PORTLAND, OREGON, IS a town of makers. Locals print their own books, smith their own knives,
butcher their own (grass-fed) meat, and craft their own furniture. With so much creativity in the
air, it’s no surprise the art scene goes well beyond downtown’s wonderful Portland Art Museum.
CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART & CULTURE
In November 2017, the Flaming Lips’ frontman, Wayne Coyne, brought his surreal, silver-balloon, duct taped installation of King’s Mouth to the Center for ContemporaryArt & Culture at the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA), through January 6.
Visitors removed their shoes and crawled inside the twenty-foot-tall mouth, where LED strands dangled above as electronic beats blare. The traveling piece debuted in 2015 at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, but a beaming Coyne notes, “This has been the best.”
Something’s always happening at PNCA. The college has ten public gallery spaces that focus on undergrad and MFA students as well as big-name outsiders, like Bruce Nauman at the Dorothy Lemelson Innovation Lab. PNCA incorporated the Museum of Contemporary Craft, a collection of more than 1,300 objects stemming from a 1930s working studio, which can be accessed online.
PORTLAND INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
Art blooms east of the Willamette River too, most notably at the new location of the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA). A champion of the annual ten day Time-Based Art (TBA) Festival, PICA began in 1995 as a nomad, with founder Kristy Edmunds scheduling shows in vacant spaces around town, then founding a downtown home. The new, 16,000-square-foot space is a long-term, low-rent gift from the Calligram Foundation that allows the city’s art scene to breathe easy for the future of this active art hub.
Hundreds came to the opening night for the group exhibition Doomtown and a screening of Steven Doughton’s 1997 experimental film Delta—the former inspired by the rise of condo culture in the city and the commonality between New York City’s Lower East Side and Portland. Ann Magnuson and the Bongwater Songbook and local-resident Stephen Malkmus (of indie rock band Pavement fame) kicked off the event, with Malkmus debuting new electronic music as a middle-aged DJ in a trucker hat. pica.org
DISJECTA
A surprising find in North Portland’s Kenton neighborhood, Disjecta is near a record shop, a gluten-free restaurant, and an iconic statue of Paul Bunyan. Disjecta has an enviable programming space of 6,000-square-feet, where it happily plays by its own rules, including the Pacific Northwest’s first curator-in-residence program. The first of four shows for the 2017–18 season debuted in September. Seattle-based curator Julia Greenway assembled five national women artists for A Situation of Meat, which featured mixed media depicting body fluids and intestines— all purposely “grotesque,” as Greenway says, to balance out the “grotesque” seen in media every day. Greenway will curate a total of four exhibitions from women artists, with themes ranging from impermanence, and consumerism to intersectionality. disjecta.org
FIRST THURSDAY
More than a dozen galleries around downtown Portland’s walkable Pearl District stay open late on the first Thursday of each month. Follow groups of gallery-goers on sidewalks past video-art installations that play on multistory brick walls, and visit these must-see stops, too.
Open since 1975, Blue Sky originally displayed regional work, but has
since expanded its scope. In January, revered American photographer Robert Frank will exhibit new and old works in Books and Films 1947–2018. blueskygallery.org
Opened in 2013, Upfor presents Wisconsin artist Michelle Grabner and Portland artist Anne Crumpacker’s multi-media group exhibition, Gingham|Enso through January 13.
Blackfish Gallery is an artist-run and artist-owned space, turning forty in 2019, that highlights Oregon art. Artists are always on hand to discuss the works on display. On a recent night, a local rock band, singing in Italian, played as Sue Tower’s paintings made a case for the “plasticity of paint.” blackfish.com
RESTAURANTS
Kachka: For popular Soviet home cooking east of the river. kachkapdx.com
Tasty n Alder: Just around the corner from Powell’s City of Books, this is a perfect spot for brunch.
Bamboo Sushi: Bamboo Sushi has locally sourced fare and is committed to sustainability. A new location just opened in Denver and another is coming soon to Seattle.bamboosushi.com
Little Bird: Only a few blocks from the storied Roseland Theater. This downtown French bistro is great for lunch or dinner. littlebirdbistro.com
HOTELS
Ace Hotel: Downtown hipster mainstay with locations around the world. acehotel.com/portland
Society Hotel: A former sailors hotel in Old Town, remodeled and updated and offering private suites and thrifty shared rooms. societyhotel.com
Kennedy School: Local entertainment giants McMenamins transformed an old elemen tary school into a fun hotel; some rooms are outfitted with the school’s original chalk boards. mcmenamins.com
Airbnb: Live like a local with over 5,000 home-share offerings in the heart of Portland.