April 29 Social Practice on Big Things

The Social Practice art movers at PSU have organized an art sale benefit in response to the Japan earthquake and tsunami. Portland and Portland State University have a long relationship with Japan. Tonight they hold the benefit art sale with works from the PSU community, many of whose artists are known nationally. The proceeds will travel unimpeded through Mercy Corps to their Japan partner, unlike other aid groups which collect money when disaster strikes and then place it in their own general fund. The show is Friday and Saturday. The auction is Friday evening. The work wil remain on display Saturday. At PSU Autzen Gallery, 2nd floor, Neuberger Hall. View 11AM-10PM Friday and 11Am-6PM Saturday. Reception begins 5PM Friday. Auction ends 8:30PM Friday. Free, donations accepted.

April 28 Together on Alberta

In Winter, the last Thursday madness hibernates. The fire performers, clowns, tall bikers, DJ's, bands, strollers and dogs recharge their energies. Hopefully a way to continue this event that benefits bars, restaurants, residential property values and landlords can be found. Meanwhile, Together Gallery, Ampersand and Monograph Bookwerks show year round out of the rain. Many other indoor spaces have art too. Together has How Did I Get Here by Scuba from San Francisco and OWL: Oregon Wave Logger by Scrappers Morrison. Live music by Tears Club at 9. At Together Gallery www.togethergallery.com 2916 NE Alberta, Ste A Map 6PM-11 Free

April 25 Carson Ellis at PSU

Local favorite illustrator Carson Ellis speaks tonight. She has shown all over Portland and has illustrated books mixing a precise and whimsical style which is instantly recognizable. Talk Monday in the Shattuck Hall Annex, 1914 SW Park Avenue, at the corner of SW Broadway and Hall on the PSU campus. 7:30PM Free

April 23 Appendix Space Benefit Event

The Appendix Project Space, one of Portland's most perfectly adapted art spaces, in that it offers engaging quality work, performance, participation on the slimmest of budgets, hosts a show, event, benefit this evening. Some outstanding artists offer their work for sale and in a raffle: Brennan Conaway, Carlos Gonzalez, Charissa Niles, Container Corps, Dave Griess, Edward Sharp, Gary Wiseman, Laura Hughes, Michael Reinsch, Midori Hirose, Molly Cooney-Mesker, Nathan Dinihanian, Oregon Painting Society, PISS, Sean Patrick Carney, Terence Duvall and Zach Rose. At Appendix Project Space. On the alley between 26th and 27th, South of Alberta. Wear shoes you can get muddy. www.appendixspace.com Map 6PM Free

April 22-23 Water In The Desert Under the Influence

Local creative forces host two evenings of local and out of town performers. Details at www.witdpresents.org 55 NE Farragut St. #9 (around in back)

April 17 Street Food as Street

In the Arab world, "the street" is an important, in-person place, for discussion and debate about politics. Jon Rubin is a social practice artist known for his Conflict Kitchen project, serving street food from a rotating cast of countries in which the government has a conflict. Rubin distributes the food in wrappers providing his interpretation of what in going on in country, developed by interviews with people in country and from there, but living here. The artist also organizes events around the food stand that operates 7 days a week for lunch in Pittsburgh, forming an in person place for discussion, like "the street". His Waffle Shop is similar, adding webcasts, emanating from the eatery. He has created dozens of works including documenting the fan culture of a Pittsburgh football team, a project that could easily fit with an exploration of Portland's Timbers Army. Talk Monday in the Shattuck Hall Annex, 1914 SW Park Avenue, at the corner of SW Broadway and Hall on the PSU campus. 7:30PM Free

April 16 The Mall and Vancouver

The mall galleries have another event tonight, a great opportunity to see what has changed since the last time you were there. At the Pioneer Place Mall, bounded by SW Morrison, Yamhill, 5th and 6th. Third floor. 6PM-9 Free


Some denigrate suburbs. But in this case, Vancouver rocks and Vancouver is the next St Johns! Tonight Vancouver Archer Gallery shows Thomas Allen, Harrison Higgs, Andrew O’Brien, Devon Oder and Robert Smith. It's a landscape gallery in their expansive space. Devon Oder is known for her alt-landscapes at Fourteen30. See it at Clark College Archer Gallery www.clark.edu/archergallery 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver, WA 6PM-8 Free

April 15 Belgium Boat

Worksound has had consistently occasional international artists. Tonight they open a show of Belgian artists curated by Vanessa Van Obberghen. At Worksound www.worksoundpdx.com 820 SE Alder Map 6PM-9 Free



