January 25 Caldera X Box

Caldera is a great Oregon arts residency. It is a Summer art camp for at risk youth. In Winter, sometimes, but not this year, snowed in, it's a residency for grown artists. The artists' studios are open, and the work made on view, a few hours of a few days in a year. Today see musician Christi Denton, photographer Jim Leisly, filmmaker Alain Letourneau, writer Maxim Loskutoff and artist Katie Rose Pipkin. Details:
www.calderaarts.org/caldera/january-2014-open-studio. At Camp Caldera www.calderaarts.org, 31500 Blue Lake Drive, Sisters, OR 1PM-3 Free



We are not a fan of artworks derivative of (sampled from) pop culture. The audience that can relate to the work is too narrow for the work to be meaningful. But we often do like what Disjecta does. Tonight Disjecta does an artwork derived from a television (television??) series that broadcast (broadcast?) between 1993 and 2002. We're going to be at Multiplex. Details at www.disjecta.org/exhibitions-events/zero. Opening at Disjecta, in the shadow of Paul Bunyan www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate Map 6PM-10



The experimental show. about desire, at the University of Oregon’s White Box visual laboratory, mounts a conventional close this evening. Curator Meagan Atiyeh has seleced paintings, sculpture, video, photography and mixed media works by artists Delaney Allen, Nancy Bulalacao, Jacques Flechemuller, Sally Haley (1908-2007), Tahni Holt, Kristan Kennedy, Isaac Layman, Storm Tharp, and Terry Toedtemeier (1947-2008) for the show. Several of the artists may speak about their work at the closing. At the University of Oregon White Stag Building, http://whitebox.uoregon.edu/ 70 NW Couch 5PM-8 Free
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January 24 Free Museum

Tonight after 5 the Museum has free admission. These Fridays really give the museum a sense of life. At the Portland Art Museum www.pam.org 1219 SW Park 5PM-8 Free

January 19 Places to Go

We've known musician and all around good person Enrique Ugalde performing as Soriah for some time. He has been a generous creative collaborator. For several years he has been adventuring off to Tuva in the Russian Republic to study and perform traditional and non-traditional throat singing. He is off on a new epic journey to the east to start his own Tuvan family. Wish him the best by stopping by his send off performance. At the Star Theater 13NW 6th 8PM $10

January 18 Places to Be

Place has a series of openings tonight as does the Woolley Gallery and People's Art of Portland. See it all for the amazing price of free! At Place, www.placepdx.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-9 Free

January 17 Scapeing the Future

In an interesting social practice, ethnographic or market research exercise, hard to tell which, the National Nanotechnology Initiative polled a focus group of Portlanders on their views of tech. In turn, artists are responding to that material, with their own experience, in this branch of the PSU Futurescapes project. Presentations at 7. At RECESS recessart.com in the Oregon Brassworks Building, 1127 SE 10th Map 6PM-9 Free

January 16 Studio Momenta

Christopher Rauschenberg is known for urban landscape photography, using monochrome and color sensitively, not sensationally. For a new show he lenses the intimate interiors of artist's studios. What is common? A collage of images from here and there. Paint tracks. You can see for yourself, artifacts, absent finished work, that are traces of the inspiration process. Along with Unveiled, a show of nudes, by David Smith, Gaston Lachaise, John Sloan, and Henri Matisse, Malia Jensen, Stephen Hayes, Joseph Park and Robert Hanson. At Elizabeth Leach Gallery www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th Map 6PM-8 Free



Energy, our survival depends on it. It is energy that keeps us warm or cool when the weather is other. Energy takes us to and from families and jobs. Energy grows our food, delivers it and cooks it. Pumps our fresh water and disposes of waste. It runs our media and Internet.

In the United States today, 78% comes from millions of years of underground fossil plant deposits in the form of coal, natural gas and oil - http://flowcharts.llnl.gov/content/energy/energy_archive/energy_flow_2012/2012new2012newUSEnergy.png. In fact the two major electric utilities serving Portland Portland General Electric and Pacificorps have significant use of coal as a source. Maybe we need to come up with a plan to not dig that up!

Why? Our methods of converting those sources to use are woefully inefficient. They are limited by Carnot efficiency, but typically operate at about 33%. Add transmission losses and the inefficiency of building insulation. The result of primitive burning, fossil fuel sources are leading to extreme weather events like wildfire, floods, hurricanes, heat waves and low temperatures. They are leading to crop failures and loss of centuries stable ecosystems. Those landscape plants in your yard. Some will survive. The weeds will survive, guaranteed. Fisheries - we are already losing our oyster business in Oregon because burning carbon fuels is increasing ocean acidity. So yes we are the lobster who starts out on the fire in a cold pot, then realizes too late they are cooked.

I have not seen this documentary. And being me, I would probably make it differently. But seeing the trailer, I suggest it. Because it is about something happening here, now and that you can influence by volunteering, writing an email or just showing up. And if you don't, it is going to affect you.

