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VizArts Monthly

VizArts Monthly: Community and Abstraction

The delightful vagueness of the term abstract means that it is a perfect binder for many of October’s art offerings. Also this month, Portland Open Studios celebrates its 25th anniversary and the Sitka Art International celebrates its 29th year.

The Cultural Landscape: Part 11

K.B. Dixon’s cultural-portrait series continues with visual artist Marie Watt, classical percussionist Niel DePonte, dancer & choreographer Oluyinka Akinjiola, poet & storyteller Brian S. Ellis, and actor & Portland Revels leader Lauren Bloom Hanover.

Sherrie Wolf’s ‘Anamaliére’ at Russo Lee

Wolf takes on animals, art history, and textures of all types in eleven new paintings. Shannon M. Lieberman unpacks the many art historical references and visual intrigue.

‘The Rose’ at Lumber Room

The exhibition includes collage-based works from 44 artists from over the last 60 years. The works confirm the generative capacity and flexibility of collage as an artistic practice.

Looking at people looking at art

From Portland’s museums and galleries to the Guggenheim and Whitney to Amsterdam, Australia, Berlin and beyond, Angela Allen focuses her camera on people interacting with art.

Falling for art in Yamhill County

From the annual Art Harvest Studio Tour to metal and fiber arts exhibits, a double handful of autumn gallery and studio shows to catch in Yamhill wine country.

Converge 45’s opening weekend

The biennial features the work of local, national, and international artists at venues across the city. The opening festivities August 24-27 included performances, events, parties, and openings galore. Georgina Ruff reviews.

News & Notes: Party in the Pearl

The 27th annual Art in the Pearl festival highlights Portland’s Labor Day Weekend. Plus, art around Oregon in Astoria, Eugene, and The Dalles.

VizArts Monthly: Conversing and converging

Converge 45 brings a suite of compelling shows to Portland-area art spaces and there is plenty to see around the state as well. Jason N. Le has the intel on September’s art events.

Aaron Akers: ‘The Bob Ross of Oregon’

The McMinnville plumber taught himself to paint by watching YouTube tutorials during the pandemic. This fall, he’s teaching classes at Back Door Studio.

Framing the Rothko Pavilion

The Portland Art Museum’s redesigned, glass-ensconced addition, due to open in summer 2025, will make viewing easier and could be a boon to an ailing downtown.

Ka’ila Farrell-Smith’s Ghosts in the Machine

At Russo Lee Gallery, an Indigenous artist’s images suggest a “green colonialism” in which extraction of minerals for new technology once again overrides tribal rights.

Taking stock of the body

Using body casts, human hair, and melted aluminum, new work by Kate Simmons at Clackamas Community College’s Alexander Gallery explores ideas about body image and decay.

Social Forms: Art as Global Citizenship

In partnership with CONVERGE 45, The Reser presents art with pointed questions and an international outlook by Jorge Tacla, Karl LeClair, Malia Jensen and Miroslav Lovric.

Black History IS History? Of course.

A Multnomah Arts Center exhibit of work by Black Northwest artists delves into the past to create a celebration of Black creativity in the present.

VizArts Monthly: Personal perceptions

August’s selections of art exhibitions and events highlight artists sharing their vision of the world with viewers. The results cover everything from beach debris to John Travolta.

U.S. chooses Jeffrey Gibson for Venice Biennale

Portland Art Museum and curator Kathleen Ash-Milby play key roles in spotlighting the first solo Indigenous artist at the U.S. Pavilion in the international art showcase’s 129-year history.

Art review: Animal magnetism

The group exhibit “Biomass,” in a Pearl District warehouse space, reunites a contemporary art community after a lengthy pause.

Producing the future at Parallax Art Center

The collaboratively curated group exhibition “Notes for Tomorrow” tackles complex issues and presents a “network of overlapping solutions.” The art, as well as its curatorial framing, is dense but ultimately rewarding.

The Cultural Landscape: Part 10

K.B. Dixon’s cultural-portrait series continues with All Classical’s Suzanne Nance, poet Carlos Reyes, playwright Andrea Stolowitz, visual artist James Minden, and flautist Amelia Lukas.

Lively ghosts and an artist rediscovered

At Hallie Ford Museum, the Tom Prochaska retrospective “Music for Ghosts” and a revival of works by the late Jim Hibbard traverse the thin line between traditional and contemporary.

Laura Ross-Paul: Breasts and beyond

The veteran Portland artist’s July show at NINE Gallery springs from her own breast cancer and the pioneering treatment she chose to defeat it.

VizArts Monthly: Collaboration and community

Summer is here! Jason N. Le’s round-up of July shows features group shows, retrospectives, and solo exhibitions inspired by everything from the otherworldly to the intimately personal.

Bush House Museum’s historical reboot

The Salem Art Association opens the Waldo Bogle Gallery in the Bush House and unveils the two latest paintings in Jeremy Okai Davis’s portrait series. The house’s original owner and namesake would not be pleased.

The Cultural Landscape: Part 9

K.B. Dixon’s culltural-portrait series continues with illustrator Kate Bingaman-Burt, artist Dan Gluibizzi, writers Cecily Wong and Aaron Galbreath, and Oregon Ballet Theatre’s Dani Rowe.

Derek Franklin: An artist in three acts

With his own small gallery in a shed, a show at Elizabeth Leach, and a key role in the Converge 45 biennial, the artist juggles “three ways I get to make magic out of dust.”

In memoriam: George Johanson

Remembering an artistic life well and truly lived: The Northwest artist died in October of 2022; his memorial service is June 11 at the World Forestry Center.

(Mis)remembering: VizArts Monthly

June’s art offerings explore the phenomena of memory in a variety of media including paint, performance, and piñata paper.

The vital art of reflecting on disease

Ruth Ross and others carry on a centuries-old tradition of depicting the realities and reflections of cancer and other diseases in their art.

City of Hillsboro Walters Cultural Arts Center Raye Zaragoza Hillsboro Oregon
Portland Opera The Marriage of Figaro Keller Auditorium Portland Oregon
Corrib Theatre Woman and Scarecrow Portland Oregon
City of Hillsboro Community Mural Dedication M&M Marketplace Hillsboro Oregon
Local 14 Art Show and Sale World Forestry Center Portland Oregon
Oregon Repertory Singers All-Night Vigil Portland Oregon
Chamber Music Northwest Orion Quartet The Old Church Portland Oregon
Seattle Opera, Alcina, Handel's Story of Sorcery, McCaw Hall, Seattle Washington
Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts Biennial, Willamette University, Salem Oregon
Hallie Ford Museum of Art at 25, Highlights from the permanent collection, Willamette University, Salem Oregon
Portland Playhouse Roald Dahl Matilda the Musical Portland Oregon
Literary Arts Presents the Portland Book Festival Portland Oregon
NW Dance Project Sharing Stories Newmark Theatre Portland Oregon
Maryhill Museum of Art Columbia Gorge Washington
Portland State University College of the Arts
Oregon Cultural Trust tax credit donate
Cultural Hubs series
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