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MONDAY

FILM

Mississippi Records Music & Film: The Secret Life of Plants with The Cosmic Tones Research Trio Past Event Like List
Record label and North Albina Avenue mainstay Mississippi Records stays true to its jangly, psychedelic aesthetic with periodic screenings of The Secret Life of Plants, one of founder Eric Isaacson's favorite documentaries. I'll also sing its praises to anyone who asks—the '79 flick begins as a psychedelic meditation on flora and expands to reflect on Earth, space, consciousness, and life itself, with groovy tunes by Stevie Wonder to boot. Smoke a bowl and get thee to the Hollywood for time-lapses of plant growth, space rituals, and paradisiacal interpretive dance. The Cosmic Tones Research Trio—aka Roman Norfleet, Harlan Silverman, and Kenney Realness—will start the show with "unclassifiable" astral jazz and healing tones with a bluesy, gospel flavor. LC
(Hollywood Theatre, Hollywood District)

Perfect Blue Past Event Like List
In the words of Stranger senior staff writer Charles Mudede, "It’s hard out here for a retired aidoru." (An idol, or aidoru in Japanese, is a pop star manufactured by a talent corporation; they sing, model, dance, do a whole mess of media appearances, and then retire.) Satoshi Kon's thriller Perfect Blue follows J-pop idol Mima Kirigoe as she attempts to shed her "good girl" image and transition from music to acting. An obsessed fan and the exploitative entertainment industry have other plans. LC
(Clinton Street Theater, Hosford-Abernethy)

FOOD & DRINK

Andy Ricker Takeover: Pok Pok's Greatest Hits Past Event Like List
Many a Portlander shed a tear when chef/owner Andy Ricker closed his iconic Pok Pok restaurant empire in 2020 to move to Thailand, where he now resides on a farm with his wife and menagerie of cats (living the dream). Now, you have an exceedingly rare chance to catch him at a two-night pop-up at Peter Cho and Sun Young Park's restaurant Jeju. He'll serve a five-course menu featuring some of Pok Pok's most popular dishes (fish sauce wings, we're looking at you), with additional beverages available for purchase. JB
(Jeju, Buckman, Sold Out)

LIVE MUSIC

Sophie Ellis-Bextor Past Event Like List
Many have claimed that Saltburn made Sophie Ellis-Bextor's 2002 bop "Murder on the Dancefloor" a success, but I would argue it was the other way around. I hated the film until that infamous closing scene. The neo-disco song choice was a huge exhale at the end of the film, nudging the viewer to rethink the narrative as pure camp rather than an earnest psychological thriller. While many will attend this concert to hear the one song, I hope this tour brings more of Ellis-Bextor's infectious dance tracks to the masses. Her sophomore album Read My Lips is up there with Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor and Kylie Minogue's Fever. AV
(Wonder Ballroom, Eliot)

PERFORMANCE

Te Moana Meridian: How the Prime Meridian Shapes the World, and the Case for Relocating It Past Event Like List
Presented in partnership with this year's Time-Based Art Festival, Te Moana Meridian: How the Prime Meridian Shapes the World, and the Case for Relocating It is an experimental operatic performance "based on a proposal to the United Nations General Assembly Resolution to formally relocate the international Prime Meridian to the South Pacific Ocean." New Zealand-born, Portland-based artist Sam Tam Ham (Sam Hamilton) devised the two-vocalist work, which features "minimalist movement" by artist sidony o’neal, an "intergenerational choir" directed by Crystal Meneses, and a delicate interplay of language—Holland Andrews performs in English, and Mere Tokorahi Boynton in Māori. LC
(Kridel Grand Ballroom at the Portland Art Museum, South Park Blocks)

TUESDAY

FOOD & DRINK

Amrikan Book Launch & Indian Pizza Party Past Event Like List
With her debut cookbook Amrikan: 125 Recipes From the Indian Diaspora, Food & Wine writer and editor Khushbu Shah asks the question, “What is Indian food in America?” She delves into the answer not only with irresistible-sounding recipes I'm eager to add into my rotation, like saag paneer lasagna, achari paneer pizza, spinach tadka dal with rice, panipuri mojitos, and masala chai Basque cheesecake, but also with images and essays that meditate on the connection between food and identity. To celebrate her book release and tour, some of Portland's most sought-after chefs will come together for a night of food and drink inspired by Amrikan. Look forward to Indian pies from Hapa Pizza, frozen pops from Kulfi, and specials from Magna, Bhuna, and Han Oak. JB
(Han Oak, Kerns)

