October 31 Scottish Intervention and Stop Action Alice

Peter McCaughey is a social practice artist in Glasgow, organizing teams to make interdisciplinary work on site-specific themes. His current interest is the intersection of memory and landscape, including the urban landscape. For example, he worked with the community to design a park, and much of the sculpture was fabricated by the community members. McCaughey presents his work by teleconference tonight as part of the PSU MFA Lecture Series pdx.edu/art/mfa-lecture-series. In the Shattuck Hall Annex, 1914 SW Park Avenue, at the corner of SW Broadway and Hall on the PSU campus. 7:30PM Free



Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a rich source for surreal filmmaking. One of the best examples is Czech filmmaker Jan Švankmajer's Alice. It is his first feature length film, made in 1988. Švankmajer is famous for his stop action animations combined with live actors, as is the case in this Alice. The film is presented as part of the Fin de Cinema series in which local musicians provide the sound track. Tonight that is Wampire, Litanic Mask and Bruxa. Dancing later. At Holocene. 1001 SE Morrison Film 9PM sharp $5

October 30 Brunch #19

The Research Club is an informal gathering of artists and creative people over a pot luck brunch. This month the presenters are Ciara Carruthers, Mykle Hansen, Robby Kraft and Clare Kaluzynski, and Mathew Lippincott and Molly Danielsson. Bring some vegetarian or vegan-friendly food, a plate, cup and utensils, and yourself. A project of Research Club at Gallery Homeland www.galleryhomeland.org 2505 SE 11th x Division Noon-3ish Free

October 29 Deconstructionist Sculpture as a Book

Publication Studio launches a book about sculptor Elspeth Pratt, who has shown at Reed. She is known for deconstructionist-influenced sculpture beginning in the 1980's. Visual deconstructionism was the followon to visual postmodernism, which included the tactic of sampling. Deconstruction returned to minimalism, but with a more theoretical and "outside the box" aesthetic. Book launch at Publication Studio www.publicationstudio.biz 717 SW Ankeny 7PM Free

October 27 Alberta Commentary Photographies+

Swimming is a show of installation, photography and booklets by Baltimore artist Geoffrey KixMiller. KixMiller has been artist in residence at Appendix for the last two weeks and this is the result. At Appendix Project Space www.appendixspace.com On the alley between 26th and 27th, South of Alberta. Map 7-10ish Free



Last Thursday continues its only slightly more organized mayhem. On NE Alberta from about 13th to about 30th. www.lastthursdayonalberta.com 5PM-10ish. Free



Goodfoot has I Am, Therefor I Think 5, social commentary themed work by 75 artists, the full list is on the website. It's a huge range of work and will be visually overwhelming. Perfect! www.thegoodfoot.com/gallery 2845 SE Stark Map Starts 5PM



Erik Almas is a commercial photographer, not usually our focus here. But he is a master at seamlessly blending multiple exposures, which is a technique used by one of our favorite photographers, Gregory Crewdson. The resulting image looks as it it was made with a single exposure. Almas gives a talk on his technique this evening. Sponsored by the American Society of Media Photographers, www.asmp.org. At Ziba Design 810 NW Marshall 7PM Students $5, otherwise $15-25



Laurel Nakadate brings a David Lynch sensibility to art films and photography, with a primary focus on female models and set in her native Midwest. Nakadate studied at Yale in the era of the infamous Another Girl, Another Planet show organized by Crewdson. The show was criticized at the time, but now is considered a coming out party for what we know today as The Yale School. It's highly staged photography implying a slightly disturbing narrative. Nakadate brings that edge to photography and has lately ventured into film. In a score for the Intermedia Department, she speaks tonight. At PNCA www.pnca.edu 1241 NW Johnson Map 6:30PM Free

