In September, Portland bid farewell to summer with PICA’s annual Time-Based Arts Festival, Devin Harclerode and Laura Camila Medina’s Loopholes at Fuller Rosen Gallery, and Anya Roberts-Toney’s Summer’s Eve at Nationale. Now, as social distancing requirements continue, artists and gallerists press onward, finding innovative ways to engage audiences through virtual exhibitions, by-appointment gallery viewings, and interactive experiences. October’s diverse slate of art events encourages viewers to choose their own adventure.
Lois Dodd and Sharif Farrag
September 12-October 31
Adams and Ollman
418 NW 8th Ave (by appointment)
Adams and Ollman creates a refreshing intergenerational pairing with concurrent solo exhibitions of painter Lois Dodd (b. 1927) and ceramicist Sharif Farrag (b. 1993). Dodd’s intimate, abstracted landscapes contrast sharply with Farrag’s raucous, punk-inspired sculptures, yet they find harmony in the in-between: elements of flora, lush color, and hidden histories. While Dodd’s works are emotive in their immediacy, often having been completed in one sitting, Farrag’s ceramics are overflowing with reference, drawing from iconography of the artist’s Egyptian and Syrian lineage, humor, and Californian funk art.
RE: ASSEMBLY: Francesca Capone, Sofía Clausse, Michelle Yi Martin, and Lane Walkup
September 24-October 20
Nationale
15 SE 22nd Ave (open Thursday-Sunday, masks and distancing required)
The artists featured in Nationale’s RE: ASSEMBLY utilize textile materials to reflect on pliability, translation, utility, and object memory. Francesca Capone advances her efforts toward a zero-waste practice with her newest works, composed of personal fabric scraps. Sofía Clausse’s pieces emphasize linear gesture and everyday objects. Embedded in all of the featured works is a focus on construction/reconstruction, acknowledging the narratives fiber can hold while also envisioning future possibilities.
Pacifico Silano: I Won’t Last A Day Without You
October 2-November 14
Melanie Flood Projects
420 SW Washington St. #310 (by appointment)
Pacifico Silano’s solo exhibition, curated by Yaelle S. Amir, is highly personal—pulling from 1960s-80s gay erotica, the series of photographic collages references his own upbringing during the AIDS crisis and his uncle’s death from the disease. Silano’s collages function as memorials of the consumer and consumed in the original erotica. Combining his source imagery with layers of soft color and floral elements, Silano’s reframing makes space for a newly fragile expression of mourning and longing.
Sponsor
Haley Darya Parsa: Sharing Suns
September 25-October 30
Third Room
Virtual exhibition.
Sharing Suns, first installed in Dallas and now presented on Third Room’s website, features a series of works Parsa created in isolation. Cyanotypes, hand-dyed fabrics, and drawings reflect on the collective use of natural resources, global warming, immigration, and our responsibilities as Earth-dwellers. In these works, the sun acts as a symbol of hope and renewal. The online exhibition includes a downloadable risograph zine.
Rami George: and one day will tell you so many stories
September 25 – November 16
PCC Cascade Paragon Arts Gallery
815 N Killingswoth St. (window viewing only) and virtual
Plus screening at PNCA
In Rami George’s first solo exhibition, the Philadelphia-based artist presents two video essays (viewable online) and a billboard structure (installed at Paragon) as part of a continuous project that delves into their interactions with the cult The Samaritan Foundation. George, a current PNCA artist-in-residence, will present a “video playlist” screening and Q & A with curator Laurel McLaughlin at the Center for Contemporary Art and Culture on October 14. More remote viewing options and a curatorial essay will be available on the PNCA Online Gallery after October 23.
Rami George’s exhibition at Paragon is a satellite presentation of Networks of (Be)longing, a series of art events unfolding across multiple sites throughout Portland from October 16 – November 15. Programming for Networks of (Be)longing includes a group show at the Center for Contemporary Art and Culture, performances by Mengda Zhang on October 16 and November 13, a conversation about online communion with Tabitha Nikolai and Emma Lugo on October 30, and an adjacent group exhibition titled (see also:) variable performances of a well-designed site index. All programming will be available online via Zoom, Vimeo, and Twitch.
