At the Altar of My Own Love, Erin Bodfish
🗓️May 1-30, 2025
✨Opening Reception: First Thursday, May 1st, 2025, 6-9 pm
🗣️Artist Talk with V Maldonado & 💫Closing Reception: Friday, May 30, 7-9 pm
⏳Gallery Hours⌛️Tuesday & Thursday 6-8 pm & Saturday 12-5 pm
Grief is felt in the body, as real as any injury. It is a heaviness, a physical ache formed. It is something that is ephemeral, fleeting in its presence, and yet able to permanently effect change. I feel this presence of grief within my own body. Its permanent alteration of the makeup of my form. It is a scar tissue that has healed over itself time and time again.
Through the mourning of my past selves, of love once lost, this series of work At the Altar of My own Love came to be. These paintings reflect a rebirth, a coming to terms with departure, and a love returning that I thought lost. I have pieced myself back together, one fragment at a time, finding beauty in the sharpness of my edges, and a relief in being able to settle into soft spaces once again. I capture this through my mark making, through the suffusion of color throughout my works, and an interruption of a traditional viewing format to engage the viewer in an intimate way. I work on a large scale in order to capture the breadth of these feelings of grief—where I shed my former self, emerging anew in my own love.
With the use of both live and dried floral matter sculpted alongside these works, the concept of memento mori is represented—a reminder of death and the temporality of life. This temporality can apply to the fleeting nature of relationships, but their everlasting effect. One of rebirth and death. The paintings and sculptures express the process of grieving while seeking to understand a new reality. The small works showcased alongside the altars, act as vanitas—or vanities. These are capturings of fleeting moments of reflection, fragments of self and past loves, abstracting their presence as we let them go.
#artandaboutpdx #artgallery #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #pdx #pnw #whattodothisweekendpdx
↖️In the North Gallery – We Speak in Color by Heather Adamek and Jeffrey Fuchs
↘️In the South Gallery – Inventing People by Michael Spence
🗓️Exhibition Dates – May 1st through May 31st
📍Gallery 114, 1100 NW Glisan Street @gallery114
✨Opening Reception: May 1st, 5-8 PM
a celebration of abstract expressionist painting that began in America after World War II with painters like Joan Mitchell, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock and continues strong today. The artwork in We Speak in Color is non-representational, spontaneous, and emotional art, using oil and acrylic paint, color and bold mark marking to convey the artists’ inner worlds.
Inventing People is a show of new paintings, by Michael Spence that uses a familiar palette of bold colors and loose, improvisational brushwork to paint figures who are made up, conjured often from bits and pieces of memory, imagination, or photos from various sources including the internet, magazines, and family photos.
Fuchs’ paintings exemplify the energy and dynamism of abstract expressionism. Characterized by bold brushstrokes and a vibrant palette, the work showcases an interplay of colors and textures, creating a visually engaging experience. His paintings are based on his life experiences as a civil engineer, outdoor explorer, and avid reader. He uses bold colors, composition, and texture to tell his stories.
Adamek’s work is an expression of her desire to use color and shape to call us back to the places
within where we feel the freest, the most vulnerable, and the most ourselves. Her childhood was
spent exploring the wilds of the Pacific Northwest Coast and the lush, quiet undergrowth of the
Cascade Mountains. Adamek conveys her experience with bold colors and expressive mark making using layers of oil, charcoal and graphite to tell the stories that words alone cannot fully express.
Spence was born in London, raised in Los Angeles, and now resides in Portland. Inventing People is a departure from the landscape paintings Spence is known for. But the work is similar with a focus on color, shape and composition that is characteristically Michael Spence.
CHARLOTTE SALOMON PAINTS HER LIFE WITH PAMELA REITMAN
Join Pamela Reitman, author of Charlotte Salomon Paints Her Life for a presentation on Charlotte Salomon’s life, writing her story as historical fiction, and more.
📍Oregon Jewish Museum - 724 NW Davis St
🗓️May 8, 2025
⏳6-7:30pm
🎟️ $5 for general admission, free for members with code on back of membership card
The Holocaust and the years leading up to it had a catastrophic effect on the arts: Jewish artists lost their lives in the death camps or were severely traumatized by social or ethnic persecution; many artists were forced to flee their homeland; and many artworks were destroyed, burned or looted between 1933 and 1945.
One of the most stunning works of art produced from that period in history, which did survive, was Life? Or Theater? by Charlotte Salomon. It tells a story in 850 watercolor/gouache paintings created while she was in exile in the South of France. Reitman will talk about the traumas this young woman faced and how she met each one with a steely determination to become a serious modernist artist.
She will ask (and answer) the questions: How does art transform trauma? AND—what is the role of historical fiction today, both for the reader and the writer, in Holocaust education?
