VizArts Monthly: September Frenzy
Nim Wunnan
September 4, 2019
Ním Wunnan’s top picks for PICA’s TBA festival, the 2019 Biennial at Disjecta, and a mile of coastline.
Ním Wunnan’s top picks for PICA’s TBA festival, the 2019 Biennial at Disjecta, and a mile of coastline.
The hot days, long nights, and spontaneous trips to the river are here. It’s summer in Portland, no doubt about it. As is tradition, everything happens all at once and there’s no time for anything. First Thursday falls on the first of
Whatever gets your synapses firing, July’s got you covered. This month is packed with shows that run the gamut, from a rare exhibition of the the father of Japanese Conceptual art to the Salem Art Fair and Festival. If you’ve only got
This June, the arrival of summer isn’t the only big transition on the horizon. Bullseye Projects exhibition space closes after twenty years on NW 13th Ave, Adams and Ollman will relocate to a nearby space on NW 8th Ave, and Nationale announces
Spring is in full-swing and the galleries are blooming. A new pop-up appears on Alberta, LACMA loans PAM a 17th-century masterpiece, and Wolff gallery presents the wild self-portraiture of Rachel Mulder, an artist as comfortable making images with typewriters as she is
Spring is upon us, and the art scene is blooming like the cherry blossoms downtown. In the same month, you can see the thesis shows by the 112th and final graduating class from OCAC and PNCA’s first year of MFA students to
Spring is creeping up on us between snowstorms, and new work and some big announcements (good and bad) are blossoming all over town. The big story last month was the Oregon College of Art and Craft closing its doors. In happier news,
We’re looking a great month for painting, collage, and regional artists! Unexpected juxtapositions abound, whether it’s the group show of keepsakes at Adams and Ollman or Jayna Conkey’s photographs of vandalized library books. The Contemporary Northwest Art Awards are relaunched as a
The year may be winding down, but the art scene sure isn’t. This month, you can visit the Japanese Garden to catch the only US stop of an international exhibition of Hokusai’s Manga, or see Japanese art from twelve centuries under one
Unexpected, sad news rocked Portland’s art world last month with the tragic passing of the Yale Union’s executive director, Yoko Ott. A tireless supporter of the arts, Ott made lasting contributions at many institutions including the Frye Art Museum, Seattle University, and
October is here, and the arts calendar isn’t slowing down. The Portland Biennial has announced its curatorial team, featuring Portlanders Yaelle S. Amir and Ashley Stull Meyers, and Seattlite Elisheba Johnson. Meanwhile, Nationale has added Francesca Capone to its stable of artists,
September is upon us, with programs for TBA descending like early, unusually chunky autumn leaves. This year’s lineup looks as exciting as ever, but don’t forget the visual arts, whether they’ve snuck into TBA or not. Of note this month, new independent
The big, big news in the Portland arts community is that soon-to-be defunct Marylhurst University’s Art Gym isn’t gone forever! According to the press release issued by the Oregon College of Art and Craft, “all Art Gym operations, collections, and upcoming exhibitions
There’s no denying it—summer is here (well, technically, maybe not)! And what better way to enjoy the precious, fleeting sunny months in Portland than to look at art in small indoor spaces? OK, there might be more appropriate summertime activities, but in
How does the rhyme go? April showers bring… April flowers, May flowers, May showers, occasional heatwaves, and record pollen levels? Something like that. As the city warms and brightens this May, a colorful range of shows are popping up like the unstoppable
While we have yet to escape the various micro-seasons of post-winter, pre-spring Portland (such as Fool’s Spring, Mud Season, and Third Winter), blossoms are indeed blooming and the list of events and openings is getting fuller and fuller. For example, we’ve got
I’ve seen March arrive in Portland more than a dozen times, and yet still some part of me thinks “Ok, it’s spring now, right?” It’s not spring, and it won’t be spring for a while. It’s still winter, still time left in
Nearly everyone within earshot of these words already understands that one of the implications of the dramatic uptick in the cost of real estate and rents we’ve experienced lands directly on artists and the arts. At City Hall, it’s apparent that Mayor
The Earth inches around the sun a fraction less than one degree between December 31 and January 1, and yet somehow I still believe that something momentous has occurred. “Thank the far-flung heavens that 2017 is over,” I exclaim aloud to myself
Waterfront festivals, touring jazz giants, and local musicians transmute summer into fall.
The Portland biennial’s point of depARTure: In a world of multiple crises, political art is having its day again.
The 27th annual Art in the Pearl festival highlights Portland’s Labor Day Weekend. Plus, art around Oregon in Astoria, Eugene, and The Dalles.
Inside an “immersive art” extravaganza. Plus: Philip Cuomo and other deaths in the family, Indigenous culture and the future, talking with Willy Vlautin, what’s up in December.
A new month stirs up a storm of cultural activity, from a big book fest to galleries to stage, screen, and sound.
ArtsWatch Weekly: The doors swing open on live shows, PDX/NYC Tony connection, monthly guides & more.
ArtsWatch Weekly: Remembering an iconic Portland cultural figure and a TV star; Art in the Pearl & more.
ArtsWatch Weekly: A musical trip in a funhouse mirror, talking about “Lorelei,” creative laureates & more.
ArtsWatch Weekly: Chamber Music Northwest enters the concert hall, shakeup at OBT, summer of soul.
ArtsWatch Weekly: Oregon laureate has projects for the money. Plus: Classical Up Close, theater, egg art, more.
ArtsWatch Weekly: Storm Large and 3 Leg Torso make a movie, Chamber Music NW goes live, the Joy of words.
ArtsWatch Weekly: Remembering Beverly Cleary, Larry McMurtry, and composer Stephen Scott; revolutions & the way things change.
ArtsWatch Weekly: History moves into the forefront, a new series on Indigenous resilience, film fest time.
ArtsWatch Weekly: Fertile Ground marches on, film fest updates, Hal Holbrook on jackasses & politics.
ArtsWatch Weekly: Capitol insurrection; Barry Lopez’ connected world; galleries; new literary year.
The ups, downs, disasters, trends, outrages, and triumphs of Oregon arts & culture in a tortuous year.
ArtsWatch Weekly: Holiday shows, making theatrical spirits bright, gallery art, new music, fresh flicks, passages.
ArtsWatch Weekly: Brett Campbell solves the riddle. Theater discovers radio. Music, dance, art, books, more.
ArtsWatch Weekly: Backstage love, Lynn Nottage by ear, art all over, elk & otters & deep dark woods.
Portland Book Fest turns the page, downtown gets a new museum, and it’s beginning to feel a lot like … already?
Same old story? Brash new wave? In Oregon this week, old and new and always mix it up.
As the contemporary arts festival surges onto an already bulging calendar, that is the question.
Retiring Portland Institute for Contemporary Art executive director Victoria Frey and her successor, Reuben Roqueñi, discuss the venerable avant-garde arts institution’s coming transformation.
ArtsWatch Weekly: Big crowds & small artists at the big boom, new art & dance, a fresh film fest.
A working-class ‘Tightrope,’ combative plays, Southern rites: America goes to battle with itself.
Hip-hop haven, profiles in gender, museum Loverules, a new opera, un-holiday tunes, gibassiers & more.
Well, that was the year that was, wasn’t it? Old Man 2018 limps out of the limelight with a thousand scars, a thousand accomplishments, and a whole lot of who-knows-what. The new kid on the block, Baby 2019, arrives fit and sassy,
Give to our GROW FUND.