Tuesday, November 27, 2012

November 29 Last Thursday Eastside Art

Alexis Mackenzie & Francesca Berrini present a pairwise show of their collage, Drift, tonight. You may have seen Berrini's maps and dresses at the Seed Building open houses. Mackenzie's work is more abstract collage with found paper. At Ampersand Vintage Printed Material www.ampersandvintage.com 2916 NE Alberta, Ste B. Map 6PM-10 Free
6PM-10



Antler has a winter group show, as does Screaming Sky. At Antler www.antlerpdx.com
1722 NE Alberta 6PM-9 Free

November 28 General Education

General Education is a performance by Carlos Gonzalez and Kyle Thompson which happens one time, tonight. Kyle reads from a book he has created from encyclopedia samples on the theme of growing from childhood to adult while Carlos performs in response. Both artists are well known to Portland non-profit visual art spaces and Thompson is an organizer of the Labrador Boatspace 12128. The readings will be published by Publication Studio. At the University of Oregon White Stag Building, http://whitebox.uoregon.edu/ 70 NW Couch 7PM-8 Free

Sunday, November 25, 2012

November 27-28 Growing Psychology

Project Grow in its early days is the social practice art project we hold up as an example of socially conscious social practice art. That's the branch that is social work, community organizing and world changing.

Project Grow works with intellectually disabled adults. One of the founder's inspirations is Scottish psychiatrist R D Laing (1927-1989). Laing advocated learning from the experiences of his patients, rather than discounting them as victims of abnormality. Today that is a branch of disability activism.

Laing self produced many films of his work with clients. They are cinéma vérité, almost ethnographic documentation, and time consuming. Filmmaker Luke Fowler took Laing as a starting point to produce a very experimental film, All Divided Selves. So while this work is not necessarily expository, it is an entry point to Laing work which might pique your curiosity.

Presented by the Cinema Project www.cinemaproject.org at Yu Contemporary Art www.yucontemporary.org 900 SE 10th 7:30PM $7

Saturday, November 17, 2012

November 18 The Northwest is Great

Filmmaker and artist Matt McCormick shows his film The Great Northwest tonight. In 1958, four Seattle women took a 3,200 mile road trip around the Northwest. They left behind a scrapbook of their trip which Matt found. He recreated their trip, making photographs and shooting video. Many things have changed in 50 years, but in some cases impressions and traces remain. It is a more human-centered version of the Rephotographic Survey Project, with the original 1958 material shown together with the current state of the land. At the NW Film and Video Center in the Whitsell Auditorium of the Portland Art Museum. 1219 SW Park 6PM $9

November 17 Mystical Musical Place Conjurer

Mush, Mush, the Sloping Midnight Line, what an image. It is an image from Norway. Portland artist Carson Ellis has made paintings inspired by a series of historical novels set in the Middle Ages, tracing the arc from birth to death of Kristin Lavransdattar. For this work, the writer, Sigrid Undset, was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Ellis' work taps eco-mysticism, adding characters to her magical landscape. Midori Hirose contributes complementary work, always a treat. At Nationale www.nationale.us 811 E Burnside Map 6PM-8



The Portland Museum of Modern Art opens a show Azawad Libre! New Media and Imagined Geographies in the Sahel. Portland field sound explorer Chris Kirkley has traveled Azawad collecting music from mobile phones. Along the way he also gathered photographs from phones, from Facebook and stills from viral videos. The visual work is built upon compositing, digital collage, with a North African face, as is the music. Music is traded by phone. And the feature phones have cameras and compositing apps which Northern Africans use to mod their photos. It's newsworthy as well, Azawad is an area spanning Northern Mali in Africa envisioned as a Tuareg homeland. Currently the area is occupied by a mix of fighters and has ceded from Mali. Foreign fighters, arms from the Libyan revolution and fundamentalists are involved, tempting a regional war in the Spring. Unfortunately too, some of the Islamists have banned music. But there is no denying the sense of identity and regional pride expressed by young people in this art show. Stay tuned for history... At the Portland Museum of Modern Art inside Mississippi Records www.portlandmuseumofmodernart.com 5202 N Albina 8PM Free



