First Thursday also includes the Saturday following in the afternoon.
Adams & Ollman, Stelo, Froelick, Ily2, and Leach continue.
For your +1 Lewis and Clark College has a 16 speaker performance venue, Experimental Art Research Forest - EAR Forest, in a forest on campus. https://college.lclark.edu/departments/art/ear-forest/
Drumer John Niekrasz performs their composition Civilipoli for percussion and 16 channels. It reminds Stockhausen's Kontakte.
Civilipoli at EAR Forest space at Lewis and Clark College https://college.lclark.edu/departments/art/ear-forest/directions/ (and parking) 615 S Palatine Hill 5:30PM-6:30 Free
For your +2 you can experience Flamenco music 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
+3 The Portland Art Museum, through a private grant, is open free first Thursdays. They are free the whole day 10AM-8PM.
+4 The Schnitzer Collection is open First Thursday and other limited hours. They have long running theme shows and occasional events. At the Schnitzer Family Collection https://www.jordanschnitzer.org/schnitzer-collection/ 3033 NW Yeon 3PM-8 Free
+5 Painter Aldo Valdez opens Transfigurations. He started his career in LA and is now based in Portland. At Souvenir Gallery https://souvenirartspdx.org/ 1233 NE Alberta 5PM-8 Free
Dinh Q. Lê: A Survey, 1995-2023 is strongly recommended at Elizabeth Leach Gallery. Lê attracted attention upon completing his BFA at UCSB in 1989, and maintained trajectory through his MFA at SVA and beyond. Leach brought him to PICA's founding art show in 1996. He was an excellent gentlemen who passed of a stroke.
Lê has many eloquent artist obituaries. He left Vietnam in 1978 in the great diaspora, and later in his career worked in Vietnam supporting contemporary artists there.
At Elizabeth Leach Gallery www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th Map 5:30PM-7:30 Free
Kristen Diederich has energetic colorful paintings Special French Blue. At Fine Art Fruit https://fine-art-fruit.square.site/ 925 NW 19th Ave Suite A 6PM-8
Nykelle DeVivo brings Tha Crossroads, photos with manipulated highlights. The artist statement is a fantastic read. https://www.blueskygallery.org/exhibitions/archives/2025/nykelle-devivo
The Critical Mass curatorial project brings Laura Beth Reese with #influenced. She prints 2d cutouts of influencers, arranges them in a still life tableau, glams and accessorizes them, then photoraphs that in a collage-like treatment.
Nines LeBrie Rich https://www.lebrie.com/ brings 2- and 3-D sculptures, Crackers (& Cookies) - they are brand snacks and their packaging magnified into quilted, embroidered and felted objects. https://lebrie-rich.square.site/ Giant snacks in the Nine Gallery inside Blue Sky.
At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org Map 122 NW 8th 5PM-9 Free
The Edge of Eden are paintings in a new direction by G. Lewis Clevenger. He previously did geometric abstracts, these are landscapes in a variety of styles.
Stephen O’Donnell brings 95 / 25: A Thirtieth Anniversary Exhibition. A self-taught painter he brings luminous realist approach to a range of subjects: portraits, still-life, and wildlife.
At Laura Russo Lee Gallery www.russoleegallery.com 805 NW 21st 5PM-7 Early Close Free
Sally Cleveland brings landscape printings.
The Opening reception is Saturday, 1:30. At Augen Gallery www.augengallery.com 716 NW Davis 5PM-7:45 Free
PNCA has a myriad of shows. It is easier for you to just go than to list them all. At PNCA | Willamette University www.pnca.wilamette.edu 511 NW Broadway Map 5PM-8 Free
Philip Stork has pastel and pencil drawings, Connections. Hannah Theiss has mixed media collages, Qualia. Noah Alexander Isaac Stein has abstract paintins with a fire theme in Luminous Fire from a Broken Machine. In collaboration with 2025 Ekphraestival, Blackfish artists have reimagined book from existing books.
