Sonia Kasparian at Butters Gallery The most anticipated show this month -- and for a few months at that -- has been hovering up in the sky: the sun. At last, summer has arrived, and let's hope it settles in....

A work by Benjamin Moore and Louis Mueller at Butters Gallery As the entire art world knows, June is the month of glass, largely because the 38th annual Glass Art Society conference is convening here June 19-21. Held principally at...

Free of charge

All PADA galleries host monthly exhibitions, most with opening receptions and extended hours on the first Thursday of each month. Participating PADA galleries include: Augen Gallery, Blackfish Gallery, Butters Gallery, Froelick Gallery Ltd., Elizabeth Leach Gallery, PDX Contemporary Art, Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery, Quintana Galleries, Laura Russo Gallery, Mark Woolley Gallery. PADA Also highlights museums and academic galleries. Call or refer to website for more specifics.

Various locationsThroughout Portland.

Please call 503.227.3840 for more information.

Free of charge

All PADA galleries host monthly exhibitions, most with opening receptions and extended hours on the first Thursday of each month. Participating PADA galleries include: Augen Gallery, Blackfish Gallery, Butters Gallery, Froelick Gallery Ltd., Elizabeth Leach Gallery, PDX Contemporary Art, Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery, Quintana Galleries, Laura Russo Gallery, Mark Woolley Gallery. PADA Also highlights museums and academic galleries. Call or refer to website for more specifics.

Various locationsThroughout Portland.

Please call 503.227.3840 for more information.

New Leaders Council participates in art walk

Join Tim DuRoche, Community Outreach Coordinator from Portland Center Stage, and Jesse Beason, Commissioner Sam Adams' senior policy director for arts and culture, on Wednesday, February 6 for a walking tour and preview of the First Thursday gallery shows in Portland's Pearl District and Old Town.

The group will gather in the lobby of the Armory and head to the newly opened DeSoto Building, home to the Museum of Contemporary Craft. There, executive director David Cohen and education director Lisa Platt will host a brief informational tour. The group will then visit the Charles Froelick Gallery, where Charles Froelick will speak about the gallery's current exhibit. Other stops include visits with Elizabeth Leach at the Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Jane Beebe at PDX Contemporary Art, Gavin Shettler at Portland Art Center, the Butters Gallery and a final stop at the Oregon Jewish Museum for a chat with executive director Judith Margles.

The Art Walk will meet Wenesday, February 6 at 5:30 PM at the Gerding Theatre at The Armory (128 NW 11th Ave.). The walk is free. RSVP to: (503) 228-7231 or kim@pdxcityclub.org

Art Basel Miami Beach: Portland Art meets Miami Vice You may as well call Miami "Portland South" this week, as dozens upon dozens of Stumptown artists, gallery owners, curators, collectors, and other sundry denizens have descended on South Beach for the annual Art Basel Miami Beach art fair. The event kicked off on Wednesday night (Dec. 5) with a preview of the mega-fair, followed by a blowout performance by Iggy Pop on the beach and after-party behind the Raleigh Hotel. Hosted by New York City gallerist Jeffrey Deitch, the shindig on the sand was the place to be on trendy Collins Avenue. Justin Oswald (p:ear supporter and former Gallery 500 director) and curator Marjorie Myers, along with painters Eugenia Pardue and Vanessa Calvert [see photo of Oswald, Pardue, and Calvert], cavorted with the nearly nude and blue-painted members of The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black [see photo of Oswald with blue woman]. Lead singer Kembra Pfaler rocked the house on a stage appointed with 5-foot-wide candy-colored volcanos spewing a fog of dry ice. Next morning (Thursday, Dec. 6), Art Basel officially kicked off for the hoi polloi. As always, the fair was an embarassment of aesthetic riches. Highlights included a take-no-prisoners 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat at New York City's Acquavella Gallery; an exuberant Sam Francis at Paris' Galerie Hopkins-Custot; and a ginormous Helen Frankenthaler for a cool $1.5 million at Knoedler (NYC), along with an uncharacteristically minimalist Hans Hofmann for a mere $300,000. A yellow, red, and black ...

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