Text and Photographs by K.B. DIXON

As with the portraits in the previous installments of this series, I have focused on the talented, dedicated, and creative people who have made significant contributions to the art, character, and culture of this city and state.

My aspirations have remained the same: to document the contemporary cultural landscape and to produce a decent photograph—a photograph that acknowledges the medium’s allegiance to reality and that preserves for myself and others a unique and honest sense of the subject.

The environmental details have been kept to a minimum. The subjects have the frame to themselves and do not compete with context for attention. This provides for a simpler, blunter, more intense encounter with character. It is character that animates the image.

Sponsor

Kate Bingaman-Burt

Kate Bingaman-Burt is an illustrator and educator. A Professor of Graphic Design and Associate Director of the School of Art & Design at Portland State University, she is the founder and co-owner of Outlet, a facility that hosts workshops, pop-up events, and a fully operational risograph print studio. Her first book, Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today?, was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2010. Her work has been exhibited around the globe. Her illustration clients include The New York Times, Chipotle, Car2Go, Hallmark, VH1, Girl Scouts of America, and the Gap as well as locally loved institutions such as OMSI, BuyOlympia, and the Independent Publishing Resource Center. 

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Dan Gluibizzi

Dan Gluibizzi is an artist with an international reputation who has exhibited widely. His paintings and works on paper concentrate on the human form, face, and condition. They are often culled from the digital landscape of the Internet. He has illustrated for The New York Times and has received press from Wired, Juxtapoz, White Wall Magazine, The Observer, Print Magazine, Beautiful Decay, and New American Paintings. He recently completed a commission project for Facebook corporate offices in Seattle, and has works in the collections of Randall Children’s Hospital, the Casey Eye Institute, OHSU, and Portland Art Museum.

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Cecily Wong

Sponsor

Cecily Wong is an award-winning author of the novels Diamond Head and Kaleidoscope and the co-author of The New York Times bestseller Gastro Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to Food. The recipient of an Oregon Literary Fellowship in 2023, her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The LA Review of Books, Self Magazine, Bustle, Atlas Obscura, and elsewhere.

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Aaron Gilbreath

Aaron Gilbreath is an essayist and journalist whose work has appeared in Harper’s, The New York Times, Paris Review, The Atlantic, The Dublin Review, Oxford American, Kenyon Review, Slate, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Threepenny Review, and Brick. He is the author of the essay collections This Is, Everything We Don’t Know and, most recently, The Heart of California: Exploring the San Joaquin Valley. Previously an editor at Longreads, he tells overlooked stories about musicians, authors, food, Japan, the American West, and the natural world.

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Dani Rowe

Dani Rowe is the Artistic Director of Oregon Ballet Theatre. From 2001 to 2015 she was a Principal Dancer with the Australian Ballet and Houston Ballet and danced with the prestigious Nederlands Dans Theater. Rowe has performed in works by Kenneth McMillan, Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine, Mark Morris, and Nacho Duato. After retiring as a dancer in 2015, Rowe turned to choreography. She has created works for San Francisco Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater’s SWITCH program, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Co.Lab Dance (featuring dancers from American Ballet Theatre), Milwaukee Ballet, Ballet Idaho, Grand Rapids Ballet, SFDanceworks, Dance Aspen, Barak Ballet, Diablo Ballet, Oakland Ballet, and Berkeley Ballet Theater. In addition to her work as a choreographer, Rowe served as the Associate Artistic Director of SFDanceworks, a contemporary repertory company in San Francisco.

Sponsor

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EARLIER IN THE SERIES:

• The Cultural Landscape: Part 8. Portraits of writer and Portland Parks Foundation leader Randy Gragg, playwright/director/photographer Lava Alapai, mixed-media artist Erik Geschke, writer Erica Berry, and dancer/choreographer Samuel Hobbs.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 7. Portraits of singer/actor Susannah Mars, violinist Tomás Cotik, Native Arts and Culture Foundation leader Lulani Arquette, sculptor Ben Buswell, and artist, costume designer, choreographer, and filmmaker Fuchsia Lin.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 6. Portraits of Profile Theatre’s Josh Hecht, Pacific Northwest College of Art leader Jennifer (Jen) Cole, opera singer and teacher Hannah Penn, novelist Tony Ardizzone, and make-up, prop, and effects artist Christina Kortum.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 5. Portraits of musicians Marv and Rindy Ross, artist David Eckard, actor Maureen Porter, and writer Todd Schultz.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 4. Oregon Symphony’s Scott Showalter, Renegade Opera’s Madeline Ross, theater leader Michael Mendelson, poet Genevieve DeGuzman, roots music legend Lloyd Jones.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 3. Reser Center Executive Director Chris Ayzoukian, Shaking the tree Theater Artistic Director Samantha Van Der Merwe, Oregon Public Broadcasting President and CEO Steve Bass, photographer and head of Pacific Northwest College of Art’s photography department Teresa Christiansen, choreographer and interim artistic director of Oregon Ballet Theatre Peter Franc.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 2. Musician and composer Kenji Bunch, opera leader Priti Gandhi, actor and theater director Dan Murphy, contemporary art leader Victoria Frey, dancer and choreographer Shaun Keylock, landscape and urban design leader Zeljka C. Kekez, visual artist Barry Pelzner, poet and editor Susan Moore, musician and composer Cal Scott, writer and indie filmmaker Kelley Baker.
• The Cultural Landscape: 11 Portraits. Theater leader Marissa Wolf, musician Darrell Grant, museum film leader Amy Dotson, Red Door Project leader Kevin Jones, bookstore owner Emily Powell, philanthropist and art collector Jordan Schnitzer, visual artist Jef Gunn, actor and singer Ithica Tell, guitarist Scott Kritzer, publisher Rhonda Hughes, poet John Beer.