All at Blackfish Gallery https://www.blackfish.com/ 938 NW Everett Map 5PM-8 Early Close Free
2025 Ekphraestival is an art project combining poetry and visual art. Intertwined are the resulting collaborations between poets and visual artists. At Writers Block Studio curatingthewriterblock.studio 818 NW Flanders 5PM-8 Free
Sabina Haque has The New Abnormal 2.0, collage, painting, and video themed on climate disaster. www.waterstonegallery.com 124 NW 9th 5PM-8 Free
Love is the Power is a show of dense graphic patterns in the Tom Cramer style by Saleam. The artist moved here from Atlanta. He would easily fit in with Fisk and is bringing his murals here too.
At The Black Gallery https://www.theblackgallerypdx.com/ 916 NW Flanders 5PM-7 Free
Clive Knights has abstracts combining color with slashes of black in show Incomplete Paperwork. At Laura Vincent Design and Gallery www.lvdesignandgallery.com/ 824 NW Davis 5PM-8 Free
Fans Only shows its residents along with guests. It's an artist residency in an office building with First Thursday readouts. At Fans Only https://www.fansonly.studio/ 1010 SW 11th 5PM-7 Free
The Portland Arts Collective has a group show of nude figures. At the Portland Arts Collective https://www.portlandartscollective.org/ 122 NW Couch 6PM-9 Free
Thursday, April 03, 2025
Saturday, March 22, 2025
March 22 Stone Field
The Lumber Room has a group show from their collection, and are open this afternoon. They did not do a big opening because some of the sculptures would not do well with a crush of people. Otherwise check their website and make an appointment to see it.
A Stone in a Field includes Jo Baer, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Sarah Braman, Mary Corse, Moira Dryer, Suzan Frecon, Luchita Hurtado, On Kawara, Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Robert Mangold, Anna Maria Maiolino, Agnes Martin, John McCracken, K.R.M. Mooney, Betty Parsons, Sarah Rapson, Dorothea Rockburne, Michelle Stuart, Stefanie Victor, Erika Vogt and Evelyn Taocheng Wang.
At The Lumber Room https://lumberroom.com/exhibitions/2024/549 419 SW 9th, above Liz Leach Map Noon-5 Free
A Stone in a Field includes Jo Baer, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Sarah Braman, Mary Corse, Moira Dryer, Suzan Frecon, Luchita Hurtado, On Kawara, Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Robert Mangold, Anna Maria Maiolino, Agnes Martin, John McCracken, K.R.M. Mooney, Betty Parsons, Sarah Rapson, Dorothea Rockburne, Michelle Stuart, Stefanie Victor, Erika Vogt and Evelyn Taocheng Wang.
At The Lumber Room https://lumberroom.com/exhibitions/2024/549 419 SW 9th, above Liz Leach Map Noon-5 Free
Saturday, March 15, 2025
March 16 Modulating Mystic Radiant Gourd
It's apropos that Susan Ciani, https://www.sevwave.com/gallery?pgid=j9dy07n9-5efc3014-6871-4538-a329-d85a413ba514 https://www.sevwave.com/bio veteran synth musician, played Berghain Friday, at age 78. This afternoon, Modulations: Cinema for the Ear shows at the Synth Library.
It is a 1998 documentary on electronic music including EDM. The topic is vast and this is a good introduction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4df3YTGfV9s.
The Synth Library was started by Felisha Ledesma after her Multiplex Gallery in the Everett Lofts. Originally S1, it was driven from place to place by Portland Fire Department regulations. It has operated since as a collective, bringing hands-on synth opportunities, and hosting Portland's instance of the worldwide Modular on the Spot free concerts.
Modulations https://www.synthlibraryportland.org/events/synth-cinema-modulations-1998 at the Synth Library Portland https://www.synthlibraryportland.org/ in Llovd Center 2nd floor by Dicepool. Tickets are required: https://withfriends.co/event/22903580/synth_cinema_modulations_1998 4PM $0-10
The Oregon Painting Society, an artist collective http://oregonpaintingsociety.org/about.html was birthed in 2007. MSHR, Mission Statement Human Radiance, performing on electro-optical synths of their own design, evolved from that in 2011. Today they perform worldwide. They just completed a tour of China, and touch down for an intimate performance tonight, releasing recording Live In Wuhan.