Meanwhile up North, the Labrador Project has a show by Lewis Feuer, one of the artists that make the boat their studio. At 12128 Labrador Project www.labradorproject.com It's moored by Fred's Marina 12900 NW Marina Way, Portland. Easily the largest boat at the moorage, you cannot miss it. More detailed directions, don't get lost, on the website. 7PM-10 Free

April 14 Pander Helm

Local illustrator filmmakers Jacob and Arnold Pander show collaborative work at Local 35. The brothers were early and influential comic artists with an impact on Portland-Oregon City developing into today's comic illustration center, along with Dark Horse, Reading Frenzy and the IPRC. At Local 35 local35.blogspot.com 3556 SE Hawthorne Blvd 6PM Free



The Portland Art Museum artist talks continue with local creative Jelly Helm. That adman - Mad Man is responsible for the Timbers soccer team axe campaign! Helm, in this monthly event, has chosen a work from the collection, and discusses with the audience how it inspires them. At the Portland Art Museum www.pam.org 1219 SW Park 6PM-8 $5 members, otherwise regular admission $12 so tour the Museum before

April 13 Curator Talks at Gallery

The Portland Art Museum photography curator, Dr. Julia Dolan, responsible for a collection ranging from the 19th Century to today, gives a talk at the Charles Hartman Gallery, a photo gallery spanning the same period, about collecting photographs. At Charles Hartman Fine Art www.hartmanfineart.net 134 NW 8th 7PM-8 Free

April 9 Pecha Kucha Foundation Ya

Pecha Cucha PDX #9 is themed on illumination. Pecha Cucha is a night of presentations of 20 slides, 20 seconds each slide, for a total of less than 7 minutes per presentation. While TED is world changing focused and Ignite is humorous, Pecha Kucha is primarily focused on design, planning and architecture. Speakers tonight are Jacob Brostoff, city planner / más transit; Brian Brush & Yong Ju Lee, architect, designer / SoftRigid; Osvaldo 'Ozzie' Gonzalez, board of directors / Miracle Theatre Group; Mykle Hansen , writer, inventor / Mykle Systems Labs; Laura Hughes, visual artist / Laura Hughes Studio; Ryan Lingard, designer / ryan lingard design, Kelley Roy & Eric Black, directors / ADX Portland; Susanne Seitinger, researcher / MIT Media Lab / Fluid Interfaces Group. The event is free, but they will be collecting funds for the Architecture for Humanities Japan project which is directed by Japanese on the ground. It's fitting because Pecha Kucha began in Japan. There will also be Pecha Kucha webcasts world wide April 16 focused on Japan. At the Shattuck Hall Annex, 1914 SW Park Avenue, at the corner of SW Broadway and Hall on the PSU campus. 7:30PM doors, 8:20 talks Free



The Foundation returns to homeboy Reed in the old union, a cross between a gym, a chapel and a ski chalet. It's one of Portland's most consistently presented b-boy/b-girl competitions and always fun. It's 5on5 for $500. Organized by ThomasOragami. DJ is ComputerFam. Judges are Alex - Moon Patrol (Portland, OR), Jbugz - Soul Felons (Vancouver, B.C), Jermz - Dance Broomz (Tacoma, WA) and Tim Chips - Fraggle Rock (Seattle, WA). Out of town crews representing are Suicide Kingz (Los Angeles, CA, Massive Monkees (Seattle, WA), Dance Broomz (Tacoma, WA), Outcrowd (Phoenix, AZ), Flex flave (Sacramento, CA), Filthee Feet (Vancouver B.C) and Jungle Brothers (Houston, TX).

The battle goes down beginning at 2PM with "Donald Trump your opponent" eliminations of P-town crews down to 8. Each of the 8 then choose which of the out of town guest crews they want to battle in the first evening round.

The Foundation in the old union at Reed College. Doors 6PM $10 advance/15 door


Container Corps is one of Portland's vibrant micropublishers. One of their projects is YA, a journal of arts writing. YA5 breaks tonight at Container Corps world headquarters. It has a superstar edit team: David Knowles - Publication Studio, Sam Korman - Car Hole Gallery, Gary Robbins - Container Corps. This edition is art themed; the publication rotates to music, food, design and film in cycles.

The first art issue includes: HG Masters on Public Art in Tel Aviv, Larry Rinder on The Best Museum Imaginable, Sanela Jahic on “Fire Painting”, Brad Troemel on Street Skateboarding, Derek Franklin on Satire and Irony plus Frederick Deknatel on Iraqi Artists in Exile.

