January 31 Known Legos

Industry is an ad agency here - https://www.adweek.com/agencies/can-a-creative-agency-reshape-portland/. They are in Dick Singer's 60's international style LEGO building where polychrome panels randomly inhabit a curtain wall exterior. The building was once home to PICA and Poler. Last February Industry opened a gallery in their offices. This evening, they open their second show, Let It Be Known. It includes Portland artists Rob Lewis, Milan Davis, James Bullock, Naomi Likayi, Christine Miller, Nia Musiba and Paola de la Cruz; Mikey Coleman, from Chicago, and Barry Johnson from Seattle. Opening at IndustryOneGallery www.industry1.org 415 SW 10th 6PM-9 Free

January 28 Slip Bonds; Embrace Inspiration, Act With Grace

Space is the Place https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sOIs1u8iwg Afro-futurist Sun Ra made in 1974. The earliest humans, and maybe other creatures, look up and wonder. The sky and space was projected as the home of gods and now we have become them. Traveling up and out, beyond terra firma, is the realm of birds we wondered. Myth was made real by the Wright Brothers. It is poetically memorialized by John Gillespie Magee Jr. in his poem High Flight. Magee crashed at age 19. Risk is real. We were taken beyond the atmosphere by Sputnik, Laika, and President Kennedy. We love the frontier as explored by Walter Prescott Webb's the Great Frontier. We have always projected utopia on that new frontier. The United States asymptotically aspires to utopia. We have work to do in the spirit of continuous improvement. We can be much better gods. You can see an inspiring move on NASA and African American pilots, scientists and engineers making Afro-futurism real. They sought to slip the surly bonds of racism and be their maximum selves. The movie, The Space Race, https://films.nationalgeographic.com/the-space-race documents their experience. To Afro-futurism, world population dynamics make it inevitable. Movie The Space Race https://thereser.org/event/the-space-race/ at the Reser. Reservations required. 3PM Free

January 27 Eyes Closed

Music, like visual art, is always evolving and branching. It is not the shock of the new but love of the new. Through the magic of technology, a single individual can command a virtual orchestra with tools like Spitfire. That being said, the branches of 20th Century "classical" music and acoustic performers continue laying down new branches. Small ensembles playing expressive acoustic instruments for years achieve a mind meld you can hear. One is the Kronos. Tonight they perform, including with butoh player Eiko from New York. Eiko now moving solo, performed many years, including in Portland, with her partner Koma https://eikoandkoma.org/. They met studying with Hijikata and Ohno in Japan. They have performed together since they were 20 and 24 respectively and have a family. They had an art grant for a quarter floor on the 92nd floor for the year 2000 of the World Trade Center as a studio. Throughout their career, they have done idea-based work. Tonight Eiko performs Eyes Closed with the Kronos. After, there will be a panel discussion Artists Respond to Climate Change and Nuclear Disaster. The Kronos at Stanford Live https://live.stanford.edu/calendar/january-2024/kronos-quartet-five-decades in Palo Alto 7:30PM $32+

January 26 Folks

Modern Folk is a group show by Jess Ackerman, Luke Forsyth, Esther Pearl Watson, Godeleine de Rosamel, Betsy Walton, Lisa Congdon, Gina Contreras, and Justin Scrppers Morrison.

At Stephanie Chefas Projects www.stephaniechefas.com 134 SE Taylor, Ste 203. Map. 5PM-8 Free

January 25 Talons Out

Antler and Talon has a large group show by Peter Bakacs, Heather Lee Birdsong, Eli McMullen, Chris Mrozik, Lisa Golightly, Stevie Shao, Pizza in the Rain, Nicole Gustafsson, Brin Levinson, Kristin Bell, Neil Perry, Juliet Schreckinger, Faunwood, Allison May Kiphuth, and Caitlin McCormack with each artist making 3 works. On talons, the ultimate is in eagle mating https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9JiLlNTpJE. At Antler & Talon Gallery www.antlerpdx.com 2714 NE Alberta 6pm-9 Free

January 25 Life Experience

KSMOCA is situated in a pre-K/K-5school. It is the other arts magnet school. It's too cool. It started with art parents, adopted by social practice professors, it engages students with working artist residencies. Every child is an artist. The goal is not to lose that in doubt.