READINGS & TALKS

Carson Ellis in Conversation With Colin Meloy Past Event Like List
If Official City Illustrator were a job, I'd want that role to go to Carson Ellis—something embedded in the artist's naturalistic, folk-inspired, muted, yet richly detailed aesthetic falls in perfect harmony with the Pacific Northwest landscape. Ellis' adult debut is an illustrated memoir filled with paintings depicting memories from a 20-something-year-old journal. One Week in January digs into Ellis' first experiences living in a Portland warehouse in the early 2000s, during which time she met future hubby Colin Meloy. Speaking of, Meloy (who, as I'm guessing you know, fronts the Decemberists and penned Wildwood) will join Ellis for this conversation on the memoir. LC
(Powell's City of Books, Pearl District)

WEDNESDAY

LIVE MUSIC

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Past Event Like List
If you're a Deadhead or Phishhead, expand your horizons with Aussie rock jammers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, whom Mercury contributor Chris Sutton described as a cross between "Thee Oh Sees' aggressively raw work ethic" and "the Flaming Lips' visionary shape-shifting." The ensemble will take over Edgefield's pastoral outdoor stage with tracks from their bluesy 26th (!) studio album, Flight b741. Don't miss an opening set from Brooklyn-based post-punk band Geese. AV
(Edgefield, Troutdale)

THURSDAY

COMEDY

John Early: The Album Tour Past Event Like List
I'll be honest: Most of my knowledge of John Early comes from my fixation on his longtime creative collaborator, Kate Berlant. But if you're anything like me (obsessed with alt comedians like Berlant, Jacqueline Novak, Tim Heidecker, Joe Pera, Jo Firestone, etc.) then Early needs no introduction. The absurdist visionary with a glittery, desperate gleam in his eyes will visit Portland with iced coffee in tow. LC
(Revolution Hall, Buckman)

Tim Murray is Witches! Past Event Like List
Tim Murray self-describes as being "like a gay Bo Burnham, but painted green, doing drag," which is the kind of pre-Halloween cheer I didn't realize I needed. He'll bring his creepy-crawly comedy hour Witches! to Portland, blending stand-up with original comedy songs about his favorite pop culture crones and enchantresses, from Sabrina to Anjelica Huston. There's a deeper meaning to the toil and trouble, too—the show is "a tribute to LGBTQIA people and how we discover our magic once we find our coven." If you can't get enough of Murray, never fear. His upcoming sketch comedy TV show Wish You Were Queer, produced by fellow magical queen Trixie Mattel, was announced last year. LC
(Siren Theater, Boise)

FILM

The Untold Tales Of Tūteremoana with Mere Tokorahi Boynton Past Event Like List
Each episode of The Untold Tales of Tuteremoana, a fantasy-drama anthology series, is Māori-led and told in te reo, the Māori language. Presented in partnership with Boom Arts and this year's Time-Based Art Festival, the series is "woven together by three Whakapapa stories of the ancient Ngāi Tara people" and features actress Mere Tokorahi Boynton, who will be on-site to discuss the films at this special screening. Interested in seeing Boynton perform in person? She'll also appear in Sam Hamilton’s experimental opera Te Moana Meridian: How the Prime Meridian Shapes the World, and the Case for Relocating It at the Portland Art Museum September 6-9. LC
(Tomorrow Theater, Richmond)

LIVE MUSIC

Azymuth with Brainstory Past Event Like List
Next time you're driving with the top down (or as in my case, with all four windows down), cue up Azymuth's 1974 debut Azimüth. The Brazilian jazz staple employs velvety organs, punchy synths, and slick percussion to achieve a sound that lives in the intersection of samba, yacht rock, and psychedelic funk. The legendary ensemble will celebrate their 50-year career with a rare local performance alongside soul-jazz trio Brainstory. AV
(Aladdin Theater, Brooklyn)

