Wednesday, January 31, 2018

February 1 Westside Art Openings

This is not another cat show. It's from Alix Pearlstein who makes minimalist video works staging suggestions of human social interaction in architectural space. The cat piece, Harem Room-1, is a timely comment. You can see both and read about both. This is a great show by Upfor operating on a national stage. The artist speaks Wednesday January 31 in the gallery at 6 on art and #metoo/#notsuprised. At UpFor Gallery www.upforgallery.com 929 NW Flanders early close 6PM-8 Free



Ellen George and Jerry Mayer have Repose. It's a minimalist room installation involving rice. Loose material piled resolves into a natural angle of repose. It's an interesting topic. The Nine Gallery inside Blue Sky Map 122 NW 8th 6PM-9 Free



Henk Pander has new drawings. Pender is a Dutch artist and longtime portland artist resident with a unique rough realistic style edging surreal. At Augen Gallery www.augengallery.com 716 NW Davis early close 8PM Free



G. Lewis Clevenger has Reclaiming My Time, along with Robert Yoder: Club Number and Heavenly Bodies by Elizabeth Malaska. At Laura Russo Lee Gallery www.russoleegallery.com 805 NW 21st early close 5PM-8 Free



Froelick has Willie Little, a California artist raised in North Carolina.

His work references self-taught, even visionary, artists from the South. Those artists always existed as folk artists. The art valuation excesses of Reagan-era Wall Street drew collectors to discover these folk artists.

Locally and in New York, the Jamison Thomas gallery added folk artists. Charles Froelick worked for the Jamison Thomas Gallery and assumed some artists in this style, so this is an apt return. The Portland Museum of Modern Art has also championed folk art & self taught art styles.

Willie Little is a new generation of self-taught artists embraced by the gallery-museum ecosystem. It's a nice complement to the work of Edwin Jeffery Jr now at W+K. Jeffery was a fireman involved in the civil rights movement who used firehouse free time to carve artworks of wood.

Also showing is the late Rick Bartow, a former Jamison Thomas artist. At Froelick Gallery www.froelickgallery.com 714 NW Davis early close 8 Free



In a similar vein Alison O’Donoghue has New Bones, paintings. At Powell's Basil Hayward Gallery, 3rd floor. www.powells.com. 10th and W Burnside



Leach has collages by Jimmy Baker, Pat Boas, Claire Cowie, John Evans, Ann Hamilton, Lee Kelly, Kara Maria, Vik Muniz, Melody Owen, Eunice Parsons, Charlie Perez-Tlatenchi, Michael Scheurer, Brion Nuda Rosch, Michelle Ross and Myrna Tatar. At Elizabeth Leach Gallery www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th Map 6PM-9 Free



The RACC + Open Signal Night Lights series of video projection has Julia Calabrese. It's on the building wall at 411 NW Park 5PM-9ish



The Ace Hotel has started a First Thursday experimental music event curated by Sounds et al. It pairs well with Veriform's sound gallery First Thursday, but it detracts from people flowing to galleries and it is a very small space. This month: Brin and Christi Denton. In the Ace Hotel Lobby 1022 SW Stark 6PM-8



PNCA is recommended to stop in. They have long time cycle shows and pop ups distributed throughout the building. PNCA www.pnca.edu 511 NW Broadway Map 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, in cold Winter earlier

February 1-3 Let There Be Light

The Portland Winter Light Festival is inspired by light festivals around the world and hometown DIY projects like the Light Bar. It's in its third year. So there are more events in locations beyond the OMSI center, including performances in the World Trade Center. It has a large schedule and online catalog which is mobile friendly. It's big enough and dispersed enough that you can experience it over multiple evenings. It's child friendly and popular with families. The Portland Winter Light Festival www.pdxwlf.com some daytime locations, OMSI evenings, the World Trade Center evenings. 6PM-11 Free

Thursday, January 25, 2018

January 28 Secret Revelation

Secrets is a new show by Katie Aliprando, Aline Cautis, Sonja Gerdes, Lia Lowenthal at Private Places. Revelation Theater is new a show by LA poet-visual artists Alec Egan and Andreas Gurewich at Chicken Coop. They are two independent exhibition spaces who focus on openings, beyond that, by appointment. So recommend to see it now! They are geographically diverse, with this opening coordinated and welcome to carpooling.

