May 12 Old Portland

Tonight is vintage Portland found footage and cultural archeology by Bryan Boyce and the Stephen Slappe Dead Media Hour.

At the Boathouse Microcinema www.boathousemicrocinema.com 822 N River Doors 7:30PM how 8 Free

May 10 Butterflies in Flight

There is a memorial celebration for David Eckard at PNCA at 2.


Martha Daghlian brings Papillon. Her recent work has been an admixture of text and textile.

At False Front Studio www.falsefrontstudio.com 4518 NE 32nd Map 3PM Free

May 4 Lolita Friends of Doom

John Brodie, gallerist, book shop purveyor, artist studio space creator, and music supporter is an artist among all of that. He has a show Friends of Doom.

Old Fashioned Gallery makes future history in the past history of garage galleries, in the context of current garage galleries, in Portland.

It is a residence. They don't want their address published. Look them up and follow the directions to message them for the address, or go with a friend already going, or later message them for an appointment.

Old Fashioed Gallery opening show Noon-3 Free


Kira Imai is a Japanese illustrator of lolita cosplay. https://www.kiraimai.com/ Her show is alongside copacetic artists from the gallery: Bennett Slater, Cat Rabbit, Chizu Wada, Debbies Grahl, Ellie vs. Bear, Hanna Jaeun, Heikala, Jared Andrew Schorr, Kim Baise, Miso, Mizna Wada, Naoshi, and Nengiren.

A fun film is Kamakaze Girls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTR4gBMmqC8 themed on lolita fashion, moped gangs, and social dynamics in Japan. With the sad ultra casual state of Portland fashion, it's nice to see people trying. You see the lolitas out and about from time to time in Portland. It's always more fun in a group. Visitors are encouraged to dress the cosplay, but it is not necessary.

Kira Imai and friends https://www.nucleusportland.com/blogs/future-exhibitions/kira-imai at Nucleus Portland http://www.nucleusportland.com 2916 NE Alberta 3PM-6 Free

May 3 Northside Art Openings+NW

Judy Pfaff https://www.judypfaffstudio.com/ age 79 is a UK artist, making paintings, installations, and prints. Today opens a print show, Interior Landscapes, "woodcut, photogravure, collagraph, and encaustic with the unexpected: glitter, leaves, resin, and digital elements." It's a good show for Portland with our history of Gordon Gilkey.

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


Wall scrolls are a print medium found in Japanese anime pop art. They are easy to move with and fit into the otaku culture. Artists are Boya Sun, Choo, Junko Mizuno, Kehasuk, Kelly Sux, Maruti-bitamin, Natalie Andrewson, Patrick Mathews, Perry Maple, Matias Bergara, Mengxuan Li, Shintaro Kago, Samuel Rodriguez and Sibylline Meynet.

Https://www.nucleusportland.com/blogs/future-exhibitions/ani-may at Nucleus House Gallery 1137 NE Alberta Noon-4 Free


Chorus is a large survey of figurative work from the collection. You will see Janine Antoni, Olga Balema, Lynda Benglis, Forrest Bess, Wynne Greenwood, Ann Hamilton, Lonnie Holley, Suzanne Jackson, Martha Jungwirth, Hayv Kahraman, Kiki Kogelnik, Justine Kurland, Simone Leigh, Tau Lewis, Alice Mackler, Jenine Marsh, Ana Mendieta, Senga Nengudi, Christina Quarles, Lee Relvas, Pipilotti Rist, Betye Saar, Hiraki Sawa, Rose B. Simpson, Diane Simpson, Tecla Tofano, Kaari Upson, Erika Verzutti, and Rebecca Warren. The Lumber Room openings are fabulous and social.

At The Lumber Room https://www.lumberroom.com/exhibitions/565/566 419 SW 9th, above Liz Leach Map  2PM-5 Free


PNW Dirt: Insider’s Perspectives is a show by Kevin Brown, Rebekah Johnson, Marne Lucas, Man Red (Diné ), Brad Rogers, and Grace Weston.

