Photo First: An Open-air Museum

As the "real" museums shut down. K.B. Dixon tours the city's murals and discovers a free exhibit on the streets.

April 22, 2020

K.B. Dixon

Photography

PHOTOGRAPHS AND TEXT BY K.B. DIXON

The local galleries are closed, the Art Museum is closed, but the streets of Portland are open and there is plenty to see thanks to the guild of talented muralists among us. Using the exterior walls of every sort of building, they have over the years cobbled together a sort of open-air museum—one you can visit today from the contagion-free confines of your car. (All photographs are from 2020)

NORTHWEST TWENTY-FIFTH AVENUE AND LOVEJOY STREET

SOUTHWEST ELEVENTH AVENUE AND HARVEY MILK STREET

SOUTHWEST TWELFTH AVENUE AND HARVEY MILK STREET

*Artists: Troy Lovegates and Paige Wright*

SOUTHEAST SECOND AVENUE AND STARK STREET

NORTHWEST NINTH AVENUE AND HOYT STREET

Sponsor

Portland Playhouse A Christmas Carol Portland Oregon

SOUTHWEST MADISON STREET AND BROADWAY

SOUTHWEST TWELFTH AVENUE AND WASHINGTON STREET

SOUTHEAST NINTH AVENUE AND HAWTHORNE BOULEVARD

SOUTHEAST TENTH AVENUE AND WASHINGTON STREET

*Artists: Ernesto Marajnje and Suhaib Attar*

NORTHEAST TWENTY-NINTH AVENUE AND ALBERTA STREET

NORTHEAST OREGON STREET AND TWENTY-FIRST AVENUE

NORTHEAST FOURTEENTH AVENUE AND ALBERTA STREET

Sponsor

NORTHEAST SEVENTEENTH AVENUE AND ALBERTA STREET

SOUTHEAST TENTH AVENUE AND DIVISION STREET

NORTHEAST TWENTY-NINTH AVENUE AND ALBERTA STREET

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For additional information on Portland street art, see Portland Street Art Alliance.

K.B. Dixon

K.B. Dixon’s work has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, and journals. His most recent collection of stories, Artifacts: Irregular Stories (Small, Medium, and Large), was published in Summer 2022. The recipient of an OAC Individual Artist Fellowship Award, he is the winner of both the Next Generation Indie Book Award and the Eric Hoffer Book Award. He is the author of seven novels: The Sum of His Syndromes, Andrew (A to Z), A Painter’s Life, The Ingram Interview, The Photo Album, Novel Ideas, and Notes as well as the essay collection Too True, Essays on Photography, and the short story collection, My Desk and I. Examples of his photographic work may be found in private collections, juried exhibitions, online galleries, and at K.B. Dixon Images.