The Latest
Terrain, a land art experience 🍂 taking place August 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 2025 at 📍Building 5 in the industrial northwest of Portland, OR.
🎟️ Public exhibition tickets on a sliding scale may be purchased here. All proceeds will be split among the participating artists.
Terrain is a community driven environmentally centered art oasis bringing wild nature through artistic responses to the surrounding landscape and its history. At its core, Terrain provides supported opportunities for artists to create new, unique works, cultivating the expansion of creative thinking and making. The goal is to foster greater environmental awareness both in the artists themselves and our audiences. Terrain artists were prompted by the dynamic history of what lies around and beneath Building 5. This site used to be home of Guild’s Lake and wetlands up to the bank of the Willamette River, and where Terrain is taking place.
#artandaboutpdx #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #artinportland#pdx #portland #portlandoregon #pnw #pacificnorthwest #whattodothisweekendpdx #pdxartgalleries #discoverart #artblog #artplatform arthappenings #artgallery #artgallerypdx #travelportland #artistsupportartists
Swimming Without Limbs Katharine T Jacobs
📍after/time collective from June 5-29, 2025
✨Opening reception: First Thursday, June 5, 6-9 p.m.
🗣️Artist Talk with V Maldonado: Saturday, June 7, 3-5 p.m.
🍃Closing Reception: Friday, June 28, 7-9 p.m.
Swimming Without Limbs is a solo exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Katharine T. Jacobs, focusing on the emotional toll of addiction on those who live in its orbit. Her ceramic sculptures reflect themes of naivete, trust, and grief. Jacobs creates narrative mixed media works at her home studio in rural California.
“Swimming Without Limbs explores the emotional toll of addiction on those who live in its shadow. The work centers on the experience of the bystanders, the witnesses who absorb and endure. Feelings of childlike trust, fear, and disbelief surface through these ceramic forms that are both tender and uneasy. In making these sculptures, I tapped into a somatic, intuitive process where outcomes were unknown and control was consciously surrendered.” - Katharine T Jacobs
#artandaboutpdx #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #artinportland#pdx #portland #portlandoregon #pnw #pacificnorthwest #whattodothisweekendpdx #pdxartgalleries #discoverart #artblog #artplatform arthappenings #artgallery #artgallerypdx #travelportland #artistsupportartists
Breaking Boundaries: 50 Years of Images by Mariette Pathy Allen
📍Blue Sky Gallery, 122 NW 8th Ave., Portland
🗓️ June 5 - 28, 2025
✨ Opening reception: First Thursday, June 5, 5-9 PM
🗣️ In-Person Artist Talk: Saturday, June 7 at 3:30 PM
⏳ Hours : Wed - Sat, 12-5 PM
🎟️ Free to the public
Mariette Pathy Allen’s exhibition Breaking Boundaries: 50 Years of Images showcases her career photographing transgender and gender-expansive communities with compassion and dignity. Beginning in 1978, Allen’s intimate portraits challenged harmful stereotypes and offered a humane view of gender diversity. As political threats to transgender rights persist, Allen’s work stands as both powerful art and vital historical record, capturing love and resilience across generations.
Mariette Pathy Allen (American, b. 1940, she/her) is a photographer of transgender, genderfluid, and gender variant communities, as well as other continuous series such as Birth and Families, The Face of New Jersey, People With Art, Flowers and Fantasy, Texas, and Scapes. In 1978, on the last day of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Allen met Vicky West, a trans woman she befriended and through whom she was first invited to Fantasia Fair, a transgender conference where she would serve as official photographer. She traveled across the US to many other transgender conferences, participated in political activism, and worked for the Transgender Tapestry magazine. She continues to pursue the work of photographing, interviewing, and advocating on behalf of gender-nonconforming people. Allen is the author of five books that have brought visibility to transgender communities across the world. She has made dozens of slide presentations to various groups, participated in radio and television programs, and been a consultant and still photographer for films. Allen’s work is included in numerous public and private collections and has been exhibited internationally.
