Art Attack

It's not First Thursday. That means you should go enjoy these galleries, without the crowds.

Tips for Artists who Don't Want to Sell at Augen Gallery

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Hanging just above a giant resin lollipop in the shape of Kim Jong-un, Jim Riswold's Tips for Artists who Don't Want to Sell includes pearls of wisdom like, "art with Hitler sells less quickly than art without Hitler." Riswold, who was an ad man before being diagnosed with leukemia and becoming an artist, built his career on the notion of anti-advertising. He believes shining a light on bad guys is the best way to negate their power. His favorite subjects (read: targets) include Adolph Hitler and his henchmen Goebbels and Himmler, Benito Mussolini, Vladimir Putin and Mao Zedong. Among the works on display at Augen are the absurdly hilarious "Beer Hall Putsch Hitler," a large-scale framed print that depicts the German dictator as a fashion doll, sporting a colorful frock over his Nazi uniform. In "Goering's Lollipop," a plastic Goering figurine raises a lollipop to his mouth. The Kim Jong–un series is ten colored prints of suckers molded into the likeness of the North Korean leader, captioned "Kim Jong-Un is a big fat sucker!" Funny and irreverent, this collection is just a sample from Riswold, who laughs down life's bullies (like cancer and Hitler) by refusing them the dignity of being taken seriously. HILARY TSAI. Augen Gallery, 716 NW Davis St., 546-5056. Through Oct. 31.

Pythagorean Eyes: On Integrating Polar Curves at Froelick

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Michael Schultheis' massive canvases depict mathematical scribbles and diagrams in rich autumn colors that look like they've imploded, or exploded, or have been growing in a petri dish for a decade. The circles and scrawls in his acrylic paintings look like Albert Einstein's interpretation of the monarch butterfly migration: burnt orange geometric shapes swarm together on deep blue backgrounds that are printed with thin white equations in swirly handwriting. Schultheis combines traditional colors and media with the wild shapes of abstract art and comes up with something completely new and refreshing. Through Oct. 30. Froelick Gallery, 714 NW Davis St., 222-1142.

40/40 at Blue Sky Gallery

IMG_4228To honor its 40 years in Portland, Blue Sky is displaying over 300 prints from its lengthy roster of past artists. Like a real life Pinterest, the prints line every wall almost all the way from floor to ceiling. The images— things like an African camel kneeling, a rusty car covered in Ivy, or a woman laying on a bed stark naked with smoke rising from her groin—pop out at you, each one completely different from the next. From tulips growing out of sprockets to the dog a on pile of wonder bread (number 135), every subject imaginable gets wall space. In the center of the room, the curators built a model of the original Blue Sky space—it was tiny. ANDREA TOMOE. Through Oct 31. Blue Sky Gallery, 122 NW 8th Ave., 225-0210.

Class Aves at Blackfish Gallery

IMG_4238For the past 15 years, Christopher Shotola-Hardt has been painting birds on canvas—a heron under the St. Johns Bridge on a tall and think panel, tiny oil paintings of finches, a wide swath of blue canvas covered in ravens. But Class Aves goes beyond flat surfaces, including things like a Plexiglas bird feeder filled with beads and nailed to the wall, an antique wooden birdhouse on a pedestal in the center of the room and a scroll of poetry that trails from the wall across the floor and ends in a pile of rocks. In response to the paintings, Merridawn Duckler wrote six poems inspired by Shotola-Hardt's avian works, which are printed on paper with burnt edges and hung in between the canvases that inspired them. ENID SPITZ. Blackfish Gallery, 420 NW 9th Ave., 224-2634. Through Oct. 31.

Grand Opening with Dane Eisenbart @ Lloydean Presents

"Dreaming in Color," at Lloydean Presents “Dreaming in Color,” at Lloydean Presents

The newest, and one of the only, art galleries on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Lloydean Presents is debuting with the oil on canvas works of Portland native Dane Eisenbart, who's known for his anthropomorphic depictions of nature, paintings that seem to capture motion and high-contrast works that pit light against dark. Focused on nature and mythology, his new Simply Exquisite show includes the large "Dreaming in Color" canvas—a white and green oil painting depicting a saintly figure curled up in the woods with lambs and a mythic stag creature. Opening reception 6 pm Oct. 2. ENID SPITZ. Lloydean Presents, 2728 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 951-8234. Through mid-Nov.

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