October 23 Night to Dawn

Zena Zezza is an independent project by Sandra Percival who did curatorial work for Yale Union. Continuing the noted Zezza curatorial arc, they present Yang Fudong from Shanghai's Yejiang/The Nightman Cometh to Dawn Breaking.

It opens today in a warehouse downtown. It is not entirely mobility accessible on all floors, contact the organizers if you need that. Zena Zezza zenazezza.org at 1857 Hallock & McMillan building. It is the red door on SW Oak by SW Naito Parkway. 2PM-5 Free

October 22 Mecanica Mechanics

Chris Chandler opens Art-Mecanica. He fits well in Portland's romance with art printmaking birthed by Gordon Gilkey, and the Portland letterpress crowd of the IRPC, the CC Stern Type Foundry and others. Chandler's method is to carve type into large woodblocks, print them, then deconstruct and collage the prints into the final piece. Chandler is the latest Stumptown Coffee Roasters Artist Fellow. At Stumptown www.stumptowncoffee.com 128 SW 3rd 5PM-7 Free

October 20 Vampire Wonders

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) is a slow, surreal, vampire story of the Czech new wave, and based on an earlier Czech novel. It is an art film in monochrome. Akila Fields (Palm Dat) and Noah Bernstein play a live soundtrack. It is part of the Fin de Cinema series, always beautiful. At Holocene 1001 SE Morrison. Proof of vaccination required. Doors 8PM, show 830. $10

October 16 Transmitting Receiving Receiving Transmitting

Michelle Segre is a sculptor-installationist. She has a show, Transmitters and Receivers, opening at the Lumber Room today. A quick take is that her work is Miro-like, crossed with more organic forms than Sarah Sze. It is an interesting selection of a late career artist. At The Lumber Room lumberroom.com 419 SW 9th, above Liz Leach Map 4PM-6 Free

October 9-10 Here and Now

We are a little Covid late to this party, but a new artist group, showing in itinerant spaces, Playground, has an interesting group show, Here and Now. You can see what they are up to with their list of artists: V Maldonado, MK Guth, Dylan Beck, Carl Diehl, Rachel Milstein, Rachel Rodriguez, Sarie Bettineski, Marty Trammell, Crimson Ravarra, Limei Lai, Taylor Evans, Sydney Kattine, Eli West, Shezuet Harger Miller, Subarna Talukder Bose, Julianna Paradisi, Lauren Sinner, Nathan Cooper, Justin Tuttle, Warren Simon, Autumn Cornell, Perry Chandler, Kevin Smith, Ahuva S. Zaslavsky, Tyler Young, Lynn Stephens Massey, and Yasmin Correa. Several of their talks have passed, but this Saturday and Sunday, as the show is closing, has the following schedule of events: Saturday: 2:30PM - Artist Talk - Tyler Young 3PM - Group portrait drawing - Taylor Evens 3:30PM - Live painting - Taylor Evens Sunday: 2:30PM - Artist talk - Warren Simon 3:30PM - Live Music - Cortez Ravarra. See Playground https://playgroundgallery.org 140 NW 4th 11AM-5PM Free

October 9 Travels

The Seattle Asian Art museum is guesting a favorite travel writer, Colin Thubron. I've been fortunate to travel unusual places. I enjoy the great writers on the exerience. We have synapses and neurotransmitters for travel. Thuberon makes full use of those, relating research, amid observations, and wraps it up with a touching emotional experience. His latest work is The Amur River: Between Russia and China on which he speaks. You can join by https://seattleartmuseum.org/visit/calendar/events?EventId=78631 10AM-11:30 Free

October 7 Westside Art Openings

Mapping Utopia by Manal Abu-Shaheen’s are photographs exposed in Beirut, Lebanon. He was born in 1982. The civil war slightly overlapped. Most of the work is urban photography with an ironic and surreal bent admixed with The Yale School. 

