Monday, June 30, 2014

July 1 Get Real or Get Faux

Artist Philip Guston died in 1980. He was a contemporary of Pollock, Rothko and Klein in New York. He rejected abstract expressionism and the moneyed gallery world in the late 1960's and turned to political illustration-style work. Many artists have done the same since 2008, and some are working in socially conscious social practice art today.

Musician Neal Morgan became excited about Guston's work and it illustrates one of his 12 inch recording jackets. Morgan gives a talk about the artist and the work tonight.

Details and background at www.facebook.com/events/1435028590099247/?ref=22

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



We don't like comedy. Not that it is all bad, mysoginistic, insulting and racist. But that it is too much work to find the good bits, the bits that move the world forward in a good way. Nonetheless, here is something that might be fun, PowerPoint Karaoke. Bri Pruett, Mike Merrill, Marcus Estes, Paul Schlesinger and Andrew Michaan have made PowerPoint decks on assigned somewhat ridiculous topics. Tonight they will be randomly given someone else's deck to present. You can see more about it on the Holocene website. At Holocene www.holocene.org 1001 SE Morrison 8:30PM Free

Thursday, June 26, 2014

June 29 Brunch Without Hesitation

Research Club Brunch #40 has presenters Seth Peterson, Leif J. Lee, Jonathan Eric Gann and Erin Fussell. Bring some vegetarian or vegan-friendly food, a plate, cup and utensils, and yourself. Listen to engaging speakers. Chat with interesting people. At Surplus Space www.surplusspace.org 3726 NE 7th Noon-2 Free


June 28: Surplus Sprocket Seed

Surplus Space is Gabe Flores' project post the Pioneer Place Place (Gallery). Tonight it's Manny Layers, Leif J. Lee, Jonathan Eric Gann performing as Roxxy Dazzles. At Surplus Space www.surplusspace.org 3726 NE 7th 6PM-9plus Space 6PM-9 Free



Pink! Who can argue with that? Not the Sprockettes! The Sprockettes are a choreographed minibike performance. Started here, there instances now around the world. Friday June 27 they have a ride you can join. This afternoon they perform with many members back in town for their 10th anniversary reunion. at the Multnomah County Bike Fair sometime at 4. At Col. Summers Park SE 20th and Belmont. Free



Albina is one of Portland's oldest neighborhoods and was an independent city at one time. It's been thoroughly destroyed by highways, railroads and access to the river blocked by large industrial facilities and ruins. There are a few old buildings in the neighborhood for a sense of what was: the old Widmer building, Beam and Anchor, some buildings on Russell, the old Ripe Family Dinner building, and some are artist work spaces. The North Coast Seed Building is one, a complex of artist studios in Albina. Tonight is their annual open studios, most of the artists open their studios tonight. They also have a large solar array on the roof! Strongly recommended. May not be wheel chair accessible. 2127 N. Albina 4PM-10 Free

June 27-29 C.O.P.S.

C.O.P.S. is Patrick Rock's Conceptual Oregon Performance School. Performance artists meet aspiring performance artists meet audience artists, and all those categories are intermixed. Friday is a talk-meetup at the gallery, Saturday is a perform-discuss marathon. Sunday is document-debrief. The documentation will be on view in the gallery July 5-6. Visiting artists from San Francisco are Jennifer Locke, and Lucas Murgida. Details on the RocksBox website: www.rocksboxfineart.com/node/83, www.facebook.com/conceptualoregon.performanceschool, instagram.com/conceptualorperformanceschool, vimeo.com/user28466870

At Rocksbox Fine Art www.rocksboxfineart.com 6540 N Interstate Map

Friday 8PM-Midnight, Saturday Noon-Midnight, Sunday Noon-8 Free



June 27-28 Too Quiet To

Who says music has to be loud always? Not the Quiet Music Festival ever.

In fact the event is more about quiet, unassuming creativity. No rock stars.

