visual arts

Whenever Gum Ends Up on a Work at the Portland Art Museum the Museum, Samantha Springer Is the One to Very, Very Carefully Remove It

A Museum Backed By Jordan Schnitzer Has Opened on the Portland State University Campus

It was only a matter of time before a museum baring Jordan Schnizter’s name opened in Portland.

Hank Willis Thomas’ “All Things Being Equal…” Cuts Deep Into the Psyche of our Society

Hank Willis Thomas’ “All Things Being Equal…” will stick with you long after you leave the tranquil halls of the Portland Art Museum. The exhibit features a collection of poignant pieces, including photographs, film, and sculptures, meant to awaken our awareness of how pop culture, advertising, and social dynamics shape our identities and scales for success.

A Portland Artist and Curator Has Been Appointed to the Board of Directors For a Major National Arts Organization

Each year, the New York-based foundation doles out millions of dollars in grant money to art spaces around the country, including many here in Portland. It focuses on supporting small, boundary pushing projects rather than major institutions.

The Ceiling of Portland Art Museum’s Grand Ballroom Has Partially Collapsed, Causing the Relocation of Several High-Profile Events

Parts of the ceiling of Portland Art Museum’s ballroom has collapsed, causing the institution to indefinitely close a major event space and relocate several bookings.

May Cat’s Portland Exhibit Grapples With Thai Ghost Movies, Her Family History and Livestock Entrails

“I’d wake up to a green glow of a floating head and the entrails. That made me who I am,” says Cat.

Meet the Artist Who Makes Pet Portraits Using Old Issues of Willamette Week

“It’s like, ‘Somebody put a lot of time and effort into my animal,’” she says. “They’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, you get it, you love this animal, I love this animal, the person that painted it obviously loves animals, this is awesome.’”

The Largest Sun Ra Retrospective Yet is Hidden on the Top Floor of the Portland Art Musuem

In the 1960s, jazz legend Sun Ra applied to NASA’s art program. Somewhat of a glorified PR campaign, the program mostly funded cubist portraits of astronauts and artist imaginings of space colonies. But Ra had much bigger ideas about the program’s potential. “Without the proper type of music, your program will be more difficult than need be,” Ra wrote in his application. “You know it is said, ‘Music soothes the savage beast,’ and what is called man is very anarchy-minded at present.”

Art Exhibit “Utopia Without You” Attempts to Escape a Hostile World Using Balls of Trash and Video Games

Each piece in Utopia Without You is a synecdoche of a disheveled gamer’s bedroom—the rock of trash that is B-612, a hand-painted miniature elf displayed on a wooden table, a flat-screen TV playing a video game that Nikolai programmed, and Rich Inner Life, a gurgling fish tank filled with mineral oil and the electronic circuit that controls the video game. With its technological guts resting in goopy fluid, Rich Inner Life almost looks like a cyborg animal.

We Talked to the Portland Artist Whose Graphic Illustration of Trump Stirred National Controversy

Compton Creep is watching his back. One of the Portland artist’s illustrations recently went viral—a graphic illustration of President Trump with a knife to this throat and blood spewing from his neck. Creep—who declined to share his given name—had already sold the image on a few hundred T-shirts for about a year. But late in July, a blown-up version of the image was displayed in the window of One Grand Gallery on East Burnside Street, as part of a show called Fuck You, Mr. President.

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