November 1 Interspecies Washington Channel

Mississippi Records and The Oregon Department of Kick Ass present an evening of Interspecies Communication with Jim Nollman and Rankin Renwick.

Portland independent movie maker Rankin Renwick https://www.odoka.org/about has turned her lens on regional landscape, neighborhood history, folk art, politics, more. That includes wildlife. Her latest interest is interspecies communication.

Orcas Island field recordist Jim Nollman has recorded whales and other animals, and played guitar for them, recording their reaction. https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/jim-nollman-interspecies-communication.

They are collaborating tonight on a show of shorts on the theme of interspecies communication.

Renwick and Portland filmmaker Matt McCormick, himself famous for features and The Subconscious Art of Graffitti Removal with Miranda July, pursued a rock band van tour strategy of self-distribution visiting college towns for showings in their early careers. They disributed other's work on VHS at the time, such as the now ultra-rare Kings of the Sky by Deborah Strattman. Kings of the Sky is a guerilla documentary made about the tightrope walking culture of the Uyghers in Xinjiang Province, China. What the Chinese government did in Tibet was just starting for Kings of the Sky. July was pursuing her own Big Miss Moviola self-distribution project in the same era.

Renwick showed often at McCormick's longtime Boathouse Studio, part of the Unkles family art studio project. With McCormick now teaching in Spokane, The Boathouse Microcinema, under new management, also have a program tonight.

Interspecies Communication https://hollywoodtheatre.org/show/interspecies-communication-with-jim-nollman-and-rankin-renwick/ at the Hollywood Theater 4122 NE Sandy 7PM $15


Róge Stack shows their movie Washington.

"This is the sad tale of the township of Wasington, nestled in the uttermost reaches of the northwest of the US of A. Two young Americans had planned to travel there for an evening of light music, but that was where the trouble already began. For what they had failed to realize was that the 6th of July was not much unlike the 4th of July after all…"

It's https://www.boathousemicrocinema.com/nov-1-2026/ at the Boathouse Microcinema www.boathousemicrocinema.com 822 N River Doors 7:30PM, movie 8 Free


The Synth Library continues the momentum of Modular on the Spot for the rainy season in their new space under the bridge by the river. Today is an open source open mic-like concert in their series Open Channels program.

Musicians of any experience level sign up for 15 minute sets.

At the Synth Library Portland https://www.synthlibraryportland.org/events 123 NE 3rd Ave, Suite 012. Travel by 2nd, pass the Burnside Skate Park and enter from the building parking lot on 2nd. Doors 3, music 3:30-6 Free

October 31 Listening

For your listening pleasure, today's selections are Fabiano Do Nascimiento, Vila, Bjork, Homogenic, Ambre Ciel, Still, There is the Sea, Dadawah, Peace and Love, Antenna, Camino Del Sol, and Asha Puthli, The Devil Is Loose.

Gallery Hours https://mono-space.org/blogs/events/gallery-hours-presented-by-mono-space at Mono Space https://mono-space.org/ 608 NW 13th Ave Ste 102. Noon-4 (early close) Free


The Synth Library has https://www.synthlibraryportland.org/events/halloweenopenhouse26 including kid-friendly early. Free

October 30 Old Home

Ashley Anson has illustrations Home Sweet Home.

It is a five day show https://onegrandgallery.com/Ashley-Anson at One Grand Gallery www.onegrandgallery.com 1000 E Burnside 5PM-9 Free


Nathan McKey has a show on old Portland. At the Purple Door https://www.thepurpledoorpdx.com/ 3557 SE Division 6PM-9 Free

October 29 Women and Electronic Music

The Synth Library, Sunnyside Community Center, and NW Documentary present movie Sisters with Transisters (2020) 86 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRGFLPjhQgI. It is a rare opportunity to see the movie in a social situation. Tickets https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/organizations/nw-documentary. At former church Sunnyside Community Center 3520 SE Yamhill Doors 6:30 $10

October 28 Flood

We are selective in listing talks. Photographer, curator, and gallerist Melanie Flood https://www.melanieflood.com/ discusses her work. At at the monthly PAM Photo Council talk today. It is https://portlandartmuseum.org/event/photography-councils-lunchtime-talk-melanie-flood/ in the Portland Art Museum Masonic Temple, 4th floor Park-side meeting room https://portlandartmuseum.org 1119 SW Park Noon Free

October 26 Boathouse Instructions for the Lifeboats

Denver moviemaker Adán De La Garza brings shorts on "the dire circumstances of late capitalism, the relationship between political and emotional stagnation, catharsis and protest, sonic warfare, and emerging futures brought about by climate change."