Started by artist skater musician Chris Johansen, it includes one of his musical projects Saturday. Friday performers are Marisa Anderson, Mark Eitzel, Neal Morgan/Neal Morgan+Pulse Emitter, Christine Shields and Jonathan Sielaff. Special guests Friday are the Von Trapp Family. Saturday performers are Tujurikkuja, Sally Timms, Hush Arbors, Chelsea Rector and Sun Foot. It's not the basement banger, it's the living room concert. There are 3 couches, otherwise the seating is on a collection of soft blankets with decorative pillows supplied by the venue, lit by scattered occasional lamps. There is also an art show of faux concert posters by William Keihn. Recommended.

Musical and ticket details at disjecta.org/exhibitions-events/quiet-music-festival-2.

At Disjecta, in the shadow of Paul Bunyan www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate Map Doors 7PM, show 8. $8 advance/$15 both - advance or $10/18 door

June 27 Free 8-Bit

The Portland Art Museum monthly free admission day is today. At the Portland Art Museum www.pam.org 1219 SW Park 5PM-8 Free



Control Voltage continues Data Port PDX with performances tonight. Musicians make music with or incorporate samples from antique video games, keyboards and rhythm machines. Performers this evening are A_Rival, Space Town Savior and Vaporware DJ - chiptune/synthwave/synthpop. Details on the series at https://www.facebook.com/DataPortPDX. All ages. At Control Voltage www.controlvoltage.net 3742 NE Mississippi 7PM Free

Saturday, June 21, 2014

June 21 The Wild Woolley

The Mark Woolley Gallery has more lives than the woolliest cat. The gallery's latest reincarnation is in the Pioneer Place Mall. Over Portland art history, the gallerist has collected quite a bit from artist friends. In the spirit of reduce, reuse and recycle, he is looking to find new homes for that work in a show Choice Cuts that opens tonight. At the Mark Woolley Gallery www.markwoolley.com 5PM-9 Free

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

June 21 Gardens R Us!

Portland Botanical Gardens is an installation by Julia Calabrese. In the finest open source - social practice tradition, the artist has asked PMOMA neighbors, children and the Project Grow artists to make and title botanical paintings, which are complemented by an installation of botanical materials. Music by Michael Stirling. At the Portland Museum of Modern Art inside Mississippi Records www.portlandmuseumofmodernart.com 5202 N Albina Map 8PM-10 Free

June 20-22 Happening 13x3

The PSU Time Arts Club has organized the Future Arts Festival for your participatory pleasure. It's a sprawling affair best groked by reading their encyclopedic Facebook page - www.facebook.com/events/1386914694881453. Their Happenings one to twelve have been an evening, this is three. At PSU and an Everett Loft. Friday, Saturday 4PM-11, Sunday 6PM-9 Free

June 19 Sparkling Werewolves

Every month the Art Museum invites an artist to select a work from the collection, then give a talk about it to an intimate crowd, which might include you. This month, Anna Fidler is the ringleader. She is known for impressionistic portraits and landscapes. Her portraits have included women, basketball players, werewolves and vampires, often in glitter or interference paints. If interested, meet promptly at 6PM at the side entrance by the courtyard. At the Portland Art Museum www.pam.org 1219 SW Park 6PM-8 $15, $5 members

June 16 Lead Pencil on Dark Cities

Lead Pencil Studio is a Seattle architectural duo, Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo, working primarily as artists. Tonight as guests of Project Cityscope, they present Dark Corners/High F/Mannequins/Ugly/Downer Boxes: current projects. One project is the Dark Corners, deconstructed lidar scans of streetscapes in Rome, London and New York. At the Doug Fir Lounge 7PM Free

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

June 12 Lithop on Alberta

Portland's rainy Winters and smart residents promote literary culture. Writing and reading. Tonight writers read and, if you like, you can listen. In comfortable local businesses over food and drink. The venues are within walking distance with six schedules running simultaneously. Each reading is fifteen minutes, don't get bored. Lithop www.facebook.com/lithoppdx and lithoppdx.com. Locations on NE Alberta. 7PM-midnight Free

