Visual Arts in Portland

“Portland has gotten a lot of attention in recent years for its thriving arts scene, but few people know about the organization that originally put the city on the art-world map: Portland Center for the Visual Arts (PCVA). PCVA was an artist-run contemporary art organization that brought innovative artists and performers from around the country…

Retiring Curator of Asian Art Maribeth Graybill presents her personal favorites from among more than 600 Japanese prints acquired during her tenure at the Museum. The exhibition includes works by leading masters of the 18th and 19th centuries, chosen for their exceptional condition; warrior prints, a genre previously neglected in the collection; and prints by…

“Flax was once touted as a cash crop in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, but for various reasons the plant never lived up to its potential. It wasn’t for lack of trying though — in the 1930s, Portland Public Schools produced a series of hand-tinted glass lantern slides depicting scenes from the flax industry, from planting to…

“Portland Art Museum honors a local legend with its presentation of Isaka Shamsud-Din’s vivid narrative paintings, including the recent acquisition that gives this exhibit its title. Shamsud-Din uses his painterly brushstrokes and glowing colors to depict his own personal experiences and scenes of local culture and history, and his murals (also featured in the show)…

In the rich tradition of portraiture reflected in Northwest art, there is an exemplary range of individuals and styles of depiction. For this exhibition, the artist Storm Tharp was invited to help select works from the collection through his keen eyes as a fellow portraitist. As he combed through the collection, some themes in portraiture…

“Reading may be falling out of fashion in these times of increasingly short attention spans, but books were once a big business, and publishers employed gifted artists to promote their newest titles. The Art of Reading presents gems from the golden age of poster advertising, with color lithographs from some of the most famous names…

During the early 20th century, Pictorialist photographer Anne Brigman regularly hiked and camped in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range, photographing the rugged landscape with her 4×5-inch view camera. She later recalled, “I slowly found my power with the camera among the junipers and tamarack pines of the high, storm-swept altitudes.” Toughened to Wind and Sun…

Marking the 40th anniversary of the eruption of Mount Saint Helens, this exhibition explores the overwhelming power of nature and the epic cycles of volcanic destruction and regeneration with stunning photographs, paintings and drawings of the mountain from 1845 to the present day. Curated by Dawson Carr, Ph.D., The Janet and Richard Geary Curator of…

The exhibition will include a selection of the internationally acclaimed photographer’s monumental ひろしま / Hiroshima series, documenting cherished items and clothing left behind by victims of the atomic bomb detonated in Hiroshima at the close of World War II that are now housed at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The subjects are captured in her…

“New York-based photographer Natan Dvir brings a bit of the big city to Portland’s Blue Sky Gallery with his series of subway portraits, “Platforms.” The pictures capture New Yorkers in between places, waiting for the next train to arrive and whisk them to their destination. Some read books, some scroll through social media, some engage…

In theory, Japan was a “closed” country to foreign contact from the 1630s until the 1850s, by shogunal edict. In reality, trade prospered through authorized channels. As commerce flourished, so too did cultural exchanges with not only East and Southeast Asia, but also the West. Motivated by the demands of patrons, the availability of new…

Bury the Hatchet is artist John Hitchcock’s mixed-media, cross-disciplinary, multisensory installation. Hitchcock combines his interests in printmaking, rock ’n’ roll, and Kiowa and Comanche history into one visual expression that offers a retelling of the narrative of the American frontier. Bury the Hatchet explores issues of assimilation, acculturation, and indoctrination through oral history and music….

In 1942, Portland-born photographer Victor Jorgensen enlisted in the Navy. Edward Steichen, the renowned modernist photographer and lieutenant commander who oversaw Naval photography during World War II, selected Jorgensen—a Reed College attendee and editor at The Oregonian newspaper—to serve with his elite Naval Aviation Photographic Unit. Between 1943 and 1945, Jorgensen photographed on board the…