Liana Flores Past Event Like List
If you can't stop listening to Clairo's Charm, then consider adding Liana Flores' debut album Flower of the soul into your regular rotation. Like Clairo, Flores embraces '70s soft rock production but adds British folk storytelling, jazz-infused harmonies, and a tinge of '90s twee pop. Don't miss her intimate set at theOld Church this week—it'll likely be the last time you can catch her at a small venue. AV
(The Old Church, Downtown)

PERFORMANCE

Live Wire with Luke Burbank Past Event Like List
Live Wire's fall offerings will kick off with another edition of the honest and funny conversational show hosted by Luke Burbank. This time around, featured guests will include Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker staff writer Emily Nussbaum and stand-up comedian Sean Jordan (co-host of the All Fantasy Everything podcast with Ian Karmel), whose comedy special Girl Dad talks fatherhood and vasectomies. Portland genre-defiers Pink Martini will reflect on their 30-year career with some groovable hits. LC
(Alberta Rose Theatre, Concordia)

FRIDAY

COMEDY

David Cross: The End of The Beginning of The End Past Event Like List
One is willing to risk a night of intense eye-rolling when a veteran funnyman such as Cross grips the mic. Don't underestimate the goodwill he's accrued by his acting stints on the sketch comedy series Mr. Show and the sitcom Arrested Development, or from his previous stand-up sets full of caustic left jabs against wrongheaded right-wingers and the cartoon-level evil of corporations and rank hypocrisy of politicians and Bible-thumpers. Cross has long been a master of transmuting incredulity and exasperation over the world's manifold sociopolitical idiocies into pointed humor. STRANGER CONTRIBUTOR DAVE SEGAL
(Revolution Hall, Buckman)

Lone Wolves presents Back to School Night Past Event Like List
Lone Wolves' seasoned comics have been howlin' since 2013 with smart, sharp sketch comedy performances, and they're heading back to the stage to teach us a lesson this time around. You might've already caught their routines at Portland Center Stage, the CoHo Theater, or the Portland Sketch Comedy Festival, but for this "back to school" edition of the show, local laughers (Shelley McLendon, Paul Glazier, Lori Ferraro, and others) will pick up their pencils and sketch new scenes with help from their fellow wolves. Awooo! LC
(Siren Theater, Boise)

FILM

Troll Tales on the Lawn Past Event Like List
Whether you're in Oslo or the Pacific Northwest, no summer is complete without catching an outdoor movie screening (or three). Nordic Northwest agrees, and their hygge film programming offers a little something for everyone's cinema tastes, as long as those cinema tastes include trolls. On September 13, the Troll Tales on the Lawn series concludes with Norwegian fantasy The Ash Lad: In the Hall of the Mountain King. Attendees can sip on a range of Oregon wines, beers, and non-alcoholic options during the film, and resident troll expert (yes, that's a thing!!) Britte Rasmussen Marsh will chat trolls beforehand, offering a wide context of "discord and history" pulled from her ample troll research. LC
(Nordic Northwest, Metzger)

LIVE MUSIC

Remi Wolf Past Event Like List
Remi Wolf is a firecracker, both live onstage and in her recorded music. Her 2020 EP I'm Allergic To Dogs! exploded onto the scene with cheeky lyrics and boppy beats, and her pop dominance has only grown since. Big Ideas, her second full-length, was released in July of this year and showcases a broad range of genres and influences in her music, from psych rock to R&B. Her live shows call for barefoot dancing in the grass in your brightest threads and chunkiest jewelry. Groovy alt hip-hop artist Lava La Rue opens. SL
(Edgefield, Troutdale)

SATURDAY

FOOD & DRINK

2024 Farm to Plate Series Past Event Like List
It doesn't get much fresher than eating a meal in the very place where the ingredients were grown. Topaz Farm's resident "farm-to-plate" chefs and culinary power couple Christian and Janelle Ephrem will craft a series of five-course meals sourced from Topaz itself, with menus designed mere days in advance and produce harvested just hours before the dinner. You'll get to take a seat at a long communal table and dine beneath a 500-year-old oak tree. JB
(Topaz Farm, Sauvie Island)