October 26 Artists Talk Philosophy

Woolly Mammoth, Nietzsche, and Michael Jackson Come to Dinner. I don't know what the punchline is, but this premise is the starting point for Gina Altamura's praxis. It's not all talk, because dance movers Woolly Mammoth Comes to Dinner perform. So the combination of talk, movement and pop culture may prove interesting. Part of the Praxis series. At Place, a gallery on the 3rd floor of the Pioneer Place Mall. 700 SW Fifth. 6:30PM Free

October 24 Art Magic

Aaron Gach founded The Center for Tactical Magic in San Francisco in 2000. It's known for installations and interventions worldwide. Not with the fiery tactical hand and terrible force of Sun Tzu or Clausewitz, more with the velvet glove of amazement. One of their tools is magic, a construct outside conventional reasoning systems. As such, it creates a liminal space between perception and belief than can be exploited by art. The Center for Tactical Magic has used that space for political ends to create a discussion of social issues, including our compulsion to kill the land and to kill other people. They speak about their projects tonight as part of the PSU MFA Lecture Series pdx.edu/art/mfa-lecture-series. In the Shattuck Hall Annex, 1914 SW Park Avenue, at the corner of SW Broadway and Hall on the PSU campus. 7:30PM Free

October 22 Publishing and Music

Publication Studio is two. Their thesis is simple: print books on demand when and where they are needed using everyday paper and make them available as e-books. This Portland-based micropublisher has regular outposts in Berkeley, Vancouver BC, Toronto and in the US Midwest. It has popped up in Seattle, LA, NY, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Cologne, Lisbon and Tokyo. It has a growing pantheon of books and a stable of authors. So they have something to celebrate, and do it tonight. At Publication Studio www.publicationstudio.biz 717 SW Ankeny 7PM Free



India is big. With a third the land mass of the US it has about three times the population. So it's not a surprise that it has more than one music tradition. Hindustani in the North and Carnatic music in the South are two distinct threads. Tonight's program combines both. Musicians are Gaurav Majumdar, sitar; Nirmala Rajasekar, veena; T.K. Murugaboopathi, mridangam and Vishal Nagar, tabla. Presented by Kalakendra, whose website is inexplicably only partially working. At the First Congregational Church 1126 SW Park 7:30PM $20

October 21 Post Carbon

We are a carbon based life form. Carbon, along with hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, and other elements make up the building blocks of life that emerged from the primordial stew. Of course along the way came photosynthesis and millions of years of plants. Photosynthesis is a beautiful piece of biochemical machinery that uses sunlight, carbon dioxide and water to make complex hydrocarbons and the oxygen we breathe. Over hundreds of millions of years, coal, natural gas and oil was formed from the remains of plant and animal life built on photosynthesis. About 150 years ago we began to mine it in earnest. But what happens when it's gone?

PNCA is incorporating big questions like these into its programs. Not only are they provocative questions demanding address by artists, but artists may end up contributing original solutions to these greatest challenges as a species.

Richard Heinberg from the Post Carbon Institute provides a provocative view of the future as stored carbon fuels become more expensive and then are depleted over the next 150 years, beginning with oil. If we focus on climate change caused by burning all those stored carbon fuels, the time scales for radical change are shortened to less than 20 years. That's why there is unprecedented investment by China in cleantech. Heinberg builds on the work of the Sloan School's Jay Forrester. It's a hard topic to approach rigorously as the dismal science is notoriously inexact. But still, some thought needs to be given to future economic theory.

You can hear Heinberg's thoughts in a talk tonight. At PNCA www.pnca.edu 1241 NW Johnson 7PM Free

October 21 Non-Profit Design-Architecture and Paper-Cut Art

Architecture operates in the realm of expensive endeavors that use a lot of materials, take a long time to build, and hopefully last a long time. That makes architecture necessarily conservative because the clients are conservative. This is not all bad, because architecture is a primary substrate for neuro-aesthetics, underlying visual and spatial Gemütlichkeit. But architects are filled with many more creative ideas and many are participating in pro bono services for non profits solving real world problems outside the constraints of commercial architecture.