The evening includes White Gourd (Psychic Sounds | Belfast, Maine), Trigger Object (EMS/Sige Records/An Out Recordings), and Kelli Frances Corrado (Grimalkin Records mystic songstress).
Arrive promptly at Virtua_Gal nee Xhurch at Lloyd Mall Suite B216. Park, bike, or walk, entering from the Halsey Street side by Barnes and Noble, the mall is locked to the outside after 7PM. Virtua is in the former Lady Foot Locker, second level, above Zumiez and Hot Topic. 6PM-9 $15 at the door
It is a 1998 documentary on electronic music including EDM. The topic is vast and this is a good introduction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4df3YTGfV9s.
The Synth Library was started by Felisha Ledesma after her Multiplex Gallery in the Everett Lofts. Originally S1, it was driven from place to place by Portland Fire Department regulations. It has operated since as a collective, bringing hands-on synth opportunities, and hosting Portland's instance of the worldwide Modular on the Spot free concerts.
Modulations https://www.synthlibraryportland.org/events/synth-cinema-modulations-1998 at the Synth Library Portland https://www.synthlibraryportland.org/ in Llovd Center 2nd floor by Dicepool. Tickets are required: https://withfriends.co/event/22903580/synth_cinema_modulations_1998 4PM $0-10
The Oregon Painting Society, an artist collective http://oregonpaintingsociety.org/about.html was birthed in 2007. MSHR, Mission Statement Human Radiance, performing on electro-optical synths of their own design, evolved from that in 2011. Today they perform worldwide. They just completed a tour of China, and touch down for an intimate performance tonight, releasing recording Live In Wuhan.
The evening includes White Gourd (Psychic Sounds | Belfast, Maine), Trigger Object (EMS/Sige Records/An Out Recordings), and Kelli Frances Corrado (Grimalkin Records mystic songstress).
Arrive promptly at Virtua_Gal nee Xhurch at Lloyd Mall Suite B216. Park, bike, or walk, entering from the Halsey Street side by Barnes and Noble, the mall is locked to the outside after 7PM. Virtua is in the former Lady Foot Locker, second level, above Zumiez and Hot Topic. 6PM-9 $15 at the door
Friday, March 14, 2025
March 15 Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow Secret Water Memory
Donald Lloyd Morgan is the cofounder of Ditch Projects and professor at the UofO. If you know Ditch, his usually abstract drawings would fit right in there and he does playful sculpture too.
The show: "Tomorrow was Yesterday includes recent drawings and a sculpture that create a visual language of corroborating evidence, pulled from the overflowing storage locker of information that lives behind our eyes. Morgan often starts drawings by tracing the outlines of the cover of a paperback book, providing a familiar form to anchor viewers. Tools, shapes and signs, known to the artist, accumulate like notes or a tune in an improvisational context. They are then let loose on the page, like giving over to the impulse of just doing without overthinking. In this compressed time frame, there are often forms that have a visual connection to the structure of short-form stories, poems or three-minute songs. In other instances, a more imaginary and chaotic adaptation is applied to the pieces.
Drawings not intentionally responding to the structure of poems or emphasizing visual alignment with the mood of a short story develop in ways where such connections to the source material are less evident. These works explore figure-ground relationships, creating contrasts between different patterns and textures, and the interplay of flatness and illusory depth. This consistent push-and-pull builds a lyrical quality or syntax into the compositions, leaving viewers questioning how they perceive the page.
The themes in Morgan’s work—including humor, mortality, and superstition—are extensive but have a unique ecology that shepherd us toward exploration. This sense of discovery and uncertainty is part of understanding what it means to be human while acknowledging that human-ness is ever shifting and never gospel."
At at SE Cooper Contemprary https://www.secoopercontemporary.com/ 6901 SE 110th Map 1PM-5 Free
Lowell is a shop with art shows. Today Water Memory, paintings, by Jesi Jordan & Nick Carter, opens.
