It’s August already? Who else feels like the summer has gone by faster than you can blink? Even though summer is starting to wrap up, the galleries this month sure haven’t! Let’s enjoy the rest of the summer while we can and see as much art as possible. This month, I want to focus on collaborative exhibitions and group shows. What’s a better way of seeing lots of art? Why look at only one artist when you can discover a whole variety of different perspectives! 

There is tons of collaboration happening all around. In Portland, PDX Contemporary is back with their annual group summer show! At Augen Gallery, witness a variety of works from famous artists. Similarly, Russo Lee Gallery presents a group show highlighting the influential artists that left their mark on the Portland art scene. Littman Gallery has a show about uplifting neurodivergent artists. School may still not be in session at University of Oregon but Eugene is still a busy city this month. Visit NewZone Gallery to see how the artist’s hand affects photographs or explore women’s stories and explorations of femininity spotlighted at Maude Kerns Art Center. Radiant Community Arts hosts perhaps the most collaborative show this month with work from artists around the country. 

Inheritance: Women’s Stories 
Kara Greenwell, Eden Quispe, and Kate Tova
August 8- 29 
Maude Kerns Art Center
1910 E 15th Ave, Eugene, OR 97403

Artists Kara Greenwell, Eden Quispe, and Kate Tova explore the multiple complexities of traditional views of femininity, womanhood, family relationships, and cultural heritage in Inheritance: Women’s Stories. While each artist tells their own stories and experiences through their own work, they work with paint in some capacity. Greenwell uses traditional painting materials alongside upcycled ephemera to create mixed-media paintings that evoke confrontational feminist themes. Quispe’s “patchwork paintings” are created by a variety of quilting techniques that speak to the friction between traditional and contemporary values of motherhood. Tova draws upon her Russian Ukrainian heritage, using the established Slavic symbols of ribbons, to relate to femininity, ancestry, and nature. Landscape paintings through the perspective of memory are also on display with Lands of Memory by Nancy Larson and Meg Littler.

The Brain- Is wider than the Sky
Jeff Leake and Kindra Crick 
August 7- 30 
Gallery 114 
1100 NW Glisan St, Portland, OR 97209

The Brain- Is wider than the Sky is a two person show that combines the narrative realm of Jeff Leake and Kindra Crick’s world inspired by the nocturnal and neuroscience. Leake’s paintings explore myth, folklore, and cultural memory to understand how fables shape identity and place. Crick’s engaging installations and mixed-media works use data and scientific imagery to uncover how sleep and memory relate. As a whole, this exhibit creates a conversation around storytelling and brain science and how both myth and sleep inform the way we think about memory, identity, and cultural consciousness. Also on display at Gallery 114 is Present Tense, an exhibition by Olivia Johnson, Liz Obert, and Phil Harris that highlights the multitude of ideas surrounding time. 

SPECTRA
Group Show
August 1- October 17 
Artspace 
380 A Avenue, Suite A, Lake Oswego, OR 97034

40 artists were selected from an open-call process for Artspace’s newest exhibition, SPECTRA. This exhibition highlights works from talented artists that explore the spectrum of light, color, identity, and thought. These featured artists promise a brilliant display of vibrant color, sensory immersion, and unrestrained imagination. SPECTRA spans the complexities of contemporary art, and unveils the vivid contemporary art scene of our region in a dazzling way.

Sponsor

Eternity Passing
Geir and Kate Jordahl 
August 1- September 1 
NewZone Gallery
110 East 11th Ave, Eugene, OR 

Eternity Passing features photographs from artists Geir Jordahl and Kate Jordahl and their diverse photography techniques and practices. Geir’s practice takes a unique shape, literally, in that they manipulate their compositions into spherical shapes, often using a fisheye lens. In Geir’s art practice, roundness is the center of life, including the sphere of time, stating, “circles complete the stories we make in our passing.” While Kate’s photographs aren’t spherical, her images take on the form of lumens, which she calls,“magical re-imagination of the potential of silver gelatin paper.” Kate uses organic plant matter which interacts with the photo paper in unimagined ways which produces a wide range of magical colors. While Geir and Kate use photography in different technical and symbolic manners, both of their works speak to a greater poetic resonance. 

Summer Group Show
Group Show
July 2- August 23
PDX Contemporary 
1881 NW Vaughn St, Portland, OR 97209

PDX Contemporary is back with their annual summer groups show! Both new and established gallery artists are on full display this year. These twenty-four artists show work with a variety of mediums, art practices, and themes. Some prominent mediums are painting, drawing, sculpture, and photography! I’m particularly excited to see Storm Tharp’s abstracted gauche and ink paintings and Nell Warren’s acrylic nature paintings!

Love Letters to the World
Collaborative/group show
August 1- September 12
Radiant Community Arts 
110 E 11th Ave Ste. C, Eugene, Oregon 97401

A heartfelt collaborative installation is on display at Radiant Community Arts this month. Love Letters to the World is a multimedia exhibition curated to create community connection and spread love through the written art form. This project started with an open call for submissions, attracting artists from around the country in states such as Pennsylvania, Arizona, and California. Drop boxes for local Eugene community members to participate were stationed across the city, giving them the chance to offer up their own love letters. At the center of the installation stands a large paper-mache tree with letters that dangle from its branches. Viewers are invited to add a letter to the tree or simply experience the love of the breathtaking quantity of letters. This exhibition celebrates love for people, community, places, experiences, and the universal desire for human connection. 

Paintings, Prints, and Photographs
Group Show
July 3- August 29 
Augen Gallery 
716 NW Davis, Portland, OR 97209

Sponsor

Some big names in the contemporary art world are featured in Augen Gallery’s summer group show. This exhibition displays the various paintings, prints, and photographs from recognizable artists such as Chuck Close, Pablo Picasso, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, and many more from Augen’s collection. Experience the stunning works in person from the talented collection of artists. 

Northwest Masters: Works from Estates & Private Collections
Estate and Private Collection Show
August 7- 30
Russo Lee Gallery 
805 NW 21st Avenue, Portland Oregon 97209

Russo Lee Gallery presents Northwest Masters: Works from Estates & Private Collections, a show that is true to its name! This exhibition features curated works from Northwest artists Louis Bunce, William H Givler, Sally Haley, Manuel Izquierdo, Hilda Morris, Carl Morris, and Michele Russo. These artists have greatly influenced the Portland art scene and helped establish the contemporary art world in the Pacific Northwest. Featured works include paintings from Bunce, Haley, Carl Morris, and Russo and three-dimensional works by Izquierdo and Hilda Morris. Discover the brilliant minds and talented artists that have shaped our region’s art ecosystem. 

Tell _ ‘hi’ from me
Group Show 
July 3- August 28
Littman Gallery 
1825 Southwest Broadway St. Portland, OR, 97201

Twenty-seven self-taught, neurodivergent artists are featured in Littman Gallery’s newest exhibition. All of the artists are part of Portland’s North Pole Studio. Recently relocated to the Pearl District, the studio is part of progressive art studio movement gaining strength and visibility around the country that advocates for accessible studio space for disabled, neurodivergent, and autistic artists. North Pole Studio values self-determination, diversity as human brilliance, and challenges the historical ableist ideas and systems. Tell _ ‘hi’ from me features a variety of both two-dimensional and three-dimensional works that reimagine traditional conventions in artmaking and highlight the vibrant voices of artists that have long been told to be quiet. Visit this unique exhibit in Portland or when it travels to Salem, Vancouver, Bend, and Lake Oswego.