See in the windows? The bright colors and shapes? Thats Laura Hughes installation.
  • Laura Hughes
  • See in the windows? The bright colors and shapes? That's Laura Hughes' installation.

Tomorrow night from 6-10 pm, Pioneer Place Mall's four-gallery sprawl, the Settlement (700 SW 5th Ave, in the Atrium Building on the third floor), will host receptions for a few new exhibitions— as well as debut the newly expanded Vehicle gallery, which now includes "the 3rd story windows facing the bus mall on 5th Ave."

For the first exhibit in the block-long window display, Vehicle brought in local light artist Laura Hughes for a site-specific installation titled "Across the Way." According to the press release, the installation "will develop over a period of time [(through July 15)], growing with and reacting to the environmental reflections of light created by the surrounding architecture" through the use of "colored translucent paints and films, light, and reflective surfaces." For the opening, Hughes will be around to give tours of her installation. Not only will it be a good opportunity to talk with one of Portland's most promising up-and-coming artists, but a chance to hang out in one of big-box retail's least-visited spaces (if you've never been in one of these window displays, it's unexpectedly fun).

And there's a lot more going on over at Settlement. Click on through the jump for info about openings at Place, Store, and Peoples, featuring installation, performance, film, comics, and more.

Place gallery will host Four, its fourth exhibit in the space. The PR ninjas over at the gallery tell me that Four "hosts process-based installations by six artists: Zoe Clark, Sara Goodchild Robb, Katherine Groesbeck, Elizabeth Jaeger, Kathryn Knowlton, and Taryn Tomasello." Sharing the exhibition space is the final installment of Recess Gallery's Synthesis Series (for more details, read my article about the project). Additionally, Place brought in Wynde Dyer of Golden Rule to perform an "audience interactive sand-painting" (7-9 pm), as well as Grand Detour, with a screening of Nancy Jean Tucker's A Program of Experimental Animation (8-10 pm).

A door down, Store gallery is hosting VERSES: waste/arrive, home/abroad, in which "the Intermedia Club at Pacific Northwest College of Art will explore the idea of time in contemporary art, using the lectures and writings of Boris Groys as a starting point."

Down a door one more time, and we have Peoples, which is putting on The Comic Show— just in time for the 8th Annual Stumptown Comics Fest. The show features "a giant handful of industry artists involved with the festival, exhibiting original comic works, rare original paintings, illustrations, books, prints and merchandise." For a complete list of participating artists, click here. (Sidenote: Peoples is also hosing an opening tonight from 5-10 pm, boasting a superhero costume contest and $100 grand prize for best duds.)