Portland Art Museum & Northwest Film Center at home.
This screenprint by Dyani White Hawk was inspired by a Plains style women’s dentalium dress. You can almost feel the ribbons, the wool, the shells, the metallic details, the hemline. Learn more about the creation of this piece and the series Takes Care of Them. Then take some time to write a bit, using something… Read more
Sara Cwynar’s Encyclopedia Grid (Acropolis) tugs at my wanderlust. During the pandemic, I’ve traveled very little and have not been very far from Portland. Here, Cwynar arranges what appear to be clips and cuttings of the ancient Acropolis in Athens, Greece on a blue backdrop. Each image in the grid shows a finger placed on… Read more
The arrival of a new year gives us an opportunity to pause, to set intentions, to be open to the expanse of time and space all around us. This piece by Katsumata Chieko, offers a way to enter into that expanse, that openness, that empty vessel of a fresh start, while also being mindful of… Read more
Beth Van Hoesen’s cocktail drinkers, though created in 1946, seem to show the same world-weariness that has gripped many of us throughout the tumultuous year. They are prepared, I imagine, to toast out the year, but they aren’t going to pretend it was fun! The woman’s raised eyebrow suggests her skepticism about the state of… Read more
In 2021, the Year of the Ox begins. 1829 was also an ox year. Poets in Mino province commissioned the artist Keisai Eisen to design this special print to commemorate the new year. Privately commissioned prints like these are called surimono and feature expensive materials and techniques. This small ox figurine, sitting on layered futon… Read more
This has been an especially challenging year, for so many reasons. As we move toward its end, we are reminded of the importance of threshold times—spaces between what has been and what will be—and the power that can come from resting and reflecting in them. Self-portraits seem to carry this same energy, reflecting back to… Read more
In the 1890s, color posters advertising books, magazines, and newspapers exploded onto the scene. Initially inspired by French designs, American artists soon created their own unique style. Edward Penfield led the field with his charming posters advertising Harper’s Magazine beginning in 1893. These designs, generally about 19 by 14 inches, were displayed in book stores… Read more
Spectral Transmissions returns with another collection of sonic spirits and multimedia uncanny. Spectral Transmissions is an audio broadcast and multimedia tribute to 1930s/1940s radio shows. Our holiday edition of Ghost Stories and Winter Tales brings you haunted video games, mid-western ghost towns, postcolonial time travel, bad landlords, boyhood out-of-body experiences, photographs of children’s dreams, a Nina Hagen –… Read more
We are pleased to offer this guest post by the members of improv trio Broke Gravy, a community partner for Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott, which closed earlier this month. In this guest blog post, the trio reflects on the exhibition’s final public program, Perspectives on Colescott: Identity, Satire, and Politics,… Read more
When the pandemic began and the Museum first closed its doors earlier this year, our curators took to social media like never before. With galleries closed, our Daily Art Moment was launched—offering followers a daily dose of art accompanied by descriptions, quotes from artists, and other insights. While we aren’t posting quite as often anymore,… Read more