#artandaboutpdx #artgallery #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #pdx #pnw #whattodothisweekendpdx #holocaustart #jewishart #ojmche
In the studio with @pnca_hallieford MFA Visual Studies candidate and 2025 Glean Artist-in-Residence Mai Ide @maiidepdx.
📹 @freshandpretty, 2014 MFA Alumni + Fellow
✨Join them and @p_n_c_a BFA & MFA graduate candidates at their thesis exhibitions opening May 1st at PNCA, Stelo Arts, and Building 5.
🚎 Shuttles will be available. 🚎
I Want To Remember Everything, Kayla Marie Carlson
🫧Portland Artist Fellowship
☕️Stumptown Coffee Roasters Downtown, 128 SW 3rd Avenue
🌀April 16 - July 15, 2025
✨Reception Thursday, May 1st 5-7pm
Kayla Marie Carlson (b. 1991) is a painter, writer and designer raised in the Midwest and based in Portland, Oregon. Kayla’s work is concerned with the perpetual search for personal identity through storytelling, narrative, and connection with the natural world. She is particularly interested in and influenced by landscapes, dreams and fantasies, memories and nostalgia, mythology, fables, magical realism, songwriting and poetry as tools for self-discovery and aims to express the feelings and experiences these elements evoke through her visual art.
Her painting style flows between abstract expressionism and impressionism; her initial layers of often broad stroke, embodied, atmospheric color washes that cover the entire canvas, and the subsequent layers become more focused, textural, intimate and involved. Her works are composed intuitively and experimentally, influenced by and evocative of her reverence for the natural world, and how the external world often reflects or influences the internal human experience. The interplay of layers, textures, colors, organic shapes and mark-making yield compositions that are whimsical, poetic, tender, imaginative, playful and expressive - blurring the boundary between reality and fiction, natural and fabricated.
“Color in: “To the Lighthouse”, by Virginia Woolf” by Anna Gray + Ryan Wilson Paulsen @ryannaprojects at PDX Contemporary Art.
#artandaboutpdx #artgallery #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #pdx #pnw #whattodothisweekendpdx #viriginawoolf #tothelighthouse
Let’s dive into our city’s amazing art and culture, and take in the stunning natural beauty! Weekend highlights:
🎨 @p_e_t_e_r_g_a_l_l_o at @adamsandollman
🪩 @converge_45 art gala
🦆 @csrgpdx
📐 @benbuswell at @oregoncontemporary
✴️ @outervoicepdx at @oregoncontemporary
#artandaboutpdx #portlandartscene
RUPERT MOWS THE LAWN NOW, Galen Ballinger at Stumptown Coffee Roasters Division
🪜April 9 - July 8, 2025
✨Reception Date: April 18th
Is god just an imaginary friend?
For a short time when I was young I had an imaginary friend I’m told was named Rupert.
One day he stopped responding. But lately I’ve been trying to make him talk again.
I have found painting to be a conversation between the artist and the universe. You say something and it responds. And then you respond back. And so on. It’s all in the process. Sometimes this takes years, sometimes just a few hours. But usually it takes many sessions over a period of time. The conversations meander and the universe doesn’t always want to talk. But when we are talking nothing is off limits- and often our conversation will shift direction a dozen times before a painting is finished. And like any good conversation you never know exactly where it’s headed. Sometimes it’s about painting, other times it’s about life. Sometimes my own, sometimes someone else’s. Memories, dreams, delusions, ideas, emotions, and always the infinite questions. Often I’m talking with multiple paintings at once and sometimes they’ll start talking to each other. I find this helpful. Other times they say nothing and for long periods we just stare at each other in silence. In music I’ve found the most effective musicians are always the deepest listeners. In visual art I think this translates as “looking.” Art is a staring contest. So much of the work is done by really looking.
#artandaboutpdx #artgallery #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #pdx #pnw #whattodothisweekendpdx
Cappy Thompson: Thinking of Angels
📍 @studioegallery
🗓️ March 8 - April 19, 2025
A 16-piece exhibition of multi-dimensional work by Seattle-based artist Cappy Thompson, distills the philosophical and material practices of one of the most innovative artists working in glass of the last five decades to put forward a universal truth: what happens next is a mystery to us all. Drawing on spiritual imagery from myriad religious and geographical references, Thompson uses glass, among the most ancient of media, to absorb narrative explorations into spirituality and the permeability between embodied life and what exists beyond. Glass is among the most transformative of media, shapeshifting from liquid to solid, orb to vessel to plane. Within its fragility, its spontaneity, and the danger it presents when shattered, from the fiery depths to the divinity of refracted light, perhaps better than any other medium, glass – in its many forms and material properties - mirrors human existence.