Fourth Annual Tomato Fest Past Event Like List
Each year, the specialty grocer Wellspent Market teams up with the Culinary Breeding Network to throw this end-of-summer bash uplifting everyone's favorite fruit masquerading as a vegetable. Channel your inner tomato girl with cooking demos, tastings, samples, BLTs, and savory tomato-based treats. JB
(Wellspent Market, Richmond)

LIVE MUSIC

ESG Past Event Like List
If you're a man giving me a long-winded speech and I look distracted—my eyes glassy, my foot tapping, my blinks slow—it's probably because "You Make No Sense" by ESG is booming through the corridors of my brain. The track, which repeats its sassy title on a loop atop a bouncing bassline and interspersed drum fills, embodies the band's ethos of turning rage into something fun, cathartic, and free. The trailblazing sister-led dance-punk band will dance through Portland for one last party alongside DJ crewStrange Babes and rock 'n' roll outfit Dirt Twins. AV
(Wonder Ballroom, Eliot)

SUNDAY

FESTIVALS

El Grito Past Event Like List
El Grito has plenty planned for its annual two-day fest: folkloric dance performances, mariachi tunes, traditional food offerings from Latinx businesses, community resource booths, and more. The 20th-anniversary celebration coincides with the start of Hispanic Heritage Month; the September 15th start date commemorates the independence days of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and recognizes those of Mexico and Chile on the 16th and 18th, respectively. El Grito invites Portlanders to join in and celebrate the traditions passed from generation to generation in the Latinx community and their indigenous roots. SL
(Rose Quarter Commons, Lloyd District)

FILM

Daisies with woo-woo: Self-Care Sunday Past Event Like List
Once banned in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the gleeful, surrealist Daisies is chock-full of hedonistic splendor, revolving around two young women who shrug off stereotypes in pursuit of debauchery and pleasure. Who says anti-patriarchal antics can't be fun?! Stop by Tomorrow Theater for the screening of the '66 flick, which will be preceded by a "self-care moment" with local wellness experts woo-woo. (They'll host a Bodyroll session, described as an "all-levels dance practice to heal your inner dancer and enliven the collective spirit," so come prepared to sweat a little.) LC
(Tomorrow Theater, Richmond)

LIVE MUSIC

Orchestra Nova Northwest Presents: Essence American Past Event Like List
"Virtuoso pianist" (New York Times) Artina McCain will join Orchestra Nova Northwest for their inaugural concert highlighting Black composers' overlooked contributions to classical music. Look forward to trailblazing works by George Walker, Florence Price, and Fred Onovwerosuoke. AV
(Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, Beaverton)

MULTI-DAY

COMMUNITY

Chapman Swift Watch Remind Like List
Because you live in Portland, you are surrounded by folks whose idea of a good time is gazing at Vaux's swifts—a species of dark, tiny-bodied aerialists that like to roost in hollow spaces—as they gracefully funnel into an elementary school chimney each sunset in September. Their numbers vary; sometimes you'll see 5,000, and in mid-September, up to 15,000, as they migrate to Mexico and Central America. Their evening ritual is nothing short of poetic, a visual display that would make Mary Oliver weep. Therefore, arrive early and anticipate fighting for parking. (If you're as lucky as I was last year, you might also witness a Cooper's hawk tucked to one side of the chimney, awaiting a teensy swift snack.) LC
(Chapman Elementary School, Northwest Portland, Monday–Sunday)

Coraline's Curious Cat Trail Remind Like List
Google doesn't often classify movies as "family/horror," but Coraline is one of the few flicks that fits the bill. The 2009 LAIKA film, which follows an audacious 11-year-old who finds an alternate world populated by strange characters (including a button-eyed Other Mother), is based on the creepiest, most addictive Neil Gaiman book I read as a seventh-grader. If the book/movie's lanky black cat elicits your nostalgia, I recommend spending an afternoon with Coraline’s Curious Cat Trail, LAIKA's path of six-foot Cat sculptures stationed throughout downtown Portland. LC
(Various locations, Monday–Sunday)

EXHIBIT

Crossing Boundaries: Portraits of a Transgender West Remind Like List
While many Native cultures recognize more than two genders, the term "transgender" is relatively new. What might the lives of trans people in the West have been like before the word existed? The Washington State Historical Society's original exhibition, Crossing Boundaries: Portraits of a Transgender West, offers a rare look at trans narratives from 1860 to 1940. Curated in collaboration with historian Peter Boag, the exhibition shares the stories of heartbreaker Harry Allen, medical doctor-turned-novelist Dr. Alan Hart, and "the mysterious Mrs. Nash, a laundress to the famed Seventh Cavalry," among others. LC
(Oregon Historical Society, South Park Blocks, Monday–Sunday)