#artandaboutpdx #blueskygallerypdx #mariettepathyallen #breakingboundaries50yearsofimages
I Want to See How Things Play Out by Jesse Egner
📍Blue Sky Gallery, 122 NW 8th Ave., Portland
🗓️June 6 - 28, 2025
✨Opening reception: First Thursday, June 5, 5 - 9 PM
🗣️In-Person Artist Talk: Saturday, June 7, 2 PM
⏳ Hours : Wed - Sat, 12 - 5 PM
🎟️ Free to the public
In I Want to See How Things Play Out, Jesse Egner uses humor and absurdity to navigate themes of queerness. Working with familiar everyday objects, he co-creates moments that blur fantasy and reality with his collaborators. Rooted in Egner’s experiences with body shaming and marginalization, these photographs subvert conventional norms and empower queer dynamism.
Jesse Egner (American, b. 1993, he/they) is a queer artist and educator currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Often taking the form of playful and absurd photographic portraiture of himself and other individuals, his work explores themes such as queerness, body image, relationships, collaboration, and humor. He received his BA from Millersville University of Pennsylvania in 2016 and his MFA from Parsons School of Design in 2020. His work has been exhibited and published globally and is included in the permanent collection at the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts. He is a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship recipient and has participated in residencies at the Santa Fe Art Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Bunnell Street Arts Center in Homer, Alaska; Studio Vortex in Arles, France; Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York; the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont; and TILT Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
#artandaboutpdx #blueskygallerypdx #jesseegner #iwanttoseehowthingsplayout
POV (Point of View) featuring work by Lynda Benglis, Carmen Herrera, Jenny Holzer, Simone Leigh, Rebecca Manson, Wendy Red Star, Deborah Roberts, Joan Snyder, Sarah Sze, and Emmi Whitehorse.
📍 The Lobby at Ellen Browning Building @thelobbyatellenbrowning
✨ Opening reception: Friday, June 6, 6–8 PM.
📽️ Includes a special screening of Carmen Herrera’s acclaimed 60 Minutes interview.
POV is a group exhibition celebrating the work of women artists, each offering a unique lens on identity, history, and form. From Carmen Herrera’s minimalist abstractions to Simone Leigh’s powerful ceramic sculptures centered on Black womanhood, the show highlights visionaries who have shaped and redefined contemporary art. Other featured artists include Lynda Benglis, Jenny Holzer, Deborah Roberts, Wendy Red Star, Joan Snyder, Rebecca Manson, Emmi Whitehorse, and Sarah Sze—each exploring themes like memory, resilience, landscape, and cultural heritage. Curated from a collection with a focus on women’s perspectives, POV reclaims the idea that art can be both deeply personal and universally resonant.
Dynamic Stillness: Nancy Larson & Edward Running
📍The Writer’s Block, 818 NW Flanders St., Portland
🗓️ June 5-22, 2025
✨Opening reception: First Thursday, June 5, 5-8pm
⏳ Hours : Monday-Friday 11-2pm or by appt
🎟️ Free to the public
Join us on June 5th for a First Thursday Artist Reception with Nancy Larson and Edward Running. PLUS - a special musical performance by the Lincoln High School Jazz Combo!
Nancy Larson
My work primarily focuses on the abstracted landscape. I am fascinated by the connection between place and memory, and I strive to explore the space where these two intersect; where the tangible and intangible meet and where our perception of reality becomes hazy. Where what and how we remember informs how the world looks to us. Working intuitively, my paintings begin as explorations of color and shape. During the process, accumulated memories and emotions chime in and the final version eventually reveals itself.
Edward Running
In my professional life I am a Partner at FFA Architecture and Interiors. It is the love of craft and seeking the balance and tension in form making that has brought me to exploration in wood sculpture.