Richard Brown https://www.richardjbrown.me/ speaks there this morning. He is a photographer too https://www.richardjbrown.me/photography, presaging Insitar Abioto's Black Portlanders https://theblackportlanders.com/. In turn, Richard Brown is curated into the Portland Art Museum https://portlandartmuseum.org/event/black-artists-of-oregon/#artists-featured-in-black-artists-of-oregon by Abioto. Mr Brown has been artist in residence this Fall working with the students.

Please stop by the Main Office to sign in and receive a visitor pass to the school. At KSMOCA in the King K-8 School 4906 NE 6th. 10AM Free

January 23 Japan Society Engages Ai Weiwei in NYC

Ai Weiwei is a contemporary artist exiled from China. A fav is a documentary by Alison Klayman - Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry. His autobiography, 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows, is a review of Chinese history he experienced. He is present on social media and archived video. He has recent focus on refugees.

If you are in New York City, Ai Weiwei speaks. He has a new project in the form of a graphic novel. Zodiac: A Graphic Memoir. He's touring the book release.

He has a project in London, Ai vs. AI with CIRCA - https://circa.art/artist/ai-weiwei-ai-vs-ai/. Each day he asks a question.

You can look up the book and hear. At https://thetownhall.org/event/pen-out-loud-ai-weiwei-with-mira-jacob shame on using Ticketmaster 123 West 43rd Street 6PM $27+

January 21 Moths

Many musician friends have evolved their practice to the ambient - sound healing continuum. Even dedicated rockers. They inhabit small venues and intimate audience experiences. Alcohol which fuels local music, or really any other alterants, are not part of the equation.

Analog modular synths have resurged too. Musique concrète used vacuum tube electronics and magnetic tape. The next generation was epitomized by builders Robert Moog, Don Buchla, and others. They built small solid state synthesizers with large patches. Those modular synthesizers were akin to analog computers of the time used in solving calculus in science.

Trans musician Wendy Carlos provided Moog extensive user experience design feedback and subsequently was awarded multiple Grammys for her synthesizer performances. From there, purpose-built keyboard synths dominated. Now composition, tracking, mixing and mastering music is "in the box" - software.

But the kids rediscovered analog modules and built them on the inexpensive Eurorack ecosystem.

Live performance is popular, and the S1/Portland Synth Library, created by Felicia Ledesma, post her electronic media gallery Multiplex, is nestled in that world. We do mourn the sunset of Alisa Akay's Volt Divers synth+video performance series.

Some events combine synths, voice, and common sound healing acoustic instruments. Events can be lay down, some are sit down, and some are free improvised movement by all.

Tonight is MOTHS | Modular On The (Human) Spot: Movement to Modular Synthesis. It will be a small event, be nice, become part of the ecosystem, do not destroy it. It's a meditation with movement and community. Performer facilitators are Cave Cricket, Dashkasounds, and Wilder Rose. Presented in collaboration with the Portland Synth Library.

January 20 Opening Thaw

Kenji Ide from Japan has his second show in Portland. He was curated by founder Matt Jay into the Portland Japanese Garden contemporary art program with Poems of Perception. Ide’s Garden work is a contemporary interpretation of Japanese death rituals in minimalist sculpture.

Ruined Windows by Jessica Jackson Hutchins with Marley Freeman making glass shares the opening.

At Adams and Ollman Gallery, the second of four members of the New Art Dealers Alliance newartdealers.org/members, www.adamsandollman.com 418 NW 8th 2PM-4 Free


Pace Taylor has colorful bulbous paintings, Before the Doors Open. Perfect bright for grey.

At Nationale www.nationale.us 15 SE 22nd Map 2PM-5 Free Masks are highly encouraged


The Schnitzer Collection is a foundation continuing the work of Fountain Gallerist Arleen Schnitzer. Their exhibition space hosts the first of their Art Fit events ~ "wear your art swag and art-inspired outfits" if you like. The show up, which you should see, is curated for the Converge 45 project. The signature piece celebrated today is a large silk screen authorized reproduction of Phooey, a Basquiat painting.

At the Schnitzer Family Collection https://www.jordanschnitzer.org/schnitzer-collection/ 3033 NW Yeon 3PM-5 Free


Out of Salem: D.E May & Friends, has D.E. May and contemporaries Brad Ford, Bonnie Hull, Craig Klyver, Natalie Laswell, Bryan Null, Dan Schmidt, Terry Schneider, Monte Shelton, and John Van Dreal.

