Editor's Note

There's a lot happening this October in Portland's visual art scene. Converge 45 is still going, First Thursday turns 40, and TextileX Month runs all month long. A few themes run through this month: the land around us, work made by hand, and memory, loss and repair. There are also a few events to get you in the Halloween spirit. We already brought in fall at Wildcraft Studio's apple cider press and straw craft night. Plus, we're bringing back our mini artist interviews, starting with painter Yuyang Zhang. Read on for what's on our radar and happening around Portland.

No tricks here, just treats. Keep this newsletter free with a coffee or a tip.

Partner Features

Partner features spotlight artists and venues who help make this newsletter possible, along with a few bigger happenings worth knowing about. Thank you!

Portland TextileX Month

Oct 1–31 · citywide · many events free

Portland TextileX Month is a full month of thinking about fibers. This year's theme is Layers of Resilience, and the calendar runs through exhibitions, talks, workshops, tours and studio sales by quilters, weavers, dyers, designers, conservators and farmers. The festival is presented by Textile Hive and opens Oct 1 at Skylab Architecture (1825 NW Vaughn St.) with a free celebration and market.

Five show not to miss:

• Resist / Exist at Fumi on N. Mississippi (Oct 8–31) — batik textiles by Gaby Tirta.

• A Soft Place to Land at Gallery 114 (Oct 1–30) — woven tapestries and reclaimed chairs made to be sat in.

• Lion Reborn: Garden Portals at Lan Su Chinese Garden (Oct 2–30) — soft-sculpture guardians stitched from reclaimed fabric. Garden admission applies.

• Weaving Time: NUNO – Textiles of Tradition and Transformation at Portland Japanese Garden (Oct 3 – Feb 14), with a gallery talk Oct 15. Garden admission applies.

• Material Memory at SWANA Rose Culture and Community Center (Oct 24 – Nov 22) — contemporary SWANA textile artists.

Talks run all month at Textile Hive (1314 NW Irving St., Suite 205). The full calendar is at textilex.org.

This Fall at PNCA

Pacific Northwest College of Art at Willamette University · 511 NW Broadway

PNCA opens its season with the symposium Art, Aura, and the Algorithm, which runs Oct 1–3 and is free. The symposium looks at how artistic presence and authenticity shift when so much of what we see and make passes through AI and algorithms. It asks what those tools open up for artists and what they might crowd out, like the unpredictability of the hand.

The keynote speaker is poet and artist Sasha Stiles, whose work sits at the meeting point of language and machine intelligence. Her AI-generated A Living Poem recently ran on MoMA's digital wall, rewriting itself hourly, and her work has been recognized by Prix Ars Electronica and the Lumen Prize. Stiles speaks Friday, Oct 2 at 6 PM and leads a “Living Poem” workshop (RSVP through PNCA's Eventbrite).

The symposium opens on First Thursday with exhibition openings (5–8 PM) and an artist-led sewing circle that doubles as a TextileX event. MFA Open Studios follow on Saturday, Oct 24. Later this season come the Don't Shoot Portland Art Build (Nov 21) and the Student Holiday Art Sale (Dec 3–4).

“A Sky Beneath You” at Imogen Gallery, Astoria

Oct 10 – Nov 9 · Imogen Gallery, Astoria · Hours Thu–Mon 11–5, Sun 11–4 (closed Tue & Wed)

This two-person photographic exhibition pairs sculptural photographs by Anna Daedalus with wet-plate work by Michael Hanson. The title is borrowed from a phrase in Henry David Thoreau's journal.

Daedalus, who lives near the mouth of the Columbia River in Southwest Washington, layers, sculpts and re-photographs images for her series Enfolded, evoking the sheltering hollows of wetland and woodland. The diaphanous images speak to impermanence and the fragile balance of vital ecosystems.

Hood River-based Hanson makes wet-plate ambrotypes outdoors for his series The Way West, using a 19th-century technique to echo the Columbia River's long geologic and human history. The process's inherent imperfections reflect both the altered landscape and the mysteries of the river.

Daedalus discusses the work with artist Hannah Newman on Saturday, Oct 24 at 1 PM.

“Spirals of Color, Wheels of Light” at Toolbox Gallery, Milwaukie

2029 SE Jefferson St., Milwaukie · Tue–Sat 10–5 · toolboxart.org

After a career in animation, Para Winingham turned to fiber art. She creates symmetrical, mandala-like motifs on fabric and paper that draw on sacred geometry, symbolism and ideas about energy. The show also lands in the middle of TextileX Month.

The opening reception is Friday, Oct 2, 5–8 PM. Winingham gives a free artist talk about her process on Saturday, Oct 10, 11 AM–12 PM, with light refreshments and no RSVP needed. Mary Marjan Aghayan leads a free all-ages Play with Clay workshop on Saturday, Oct 17, 11 AM–1 PM.

Patreon Member Highlights

Shows and events from our Patreon member galleries and artists.

Claire Elliott: “Tending to Wild” at Well Well Projects — Oct 3 – Nov 1. Paintings and sculpture about our relationship to plants: ripe fruit, the gardener's labor, the forager's stealth. The title comes from Paradise Lost, where Eve describes tending Eden as endless work. It's a useful frame for work that treats cultivation as both pleasure and burden. Opening reception Saturday, Oct 3, 5–8 PM.