Place continues Mall of America: A Toll Free Audio Exhibition by Elizabeth Lamb and opens Open Circles by Horatio Law, Crime Against Nature by Gwenn Seemel and Cocoon Orchard by Erin Grant Robinson. All at Place, placepdx.tumblr.com a gallery on the 3rd floor of the Pioneer Place Mall along with the People's art of Portland and the Woolley Gallery. If the mall appears closed, enter the film theater building adjacent, travel through the tunnel to the Place mall, and take the elevator to the 3rd floor, sometimes the bridge on the 3rd floor is open too. 700 SW Fifth. 5PM-8 Free 5PM-9



FalseFront has Conjurer, by Daniel J Glendening. At False Front Studio www.falsefrontstudio.com 4518 NE 32nd Map 7PM-10 Free

Thursday, November 15, 2012

November 16 Open Slappe Recess

The mid-program PNCA Visual Studies MFA open studios is a great opportunity to see a huge range of work in situ. This year's students are Sarah Abbott, Christy Bailey, Stephanie Brachmann, Terri Bradley, Mary Mac Dahlke, Erin Dengerink, John Dougherty, Kiel Fletcher, Mario Gallucci, Thomas Gamble, Jonathan Gann, Michael Horwitz, Linden How, Timothy Janchar, John David Knight, Matthew Leavitt, Leif Lee, Daniel Long, Andrew Lorish, Travis Nikolai, Cristin Norine, Mark Palmen, Anya Roberts-Toney, Justin Schwab, Lauren Seiffert, Jessica Speiss, Edward Trover, Lindsay Williams, Rachel Wolf, Takahiro Yamamoto, Richard York and Stephanie Yu. At the MFA Visual Studies Studios 1830 NW 19th Avenue 6PM-10 Free



Artist Stephen Slappe has written a book, People I Used To Know, for Publication Studio. In celebration for its release several artists will be relating stories about prople they used to know. At Publication Studio, 717 SW Ankeny Starts 7:30PM, stories 8:15 Free



RECESS is one of Portland's smartest and most progressive independent non-profit galleries. Ditch Projects is a similar group operating in Springfield Oregon. Recess invites the co-directors of Ditch Projects, Jared Haug and Brooks Dierdorff to show their installation and video, entitled Window Smokers. It's a show inspired by landscape. At RECESS recessart.com at Oregon Brassworks Building, 1127 SE 10th Map 7PM-10 Free

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

November 15 Lathe of Heaven Mercy Spark

Ursula K. Le Guin is Portland's science fiction author emeritus. And though we now have Daniel Wilson, and Frank Herbert's Dune was inspired by the Oregon sand dunes by Florence, Le Guin will always be an inspiration. Four artists, Damien Gilley, Daniel Glendening, Laura Hughes and Jordan Tull have taken her novel, The Lathe of Heaven, as an inspiration for art, opening tonight.

Ginger Lukas, professional cake decorator by day, opens a light installation, Party Time, presaging our odd Christmas custom of multicolored lights. It's in the Vestibule space, a long hall. At Disjecta, in the shadow of Paul Bunyan www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate Map 6PM-10 Free



It's not unicorns and rainbows everywhere and all the time throughout the world. Two stellar organizations, Mercy Corps and Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), are there to help people when things are horribly broken. Often they need to negotiate their access and their own safety with people with guns. Tonight Mercy Corps and MSF staff discuss their experiences, working from the headquarters office and on the ground. An example of how things can go terribly wrong caused MSF to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2004, 5 days after I was there. Joining Mercy Corps will be Nick Lawson, director of field human resources for MSF. He has worked in Afghanistan, Burundi, East Timor and Malawi. Portland nurse with MSF, Colette Kerr, discusses her work in Liberia, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Chad and other locations. At the Mercy Corps Action Center www.actioncenter.org 28 SW 1st. 7PM Free



Art Spark is back. The B Media Collective, making political work, hosts activist and artists groups Project Grow, Grand Detour, Sisters of the Road Empowered Voices Media Project and the Portland Central America Solidarity Committee. Later in the evening at 7, they show their 30 minute film Electile Dysfunction, a collage of political news footage. Art Spark www.portlandartspark.com at Hollywood Theater 4122 NE Sandy Blvd. 5PM-7:30 Free




Tuesday, November 13, 2012

November 13 Cryonics Out Loud

Portland prides itself on weird. Cryonics is the practice of freezing bodies, or brains, for the purpose of reanimation in an imagined future. It's weird science, though there is some controversy over the science part.