At the Portland Arts Collective https://www.portlandartscollective.org/ 122 NW Couch 2PM-5


Portland artist and musician Morgan Buck brings Love, Light and the Thrill of Imminent Distraction. Buck states "The most exciting thing that a painting can do is to give a “you can’t make this shit up” type of vibe. This vibe has a tendency to present itself in reality tv, weird internet trash and social media as passing glimpses into a stranger world. These media sources become the raw source material for my paintings. Aggregating, combining, and altering screenshots from many web media sources."

At I Love You 2 - ILY2 https://ily2online.com/ 925 NW Flanders 2PM-4 Free


James Lavadour presents Home Ground. He is a self-taught abstract landscape painter and printmaker. His work is informed by his life as Walla Walla in Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla, and he cofounded the Crow's Shadow printmaking studio.

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


Painter Tatyana Ostapenko, born in Ukraine, and living in Portland, presents Inside My Eyelids. Her paintings include sampled photographic and drawing elements.

At Souvenier Gallery https://souvenirartspdx.org/ 1233 NE Alberta 5PM-7 Free


Each Step Pronounced is a show by Renee Couture and Ebenezer Galluzzo. Respectively they are personal narratives on motherhood and trans queer identity.

At www.carnationcontemporary.com in the Disjecta building 8371 N Interstate. 5PM-8 Free


Anthony Roberto has In Spite of One's Self, 3d printed figures.

At Well Well Projects www.wellwellprojects.com in the Disjecta building 8371 N. Interstate Map  5PM-8 Free


Oregon Contemporary continues.

At Oregon Contemporary nee Disjecta, in the shadow of Paul Bunyan www.oregoncontemporary.org 8371 N. Interstate Map 5PM-8 Free

May 2 Eastside Art Openings

All the Eastside events are at http://firstfridaypdx.org/ and their socials which list many shows and their times.

May 1 Westside Art Openings+

First Thursday also includes the Saturday following in the afternoon. This First Thursday is May Day so there may be demonstrations out and about, and the Urban Art Network occupies 13th with all their booths of stuff.


Fine Art Fruit, Froelick, The Black Gallery, and Adams and Ollman continue.


For your +1 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


For your +2 the Portland Art Museum, through a private grant, is open free first Thursdays. They are free the whole day 10AM-8PM.


Backstage is a show of photographs by Christopher Rauschenberg exposed in artist studios. This show includes the studios of Katherine Ace, Ebenezer Galluzzo, Malia Jensen, Joanne Radmilovich Kollman, Henk Pander, Laura Ross Paul, Marie Watt, and Susan Weil.

Vo Vo brings a mixed media show, topical, and explained at https://www.elizabethleach.com/exhibition-blog/2025/vovo

At Elizabeth Leach Gallery www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th Map 5:30PM-7:30 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


Sara J Winston has photographs Our Body is a Clock themed on her own medical journies. It has a very nice artist statement to explain it all. https://www.blueskygallery.org/exhibitions/archives/2025/sara-j-winston Leah DeVun has Resemblance, portraits of her trans queer family and its normal family values.

Jerry Mayer is a long time minimalist mixed media sculptor and maker of 2d wall work. At the Nine Gallery https://www.blueskygallery.org/nine-gallery inside Blue Sky.

At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org Map 122 NW 8th 5PM-9 Free


Erin Bodfish is a member of the small After / Time collective. This month she brings At the Altar of My Own Love. At After | Time Collective Gallery 730 SW 10th (enter on 9th) 6PM-9 Free


Whitney Nye brings Trip, an evolution of her repeating units painting style. You will find units, new dense units, and some different than her previous work. Laura Domela brings Defense Mechanisms paintings in a graphic style with a strong drawn line motif.

At Laura Russo Lee Gallery www.russoleegallery.com 805 NW 21st 5PM-7 Early Close Free


The late Thomas Wood has Pleiadies, detailed prints with a surreal quality. Alongside Ripert Jasen Smith with Warhol-style screen prints on commercial themes.