Painting with Thread: The Art and Culture of Fukusa Past Event Like List
You might be familiar with the significance of gift-giving in Japanese culture, but perhaps you haven't seen fukusa, the elaborate silk textiles used to drape Edo-period gifts. Thanks to a recent donation from the Peter and Beverly Sinton Japanese Gift and Altar Cover collection, now you can! Fukusa were often embellished with intricate embroidery, weaving, and dyeing techniques, becoming art pieces in their own right. Painting with Thread: The Art and Culture of Fukusa centers nature-inspired fukusa "related to the plants and scenes familiar within Portland Japanese Garden." LC
(Portland Japanese Garden, Washington Park, Monday–Sunday)

FILM

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Past Event Like List
It's not complicated. If Winona Ryder is on the screen, I'm seated in the audience. Even a reprisal of Beetlejuice, in which a frankly annoying spirit haunted a family back in the '80s, will suffice as long as Ryder appears. Director Tim Burton and star Michael Keaton return for this fashionably late sequel, which follows three generations of the Deetz family (including Lydia, who's now a mom, played by Ryder) as they return home to Winter River and discover a portal to the afterlife that's been carelessly left open. I'm betting someone says a certain name three times. LC
(Hollywood Theatre, Hollywood District, Monday–Thursday)

The Front Room Past Event Like List
A24 films have felt hit-or-miss lately, perhaps because they're consciously expanding in a more commercial, mainstream cinema direction. MaXXXine, Priscilla, and Civil War were met with polarizing reviews, while The Zone of Interest was (in this writer's humble opinion) a brutal, immediate classic. After a year of whiplash-inducing releases, I'll be happily seated for a straight-up scary movie starring Brandy as a pregnant woman besieged by her weirdo mother-in-law. The flick is also the first feature for director duo Max Eggers and Sam Eggers—yep, they're Robert Eggers' brothers. LC
(Hollywood Theatre, Hollywood District, Monday–Thursday)

Hanabi Film Festival Past Event Like List
This fest isn't for those expecting screenings of Ponyo and Ringu—not that there's anything wrong with those flicks, but the Hanabi Japanese Film Festival shirks typical Japanese film fare in favor of cult cinema and lesser-known tales. I'm eagerly anticipating the Mieko Kaji double feature Lady Snowblood and Song of Vengeance, Kurosawa's brilliant thriller High and Low, and Yasujirō Ozu's crowning achievement Tokyo Story. Church of Film's screening of the moody, dreamlike August in the Water will be another winner. I recommend grabbing snacks from Kashiwagi's conbini beforehand. LC
(Clinton Street Theater, Hosford-Abernethy, Monday–Friday)

2024 HUMP! Part Two Past Event Like List
Dan Savage's pioneering erotic film fest premiered an all-new lineup of sexy films featuring all genders and orientations at Revolution Hall earlier this year. Since 2005, HUMP! has brought inclusive, creative, and kinky films to the big screen—and since this year's fest features not one but two feature-length lineups, you can scope out the sex-positive fest yet again for a tantalizing treat. Part two includes a feast of 25 brand-spanking-new feasts for your eyeballs, including "smokin' hot paranormal encounters, a mind-bending space carnival, spine-tingling ASMR, [and] all the thermal eye candy you can eat." It's worth a venture outside of your sex dungeon, but you can still wear the latex catsuit. LC
(Cinema 21, Nob Hill, Friday–Saturday)