At PDX Contemporary Art www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 1825 NW Vaughn Map 3PM-4:30 Free RSVP by email to info at pdxcontemporaryart.com


Martha Daghlian has Leaves of The Sibyl. She had a pink altspace, her own writing and art event/spaces newsletter, and has worked in message idea textile imagery. For this show, she adds casting and video.

"Leaves of The Sibyl is an installation of intricate embroidery, soft sculpture, cast metal, & analog video. stitching a through line between the Romantic Period & present day, a transformative & coded imagery emerges between mediums: cherubs, black cats, crescent moons, flowers & plants, human skulls/bones, & poems which require a special tool to be read. Martha’s work possesses a contemplative reverence for magic & beauty, while acknowledging the confusion, fear, death, & rebirth which accompany moments of change."

At Lowell https://www.lowellshopgallery.com/ 2136 E Burnside 4PM-6 Free

January 20 It's Tomorrow Today in Tokyo

Today is a performance in Seattle commemerating the death of the founder of butoh dance in Japan. The first performance by a young dancer unfolded in 1959 amidst a fertile creative period for young people. That generation were children in the war. The Anpo protests of the time could be compared to the May 68 in France, depicted in the Bertolucci-esque The Dreamers movie, and events in the US on the continuum of the Civil Rights - anti-Vietnam War - Womens Rights transformations.

Butoh is an improvised branch of modern dance using body intuition and images, often from nature, to create movement.

That founder, Hijikata, broke from his ballet and Euro-modern dance training and launched a faimily tree of butoh players which extends to Seattle. Joan Laage, there, studied and performed in Japan, with the Western unit, Gnome, of Hijikata's last ensemble with Yoko Ashikawa, Hakutobo. That last period for Hijikata was with an all-women ensemble. The work is quite beautiful as seen in this documentary excerpt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBNi4oFvhrY.

From his wife on his death at 57:

"Usually in Japan people die quietly. They hide the last moments of life. But Hijikata wanted to share his moment of death with each and every person. And so everyone surrounded his death bed. Hijikata sat up straight in bed, and for a long time thanked us all expressing his gratitude through dance. His body was all entangled in intravenous tubes but he still performed this dance of death. Tears were streaming down the faces of everyone watching. I finally asked him to stop. And he said 'you should applaud, applaud, I want to go out amidst cheers and applause.'"

Tonight Joan Laage/Kogut Butoh, Aoi Lee, Kaoru Okumura and Vanessa Skantze perform. RSVP and details https://www.daipanbutohcollective.com/event-details/tatsumi-hijikata-memorial-2024-in-seattle At Teatro de la Psychomachia 1534 1st Ave S, Seattle 7PM Free

January 13 Snow Day

As of now, check their Insta before going, Pace Taylor opens Before the Doors Open large pencil aand pastels.

At Nationale www.nationale.us 15 SE 22nd Map 2PM-5 Free masks required


Stelo Arts planned Unfolding, a book project with Pulp and Deckle, to drop today over home-made soup. That's perfect! Check their Insta to see if it's on.

At Stelo Arts https://www.steloarts.org 30000 S Camp Colton DriveColton, OR https://www.google.com/maps/place/30000+S+Camp+Colton+Dr,+Colton,+OR+97017/@45.172119,-122.433292,16z 1-4

January 13 Mauve Fog Pastime

A new space PPSTMM - Pastime opens Mauve Fog by Edward Jeffrey Kriksciun. He has been bopping around the world and many galleries in Portland. This is a visual show and performance. In the same building tonight, Black Whole Press opens too. At PPSTMM 323 NE Wygant #203. 6PM-8, performance 6:30 Free

January 6 Northside Art Openings+

Bric-A-Brac is a group show of small works alongside Ellen Surrey's Small Show inspired by thrift stores. Bric-A-Brac artists are Alexander Vidal, Alyn Smith, Ana Serrano, Ann Shen, Bijou Karman, Drake Brodahl, Ellen Surrey, Erick Martinez, Hayden Evans, Ian Truong, James Heimer, Jared Andrew Schorr, Julia Walck, Juliette Toma, Kevin Chan, Krista Perry, Lesley Barnes, Libby VanderPloeg, Lydia Nichols, Marisol Ortega, Nellie Le, Monica Garwood, Sam Kalda, and The Little Friends of Printmaking. At Nucleus Portland http://www.nucleusportland.com 2916 NE Alberta 4PM-6 Free


