Vibrant and lively, Thursday nights spent in the Alberta Arts district will give you a wonderful tasting menu of Portland culture. With galleries lining both sides of the street, food trucks nestled between restaurants boasting cuisines from around the world, salons, tattoo parlors and quirky shops, this lovely section of Northeast has something to offer everyone. Though I was originally interested in simply touring around a few galleries and pleading a case for more college students to enjoy art away from campus, Alberta Street had more in mind for me.
I began my night muscling through evening traffic, navigating the harrowing Fremont Bridge to Talon & Antler Gallery, which hosts an event open to the community on the last Thursday of every month to celebrate their new collection. This month’s diverse exhibit featured a wide range of pieces, including oil, acrylic and watercolor paintings, sculptures made from various mediums, carved and colorful wooden wall hangings with delicious textures and intricate graphite drawings.
The overarching theme of this exhibition was of mystical and magical quality — exploring humanoid sculptures and numerous animals, both real and fanciful, with differing perspectives on scale and realism. As I meandered through the exhibition, each piece caught my eye in a unique way. One graphite scene drew me into a whimsical world of fairy creatures. I was swept up into a playful scene with a rabbit ferrying a small bird through a river, the three-dimensional green head of a fae creature with human hair and eyelashes that seemed to stare me down as I neared. Each piece showcased time and passion in its creation, and together spun a tale of eclectic characters and their universes.
A few of the featured artists really blew me away, like Spencer Tinkham. His adoration and careful inspection of creatures and their habitats was celebrated through painted wooden sculptures showing enlarged detail of the feathers of birds and the undulating skin texture of colorful frogs. Wanting desperately to touch the rippling structure of the pieces where I expected I would find the light and soft warmth of the blue-and-yellow macaw’s plume or the cool, moist back of a poison dart frog, I reluctantly kept my hands to myself, satiated by the vibrant colors and dimension of his pieces.
Nastia Calaca also had two of my favorite sculptures from the show; both personable and flaunting incredibly stylish attire, a ceramic rhino and hippopotamus stood side by side, surveying the galleries patrons. The layering of glazes, patterns, colors and textures were superb, with the artist’s humor and personal style shining through the eyes of the dapper sculptures. The way Calaca chose to mix glossy and matte glazes gave the pieces such unique dimensionality and disposition that I could not help but admire the handsome fellows.
As my date and I finished our slow wander through the gallery, we discovered there was a pop-up right next door at Vivienne Culinary Books. The small shop was filled with dozens of cookbooks, recipe zines and artisan kitchen appliances. Out back, to our good fortune, was a small skewer bar with chicken, mushroom and pork belly options for only a few dollars. Baon Kainan, a Filipino-American food truck, had set up a little eatery behind the store for the evening. The mushroom skewer had a delicious citrus glaze I had never heard of called Calamansi, as well as tamari sauce and a few microgreens for garnish.
Satisfied with our little bite to eat, our next adventure was to wander down Alberta Street, in search of the next thing which caught our eye. This, of course, was Salt & Straw — their irresistible seasonal apple flavors and the permeating smell of fresh waffle cones lured us in. Though the ice cream was delicious, what was happening right next door was much more exciting: the Couch Brass and Jester’s Brass marching bands had gathered together and with an incredible variety of instruments, captivating the block. Complete with members in costume and an assortment of musicians from about high school age to well into their 50s, the energy was electric. For the whole 20 or so minutes we watched, the smile could not be wiped from my face.
My plea and advice, as a senior who is busy as can be with a full class schedule, thesis in the works, a job and social obligations, is that there truly is time enough for it all. Hunting for an evening escape into the art world brought me an incredible evening, full of flavor, music and conversation and all of it was easily accessible and perfectly Portland.
Leave a Reply