An Artist From Philadelphia Created Miniature Sculptures of Classic Portland Dive Bars He’s Never Visited

Early this year, close observers of the Portland gallery scene noticed something unusual: the construction of two new Portland dive bars.

To be fair, the watering holes were cramped. Philadelphia artist Drew Leshko had sculpted Billy Ray’s Neighborhood Dive on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and the Penguin Pub, formerly of Sellwood, at one-twelfth scale. That meant the miniatures, on display at the Talon Gallery (2724 NE Alberta St., talongallery.com), stood 1 inch tall for every foot of their real-life height.

Leshko had never set foot inside Billy Ray’s or the Penguin. He’d never been to Portland, for that matter. He built the two sculptures in Philly from photographs. (That was doubly necessary for the Penguin, which closed in 2018, when its building sold.) The buildings are the two newest editions in a collection of nearly 50 storefronts Leshko has reconstructed, like the setting for a model railroad that traverses America’s no-tell motels, nudie bars and pawn shops.

In a city that mourns each shuttered shithole like an alcoholic cousin, Leshko’s project provides a fitting memorial. “The question is what’s worth keeping,” he says. “Don’t discount a little dive bar. It’s important.” And, in the case of the Penguin Pub, it can be yours, at one-twelfth size, for $3,200.