Turn Me Over is drawings and ceramic sculptures by artists Molly LeckoHerro and Alim Ringgold. At Well Well Projects www.wellwellprojects.com in the Disjecta building 8371 N. Interstate Map  5PM-8 Free


Covered up in Dailiness is cermic sculpture and drawings by Elizabeth Arzani and Renee Couture. At Carnation Contemporary www.carnationcontemporary.com in the Disjecta building 8371 N Interstate. 5PM-8 Free

January 5 Eastside Art Openings+

Mississippi Records has been a champion at bringing unusual music to the Hollywood theater, such as Sun Ra's Arkestra. We can't bring back New York's Moondog, but tonight you can have East and West Coast street musician Space Lady. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrEcJMWRNT0. The Portland Museum of Modern Art showed the work of self-taught artists and drew Space Lady here - https://portlandmuseumofmodernart.com/SPACE-LADY. The PMOMA curator went on to helm the Lumber Room. BTW, Sun Ra's movie Space is the Place is a classic of Afrofuturism worth the time. Space Lady at the Hollywood Theater 4122 NE Sandy 7:30PM $12 Sold Out


One Grand has Three Hundred and Sixty-Five Days by UK-based designer Another Department - Bo Matteini). They made a work a day for a year, all here now. They will be pulling prints for early arrivers. At One Grand Gallery www.onegrandgallery.com 1000 E Burnside 6PM-9 Free


Shoko Ishida https://shoko-ishida.com/ from Detroit has figuative work, alongside similar, Stella Im Hultberg https://www.stellaimhultberg.com/ from California via Korea. At Nucleus House Gallery 1137 NE Alberta 5PM-7 Free


http://firstfridaypdx.org/ and their socials list many shows and their times. Hey, all the kids are doing https now.

January 4 Westside Art Openings

First Thursday also includes the Saturday following in the afternoon.


Gallery 114 is a coop like Blackfish. Several galleries are artist-curated and run, though not purely coops. That is A-OK. This month they have a group show by Linda Austin in the modern dance world. They are with Noah Beckham, Fernanda D'Agostino, many know for her video work, and Maximiliano in show Imprints, Objects in Performance. At Gallery 114 www.gallery114pdx.com 1100 NW Glisan 5PM-7 Early Closing Free



In the Nine Gallery, Veteran Obsolete is a show by Geoffrey R. Bowton of an "indispensable exploration of war, post-traumatic stress, and mental wellness." Photographer Jim Lommasson has touched on that material in Exit Wounds.

Following Fire: A Resilient Forest / An Uncertain Future are photographs of the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire along the McKenzie River in the Oregon Cascades. Photographer David Paul Bayles and scientist Fred Swanson working together are handing the project to a forest research group to continue the study for a generation.

Ebenezer Galluzzo a trans man. As a Home Changes are portraits made when he was a resident artist at Sitka.

At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org Map 122 NW 8th 5PM-8 Early Close Free


Chris Chandler has prints, Elemental Forms. The estate of Deborah Horrell has glass work Vessels and Forms. At Elizabeth Leach Gallery www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th Map Early Close 5PM-7 Free


Blackfish has new member painters Noah Alexander Isaac Stein and Amy Turnbull. More: photo collages Aphelion by Hannah Theiss and What We Abandon images of train locomotives and cars by Chris Steinken. At Blackfish Gallery https://www.blackfish.com/ 938 NW Everett Map 5PM-8 Free


Northwest Masters is a group show by classic modern artists Louis Bunce, Sally Haley, Frederick Heidel, Manuel Izquierdo, Hilda Morris, and Michele Russo. It is accompanied by Laura Domela with In the Office, abstracts. www.russoleegallery.com 805 NW 21st 5PM-7 Early Close Free


The Black Gallery is focused on events, other exhibition partners, and appointments. They are closing out their show at Expensify. You can follow their socials and connect with their shows that way.


Ily2, Aftertime Collective, Adams and Olman, Waterstone, Augen, Parallax, Laura Vincent seem to be continuing. No idea if they are open tonight.


PNCA and Frolick are on break


No idea on proof of life at the Everett Station.