
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.
Our visual arts coverage is made possible in part by support from The Ford Family Foundation’s Visual Arts Program.
For stories published before 2018, visit our archive site.
Visual Art Subcategories
Photography
VizArts Monthly
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.
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.
The group exhibit “Biomass,” in a Pearl District warehouse space, reunites a contemporary art community after a lengthy pause.
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.
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.
Erin Grant is named the Portland Art Museum’s assistant curator of Native American art; the revered Indigenous artist Pitt has an “evening” with friends and followers at Fort Vancouver.
Rembrandt van Rijn and Henk Pander (and Dalí) at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education.
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.
Among participants in the self-guided tour is painter Pam Greene, who tries to capture on canvas the “overwhelmingly wonderful” moments of living on the coast.
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.
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.
Artists respond to violence against women, the pandemic, climate change, and other threats to Indigenous communities in a powerful exhibit at the Center for Native Arts & Cultures.
“Out There Jazz Suite” transmutes Hillsboro sculptures into a recording, a multimedia concert, and a community collaboration.
In “Pacific Waters” at the Corvallis Arts Center, students composed works for strings to go with Mary Frisbee Johnson’s water sketches.
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.
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.
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.”
Photographer Joe Cantrell discovers the beauties of the universal in the patterns of very small things.
The weekend event also includes free, self-guided tours of the work of 70 artists in 28 locations along the Central Oregon Coast.
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.
June’s art offerings explore the phenomena of memory in a variety of media including paint, performance, and piñata paper.
Ruth Ross and others carry on a centuries-old tradition of depicting the realities and reflections of cancer and other diseases in their art.
For decades, Gary Harvey built fences and secretly made art in Wasco County. A first-ever showing of his work is also an art center’s fresh start.
A neighborhood print studio highlights the social aspect of printmaking and provides members 24-hour access to a variety of presses, some more than 100 years old.
The retrospective “Bonnie Lucas 1978-2023” is the first show in ILY2’s new Pearl gallery space. Hannah Krafcik considers the coded meanings of the bejeweled and bedecked compositions.
Newport’s Pacific Maritime Heritage Center hosts the traveling exhibition “The Curious World of Seaweed,” which explores the importance of seaweed and kelp to ocean health.
After a tumultuous few years, a recent self-curated show in her new home gave this venerable, multitalented artist a sense of agency and renewal.
Leslie Peterson Sapp’s vivid collage-paintings reflecting the moods of Film Noir echo a long creative history of borrowing and revising in music and art.
Since 1986, the all-volunteer gallery has worked to exchange ideas and opportunities for artists in all mediums and cultures.
The possibilities and dangers of artificial intelligence dominate headlines. Hito Steyerl’s 2019 work, now on view at PAM, probes AI’s capacities in art and narrative.
Warmer weather is here – at least for now! Celebrate by heading out to take in some art at any of these enticing offerings.
Christine Bourdette and Michael Boonstra’s exhibition, on view through May 10th, features works inspired by the landscape and natural processes.
Nestled beside Forest Park, the former Salvation Army White Shield Center is set to become a whole new cultural campus, devoted to classes, lectures and artist residencies.
Two Southern Oregon painters with distinctively indefinable styles find rejuvenation and inspiration in a post-pandemic respite.
The Native American painter and mixed media artist, who draws inspiration from his father and uncle, has a show opening Friday in the Newport Visual Arts Center.
The Portland painter, 70, leaves a legacy of vibrant work ranging from fairy tales to feminism to the grand, unsolvable mysteries of life.
Along the San Fernando Valley’s “Mural Mile,” art and history intertwine to tell the tales of a place’s people and cultures.
Photographer K.B. Dixon continues his series of portraits of Oregon cultural leaders with parks activist Randy Gragg, playwright Lava Alapai, mixed-media artist Erik Geschke, writer Erica Berry, and choreographer/dancer Samuel Hobbs.
In 2012, I interviewed the Newport artist about two pieces commissioned by the Smithsonian. Earlier this month, I saw the installed poles for the first time.
In work gathered over 40 years, two sterling photographers aim their lenses at American assumptions and the realities of Black life.
For 73 years, the gallery and studio space has offered amateurs and professionals a place to show their work and to share skills and support.
The Portland photographer’s images and stories about survivors of genocidal wars open at U.N. headquarters in New York. Plus: Brenda Mallory at the Heard, Cynthia Lahti at the movies.
The Dutch-born painter, whose work was often rooted in his childhood memories of Nazi occupation, explored the dark reaches and possibilities of the human condition.
Art and politics square off in a pair of print shows from the Los Angeles County Art Museum and a trip through the city’s sprawling streets.
April pushes us further into spring and there’s plenty of art to see all over the state. VizArts Monthly has recommendations for everything from paintings to recycled fabrics to suspended plant matter.
The Portland-raised tycoon’s eye for art and acquisition helped build a highly personal collection in Southern California.
Laura Burke’s solo exhibition “Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow” is a feast of color and charm. Jason N. Le reviews.
A dual exhibition at Multnomah Arts Center employs intricate beadwork and Aztec symbolism to connect with contemporary life.
March may be starting off with some residual snow but spring is around the corner and there’s plenty of art to see in the meantime. Jason N. Le has the highlights in VizArts Monthly.
The Portland artist’s nearly half-century of work is informed by her travels and curiosity about subjects ranging from ecology to Asian art.
Give to our GROW FUND.