February 24 Mélange Void Scrapbook

Stillness of the Seeming Void is a group show with Bettina, Lee Bontecou, Cynthia Carlson, Abigail DeVille, Covey Gong, Nina Hartmann, Heidi Lau, Kate Newby, Lynne Woods Turner, Stefanie Victor and Stella Zhong. 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


Jeremy Okai Davis, https://www.pdxmonthly.com/arts-and-culture/2024/02/jeremy-okai-davis-elizabeth-leach-nationale-self-portrait-interview, is guest curator for the group show Mélange. It is in the small back room gallery. Artists include Rebecca Boraz and Chris Lael Larson, Portland, Maria Britton, Carrboro, NC, and Anthony R. Grant, SF Bay Area. The colorful Pace Taylor in the main space closes tomorrow. At Nationale www.nationale.us 15 SE 22nd Map 4PM-6 Free


Joe Rudko from Seattle has Scrapbook, collage work. The reception is today toward the end of the show.

At PDX Contemporary Art www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 1825 NW Vaughn Map 3PM-5 Free RSVP by email to info at pdxcontemporaryart.com

February 24-25 Oregon Black Artists Talks

The Portland Art Museum has a major show of Black Oregon visual artists. Saturday and Sunday they have talks and demonstrations. Saturday is ticketed. It appears Sunday in the large Masonic temple ballrooms is not, you can inquire if museum admission is required.

All the details are https://portlandartmuseum.org/event/black-artists-of-oregon-convening/#sunday-february-25-2024%c2%a0

At the Portland Art Museum 1219 SW Park Saturday 10AM Sunday 9:30AM

February 23 - May 19 Change in Art Institution Context

Social change is in the air. With instant Internet self-curated information sources people and artists naturally ask how they can change the world. It is a good form of self-actualization. Policing Justice is PICA's attempt to catch some of those winds. The whole program is on their website.

February 22 Ingredients

I have a theory of contemporary artwork ingredients. They may include beauty-anti-beauty, color, form, the title, the artist statement, the artist narrative, and emotional carriers.

Carriers can take many forms. The skill of an artist is to balance the ingredients. Too much beauty is not playing fair. Too much emotion is not playing fair, in my opinion. For instance, an artist can insert images of the Holocaust or similar. It is guaranteed to get a response from the audience.

I have followed the work of Alfredo Jaar for some time. He does socially conscious art. His causes are fine. I love much of the work, but I think he crosses over into exploiting too obvious emotional ingredients in some works. I have heard him speak twice. His ego does not admit the possibility of audience exploitation. Some of his audience like it. Hey, if you want to collect triggers into your living space, go for it! Personally I think artists Ai Weiwei and Banksy ply the same waters better.

Here is an exercise as an art-maker or in an art-making group, do a crit of Jaar's works.

To me, that question is an ongoing discussion for art makers and art audiences. He has certainly been successful in the art-making machinery.

Jaar speaks free tonight.

At PNCA www.pnca.willamette.edu 511 NW Broadway Map 5PM Free

February 17 California Seen

Eastern curator Cornelia Stokes stops by to talk about ther show Seen they made at L'Atelier Yaffe. Artists are Samantha Wall, AN Wallace, James Stoval, Alim Ringgold, Ibrahem Hasan, and Christopher Paul Jordan. At https://www.atelieryaffe.com/ 111 NE MLK BLVD, Suite 104. 2PM-4 Free


Ido Radon opens California. It includes bold abstract sculptures, some reminding of Louise Nevelson. She was born here, showed in many of our well-curated alt spaces, then nationally. internationally and recently recieved her MFA at UBC. She writes too. At I Love You 2 - ILY2 https://ily2online.com/ 925 NW Flanders 4PM-6 Free

February 15 Grapefruit

Grapefruits, originally in industrial Albina, is back. They are not resident in Mother Foucault's Bookshop and open with a show of paintings and drawings by Ním Daghlian. 523 SE Morrison 6PM-9 Free