At Container Corps www.containercorps.com 1322 N Killingsworth 6PM-9 Free

April 7 Westside Art Openings

Elizabeth Leach gallery has Upstate, mixed media sculpture by Sean Healey. The show is themed on the loss of American manufacturing in his home town. There are also snapshots by poet Alan Ginsberg and friends, of Alan Ginsberg and friends. At Elizabeth Leach Gallery www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th Map



Holly Andres has a new body of dramatic domestic photography. Andres is the best in the Northwest at constructing these situations and is a national figure to watch. At Charles Hartman Fine Art www.hartmanfineart.net 134 NW 8th



Blair Saxon-Hill, known for painting and prints, has Tonal Sequence, collage, at the new Fourteen30 itinerant space. It's really quite elegant work. The raw material is printed matter, some samples containing recognizable photographic content, but what makes the work, work, are the other elements that are halftone dot printed elements which compose a tone and space poem. Outstanding. Temporary quality art spaces hosted by developers is a great trend we woud like to see more of in Portland, and this building is one of the more design-oriented recent efforts. At Fourteen30 Gallery www.fourteen30.com 937 NW Glisan 6PM-8



Blue Sky has landscape and skyscape photographers. Michael Light makes aerial photographs of the built landscape in the West. This is the more interesting work for me, high resolution huge contrast-y prints, another look at our impact on the landscape. Mitch Dobrowner makes photographs of sky storms from the ground. www.blueskygallery.org map 122 NW 8th



The UO White Box Gallery and video space within Grey Box have great shows this month. Hung Keung has an elegant video installation that is best experienced with another person or a group - ask how it works to make it yours. In the main space are outsider style portraits with a twist - their stories. The artist Daniel Heyman is also showing at Linfield College. At White Box in the White Stag Block 24 NW First. Opening reception 6PM-8 Free



Augen has a selection of gallery artists Grace Weston and David Leventhal, working in miniatures, and Phil Bard classical monochrome landscape maker, all working in photography. At Augen Gallery www.augengallery.com 716 NW Davis



Froelick has photographers Susan Seubert showing < r e s t r a i n t >, Ron van Dongen showing Proof, and Theresa Wingert showing Cinema Deconstructed. At www.froelickgallery.com 714 NW Davis



The Everett Lofts at the corner of NW Everett and Broadway are recommended, easier to see them all than to write about one.



Reading Frenzy has This Garden of Eden, primitive style figuartive work by musician Rachel Blumberg. At Reading Frenzy www.readingfrenzy.com 921 SW Oak



The Seasons Reverse: Leaps of Time and Distance is by music photographer and mail artist Jaclyn Campanaro. At Valentines valentineslifeblood.blogspot.com 232 SW Ankeny Art 9PM, Free



This month Photolucida touches down in Portland, so just about every gallery in the city has photo shows. Those that aren't are showing illustration-comic art connected to the Stumptown Comics show this month.

April 5 Geoloqi Curiosity

The Curiosity Club, with industrial design roots in the physically made world, hosts virtual maker-inventors Aaron Parecki and Amber Case of Geoloqi for a talk to fellow maker - designers this evening. Their invention is a secure geolocation platform for mobile. You can tune into the free live webcast off the Core77 site or visit in person at Hand Eye Supply www.handeyesupply.com/pages/curiosity-club 23 NW 4th 6PM Free

April 4 Jon Raymond Writer

Jon Raymond, a writer that operates in the art world speaks. He cofounded Plazm and has written art narratives and works that have become film. Talk Monday in the Shattuck Hall Annex, 1914 SW Park Avenue, at the corner of SW Broadway and Hall on the PSU campus. 7:30PM Free

April 3 Dance Art

Modern dance is has a small audience, though participatory and ritual dance is as old as we are human. Perhaps, like other contemporary art, it is voided by a potential audience that believes they cannot "get it". In actuality, it is as fascinating as the performance of Olympic athletes. It can be experienced by pure intuition - a resonance of subconscious points, a personal narrative can be impressed upon it, the dynamics between performers can be the focus, or the viewer can put themselves inside the movement.

Modern dance also incorporates its own tragedy. While some discover performative dance through ballet from young childhood, others discover it through gymnastics or come to it later, in college. Their peak physical capability is in late teen years to early 20's, like an athlete, from whence it declines. But their expressive emotional capability is meanwhile on the rise, for a lifetime. Where do those petterns intersect?