Yes, easy to ignore. But what are you going to say to your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and grand nieces and nephews if you ignored it? They will ask.

Showing of the documentary Momenta, produced in Portland, on American coal exports from Wyoming, Montana and Colorado through Portland and Northwest locations over rail to China and other Asian countries.

This is an early edit and advance free tickets required - http://www.eventbrite.com/e/momenta-advanced-screening-tickets-10036231639.

At Patagonia in Ecotrust. Ticket includes raffle. Beer available for purchase. 907 NW Irving Doors 7PM, showing 8 $10 donation, no one turned away for lack of funds

January 15 Pope.L Portland

William Pope.L opens Claim tonight and speaks on his work. Pope.L is a great artist provocateur and star guest of PICA in its strong experimental visual art period of 10 years ago. And the exhibition is winner of the copywriting award for the month:

"When we quantify, we point. We point with a wavering finger. Like a child. Like a drunk. Like a dyslexic. Like a palsied person. Like a college student filled with helium. Like an old person filled with wisdom, we point with a wavering finger. And of course we insist; we insist we know, we know where we are pointing.

Claim is a piece, an exhibition about making sense of things and concomitantly making nonsense of that. Claim uses simple, poetic counting and quantification strategies to gnarly up a discussion about making sense/nonsense. The hinge between sense and nonsense is consciousness, or, more precisely, intention. This is a weak hinge: intention is ‘pointed at’ in this exhibition, usually where things do or do not come together. It may seem visually reticent, yet even so, it is important for use and interpretation."

Pope.l speaks tonight at Shattuck Hall Annex at 7PM, followed by a reception in the Littman and White gallery. In Shattuck Hall Annex, 1914 SW Park Avenue, at the corner of SW Broadway and Hall on the PSU campus and in the https://www.facebook.com/events/1489212924657398/ https://www.facebook.com/events/1489212924657398/Talk 7PM Reception ~8-10. Free

January 13 Your YouTube

This month's Getting to Know YouTube has Shawn Creeden, Rachael Jensen and Morgan Sutherland, curated by Krystal South. At Getting to Know You(Tube) www.gettingtoknowyoutube.com at the Hollywood Theater www.hollywoodtheatre.org 4122 NE Sandy Boulevard. 7:30PM $5

January 11 Collect Here Now

Manuel Izquierdo, Todd Haynes, John Fahey, Lucinda Parker, Sister Corita Kent, Howard Finster, Mose Tolliver, Sally Haley, Leroy Alman, Cynthia Star, Storm Tharp, Terry Toedtemeier, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Vaginal Davis, Michael Hall, BF Perkins and Arthur Renquist are artists often found in museums, or may be found in future museums.

Portland Museum of Modern Art is a museum and a future museum. They have reached out into their community of friends and lovers to loan pieces for this show. Portland Collects is a peak inside creative mind of Portland collectors. The intent is to show ordinary people can collect art and it is a source of great pleasure. By chance, it represents a counterpoint to the Bacon on loan, reportedly in exchange for a low 8 figure tax arbitrage. Portland Collects: PMOMA Presents Work from Private Collections www.portlandmuseumofmodernart.com/Portland-Collects-Jan-2014.

At the Portland Museum of Modern Art inside Mississippi Records www.portlandmuseumofmodernart.com 5202 N Albina Map 8PM-10 Free

January 10 Jargon

Jargon is a collaboration between Cari Vander Yacht and Edward Jeffrey Kriksciun. They exchanged sketches between the East Coast and West, each sketch a response to their individual moves to a new city. The description on Nationale's website explains all. But what the surprise is, the end result, opens tonight: nationale.us/vander-yacht-kriksciun-jargon-2014. At Nationale www.nationale.us 811 E Burnside Map 6PM-10 Free

January 9 Desire Ra

Portland has a few experimental curators. Art is risk, so in curation, shows and sales, compounding risk is avoided. UO Whitebox and some others embrace risk. Here is an example. Curator Meagan Atiyeh curates show, About Desire, connecting Delaney Allen, Nancy Bulalacao, Jacques Flechemuller, Sally Haley (1908-2007), Tahni Holt, Kristan Kennedy, Isaac Layman, Storm Tharp and Terry Toedtemeier (1947-2008). The works have been shown solo in the space day by day. Tonight, and through show closing, they are all present. Curator's talk tonight. Roundup the 25th. At the University of Oregon White Stag Building, http://whitebox.uoregon.edu/ 70 NW Couch 5PM-8



Sun Ra. Art life.

Mr Sun Ra was a visionary musician and lived life as an art individual. Neither art or music has caught up to this day at the speed of his concepts.

Tonight on the big screen you can partake in a special treat, actually two special treats.

First is Mr Sun Ra's written, directed and produced fictional film Space is the Place. Recommended and strongly recommended having seen it a few times. Second is A Joyful Noise. I want to see and will see tonight on a big screen and sound system.