At Private Places www.privateplaces.us 2400 Holliday noon-2 Free

At Chicken Coop Contemporary www.chickencoopcontemporary.com 12400 SE Knapp 2PM-6 Free

January 27 Winter Library

Caldera Arts is a Summer arts immersion for at-risk youth. In Winter/Spring, guest artists visit for an uninterrupted residency in a beautiful setting. Today is an open house to see the work and meet the artists in the cycle.

Full artist bios: www.calderaarts.org/caldera/arts-in-residence/current-roster/.

Arrive at 1PM sharp for presentations by the artists, then visit the studios.

At Camp Caldera www.calderaarts.org, 31500 Blue Lake Drive, Sisters, OR Map 1PM-3 Free



Library Style is a show of artist books.

Portland has a rich history from the IPRC & zines, OCAC's books arts program for one of a kind, art publishers for few of a kind, like Publication Studio, Container Corps, Ampersand and Blue Sky along with local library rare book collections and the Gilkey Center. Many artists have some pretty epic journals and sketchbooks. This was an open call, so more likely one of a kind.

Library Style https://www.facebook.com/events/914991205336544/ at OV Project Space 7604 SE Washington 7PM-10 Free

January 26 Next Greyhound Optimism

Ampersand is a thriving art book store with a strong representation of photography. Photographer Robert Lyons launches Pictures From The Next Day, documenting the interior of a home. The occupant lived there from birth to death, excepting a service time in WWII. Chikara Umihara launches Tsumugu, five years documenting cross country Greyhound trips. All the exposures were made from the bus and the bus stations. Both photographers are showing their work as photobooks.

At Ampersand Gallery www.ampersandgallerypdx.com 2916 NE Alberta, Ste B. Map 7PM Free



ANX has an artist talk for the closing of the current show Ever the Optimist by Sami Lee Woolhiser. The ANX gallery is deepening its curatorial philosophy to include contemporary shows. At adxportland.com ANX Gallery 1015 SE Stark 7PM Free

January 25 Agent Orange

Cuban-American artist Edel Rodriguez has Agent Orange, a Trump-themed graphic design-style commentary. He is joined by Edwin Jeffery Jr, sculptor and artist from Memphis. At W+K www.wk.com 224 NW 13th Map 5:30PM-8:30 Free

Friday, January 19, 2018

January 21 Gender Endings

Emma Kohlmann opens paintings Sun Spots. They are bright primitive schematic style, installed over floor to ceiling reproductions from her zine in the same style. Good addition by Nationale. At Nationale www.nationale.us 3360 SE Division Map 3PM-5 Free



Endings opens today. It's work by Portland artists Srijon Chowdhury and Bobbi Woods who each also operate independent exhibit spaces. Chowdhury works in oils; Woods, photography. At Marylhurst University www.marylhurst.edu/theartgym/ Map 4PM-6 Free

January 20 Flood

Portia Munson from the Hudson Valley opens her show Flood tonight. She is an installation artist working with plastic consumer goods staged en masse. She also has mandalas of biological materials in contrast. At Disjecta, in the shadow of Paul Bunyan www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate Map 6PM-9 Free

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

January 19 Psychological Propeller

AMPM is a show of paintings by Hayley Barker, previously a Portlander, now in LA. They are face forms abstracted by dense mark making as psychological studies. Her artist book Vintage Self Help will be available. It was commissioned by Cherry & Lucic. That gallery in a garage is no longer operating; one of the 3 principals is cofounder of Williamson | Knight.

The announcement also wins the copywriting award for the month:
"AMPM—like the convenience store. You walk in, looking to quench some kind of thirst. You want quickness and reach around, grabbing for something that does the job. All day. All night. Like dreams and psychological states. Spiritual experiences that you ultimately enter—knowing delicacy or disappointment. There is a little bit of everything in the store, but maybe not exactly what you want. Maybe it’s not enough.

