Five of Portland’s Best Visual Arts Shows to See This Spring

Spaceness
It's hard to think of a campground more idiosyncratic than Sou'wester Lodge. Tucked into a forest near Seaview, Wash., the retreat triples as a living museum of vintage travel trailers, a 1950s lodge and the site of genuinely bizarre art events. This March, the Sou'wester hosts Spaceness, a three-day art festival dedicated to existential musings on space and time in the form of performance art and installations. Surrounded by forest and just off the coast, the campground is an ideal, Lynchian setting for tripping out about metaphysics. Sou'wester Lodge, 3728 J Place, Seaview, Wash., spaceness.com, March 1-3, Free

Festive Selfness
Last year, filmmaker Evan James Atwood and voguer Bouton Volonté collaborated on "Denim Quartz," a dreamy, gorgeous video that features Volonté dancing in a lush field and a gray apartment while, of course, wearing denim. Now, Atwood and Volonté are teaming up for another denim-centric work. The duo's next video will premiere at the opening reception for Volonté's exhibit, Festive Selfness, which she describes as a "denim wonderland." What exactly that will look like remains to be seen, but it will undoubtedly be playful, joyous and, since Volonté will perform at the opening, worth your time. The show's opening will also be a birthday celebration for Volonté and a fundraiser to replace recently stolen camera equipment. Ori Gallery, 4038 N Mississippi Ave., oriartgallery.com, Opening performance and screening 6 pm Saturday, March 2; exhibit through April 14, $5-$15 suggested donation

100 Year Plan
Emotional Store is the collaborative project of Arizona artists Bailey Hikawa and Scotty Wagner. Their videos, installations and performance art are a little like a postmodern, psychedelic Tim and Eric skit, or like a ClickHole article about internet-age consumerism come to life. Often, the duo's characters are peppy, high-strung scions of the digital age. Emotional Store's new touring show, 100 Year Plan, addresses the pressure on artists to cultivate a social media brand, and the changing definition of labor in the age of technology. In the performance piece and installation, Emotional Store performs a live webcast in the most oddball, dissociative way possible—the duo talk up their merch, offer tutorials on "screenercise" and open packages while wearing boxing gloves, all while talking into computers and cameras in front of a live audience. Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, 8371 N Interstate Ave., disjecta.org, 8 pm Friday, March 15, $15

Una Vida Mejor
At the end of 2017, We the Dreamers (now Power to the Dreamers) held its first art show and silent auction. Since then, the undocumented immigrant-led organization has released a zine, held educational panels, offered free self-care meetups for undocumented Portlanders and raised thousands of dollars in support of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Their past art shows have focused on the stories of Dream Act recipients through portraits by and of undocumented artists, but Power to the Dreamers' next show will pay homage to Dreamers' parents. Redd on Salmon Street, 831 SE Salmon St., facebook.com/powertothedreamers.pdx 6 pm Saturday, March 23, See Facebook for tickets

Diana Palermo
Last year, Killjoy Collective quietly ceased operations after two years of bold, intriguing programming. Thankfully, two of the collective's founders, EM Fuller and BriAnna Rosen, are already back with a new gallery. So far, Fuller Rosen Gallery's programming has comprised solo exhibits from up-and-coming artists challenging the status quo of contemporary art. The gallery's next show will be a solo exhibit by East Coast artist Diana Palermo, whose kaleidoscopic photo collages are drenched in warm orange and red. Fuller Rosen Gallery, 2505 SE 11th Ave., Suite 106 fullersrosen.com, 10 am-5 pm Thursday-Sunday, March 30-May 17