First Thursday also includes the Saturday following in the afternoon.
Illy2, Adams and Ollman, and After/Time continue. No idea on Landdd, or the Everett Lofts.
For your +1, Soil Gallery in Seattle opens Sleepless Nights by artists Marcelo Fontana, Pamela Hadley, Nicholas Moler-Gallardo, Hannah Newman, Jessie Rose Vala, Morgan Rosskopf, and Katherine Spinella. It's curated by Hannah Newman at Portland's Wave Contemporary and who has shown at Carnation.
They win the copywriting award today:
""Sleepless Nights explores the anxieties that keep us awake at night. In the transitional phase between wakefulness and sleep, the unconscious comes alive, quickening our thoughts to the realities and fears we suppress in waking hours. Doomscrolling, insomnia, and poor mental health are the results of carrying the uncertainties that litter our contemporary social, political, and physical landscapes.
To cope with our anxieties, we stay busy in our waking lives. Busyness in contemporary life is not simply a response to inflation or grind culture, but ultimately, a survival tactic. The moment we slow down, our worries catch up - we will be overcome by the weight of the unknown. Instead, we distract ourselves, focusing on consuming and creating beauty - the survival strategies of an artist. The anxiety waits, patiently anticipating our return to the twilight zone between waking and sleeping.
Recreating this liminal space, the exhibition Sleepless Nights unfolds in a dark room via blacklights, nightlights, phone screens, and projectors. The room is infused with a continuous stream of audio, a background score of current events, news updates, podcasts, and other data. The exhibition features work by artists working in a wide variety of media and methods, but connected by their anxieties, drive to create, and hope for the future. The artists display their work within an environment of the unease within which it is created. Each artwork becomes a talisman to hold our anxieties at bay.
Sleepless Nights is a space for reflection and introspection, where visitors can engage with their own cares and concerns as well as the uncertainties of the wider world. It is an invitation to look beyond the veil of busyness and productivity to confront the deeper fears that lie within us all.""
At Soil 112 3rd Ave S. Seattle 5PM-8
For your +2, Julie Rall opens installation Ghosts Ship. It includes large fabric sailing sails, encrusted anchor chain, and salt. At NW Marine Art Works https://www.nwmarineartworks.com/ Building5 https://www.buildingfive.org/ 2516 NW 29th 5PM-8 Free
It must be trying to be Spring, so for your +3 you can experience Flamenco msic with guitarist Brenna McDonald and guitarist/vocalist Yeshe Wingerd. A project of Espacio Flamenco, it repeats on first Thursdays. At Bar Botellón 606 NE Davis 7PM-9 Free
The Portland Art Museum, through a private grant, is open free first Thursdays. They are free the whole day 10AM-8PM.
Kirsten Blair has Found and Foraged. At Fine Art Fruit https://fine-art-fruit.square.site/ 925 NW 19th Ave Suite A 6PM-8 Free
The big ad agency brings Draw the Good, a group show connected with their Portland Is What We Make It campaign.
At W+K www.wk.com 224 NW 13th Map 4PM-7 Free
In the Nine Gallery has Moons, by Susan Weil. It is a body of work from 1980 to now inspired by the moon on paper, canvas, plexiglas, mixed-media sculpture ans as artist book.
Fazilat Soukhakian has Queer in Utah. The artist was born in Iran, then moved to the US in their 20s. After school, they now teach in Logan.
Sarah Malakoff from Boston has Personal History, lush individualistic American domestic interiors sans occupants.
At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org Map 122 NW 8th 5PM-8 Early Close Free
Walt Curtis was Portland's real multiartist: poet, painter, author, radio host, naturalist, historian, gay icon, and legend, in the words of the show organizers. All true and more. He made it to age 82! Walt was a big part of the Portland 80s & 90s creative world, inspiring Gus Van Sant's feature film breakout when Gus was in his early 30s. His mythic dream paintings, Moveable Feast, are up tonight. Dan Ness on the decks. At Portland Arts Collective 120 SW Harvey Milk 6PM-9 Free
PNCA/Willamette has First Thursday this month. There are too many shows to list inside, there are outdoor projections, and DJ Anjali and The Incredible Kid + DJ Timothy Bee spin.
At PNCA www.pnca.edu 511 NW Broadway Map 5-9 Free
Weather Patterns by Barb Burwell is at Writers Block. 818 NW Flanders 5PM-8
Will a flower grow inside me if I eat soil and seeds? is a group show. At Stelo Arts https://www.steloarts.org 412 NW 8th Avenue 5PM-8 Free
Waterstone has impresionistic figurative painter Ruth Hunter. At Waterstone Gallery www.waterstonegallery.com 124 NW 9th 4PM-7 Free
The Black Gallery is open with Adriene Cruz: Power Prayer for the Community. It is textile work. She is in the Oregon Black Artists show at the Portland Art Museum. Curated by Teena Wildero of Art Bridges Community Partnerships. https://www.theblackgallerypdx.com/ 916 NW Flanders 5PM-7
Blackfish has their 45th Anniversary founding members show. The Unseen is clay sculptures by Ruri. Jana Demartini has prints. At Blackfish Gallery https://www.blackfish.com/ 938 NW Everett Map 5PM-8 Free
The Fables are primitive-style paintings by the late Michael C. Spafford. Approaching the Still Point of Turbulence are abstract apintings by Audrey Tulimiero Welch. At Russo Lee Gallery www.russoleegallery.com 805 NW 21st 5PM-7 Early Close Free
Sally Cleveland has paintings With the River. At Augen Gallery www.augengallery.com 716 NW Davis 5PM-7:45 Free
Froelick has Tom Prochaska paintings Another Go. Kevin Kadar has paintings Landscapes and Townscapes. At Froelick Gallery www.froelickgallery.com 714 NW Davis early close 5PM-8 Free
The late Lee Kelly has Bennington Suite & Color Studies, works on paper. Anna Von Mertens has drawings Elements and Objects. At Elizabeth Leach Gallery www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th Map 5:30PM-7:30 Free
RACC has an open house with works from the substantial public collection they manage. At RACC.org 411 NW Park. 5PM-7 Free
Paul Xavier Rutz has Small Forwards: Paintings of Girlhood in Basketball, based on coaching their daughter's elementary school basketball team. Get on that W+K. At Laura Vincent Design and Gallery www.lvdesignandgallery.com/ 824 NW Davis 5PM-8 Free
Beatriz Alcaraz has bright busy schematic illustrations. At Erickson Gallery 9 SW 2nd 5PM-8
