January 5 Westside Art Openings

Robert Frank is a classic photographer known for a 28,000 image series of portraits, The Americans, made 55 years ago. Those stunning black and white images pioneered unusual framing, which would not be foreign to today's hipstamatic snappers. Frank grew up in Switzerland and came to the United States at age 24. With his outsiders' eye, he began the epic documentary project at 31. Americans, made throughout the United States over 2 years, captured an impressionistic view of a country on the verge of the 1960's intensity. He continued working and Blue Sky last showed his work in 1981. Frank's new Blue Sky show is Painkillers, a series of prints from Polaroids selected with the participation of Blue Sky from the photographer's archives. They cover the 1970's to today. Frank usually shows international museums, This month he shows at Blue Sky.


Also Karen Miranda-Rivadeneira shows Bliss Street, photos of her extended family's home in New York.

At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org map 122 NW 8th 6PM-9



Ethan Rose shows Reflection, a sculptural installation with unique bells. Today anyone implementing a bell would synthesize it, or record one, then simply play it back over a loudspeaker. Rose started with mechanical bells, like something from an old factory, with exposed mechanisms. The striker is motivated by sending electricity through a coil of wire, clearly visible. There are ten bells on one wall of the gallery. On the facing wall are ten speakers. Rose recorded each bell, then reversed the recording in time, the sound of the bell backwards. One recording plays, from the soft decay to the strike. At that moment the corresponding bell rings, then decays. The process repeats, with electronic recordings of the bells overlapping with the actual bells. It's worth spending time with it sometime when the gallery is not crowded. It's quite stunning. Rose has also made a very reasonably priced editioned recording of the installation. At PDX Contemporary Art www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 925 NW Flanders Map early close 8PM



SCOOP 6PM continues until January 14 at UofO's White Box Gallery. Dustin Zemel's multi-channel video piece uses local television news, acted by local artists. Each of the seven "newscasts" covers the same story, differently. At the University of Oregon White Box Gallery whitebox.uoregon.edu. 24 NW 1st



Hellion has Internal: Apprentice, Intern Assistant, Talent with Joey Alvarez, Joseph Bergin III, Alex Despain and Christa Mariottini. 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



Camera Obscura: Outside In(n) is a show of pinhole rephotography by Darius Kuzmickas. The camera obscura is an early imaging system, in which a lens or pinhole lens casts an image in a darkened room from the world outside. Kuzmickas used hotel rooms and apartments as camera obscura, then photographed portraits lit by the obscura images. If you know anything about optics, that the images are inverted should not surprise, nonetheless the result is striking. He also includes a series of ironic sunset photos made by the same process, Ocean Pinholes: Sunset. At Stumptown www.stumptowncoffee.com 128 SW 3rd 6PM-8



Illustrated is a show of illustration work by Meredith Butner, Jess Fogel, Lily Gilbert, Amy Ruppel, and Lisa Schonberg. Curated by Iris Porter. At Valentines valentineslifeblood.blogspot.com 232 SW Ankeny Art 6PM-late Free



Augen has a group show. It's a good opportunity to see the span of aesthetics the gallery supports. Artists include Deanne Belinoff, Bill Brewer, Sally Cleveland, Jonnel Covault, John Dempcy, Trish Grantham, Jef Gunn, Chris Kelly, Eva Lake, Royal Nebeker, Jim Riswold and Mary Wells. At Augen Gallery www.augengallery.com 716 NW Davis early close 8



PSU has a show by students who participated in their program in Italy, Summer last year. The artists are Artists are William Bruno, Fara Di Noto, Stephanie Drachman, Gabriela Golez, Yibo Lu, Robert McKirdie, Riley Werner and Amanda Wilcox. At PSU MK Gallery in the PSU Art Department Building, Second Floor, Room 207, 2000 SW 5th 5PM-7



The myriad galleries at the Everett lofts are always recommended. At the Everett Lofts 625 NW Everett. Bounded by NW Everett, Broadway, Flanders and 6th Map