In any endeavor there needs to be a dialogue with the material and the explorer to tell a successful story. If lucky, one can find a balance between intent and result. Even though sculpture can reside in static posture, movement can be realized if one is listening, learning and being open to the possibility of more dynamic forms. With hope something new can be found that is not bound by the original limitations of that initial strict silhouette that the material first provides. This is the journey I love to follow in the creation of things and the drive that compels me to continue into the next opportunity.
#thewritersblock #northp
This Must Be the Place, Nancy Wilkins & Martha Pfanschmidt
📍Waterstone Gallery, 124 NW 9th Ave., Portland
⏳ Hours: Wed-Sat 11 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., Sun 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
🗓️ June 4 - 29, 2025
✨Opening reception: First Thursday, June 5, 5-8 p.m.
🎟️ Free to the public
This June, Waterstone Gallery is pleased to present THIS MUST BE THE PLACE, a two-person exhibition featuring work by Nancy Wilkins and Martha Pfanschmidt. Wilkins will showcase her playful metal sculptures made from found shapes, while Pfanschmidt offers bold, large-scale mixed-media paintings alongside intimate black-and-white collages created from repurposed prints. Longtime friends and collaborators, the two artists share more than 30 years of creative dialogue, fueled by a mutual love of color, form, and texture—often in tension, always in conversation. This marks their third joint show and a continuation of their shared artistic journey. Gallery member Nancy Wilkins has invited former member Martha Pfanschmidt to reunite in this space, where their work continues to intersect in surprising and delightful ways.
#nancywilkins #marthapfanschmidt #foundmetal #foundmetalsculpture #waterstonegallery #artandaboutpdx #portlandartscene #pearldistrictgallery #padaoregon #exhibition #worksonpaper #soloshow #contemporaryartist #modernart #abstractart #abstractartist #pnwartist #pdxartscene #pdxartevents #pearldistrictportland #pearldistrictartwalk #pnwpainter #collageartist
Art for a new consciousness, Christian Abusaid
📍PDX Contemporary Art, 1881 NW Vaughn St., Portland
🗓️ June 4-28,2025
✨Opening reception: First Thursday, 5 - 7 pm
⏳ Hours : Tuesday - Saturday, 10 am - 5 pm
🎟️ Free to the public
PDX CONTEMPORARY ART is excited to present Christian Abusaid’s first solo exhibition in the United States: Art for a new consciousness. A Colombian artist based in Bogotá, Christian Abusaid creates tactile, geometric works with textile pigments, layering them into thick, geological surfaces on raw linen. The works in Art for a new consciousness come from the belief that everything is interwoven into a universal tapestry—a “pattern in the heavens”—that unites all existence, and to live harmoniously, we must align ourselves with sacred proportions, the universal blueprint of beauty and balance. When we as humans live through sacred geometry, we connect in the language of love and light.
Featured in the exhibition is a body of work inspired by the sacred mountain of Chiribiquete which is nestled deep in the heart of the Colombian Amazon. Here, amid the lush greenery and unique species of multiple ecosystems, reside more than 70,000 rock paintings from ancient cultures. Painted on the vertical rock faces are enormous murals of the region’s people, flora, and fauna—providing a vivid pictorial history of culture and ancestral experiences. Abusaid pulls repeating patterns and motifs from these pictographs to make his compositions, transforming these important cultural symbols into contemporary textile works.
#christianabusaid #pdxcontemporaryart @christianabusaid @pdxcontemporaryart #artandaboutpdx #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #artinportland#pdx #portland #portlandoregon #pnw #pacificnorthwest #whattodothisweekendpdx #pdxartgalleries #discoverart #artblog #artplatform arthappenings #artgallery #artgallerypdx #travelportland #artistsupportartists
Oregon Origins Project VI: The Birth of Cascadia
Artists: James Lavadour, Sara Siestreem, Juniper Harrower, Christine Bourdette, Michael Boonstra, Daniela Naomi Molnar, Sidony O’Neal, Amanda Triplett, Leah Wilson, and Claire Burbridge
📍 Stelo Arts: 412 NW 8th Ave, Portland, OR 97209
🗓️ June 5 - July 12, 2025
✨Opening reception: First Thursday June 5th, 5-8 PM
⏳ Hours: Thursday-Saturday 12-5 PM
🎟️Free to the public
Stelo Arts Partners with Oregon Origins Project to Present The Birth of Cascadia, A Multidisciplinary Art Exhibition Exploring Oregon’s Geologic Past
Portland, OR — Stelo Arts hosts Oregon Origins Project VI: The Birth of Cascadia, a striking visual art exhibition that brings to life the dramatic geologic events that shaped Oregon. On view June 5–July 12, 2025, the show features new works by ten Oregon-based artists, each responding to a pivotal moment in the state’s ancient history—from Cascade volcanoes to Missoula floods.
