Every September, the Time Based Art Festival (TBA) kicks off what I think of as “art season” in Portland. The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) brings artists from around the world (and local favorites, too) to their headquarters and various other locations around town to present work that is often beautiful, sometimes challenging, and every once in a while completely mind-blowing. One year, a gentle-sounding film ostensibly about stars left many attendees practically speechless,.
San Cha has done it again. For many Portland art fans, her name is synonymous with longing—as her 2019 performance memorably packed Pearl District gallery, the lumber room, to capacity—creating a line of would-be audience members that snaked around the block. Even at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA)’s larger, warehouse-like headquarters, the show sold out. Is it only a matter of time before San Cha is playing to massive arena crowds? I have.