It's the same for industrial designers. They work in a language of materials and form which becomes the basis for our perceptions of object beauty. But their projects often involve unit commits of tens of millions over months to a few years. For instance the iPhone 4s will probably have a worldwide run of up to 100 million, with a material and labor cost of over $2.5 billion dollars.

Portland architect Brian Cavanaugh, part of the ADX Gang of Ten Group has organized a talk and exhibition by architects and designers working on non-profit projects in the Northwest. It's the Northwest region project of The 1%: Design for the Public Good, started by San Francisco's Public Architecture. It relates well to the internationally-focused project from Cooper Hewitt Design for the Other 90%.

Participating architects and firms include Architects Building Culture, CAST Architecture, Grouparchitect, The Miller Hull Partnership, ORB Architects, Perkins + Will, Schemata Workshop, VIA Architecture, Workshop for Architecture|Design, WPA, and Portland firms SERA Architects, Lorraine Guthrie Architect, Scott Edwards Architecture, and Yost Grube Hall Architecture.

At adxportland.com 417 SE 11th x Stark Reception 6PM, panel 7:45-9. Exhibition continues through Sunday, October 23 Free



Olympia's Nikki McClure is known for her paper cut stencil illustrations. She is one of the most expressive artists working in the medium. She was also an intimate part of the 1990's music revolution in Olympia. The art school museum, PNCA's, Museum of Contemporary Craft, art and design host a talk by her this evening. The talk accompanies an exhibition of 15 years of her work at the museum, and a series of podcast interviews at the museum, freely downloadable. Show at the Museum of Contemporary Craft museumofcontemporarycraft.org. Talk at PNCA www.pnca.edu-8:30 1241 NW Johnson 6:30PM Free

October 19 On War

War.

Some of the first ever photographers were war photographers employed by the War Department for the (American) Civil War. It's an education to look at those photos in the context of current journalistic practice. We do not show dead bodies in the American press today, and we have not had a war on American soil for generations.

But other countries have had war. And the war photographer experience continues. They have documented it. One item that has come to my attention is the book and film The Bang Bang Club, about wartime photographers in South Africa. One was killed and one was crippled. Never happy ending.

But in peaceful Portland, war is remote. An opportunity to hear about war photography is rare. Today you can though. A few photographers who have made war photography in Iraq are interviewed by a curator on the experience.

At the Portland Art Museum. In the Masonic Temple building, ask for the room. Organized by the Photography Council of the Portland Art Museum. Noon-1PM Free

October 18 Chunky Eckard

Chunky Move is an Australian dance company bringing a work, Connected, to Portland. The work includes a kinetic sculpture created by artist Reuben Margolin which interacts with the dancers. The artistic director-movement choreographer Gideon Obarzanek and sculptor Mragolin discuss their artistic collaboration in a lunchtime talk. At PNCA www.pnca.edu 13th and NW Johnson in the main commons 12:30PM Free



Portland artist David Eckard who is all over town with a retrospective, performs tonight at Lewis and Clark. A piece is part of the Bonnie Bronson prize collection in the Lewis and Clark Gallery. In the Hoffman Gallery on the Lewis and Clark Campus, 0615 S.W. Palatine Hill Road. Map 5PM Free

October 17 Radical Criticism

I have deliberately avoided exposure to art theory, criticism and history. My interest in in direct experience with art, without those filters. That gives me more pleasure than analyzing art.

I do agree that it can be helpful for artists to study art history to inform their making, and that although there have been great successes by untrained artists in the modern age, there have been more failures.

One of the most interesting processes in contemporary art is how it expands its boundary, the boundary between art and not art. Arts writing is an important part of that process.

One of the grand dames of the art writing world is Lucy Lippard. She is known for recognizing some key trends early and writing on them for almost 50 years. She is a curator of over 50 exhibitions and is a prolific author. So it would be interesting to hear what she has to say about social practice art, given her background in political art movements, including a recent focus on local ecology and the land.