Friday, June 06, 2014

June 8 Church of Botany

Alexis Anne Mackenzie opens Interference at Ampersand. The work starts with botanical imagery which is then sliced and diced in by physical sampling and visually remixed. At Ampersand Vintage Printed Material www.ampersandvintage.com 2916 NE Alberta, Ste B. Map 5PM-8 Free


Friends at Xhurch are fascinated by reused churches. One of their projects are music and art events, held in the Alberta Abbey. This seventh event has Benoit Pioulard, Like A Villain, Colin Manning, Edmond Booth and Zachary Schomburg. Sound by Tim Westcott. M.A.S.S. VII www.facebook.com/events/302365019918466 at Alberta Abbey, 126 NE Alberta. All ages. 8PM Free

June 7 Blue Cadre Machine

The staff of Blue Moon Camera and Machine have their annual show of personal works tonight. It will be at C3:initiative gallery www.c3initiative.org 7326 N. Chicago 6PM-9 Free



Cadre is a sprawl of the thesis work from the PSU MFA Program. Artists are Perry Doane, Kaila Farrell-Smith, Mark Martinez, Wesley Petersen, Isaac Fletcher Weiss, Kathryn Yancey. At Rocksbox Fine Art www.rocksboxfineart.com 6540 N Interstate Map 6PM-11 Free

Monday, June 02, 2014

June 6 Shine a Light

Social Practice Art. Portland is world leader.

Social Practice Art, or social sculpture in the words of Joseph Beuys, is artists facilitating creative actions in others. It might be open source art.

Art museums protect, preserve and contextualize physical works, often spanning millennia. Slow art culture.

Shine a Light is social practice artists taking over the Museum for an evening of interactive participation, by you, in the moment, not in millennia.

Tonight there will be food and drink in the courtyard and ballroom. A chance to make art from cardboard boxes, movement performance by dancers and by you. DJs. Art discussions by you. Sound healing. Karaoke. Your stories, broadcast. Tarot. Drawing. More.

The museum will be filled with some of the most interesting people in Portland. It's an opportunity for you to share in the experience with them.

The full program, and there will be handouts there night of to plan your explorations, are found here: www.portlandartmuseum.org/document.doc?id=136

There is also a participatory workshop for artists Friday through Sunday, Assembly. That program is an opportunity to practice social practice art making, and to sleep over in the Museum Saturday evening. More: www.psusocialpractice.org/assembly.

$5 Museum members; $15 general admission; Free for children 17 and under; $5 for College Pass holders; $12 for college students. Tickets available online in advance. Will likely sell out and have long ticket lines night of.

Shine a Light www.portlandartmuseum.org/shinealight at the Portland Art Museum www.pam.org 1219 SW Park 6PM-midnight $5-15

June 6 Eastside Openings+

Ai Weiwei Never Sorry is a fine documentary. The filmmaker goto to know the artist over several years corresponding to quite a bit unfolding in his art and his life. A different filmmaker has continued Weiwei's story in Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case. The period covered is coincided with the transition of central government leadership. The year or more leading up to transitions are sensitive, agitation is discouraged in the strongest terms. You can see the film tonight and tomorrow - Saturday at the Film Center. Tonight the Museum will be very crowded. 7PM $9, $8 members



William Matheson presents Sunless. At Nationale www.nationale.us 811 E Burnside Map 6PM-9 Free



Ian Anderson has dark surreal illustrations, and Redux also adds a window show, ongoing 24x7, on the parking lot side. The first window show is photographs by Briana Cerezo. At Redux www.reduxpdx.com 811 E Burnside



Unbound: Artifacts of the Gemira Commission is a mythical project by designer Adam Garcia of The Pressure studio. At One Grand Gallery www.onegrandgallery.com 1000 E Burnside 6PM-10 Free



