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Cynthia Lahti's Surprise, 2013

The artwork included in Cynthia Lahti's exhibit Elsewhere consists of drawing, collage, books and sculpture created during an 11 week artist residency in Berlin Germany in the fall of 2012. The artwork is influenced by the powerful feeling studying even the smallest artifact can evoke.

Through these works she is focusing on the way various materials affect the conceptual intent and impact of each piece. Elsewhere uses a slew of source material which is then altered, manipulated, and combined. Paper is used quite a bit, introducing an element of fragility, while also making historical references to Dada and Surrealism. At the heart of Lahti's works lie the potential of each material to evoke a different emotional response.

Elsewhere | Cynthia Lahti
April 30 - June 1, 2013
Reception | May 2 | 6-8 pm
PDX Contemporary Art | 925 NW Flanders, Portland Oregon 97209

Matt Leavitt, Remove / Taxonomy in Blue, 2013

Matt Leavitt created Curio after being inspired by representational archetypes he observed in commercials, scientific imagery and art galleries. He uses these archetypes to critique the isolation they suggest and is fueled by the harmonization of rational thought and direct experience.

CURIO | Matt Leavitt
April 27th - June 1, 2013
Opening Reception | May 2 | 6-8 PM
PDX Contemporary Art - Window Project | 925 NW Flanders, Portland, OR 97209

Mask 1 , 2012
ink and watercolor on paper
12 x 9 in
www.elizabethleach.com/Artwork-Detail.cfm?ArtistsID=148&NewID=4493

Claire Cowie's Unreliable Source is an installation of new sculpture, works-on-paper, and photographs rooted in folklore and personal mythology. Through dreamlike imagery, this exhibit addresses life issues and how we make meaning and understand the world. Can we trust what we know or what we are told? How true are our memories? Her investigation has produced an installation dense and rich with complex references, including family photographs, African and Native American sculpture, and folktales. Like any good folktale, there are moments of darkness and elements of hope in the work. It is up to the viewer to construct the narrative.

Ultra Marine is an exhibit of Jaq Chartier's new abstract paintings. They are meditations on the sea and creatures living in coral reefs, with climate change as subtext. This work springs from her interest in landscape, natural sciences, maps of the earth, weather and storms. The paintings use Chartier's signature saturated inks, stains and dyes and remain connected to her exploration of materiality, nineteenth-century art & science, color field painting, process art, and minimalism.

Richard Marquis
formatting
Horn on Donuts #2
2013
blown glass, granulare-murrine technique
9.875" x 6.5" x 6.5"
www.bullseyegallery.com/Artwork-Detail.cfm?ArtistsID=323&NewID=3892

In conjunction with BECon 2013 Bullseye Gallery, presents Chroma-Culture a group exhibition that explores the use of color in contemporary kiln-glass.

Chroma-Culture | Mel Douglas, Dafna Kaffeman, Silvia Levenson, Jessica Loughlin, Richard Marquis, Fahan Sky McDonagh, Klaus Moje, Emily Nachison, Tanja Pak, Richard Parrish, Clifford Rainey, Ted Sawyer, Stacy Lynn Smith, Abi Spring, Cassandra Straubing
May 1 - June 29, 2013
Artist Reception | May 1 | 5:30-7:30 PM
Bullseye Gallery | 300 NW 13th Avenue. Portland, OR 97209

http://www.froelickgallery.com/Exhibit_Detail.cfm?ShowsID=207

In Reframing images, Conceptualizing Indigenous Art, Gail Tremblay a member of the Onondaga and Micmac Nations, uses nontraditional materials (16 and 35mm film stock and colorful film leader) to weave baskets in traditional forms. Interlaced bright loops and cinematic images are stitched carefully with metallic thread. The content of the film used as the medium is integral to the work. Many of the pieces use film from a short documentary called Play and Cultural Continuity, Part VI: Montana Indian Children. Contrary to the film's thesis, Tremblay argues that the play described in the film is not that of games and distractions but that of preserving tradition. She is reclaiming and repurposing a medium that has historically reinforced stereotypes of American Indians, merging Indigenous and mainstream culture.

Image by Andrew Schoultz
breezeblockgallery.com/gallery-1a/

Sven Davis has curated Wider than a Postcard opening at Breeze Block Gallery on Thursday. Over 200 artists have been invited to produce works based on the traditional 6x4 postcard format. The artists had the choice of either starting with blank canvases or working over pre-existing postcards. All were given the same brief and the postcards are all loosely related to the ideas of place and belonging. The artworks will be displayed in a grid formation and the entire installation will be composed of over 400 individual artworks.

Wider than a Postcard | curated by Sven Davis
May 2 - June 1, 2013
First Thursday | May 2 | 6 PM
Breeze Block Gallery | 323 NW 6th Ave. Portland, OR 97209

Seattle based installation artist Todd Jannausch creates public art installations that challenge how we view artwork. His latest project Small Voids is a series of 100 illuminated acrylic boxes that each contain an original piece of artwork by a different Seattle artist. Using magnets these mini galleries are then attached to existing street signs and light poles to transform a city block into an interactive outdoor gallery for one night only.

Small Voids premiered in Seattle last October and is now traveling down the coast. It will be here in Portland on the 2nd and then make it's way down to Oakland for Art Murmur on the 3rd.

For more information on Small Voids & the 100 artists presenting their work please visit their Facebook .

Small Voids | Todd Jannausch
In Portland | May 2, 2013 | Corner of 13th and NW Hoyt | May 2 | 6 - 10PM