Tonight's the First Thursday artwalk over on the west side, and rather than bog you down with a mega-list of openings (if you're looking for that, see our visual arts listings, or PDX Pipeline's monthly First Thursday post), I've chosen three shows that aren't to be missed: Zachary Davis and Maggie Casey's Blast Box Goody Bag at Tractor, Travis Townsend's New Things + Drawings at Doppler, and Kevin Bouton-Scott's No Way? Me Too at Breeze Block (debuting the gallery's new home in Everett Station Lofts!).

Read on for details.

If past work is an indicator, Zachary Davis and Maggie Casey's Blast Box Goody Bag at Tractor should be a solid show. The two artists make up one half of the Appendix Space collective, and their installation work always proves to be engaging, if not a little enigmatic (in the best sort of way). Press release, go!

Within this collaborative installation, Maggie Casey and Zachary Davis combine fireworks, pigment, plaster and other materials in interactions that are arranged but not guided, revealing a dense interplay between the container and the reaction it facilitates. The results are sweet spots in a field of possibility, playful discoveries that, rather than bearing rhetorical freight, give voice to material properties and guide the makers into new territory.

Tractor is located at 328 NW Broadway, and Blast Box Goody Bag is open tonight from 6-10 pm.

Over at Doppler, Kentucky-based artist Travis Townsend is showing a new sculptural piece created during a two-week residency at the Oregon College of Art and Craft. In past months, Doppler has had some super strong shows, and by the looks of it, Townsend's solo will fall in line nicely. From the press release:

NEW THINGS + DRAWINGS are works created with using a mixture of plywood, reclaimed building materials, art student wood scraps, and other hardware store materials. Townsend’s works are idiosyncratic sculptures that play off the forms and function of tools, toys, and military equipment and include Townsend’s usual cast of characters (tanks, dead birds, flower bombs, and targets). While Townsend built, altered, and adapted his pieces, he also embraced the unplanned and oddly familiar into nearly useful-looking sculptures that are imbued with human characteristics and gestures.

Doppler is located at 625 NW Everett Street #109, and New Things + Drawings is open tonight from 5:30-9 pm.

The recently-homeless Breeze Block has a new location in Everett Station Lofts, and tonight marks the grand opening with Kevin Bouton-Scott's solo show, No Way? Me Too. Breeze Block curator Paige Prendergast told me that this show includes paintings created by the artist over the last twenty-plus years. The graffiti-inspired works have never been shown publicly, and the samples I've seen have an insular emotional quality— abstract, full of movement and color, and appearing to be made for the purgation of making. From the press release:

Breeze Block presents a grand solo show by Kevin Bouton-Scott featuring a massive collection of new works relating back to long histories in Kevin’s crazy life — from age 6 — it will be quite the spectacle.

The new Breeze Block is located at 323 NW 6th Ave, and Bouton-Scott's show is open tonight from 6-10 pm.