Homeland continues Columbia River Shadows by Anna Daedalus and Kerry Davis. It is fine abstract work on photo paper. 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 Measure Up diptych photographs by Rachel Siegel. At Pushdot Studio www.pushdotstudio.com 2505 SE 11th Avenue Suite 104 6PM-9 Free



Lorenzo Triburgo has Transportraits, formal photographic portraits of trans individuals. At Newspace Photo www.newspacephoto.org 1632 SE 10th Map 6PM-9 Free



Superficial is a show by Matthew Causey & Lauren Mabry. They work in ceramics, and each approach their glazing uniquely. At Eutectic Gallery www.eutecticgallery.com 1930 NE Oregon 6PM-9 Free



Rust is captured by LeeAnn Gauthier in photos Artful Oxidation. Of course ocean waters are relentless facilitators of rust which never sleeps. At Bridge City Counseling 712 SE Hawthorne 7PM-9 Free

June 5 Westside Art Openings+

We like talks. We like Asia, been. Will do more. A talk has been foolishly scheduled in prime art night. But worth considering for specialists and for following up with interested. Geoffrey Hiller Talk presents At Home in the World: Photographing Asia. His work, sponsored by the Fulbright Foundation spans Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia and Pakistan. Registration required at www.prophotosupply.com/p-events.htm. At Pro Photo Supply Event Center 1801 NW Northrup 7PM-8 Free



Sean Healy has Extroverts. Some of the work is made of cigarette ash or of cigarette filters, which may not be immediately apparent. Recommended. At Elizabeth Leach Gallery www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th Map 6PM-9



Matsuo Bashō is one of the greatest poets of the Edo period. He enjoyed renku, and in particular, collaborative renku as exquisite corpse. His haiku is renowned.

One work, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, 奥の細道 Oku no Hosomichi, is a poetic narrative of a walking trip.

Yukiyo Kawano has created work of hand-dyed silk and paper, Narrow Road to the Deep North - After Matsuo Basho, inspired by Basho's original. Kawano carries within her family history as granddaughter of a survivor of the Hiroshima bomb. Non-Japanese cannot understand the social dynamics of that history which has been recapitulated in the events at Fukushima Daiichi.

At Glyph Cafe & Arts Space www.glyphpdx.com 804 NW Couch 5PM-9 Free




Pierre de Vallombreuse
presents a show of developing world workers working, Hommes Racines. Many are affected by destruction of the lands where they live. Along with Chad States' Cruising and Takhiro Suzuki’s video 9214, accompanied by stills. In the Nines Gallery, Jerry Mayer and Ellen George have Stand, a minimal installation. At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org map 122 NW 8th 6PM-9



Fresh off the Rocket Ship is a show by Japanese new artists Daisuke Funaki, Mitsuya Watanabe, Kenichi Obana, Asami Muruyama, Ruri Clarkson, Mami Itagaki, Kanako Ozawa, Mayuko Matsumoto, Keiko Miyata, Yoruko Okamura and Ryosuke Matsuzono. 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



Matthew Roberts has made plaster impressions of automobile tire tracks. He then filled them with rain and used the reflective surface. At Duplex Collective www.duplexcollective.com 219 NW Couch 6PM-9



Irish artist Alex Rose presents Another Furrow in the Forehead. At UpFor Gallery www.upforgallery.com 929 NW Flanders 6PM-9 Free



Portland State University has their BFA student thesis show by artists Shane Adair, Amanda Buckman, Carrie Clore, Eilish Connor, Maureen Gates, Eve Jakabosky, Annalise Reinhardt-Kohlberger, Kayleigh Nelson, Heather Palmer, Thomas Putman, Chacha Sands, Joel Stotesbery and Anastasia Tuazon. At the Autzen Gallery & AB Lobby & MK Gallery Galleries 5PM-9 Free


UO Portland also has their thesis show, which may include video works. At the University of Oregon White Stag Building, whitebox.uoregon.edu 70 NW Couch 6PM-9 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