April 24 Poem Gamelan

The Indonesian archipelago is larger than the US West to East and about 3/4 extent South to North. It is 4th in world population after the US, ethnically diverse. Diverse in music, too. One branch is gamelan music. That has more branches.

The gamelan is a collection of percussion instruments up to about 50 instrument types. They range from small instruments with the ring of bells to large gongs with a shimmer sustain, drums, and add strings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQNxGnQ1Wns

Today, with an afternoon free you can hear the Lewis and Clark College gamelan class readout, free. The L&C art department thesis show is up in the Hoffman too.

Javanese Gamelan Ensemble https://www.lclark.edu/calendars/events/event/388092-javanese-gamelan-ensemble in Evans Music Center’s World Music Room (room 036) 2PM Free


The sea of poetry readings ebbs and flows. I'm not that deep in that world, but Im sensing it flowing. One itinerant project is Poems at Sunset out a Window. They received an opportunity to expand and tonight do Poems out of a Print Shop. At the IPRC 318 SE Main. Readings 7:25PM, 7:45, 8:10 Free

April 18 Fuck Thesis Moss Formailities

Gareth James and David Joselit bring Late Night Legal Formalities. Society has a strong interest in word-based art.

"2026 marks the 20th anniversary of Late Night Legal Formalities, originally produced for the Elizabeth Dee Gallery in New York. LNLF was devised by James as a way of negotiating Dee’s request for him to join her commercial gallery. Prior to his first exhibition, Dee agreed to hire an art historian or critic to attend every exhibition during 2005 and to write an essay, for a fee of $1 a word, over which the gallery would have no editorial control, and which James would subsequently present in the September exhibition of the following year as his first exhibition. David Joselit lobbed a strikingly candid response back to James who incorporated it into the work on view."

At https://societysocietysociety.com/ 711 SE Grand upstairs above Mother Foucault’s. 7PM-9 Free


The thesis show season commences.

PNCA Visual Studies and Print Media launch theirs tonight. Two locations.

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

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


One Grand Gallery has several audiences. They are a member of PADA. They have also opened their attic to events. Tonight is the Fuck ICE show benefitting the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition. The upstairs shows are very popular social art, DJ, and beer events.

At One Grand Gallery www.onegrandgallery.com 1000 E Burnside 6PM-10 Free


Noa Ver, one half of electronic duo Sea Moss, curates an afternoon listening session. Sea Moss is an aggressive sound electronic duo, the opposite of Moss Wand.

At Mono Space https://mono-space.org/ 608 NW 13th Ave Ste 102. Noon-5 Free

April 16 Neptune Frost

Our nighttime weather is trying to tell the plants not yet.

Atelier Yafe hosts a showing of Neptune Frost, a dystopian Afrofuturism musical involving hackers. It was filmed in Rwanda and released in 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acfBNIXovww

Included in the evening is a discussion of Portland mapping in the service of community placemaking.

This month is the 32nd aniversery of the Rwandan Genocide, still playing out today in warlord control of mining in Eastern Congo, with factions funded by Rwanda. The Portland Rwandan community has events.

At Atelier Yaffe https://www.atelieryaffe.com/ 111 NE Martin Luther King Blvd, enter on Couch 6:30-9 Free

April 11 Small Animals

Lily Seika Jones https://www.lilyseikajones.com/ brings narrative illustrations of creatures.

https://www.nucleusportland.com/blogs/future-exhibitions/jones2026 http://www.nucleusportland.com 2916 NE Alberta 4PM-6 Free

April 11- 12 Peddling Synths

The Synth and Pedal show is back with an admission price this year. It's https://synthandpedalexpo.com/portland-synth-pedal-expo/. 819 SE Taylor $5-20

April 10 Distance

I am the distance is paintings by Colorado-based artists, Marius Lehene + Aitor Lajarin-Encin.

At After/Time Collective https://www.aftertimecollective 735 SW 9th Ave #110 5PM-8 Free

April 5 - 2026-2027 Never Sorry

Ai Weiwei is an artist we follow. His autobiography 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows tells some of his story. He was born in 1957. He was part of an art opening generation which quickly closed in Beijing. Then he lived in New York City between 1981 - 1993. He was a street photographer in NYC, including the Tompkins Square Park police riot and AIDS protests. Especially since his New York experience politics and (the lack of) justice has run through his work.

In 2010, The late Portland Museum of Contemporary Craft bright a traveling show Ai Weiwei: Dropping the Urn (Ceramic Works, 5000 BCE – 2010 CE). Weiwei's father had been an antiques dealer and the son has used antiques and Chinese history as a visual, emotional, and conceptual carrier in many of his works.

Of about 10,000 New York City images, 227 were shown at the Asia Society and published as a book in 2011 around the time of his release from being disappeared in China for 81 days. https://gailpellettproductions.com/ai-weiwei-new-york-1983-1993/

In 2012, the Portland Art Museum brought Allison Klayman's documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry. She is an excellent person and filmmaker to watch. That includes her The Brink on Steve Bannon. I recommend any Weiwei documentary and his own vidio projects. Never Sorry is around but hard to find free with English subtitles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBWCqFHjqIw

In 2015, the Portland Art Museum brought Ai Weiwei’s Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Gold. Weiwei has created several interpretations of this reprise of famous sculptures stolen from China in 1860. https://archive.orartswatch.org/ai-weiwei-interprets-the-zodiac-for-you/ https://www.pdxmonthly.com/arts-and-culture/2015/05/bring-us-the-heads-of-ai-weiwei-may-2015

Lately Weiwei has focused his lens on refugees of wars of choice in the Middle East. He has also been in Ukraine.

The Seattle Art Museum brought a large retrospective in 2025.

Now opens Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads (2010) in bronze at the Seattle Art Museum Olympic Sculpture Park. It's up for a while and the Olympic Sculpture Park is always free. Ai WeiWei https://www.seattleartmuseum.org/whats-on/exhibitions/ai-weiwei-circle-of-animals-zodiac-heads at the Seattle Art Museum Olympic Sculpture Park 2901 Western Avenue Map Free