It is always interesting how August plays out in Portland's visual art scene. In most art cities in the northern hemisphere August is kind of dead but Portland gets a lot of visitors from the Bay Area and elsewhere during this often hot month so there is a summer camp vibe that oozes indie charm. Here are my picks for the weekend:


Michael Trigilio at 12128

12128 Boatspace continues its Precipice Funded (in residence) series with Michael Trigilio, a video and performance artist from San Diego who took part in the 2008 Whitney Biennial. If you want a summertime art adventure the trip to this crab boat as an alt space is tough to beat and a sound performance at 8:00 should contribute to the vibe.

Michael Trigilio | Augst 1 2014
Reception : 6 - 9PM (performance at 8PM)
1 2 1 2 8
12900 NW Marina Way
(be careful in Linnton's speed trap and be sure to park in the lot)




The Naught Collective's School of Potential Engagement Potential is making the rounds around Portland's alt space circuit and here is your chance to catch them at HQHQ.

Like a lot of Millennial art entities they cluster collectively and collaboratively but this is how they describe themselves:

"The School of Potential Engagement Potential (SPEP) is a transient space for collaborative learning. It is and always will be unaccredited. Its walls are temporary, its curriculum is ad hoc, and its occupants collectively assume the roles of students, professors, and administrators at once. This free experimental education model, in a perpetual state of redesign, is oriented towards the radical supplementation and redefinition of higher education during an era of actualized academic capitalism."

They get a meta gold star for using, "actualized academic capitalism," in a sentence as opposed to the unrequited academic capitalism of previous eras. Sure, the extension of the art school experience could be seen as an extended gestation period but I kinda love the way they are anti-accreditation the way Gen X-ers were anti-corporate and so very alternative (an interesting shift). What happens if they get honorary doctorates for this? Would that be akin to signing with a major label or is that tenure? Don't worry there is no tenure anymore!


School Of Potential Engagement Potential | August 1, 6-9PM
HQHQ Project Space
232 SE Oak St. #108



Cintamani at Falsefront

Falsefront presents DarkRoom, consisting of photography and installation by Cintamani.

According to the PR: "DarkRoom is about finding vacant places in the Pacific Northwest that hold a sense of genius loci. Capturing abandoned houses, dilapidated barns, ghost towns and echoing hills, the aim is to find the spirit of these places and preserve what makes them special. The photographs will be printed and manipulated by hand in the darkroom, channeling the ghosts of each place, using old techniques and print processes that naturally create imperfections, as if they have a spirit of their own." - Sounds promising and Portland does love art about haunting spaces.

What's more it is another one of the projects funded by the Precipice Fund, designed to support these very crucial alternative space shows (which traditional granting orgs have had trouble getting behind).

Darkroom | August 2 - 28
Opening Reception: August 2, 7 - 10PM
FalseFront
4518 NE 32 Avenue