Tint by Von Tundra @ PDX Window Project, Photo Courtesy of the artists

Von Tundra is an underrated Portland-based design collective comprised of Dan Anderson, Chris Held and other collaborators. They're work ranges from functionally a la mode furniture to pragmatic interventions into mobility and space. For their occupation of the PDX Window project, Tint, they explore the specific conditions of the gallery's shop window space compared to the commercial context of those nearby. "The issues of scale, function, association and intention are conditions that Von Tundra has challenged themselves to engage and counter. Tint shifts between direct and indirect references to both any window and this particular one."

Tint |Von Tundra
September 4 - 29 | 24 hours a day, viewable by sidewalk
PDX Window Project | 925 NW Flanders Street

Alex Cecchetti, Summer is Not the Prize of Winter. Photo: Robertas Narkus.

The primary reason that programming amps up around here in late Summer is the arrival of the annual TBA festival.
Of course, an internationally-renowned festival centered around time-based works carries with it a heavy dose of theatre, dance, and performance-based works. The opening reception this Thursday, however, unveils the festival's slightly more visual side with installations in the classrooms at Washington High School and other locations under the heading "End Things". As always, The Works hosts a careful balance of projects from local, emerging artists and internationally relevant figures. This year, many of these new projects have been evolving through time - the result of residencies and commissions for those represented. Visual Art Curator, Kristan Kennedy writes, "[End Things] is a play on the eschatological preoccupation that surrounds 2012. As we head towards the predicted 'end of all things,' perhaps the world will not end with a cataclysmic reckoning or a fireball from outer space, but rather when we no longer view the world as a round floating object and instead a flat space that we scroll over until we reach the edge. I ask us to become occasional animists and to believe that each thing has something to tell, maybe even something that could save us all." That's a worthwhile call to arms, if you ask me. Also, the sounds of Venus X will surely carry you into the wee hours of the night.

Summer is Not the Prize of Winter | Alex Cecchetti
Field of Debris | Erika Vogt
Monument to Another Man's Fatherland | Van Brummelen & De Haan
Understanding Witches Now | Morgan Ritter

TBA Festival | PICA
Opening Night | September 6th | 10-late
Washington High School | Between 12th and 14th on SE Stark St.

Happy Birthday: A Celebration of Chance and Listening @ Feldman Gallery

PNCA is 'going all out' this Wednesday evening. Despite the anticipated Alumni exhibition (rich with representation from '10 & '11 Visual Studies grads), there are a few auxiliary exhibitions to check out while you're in the area. In particular, The Feldman Gallery hosts an exhibition that investigates John Cage's unquestionable influence across generations. From the Press release:"Featured artists include Alison Knowles, a Cage pupil from the late 50's, who with several others created one of the grandest blending of art and life groups Fluxus; Paul Kos's The Sound of Ice Melting, which illustrates the Cageina notion of careful listing to hear the music of the world; and Walead Beshty's Fedex Kraft Boxes, in which tempered glass cubes are fit into standard FedEx boxes with no packing materials. The resulting cracks and chips become the marks on the otherwise minimal cube, echoing the chance operations systems of Cage’s music. Happy Birthday also features works from Ray Johnson, Brad Brown, Molly Dilworth, Luke Murphy, Stephanie Simek, and a piece by Cage himself."

Also at PNCA tonight is a promising solo exhibition Gavilan by Chloe Dietz ('13) in the BFA gallery and a group show entitled Bad Grammar featuring works by the "up and coming" locals Austin Adkins, Nadia Buyse, Jodie Cavalier, Kevin Champoux, Lydia Rosenberg, and Alex Ian Smith.

Happy Birthday: A Celebration of Chance and Listening
September 6 - November 17
PNCA Feldman Gallery | 1241 NW Johnson Street

Collider @ Littman Gallery

This month the Littman and White galleries have organized two exhibitions of quality abstractions by local painters. Collider curated by Port editor, Jeff Jahn, focuses on the accumulative (as opposed to the reductive) side of the abstract spectrum. From the press release: "In short, the true definition of abstraction isn't the abject rejection of reference but the amalgamation and distillation of source material into something related but different than the source... Think of these paintings as the collisions of highly charged materials, visual codes, worldviews and ideas." Over at the White, recent PSU graduate Andre Fortes debuts a new line of works. Each piece collects 3D imagery from the artist's daily life askew on the picture plane.

Collider | Featuring: Amy Bernstein, Calvin Ross Carl, Jesse Hayward, Victor Maldonado, Nathanael Thayer Moss, and Eva Speer
Diffusion | André Fortes
Opening Receptions | September 6th | 5-8PM
Littman and White Galleries | Second floor of the Smith building @ PSU