Kim Smith Claudel: “Yard Work” at Carnation Contemporary — Oct 3 – Nov 1. Smith Claudel turns her own yard into subject and material. She shows raw-clay sculptures dug from the ground, plant clippings set in resin, and botanical drawings made with her own menstrual blood. The wit is in the premise: the absurd, devoted labor of keeping a small patch of land in order. Opening reception Saturday, Oct 3, 5–8 PM.

Catherine Rondthaler & Barbara Weiss: “Language of Light” at The Writers’ Block — Through Oct 23 at 818 NW Flanders St. Rondthaler's mixed-media prints distill more than fifteen years of work across Vermont, Oregon and New Mexico. Weiss's oil, cold wax and encaustic paintings work as inner landscapes of memory and repair. First Thursday reception Oct 1, 5–8 PM. Gallery hours are Wed–Fri 11 AM–3 PM or by appointment.

Kindra Crick: “Nocturnal Worlds” at Waterstone Gallery — Through Nov 1. First Thursday reception Oct 1, 5–8 PM. Artist talk Oct 18 at 11 AM.

Georgina Reskala: “Soñé Que Revelabas” at PDX Contemporary Art — Through Oct 31. Reception Saturday, Oct 17, 3–5 PM.

Bethany Rowland & Nicholas Stelter at Laura Vincent Design & Gallery — Oct 15 – Nov 25. Rowland's Testament is paired with Stelter's kiln-fired glass vessels. Reception Saturday, Oct 17, 4–6 PM.

Sadie Wechsler, Sarah Meadows & Teresa Christiansen: “Like the World” at Nightingale Gallery, La Grande — Oct 9 – Nov 6 at 6th Street, La Grande, OR 97850 (about four hours east of Portland). Three photographers look at their relationship to the natural world, as an alternative to the sweeping, sublime landscape. Nature turns up in unexpected places here: in sidewalk cracks, under plastic, in the pages of a gardening book. Opening reception Friday, Oct 9, 5–7 PM.

Kay Henning & Ruth Ross: “Aftermath” at Gallery 114 — Through Oct 31. First Thursday reception Oct 1, 5–8 PM, with harpist Shera Sinell.

Jenn Lamb: “Intertidal Communion” at after / time gallery — Through Oct 3 at 735 SW 9th Ave. #110. Lamb's first show pairing her ceramics and watercolors explores geological processes, celestial phenomena and native ecosystems. Closing reception First Thursday, Oct 1, 5–8 PM.

“Anish Kapoor: Dissolving Margins” at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU — Through Dec 5 at 1855 SW Broadway. This is the first retrospective of Kapoor's prints: more than 150 works spanning nearly four decades, drawn from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his family foundation. The artist best known for Chicago's Cloud Gate brings the same interest in presence, absence and dissolving form to works on paper. There's a free exhibition tour Saturday, Oct 17 at 1 PM and a midpoint reception Thursday, Oct 22, 4–7 PM, where you can meet the curator.

First Thursday: Oct 1

First Thursday turns 40 this year. PADA's founding members started the Pearl District gallery walk in 1986, and Oct 1 is the last Street Gallery night of the season. Here are the PADA highlights for the month.

PADA Highlights

• Blackfish Gallery — Four shows at once, with work by Kanetaka Ikeda, Stephan Soihl, Paula Bullwinkel and Christopher Shotola-Hardt. Reception 5–8 PM, through Oct 31. A memorial for Stephan Soihl is Oct 25, 2–5 PM.

• Elizabeth Leach Gallery — Contemporary Textiles, six artists working through memory, protest, science and community in fiber. Part of TextileX Month. Reception 5–8 PM, through Oct 31.

• Russo Lee Gallery — Forty Years: An Anniversary Exhibition, a fitting group show for First Thursday's 40th. Reception 5–7 PM, through Oct 31.

• Oregon Art Center — The 2026 Oil Media Exhibition, part of OAC's centennial year. Reception 5:30–7:30 PM, through Oct 29.

• One Grand Gallery — Hazel Miller's Nocturnes, through Oct 23.

The Portland Art Museum is also free all day on Oct 1 (10 AM–7 PM).

Monthly Must-Sees

Converge 45: “Here, To You, Now” — Portland's citywide contemporary art triennial. Catch the Hoffman Gallery presentation, on view through Dec 10.

Trisha Baga: “MORE” at PICA — Through Oct 24. Also part of Converge 45, guest curated by Lumi Tan. Gallery hours are Thu 2–8 PM, Fri 12–6 PM and Sat 12–4 PM.

Portland Open Studios — Oct 10–11 and 17–18. Two weekends of artists opening their own workspaces across the city. It's still the most direct way to see work outside the gallery system.

“The Stars We Do Not See” at the Portland Art Museum — On view through Jan 3, 2027.

“A Good Universe Next Door” at Multnomah Arts Center — On view through Oct 17, with an artist talk on Oct 10.