"Nick Carter approaches his work from a fiber, craft, & sculpture background, using traditional methods like Shibori dyeing & machine embroidery as a framework for abstract painting. Nick hand-works familiar materials into vibrant, patterned pieces that are at once comforting & psychedelic, balancing between object & image.
Jesi Jordan creates surreal, figurative paintings through a process of automatism & metamorphosis. Jesi’s works connect vivid imagery of the cosmos & nature with emotional introspection & psychic transformation in repeating forms of women, celestial bodies, fruit, & flowers.
shown together, Nick & Jesi’s divergent mediums continually shift our perspective & vision, while reciprocating color & form in delightful & surprising ways."
At Lowell https://www.lowellshopgallery.com/ 2136 E Burnside 4PM-6 Free
Secret Room Press is a zine, small press, and Riso shop. They are having their aniversery celebration and a book release and reading of Sleepy's Delay by Erin Tanner. At Secret Room Press 3225 SE Division 6PM-9 Free
The show: "Tomorrow was Yesterday includes recent drawings and a sculpture that create a visual language of corroborating evidence, pulled from the overflowing storage locker of information that lives behind our eyes. Morgan often starts drawings by tracing the outlines of the cover of a paperback book, providing a familiar form to anchor viewers. Tools, shapes and signs, known to the artist, accumulate like notes or a tune in an improvisational context. They are then let loose on the page, like giving over to the impulse of just doing without overthinking. In this compressed time frame, there are often forms that have a visual connection to the structure of short-form stories, poems or three-minute songs. In other instances, a more imaginary and chaotic adaptation is applied to the pieces.
Drawings not intentionally responding to the structure of poems or emphasizing visual alignment with the mood of a short story develop in ways where such connections to the source material are less evident. These works explore figure-ground relationships, creating contrasts between different patterns and textures, and the interplay of flatness and illusory depth. This consistent push-and-pull builds a lyrical quality or syntax into the compositions, leaving viewers questioning how they perceive the page.
The themes in Morgan’s work—including humor, mortality, and superstition—are extensive but have a unique ecology that shepherd us toward exploration. This sense of discovery and uncertainty is part of understanding what it means to be human while acknowledging that human-ness is ever shifting and never gospel."
At at SE Cooper Contemprary https://www.secoopercontemporary.com/ 6901 SE 110th Map 1PM-5 Free
Lowell is a shop with art shows. Today Water Memory, paintings, by Jesi Jordan & Nick Carter, opens.
"Nick Carter approaches his work from a fiber, craft, & sculpture background, using traditional methods like Shibori dyeing & machine embroidery as a framework for abstract painting. Nick hand-works familiar materials into vibrant, patterned pieces that are at once comforting & psychedelic, balancing between object & image.
Jesi Jordan creates surreal, figurative paintings through a process of automatism & metamorphosis. Jesi’s works connect vivid imagery of the cosmos & nature with emotional introspection & psychic transformation in repeating forms of women, celestial bodies, fruit, & flowers.
shown together, Nick & Jesi’s divergent mediums continually shift our perspective & vision, while reciprocating color & form in delightful & surprising ways."
At Lowell https://www.lowellshopgallery.com/ 2136 E Burnside 4PM-6 Free
Secret Room Press is a zine, small press, and Riso shop. They are having their aniversery celebration and a book release and reading of Sleepy's Delay by Erin Tanner. At Secret Room Press 3225 SE Division 6PM-9 Free
Thursday, March 13, 2025
March 14-16 Coastal Art Weekend
Sou'Wester Lodge is a vintage trailer hotel. In Seaview, Washington, they are on the fault line and wipeout by tsunamis from the Really Big One https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one. Friends of mine survived the 2004 tsunami in Asia, many did not. Friends provided relief Tohoku 3-11.
A long time ago, friends created Spaceness at Sou'wester, a week for artists to make work themed on aliens and the paranormal. The last three years a new curtorial team has moved from that theme, and this year are curating in Seattle artists.
The Sou'wester Lodge art weekend has expanded to support an art space in Ilwaco, a very low budget hamlet in the Southern Long Beach penninsula by the bridge.
