Jennifer Rabin

Portland Art Museum's "Constructing Identity" Asks Something Important Of Viewers

It’s not enough to show work by underrepresented artists. We have to learn how to see it.

The Top 5 Art Shows We’re Most Excited to See This Month

The Trump administration has announced it is moving forward with its plan to defund the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities (which will save a whopping 0.0625 percent of the budget!). Resist.

Introducing Art Passport PDX, an Excuse to Go Gallery-Hopping with a Chance to Win a $1,600 Credit to Buy Art

The lack of engagement in Portland’s art institutions, combined with impossibly high rents and massive gentrification, means that the creative class is being driven out.

The Five Art Shows We’re Most Excited To See This Month

This means that Trump’s war now threatens museums, libraries, archives, arts education and radio, not to mention the creation of new works of dance, literature, music, theater and visual arts.

In the Months Since the Election, There's Been A Rise in Galleries Fundraising for Social Justice Causes

In the months since, it seems that artists, gallery owners and exhibition managers have come to the conclusion they don’t have to make radical changes in their lives to make a difference, that they can devote themselves to activism within the world they already inhabit. Looking at the calendar of openings, it’s pretty remarkable how the Portland visual arts scene has rallied.

"East Meets West" Gives Many of Us Our First Look At Myanmar, A Place of Transition

In one of Eric West’s large-scale color photographs documenting the Burmese urban landscape, a barefoot monk crosses a dusty, potholed street, his burgundy robe billowing around him. Ahead of him, a humble, three-story building stands on the corner, its façade plastered with advertisements for cellphones.

The Five Portland Art Gallery Shows We’re Most Excited To See in January 2017

I expect these five shows to help steel us for the upcoming inauguration. Some will do so by reminding us of the beauty that is everywhere for the taking, while others will reassure us that in the face of so much violence, jingoism and hate, we all care about the uncertain future of our humanity.

The Eight Portland Art Shows I’m Most Glad I Saw in 2016

This isn’t the list of the “best” art shows of the year. Art is nothing if not personal and subjective, so the trick to reading this list is not to take it as an objective truth, but simply to understand what causes certain pieces of art to find a home in one person’s heart and mind.

Arvie Smith’s Show at The Portland Art Museum Is a Raw Look at the Atrocities and Oppression of the Black Experience in America

The first painting you see when you enter Arvie Smith’s exhibition at the Portland Art Museum features a black man, stripped of his clothes, being lynched by hooded Klan members, with someone in the corner of the frame waving the American flag.

The Largest Andy Warhol Show Ever Is at the Portland Art Museum Right Now—But Is It Any Good?

When an artist reaches the level Andy Warhol has, when his work has become cemented in the annals of culture and history, something interesting happens: People stop asking if it’s any good.

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