In dreams and in shamanic meditation, there comes a flow of both spiritual and mundane imagery. Messages from guides and one’s intuition. Meetings with spirits, goddesses, and versions of my-self. The paintings are self portraits; they are icons—reminders of who I have met, been, and could be in vast internal realms. They start with the “beddrawings” then become paintings. They include text and faces which come intuitively in morning drawing practices and reveal a woman-looking self in a slightly awake state. This is a state of desire, anger, exhaustion, and anxiety, all at once."

At Williamson | Knight www.williamsonknight.com 916 NW Flanders early close. 6PM-8 Free



Huun Huur Tu - http://www.huunhuurtu.ru/ - a progressive throat singing quartet from Tuva, graces Portland tonight. They are one of the most extensively toured Tuvan throat singing performers in the West and we are one of a very select set of cities they are touring. Progressive means they have collaborated with Western musicians and electronica artists since 1992.

Huun Huur Tu is translated as “Sun Propeller” - beams of sunlight cast through clouds in the golden hour or through tree leaves by overhead sun.

Portland has its own Tuvan throat singer, Soriah! So it is natural they visit our small town. You can preview Huun Hour Tu by a video search.

At the Alberta Rose Theater www.albertarosetheatre.com 3000 NE Alberta. Doors 7PM, show 8. $25 advance, $30 door (sold out)

Monday, January 15, 2018

January 17 Memory Wilderness Party

Science as an inspiration for contemporary art is a largely overlooked opportunity. Perhaps it's the math filter for science careers or the conceptual semantics filter for contemporary art careers. It could be the overall downward interest in science in America. Or it could be the culture wars on art.

But science produces beautiful and complex visual artifacts which can be sampled for art. And the conceptual base is right under the surface.

There is beautiful raw material in physics, nanomaterials, visualization of molecules, energy, climate, geology and tectonics as well as biological building blocks: phages, viruses, cells and organs.

Portland artist Elise Wagner has work inspired by high energy physics and climate. Geraldine Ondrizek draws inspiration from science. There are Portland scientists who make art, but not in the contemporary art ecosystem.

I've always loved Janine Antoni's Slumber, based on electroencephalograms.

A subset is bio art related to genetics.

Bioartist George Gessert's art is inspired by plant breeding. He has traced the history of DNA-inspired art: https://is.muni.cz/el/1421/jaro2012/IMK48/A_History_of_Art_Involving_DNA.pdf. Early, Dali was inspired by DNA https://www.nature.com/articles/422817a. In 2002, Robin Held at the Henry mounted Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics. IƱigo Manglano-Ovalle, who ranges across many scientific topics, developed visual material based on gel electrophoresis of DNA. Now those DNA analysis patterns have crossed into consumer decorative and fashion items independent of the contemporary art world.

Genetics travels beyond primitive viruses in DNA. DNA? That was discovered by Watson and Crick and noted by a Nobel. The illustrations for the original paper were conceived by Odile Crick. Portland artist Kindra Crick is their granddaughter.

She has her own science-inspired projects.

Tonight artist Crick opens Illuminated Wilderness: Memory here. It occupies the whole of the Littman Gallery.

One piece includes models of neurons at about 30000:1 scale, with LED lighting suggesting action potentials. It was developed in collaboration with a neuroscience researcher in Washington. This should be a fun show and is included in the Winter Light Festival outlying shows.

The artist gives a talk January 31, 6PM at the gallery. Opening at the PSU Littman Gallery in Smith Union. www.littmanwhite.com/ PSU Smith Hall, Room 250, 1825 SW Broadway. Map 5PM-8 Free



We don't cover every Open Signal event but some. Strewn: Lu Yim, Sidony O'Neal, Maya Vivas, & Hannah Krafcik with Pepper Pepper and They Gamble perform tonight. At Open Signal www.opensignalpdx.org 2766 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. 7PM $8-$10 sliding

Saturday, January 13, 2018

January 14 Mirror +

Portland artist Melanie Flood has Mirror Mirror. The artist also operates their own small gallery space. At the first of two members in Portland of the New Art Dealers Alliance www.newartdealers.org, Fourteen30 Gallery www.fourteen30.com 1501 SW Market Street Map 11AM-1PM Free



Butoh+ is a flexible format variety show Seattle organized by DAIPANbutoh. This month has Helen America, Marcia Tate Arunga, Alycia Scott Zollinger, Izumi Fairbanks, Jay Hamilton, and DAIPANbutoh members Kaoru Okumura and Sheri Brown. At Union Theater 1406 18th Ave, Seattle, WA Map Doors 6PM, Show 7 $10-20

Thursday, January 11, 2018

January 12 Bomb Grapefruit

Gataro is an artist and son of a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Those survivors, hibakusha č¢«ēˆ†č€…, have a complex place in Japanese culture which cannot be translated. Gataro makes drawings of his everyday life and the surrounding city. His day job of 30 years is working as a janitor in apartment complexes built for those displaced by the destruction.