Today a show opens at a visual art space which reprises dance video over almost 40 years in Portland. It's accompanied by performances by performers active throughout that period. The show continues to mid-May. This afternoon, Linda K. Johnson, Linda Austin and Tahni Holt, representing the 1990s, the 1980's to now and the millennium to now perform at 3:15PM, 4 and 4:45, all respectively. More performances follow April 30 and May 14, with a discussion April 28.

At the Marylhurst Art Gym at the Marylhurst University www.marylhurst.edu/theartgym/ Map 3PM-6 Free

April 2 Disjecta False Front Fan Death

Disjecta has a colorful history of building occupations. They were in a revival church, with a bathtib in the main room for baptisms, in the Frigidaire Building rented from an LA-based slumlord and now are in a former bowling alley. Tonight's show, Score, by Avantika Bawa, reprises the bowling alley history of the building. At Disjecta www.disjecta.org 8371 N Interstate 6PM-10 Free



False Front Studio opens Emily Nachison's Hylozoic. It's and installation inspired by her mythical landscapes. You can see from her website some of the epic installations she has made. Recommended. At False Front Studio www.falsefrontstudio.com 4518 NE 32nd Map 7PM-10 Free



Appendix is well known for installation and performance. They reduce their schedule in rainy season. But rain not withstanding, tonight they have Fan Death by Gary Robbins. At Appendix Project Space. On the alley between 26th and 27th, South of Alberta. www.appendixspace.com Map 6-9ish Free

April 1 Eastside Art Openings +

At 811 Central

Golden Rule has a show publicized by puzzling interchanges with the artist. We love meta, so stop by to see the outcome. Trust the Golden Rule. At Golden Rule Gallery www.goldenruleportland.com 811 E Burnside, Suite 122 in the back


Black Box Gallery opens tonight upstairs. Savvy-brainy curator Todd Johnson has made it. The first show is an open call. blackboxgallery.com Suite 212 upstairs


Redux has Brent Superstar. I mean how can you argue with a superstar? The artist is well known in Portland for works on Alberta and in the City Art network. You can't go wrong with this artist who has newly undertaken a more caricature style. At Redux www.reduxpdx.com 811 E Burnside Free


Nationale has Portland painter Jaik Faulk. At Nationale thenewnationale.com 811 E Burnside Map

All 811 East Burnside


Up the street Lille Boutique has Valerie Joan Taylor. The boutique's merchandise is sweet and romantic. But their art shows are unafraid at venturing into more complex elements of the female psyche. This show is more medium light side. At Lille Boutique www.lilleboutique.com 1007 E Burnside



Newspace has a show connected to the Photolucida curatorial process. That has resulted in an international show by emerging photographers Thomas Alleman, Justyna Badach, Claire Beckett, Kendrick Brinson, Christopher Capozziello, Tom Chambers, Christopher Churchill, Sam Comen, Kirk Crippens, Mitch Dobrowner, Natan Dvir, Daniela Edburg, Matt Eich, Ethan Eisenberg, Dima Gavrysh, Kevin German, Elin Hoyland, Jessica Hines, Joseph O. Holmes, Norihisa Hosaka, Mary Shannon Johnstone, Loli Kantor, Dianne Kornberg, Alejandra Laviada, Stephen Mallon, Rania Matar, Annie Marie Musselman, Louie Palu, Rachel Phillips, Benjamin Rasmussen, Christopher Rauschenberg, Frank Relle, Justine Reyes, Jeff Rich, Lynn Saville, Traer Scott, Manjari Sharma, Jeff Sheng, Tim Simmons, Pavel Maria Smejkal, Yisook Sohn, S. Gayle Stevens, Jamey Stillings, Amy Thompson Avishai, Daniel Traub, Kevin Van Aelst, Alvaro Villela, and Corinne Vionnet. Newspace is a great proponent of up to date photography. At Newspace Photo www.newspacephoto.org 1632 SE 10th



Photography is magic. Today it is electromagic. But yesterday it was chemomagic. That is the essence of this show of "alternative" photographic printing processes. Well worth seeing. At 23Sandy www.23sandy.com 623 NE 23 at Sandy 5PM-8 Free



We enter the emergence of the new generation of Portland-schooled artists. Keep an eye here for shows by recent graduates, though we guarantee we don't cover everything. PSU and PNCA have done well integrating themselves with art making machinery publicity vehicles. Lewis and Clark is on the upswing too, curating its own at the Car Hole Gallery and Labrador. The newest class opens shows this evening in the L&C main gallery, usually host to prestigious international artists. At Lewis and Clark College www.lclark.edu/hoffman_gallery Opening 5PM-8 Free