Shannon Gormley

Vessel

Vessel lets its flower speak for itself.

Yale Union is Hosting One of the Last Exhibits By an Influential Belgian Artist

When Yale Union was preparing its Jef Geys exhibit, getting the artist’s work through TSA was a nerve-wracking ordeal. The late conceptual artist has a series of works called “bubble paintings”—paintings encased in bubble wrap. When two bubble paintings were flown from Geys’ native Belgium to YU’s Buckman neighborhood building, the organization worried the packaging would be removed in an overzealous security search by a TSA agent who didn’t realize the bubble wrap was actually a famed piece of art.

“Man/Woman” Attempts to Address Gender Roles in Ballet

There’s an interlude in the ballet Fluidity of Steel that looks like the aftermath of a football game. The 12 male dancers wear tight, muscle-sleeve shirts and white leggings, at one point running around the stage chest-bumping and yelling a call-and-response of “woo” and “yeah” like their team just won a game. The hyper-masculine chaos resolves when the dancers form a line across the stage, strike muscle poses and stare at the audience with expressions that are somewhat aggressive, somewhat dead in the eyes.

Five Portland Cyclists Share Their Favorite Secret Rides

One of the best things about cycling in Portland is how quickly you can leave the city for an epic, scenic bike ride. But with only a map, it can be hard to tell which unfamiliar roads are bike-friendly.

Five Groups and Organizations Working to Diversify Portland Cycling

Founded last year by Seoul-born, Maryland-raised cyclist Molly Sugar, Friends on Bikes aims to encourage diversity in Portland’s cycling scene by supporting women and trans and non-binary people of color.

Keyonda McQuarters Didn’t Feel Welcome in Portland’s Bike Community. She’s Working to Change That.

When cyclist Keyonda McQuarters moved to Portland, she thought public group rides would help her break into the city’s bike scene. She was wrong.

Laurelhurst Theater Will No Longer Screen Second-Run Movies

“It’s just the writing on the wall,” says Prescott Allen, who bought the 94-year-old theater in 1999 with co-owner Woody Wheeler. “All the movies that we want to show right now are on Bluray and Video on Demand before we can even get them.”

Art Gym’s New Director Wants to Create a Platform for Emerging Pacific Northwest Artists

In 2012, artist Manuel Arturo Abreu was evicted from Reed College housing after a campus drug raid. After struggling to find a new place to live, Abreu moved into the garage of a punk house in Southeast Portland. A few years later, Abreu wrote a blog for San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art about the experience. Titled Notes on the Garage Residency, the essay stuck with curator Ashley Stull Meyers ever since she read it. So when she decided to work with Abreu for Place Names, the first exhibit she curated as the director of Art Gym, she knew the garage had to be in the exhibit.

New Play “The Mermaid Hour” Is Less About its Transgender Protagonist Than Her Parents

A few scenes into The Mermaid Hour, transgender preteen Vi (Jaryn Lasentia) watches an inspirational YouTube channel helmed by Crux, a genderqueer social worker. Dressed as a mermaid and wearing massive, blue-glitter stilettos, Crux (Michael Cavazos) emerges into a spotlight on Milagro’s dark stage. “I am not of land or of sea, I am of heavens,” Crux tells the audience, while Vi sits at the foot of her bed at the far side of the set, silently beaming in the glow of her iPad. “The secret of our kind is that we’re not in between, we’re above.” It’s a brief, touching moment of contentment—in the previous scene, Vi’s parents argue in the kitchen about their daughter’s future.

Willamette Week