Noelle Mason has X-Ray Vision vs. Invisibility. We each have eyes and a gaze. Technical means such as night vision, radar, and infrared sensors are available and they are used to surveil the US border with Mexico. Mason has sampled and recontextualized images from the the US Border Patrol and border vigilantes. She has also commissioned a carpet hand woven in Mexico from a satellite image. Her work was selected by the Critical Mass competition. This show is strongly recommended. Check the video of her gallery talk as available.  

Artist talk 5PM tonight by Noelle Mason. Saturday 11AM by Manal Abu-Shaheen. Registration for the artist talks is required to limit safe attendance. Proof of vaccination required. At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org Map 122 NW 8th early close 6PM-8 Free

 

Michael Brophy has Passage, NW landscape paintings inspired by road trips. Audrey Tulimiero Welch has Damascus: Mapping Place, Home, & Exile, abstract paintings. At Laura Russo Lee Gallery www.russoleegallery.com 805 NW 21st early close 5:30PM-7 Free

Everett Lofts has one opening on a spooky theme tonight at the Chaos Gallery. 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-10 Free

The Elizabeth Leach Gallery is doing their opening of Stephen Hayes and Gregg Renfrow on Youtube and Facebook live. Details on thir website. At Elizabeth Leach Gallery www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th Map Free

As far as we can tell, the other usual suspects have continuing shows and/or are open regular hours or by appointment, but not First Thursday evening in Covid time.

October 2 Salt Flood Spooky Lavender

Salt - A Story of the Land & Landscape is a show of aerial photographs by Sandra Chandler of salt evaporation ponds at the edges of the San Francisco Bay. You can get an idea at https://www.salt.photography/gallery/. At the Murdoch Collections 2219 NW Raleigh 3PM-7 Free

Lavender House is a video work at Oregon Contemporary by Sarah Rara themed on the vicissitudes of the landlord-tenant relationship. It is even humorous. The artist, and the curator Asha Bukojemsky, formerly of Portland, and now working in LA, speak at 5:30PM At the Oregon Center for Contemporary Art, in the shadow of Paul Bunyan www.oregoncontemporary.org 8371 N. Interstate Map 5PM-8 Free

Maria Lux has Waiting for the Flood, photographs. She wins the copyright award for "Continuing Lux’s recent work on de-extinction (bringing extinct animals back from the dead), Waiting for the Flood asks how alternative stories, emotions like humor and weirdness, and irreverent approaches to mainstream environmentalism can help us cope with, and perhaps reimagine, what appears to be inevitable." 

At Carnation Contemporary www.carnationcontemporary.com in the Disjecta building 8371 N Interstate#2. 6PM-9 Free

Spooky Season is a group show on that theme curated by Jessie Weitzel Le Grand, who had a recent excellent show at Chefas. Artists include Andrea Alonge, Paolo Puck, Sarah Hughes, Yaloo Ji Yeon, Pam Puck, Dan Lam. Anthony Roberto, Jenny Ollikainen, Jessie Weitzel Lagrand, Jeremy Legrand, and Alyson Provax. The closing show is October 30 with costumes encouraged. At Well Well Projects https://www.wellwellprojects.com/ in the Disjecta building 8371 N. Interstate#1 Map 5PM-8 Free

September 30, October 2, 9, 12, 16, 19, 23, 26 Bourgeois: What is the Shape of This Problem

Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy7xJhImnLw has worked with large themes of family, the body, death, and the unconscious informed by memories of family problems and WWI from her childhood. This show is prints and collages, while two of her sculptures are on loan to Oregon Contemporary nee Disjecta. Her parents were tapestry restorers, so you will find textile collage, and also a few spiders for which she was known. 

The gallery has invited local artists to respond to her work. On October 12, 19, and 26, artists Srijon Chowdhury, Ellen Lesperance, and Jovencio de la Paz will speak at noon.

It is textile month for many Portland galleries, and there is a participatory weaving studio, good for you and children on Saturdays this month and to see the show. See the calendar and open times on their website. 

At the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University https://www.pdx.edu/museum-of-art/ 1855 SW Broadway Free