It's https://www.boathousemicrocinema.com/oct-26-2026/ at the Boathouse Microcinema www.boathousemicrocinema.com 822 N River Doors 6:30 movie 7 Free

October 24 Speaking of Golden Palaces

In the last years of his life, Saddam Husein built 80 to 100 palaces. https://failedarchitecture.com/architecture-after-excess-the-palaces-of-saddams-baghdad/ Portland has been a supporter of Irish photographer Richard Mosse. Mosse studied with Gregory Crewdson. Crewdson spoke in Portland a Ripe Family Dinner about studying at that selfsame university and then undertook unusual, almost social practice art, work. I'm a fan of many of his students, and comments are scattered in this blog about that. I speak sometimes of an Arbus gaze. I think there is a Crewdson gaze. Each branched out. Mosse photographed a few of Saddam's Palaces. After Iraq, he traveled in rebel territory in Eastern Congo to make The Enclave. The conflict there, continuing to this day, broke out as a result of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, little connection by the central government in the far West to the far East, and the warlord-natural resource extraction economy. I've been in that area with gunshots, thankfully in the distance. The Enclave was shown at the 2013 Venice Biellialle. It traveled to the Portland Art Museum. Another folly of kings is in Gbadolite, Northern Congo, near the seasonal Mobayi - Mbongo ferry. It is home to the ruins of King Mobutu's jungle palace. Mossee was later selected as curator for Converge 45 and spoke about his Amazon project, Broken Spectre, and exploration of migration. Ai Weiwei has worked on that topic as well. Here is Mosse's experience with Saddam's palaces. https://www.bldgblog.com/2009/05/saddams-palaces-an-interview-with-richard-mosse/ We can only imagine a cheescake restaurant designed by Saddam.

October 24 Windows on the World

PNCA Willamette opens their MFA studios for an early and mid-program readout. It's always fun to see artist studios, even when they have been cleaned up for visitors!

They request you get free tickets at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-studios-at-the-glass-building-tickets-1998554404022

Open Studios at the Albina glass factory 2139 N Kerby. 5PM-8 Free

October 24 Archiving the Past for the Future

The Black Gallery has collaborated on a photo show under their Liberated Archives for Black Lives Program. Taishona Carpenter, joins her photographs with samples from Brian Lanker, working in the 1980s, I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America.

You can find more on the Black Gallery socials. There is an archiving workshop at the Oregon Historical Society 10AM https://www.ohs.org/events/portland-in-black.cfm. The show opening is https://www.eventbrite.com/e/liberated-archives-for-black-lives-at-the-low-end-tickets-2003175172866 at The Low End 670 N Russell 5PM-7 Free

October 24 - 26 E.A.T.

Media, electronics, and software galleries and workspaces are popping up in many places. Xispa Innovation Lab https://xispa.art/ is one founded February in Seattle. Portland's Samantha Yun Wall is in residence with them. CETI, nee at PSU, https://ceti.institute runs parallel, more on the maker side than the exhibition side.

This weekend Xispa is the prime mover of https://artandtechsymposium.com/ along with nee Cornish. 9e26 https://artandtechsymposium.com/program-2026/#tab-conversations is part of the program inspired by Rauschenberg's 1966 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering Experiments in Art and Technology - E.A.T. https://www.experimentsinartandtechnology.org in the New York Lexington Avenue Armory.

You can find all about the event at https://artandtechsymposium.com at the Cornish 9th Ave Gallery, 2014 9th Ave Seattle, and Xispa 325 Westlake Avenue N.

October 23 Skate Gardens Under the Overpass

Kristen Diederich brings Outside Nature and Beyond the Garden Room. Outside Nature is her abstract exprssionist garden landscape painting. Beyond the Garden Room is a show she has curated of adjacent artists Kayla Marie Carlson, Kaitlyn Carr, Indigo Free, C. Meier, Quinha Mukai Faria, Holly Osborne, and Emily Wise.

They are https://www.stephaniechefas.com/kristen-diederich-outside-nature and https://www.stephaniechefas.com/beyond-the-garden-room at Stephanie Chefas gallery www.stephaniechefas.com 134 SE Taylor, Ste 203. Map. 5PM-8 Free


Printmakers Cassie Ferguson and Charlie Cohan are Lost Bearings Press (LBP) and BurnPrint Studio (BPS) respectively. They have been collaborating since 2017. Ferguson has an ongoing series of prints illustrating DIY skateparks, and Cohan, series on local bridges. Their collaborations feature skate parks under bridges. This show, Under the Overpass is an example. The show has opportunities for community printmaking you can see on the show link.

It's https://www.steloarts.org/stelo-events/undertheoverpass at Stelo Arts https://www.steloarts.org 412 NW 8th 5PM-8 Free

October 22 Portland to Dakar

Senegal lives on the Atlantic Ocean in Africa. Dakar is its Westernmost point. Portland is connected to Dakar by art exchanges. Many may remember Worksound's Modou Dieng.

