All and Nothing @ Froelick. Photo, Jeff Jahn.

In an exhibition entitled All and Nothing, Victor Maldonado creates an empty space for the viewer to fill with meaning a la Cage's 4'33" and others. Here, though, the visual nothing that we're supposed to stack meaning atop takes root in the common motifs of his earlier work. "[Maldonado]attempts to step back from elements of his established creative practice to give the viewer room to experience as they will. The pieces in All and Nothing are humorous and pointed, such as pages from art history texts, painted over in black or chroma key green to omit, alter or highlight reproductions of well known works." Let's see if we can find something in the pastiche, in the Hal Foster sort of way.

All and Nothing | Victor Maldonado
Opening Reception | October 4th | 5-8 PM
Froelick Gallery | 714 NW Davis Street

High Tide, 2011, C-print, 30" x 44", image courtesy of the gallery

There's an impressive collection of photographs on view at Charles Hartman by Portland-based photographer Corey Arnold. "Graveyard Point documents the diverse community that comes together to fish for Sockeye salmon each summer in Bristol Bay, Alaska. While Arnold's earlier series, Fish-Work: The Bering Sea depicted the brutal and dangerous work of commercial crab fishing, this series trades cold, rough seas for the place where land and ocean meet and where rivers spill into the sea." The works in this series have a vague otherworldly feel to them. With compositions so sensitively arranged, the subjects seem choreographed or staged. But then, the movement of the muddy water is too physically impacting to be anything other than sincere.

Graveyard Point | Corey Arnold
Opening reception | October 4th | 5-8 PM
Charles A. Hartman Fine Art | 134 NW 8th Ave

Jordan Tull @ AiA. Photo, Jeff Jahn.

The installation by Jordan Tull at AIA looks clean and impacting. "Ecto-Paraprism is a flexible crystalline facade that feeds off the existing core of AIA PDX. The installation explores transparency, reflection and ownership in a dynamic relationship between host architecture and parasitic intervention."

Ecto-Paraprism | Jordan Tull
Opening Reception | October 4th
The Center for Architecture | 403 NW 11th Avenue

MK Guth @ Elizabeth Leach

Although I have reservations about exhibitions that are essentially presenting documentation of performance, MK Guth's photographs (or rather photographs that were taken to capture something that happened that MK Guth was a part of) at Elizabeth Leach tell nice artsy Rapunzel story. "In 2011, Guth was invited to be an artist in residence at The Cosmopolitan hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her exhibition there was a 20-day performance in which she would invite passers by to write down their wishes on pieces of ribbon which would then be woven into her hair, which reached lengths of 300 feet. On view will be photographs of the performance, as well as sculptures created from the hair’s materials."

Best Wishes | MK Guth
Opening Reception | October 4th | 5-8 PM
Elizabeth Leach Gallery | 417 NW 9th Ave

There are two shows opening at White Box, one of which is from the ubiquitous local favorite, Laura Hughes. The artist says of her installation, "[Light Box] plays with the visibility of the dividing wall. Using phosphorescent pigment and projected video, the space beyond the wall is captured and imprinted onto it as if it disappeared. The objective is for the viewer's eye to renegotiate this architectural barrier and the consequence of what is depicted versus knowledge of the actual conditions of the space." This opening reception is held in conjunction with 6/ONE in the White Box featuring the work of Karl Burkheimer, Josh Smith, Ben Ediger, Todd Isaacs, Dan Anderson, and Chris Held.

Light Box | Laura Hughes
Opening Reception | October 4th
White Box | 24 NW 1st Street