 5012 SE Hawthorne Blvd 7PM-10 Free
Portland New Yorker Malia Jensen's work is always interesting to see as her aesthetic influences are now big city, which is good. It's great she has continued her aesthetic evolution beyond the giant beaver sculpture at the ad agency, but we like that too. At Elizabeth Leach Gallery www.elizabethleach.com map 417 NW 9th
Portland photographer Olivia Bolles does a good job with dramatic high contrast color photos and portraits. Pretty accomplished work for age 16, including magazine credits. Good work! At Stumptown www.stumptowncoffee.com 128 SW 3rd
We think Ansel Adams is cool. Though there are many photographers who moved the field more, Adams is famous for his control of light and contrast in chemical photography - a perfector of "the zone system". His Western photographs were a romantic and dramatic call for conservation of Western wilderness as much as Carleton Watkins, Timothy O'Sullivan, William Henry Jackson and their contemporaries. At Charles Hartman Fine Art www.hartmanfineart.net 134 NW 8th
And as always, easier to just see than write about, don't forget the Everett Station Lofts, NW Broadway and Everett.