#artandaboutpdx #artgallery #onviewpdx #seattleartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #pdx #pnw #whattodothisweekendseattle #artandaboutsea #artandaboutseattle #artandaboutpnw #seattle
Interior Landscapes: Judy Pfaff
📍The Schnitzer Collection, 3033 NE Yeon, Portland, Oregon
🗓️April 19, 2025 - August 23, 2025
🎟️Free and open to the public
#artandaboutpdx #artgallery #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #pdx #pnw #whattodothisweekendpdx
Save the date! 🔖 MFA + BFA Thesis Exhibitions are Opening Receptions on May 1st, 2025 from 5-8pm 📌 Happening across 3 locations 📍 @ccac_pnca 📍@steloarts📍 @buildingfive
This annual exhibition marks the culmination of creative exploration, critical inquiry, and artistic innovation by the Bachelor/Master of Fine Arts candidates at the Pacific Northwest College of Art.
🚍Shuttle service between locations will be provided 🚌
See you there! 🌀
#artandaboutpdx #artgallery #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #pdx #pnw #whattodothisweekendpdx #pnca #mfathesis #bfathesis
People Into Trees: the Third Angle Season finale April 16-17 at OMSI’s Kendall Planetarium, featuring a new work for percussion and American Sign Language poetry by Molly Joyce and Meg Day. @thirdanglenewmusic 🌲🌲🌲🎶
#artandaboutpdx #artgallery #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #pdx #pnw #whattodothisweekendpdx
From the Stacks
📍PDX CONTEMPORARY ART
🗓️April 4 - 26, 2025
A group exhibition of past work by PDX represented artists pulled from storage, including some never before shown works.
1. 🪨 Anna Gray + Ryan Wilson Paulsen, Shadow Cairn II, 2019, sumi ink, rock pigment, and lichen on paper
2. 🏔️Adam Sorensen, Quelle, 2019, oil on linen
3. 📚 D.E. May, Untitled (Stacks), ink on paper
#artandaboutpdx #artgallery #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #pdx #pnw #whattodothisweekendpdx
#artandaboutpdx #artgallery #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #pdx #pnw #whattodothisweekendpdx
Outer Voice: Trajectories ✴ will present recent works from the 2024/25 Outer Voice cohort of Portland artists Julia Calabrese, Roland Dahwen, Marcus Fischer, Bridgette Hickey, Leslie Hickey, KT Kusmaul, Sarah Rushford, and Ash Stone. Curated by Libby Werbel.
📍Oregon Contemporary, 8371 N. Interstate Ave.
🗓️ March 28 - April 27, 2025
⏳ Friday - Sunday, noon - 5pm
🎟️ Free and open to the public
Artist Screening & Conversation: Saturday, April 19, 6-8pm
Featuring video works, readings, and discussion with Outer Voice and Curator Libby Werbel.
Outer Voice: Trajectories explores systems of knowledge, world-building, language, and humor through the distinct yet interconnected practices of its artists. Further tying the work together is its necessity to elapse over time, consider time, or that through the work, time can be perceived differently.
Outer Voice is a time-based arts alliance started in 2023 and co-directed by Roland Dahwen, Sarah Rushford, and Ash Stone. The mission is to provide space, community, support, and opportunity to local time-based artists. Outer Voice aims to foster relationships based on a grounded, informed, and supportive critical dialogue. During their time with Outer Voice, artists are encouraged to practice, exhibit, celebrate, and program together; sharing resources, forming artistic and personal bonds, and linking with a broader network of artists, art organizations, and community members.
#artandaboutpdx #artgallery #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #pdx #pnw #whattodothisweekendpdx
Happy Hour with Artist Hiro Naotaka at The Lobby Ellen Browning Building, April 18, from 4:30-6 PM.
Happy Hour with Artist Hiro Naotaka at The Lobby Ellen Browning Building
Join The Lobby for an engaging interview with artist Naotaka Hiro and curator Sima Familant, followed by drinks and lively conversation. Dive into Hiro’s creative process, explore big ideas, and mingle with fellow art enthusiasts in a relaxed, inspiring atmosphere.
#artandaboutpdx #artgallery #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #pdx #pnw #whattodothisweekendpdx
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A little recap from last week ✨
🏺Jenny Rice & Dina No at Spartan
🎨 PDX Contemporary Art “From the Stacks” group show featuring represented artists
🖌️ Kristen Diederich “Special French Blue” at Fine Art Fruit
See you out & about xoxo #artandaboutpdx #portlandartscene #firstthursdaypdx
It’s like you know how you know, by Alyson Provax at Mint Gallery Records, April 11 from 5-7 PM.
A mix of letterpress on paper works made by the artist between 2021 and 2025, this small solo exhibition explores shape and form within text-based work and explores the inherent difficulty of communicating our interior experiences.
#artandaboutpdx #artgallery #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #pdx #pnw #whattodothisweekendpdx