Paris, Texas: New 4K Restoration Past Event Like List
Paris, Texas is my favorite film of all time, and my second and third are True Stories and 3 Women, both of which could arguably exist in Paris, Texas's universe. A disheveled Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) meanders out of the matte desert, where he's reunited with his eight-year-old son, Hunter, and his billboard-designing brother in the neon canyons of Los Angeles. He tries on different roles: He imagines becoming the "rich father," accomplishing nothing but to chase after his son's affection. A road trip then guides Hunter and Travis back to the root of their trauma. The result is a neo-Western that feels spiritually in tune with Twin Peaks, Repo Man, and—hear me out—the myth of Odysseus. It also did more to promote pink fuzzy sweaters than the entirety of Barbie's endless press campaign. By the way, I'd typically balk at a 127-minute runtime, but Wim Wenders' ultra-deliberate filmmaking (and Robby Müller's choreography) demands a slow read. Certain shots linger long after the credits roll. LC
(Cinema 21, Nob Hill, Saturday–Sunday)

FOOD & DRINK

Tomato Dinner - Celebration for Charity Past Event Like List
The wood-fired Italian restaurant Lucca is so devoted to tomato season that it hosts an annual dinnertomatoes in a variety of preparations. This year's five-course feast will feature "classic and creative Italian-inspired dishes with the season's best locally farmed and foraged harvest," including tomato and basil crème fraiche, watermelon and pickled green tomatoes, pasta al forno, and a pistachio-fennel cake with a plum and Sungold tomato marmellata. A portion of proceeds will benefit the nonprofit Growing Gardens' mission to give everyone equal access to food. JB
(Lucca, Irvington, Thursday–Saturday)

GEEK & GAMING

Geek Week PDX Past Event Like List
Rose City Comic Con brings geeks and gamers to Portland annually, but this year the fun continues in the days following con with Geek Week PDX, a new pop culture festival featuring activations across the city. You can partake in over 300 events hosted at 100+ nerd-focused small businesses, ranging from film screenings to game tournaments and cosplay parties (one of which is on an ice rink). There are multiple options for celebrating the 50th anniversary of the iconic role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, including a progressive seven-day campaign hosted by TPK Brewing Co. If you prefer a more IRL adventure, the Treasure Quest photo scavenger hunt leads you on an exploration of the city; each quadrant of which the organizers promise will be "transformed into a new mythical realm." SL
(Various locations, Monday–Sunday)

LIVE MUSIC

Lose Yr Mind Fest 9 Past Event Like List
Lose Yr Mind brings Portland acts, ex-Portland acts, and out-of-towners together for two days of live music. Headliners include English alt-rockers Ulrika Spacek, avant-pop band Dummy, psychedelic metalheads Deathchant, and local post-punk rockers Forty Feet Tall. A row of local food trucks and beer peddlers will keep you energized all weekend, and you can walk over to Lollipop Shoppe after the shows for free, late-night dance parties. AV
(The Get Down, Buckman, Friday–Saturday)

PERFORMANCE

52 Pickup Past Event Like List
This intimate queer love story will enliven the cozy, 40-seat 21Ten Theater with a "unique narrative experience." 52 Pickup is comprised of a whopping 52 scenes, each written on playing cards, which are then shuffled and performed at random. The effect aims to feel fresh, improvisational, and unpredictable on each night of the performance, providing an intriguing backdrop to tell a messy, passionate love story. Head to Doc Marie's afterward to ruminate on the rollercoaster tale. LC
(21ten Theater, Hosford-Abernethy, Thursday–Sunday)

CoHo ClownFest 2024 Past Event Like List
Whether you're a literal clown or a simple clown appreciator, you'll want to honk your horn and slap on a gigantic pair of shoes for this year's edition of this four-week fringe festival celebrating all things clownery. CoHo's ClownFest includes an absurdist mix of physical comedy, workshops, and movement performances, building community between artists and audiences with a wide range of jolly performances. It transforms CoHo's little black box theater into a central hub for circus artists across the country to engage in "playful whimsy," which sounds good for the soul. Go forth and get your clown on. LC
(CoHo Productions, Slabtown, Thursday–Sunday)

Timothy Yanick Hunter: Noise / Grain Remind Like List
Presented as part of this year's Time-Based Art Festival, the Toronto-based artist Timothy Yanick Hunter's Noise / Grain will open with a performance in the PICA Annex on September 14. Pulling from "experiential and aesthetic dimensions of the Black diaspora," you might note everything from historical photography to internet touchstones in Hunter's remixes and samples, which create "living mélanges" to decolonial meaning-making. Hunter, a first-generation Jamaican living in Canada, also draws from dub music's history of alteration, layering, and iterating to imagine mutable, evolving forms in sound. LC
(ILY2, Pearl District, Friday–Saturday)

