Art Swatch

40th Anniversary Exhibition

To 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.

Anish Kapoor

This vibrant collection of colorful etchings testifies to Anish Kapoor's roots as a sculptor. The ten prints on display from his Shadow IV series show how 3-D movement can be shown on a 2-D canvas. Viewers get the impression they are being sucked into a tunnel by gradations of color that become less concentrated as they move towards the white focal point. One feels everything from nauseatingly anxious to blissfully serene in turn, depending on what the color inspires. Bookending the prints, several of Kapoor's aquatint works show how he explores the sculptural potential of a flat surface. Untitled features dark, vein-like strokes leading into a deep red gash that looks almost like a rupture in the material itself. Soulful and mesmerizing, these works absorb viewers and challenge them to see more than what is on the surface. HILARY TSAI. Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Ave., 226-2811. Through Oct. 25.

The Book of Scores

For The Book of Scores, five national and international artists and composers, invited by Disjecta's curator-in-residence, Chiara Giovando, create directions for musical and performative interpretation. Drawing from histories, including Fluxus scores—the Latin etymon fluere, indicating the action of flowing—and graphical notations, the artists build sculptures and coded languages to engage visitors in scheduled performances. Two scores invite visitors to perform themselves: T.R. Kirstein's A User's Manual and Ellen Lesperance's Solo for Congratulations and Celebrations. Investigating what can be communicated over time, or, inevitably lost, this exhibition of sculpture, music, performance and video is clean, sharp and gestural. As utterances, these works transport the artists' intentions; and when interpreted the scores adopt real time or the immediate body and become both an archived and living statement. For example, Alison O'Daniel presents three mobiles and a large-scale floor piece, all to be interpreted simultaneously by musicians and a skateboarder during a performance Oct. 24. HILARY TSAI. Through Nov. 1. Disjecta, 8371 N Interstate Ave., 286-9449.

Fay Ray & Robert Yoder

The pieces from Fay Ray and Robert Yoder's serial collections that are on display at Carl & Sloan are having a conversation with one another. Ray's small framed collages look digital even though they're purely analog, with chains and sparkles that are layered to create depth. Painting on raw canvas, Yoder also makes his materials look like something they're not—vinyl or leather, in highly saturated colors. Though they may look stark in this minimalist pocket of a gallery inside Disjecta, Ray and Yoder's point is clear: the artistry is in the intention and process. ANDRE FILIPEK. Through Oct. 25. Carl & Sloan Contemporary, 8371 N Interstate Ave., No. 1, 360-608-9746.

In a Rhythmic Fashion

In collaboration with Worksound International, Hap Gallery exhibits two Antwerp, Belgium-based artists: Carla Arocha and Stéphane Schraenen. Exquisite curtains of dozens of rectangular double-sided mirror frames are suspended in the center of the gallery by three horizontal rods attached to the ceiling. Five, stark, monochromatic, rectangular paintings, which are reflected in the hanging mirrors, are randomly placed on the gallery walls. This work, without a doubt, distorts and abstracts the space, and leaves the viewer unaware of which paintings are reflections, and which are merely seen through the extracted centers of the mirrors. It isn't everyday you get to see sculptural op-art; so be sure you see this—and bring a friend, it is best seen with multiple people in the gallery. KAYLA FOSTER. Through Nov. 14. Hap Gallery, 916 NW Flanders St., 444-7101.

Jason Hirata

Passing through the meat-locker-style plastic curtain that is Muscle Beach's front door, you find a white box garage decorated with handwritten paper signs. They say things like "Hummus" and "BP-100" and continue on in a long list of foods and food additives. Grouped together mysteriously, the signs make you feel like they're some sort of puzzle to be decoded. Just as indecipherable, a solitary figurine from The Big Bang Theory is plopped in the middle of the "gallery." Departing from the multi-channel video work that he exhibited last year, artist Jason Hirata's newest Portland show is more down-to-Earth—it feels like a Lower East Side gift shop/deli hybrid. ANDRE FILIPEK. Through Nov. 2. Muscle Beach, 31 SE 51st Ave., musclebeachusa.com.

Jim Riswold: Tips for Artists Who Don't Want to Sell

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. Through Oct. 31. Augen Gallery, 716 NW Davis St., 546-5056.

Lloydean Grand Opening, Featuring Dane Eisenbart

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. Through mid-November. Lloydean Presents, 2728 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 951-8234.

Simplexity

The name Simplexity is all too fitting for a show aiming for depth without leaving much of an impact. Ryan Bubnis is trying to show his creativity by making the complicated simple, but his works come across as a lackluster collection of emojis. If you want to see art you could make yourself after an hour and an illustrator tutorial, Simplexity is right up your alley. ANDREA TOMOE. Through Oct. 31. One Grand Gallery, 1000 E Burnside St., 212-365-4945.

Urban Expressions

At age 20, Mark Bailey sold out his first show in Portland. Twelve years later, he's still nailing impressionism in this city. His gritty paintings are a slice of everyday life—the diners, walkways and bars that occupy his canvases give the observer a unique look at urban reality. Although his skill is most definitely on point, his work could use a little shot of Portland "weird." ANDREA TOMOE. Through Oct. 31. Gallery 903, 903 NW Davis St., 248-0903.

Willamette Week