The Opening reception is Saturday, 1:30. At Augen Gallery www.augengallery.com 716 NW Davis 5PM-7:45 Free


PNCA Willamette has their graduating student thesis show. It is spread across Building 5, Stello, and their main building.

At PNCA | Willamette University www.pnca.wilamette.edu 511 NW Broadway Map 5PM-8 Free

At Stelo Arts https://www.steloarts.org/ 412 NW 8th Avenue 5PM-8 Free

At NW Marine Art Works https://www.nwmarineartworks.com/ Building5 https://www.buildingfive.org/ 2516 NW 29th Friday 5PM-8 Free


Cuentos, Casas y Vestidos is a show by Monica Mitchell and Angenette Escobar on Mexican folk art themes from their upbringing. Malgré Tout (Despite Everything) is a show of paintings themed on politics and justice incorporating photographic images by Eddie Reed. Barbara Black has mixed media paintings.

All at Blackfish Gallery https://www.blackfish.com/ 938 NW Everett Map 5PM-8 Early Close Free


Writers Block brings Shobha Jetmalani, Todd Elliot, David Brandt, Julie Rail, Bear Madina, Deanna Schuerbeke, Michelle Suchland, Francesca Lauen Carrera, Marry Lee, Lindsey Fox, Clement Lee, and Susan Harrington, all from the Unkles studios, and on fiew at their big twice yearly open studios at the Marine Art Works. At Writers Block. 818 NW Flanders 5PM-8 Early Close Free


Kayla Marie Carlson is the latest recipient of the Stumptown Artist Fellowship. She opens paintings I Want to Remember Everything.

At Stumptown www.stumptowncoffee.com 128 SW 3rd 5PM-7 Free


Lisa Onstad brings Familiar Patterns inspired by quotidian fabric patterns such as tablecloths. At Waterstone Gallery www.waterstonegallery.com 124 NW 9th 5PM-8 Free


Chess Club is doing a pop up at Frances May. Drop in at Frances May 521 SW 10th 6PM-9 Free

April 28 Viewer Discretion

The Boathouse Microcinema is back. It is a live-work studio in the Unkles artist warehouse portfolio. It is very small.

Tonight Rose Bond https://www.rosebond.com/ and Zak Margolis https://zakmargolis.com/ show work. Included is Animate Symphonia which was scheduled for the Oregon Symphony, but canceled by COVID. "Viewer discretion is advised for a few of tonight's videos."

It is in an industrial area. Do not park on, or overhanging the width of a train, the railroad tracks. They are active. The mass of a train is several thousand times the mass of your car. Your car will either be smashed to bits, towed, or both.

At the Boathouse Microcinema www.boathousemicrocinema.com 822 N River Doors 7:30PM how 8 Free

April 26 Nut Conversation

Nut Job opens with Morgan Ritter, Maggie Chen and Katya Kirilloff.

At Helen's Costume https://www.costumeintl.com/ 7706 SE Yamhill Street 2PM-5 Free


Small Talk Collective is a photography collective. Tonight they show images from their participants in a cycling projection. It is their 5th annual Light Conversation.

Photographers are Kristina Barker, Zemie Barr, Megan Bent, Amanda Brown, André Buenacosa-Brooks, Ezra Carlsen, Alice Christine Walker, Kassandra Eller, Yalda Eskandari, Marico Fayre, Jon Feinstein, Dot Glenn, Sarah Grew, Mick Hangland-Skill, Jessica Harvey, Leslie Hickey, Kristina Hruska, Stephan Jahanshahi, John Kirkley, Riley Kizziar, Liz Kuball, Jiageng Lin, Doug Lowell, Mara Magyarosi-Laytner, Landry Major, William Mark Sommer, Briar Marsh Pine, Blake Martin, Jake Nelson, Eleanor Oakes, Audra Osborne, Sue Palmer Stone, Mason Pittenger, Marc Ripper, Roo SaBell, June T Sanders, Megan Sinclair, Jennifer Timmer Trail, and James Toftness.

Bar, DJ, and photobooth for your enjoyment.