BLACK MATTER DAKAR launches to give the exchange a durable base extending into the future.

Artists Tammy Jo Wilson, Michael Stevenson, Emma Colburn, and Bukekile Dube set the foundation for:

A Portland -Dakar artist residency.

Travel to the Dakar Biennale for artists, curators, and supporters.

Programs for Portland youth to learn about Senagal.

At Studio 516, 516 NW 14th 5:30-7:30 Free

October 17 Freshwater Caldera Revelar Testament Midnight Language Museum

Camp Caldera was the project and passion of the late Dan Wieden. They have public open houses sometimes. This one is a Fall festival. At Camp Caldera www.calderaarts.org, 31500 Blue Lake Drive, Sisters, OR Map 11AM – 4PM Free


Gabi Villaseñor https://www.gabivillasenor.com/ is a Portland multiartist. They have a show of sculpture and painting. There is an eloquent show note in the link. In the Project Room, A Mother's Discourse: Reading Room by Francesca Capone closes tomorrow.

It's https://www.nationale.us/gabi-villasenor-we-found-a-freshwater-spring-while-you-were-sleeping-2026 at Nationale www.nationale.us 15 SE 22nd Map 2PM-4 Free


Leah Lavelle https://www.leahlavelle.com/ has paintings.

At Fine Art Fruit https://www.fineartfruit.com 925 NW 19th Ave Suite A 3PM-6 Free


Georgina Reskala https://www.ginareskala.com/ opens photographs Soñé Que Revelabas.

"Last year I had a dream. We were at my grandparents’ house and my late sister was standing there, looking at me. I carefully approached her and she whispered to me: “Soñé que revelabas”. I woke up trying to make sense of that sentence.

Revelar in Spanish is both to manifest or make public something that was a secret or unknown, and the chemical process in photography by which a latent image becomes visible.

She was my oldest sister, my best friend and confidant and had a gift to make me feel like things were going to work out. I wrote the sentence on a piece of paper and put it up on my studio wall. I saw it every day, and kept trying to figure out what she meant. As the days and the months went by, I realised that I am still trying to make sense of her loss. Loss not only as a consequence of death but loss in the quotidian. Loss of language, interactions, moments, and memories that become fainter as a result of distance and time. Leaving one’s home, family, and language and starting another life in a different country carries a weight that becomes most apparent during difficult times. I started looking through family pictures (my family and other families), using them as probes, copying them, changing them, creating new ones. I attached my own memories onto film.

This body of work is a personal account of the process of translation, not just in language, but of sounds, inflections, the stories, the memories, the dreams, and ultimately the way I see. The feeling of being unmoored. The estrangement that comes with the inability to fully translate from one language to the other. How does one communicate without full authority? How to experience in one’s language and express the memory in a different, foreign language. It is a reflection of ongoing investigations on translating my experiences from my native by language to my adopted one, back and forth in order to reconcile being in two different worlds with different structures; an attempt to create a personal visual language that can encompass both. A way to reveal myself."

At PDX Contemporary Art www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 1825 NW Vaughn Map 3PM-5 Free


Bethany Rowland has paintings Testament https://bethanyrowland.com/testament-2026 and Nicholas Stelter has kiln-iired glass vessels. There is an artist talk November 21 at 11AM.

At Laura Vincent Design and Gallery www.lvdesignandgallery.com/ 824 NW Davis 4PM-6 Free


Hi Books is one of many well curated art bookstores in Portland. They present their collection of the late 1960s-early 1970s queer San Francisco: Midnight Movies: Notes from the Psychedelic Cinematic Underground. There will be programs theroughout the exhibition. It's a unique archive. It is at The Old Fashioned Garage Gallery.

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 Fashioned Garage Gallery opening show 4PM-7 Free


We like Ditch Projects. It is a Eugene artist-run gallery with many members around the U of O contemporary art department. They cross fertilize with Portland minimal conceptual opportunities.


Modern Language Association is a show in collaboration with Gene's Dispensery https://www.genesdispensary.ca/ in LA. Artists are Matthew Dickman, Marcus Fischer, Noah Greene, Ido Radon, Morgan Ritter, and Justin Cole Smith. There will be a performance/reading at 7.

At Ditch Projects https://ditchprojects.com/ 303 S. 5th Ave #165, Springfield OR Map 5PM-7 Free


MOSMA https://www.mosmapdx.org/ and the Crow Collective https://www.crowcollectivepdx.com/ have pop-up exhibit of behind-the-scenes artists in Portland stop-motion animation.

At ADX - Art Design Xchange adxportland.com 417 SE 11th x Stark Map 6PM-9


The Portland Zine Symposium comes to the PSU Smith Center Ballroom 11AM-5PM and Sunday too. Requesting masks. Free