February 10 New Space is the Place

L'Atelier Yaffe is a new space with Samantha Wall, AN Wallace, James Stoval, Alim Ringgold, Ibrahem Hasan, and Christopher Paul Jordan. They are curated by Cornelia Stokes and are https://www.atelieryaffe.com/ 111 NE MLK BLVD, Suite 104. 3PM-8 Free

February 9 - June 15 Sea

Damien Hirst is a polarizing artist. He was minted at Goldsmiths, forged the YBA with Freeze, and won a Turner. That momentum produced his shark at age 26. Few people know a former Portland collector was instrumental in his work. They lived in Texas, Hirst visited, he was in a challenging life period, they had a houseful of free physician pharmaceutical samples. That was the inspiration for Pharmacy, age 27.

Everyone hates taxes, including art collectors. Just like there is an Irish Sandwhich for reducing corporate taxes, there is an Oregon equivalent for art US collectors. After buying, if you loan your artwork to a museum in Oregon (and several other states,) you are excused from sales taxes. Bruce Guenther at the Portland Art Museum tapped it bringing significant works. Those included Three Studies of Lucian Freud by Francis Bacon. Damien Hirst's Cherry Blossoms was also brought by the Oregon sandwich to the Portland Art Museum in 2019.

Cherry Blossoms came after his Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable, widely considered a failure, though it funded numerous studio assistants and fabricators. Cherry Blossoms are large canvases painted in daubs of bright pigments. The floor of Hurst's very large studio was floored with grey canvas to catch the drips; Hirst seems to relish getting pigments all over himself. Blossoms out the door, Hirst stretched the drippy canvas and began his Where the Land Meets the Sea works.

The body has monochrome almost photorealistic images of surf, Sea Paintings; Coast Paintings and Seascapes. Hirst placed those canvases against the wall, flung paint at them, and added more paint, brush and stick in hand. https://www.instagram.com/p/CvJ-xPJIuGf/ and https://www.instagram.com/p/CvwaM1oopGl/. The pieces were named by found tourism post cards, now afixed to the back of the canvases.

Hirst has a new direct sales model through Philips and HENI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCG93Vh7h3U.

The Halle Ford Museum in Salem is part of Willamette University which absorbed PNCA. It is an Oregon private school with generous alumni. The museum is small with a good collection and some rotating shows.

The Halle Ford Museum has on loan Rhossili Beach, Colwyn Bay, and Westcliff-on-Sea, 2019.

At the Willamette University Halle Ford Museum https://willamette.edu/arts/hfma/index.html, across from the backside of the Capitol 700 State St, Salem museum hours $8

February 4 Different Walkabout

Outer Voice, a curatorial project by Sarah Rushford, has a physical space in the old Disjecta building but operates on its own schedule. The focus is on time-based art. We do miss the old PSU time-based art club.


Today Outer Voice brings Year of the Dragon, 2024, The American Standard by Qi You. She is doing a workshop and performance Sunday at 1. You are requested to wear two different shoes in your pair. At Outer Voice https://www.outervoicepdx.com/ in the Disjecta building 8371 N Interstate. 1PM Free

February 3 Northside Art Openings

Shintaro Kago brings his illustrations of deconstructed heads. They are very wild and instantly recognizable. At Nucleus Portland http://www.nucleusportland.com 2916 NE Alberta 4PM-6 Free


Kelda Van Patten brings If I Had a Flower for Every Time I Think of You. At Well Well Projects www.wellwellprojects.com in the Disjecta building 8371 N. Interstate Map  5PM-8 Free


Raphael Arar brings Value(s). At Carnation Contemporary www.carnationcontemporary.com in the Disjecta building 8371 N Interstate. 5PM-8 Free


Oregon Contemporary continues shows.

February 3 Learning from Land

The Japan Institute is the visionary cultural arm of the Portland Japanese Garden. This afternoon, in their Living Traditions series, they bring Yuko Hasegawa, Shohei Shigematsu, Dorothée Imbert, and moderator Ken Tadashi Oshima to discuss the aspirational role of the built environment.