And you can have a chance hear Lippard, who lives in a small New Mexico town, by teleconference lecture tonight as part of the PSU MFA Lecture Series pdx.edu/art/mfa-lecture-series. In the Shattuck Hall Annex, 1914 SW Park Avenue, at the corner of SW Broadway and Hall on the PSU campus. 7:30PM Free

October 15 Mall Art Fish Tales

Photographer Corey Arnold works as a commercial fisherman. Along the way he has made striking photographs of life on board a small boat filled with fish in a large ocean. Our relationship with the ocean, climate and fish is also one of our greatest challenges; commercial fish extinction has happened for some species, and may be irreversible. Arnold has shown his commercial fisherman's work at Charles Hartman. This work is a series of vintage images, by Arnold and his father Chris Arnold, fishing together, made between 1978 and 1995. At Apmersand Vintage Printed Material www.ampersandvintage.com 2916 NE Alberta, Ste B. Map 6PM-10 Free



The mall art galleries, all four of them, open their next shows tonight. Place has Rhoda London & Harrison Higgs, Richard Schemmerer, Wynde Dyer and Jane Schiffhauer. Screen has Jamie Marie Waelchli. Peoples has prolific poster artist Emek. At the Pioneer Place Mall, 3rd floor, corner of SW Morrison and 6th. 6PM to 9ish Free

October 14 Shine A Light

Shine A Light is a project by social practice artists to take over the Portland Art Museum. It succeeds. About 2000 people fill the Museum late into the evening. It's social and an opportunity to participate in interactions with the art and with artists that could never occur on the contemplative days the Museum is quiet and sparsely populated. There will be food and drink, and surprising interactions around every corner. At the Portland Art Museum www.pam.org 1219 SW Park Museum is open 10AM-6PM for strolling, 6PM-midnight for the Shine A Light event, both covered in the same admission. Free members, otherwise $15

October 13 Rain Bros Storm Merchants

Rain Bros is a collaboration between David Wien & Tripper Dungan. It's colorful illustration guaranteed to drive away rain blues with a big smile; individual work and collaborations. You may have seen their work before at Grass Hut. Tonight, they have a bright little opening at the Albina Press 4637 N Albina 6PM-8 Free



Nationale has created a series, Merchants in Residence. Artists share products that have influenced them. Tonight it's Storm Tharp. The series is a cascade of the artist inviting the next artist to follow, in this case Ty Ennis the first merchant in residence, and creator of the project, invited Tharp. At Nationale thenewnationale.com 811 E Burnside Map 6PM-8

October 11 Change the World

We are local animals, with neural pathways laid down as infants to relate through microexpression, tone of voice and touch. But we make tools too, which extend that interaction over a distance. Distant interactions are weaker. But they can be amplified if we are talking about something important.

Like changing the world.

A tool we've made is the global social media and web infrastructure, primarily built for commerce. How can it become an amplifier for our distributed worldwide brilliance, to change the world?

That's the idea of Google Ideas.

Korea leads the United States in mobile internet culture evolution. The United States has a relatively established internet culture. Social networks in China are evolving the culture very rapidly. The interesting places in the world are developing countries with a population skewed towards youth. Many have Internet cafes with low cost Internet access. Text messaging is established, and mobile Internet access is expanding exponentially.

For many new Internet participants, the mobile phone may be their first and only connection to the Internet. Voice interaction on a feature phone may reduce the need for the most expensive smartphones, and enable participation in the Internet by people who don't read or write a dominant language.

Social Internet technologies have already had crucial impacts in how citizens and governments relate in the Arab Spring الربيع العربي‎. Egypt and Iran are noted examples where events were organized and the results publicized internationally by mobile and internet technologies. Key activists were released as a result of texts, Twitter and Facebook pressures. Governments changed for the first time in generations.