Liquid Dungeon Byproduct: Tabitha Nikolai, ESPer99, and Porpentine Charity Heartscape
October 1 – 31, 2020
HOLDING Contemporary
916 NW Flanders Street (window viewing only) and virtual
With Liquid Dungeon Byproduct, the prolifically inventive Tabitha Nikolai has teamed up with ESPer99 (sound) and Porpentine Charity Heartscape (writing) to create a multidimensional art experience in the form of a downloadable video game and window projection on location at HOLDING Contemporary. The video game, a first-person exploratory simulator, is simple to navigate, with a dreamlike, psychedelic landscape. On October 15, the gallery will host a Q & A session with the creators on Twitch.tv.
Sponsor
Out of Nothing: a virtual & interactive exhibition by Alyson Provax
September 21-November 8
Archer Gallery at Clark College (virutal/interactive)
In this body of work, Provax investigates temporality, grief, and loneliness through a series of letterpressed works. Honoring their presentation in the digital realm, the works are exhibited as animated .gifs. Out of Nothing is fully viewable online, but also includes an optional mailed component of artistic reproductions. Sign up for this offering on the exhibition page. Provax will present a Zoom-based artist talk on October 9, and a workshop on October 30.
GLEAN program exhibition: May Maylisa Cat, Curtis Reid Henderson, Christina Kemp, Cristina Niculescu, and Lynne Yarne
October 4- November 1
Disjecta Contemporary Art Center
8371 N Interstate Ave (open Friday-Sunday, masks and distancing required)
Portland’s GLEAN program challenges five artists annually to make new work from materials discovered at the Metro Central Transfer Station (otherwise known as the dump). The program emphasizes waste reduction and artist support, offering participating artists a $2,000 stipend and 80% commission on artwork sales. This month, GLEAN’s 2020 artists-in-residence will present pieces they’ve created from their repurposed materials at Disjecta. Four previous GLEAN artists will also conduct a panel discussion at PSU’s School of Art + Design on October 14, as part of Portland Textile Month programming.
Jordan Sullivan: At the Corner of Heartbreak & Avalanche
September 19- October 25
Ampersand Gallery & Fine Books
2916 NE Alberta St. Suite B (open Friday-Sunday, limited entry, masks and distancing)
Jordan Sullivan’s paintings and sculptures blend North and South American folk art aesthetics to tell stories of misfit characters in bright, abstracted landscapes. Sullivan relies on salvaged materials to further his vision of humanity steeped in a crusty gloom. Acrylic and clay sculptures of down-on-their-luck types perch alongside portraits of hard drinkers rendered with bold texture. The works, while bleak, suggest a shared resilience.
Common Ground
August 12- October 31
Anti-Aesthetic/Eugene Contemporary Art
245 W. 8th Ave, Eugene (by appointment and virtual)
Sponsor
Organized by Eugene Contemporary Art, Common Ground creates space for conversation, exchanges, and exhibitions on diverse topics of art and ecology. The project is currently comprised of an in-person exhibit at Anti-Aesthetic, an online exhibition of video, photographs, and works on paper by Jill R. Baker, and a reading group in collaboration with graduate research group Topozone. Meanwhile, artist-researcher Karin Bolender is conducting a Common Ground remote residency under the auspices of the Rural Alchemy Workshop.
Portland Textile Month
October 1-31
Various locations and virtual
Portland Textile Month, incubated within and funded by Textile Hive, supports the local fiber community with exhibitions and knowledge-sharing events throughout October. Highlights this year include Worn Memoirs, an interactive virtual platform for textile storytelling by Lilia Hernandez Galusha & Anna Vo, and Malleable Pursuit of Protection, Sarah Nance and Shelley Socolofsky’s collaborative installation of rewritten colonial narratives.
Disjecta’s GLEAN exhibition and Nationale’s RE: ASSEMBLY are both parts of Portland Textile Month programming. Nationale will also present Banners on Cultivating Resistance, a group show of banners created by children participating in the Living School of Art program, and Who We Are Out of the Dark, a selection of cyanotype-printed textiles and dance performances by Sarah Brahim.
