January 31 Last Night Raw Caldera Vision

We would not have today's "outsider art" movement if artists like the Reverend Howard Finster had not been "discovered" in the late 1970s and curated into the NY art world in the early 1980s, as a response to Wall Street-driven excesses in the New York art world. William Jamison and Mark Woolley were early on the phenomena in Portland.

Reverend Howard Finster's work stands on its own, of course. Opening this evening, it can be seen in a small selection in Portland at the Portland Museum of Modern Art. PMOMA has been inspired by outsider and visionary art, including that of Chris Johanson, and they are the hosts for the late Finster's work. Finster also created a prodigious collection of sound recordings before he passed in 2001.

His story is fascinating. The work is individualistic. It is well worth seeing.

Ural Thomas will perform his music for the opening, always a pleasure.

Howard Finster at the Portland Museum of Modern Art inside Mississippi Records www.portlandmuseumofmodernart.com 5202 N Albina Map 8PM-10



It's The Last Night On Earth Again (Other People Are Also You) is a show by Michael Fish, Michael Horwitz, Matthew Leavitt, Heiko Julien, Karl Sims, Jack Fisher, Shiloh O'Connor, Walter Davis, Corwin Peck, Austin Kelley Way, Sadashiva Stavrum, Rachel Bell, Jia Gy and Kai Nollie. It should fill up Surplus Space. Somehow it is inspired by Terrence McKenna. At Surplus Space www.SurplusSpace.info 3726 NE 7th 6PM-9 Free



Caldera artists in residence Amy Bonnaffons, Glendaliz Camacho, Sonja Dahl, Jeff Leake, Tamara Lynne, Kaila Farrell-Smith and John Whitten invite you to Blue Lake to see their work. It is a special space. The studios will also be open February 28 and March 28. At Camp Caldera www.calderaarts.org, 31500 Blue Lake Drive, Sisters, OR 1PM-3 Free

January 30 KOMA Soma

For many music is soma. Like me.

Portland's music synthesizer store Control Voltage often has in-store demonstration performances. KOMA Elektronik does that this evening, demonstrates their personal quadraphonic helmet and lets you jam on their machines.

Which sounds cool.

Synthesizer demonstration https://www.facebook.com/events/790628231018190 at Control Voltage www.controlvoltage.net 3742 NE Mississippi 6PM Free

January 29 Blue Rain

The Taureg is a traditionally nomadic ethnic group spanning the Sahel and the Sahara South to North. That would be Mali, Niger, Libya, Algeria. Close your eyes and imagine their music. Ethnomusicologist Chris Kirkley travels there regularly, collecting music. He launches his first film project tonight.

Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai, in English: "Rain the Color of Blue with a little Red in it", tells the story of Taureg musician Mdou Moctar. It is inspired by the film Purple Rain. It's probably the first Taureg-American joint film production in history.

Film at the Hollywood Theater www.hollywoodtheatre.org 4122 NE Sandy Boulevard. 7PM $8

January 27 Mission Statement Human Radiance

MSHR usually performs installations in galleries and alternative art spaces. Tonight they do a club. With The Tenses (Smegma), Matt Carlson and Noor. At Holocene www.holocene.org 1001 SE Morrison. Doors 8:30PM $5

January 26 Shake It

The Bright Lights series is usually about building things. Tonight it is a discussion of what Portland would be like after the big earthquake.

About every 200-900 years, the tectonic plate we sit on, the North American Plate, slides over the Juan de Fuca plate off our coast as it is driven East by upswelling at its juncture with the Pacific plate. The last time was January 26, 1700 at 9PM. It is a subduction fault which generates megathrust earthquakes of greater than 9.0 and tsunamis. The under layer is locked by friction with the over layer. Once there is enough pressure, it slips.

The Fukishima (Tōhoku) earthquake was a megathrust. Not only was it great in magnitude, it lasted for a long six minutes. The Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, creating the great Pacific tsunami in 2004, lasted for 10 minutes. It's not clear that any modern construction will be able to withstand a strong, long earthquake unharmed.

Beyond building physics, there is the human response.

For a discussion of that Carmen Merlo, Portland’s director of emergency management and Joe Zehnder, Portland’s chief planner speak this evening.