When each of us was introduced to the Internet, we found use cases which satisfied our needs. How can we ensure that apps and platforms are available to enable worldchanging in every country, specific to local culture, and relevant to each demographic? We need as many people as possible working together on the great problems facing our species and the planet on which we travel together. We can make an Internet that does more than entertain, or lubricate commerce, and we must.

One of the world's great challenges is the mismatch between elements of society that want change, and those who are comfortable with the status quo. Social Internet tools accelerate change, intensifying that conflict. Can social Internet applications also support resolving those conflicts within a society?

People interested in topics like this might be interested in a talk by Jared Cohen, founder of Google Ideas. Google Ideas continues the work of Google.org in projects worldwide that facilitate work on our greatest challenges. Cohen, formerly at the State Department, has been an advisor to the past two secretaries. He is noted for not recommending that Twitter be shut down for maintenance in Iran during the June 2009 post election protests.

For more background here is a talk by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen at the Council on Foreign Relations. There is an interview here too.

Hear Jared Cohen of Google Ideas http://twitter.com/#!/googleideas hosted by Mercy Corps www.mercycorps.org at the First Congressional Church 1126 SW Park 7PM $20, $12.50 students

October 11 Stumptown Art

Stumptown Coffee operates an active art curation program at its SW3rd downtown, Division roastery and Belmont locations. Tonight Shawn William Creeden opens a show of embroidery drawings on Belmont. At Stumptown Belmont info.stumptowncoffee.com/category/art 3356 SE Belmont 6PM-8 Free

October 10 Kelsey Snook Speaks

Portland artist Kelsey Snook speaks about her work. It's a hybrid event, exhibition and social practice amalgam. 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

October 8 Ziba Manifest Body Building+

The Oregon Manifest is a bike design challenge with national participation. International design firm Ziba participated with Signal Cycles in one team. They talk about their collaborative process in an interview with Core77, the international design magazine and web portal. At the Museum of Contemporary Craft 724 NW Davis 4PM-6 PNCA Community Free, $3 Students, $4 general



Body Building is a show that thinks about the relationship between body and architecture. That architecture includes buildings and clothing. Artists include Brendan Coughlin, Christine Taylor, Emily Ryan, Hans Lindauer, Jennifer Jacobs, Laurence Sarrazin, Lisa Radon and the Opulent Project. It's in an interesting and beautiful architectural space, the Bside6 building. Curated by Christine Taylor as part of the American Institute of Architects Portland Architecture & Design Festival. Viewable from the street until November 5. Opening reception at Bside6, 525 E Burnside. 21+ 7PM-11 Free



Disjecta also has openings tonight by Tannaz Farsi and the duo Michelle Liccardo and Ralph Pugay. Details on the Disjecta website. At Disjecta, in the shadow of Paul Bunyan www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate Map 6PM-10 Free

October 8,9,15,16 Portland Open Studios

You might enjoy this once a year event for many reasons.  100 artists open their studios for you to take a peak inside and even buy art direct from the artist, cutting out the middle person. You can see what an artist studio looks like inside, if you have ever thought about doing artwork yourself. Of course the studios will be straightened up a little, and the artists in peak mood, not stymied by artists' block!

What's different from years past is a more contemporary curation committee: Mark Wooley, Elise Wagner and Modou Dieng. If you know those names, you can get a sense of the adventurousness of the work.

The studios are open all four days, making it easier to cover different neighborhoods on foot, by bike, bus, car or your personal flying machine!

There is a full list of artists on the website, with pictures of their work. It ranges from paintings to functional ceramics, jewelry to clothing, sculpture to drawing.