Sun Ra on screen at Hollywood Theater hollywoodtheatre.org/sun-ra-double-feature/ 4122 NE Sandy Boulevard 7:30PM $8

Januray 7 A Light Spray

Portland has a ton of film and video makers. A Light Spray is a survey of that by Ashby Lee Collinson. Her selects include Carol Nhan, Mark Gonzalez, Ralph Fugay, Fred Armisen, Abby Lloyd, M. Blash, Chase Biado, Chris Irick, Dan Wilson, Grace Glenn, Stef Lister, Espen Friberg, Sara Magenheimer, Chris Lux & Julia Leonard, Linda McAllister, Phillip Iosca, Kersti Jan Werdal, Chase Allgood, Jeem Rinse, Madison Wood, Jeffery Kriksciun, Saoirse Wall, Francesca Ghabrier, Anna Zusman, Michael Gaughen, Alan Resnik, Rebbeca Peel, Underlords Take Acid, Donald Morgan, Sissy Williams, Zefrey Thowell, Kelsey McCurdie, Jake Dibler, Sarah Applebaum, John Mayer, Lia Marion, Nika Kaiser, Brenna Murphy, Caley Feeney, Jay Winebrenner, Sylvie Spencer, Rebbeca Carlisle-Healy, Thomas Arsenault and more. Whut - that's an impressive and recommended list. Maybe you need to be in it next year? Portland art moving image makers at Portland Museum of Modern Art inside Mississippi Records www.portlandmuseumofmodernart.com 5202 N Albina Map 8PM I think its Free

January 6 Too Stupid to Quit

We have an interest in design of physical objects. Some call it industrial design, but that is an outdated term. John Economaki shares those sentiments and acts on same. He is subject of a design show now at the Museum of Contemporary Craft. Mr Economaki has operated his business on those sentiments, Bridge City Tool Works, for 30 years in Portland. Bridge City makes tools of steel and brass. Tonight he talks about using computer design tools to make hard metal tools in a talk - John Economaki: Too Stupid to Quit. So if you have graduated from Shapeways, this is for you. Presented by OMSI Science Pub. At Hollywood Theater hollywoodtheatre.org/john-economaki-too-stupid-to-quit/ 4122 NE Sandy Boulevard. 7PM $5 suggested

January 3 Eastside Openings

With light starting its ever slow shift post Solstace, it is the photography studios capturing light, which are open this holiday week.



Newspace has Slough, photographs by Benny Wizansky of the Columbia Slough, a network of waterways, natural spaces and industry between the airport and Kelley Point. At Newspace Photo www.newspacephoto.org 1632 SE 10th Map 6PM-9 Free



New Color Photography is the theme at Black Box this month. Descriptive. At Black Box Gallery www.blackboxgallery.com 811 E Burnside, Suite 212 upstairs 5PM-8:30 Free



Commercial photographer Jim Golden shows personal series Collections, ordered arrangements of obsessive collections. Opened last month, not sure if they are open tonight. At Pushdot Studio www.pushdotstudio.com 2505 SE 11th Avenue Suite 104

January 2 Westside Openings + Cats

First cats. I know for some it's a hard choice, cats or art.

The easy choice of course, is cats or people. Correct answer is people. And though some say the internet is about cats, cats are not participating, though no one knows you are a dog in the internet.

Night on the Galactic Railroad is an anime inspired by the Japanese novel of the same name by Kenji Miyazawa. In the anime, the lead characters are drawn as cats. The Fin de Cinema series attaches a new score to the film performed live by by Aan, Purse Candy and Philip Grass. DJ Spencer D remixes Japanese musician Haroumi Hosono known for psych and early electronic collaborations with composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. Fin de Cinema at Holocene www.holocene.org 1001 SE Morrison 8:30PM $6



Commercial galleries have seasons planning shows. Forget August, throw up a group show. No one is in NYC. They are someplace more pleasurable. Likewise Thanksgiving to New Year. Most people are focused on the art of family or Miami. September-November and Spring to early Summer are good launch times for shows in Portland. So many commercial galleries have taken the group route for January openings. The value of group shows in commercial galleries are to see what they have and what they might want.



Fernando Brito opens Your Steps Were Lost in the Landscape, murder scene landscapes from the Mexico drug wars. It's tough material. I'm not sure I recommend seeing sad work that is distant and over which we individually have little control. For Brito, who is there, I think it's fine work to make. Inside the Gate are digital composite photographs of forests by Kent Krugh. At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org map 122 NW 8th 6PM-9


Froelich has Joe Fedderson working in glass from his cultural tradition of the Colville Tribe. There is also a group show themed on fire. At Froelick Gallery www.froelickgallery.com 714 NW Davis



Compound has Basking in the Glow by Robin Adkison and Joseph McVetty. At Compound Gallery www.compoundgallery.com 107 NW 5th 6PM-10



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