The American relationship with land and building is framed by the great frontier, manifest destiny, Transcendentalism, and landscape as a manifestation of a god. I often recommend the Great Frontier by Walter Prescott Webb to explain it. Those ideas informed the great Western expeditions, including photographers like Timothy H. O’Sullivan, Carleton Watkins, and others. Law and land ownership are prime. With so much land, inspiration and care is confined to islands and instances, parks. The dark side is represented by Interior Secretary Watt. His belief in the pending apocalypse required maximum exploitation at maximum speed of all public lands.

Japan has a different vibe. Shinto spirits inhabit the land. Japanese care and aesthetics inform building and placemaking on land. Small farms are supported. There are, of course, industrial sacrifice zones. Maybe America can learn from Japan.

Thus, A Conversation on Art, Architecture, and Landscape unfolds this afternoon https://japanesegarden.org/events/living-traditions-2024-creative-forum-pdx/ at W+K 224 NW 13th. Doors 3PM, talk 3:30, reception 5. Free (Sold out, wait for the video)

February 2-3 Dark Sleep Concert

Imbolic is a traditional festival marking the transition between Winter and Spring. The Portland Imbolic Sleep Concert returns. It reminds an historic all night planetarium series with music and visuals in another city. The Portland one is dark music for dreaming. The lineup is Adriene Arwen, Pansophia, Operafication, Anastasia Darkwater, Soriah, Wicking Ground, Proqxis, and Shifting Harbor. Bring something to sleep on and things keep warm. At Azoth 10PM-7AM $30 Sold Out

February 2 Eastside Art Openings

http://firstfridaypdx.org/ and their socials list many shows and their times.

February 2 Kowaii is not Kawaii

Nuceus House brings Japanese illustrator Mizna Wada https://miznaw.com/. She has been making horror-themed illustrations and sometimes 3D fgures for 20 years, showing worldwide. At Nucleus House Gallery 1137 NE Alberta 5PM-7 Free

February 2 - March 2 34th African Film Festival

The 34th annual Cascade Festival of African Films begins tonight. Films show Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Most are in the PCC Cascade auditorium. The opening film and one February 16 are at the Hollywood Theater, one is at the PAM Cut Tomorrow Theater on Division and one at PCC Sylvania. February 24 has a matinee suited for children. The schedule and film synopses are at https://www.africanfilmfestival.org/. All the films are Free

February 2-10 Light Art

The Portland Winter light Festival, https://pdxwlf.com/, is a festival of light art viewed after dark. It is distributed throughout the city over ten days It is concentrated on two Friday-Saturdays Downtown at Pioneer Square, around the Portland General offices and in the Eastside Industrial District. Most works are powered on from 6PM to 10. It is all ages and it is all free.

February 1 Westside Art Openings+

February is Black History Month and many shows have that theme.

With all that is going on, you will need running shoes, dancing shoes, not ice cleats.

First Thursday also includes the Saturday following in the afternoon.


Leach and Adams and Ollman continue. No idea on Stelo, Writers Block, Landdd or the Everett Lofts.


You have two+ today.


The Portland Art Museum, through a private grant, is open free first Thursdays. They are free the whole day 10AM-8PM. This Sunday is the Miller Family free day too.

There are two notable shows now, African Fashion curated by Christine Checinska from London’s Victoria and Albert Museum ends February 18. It's https://portlandartmuseum.org/event/africa-fashion/. Black Artists of Oregon is curated by Intisar Abioto - https://portlandartmuseum.org/event/black-artists-of-oregon/. She is a polymath artist and photographer of The Black Portlanders - https://theblackportlanders.com/.

This afternoon and evening unfolds these events -

1PM-2 Artists Arvie Smith, Christine Miller and Julian Gaines talk about their work.

4PM-5 Artist Bukola Koiki explores the fabric of the Africa Fashion show.


For your plus2 Ily2 Too in the Lloyd Mall opens the residency of Father Fannie. For the opening he has a poppy program of installation, image and music by local Afrofuturist Keeks and Kymil Jeneé. Planet Loveship has one of a kind clothing and accessories. It's a perfect too to the Africa Fashion show at the museum. They announce happenings throughout the residency on their insta, I can't list them all.