At the Small Talk Collective in the Disjecta dance studio www.smalltalkcollective.com in the Disjecta building 8371 N. Interstate#1 Map  7PM-9 Free

April 24 The Fifth Element

Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana presents Quinto Elemento, the fifth element. Portland has a vibrant flamenco community and this is an example.

Flamenco Vivo is homed in New York City, they teach and tour. Patricia Guerrero chorographs the dancers to live music by Francis Gómez.

Ancient science postulated elements earth, water, air, and fire. Aristotle added ether, comprising the universe beyond earth: space. Physics has been curious about it since, now settling into the standard model of 12 particles and 5 forces. Maybe the ether is the space-time continuum, which stars as a new explanaton of gravity itself?

Of course the ether is invisible; Guerrero is interested in making the ether underlying flamenco visible to the audience in performance. It is nu flamenco beyond the traditional rules.

Quinto Elemento https://thereser.org/event/flamenco-vivo-carlota-santana-quinto-elemento/ at the Patricia Reser Center 12625 SW Crescent paid parking in the attached garage or go by TriMet MAX 7:30PM $35-55

April 24 Lasting History

Last Thursday on Alberta continues with some of the remaining galleries open this evening.

Donna Guardino, who founded her namesake gallery, passed April 9. https://www.orartswatch.org/donna-guardino-gallery-owner-and-a-force-behind-the-alberta-arts-district-dies-at-age-81/.

In honor, some history. (long)

The art journey of Alberta Street is attributed to Guardino and her late husband with their gallery, designer Roslyn Hill who developed properties, and Magnus Johannesson who rented space for artist studios inexpensively in the 1990s.

Artists are the shock troops of gentrification. They seek inexpensive space and tolerate diversity and adversity. Artists occupying cheap studio space in inner NW in the 1970s to 1980s brought cafes, galleries, and the big ad agency. The rail yard shown in the late 1980s movie opening credits to Drugstore Cowboy was torn up and the neighborhood became the Pearl District. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtX03U-jt7A.

Seattle had its own low rent district, Pioneer Square, with artist studios and galleries. They founded a First Thursday gallery opening evening on the first Friday of the month in 1981. Portland followed in 1986 in the Pearl District. Emerging artists, self-taught artists, and art students set up art sale stands to show and discuss their work with art enthusiasts. That was too hoy polloi for the galleries and newly occupying bars and restaurants.

So the artists selling on the street decamped to Alberta Street on the last Thursday of the month. Once a month, especially in fair weather, Alberta unfolded as a home for individual artists and performers from the Burning Man art festival.

It grew organically, eventually the City of Portland stepped in, requiring permits, it peaked, and declined.

The die was cast for gentrification of Alberta from 1997 by the design of the Oregon property tax limitation of 1997. The California property tax limitation reassesses the valuation on sale, Oregon does not, creating a property tax gentrification subsidy. https://projects.oregonlive.com/taxes/property/map.

Many galleries maintain an enduring presence and actually sell art to collectors. Some are open late tonight, some are not.


Antler+Talon has painters David Rice, Taylor White and Yelena Bryksenkova. It is also the birthday of Antler+Talon's late founder Susannah Kelly. Antler+Talon was founded in 2012, maintains a worldwide community of collectors for their prints, and represents in Miami.

At Antler & Talon Gallery www.antlerpdx.com 2714 NE Alberta 6pm-9 Free


Alberta Street Gallery was founded in 2004. They have paintings by Gabe Wolfe, metalwork by Thomas Hynes and a group paper show. At Alberta Street Gallery https://www.albertastreetgallery.com/ 1829 NE Alberta 6PM-9 Free


Jill McVarish has Small World, paintings; Cheryl Quintana has extremely detailed ceramic sculptures of the heads of animals; Reed Clarke has portrait paintings. At Guardino Gallery https://guardinogallery.com/ 2939 NE Alberta 5PM-8 Free


Dannika Sullivan has portrait and still life paintings, Illuminate. At Blind Insect 2841 NE Alberta 5:30PM-8 Free


Souvenier, Flight64 may be open, Nucleus House and Nucleus may not be open - they have their own very successful opening evenings.