Portland Art Museum
Major exhibitions complement the museum’s strong Native American and Northwest collections.
Know Before You Go
The museum is closed on Mondays. Children 17 and under are always free. Admission is free on the first Thursday of every month from 5-8 p.m., and free admission and special family programming is offered several times a year (check calendar).
The Portland Art Museum is the largest art museum in Oregon and one of the oldest in the country. Located in two historic buildings on Portland’s South Park Blocks, the museum is central to the city’s cultural district and houses a large and wide-ranging collection of art.
Campus and History
First organized in 1892, the museums’ first exhibition was a set of magnificent plaster casts of Greek and Roman sculpture, now displayed in the upper hall of the city’s library. In 1932, the museum moved into the primary building, designed by Pietro Belluschi: a gracious contemporary update of the Georgian style, sleek-lined and advanced in its ideas. The museum’s renovation of the Masonic temple to its immediate north added more exhibition and office space to the campus in 2005.
Belluschi’s original design was ahead of its time. It was airy and admitted natural light into the museum’s galleries, especially the court beyond the entryway, and the visitor today experiences that grand space as a sort of surprise, given the museum’s relative scale. More wings were added, first to house the Pacific Northwest College of Art (then known as the Museum Art School and ultimately separated into its own institution) and then a warren of smaller galleries. The old Masonic temple has become the Jubitz Center of Modern and Contemporary Art, though its old, ornate meeting rooms have been retained.
Northwest art is a primary attraction, tracking the development of art in Oregon and Washington since the 19th century.
Portland Art Museum Collections
The museum has strong collections of prints and drawings, photography, Asian art, Native American (especially Pacific Coast) art, and Northwest art, and its European and American collections contain some extraordinary individual pieces, especially from the 19th and 20th centuries. The huge prints and drawings collection was built largely by the late Gordon Gilkey and includes Old Masters printmakers (Dürer, Rembrandt) and the most recent examples of the art forms. And under chief curator Bruce Guenther, the museum’s modern art holdings have increased dramatically, in part because of the addition of the collection of the great modernist critic Clement Greenberg, which gives the museum a unique window into the development of advanced art in the mid-20th century.
Native American Art
The Native American collection was built from two primary sources: the Rasmussen Collection of Northwest Coast art, with its fabulous masks and whaling canoes, and the encyclopedic collection of Elizabeth Cole, which brings the exquisite work of Southwest, Plains, Plateau and Woodlands tribes into focus.
Northwest Art
Northwest art is a primary attraction, tracking the development of art in Oregon and Washington since the 19th century. The museum’s curators have wisely spread this work throughout the galleries, placing the best work of Northwest abstractionists alongside their more celebrated New York peers, for example, but a gallery specifically dedicated to Northwest art supplies a good introduction to the fine artists who have worked here (C.S. Price, Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Hilda and Carl Morris, Sally Haley and Michele Russo).
Museums & galleries
Disjecta Contemporary Art Center
The North Portland art center's offerings range from visual art installations to collaborations with bands like the Shins.
Center for Contemporary Native Art
The Portland Art Museum's Center for Contemporary Native Art showcases the work of modern-day Native American artists.
Portland Open Studios
For two weekends every October, Portland Open Studios invites visitors to explore the houses and offices of artists across the city.
Visual art events
Day of the Dead group show
“Guardino Gallery has been hosting its annual Day of the Dead group show for thirteen years, and the list of participating artists keeps growing — last year 59 artists contributed work. The show’s theme invites artists to put their own spin on this Mexican holiday that honors our dearly departed, and the gallery’s focus on…
Eiko Otake: A Body in Places
A Body in Places is the omnibus title of Eiko’s first solo project, which started with her revisiting post-nuclear disaster Fukushima and her twelve hour performance at Philadelphia Station in 2014. Its scale and modes of presentation vary radically and incorporate both performative and non-performative elements. The exhibition also features a screening of A Body…
Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal
Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal … is the first major survey of the work of one of America’s most important conceptual artists. Throughout his career, Hank Willis Thomas (American, born 1976) has fearlessly addressed racism, inequality and bias in bold, skillfully crafted works. Through photographs, sculpture, video, audience-activated digital animation and collaborative public…
Many Shades of Being Darcelle: 52 Years of Fashion, 1967-2019
Portland’s own Darcelle XV (the stage name of Walter Cole) has been headlining the Darcelle XV Showplace cabaret club since 1973. In a career spanning over 50 years, Darcelle has worn a vast array of extravagant costumes, often designed and constructed by Walter himself. Walter, performing as Darcelle, now holds the Guinness World Record for…
Patricia Vazquez: BorderXer
“Paragon Gallery continues its track record of showing exciting new work by emerging Portland artists. Vazquez is a graduate of Portland State University’s prolific Social Practice MFA program, and her work takes unusual forms in order to address serious issues like gentrification and labor practices. “BorderXer” centers her community-focused practice on the experiences of both…
René Rickabaugh
“Portland artist René Rickabaugh is back at Russo Lee in a solo show of his exquisitely detailed watercolor and gouache paintings. Rickabaugh has been showing his work since the 1970s, and has gained a following for intricately patterned, jewel-toned depictions of fruits and flowers that evoke both scientific illustrations and folk art traditions, topped off…
The Allegories by Jen Brown
Wolff Gallery is pleased to present The Allegories, a solo exhibition by narrative painter Jen Brown. In her dramatic yet detailed oil paintings, the artist confronts issues facing our society, including climate change, political divisions and the role of the artist. Her combination of contemporary themes with a Baroque-inspired aesthetic invites discussion while highlighting Brown’s…
Noritaka Tatehana: Refashioning Beauty
Portland Japanese Garden presents the art of Noritaka Tatehana in his first-ever North American solo exhibition. Installed in the Pavilion and Tanabe Galleries located within the manicured grounds of the renowned Gardens, Tatehana enchants through his use of traditional symbols of sophistication and beauty with the inclusion of new, never-before-seen artworks created especially for this…