Happy November! Did anyone notice the time change? I sure did! The sun sets at five o’clock now and I can’t help but feel a little sad about it. During this month of darkness, I want to remind us of the exuberance of our world, community, and local art galleries! I’m sure we could all use a little pick-me-up and what is a better way than to delve into the excitement of new exhibitions?

Despite the dreary rain, Portland is rich in new exhibits this month. The Portland Art Museum’s grand opening is slated for Nov. 20, with free admission days and fun events. Froelick Gallery’s show celebrates the legacy of the beloved Jamison/Thomas Gallery with an art sale supporting one of Pacific Northwest College of Art’s scholarships. Bright colors and high energy swirls around the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education with Steve Marcus’ special psychedelic show. Coos Art Museum in Coos Bay offers an exciting chance to engage with and support artisans from local Indigenous tribes. 

Yoshida Chizuko
Yoshida Chizuko 
September 27- January 4
Portland Art Museum 
1219 SW Park Ave, Portland, OR 97205

The Portland Art Museum’s long-awaited grand opening is scheduled November 20th! Visitors can tour the new renovations and take part in a four-day-long free admission event from the 20th to the 23rd. In addition to the rehung permanent collection galleries, the museum features a new exhibit of over 100 works from Japanese painter and printmaker Yoshida Chizuko (1924-2017). This exhibit features many works on view for the first time, showcasing the evolution of Chizuko’s career. Styles and themes of Chizuko’s work range from avant-garde abstraction to neon photoetchings and scenes of the natural world. The show also highlights the tensions in Chizuko’s role as a woman artist in 20th-century Japan and printmaking culture and recognizes her efforts in supporting fellow women artists. Celebrate the Portland Art Museum’s grand opening on November 20th with a visit to this beautifully insightful look into Chizuko’s career and Japanese printmaking and many more exhibits throughout the building.

Remembering Jamison/Thomas Gallery
Group Exhibition 
November 5-29 
Froelick Gallery 
714 NW Davis St, Portland, OR 97209 

Froelick Gallery’s special exhibition this month Remembering Jamison/Thomas Gallery: An Exhibit Benefiting the William Jamison Scholarship, Pacific Northwest College of Art is both a retrospective and a benefit. In the 1980s, William Jamison and Jeffery Thomas created Jamison/Thomas Gallery in Portland. The duo expanded to a second location in New York City in 1986. Upon Jamison’s passing in 1995, the galleries closed. The closure led the gallery’s co-directors, Jane Beebe and Charles Froelick, to open two new Portland galleries – PDX Contemporary and Froelick Gallery respectively. This exhibition celebrates the deeply influential Jamison/Thomas legacy, featuring many artists that displayed their work at the original locations with all sales benefiting the William Jamison Scholarship at Pacific Northwest College of Art. 

Passing Time
Sally Finch and Phil Harris
November 6- 29
Gallery 114
1100 NW Glisan Street, Portland, OR 97209

Sponsor

How do we understand the passage of time? How can we make sense of the process of change? Sally Finch and Phil Harris express the process of time and change by juxtaposing visible representations against a still background. Finch works with this background as a series of exact measurements, while Harris’ background is physically fixed in space. Both of these techniques produce a symbolic representation of a dynamic process, a contemplation of the shift from now to then. 

Roots and Visions
Various Artists 
October 25- January 25
Coos Art Museum 
235 Anderson Ave, Coos Bay, OR 97420

Roots and Visions: Celebrating Tribal Art highlights artwork from the Coquille Indian Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. This exhibition promotes and honors the living and past traditions of the local tribes and their creative futures. Featured artwork includes jewelry, garments, tools, basketweavings, and so much more. A mini store is also on display where visitors can buy handcrafted goods by local tribal artisans. 

Maybe Together we can get Somewhere
Andrea Alonge 
November 1-30 
Well Well Projects 
837 N Interstate Ave #1, Portland, OR, 97266

In our modern day, despite being more connected than ever, we drift further apart. Maybe Together We Can Get Somewhere explores the immaterial tethers that connect the mind, the physical world, and the digital space together. Interlocking chains, strings that twist and bend, and thread tightly stitched bind the mind and the body to a colorful time and space. Bright pinks, blues, yellows, and greens speak to the colors we see through the screen while the natural forms like flowers and organic shapes remind us of the natural world. Andrea Alonge displays work of two different themes; one in relation to the connection of body, mind, time, and space and one that explores her individual experience of the present moment in her environment.

Naturally Northwest: Prints and Poems
Group Show
November 4- 26
Grey Raven Gallery 
12695 SW Crescent St unit 150, Beaverton, OR 97005

Grey Raven Gallery combines poetry and printmaking, two of the Pacific Northwest’s most brilliant artistic traditions in their latest exhibition, Naturally Northwest: Prints and Poems. 26 influential poets collaborated with local accomplished printmakers to create environmentally friendly Solarplate etching prints that speak to the landscape, language, and artistic community of the Pacific Northwest. Solarplate etching is an environmentally safe printmaking method that does not require acids or solvents and instead relies on using ultraviolet light. Printmakers chose poems from a small selection that spoke to them, and worked alongside the poets to create images that felt appropriate to the text. These poetic prints are not only environmentally conscious, but also tell stories regarding the natural world, landscapes, and spirit of our region. 

TEN
Group Show
November 7- December 20
Chefas Projects 
134 SE Taylor St., Suite 203, Portland, OR 97214

Sponsor

November marks Chefas Projects tenth anniversary! Aptly named, TEN displays work from 22 artists who have been part of the gallery’s rich first decade. These artists are sculptors, painters, and photographers all of whom have shaped the gallery’s bold and ambitious approach. Chefas Projects has become an anchor for Portland’s contemporary art scene, uplifting emerging and established artists alike that create bold and challenging work. The gallery’s anniversary is more than just a milestone, “…it’s a celebration of creative risk and community,” founder Stephanie Chefas states. Some of the work on display includes Dan Lam’s tactile and technicolor sculptures, Nicole Williford’s representational paintings, Betsy Walton’s colorful and spiritual paintings, and much more!

Psychedelicatessen
Steve Marcus 
November 9- May 31
Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education 
724 NW Davis St, Portland, OR 97209

Vibrant, psychedelic visuals by Steve Marcus, the acclaimed “Top Dog of Kosher Pop Art” light up the room at Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education. These energetic works combine Jewish cultural motifs, playful color, and Marcus’ signature hand. Spirituality and communal joy are the forefront of this exhibition that offers a moment to laugh and uplift Jewish subjects through psychedelic imagery that create conversation around alternative cultural norms for new generations of modern Jews.

Tender Echoes
Emily Counts
October 11- November 23
Nationale 
15 SE 22nd Ave, Portland, OR 97214

Tender Echoes is Emily Counts fifth solo exhibition with Nationale and explores Counts’ unconscious impulses of making her energetic and otherworldly creations. Ceramic forms display a fierce and tender femininity through busts of female builds shown alongside figures of moths, cats, fruits, and flowers. These sculptures share themes of growth, transformation, and life cycles. Count adorns them with fantastical colors, textures, and patterns in wondrous ways that speak to connections between the spiritual and natural worlds.