Goodbye 2024, and hello 2025! 2024 has been filled with amazing exhibitions and art events all around Oregon, and I know this year it will remain the same. Has anyone else been thinking about their New Year’s resolutions? I think mine will be to visit more galleries and see more art in person! Explore these exhibitions with me this month as we think about resolutions and allow ourselves to experience art with a fresh set of eyes. 

While our eyes are on the new, the horizon remains the same. In Portland, explore the diverse world of printmaking at Paragon Arts Gallery and Froelick Gallery. Follow up with ordinary objects turned into new creations at Nine Gallery in Downtown Portland. In Eugene, see Adam Grosowsky’s stunning new works featuring nude figures and landscapes. On the coast, visit Newport Visual Arts Center to discover the traditional and new types of fiber arts with Fiber Fest! 

Proof 
Various Artists 
January 23- February 22 
Paragon Arts Gallery 
815 N Killingsworth St, Portland, OR 97217

Proof is Paragon Art Gallery’s latest print-focused group exhibition featuring a wide range of approaches and investigations. This show’s theme of experimentation offers the opportunity to get a glimpse into the trial, error, and innovation of the printmaking process. Artists include Gordon Barnes, Lucas Cantoni Jose, Chris Chandler, Matthew Letzelter, Will Mairs, Sam Orosz, marvin parra orozco, Rory Sparks, and Cammy York. The works of this diverse and multigenerational group communicate multifaceted experiences of identity and experiment with various communication strategies between artist and audience. 

Fiber Fest
Various Artists
January 11- March 1
Newport Visual Arts Center and Olive Street Gallery
777 NW Beach Dr, Newport, OR 97365

After a lack of fiber arts focused exhibitions, Newport Visual Arts Center in partnership with Olive Street Gallery celebrates fiber with exhibitions, classes, and demonstrations all month long. This exhibition features a range of fiber arts with everything from tapestries by Vince Zettler, Indigenous basketry by Bud Lane and Chantele Rilatos, woven forms by John Skamser, and garments by Karen Gelbard. More fiber mediums include abstract woven creations by Susan Jones, recycled fishing string weavings by Rebecca Hooper, nature prints on textiles by Jennifer Smith, and Abelina Pablo’s colorful traditional Guatemalan textiles with techniques passed down through generations! Experience fiber arts in new and old ways with these contemporary art pieces. 

Echoes of Passage 
Jia Jia and Melanie Tsang 
January 4- 26 
Well Well Projects
8371 N Interstate Ave #1, Portland, OR 97217

Sponsor

Jia Jia and Melanine Tsang, both born and raised in China, use installations to reflect their personal journeys and experiences of immigration and consider its impact on their identities, materiality, and artistic expressions. This exhibition offers a glimpse into their experiences exploring the intersections of adaptation, belonging, and displacement. Jia uses leather scraps, clay, and surgical equipment to focus on a fragmented, tactile experience of the immigrant body and mind. Tsang utilizes 25 pages of text from her immigration documents, stainless steel trays, and transparent film to create sculptural installations that discuss the long journey of studying, working, and living in the U.S. Jia and Tsang use familiar materials to make new sculptures to understand their identities and immigrant experiences in new ways.

King Tide in Empty Spaces 
Nate Orton 
January 2- 30
After/Time
735 SW 9th Ave. #110, Portland, OR 97205

Nate Orton’s first solo exhibition with After/Time starts with a bang with casein on panel paintings, a wall mural, and books. Orton’s work is firmly grounded in the present by using discrete images, poetic engagement, and observation of the lived environment. Orton’s work negotiates the resonances and symbol-formations and re-evaluates the past in order to gain new perspectives on the future for art.  Most of Orton’s work is inspired by the environments and experiences he is connected to within the Pacific and Inland Northwest. 

Undercurrent 
Various Artists
January 2- February 1
Gallery 114 
1100 NW Glisan St, Portland, OR 97209

This group exhibition features twenty six artists including Sarah Bouwsma, Jason Breeden, and Heidi Keith. Sarah Bouwsma creates highly detailed watercolor landscapes often featuring water as a subject. Jason Breeden’s pen on paper artwork relies on use of line and patterning to create fluid movements and compositions and Heidi Keith’s watercolor paintings evoke a strong sense of movement and fluidity. The work in Undercurrent reflects the meaning of the word, what is seen and what lies beneath including emotions, memories, experiences, and societal currents which are often overlooked. Featured artists experiment with the expected, the known, the hidden, and mystery to uncover the various interpretations of the “undercurrent” theme.

Mythos Mayhem 
Lucas Nickerson 
January 2- February 1
Sidestreet Arts
140 SE 28th Ave, Portland, OR 97214

Artist, heritage craftsman, and tinkerer, Lucas Nickerson is a keeper of history and traditional crafts. Nickerson taught himself the primitive craft of knapping stone- the process of making stone tools- making birch tar, making bows, and practicing archery. Not only is he a master of long forgotten crafts and practices, he also creates paintings based on puns, metaphors, travel, mythology, and his love for his family. While it is typical for artists to forage for materials such as pigments or wood, Nickerson takes it a step further and uses found materials such as roadkill to make paint brushes. Rewind time and consider the traditional forgotten crafts in a new light with Mythos Mayhem.

Sponsor

Results of Questionable Experiments 
Bill Will 
January 9- February 1
Nine Gallery 
122 NW 8th Ave, Portland, OR 97209

Nine Gallery will house thirty of Bill Will’s signature sculptures ranging from wall-mounted trophies of non-animals to an animated Ron DeSantis. Will uses humor to probe and discuss contemporary social and political issues. Using mundane and ordinary objects, Bill Will’s sculptures probes the viewer to think about conformity, economic disparity, national security, and jingoism. Bill Will repurposes and mechanizes items to create new objects and meanings. 

I Am Looking At The Same Sky No Matter Where I Am 
Yoshihiro Kitai 
December 3- February 1 
Froelick Gallery 
714 NW Davis St, Portland, OR 97209

Yoshihiro Kitai juggles the internal struggle between Japanese roots and life in the U.S. in his new exhibition I Am Looking At The Same Sky No Matter Where I Am. Kitai’s new work explores acceptance of a changed identity and focuses on the values and beliefs that remain the same despite location. Using a mix of Japanese and Western materials, and embracing the idea of imperfection inspired by Japanese ceramics, Kitai explores the complexity of human connections and group dynamics in American society and culture. Kitai’s blend of Japanese and Western influence creates a new way of looking at Western society, art, and human interaction with his vibrant gold leaf prints.

New Work: Faces, Landscapes, and Nudes
Adam Grosowsky 
December 4- January 25 
Karin Clarke Gallery 
760 Willamette St, Eugene, OR 97401

Experience Eugene figurative painter Adam Grosowsky’s new large- and small scale paintings at Karin Clarke Gallery in January. While Grosowsky’s various paintings have a multitude of meanings, themes, and subject matters, young women accompanied by a bird remain constant. These paintings have dramatic lighting and tonal contrasts to them, which make the figures stand out against backgrounds of rich dark black and browns. While nude paintings are a prominent focus in Grosowsky’s work, viewers can expect to be reminded of Oregon’s natural scenery with his landscapes of local rural scenes.