VISUAL ART

Barbara Sternberger: Continuum Remind Like List
Bellingham, WA-based painter Barbara Sternberger has previously presented nine solo exhibitions at Elizabeth Leach, so if you haven't caught one yet, the 10th time's the charm! Continuum should appeal to lovers of Abstract Expressionism and the color field art movement. The exhibitionemphasizes the "process of solving while doing," Sternberger's studio-oriented ethos, and the results spill across her canvases with layered accumulations of gesture, erasure, abbreviation, and expansion. LC
(Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Pearl District, Tuesday–Saturday)

Bean Finneran: Properties of Layers Past Event Like List
Bean Finneran's ceramic sculptures feel playful, rendered in Play-Doh-esque primary colors and squishy, organic forms, but the artist has spent many years molding "a single elemental shape, a hand-rolled curve of low fire clay that was assembled by the hundreds into temporary sculptures." Properties of Layers represents a serious investigation of clay's various states—liquid, mushy, dry, soft, and even frozen. The resulting sculptures are layered and iterated upon through multiple firing and glazing sessions, so while the bright results may feel spontaneous, they're actually deeply considered. LC
(PDX CONTEMPORARY ART, Slabtown, Tuesday–Saturday)

Carson Ellis: One Week in January Remind Like List
While looking through some old boxes, illustrator, and author Carson Ellis discovered several pages of diary entries from 2001, which documented her first week living in Portland. The journals detailed 25-year-old Ellis’s new life in the city, as she moved into a “scrappy but cheap and fabulous” Southeast Portland warehouse, smoked a lot of cigarettes, and hung out with her housemates and fellow artists, including her future husband and Decemberists’ frontman Colin Meloy. Ellis got a kick out of the old entries, which offer a snapshot of Portland during a time of creative abundance and cheap rent. She painted 30 new pieces of art to go along with the diary entries from 23 years ago, and compiled them into a book, One Week in January: New Paintings for an Old Diary, which will be published by Chronicle on September 10. Ellis' original paintings are on display at Portland art gallery Nationale from Sept 14-Oct 19, with an opening reception happening on Saturday, September 14 from 2-5 pm. PORTLAND MERCURY NEWS REPORTER TAYLOR GRIGGS
(Nationale, Buckman, Saturday–Sunday; opening)

En Motion: WAVE Contemporary Past Event Like List
Similar to the conceptual setup of the current Oregon Contemporary show Orbit, which includes works by over a dozen international and local artists, WAVE Contemporary's member artists will also present En Motion this month. The group show probes everyday exposures and interactions with moving images to explore the "current social supremacy of film, video, and moving image as a driver of culture." My advice? Check out both Orbit and En Motion, then duck into Well Well Projects' hall gallery for Inner Sun, Katherine Spinella and Morgan Rosskopf's multimedia exploration of "uncomfortability and uncertainty in the creative process." Win-win-win! LC
(Well Well, Kenton, Saturday–Sunday)

Jake Scharbach: Treachery of Images Past Event Like List
I don't typically go to a gallery show expecting postmodern lingual trickery, but then again, Treachery of Images will be my first time seeing Jake Scharbach's work in person. The artist pulled inspiration for his solo exhibition title from the interesting names we give to collectives of animals—a murder of crows, etc.—and imagined the show as a "tongue-in-cheek revamp" of Magritte's “The Treachery of Images,” aka "Ceci n'est pas une pipe." Slices of imagery pulled from art history are positioned alongside news imagery, headlines, and imagery of forest fires, creating cross-century conversations that feel somewhat brazen. LC
(Froelick Gallery, Pearl District, Tuesday–Saturday)

Monet to Matisse: French Moderns Past Event Like List
With 60-ish masterpieces pulled from the Brooklyn Museum’s illustrious European art collection, the Portland Art Museum's latest exhibition centers the modernist accomplishments of French artists. You might've already guessed that Monet to Matisse: French Moderns features pieces by Monet and Matisse, but visitors can also spy works by Cézanne, Chagall, Degas, and Renoir...you know, pretty much every creator mentioned in your Art History 101 class, all curated one place. My advice? Make a super-sensory day of it: Dress fancy, feast your eyeballs, then pick up some runny cheese from Providore on the way home. LC
(Portland Art Museum, South Park Blocks, Thursday–Sunday; closing)