Details at www.portlandopenstudios.com. 100 locations. Two weekends. 10AM-5PM. Full color map, iPhone app, or ticket only $5-15, see the website for details

October 7 Eastside Art Openings+

The Labrador has multiartist Nicolás Colón from San Francisco. A recent BFA grad from the excellent California College of the Arts, he works in video, performance, sculpture, installation and painting. At 12128 Labrador Project www.labradorproject.com It's moored by Fred's Marina 12900 NW Marina Way, Portland. Map More detailed directions, don't get lost, on the website. 7PM-10



Narrative is an international show of photographs curated by Holly Andres, who herself has been making striking stills from expanded childhood psychological narratives. Some good work in this show. At Black Box Gallery www.blackboxgallery.com 811 E Burnside, Suite 212 upstairs 5PM-8:30



Half/Dozen has a unique bivalve space, two rooms across the hall from one another, dubbed Left and Right. Tonight Gary Wiseman's video installation with live turf, Southeastern Lights, closes in Left. And tonight, Kendra Larson's landscapes, Glass Lakes opens in Right. At Half/Dozen Gallery www.halfdozengallery.com 722 E Burnside (enter on 8th) 6PM-9



The Bamboo Grove opens for art shows from time to time, but rarely since their last curator returned to Europe. The space has a tea shop, and a large room with a great wood floor for martial arts and movement classes. The interior theme is Asian, so their new art show themed on the Chinese Five Elements is a great match. Artists Loren Chasse- music (metal), Wil LaBelle- ceramics (earth), Eugene Lee- paintings (wood), Tim Nelson- poetry (fire), Erica Zelfand- photography (water) interpret their chosen element. Several are part of NCNM, so they are studying the elements in the context of health. At Bamboo Grove bamboogrovesalon.com/Bamboo_Grove_Salon/Home.html 134 SE 2nd Map 6PM-10



Union/Pine has a photography show by Randal Garcia, Laura Leon and Jeremy Pelly. At Union/Pine www.unionpine.com 525 SE Pine Free



No Rest in the Northwest is a show by aerosol painters Sike, Mad One, BeatLess, Nekon and Skam painting live on canvas indoors in an event dubbed painters gotta paint. They will also show work already made. DJ's food carts and libations. At adxportland.com 417 SE 11th x Stark 6PM-11 Free



Road Rash is a show of Polaroids shot on an old American highway. They have been scanned an archivally reprinted. At Albina Press Hawthorne 5012 SE Hawthorne Blvd 6PM-8 Free



Nationale has landscape photographers Jake Arcularius and John Voves. At Nationale thenewnationale.com 811 E Burnside Map



Redux has linocuts and sculptures by Thomas Rude themed on the Day of the Dead, spooky! At Redux www.reduxpdx.com 811 E Burnside



Newspace Photography opens their annual member show. At Newspace Photo www.newspacephoto.org 1632 SE 10th



Portland has bike art, band art, sports art and even skate art. They each have their own aesthetic bounds and distinct collector bases, not necessarily overlapping with other contemporary art. That's ok. This is a show of skate art at an indoor skate spot. Lori D is a columnist for Skateboard Mag. She invites skaters to write on the personal topic of their choice, then illustrates the column. This show Learnings Of... is created from the original illustrations. At Commonwealth Skateboarding 1425 SE 20th 6PM-9 Free refreshments, $5 to skate



Fourteen30 continues Grier Edmundson's looking around looking. The installation includes wallpaper designed by the artist. Not sure if they are open tonight, but the show is up until October 22. At Portland's only member of the New Art Dealers Alliance www.newartdealers.org, Fourteen30 Gallery www.fourteen30.com 922 SE Ankeny 6PM-9



Land has Space Is The Place - graphic design by Ian Lynam. He is based in Tokyo, so it's bright and poppy! Opening at Buy Olympia's Land Gallery www.landpdx.com 3925 N Mississippi 6PM-8



PNCA graduate Malia Jensen ’89 gives the homecoming lecture at PNCA tonight, Jensen lives and works in New York. At PNCA www.pnca.edu. NW Johnson and 13th 6PM Free



Indian ragas are poetic melodic frameworks. Included is the scale, progression, emphasized notes and other elements. They are to be played at a specific time of the day or season. So tonight it's Autumn rags. Portland musician Michael Stirling sings, accompanied by Aran Adams, tabla, Derek Ecklund & Kelly Jennings, tambura. At Nritya Mandala Maha Vihara 1405 S.E. 40th. 7:30PM by donation

