After a Summer of sometimes prosaic shows, the galleries have returned to kill. (In a good way)
Brenna Murphy vibrates ecosystems tonight. She is a prime mover of the Oregon Painting Society and MSHR. This show is solely her her.
Murphy admixes ecomysticism, digital patterning, extrusion, game engine aesthetics and shading with full sound-mind-body experience. This particular installation is a series of seemingly Mayan or Chinese patterns that have been extruded as wood, plastic or glass cut shapes. Those are combined into sled-like assemblages in black, white clear and rainbow polychrome. They vary in scale from full to small toy. Some find a home on sand surfaces, an element found in earlier shows.
When we say recommended we mean it. Strongly recommended. In November the show will change into an MSHR collaboration. At UpFor Gallery www.upforgallery.com 929 NW Flanders 6PM-9 Free
Other Maps Are Such Shapes is a star show by Littman+White. They collect Anna Gray + Ryan Wilson Paulsen, Matt Hilger, Perry Doane, Sean Schumacher and Stephanie Simek in the show. The common element is measurement on experience lensed through art. Curated by Leif Anderson who has done an excellent series at the gallery over the last year. At the Littman Gallery, PSU Smith Hall, Room 250, 1825 SW Broadway. Early 5PM-8 5-8pm
It is not often an artist is afforded an opportunity to make an installation in a commercial gallery in Portland. But this month Dinh Q. Lê has. Fixing the Impermanent is a meditation on Lê's longtime sampling work and the chemical photography paper which comprised it. That paper is now passing. There is a much thicker description on the gallery website. Recommended. At Elizabeth Leach Gallery www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th Map 6PM-9
Chuck Close. Usually he shows in museums. So its a tribute to Portland's Blue Sky that his work is here. Close is well known for experimental portraits. Tonight he shows a new body of work: photographic portraits printed in a digital textile loom. Recommended. Also showing is Bien de Familia by José D’Amico. It's abandoned places-themed work. At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org map 122 NW 8th 6PM-9
Tom Cramer is a PNCA graduate working for some time carving wood. He is also well known for his graphic murals and even has painted his trademark patterns on cars. Tonight he is back with even more stunning low relief carved wood panels. You can see the photos on the gallery website, but better yet, see them in person. At Laura Russo Gallery www.laurarusso.com 805 NW 21st 5PM-8
Jeff Koons is a financier who decided to become an artist. Jim Riswold is an ad man who decided to become an artist. He still maintains his ad activities, and his work mixes ad messaging theory with art messaging theory.
The ad element is hard hitting and straight forward. The art element is using his life experience as material. The visual element ties those. Riswold's day job, when he is wondering if he will live, is translating brands to words. In his show, Art for Oncologists, Riswold taps experience of 14 years of cancers, and their treatments by branded drugs. Part of the show are heart-shaped units impressed with those chemotherapy brand names. Words.
So an interesting question for readers. How does narrative matter in the art career, how much is made now, and how much is made after the artist passes. Where does the artist exist in the range of say Basquiat, and say Koons or Burroughs? How does that relate to the economic eras of their career arc and how does that relate to the economic experience of the viewer?
At Augen Gallery www.augengallery.com 716 NW Davis early close 8
PNCA is an art school. So if you are thinking on enrolling you would want to audition faculty. Tonight is a show of faculty. You can see in the atrium. At PNCA www.pnca.edu 1241 NW Johnson Map
JShea and Stephanie Buer show Inhabitants, sculptures and photographs. At Hellion Gallery www.helliongallery.com through the lobby of the arched brick entry, up the stairs and to the back. Very upper floor Japan-style. 19 NW 5th Suite 208. Map 7PM-10 Free
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 closing ranges from 9PM-10:30ish