NHK made a documentary https://www.nhk.or.jp/peace/english/library/program/20130810.html about him and his work. This showing is of the English translated version.


Movement artists here, Meshi Chavez, Yukiyo Kawano and collaborators have drawn inspiration of the 1945 bombings, which could be repeated immanently. They encountered the documentary traveling their performance. So Kawano translated it to English. She is a hibakusha granddaughter.


That documentary is screened tonight in its premiere performance in English. Popcorn provided, bring your own refreshments. At Momentum Studio 1028 SE Water ave. #250 7PM Free



Grapefruits Rainbow in the Clouds by Momo Meow and Andrew Auble. At Grapefruits, www.grapefruitjuiceartists.org/www.grapefruitsartspace.org 2119 N Kerby, STE D. 6PM-9 Free

January 11 Beauty and Beast

Dino Mat and Marlon Mullen have stylized vintage magazine cover paintings and ceramic vessels that look like a gum wall. At Adams and Ollman Gallery, the second of two members of the New Art Dealers Alliance www.newartdealers.org, www.adamsandollman.com 209 SW 9th early close 6PM-8 Free



Myths and fairytales inform our psychic DNA. Many originated thousands of years ago in oral tradition. They are entwined with brain development and our love of narrative. At points they have been captured in writing.

Beauty and the Beast, La Belle et la BĆŖte, is one. Many writers have captured it, including Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756. In turn, many film versions have been made. An early one is Cocteau's in 1946.

This evening it is accompanied by a live score with Patricia Wolf + CM Wolf Ensemble of: Noah Bernstein, John Niekrasz, Amenta Abioto & Jonathan Sielaff and Like a Villain.

It's part of the Fin de Cinema occasional we love. Recommended.

Fin de Cinema presents Beauty and the Beast https://www.facebook.com/events/1892468914126858/ at Holocene 1001 SE Morrison. Doors 8:30PM, film 9:15 $10

Sunday, January 07, 2018

January 6 - February 10 SRL in NYC

Survival Research Labs - SRL is an art project started in 1978 by Mark Pauline and collaborators. They built large robots, usually powered by automobile engines running hydraulics with destructive capabilities, and staged theatrical performances of them in public. The performances were dangerous, though I don't think an audience member was ever injured.

Pauline had worked building military equipment in his early career. One interpretation of SRL is as critical commentary on our use of science, technology and industry for destructive ends.

SRL exchanged members with other cultural explorers such as the Suicide Club, the Cacophony Society, Seemen in the 1970's to '90's San Francisco Bay Area.

The performances are much rarer, and Pauline-SRL has moved from underground, to art group-institution sponsorship, to the gallery.

This is art work, but au courant as AI & robots mate with military & industrial uses today.

Performances are documented in video. Perhaps you can imagine the audience risk.

The NYT covered it with some great quotes: www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/arts/design/mark-pauline-survival-research-laboratories.html as does this short doc www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dcg9MpNYuc.

The show, Inconsiderate fantasies of negative acceleration characterized by sacrifices of a non-consensual nature www.marlboroughcontemporary.com/exhibitions/survival-research-laboratories, opens at Marlborough Contemporary 545 West 25th Street, New York, NY. Free

Friday, January 05, 2018

January 6 Installation Work in Progress

Portia Munson opens her artist in residence studio this afternoon. The work is being made for a future show Flood at Disjecta. That show opens January 20. At C:3 Initiative www.c3initiative.org 7326 N Chicago Map 2PM-5 Free

January 5 Eastside Art Openings

Eutectic has Persistence of the Residuum, sculpture by Thaddeus Erdahl, Richard James and Russell Wrankle. At Eutectic Gallery www.eutecticgallery.com 1930 NE Oregon 6PM-9 Free