October 6 Westside Art Openings

Early in the evening Portland State University has a show of mid-degree MFA students Will Bruno, Sam Guerrero, Jessica Hickey, Evan La Londe, Rochelle Nielsen and Sean Schumacher. The show is titled Mobility and Sparseness: Every City’s Edge, inspired by the zeitgeist of the Western United States. At Portland State University Autzen Gallery, Neuberger Hall room 205, 724 SW Harrison. 4PM-6 Free



Blue Sky has Dan Ziskie's East of Broadway and Carl Bower's Chica Barbie. The first documents a neighborhood within Manhattan's Chinatown. The second, the popular beauty pageants of Columbia. Both artists also give a free talk Saturday at 3PM. At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org map 122 NW 8th 6PM-9



Tom Prochaska is an impressionistic painter and printmaker, often with figurative subjects. Along with work by Sally Finch. Both artists give a talk October 22 at the gallery 11AM. At www.froelickgallery.com 714 NW Davis 6PM-8



Guiding Force is a show of oil paintings by Pacale Ticheler from the Netherlands. At the Victory Gallery www.victorygallery.com 733 NW Everett



PNCA has We Don't Share a Formal History by Chloé Womack and Brennan Broome. It's in the Higgins gallery in the main building. At PNCA www.pnca.edu 13th and NW Johnson



Leach has Maquettes by Lee Kelly. Kelly is known for his large sculptures; these are the small models that proceeded them. Also showing are works of the late Bonnie Bronson from the 1960's. At Elizabeth Leach Gallery www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th Map 6PM-9



Everett Lofts are always recommended. At the Everett Lofts 625 NW Everett. Bounded by NW Everett, Broadway, Flanders and 6th Map



Yokohama Japan artist, Naoshi, makes sand paintings, sunai, a traditional medium, but takes them in a pop direction. The artist will be demonstrating the technique live in the gallery. The sand sparkles when properly lit, web photos cannot capture that, so stop by and see these in person. At Hellion Gallery www.helliongallery.com 19 NW 5th Suite 208. Through the lobby of the arched brick entry, up the stairs and to the back. Very upper floor Japan-style.
Map



Senjiro Nakata and Tadashi Ura present their work in a show Japanism. Both artists use traditional techniques and motifs, but with updated content. At Compound Gallery www.compoundgallery.com 107 NW 5th



Alex Chiu and Itokin Park show this month at Grass Hut. Chiu makes intense paintings of imaginary figures with a similarity to Tibetan monster-gods. Park makes 3d plastic figures. At Grass Hut in Floating World. www.grasshutcorp.com 400 NE Couch



We don't usually cover poster shows. But here is a bike themed one: Art Crank. Artists Aaron Hartman, Ashley Montague, Berto Legendary H, Bethany Ng, Bettina McEntyre, Bryce Pedersen, Cat Cheng, Craft Services, Doug Merritt, Eatcho, Erik Johnson, Factory North, Faith Brown, Fred DiMeglio, Hiller Goodspeed, Jackie Avery, Jamie Paul, Jason Miranda, Jennifer Levo, Jennifer Parks, Jimmy Cavalieri, Joanne Slorach, Lonny Hurley, Lydia Crumbly, Martha Koenig, Mary Kate McDevitt, Matt Cardinal, Michael Buchino, Michael Hyp, Ryan Sullivan, Sam Robinette, Santiago Uceda, Scott Agrimson, Ted Byram and Zack Soto have all made bike related posters, right in time with the Oregon Manifest show. Part of the project benefits Bikes for Rwanda. At the Cleaners at the Ace Hotel corner of SW Stark and 10th 5PM-11 Free