At I Love You 2 Too - ILY2 https://ily2online.com/ In the Lloyd Mall, lower level far East down the hall by the abandoned Marshalls. 4PM-8 Free


Chris Lael Larson has colorful paintings, Beginner Nudes. He deconstructed discarded "student figure paintings into immersive installations and still-life photographs that continue the original creative idea of painting - taking abandoned impulses and giving them new life, meaning, and value." Sounds provided by eRock. Seaplane 2.0 Recommended. At Fine Art Fruit https://fine-art-fruit.square.site/ 925 NW 19th Ave Suite A 5PM-8 Free


The big ad agency brings The Soul Shop. Combine art, music, an immersive barbershop + beauty salon. Art by Jeremy Oka, Bre DePriest, The Omni Q, and more, like Trap Kitchen.

At W+K www.wk.com 224 NW 13th Map 5PM-9 Free


In the Nine Gallery is Sidewalk Stories - Japan by Christopher Rauschenberg. First trip.

Terra Fondriest has Ozark Life, tender documentation of life where she and her family live.

Sage Sohier has everyday life photos from negatives made between 1979 and 1985 in show Passing Time.

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


PNCA/Willamette has First Thursday this month. Emergence is an MFA program readout with printmakers Ebony Frison, Sarah Huttner, Jess O’Farrell, Salem Shinn, Genesis Turris, and Ray Zill; and visual studies artists Ryan-Ashley (Ray) Anderson, Charli Beck, Myra Crane, Erin Fox, Mai Ide, Pearl Lockwood, Ella Martini, Liz Medina, KP Phoebus, Annika Rausch, Adelina Ruvalcaba, Cynthia Souderm Danielle Van Dam, and Mallary Wilson.

Mai Ide x PCP + Kyoko Hasegawa + Steven Gosvener perform live in the Atrium at 5.

There is a community printmaking event with Don't Shoot PDX. Screenprint signs and posters to take home free. All ages.

DJ Mami Miami/author of Funeral for Flaca/PNCA professor/Emilly Prado provides music, dancing is A-OK.

And there is a photobooth with photographer and artist Ash Stone.

At PNCA www.pnca.edu 511 NW Broadway Map 5-9 Free


Waterstone has a group wood show by Kevin Jesequel, Masamichi Nitani, Jim Piper, John Strohbehn, Marjin Wall, Elizabeth Weber, Rebecca Welti, and David Williams. At Waterstone Gallery www.waterstonegallery.com 124 NW 9th 4PM-7 Free


The Black Gallery is open with still life oil paintings Still Life of Lives Made Still by Malique Pye. Participants may leave small memorials of their own. https://www.theblackgallerypdx.com/ 916 NW Flanders 5PM-7


Ouroboros/Leviathan is a light installation by Noah Alexander and Isaac Stein. It alongside a group show Illuminations. All are part of Portland Winter Light Festival. At Blackfish Gallery https://www.blackfish.com/ 938 NW Everett Map 6PM-10 extended hours Free


At Variance, by Whiting Tennis, are primitive mark-making style paintings and collage. Michael Dailey (1938-2009) worked and taught in Seattle, he is also represented by the Greg Kucera Gallery. He was known for abstract color in minimalsim with edge making similar to fellow Northwest artist Carl Morris. This show is titled Landscape Journey. Continuing is mid-career Portland artist Laura Domela. www.russoleegallery.com 805 NW 21st 5PM-7 Early Close Free


Chris Kelly has A Wandering Wondering/Work from Then and Now. At Augen Gallery www.augengallery.com 716 NW Davis 5PM-7:45 Free


Froelick has a Winter group show. At Froelick Gallery www.froelickgallery.com 714 NW Davis early close 5PM-8 Free


RACC has an open house including arts, crafts and zines for sale. At RACC.org 411 NW Park. 5PM-7 Free


Street are abstract acrylic and pastel canvases by Erik Reel. At Laura Vincent Design and Gallery 824 NW Davis 5PM-8 Free


Jeffrey Fuchs has colorful abstract paintings along with Jennifer Fernandez and Joshua Peters. At Gallery 114 www.gallery114pdx.com 1100 NW Glisan 5:30PM-7:30 Early Closing Free