Curated in collaboration with the Oregon Origins Project, the exhibition includes pieces by James Lavadour, Sara Siestreem, Juniper Harrower, Christine Bourdette, Michael Boonstra, Daniela Naomi Molnar, Sidony O’Neal, Amanda Triplett, Leah Wilson, and Claire Burbridge. Their works will later be projected during an orchestral performance of The Birth of Cascadia, an original composition by Matthew Packwood, performed at the Patricia Reser Center for the Arts June 21–22.
At the heart of the project is a dynamic cross-disciplinary collaboration: each artist participated in a site visit with creative lead Matthew Packwood and geologist Ian Madin, grounding their work in both scientific insight and embodied experience of Oregon’s varied landscapes.
📌Listening to the Land, Learning from Its Stewards
June 14, 2025 | 2:30 PM at Stelo Arts
📌Geology Talk with Ian Madin: The Birth of Cascadia
July 1, 2025 | 6:30 PM at Stelo Arts
📌Closing Panel: Artists & Geologists in Conversation
July 12, 2025 | 2:30 PM at Stelo Arts
#artandaboutpdx #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #artinportland#pdx #portland #portlandoregon #pnw #pacificnorthwest
Scripts, Pat Boas
📍Elizabeth Leach Gallery, 417 NW 9th Ave., Portland
⏳Hours: Tues-Sat, 10:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m
🗓️ Date: June 5 - July 12, 2025
✨Opening reception: First Thursday, June 5, 2025, 5:30 - 7:30 pm
Contact * kyle@elizabethleach.com
Title *
Scripts
Member Venues *
📍Elizabeth Leach Gallery, 417 NW 9th Ave., Portland ⏳Hours: Tues-Sat, 10:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
🗓️ Date *
June 5 - July 12, 2025
✨Opening reception
First Thursday, June 5, 2025, 5:30 - 7:30 pm
⏳ Hours : Tuesday - Saturday, 10:30 am - 5:30 pm
🎟️ Free to the public
In Scripts, Boas continues to investigate embodied language and gesture, creating vibrant abstract paintings of varying “frequencies.”The word “script” can refer to a text or handwriting, to a plan of action or a sequence of commands. Boas’ Script paintings begin with a lexicon of forms related to the artist’s longstanding interest in the activity of reading and develop in a slow process of obscuring and revealing. Thinking of reading as a negotiation between positive and negative space, the works focus not on the formal structure of letters and phrases, but on the movements, marks, edges and interior spaces related to the presentation of language, and the mysterious, immaterial processes by which those marks become thought.
Color remains an important element. Alternating layers of opaque vinyl paints and transparent acrylic glazes, the artist achieves dark, jewel tones accentuated with saturated areas of color. Alongside the Script paintings, Boas is presenting works that go “off-script.”
Pat Boas’ paintings mine the gap between body, space, language, and perception. Committed to abstraction, she is guided by a collage sensibility that brings together disparate orders and fragmented artifacts, and incorporates suggestions of figuration, competing spatial systems, and art historical references as they arise.
