* Chuck Close
Hey everybody, a big name famous artist is having a solo gallery show in Portland! So what if he's old enough to qualify for the AARP--Chuck Close can paint the pants off 99% of the people out there, and I know for a fact that his prints look way better in person than they do in print, which is saying a lot. Augen Gallery, 817 SW 2nd Ave, 224-8182, Through June 28

Histrionic
I'm not much for labels, but I can't resist anything by an "accordionatrix cum photo surrealist." Alicia J. Rose (aka Miss Murgatroid) is just such a person, and Histrionic marks her debut show at Genuine Imitation. Rose's photographs are deeply saturated and theatrical, and look far more accomplished than any debuts in recent memory. Genuine Imitation Gallery, 328 NW Broadway #116, 234-3760, Through June 27

* This Would Suck a Lot Less
Chandra Bocci's hulking cardboard and plastic soldier diorama is a wonderfully complex planar structure where green shrubs and bristly pine trees made from thinly sliced Sprite boxes litter the landscape. Atop this cardboard mountain, swarms and swarms of green army men are engaged in Spielbergian theatrics of pillow warfare. Orlo Exhibition Space, 2516 NW 29th, Bldg 9, 242-1047, Through June 21

* Milton Wilson
On the event of Wilson's 80th birthday, Pulliam Deffenbaugh is mounting a mini-retrospective of the artist's abstract canvases. Mostly from the 1970's, Wilson's abstractions erradicate the idea that contemporary painter Richmond Burton is up to anything original whatsoever. Pulliam Deffenbaugh, 522 NW 12th Ave, 228-6665, Through June 28

PICA's 8th Birthday Party
Go shorty, it's your birthday. What can you say? It's a big birthday party, with BBQ, black turtlenecks, artsy decorations, and a raffle for tickets to see Beck. Wieden + Kennedy Building, 224 NW 13th Ave, 242-1419, June 13, 6-midnight, $10 for members, $45 for entry and membership