Orbit Past Event Like List
How do we consume moving images? Portland art collective WAVE Contemporary and Well Well Projects have teamed up to present this curatorial project, which installs "film, animations, and moving images" on the walls of Oregon Contemporary, to ponder that question. Orbit includes works by over a dozen international and local artists to "explore images as political agents in contemporary life," interrupting the use of moving images as constantly consumed, purely communicative tools and considering their conceptual impacts. Orbit proposes a space where the "porosity of the media could be rethought in terms of reterritorialization," organizers Marcelo Fontana and Chris Ticas explain. LC
(Oregon Contemporary, Kenton, Friday–Sunday)

Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm Remind Like List
When I hear the words "photography" and "Paul McCartney," I typically think of works by his late wife, the legendary photog Linda McCartney, whose images feel uniquely charming and immediate. But it turns out Paul took stellar shots, too. This exhibition is proof. Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm includes over 250 images McCartney captured from 1963-64, lending new insight into his life from inside the Beatlemania phenomenon. The results blend references to New Wave aesthetics, documentary filmmaking, and photojournalism, proving that McCartney had his eye on pop culture of all kinds. LC
(Portland Art Museum, South Park Blocks, Saturday–Sunday; opening)

Pissarro to Picasso: Masterworks on Loan from the Kirkland Family Collection Past Event Like List
Pulled from the collections of Los Angeles' Kirkland family, the Portland Art Museum showcases 14 paintings, many of which haven’t been available for public viewing in decades. Spanning the last century of visual art, Pissarro to Picasso: Masterworks on Loan from the Kirkland Family Collection includes Martin Johnson Heade's "monumental 1887 canvas of Jamaica," rare landscapes by Henri Matisse and Georgia O’Keeffe, a late-career piece by Marc Chagall, and two Cubist still lifes by Picasso, among other big-name works. LC
(Portland Art Museum, South Park Blocks, Thursday–Sunday; closing)

Psychedelic Rock Posters and Fashion of the 1960s Remind Like List
Although the Portland Art Museum's exhibition Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm also opens this month, Psychedelic Rock Posters and Fashion of the 1960s should feel a little less "Beatlemania" and more "counterculture creativity straight from Haight-Ashbury." The collection of rare vintage posters, embroidered denim pieces, groovy velvet garments, and hippie-chic crochet is bound to be a total head trip; posters "drew on disparate historical precedents such as Art Nouveau, Wild West signs, and Victorian engraving," while fashion spoke directly to the sense-driven experiences of psychedelics. Far out. LC
(Portland Art Museum, South Park Blocks, Thursday–Sunday)

Time-Based Art Festival—TBA:24 Past Event Like List
Last year, PICA's reimagined its iconique Time-Based Art Festival as Time-Released, a series of performance artworks scheduled in a more spread-out format. This year, the “best contemporary summer festival in the country” (according to the New York Times) will take back its original name, but has been "thoughtfully built to span three weeks, allowing audience members to be fully immersed in a wide variety of programs on weekends, with some breathing room between the busier days." I'll take it! PICA's Time-Based Art Festival is your yearly reminder to question everything—buckle in for a packed month of experimental art, temporal performances, and interactive lectures from local and far-flung artists (Kye Alive, JJJJJerome Ellis, Carla Rossi, Timothy Yanick Hunter, and others) who'll challenge your preconceived notions of art. There are always some pretty cool dance parties, too. LC
(PICA, Eliot, Monday–Sunday)

Unseasonably Warm: Nia Musiba Past Event Like List
Portland-based interdisciplinary artist Nia Musiba's second exhibition at One Grand Gallery is a dreamy selection of works on paper, encapsulating milestone moments like her "first heartbreak, graduating, questioning the meaning of life, and finding the answers in friendships and experimentation and new love." Musiba's stars, flowers, and spirals are welcoming, yet imbued with subtle narrative. Unseasonably Warm also features ceramic sculptures Musiba created in collaboration with Sara Victorio of the trendy local studio Hotel Ceramics. LC
(One Grand Gallery, Buckman, Thursday–Friday; closing)