Portland earthquake discussion at the Mercy Corps Action Center www.actioncenter.org 28 SW 1st. 7PM Free

January 25 Shifting Practice

Marylhurst has a panel discussion at 3 today with Chas Bowie, Teresa Christiansen, Dru Donovan, Joel W. Fisher, Isaac Layman and Paula Rebsom, artists in their current show, Shifting Practice: allusions, interventions, and conventions in contemporary photography. A reception for the show follows until 6. At the Marylhurst University www.marylhurst.edu/theartgym/ Map 3PM-6 Free

January 24 Hive Mind

Adam D. Miller presents Hive Mind, a show of LA-based artists. Miller is principal with Devon Oder, a photographer, who shows at Fourteen30, in The Pit LA, an alternative space. It is in Glendale, a new art frontier. It opened this Summer. The Pit LA also produces multiples of artist work on an antique Risograph printer. At Rocksbox Fine Art www.rocksboxfineart.com 6540 N Interstate Map 8PM-11 Free

January 23 Vivarium

Devon Oder opens Vivarium tonight. She has been working over the years at the intersection of altered landscape and altered photography. At Portland's first member of the New Art Dealers Alliance www.newartdealers.org, Fourteen30 Gallery www.fourteen30.com 1501 SW Market Street Map 11AM-6PM Weekends, tonight 6PM-8 Free

January 22 July Show

ShowPDX is a long running furniture design show descended from Table, Lamp and Chair. We like those crafts in the NW! Christopher Douglas, Joe Futschik, Jennifer Jako, Andi Kovel, and Dave Laubenthal discuss the state of and challenges around craft in Portland. The growth of Portland design, the role of women, and balancing installation work with standalone pieces are some of the topics they have announced they will address. At the PNCA Museum of Contemporary Craft 724 NW Davis 6:30PM-8 Free



Miranda July appears at Powell's on Burnside at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 22.

A long time ago, Miranda July was a Portland performance artist. At its core her work is story telling. She spent over a year in her studio in the Fez building on Burnside downstairs from the ballet studio writing what was to become her film.

Big Miss Moviola, media performances, film acting, writing, directing, social practice art, interactive art websites, a mobile app.

Speed up to now. She reads from her first novel First Bad Man tonight. Should be good.

Some of the audience are meeting up at the Ace before. At Powell's 3rd floor. www.powells.com. 10th and W Burnside 7:30PM Free

January 16 Golden Joinery

You can never step in the same stream twice.

It is the same with butoh dance, reinventing itself over years and in each moment.

Portland dancer Meshi Chavez does that with his own butoh and tonight with a workshop class he has facilitated. The dancers, Sara Alizadeh, Brenna Jagne, John Johnson, Anita Kress, Tanya McCoy and Joe McLaughlin have taken inspiration from kintsugi. It is a Japanese way to repair broken ceramics with gold laquer - “golden joinery”.

At the Headwaters Theater - information and tickets link: theheadwaters.net/?service=meshi-chavez-presents-kintsugi-being-moved-jan-16-17, 55 NE Farragut St. #9. The theater is in the back of the building by the active railroad tracks facing Winchell Street. Map 7:30PM $18-25

January 15 Modulate This, The Enclave Versus the Dismal Science

On the Ground: Mercy Corps and the Democratic Republic of Congo is a talk by the Mercy Corps country director for Congo, Mark Dwyer. Mercy Corps has been working in the area where Irish artist Richard Mosse made his video work, The Enclave. The Enclave was first shown in the 2014 Venice Biennale and is showing at the Portland Art Museum until April. The Enclave is a do not miss work, of which we have written. At the Portland Art Museum www.pam.org 1219 SW Park Members free; non-members $15, seniors, students $12 7PM



Economics is called the dismal science. Perhaps because it is far from a science, and that it forgot the Pin Factory while placing all hope on the Invisible Hand. (see this for a decode)

David Warsh is a writer on economics. He speaks this evening about his book Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations: The Discovery of New Growth Theory. It is a history of the origin of current economic thinking in the 1700's to today

It is a heady Linus Pauling Memorial Lecture. www.isepp.org/Pages/14-15%20Pages/Warsh.html At the First Congregational Church 1126 SW Park 7PM $35



Central~Lattice Tool Array becomes an instrument this evening with a performance in the Resonant Entity Modulator series by MSHR. It is likely you will see lasers and modulated noise interacting with feedback paths in a network of analog synths. Recommended! At UpFor Gallery www.upforgallery.com 929 NW Flanders 8:30PM Free

January 9 Eastside Openings

Some Eastside openings happened last week, other galleries are carrying other December shows through January. With the darkness, many galleries are not open as late.


The Pain Quotidian, named for a micro bakery, is a group show by Andrea Crespo, Santiago Leyba, Carlos Reyes, Chloe Seibert, Flannery Silva, Eric Veit and Andrew Norman Wilson. At HQHQ Project Space 232 SE Oak St #108 - the Oak Street Lofts 6PM-9 Free



Back at the Crawdaddy is a show of paintings by Jaik Faulk. They were made in residency at False Front and inspired by his Louisiana birthplace. He invited visitors and painted portraits of some. 6PM-8 At Nationale www.nationale.us 3360 SE Division Map 6PM-8 Free