#artandaboutpdx #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #artinportland#pdx #portland #portlandoregon #pnw #pacificnorthwest #whattodothisweekendpdx #pdxartgalleries #discoverart #artblog #artplatform arthappenings #artgallery #artgallerypdx #travelportland #artistsupportartists
Exotic Animal, Jinie Park
📍Elizabeth Leach Gallery, 417 NW 9th Ave., Portland
⏳Hours: Tues-Sat, 10:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
🗓️ June 5 - July 12, 2025
✨Opening reception: First Thursday, June 5, 2025, 5:30 - 7:30 pm
⏳ Hours : Tuesday - Saturday, 10:30 am - 5:30 pm
🎟️ Free to the public
In Exotic Animal, Park explores contrast, surface, and space, incorporating textiles, planned but uncontrollable fields of color, and cutouts to create paintings that are at once familiar and novel. Park emphasizes the exotic elements of her previous paintings in these new works through the exaggeration of contrast between painted and unpainted areas, and the looseness and excessiveness of the materials, shapes, sizes and colors.
With the paper-like surface of her canvases, Park sees the process of making her paintings as akin to drawing. The washes of paint leave stains and create tension on certain parts of the paintings, while the unpainted areas are loose. These paintings continue the material investigation of Park’s Windows series, which incorporated exposed stretcher bars and openings which expose the structural elements of the works. This sculptural aspect of Park’s work is inspired by her interest in “gaps” in architectural spaces, which can allow light or space to walk through; the gaps in these paintings accentuate or interrupt the seams of her sewn-together canvases and fields of color, inviting the viewer to investigate what lies beyond.
Jinie Park creates ethereal works on canvas with thinly layered, translucent washes of paint. Through her abstraction she investigates and engages with the history and conventions of painting, applying paint on all sides of her canvas. Park received a BFA in painting at Seoul National University (Seoul, South Korea) and an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art (Baltimore, MD).
#artandaboutpdx #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #artinportland#pdx #portland #portlandoregon #pnw #pacificnorthwest #whattodothisweekendpdx #pdxartgalleries #discoverart #artblog #artplatform arthappenings #artgallery #artgallerypdx #travelportland #artistsupportartists
Mid Century+Contemporary ART/OBJECTS SALE.
30+ year collection with featuring pieces by local mid century artists like Louis Bunce, Gordon D. Jones, and Helen Trayle, as well as current works by local artist Tom Trubshaw.
📍 331 SE Madison St Suite 180 Portland
🗓️ May 30 - June 8, 2025
⏳ Hours: Daily, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
This event is the culmination of 30+years of collecting art. As the child of artists I have always been drawn to art/beauty/culture. I would buy art based solely on my emotional reaction/connection to the work. The collection is a mix of fine art styles/graphic design/street art. The underlying connection of all the work was my own sense of beauty and style.
#artandaboutpdx #theHOLMESpdx #rt #galleryshow #artmarket #design #homedecor #originalart #portland #oregon #home #interiordesign #etching #print #midcentury #sculpture
Ellen George, The Heart Catches the Hand
🗓️ June 5 - 28, 2025
📍 Nine Gallery (Inside Blue Sky, Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts), 122 NW 8th Avenue, Portland
✨ Opening reception: First Thursday June 5, 2025 from 5 - 9 p.m.
⏳ Wednesday - Saturday from 12 - 5 PM
🎟️ Free and open to the public
Ellen George’s installation The Heart Catches the Hand fills the gallery with a composition of curvilinear, paper-thin wood panels in silverpoint, casein, ink, and pyrography. It is her nature to express the spirit in the coalescence of her daily Tai Chi and daily studio practices. George explores their shared concepts of expansion, circularity and balance by listening first, then moving and working from within. Shapes, gestures, lines, and placement derive from this exploration.
Ellen's work has been exhibited at the Tacoma Art Museum, Bellevue arts museum, Morris Graves Museum of Art, Portland Chinatown Museum, among others. Her work is included in multiple collections of including the Tacoma art museum, Portland art museum, the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. Ellen is a 2024 recipient of the SOLA/Artist Trust award. @pdxcontemporaryart has represented Ellen George since 2002, presenting 10 solo shows of her work to date.