Momo Gordon & Erasto Reyes-Silva: “Heaven Must Be Near” at Fisk at W+K — Opening Thursday, Oct 1, 5–8 PM at 224 NW 13th Ave. This is Fisk Gallery's final exhibition of 2026, pairing Portland's Momo Gordon and Los Angeles-based Erasto Reyes-Silva. The two work in drawing and sculpture and look for a connection with their materials. Woodworking is by Taka Moriki and florals by Manu Torres.

Dan Gay: “SIGNAL / NOISE” at imperfecta gallery — Oct 1–31 at 809 NW Flanders St. The latest chapter of Gay's six-year portrait series, in acrylic and pencil, exploring the distance and connection between people. Opening reception Thursday, Oct 1, 5–8 PM.

Bobby Adams: “Galvanized” at Chefas Projects — Through Oct 17. This is a new series of paintings by Portland artist Bobby Adams.

Fabian Lavater: “every summer they disappear at 4 pm” at Purple Door Gallery — Through Oct 25. Swimmers vanish into seas of bold blue brushstrokes in Lavater's paintings. Free entry.

“Where I End…You Begin — Osmose: A Survey of Design (2007–2026)” at Lumber Room — Oct 3 – Nov 14 at 419 NW 9th Ave. This is a survey of nearly two decades of interiors and built environments by designer Andee Hess and her studio, Osmose. It focuses on the intimate and psychological sides of her practice and on how empathy and intention shape design. The opening party is Saturday, Oct 3, 5–8 PM. After that, it's open Saturdays 1–5 PM, with private tours by request.

“Everything Under a Mushroom” at Slowpoet Gallery — Oct 1–15. A collection of smaller-than-normal things. The show includes Anntorian's Little House, a blue-ribbon winner at the Oregon State Fair, plus creations by Alli Stocco, minis by Small Walter, and Slowpoet's own tiny treasures. Opening Thursday, Oct 1, 4–7 PM.

Bar NoTo: An Art Party — Friday, Oct 9, 7–10 PM at 1932 NW Lovejoy St. Celebrating a new show of work by Ali Van Gödil and Zab Shavrick, with sounds by Alisa.

Spooky Figures Workshop with Amy Rowan at A Sometimes Gallery — Saturday, Oct 10, 11 AM–1:30 PM, at Cargo (81 SE Yamhill St.). Participants build one-of-a-kind figures from Rowan's original designs using mostly vintage materials: cake toppers, chenille stems, beads, sequins, fabric, felt and wooden doll heads. Results can range from sweet and nostalgic to strange. $65, all materials and light snacks included.

Clock Party! at 1122 Gallery — Saturday, Oct 10, 1–5 PM at 7629 SE Harrison St. Fruitful Interpretation of Time (Ruby Webb) hangs 24 handmade clock garments around the outdoor gallery. You can try them on, walk around as time, and buy them. There's also a lookbook release, a midday harp performance by Desired Constellations, and time-themed drinks and dessert. Part of TextileX Month.

“Thanatopsis: Contemplations on Death, Grief, and Renewal” at Royal Nebeker Gallery, Astoria — On view through Oct 22 at Clatsop Community College. Portland artist Marne Lucas conceived this three-person show with Dardinelle Troen and Emma Lewis Acker. All three are artists who also work as end-of-life doulas. Expect collage, assemblage, sculpture, collaborative altars, and photographs on paper and silk made from infrared thermal video. The opening reception is Thursday, Oct 15, 6–8 PM.

PAM Rental Sales Gallery: Fall Member Artists Show — On view through Oct 31.

Lis Pardoe: “Here To Remind You” at Froelick — On view through Oct 10.

On a non-art note

Not sure if you've been following, but we have! Fat Bear Week wrapped up on Tuesday, and it looks like 89 Backpack took the crown. Meet the bears here.

Chez Charlie returns for one night only on Friday, Oct 2, 6–10 PM, popping up in the garden at Farag's.

Bayocean @ Pal's — For the seafood lovers: on Saturday, Oct 10, Chef Jacob Harth of the forthcoming Bayocean Oyster House joins Conrad Gonzalez at Pal's on Hayden Island for a full day of Oregon oysters, clams, sea urchin and more.

For a night of live music, Mississippi Studios' Local Love Letter series, which showcases Portland bands, features Half Shadow for its 29th edition on Tuesday, Oct 13 at 8 PM at 3939 N. Mississippi Ave. The show is 21+.

Pick a Pumpkin, Pet a Donkey — Oct 17 & 18 at the Oregon Donkey Sanctuary in Oregon City (15900 S. Thayer Rd.). The sanctuary's annual fall fundraiser is a chance to choose a pumpkin and spend time with the resident donkeys, and it supports their care.

On repeat: New Zealand singer-songwriter Aldous Harding just played Revolution Hall on Sept 24, and I haven't stopped listening since. Start with two of my personal favorites, “Leathery Whip” and “Lawn.”

Until next month

Submissions are always open — if you have a show, a studio, or a project I should know about, send it my way. The same goes for feedback, questions, tips, etc. Follow along on Instagram for the day-to-day.

— Ashley, Founder, Editor and Creative Director (your art-focused gossip girl)