Virtua x B.U.G. full venue activation Featuring Morgan Garrett

Morgan Garrett is one of the most fearless and fascinating artists in experimental music, and his new album Hick, which is seeing release on TAGABOW’s Philadelphia-based label Julia’s War, finds him charting new territory in a catalog that is full of surprises. With a team of contributors that include mastering engineer and frequent collaborator Alex Nagle, former Show Me the Body drummer Jackie McDermott (who now handles the sticks for Morgan’s own live sets), and YHWH Nailgun guitarist Saguiv Rosenstock, Morgan crafts an expert sense of tension across Hick’s 12 songs that’s equally reminiscent of grunge’s awesomely sludgy structures and the high-wire drama of The Glad Fact-era Dirty Projectors. The album further establishes Morgan as operating in a class all his own, with delightfully complex and unique music that stands out even amidst its creator’s increasingly singular oeuvre.

Hick follows Morgan’s considerable body of work across the 2020s, from his celebrated releases for venerable experimental label Orange Milk—2023’s Extreme Fantasy and the following year’s Purity—to tour support for like-minded forward-thinkers like Pissed Jeans, Water From Your Eyes, and YHWH Nailgun.

Morgan’s live shows draw on the energy and intensity of Japanese dance theatre Butoh. Strobing footlights highlight and obfuscate Morgan’s chaotic choreography and abstracted gestures. Morgan’s 2027 North American tour will see him touring with a full rock band arrangement. A truly one-of-a-kind artistry and performance that must be experienced to be understood.

The Beautiful Unity Gymnasium (B.U.G.) is a USPNW02.21.07 entity tasked with creative exercise and development. It operates as a repository for first-party maximalist artworks, a torquing apparatus for the DIY “show,” and an explorer of media distribution and communications tactics. As co-presenter of this show, B.U.G. will also perform Cold New Age, the recovered and restored OST and surviving imagery from the lost point-and-click computer game CENO-BITE.

Virtua is an art center and art retail space formerly located at Lloyd Center Shopping Mall in Portland, Oregon. We believe that putting thought-provoking, experiential, contemporary art in publicly accessible places brings about important conversations, while having a revitalizing impact on our community.