April showers bring May flowers. … But that false spring that tempted us has left me tired of the rain and ready for sunny warm days. While we endure these rainy sad days for a little longer, let’s remember to focus on our community. Whether it be your local friends and family or the galleries throughout the state, it is important to slow down and support your communities on these stormy days. 

Check out the cherry blossoms on Portland’s waterfront, then take a trip down the road to Blackfish Gallery and witness the transparency of memory. A few blocks away, stop by after/time to investigate the residues of the past and their connections to the present. Across the river, visit Sidestreet Arts to see how two women create powerful oil paintings and stained glass works. Over at the coast, stop by Newport Visual Arts Center to engage with community-based healing and artwork. Take a trip to Southern Oregon and support Phoenix Helio, a new art initiative that brings rural Oregon and the contemporary art world together. 

Wheel of Life 
Betsy Walton 
April 4- May 3 
Chefas Projects 
134 SE Taylor St Suite 203, Portland, OR 97214

Wheel of Life is Betsy Walton’s third solo exhibition with Chefas Projects. In this exhibition Walton dives into the world of astrology and tarot. She works with the symbolism and experiential themes of the twelve astrological houses through a series of paintings on paper.  Each house in astrology represents different dimensions of life, ranging from identity, self-expression, relationships, and career to the subconscious. Walton explores these various elements of astrology in a unique and detail-focused way. She balances research, intuition, and the formal elements of art to create captivating compositions that resonate with the life elements of astrology. Discover a new sense of identity and community by leaning into the complex world of astrology.

Jeff 
ahuva s. zaslavsky 
April 4-27 
after/time 
735 SW 9th Ave. #110, Portland, OR 97205

Jeff explores the eternal tide between creation and collapse where nature and human ambition combine. ahuva s. zaslavsky uses the frameworks of untamable beings to investigate how the past informs the present. zaslavsky’s multimedia work engages concepts of layering, fragments, and reassembly so that destruction is not an end, but an important part of the creative process. 

Qualia 
Hannah Theiss 
April 2- 29
Blackfish Gallery 
938 NW Everett St, Portland, OR 97209 

In Qualia, artist Hannah Theiss creates mixed-media works by piecing fragments of memory together. Theiss uses nontraditional materials to explore imperfect memory. Her work lies on the edge of non-recognition, transparency and instability surrounding her compositions. Also on display are Philip Stork’s mixed-media pastel drawings that bring light to the worlds that bind us together in Connections. Expressive paintings and dualities of interconnection are featured in Luminous Fire from a Broken Machine by Noah Alexander Isaac Stein. The last exhibition on display is Blackfish Gallery’s group show that features new covers to existing books titled, Under the Covers. Support the important community around Blackfish Gallery this month with their three distinct and equally important exhibitions! 

Sponsor

Signal Fire 
Ondrea Bell Levey & Madeline Staurseth
April 5- 27
Well Well Projects 
8371 N Interstate Ave #1, Portland, OR 97217

Apocalypse forefronts Well Well Project’s latest exhibition, Signal Fire, in which Ondrea Bell Levey and Madeline Staurseth confront  nuclear fallout, tectonic catastrophes, AI rebellion, pandemics, climate crisis, and general civilizational decline. While the world around us is on the edge of collapse and every day feels like a bizarre set of events in an outlandish movie, this exhibition’s goal is to invest in the well-being of the community for survival. 

Shift Work: Queer Artists in Tectonic Times 
Various Artists 
April 4- May 10
Multnomah Arts Center 
7688 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR 97219

Support the local LGBTQ+ community during these challenging and uncertain times with Multnomah Arts Center. More than fifty LGBTQ+ artists are featured in exhibitions that explore the emotional responses to our shifting social and political landscapes. The featured artists aim to answer the question around navigating uncertainty and finding joy amidst coping with grief. The multitude of mediums and artistic processes speak with authenticity and agency in hopes to answer these troubling questions. Another aspect of this exhibition is the large communal piece curated by photographs submitted by regional LGBTQ+ artists that speak to their current feelings. A ceramic and sculpture based exhibition titled Holding Our Own: Work by LGBTQIA2S+ Ceramic Artists & Potters is also on display and deal with the theme of holding space and holding onto hope.

Donna Bates and Tamara Goldsmith
April 3- 26 
Sidestreet Arts 
140 SE 28th Ave, Portland, OR 97214

Strengthen a community around the creativity and brilliance of women with Sidestreet Arts’ latest exhibitions featuring Donna Bates and Tamara Goldsmith. Donna Bates aims to create big, dramatic, and sexy statements with her oil paintings of powerful figures that embody resilience and grace. Her work speaks to the complexity, strength, and light of the human spirit. Tamara Goldsmith translates her ideas visually through her stained-glass practice, specializing in small and portable stained glass created by traditional techniques. Goldsmith’s work deviates from the traditional architectural style of stained glass that relies on geometry and abstraction. Instead, Tamara uses animals, portraiture, and iconography to force the viewer to introspection from her use of surrealism, dark arts and oddities, and modern-day ironies.

NEOTERIC 
Various Artists
April 4- 26
Phoenix Helio 
Langford Art Gallery, 4850 S Pacific Hwy, Phoenix, OR 97535

This month, engage with and support a community-focused art exhibit and initiative only thirty minutes from the California border, in rural Phoenix, Oregon. Phoenix Helio is an art and cultural initiative that bridges the gap between rural isolation and the contemporary art world. Its goal is to expand the art world to underrepresented areas such as rural Southern Oregon and support contemporary artists from this region in reaching broader audiences and establishing strong local communities. The first-ever group exhibition in Phoenix, NEOTERIC, displays the newest media, concepts, and processes within contemporary art. The featured artists push boundaries through new techniques, experimental narratives, and a devotion to introducing the local community to a whole new way of experiencing art. A large variety of mediums are highlighted ranging from performance art to poetry and painting. 

Sponsor

Crackers (& Cookies) 
LeBrie Rich 
April 3- 26
Nine Gallery 
122 NW 8th Ave, Portland, OR 97209

LeBrie Rich explores the mass production of food and its cultural significance with her latest show Crackers (& Cookies) at the Nine Gallery. Rich’s work features large-scale felted sculptures of iconic name brands of crackers and cookies and even cracker-inspired furniture! These larger-than-life-size junk foods push the formal elements of the object to the front that force the viewer to consider the consumerism rooted in the food we eat. Rich combines the labor-intensive medium of felting with the throwaway consumer culture of junk food. Explore the tasty community around beloved snacks and goodies with LeBrie Rich’s delicious sculptures.

A Thousand Hands 
Crystal Meneses 
April 4- May 25
Newport Visual Arts Center 
777 NW Beach Dr, Newport, OR 97365 

Crystal Meneses’ devotion to harmony in community and her spiritual relationship to Kuan Yin, the Buddhist deity of compassion and mercy is at the forefront of her exhibition, A Thousand Hands at Newport Visual Arts Center. Meneses uses art as a tool for healing with her work as a death doula, hospice chaplain, and multidisciplinary artist. The art Meneses creates comes from her dreams, memories, prayer, imagination, and rituals. She uses mediums such as fire, guava leaf, egg, water, candle, and spirit to create compelling works of art.