For this project a curatorial committe on the project website collects artist residency applications. You could be one!
The artists work for a week at a minimal hotel fee. They guest you me and everyone we know to experience the work and meet the artists. It is family friendly. Some events are children workshops.
Sou'Wester Art Weekend https://www.souwesterlodge.com/artsweek2025/. https://www.souwesterlodge.com/arts-week-2025-program-draft/ March 14th at Ilwaco Artworks 109 1st Ave N, Ilwaco, March 15th at The Sou’wester 3728 J Place, Seaview, March 16th at Wave Preschool | 1306 39th Pl, Seaview. Free
A long time ago, friends created Spaceness at Sou'wester, a week for artists to make work themed on aliens and the paranormal. The last three years a new curtorial team has moved from that theme, and this year are curating in Seattle artists.
The Sou'wester Lodge art weekend has expanded to support an art space in Ilwaco, a very low budget hamlet in the Southern Long Beach penninsula by the bridge.
For this project a curatorial committe on the project website collects artist residency applications. You could be one!
The artists work for a week at a minimal hotel fee. They guest you me and everyone we know to experience the work and meet the artists. It is family friendly. Some events are children workshops.
Sou'Wester Art Weekend https://www.souwesterlodge.com/artsweek2025/. https://www.souwesterlodge.com/arts-week-2025-program-draft/ March 14th at Ilwaco Artworks 109 1st Ave N, Ilwaco, March 15th at The Sou’wester 3728 J Place, Seaview, March 16th at Wave Preschool | 1306 39th Pl, Seaview. Free
March 14 You Me and Everyone We Know
Miranda July is known to many Portlanders. I met her at Tidbit and promoted her to PICA. Her artistic track is a deserved triumph of lady DIY. If you are not familiar she has many books and videos. Tonight she has a showing and talk at the Portland Art Museum Tomorrow Theater.
Carte Blanche: Miranda July https://tomorrowtheater.org/movies/carte-blanche-miranda-july/ at the Portland Art Museum Tomorrow Theater 3530 SE Division 7PM $65 Sold Out
Carte Blanche: Miranda July https://tomorrowtheater.org/movies/carte-blanche-miranda-july/ at the Portland Art Museum Tomorrow Theater 3530 SE Division 7PM $65 Sold Out
Monday, March 10, 2025
March 12 Dolphin Love
The Boathouse Microcinema is back. It is a live-work studio in the Unkles artist warehouse portfolio. It is very small, and Willamette Week, unwisely in my opinion, promoted it. Over promoting small events breaks the natural process of gradual face-to-face community building. An example was the Pander studio show in the Modish Building. There will be a line and only a few will get in, think 60. Maybe in the Summer they can move outside.
Tonight is a program of shorts: Roland Dahwen – TBA, Leslie Hickey – Phone / Memory, Lily King – November 20, 2024, Brandon Marcoux and Mariana Mora – Two, Fernand Rudolph – music videos, Matthew Nash – Leaving it Behind, Kai Nealis – Queen and Sarah Turner – But… You’re a Dolphin.
Sarah Turner was half of the Mobile Projection Unit, went to grad school, and is producing unique humorous work with the online sex industry as an ingredient. Her dolphin short relates to John Lilly's famous dolphin love projects.
It is in an industrial area. Do not park on, or overhanging the width of a train, the railroad tracks. They are active. Your car will either be smashed to bits, towed, or both.
At the Boathouse Microcinema www.boathousemicrocinema.com 822 N River Doors 7:30PM show 8 Free
Tonight is a program of shorts: Roland Dahwen – TBA, Leslie Hickey – Phone / Memory, Lily King – November 20, 2024, Brandon Marcoux and Mariana Mora – Two, Fernand Rudolph – music videos, Matthew Nash – Leaving it Behind, Kai Nealis – Queen and Sarah Turner – But… You’re a Dolphin.
Sarah Turner was half of the Mobile Projection Unit, went to grad school, and is producing unique humorous work with the online sex industry as an ingredient. Her dolphin short relates to John Lilly's famous dolphin love projects.