One Grand has Vara, abstract grid ink on paper by Paul Savovici. At One Grand Gallery www.onegrandgallery.com 1000 E Burnside 7PM-10 Free



Black Box photo gallery has Framed: Landscape Photography. At Black Box Gallery www.blackboxgallery.com 811 E Burnside, Suite 212 upstairs Early close 5PM-8 Free



Chefas has a show of paintings. At Stephanie Chefas Projects www.stephaniechefas.com 305 SE 3rd Ave #202 - the City Sign Building, formerly a low cost artist space Map. 6PM-9 Free

Monday, January 01, 2018

January 4 Westside Art Openings+

Robert Frank, now 93, started early in industrial photography and fashion. Perhaps that allowed him to move on early from the industrial objectives of commercial work.

At age 31 he started The Americans. It was a two year road trip, 1955-6 of 28,000 exposures; a view of America without hubris. Certainly his personal associations with the Beats placed him with the skeptics of that economic expansion which bypassed so many. Frank has lived an ascetic life and continuously explored new artistic challenges.

This is a two month show: Books and Films: 1947–2017.

It is ephemeral in that the works are printed on non-archival newsprint and will all be destroyed at the end of the show to discourage art collector speculation.

Vogue has an article about the show, naming him the Bernie Sanders of photography. The show is accompanied by a series at the film center nwfilm.org/film-series/robert-frank-frank-perspectives/. It launches January 10 with the documentary Don't Blink about Frank made in 2015, followed by several of his films.

This show is strongly recommended.

At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org Map 122 NW 8th 6PM-9 Free

The Nine Gallery inside Blue Sky 122 NW 8th



MK Guth is known for her ongoing social practice performance body of work. Collaborative Red Shoe Delivery Service brought social practice performance to NYC early. Later projects included connecting hair and memory. In a large Marylhurst show, she introduced social meals with handmade tables, utensils and journals. Instructions for Drinking With a Friend continues that theme, reprising a similar project at her East Coast Gallery. You may sign up in pairs to particpate.

Her work benefits from knowing the concept and narrative over pure instant visual pleasure. But it's worth it to engage.

Also showing Presence/Absence, monochrome abstractions.

At Elizabeth Leach Gallery www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th Map 6PM-9 Free



Reed artist Vance Feldman has Foreverscape, an obsessive pop surrealist mural in panels, continuously expanded since 2009. At Blackfish Gallery 420 NW 9th 6PM-9 Free



Georgina Reskala has Residue of a Vision. She is a recently minted CCA MFA originally from Mexico City, now LA. At PDX Contemporary Art www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 925 NW Flanders Map early close 8PM Free



The Ace Hotel has started a First Thursday experimental music event curated by Sounds et al. It pairs well with Veriform's sound gallery First Thursday, but it detracts from people flowing to galleries and it is a very small space. This month FreeIndira Valey, RON and Location Services. In the Ace Hotel Lobby 1022 SW Stark 6PM-8 Free



Every First Thursday, the Art Museum is free from 5PM-8.

It is a great opportunity to see the year-long project by Libby Warbel: We Construct Marvels Between Monuments. Warbel is the creator of Portland's other art museum, the Portland Museum of Modern Art. The first visual show in the series is made of works by intellectually disabled artists in Portland, Ricky Bearghost, Kurt Fisk, Perry Johnson, Elmeator Morton, Lawrence Oliver and Dawn Westover.


Portlandartmuseum.org/exhibitions/we-construct-marvels-between-monuments/ at the Portland Art Museum www.portlandartmuseum.org 1219 SW Park 5PM-8 Free



PNCA is recommended to stop in. They have long time cycle shows and pop ups distributed throughout the building. PNCA www.pnca.edu 511 NW Broadway Map 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, in cold Winter earlier



Damien Hirst is one of the bad boys of art in a number of dimensions. In the Fall he installed "Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable." It is connected to the parafiction movement with examples by Josiah McElheny, the Museum of Jurassic Technology, RTMark and back to Dada. But it also represents a marker in time of the concentration of wealth in the world economy. The accompanying film has dropped on Netflix under the same name. Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable forms an interesting pair with the Robert Frank show.