Pressed: Flora and Fauna is a show by Portland favorites Jill Bliss, Trish Grantham, Harlan Mahaffy and Becca Stadtlander. It's exactly what it sounds like, themed on flora and fauna. At Reading Frenzy www.readingfrenzy.com 921 SW Oak



Valentines has Seattle artist Jamie Potter. Music later by DJ Spencer D. At Valentines valentineslifeblood.blogspot.com 232 SW Ankeny Art 6PM-late Free

October 5 Yu Black Prairie Empty Quarter

Portland filmmakers Alain LeTourneau & Pam Minty present their landscape documentary, Empty Quarter. It's a film filled with long shots and interviews made in Southeast Oregon. You can see it at University of Portland, Buckley Center Room 163 4PM Free



Old-timey music side project of many outstanding Portland musicians, Black Prairie, plays a month of Wednesdays beginning tonight at the Laurelthirst. 2958 NE Glisan 6PM-8 Free



The Guggenheim Museum has had a romance with art and architecture. From the spectacular Frank Lloyd Wright-designed spiral in New York, to the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheims in Bilbao and now Abu Dhabi. The fantastic collection has also driven the museum to open instances in Berlin and Venice. Tonight the founding curator for Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Suzanne Cotter, speaks about her grand curatorial project and the challenges of curating across cultures. At Yu Contemporary Art www.yucontemporary.org 900 SE 10th 7PM $3-5, Free members

October 4 Archer

Clark College is immediately to the North in Vancouver. In Washington, it's part of the Portland Art Ecosystem. The gallery in the art department, the Archer Gallery, has done a great job at bringing out of town artists for shows, including video work. They open a show of the art department faculty tonight with artists Bobby Abrahamson, Lisa Conway, Ray Cooper, Kathrena Halsinger, Beth Heron, Grant Hottle, Carson Legree, Dara Muldoon, Shawn Records, Ben Rosenberg, Blake Shell, Bradley Streeper, Senseney Stokes, Jak Tanenbaum and Sally Van Gorder. At the Clark College Archer Gallery www.clark.edu/news_events/archer/index.php. In the Penguin Union Building 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver, WA. See the campus map www.clark.edu/maps/google/index.php 4PM-6 Free

October 3 Fallen Fruit

The Portland State University Art Department opens its MFA Monday night lecture series for Fall tonight. Fallen Fruit is a Los Angeles art collective of David Burns, Matias Viegener and Austin Young. They are urban foraging mappers and social practitioners around making the fruit to food. You can hear them talk about their projects tonight. 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

October 2 Eckard Retrospective

David Eckard is a provocative artist working in everything from small drawings to fifteen foot sculptures. He performs in some of those sculptures too. To understand it all, you might stop by a retrospective and even meet the artist at a reception this afternoon. At the Marylhurst Art Gym at the Marylhurst University www.marylhurst.edu/theartgym/ Map 3PM-6 Free

October 1 Freedom Content

Information. It's ephemeral. Does its value come from its secrecy or from being well known? From being used or not being used? And in an Internet world, how does information flow and at whose behest? That's the discussion today as part of Banned Books Week at the library. "Leaks, Tweets and Deletes: Intellectual Freedom in a Digital World Agora", is a panel discussion by David Wolman, Jeff Golden and Peter Laufer.

The panel will discuss the role of the Internet, Facebook and Twitter in the Arab Spring, media censorship and its discontents around the world, and the saga of Wikileaks.

Details. At the Multnomah County Central Library Meeting Room 801 S.W. 10th 2PM-3:30 Free



Is fashion art? Of course, done well. Fashion is also a Portland creative vector, gathering nutrients from the apparel, footwear and craft ecosystems and contributing back into other creative ecosystems. Content is a one night show of stylist-created art installations in rooms of the Ace Hotel. Each room is dedicated to clothing and accessories from a Portland clothing or accessories designer. All great fun. Content at the Ace Hotel www.acehotel.com/content/
Corner SW Stark and 10th. 4PM-late Show 6PM-10 $15