Everyone is in Miami, but the show must go on.
Hellion has taken Mitt Romney's suggestion that we get close with South America. It's not a bad idea, and Brazil is our hemisphere's part of BRIC. The show of 15 artists from Brazil is Pindorama.
There will be an opportunity tonight at Hellion to get the new book by Matt Wagner, The Tall Trees of Tokyo. Matt is the curator and creator of Hellion. In his introduction he writes of Japanese society, the tall tree is beaten down. But if it can withstand the forces of wind, it can move the mountain in which its roots entwine.
In the book, he has profiled contemporary Japanese artists by the train lines in the Tokyo sprawl in which they live. The book is bilingual. A portion of tonight's sales go to a project to build an indoor playground for Fukushima children.
Many people have left the contaminated area, but those who are too poor have stayed. It's dangerous for the children remaining to play outside. The project is organized by many of the artists Matt profiled in the book. They also spontaneously delivered supplies into the red zone soon after the earthquake and meltdown, and Matt himself was able to travel with them to help.
More information about the project is at http://fw-p.jp/indoor/indoor_fukushima/. You can use your web tools to translate it from Japanese.
The book, The Tall Trees of Tokyo, is a project of Portland's Overcup Press. You can find out more on their website www.overcupbooks.com, or by stopping into the gallery. The book is limited to an edition of 1000.
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 7PM-10
PNCA has Cause Unknown: Mapping Ravaged Landscapes, by Erinn Kathryn. She has drawn a connection between landscapes formed by eruption, uplifts, fire and erosion with the body's tissues, subject to their own vicissitudes. In Gallery 214, upstairs.
Binary Lore is a show by Edie Fake, from Chicago and PNCA alumna Brenna Murphy ’09. It also shows in Chicago in a cooperative exchange between Threewalls in Chicago and PNCA here. Fake remixes historical queer culture of Chicago into comic-style drawings. Murphy remixes electronic images and electroacoustic sound samples into sculptural performances as MSHR and in her solo work. Highly recommended. In the Feldman Gallery.
Both at PNCA www.pnca.edu 1241 NW Johnson Map 6PM-9
The world is filled with artists. The tools of infinite reproduction are available to us each and we are trained aesthetically by our continual exposure to reproduced images from early childhood. That means there is great work out there that is undiscovered, or will never be known beyond small circles. Occasionally the unknown artist is discovered, and unfortunately often after their death. That is the case with street photographer Vivian Maier. Working as a nanny, she photographed extensively with a 2 1/4 camera in New York and Chicago and traveling in the US. She is estimated to have made over 150,000 images. Some are on display at Powells and a collector of her work, Jeff Goldstein and the author Richard Cahan of a book about her speak tonight. At Powell's Basil Hayward Gallery, 3rd floor. www.powells.com. 10th and W Burnside Talk 7:30PM
Bruce Conkle will be creating scents by burning the resins of native trees in his show Tree Clouds Thursdays at 4 in the Autzen Gallery. Conkle is a prime exporter of Northwest-inspired environmental-themed sculptures and installations he dubs "eco baroque". There will be a reception Saturday at the gallery 6PM-8. At Autzen Gallery PSU, Neuberger Hall, Room 205, 724 S.W. Harrison tonight 4PM-5
Augen has Portland illustrator-collage artist Trish Grantham with At a Loss for Words. At Augen Gallery www.augengallery.com 716 NW Davis early close 8PM
PDX has Molly Vidor's color fields and flowers plus Nell Warren's impressionistic landscapes. At PDX Contemporary Art www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 925 NW Flanders Map early close 8PM
Compound presents End of the World, probably not the Mayan version, though. Artists include AMTK, Steve Seeley, Sean Edward Whelan, Brendan Monroe, Pat Perry, Gala Bent, Clare Rosean, Leo Zarosinski, Joseph Mcvetty III, Amanda Lee James, David M Cook and Morgaine Faye. At Compound Gallery www.compoundgallery.com 107 NW 5th 6PM-10
Louie Palu has photographs of warfighters from the various coalition forces at the end of their tours in Kandahar, Afghanistan. In an entirely different view of the military, Theresia Viska, in La Danse Françaisehas, made impressionistic set of photographs using long exposure times of the Stockholm Military Academy’s annual winter ball. Generations of her family over 300 years served in the Swedish military, which has largely avoided war since 1814. At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org map 122 NW 8th 6PM-9
The UO White Box presents Affective Duplication by street art group, The Reader. You can go to their website to read the description of the work, but personally I thought it was vague art speak which I can't summarize. At the University of Oregon White Stag Building, http://whitebox.uoregon.edu/ 70 NW Couch 6PM-9
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 6PM to 9ish