Chana de Wolf will discuss cryonics, based on her experience working at Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Advanced Neural Biosciences and the Institute for Evidence Based Cryonics.

This will be one of the most curious of Curiosity clubs. A presentation of the Curiosity Club, you can tune into the free live webcast off the Core77 site or visit the talk and demonstration in person at Hand Eye Supply www.handeyesupply.com/pages/curiosity-club 23 NW 4th 6PM Free

Friday, November 09, 2012

November 10 Disjecta Gamelan

Disjecta holds its annual art auction and party tonight. They have a very solid list of local artists who are participating with their work which you can see here: www.disjecta.org/exhibitions-events/disjecta-art-auction-2012 At Disjecta, in the shadow of Paul Bunyan www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate Map Doors 7PM, live auction 8. $20 advance, $25 door



The gamelan. It's a mysterious symphony of bells and accompanying instruments with its own musical tradition from Indonesia. The gamelan is 12-1800 years old. The Venerable Showers of Beauty Gamelan, based at Lewis & Clark College plays traditional and contemporary compositions tonight. They will be joined by Aloysius Suwardi from Surakarta, Midiyanto from Berkeley and guests Gamelan Pacifica in Seattle. At Lewis and Clark College Evans Auditorium 7:30PM $5-15

November 9-11 Dance Fury Road

Tahni Holt presents her new work Sunshine at Bodyvox. Her modern dance work has always been sculptural, and this is no exception with cardboard as the sculptural element. You can get all the information at www.tahniholt.com. At BodyVox Dance Center: 1201 NW 17th 8PM + 3PM Sunday



Related, FRONT is a small dance-movement journal produced right in Portland. They distribute the issue #2 Vitus all over town for you to read. The process starts with volunteers like yourself and a party at Dig a Pony. 5PM-8 Free



Appendix Project Space has Fury Road curated by Nicholas Tammens and Matthew Greaves. It is a show of nine artists from Melbourne Australia: Brooke Babington, Jon Campbell, Holly Childs, Greatest Hits, Matthew Greaves, Christopher LG Hill, Lou Hubbard, Oliver van der Lugt and Lisa Radford. The title comes from a film in production, the fourth in the Mad Max series of dystopian romps. The curators speak at the gallery Saturday at 5:30PM. At Appendix Project Space www.appendixspace.com On the alley between 26th and 27th, South of Alberta. Map 8PM-late Free

Sunday, November 04, 2012

November 4 An Indian Music And Art Fictions

Kushal Das and Swapan Chaudhuri perform North Indian music on sitar and tabla this afternoon. Both are internationally known musicians. Sponsored by Kalakendra at the First Congressional Church 1126 SW Park. 4PM $20/15 students



Chris Kraus reads from a new fiction work, The Summer of Hate, this afternoon at YU. It is part of a program surrounding the photographs of Marianne Wex showing there. Her reading is of a fiction book, but Kraus is also a filmmaker, teaches in the art world, and is an editor of Semiotext(e). Her sharp witted criticism is captured in this quote from her Where Art Belongs: "there was absolutely no chance of developing an art career in Los Angeles without attending one of several high-profile MFA studio programs,"... "essential to the development of value in the by-nature elusive parameters of neoconceptual art. Without it, who would know which Cibachrome photos of urban signage, which videotapes of socks tossing around a dryer, which neominimalist monochrome paintings are negligible, and which are destined to be art?". Her event is sponsored by Reed's Cooley Gallery and is sure to be entertaining. Just a note, the Semiotext(e) website may be infected with malware, ironic. At YU Contemporary yucontemporary.org/chris-kraus 800 SE 10th. 3PM Free

Friday, November 02, 2012

November 2 Eastside Art, East Coast Talk, Far East Dance

Japanese butoh performer Atsushi Takenouchi performs this evening. He began performing with Bishop Yamada in Northern Japan's Hokkaido at age 18 then soon formed his own group. He was later influenced by Kazuo and Yoshito Ohno. He brings a strong influence of nature to his work. He works today in France and Japan. He will be accompanied tonight by musical collaborator Hiroko Komiya on small percussion and effects. At the Headwaters Theater, by www.witdpresents.com 55 NE Farragut St. #9. The theater is in the back of the building by the active railroad tracks facing Winchell Street. Map 7PM $10-15