It is in an industrial area. Do not park on, or overhanging the width of a train, the railroad tracks. They are active. Your car will either be smashed to bits, towed, or both.
At the Boathouse Microcinema www.boathousemicrocinema.com 822 N River Doors 7:30PM show 8 Free
March 12 - September 7 Dissident Art
Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei is a retrospective in Seattle. He has taken many risks in his work, and has arguably been the most effective modern art activist.
Portland's Contemporary Craft Gallery had early the Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, 1995 in 2010. The Film Center brought fimmaker Alison Klayman with Ai Weiwei Never Sorry in 2015. That film is not hard to stream today. That was adjacent to a loan to the museum under the Oregon sandwich tax scheme of Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Gold. Weiwei is probably out of Portland's price range now.
Weiwei's autobiography 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows is encyclopedic in its sadness and injustice. It is well worth a read. The artists has continued his activist art project with a focus on refugees. That has been much more intense in Europe than the US with the foolish and expensive "Axis of Evil" wars. It has brought down several European governments, and more may yet fall.
The Seattle Art museum mounts a retrospective of Ai Weiwei's work. It includes 130 works and spans the downtown museum, the Volunteer Park Asian Art Museum, and in the Olymic Sculpture Garden, Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Bronze, from May 17, 2025–May 17, 2027.
Throughout the show, the museum shows just about every film on the topic of the artist, many free.
Ai Weiwei at the Seattle Art Museum https://www.seattleartmuseum.org/whats-on/exhibitions/ai-weiwei Timed tickets required in advence. $37.50, lesser price tiers, Free for members
Portland's Contemporary Craft Gallery had early the Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, 1995 in 2010. The Film Center brought fimmaker Alison Klayman with Ai Weiwei Never Sorry in 2015. That film is not hard to stream today. That was adjacent to a loan to the museum under the Oregon sandwich tax scheme of Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Gold. Weiwei is probably out of Portland's price range now.
Weiwei's autobiography 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows is encyclopedic in its sadness and injustice. It is well worth a read. The artists has continued his activist art project with a focus on refugees. That has been much more intense in Europe than the US with the foolish and expensive "Axis of Evil" wars. It has brought down several European governments, and more may yet fall.
The Seattle Art museum mounts a retrospective of Ai Weiwei's work. It includes 130 works and spans the downtown museum, the Volunteer Park Asian Art Museum, and in the Olymic Sculpture Garden, Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Bronze, from May 17, 2025–May 17, 2027.
Throughout the show, the museum shows just about every film on the topic of the artist, many free.
Ai Weiwei at the Seattle Art Museum https://www.seattleartmuseum.org/whats-on/exhibitions/ai-weiwei Timed tickets required in advence. $37.50, lesser price tiers, Free for members
Saturday, March 08, 2025
March 8 Fragile Secret
Susan Seubert came from PNCA and has charted a solid career including idea-based art photography. https://www.sseubert.com/ Today she opens photographs Fragile Beauty: Images of icebergs from the last decade (2014-2024.) They were exposed in the Arctic and Antarctic. Though scenic, they have serious conceptual layer today.
Fragile Beauty https://pdxcontemporaryart.com/fragile-beauty at PDX Contemporary Art www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 1825 NW Vaughn Map 3PM-5 Free RSVP by email to info at pdxcontemporaryart.com
Bring Me the Head of Susan Lamond is a comic set in high school by Connor Brown. It is also the title of a new show opening by Sophie Danner, Aaron Fairchild, Delta Vasquez, Sabine Rear, and Connor Brown.
Commic and Zine show at Secret Room Press 3225 SE Division 7PM Free
Fragile Beauty https://pdxcontemporaryart.com/fragile-beauty at PDX Contemporary Art www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 1825 NW Vaughn Map 3PM-5 Free RSVP by email to info at pdxcontemporaryart.com
Bring Me the Head of Susan Lamond is a comic set in high school by Connor Brown. It is also the title of a new show opening by Sophie Danner, Aaron Fairchild, Delta Vasquez, Sabine Rear, and Connor Brown.
Commic and Zine show at Secret Room Press 3225 SE Division 7PM Free
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