Artist Julie Ault, as part of the NY collective Group Material, is a figure in the decommodification movement, with a postmodern analytical lens on society. Those projects were often installations in temporary spaces. She speaks tonight. At PNCA www.pnca.edu 1241 NW Johnson Map 6:30PM Free



Tripper Dungan is known for his crazed schematic figures. He has amped them up with 3d in the last year or two. That means you will get the greatest benefit from red and cyan anamorphic glasses. Fun! At Redux www.reduxpdx.com 811 E Burnside



Black Box has Spinning Yarns, a group show curated by Chris Moss themed on narrative. At Black Box Gallery www.blackboxgallery.com 811 E Burnside, Suite 212 upstairs 5PM-8:30 Free


Manchus shows video art tonight. At Manchus Clothing www.machusonline.com 542 E Burnside 6PM-10 Free



ADX has a show of three tattoo artists. Their work tonight is on paper and canvas though. At adxportland.com 417 SE 11th x Stark Map 7PM-9 Free



Homeland has some, unusual for them, illustration artists in Pastoral Visions by Marc Roder and Richard Melloy, in both loose and tight styles. At Gallery Homeland www.galleryhomeland.org in the Ford Building www.fordbuildingpdx.com 2505 SE 11th x Division. Enter through the cafe on the corner if the main doors on 11th are locked. 6PM-9 Free



Pushdot has Kelly Guthrie watercolor-illustrations in a show titled My Bug Collection. At Pushdot Studio www.pushdotstudio.com 2505 SE 11th Avenue Suite 104 The reception will be in December.



Union|Pine has Typeface, our alphabet repurposed as design art. At Union/Pine www.unionpine.com 525 SE Pine 7Pm-late Free



Newspace has old and new mediums this month. Clarke Galusha has tintypes, while Ditch Projects codirector Brooks Dierdorff uses a scanner to alter his images. Robert Beam also shows. At Newspace Photo www.newspacephoto.org 1632 SE 10th Map

Thursday, November 01, 2012

November 1 Bateson on Film

Longtime professor at UC Santa Cruz, anthropologist Dr Gregory Bateson, was a pioneer in cognitive psychology. He was also married to Margaret Mead. His daughter has made a film, An Ecology of Mind, providing insights to his pioneering ideas that crossed disciplines and laid the groundwork for new bodies of knowledge. It shows this evening at Mercy Corps in connection with the Design With the Other 90%:CITIES exhibition. The filmmaker will be in attendance. At the Mercy Corps Action Center www.actioncenter.org 28 SW 1st 7PM-8:30 Free

November 1 Westside Art Openings

Christopher Rauschenberg, one of the founders of the Nine Gallery, has a show there this month, Heel of the Boot. At the Nine Gallery inside Blue Sky 122 NW 8th


Blue Sky has a pair of complementary portrait projects. Justyna Badach began her project in 2003 after a disruption of her life in post-9/11 New York. She photographed middle age to elderly men in their living places, capturing a glimpse of their inner lives. It is unexpectedly sensitive work. That is in contrast to a common photographic theme which exploits the oddness of portrait subjects in their home lives or pastimes. Rania Matar shows portraits of teen girls in their rooms. It is an age of transition and the formation of identity, expressed in an important refuge, the woman-cave. This is a popular genre for Blue Sky, and the work is well executed. Both artists were born outside the United States, perhaps an advantage in capturing these American images. At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org map 122 NW 8th 6PM-9



Greater has photographs by Nile Hagen. The photographer was recovering from head injuries while making the photographs he saw as a direct way of working while recovering his previous functionality. At Graeter Art Gallery www.graeterartgallery.com 131 NW 2nd Map 5PM-7



The Day We Saw the Sun Come Up is a show by Portland illustration artists Timothy Karpinski & Brooke Weeber. Their work relates childhood imagination to our adult world. At Compound Gallery www.compoundgallery.com 107 NW 5th



The Victory Gallery shows artists from Europe. They have their annual group show, which is a good way to see how they look at painting. At the Victory Gallery www.victorygallery.com 733 NW Everett



Everett Lofts are recommended as always. It's easier for you to see them all than for me to write suggestions. Some close as early as 9PM. At the Everett Lofts 625 NW Everett. Bounded by NW Everett, Broadway, Flanders and 6th Map