#artandaboutpdx #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #artinportland#pdx #portland #portlandoregon #pnw #pacificnorthwest #whattodothisweekendpdx #pdxartgalleries #discoverart #artblog #artplatform arthappenings #artgallery #artgallerypdx #travelportland #artistsupportartists
Artists at NW Marine Art Works are opening their studio doors!!
📍NW Marine Art Works, 2516 NW 29th Ave
🗓️May 31 + June 1 ⏳ 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
This twice-a-year event, located in Portland’s NW industrial area, is not to be missed. With more than 75 local artists and artisans participating, you’ll find everything from jewelry and apparel to paintings and printmaking, ceramics, photography, sculpture, accessories, housewares, and more!
Listen 👂🏼 to live music 🎶 and enjoy food 🥘 and drink 🍹 while watching artists show their process at this vibrant event that embodies Portland’s creative spirit.
NWMAW is excited to host our third annual SMALL ART / BIG GIVE fundraising event at this summer’s Open Studio. Over 50 artists have donated 6” x 6” original works to raise money for one of Portland’s exceptional nonprofits — North Pole Studio @northpolepdx — which offers a professional studio, art programming, and a creative community for adults and teens with autism and developmental disabilities. The fundraising event starts when the door open, so come early!
#nwmarineartworks #potlandart #portlandartevents #portlandartscene #pdxart #artandaboutpdx #artandabout #madeinportland #portlandoregon #pdx #contemporatyartportland #artistsinportland #pnwart #pnwartist
@christopherrauschenberg at @elizabethleachgallery
Rauschenberg’s longest-running series, Backstage gives viewers a glimpse into an essential aspect of the art ecosystem, the artist’s studio. The public isn’t shown behind the scenes often enough, these works invite viewers into the studios of Portland-based artists, include Katherine Ace, Ebenezer Galluzzo, Malia Jensen, Joanne Radmilovich Kollman, Henk Pander, Laura Ross Paul, Marie Watt, and Susan Weil. Through individual images and combinations that create fictional spaces, Rauschenberg sets the stage to allow for discovery of these places of creation.
#artandaboutpdx #artgallery #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #pdx #pnw #whattodothisweekendpdx
Willy-Nilly, by Kyle Adam Kalev Peets
📍Carnation Contemporary, 8371 N Interstate Ave #3, Portland
🗓️ June 7 - 29, 2025
✨Opening reception: Saturday, June 7, 5–8 PM
⏳ Hours : Sat–Sun, 12–5 PM & by appointment
🎟️ Free to the public
Estonia was one of the last European countries to be forcefully converted from Paganism to Christianity. Today Estonia is one of the least religious countries in Europe. Only a small percentage of Estonians believe in God, but most believe they can talk to trees. This body of work has something to do with that.
This project begins with a slow turn back to my Estonian roots to embrace pre-Christian magical thinking, animism, awe and wonder. I employ an advanced print technique I call, Willy-Nilly, that prioritizes intuition, failure and chance over logic. Layering and repetition are used to create hypnotic rhythms that look back to ancient spiritual technologies that disrupt logical thinking, like spinning in a circle or repeating a word over and over. The layering of multiple photographs onto one picture plane challenges the western obsession with the individual — especially as it’s enforced by the single authoritative lens of the camera. These kinds of images obstruct legibility but also surface new forms of reading. Layering creates pictorial anomalies and abstractions that confuse our relationship to nature as it’s mediated through images. I think of this as an alternative tool for understanding, revealing the hidden by challenging how we expect landscape pictures to look.
Kyle Adam Kalev Peets is a multi-disciplinary artist-educator and plant lover. He received his MFA in Printmaking from the University of Iowa as well as a Graduate Certificate in Book Arts from the Iowa Center for The Book. Kyle currently teaches Print and Book Arts at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.
#artandaboutpdx #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #artinportland#pdx #portland #portlandoregon #pnw #pacificnorthwest #whattodothisweekendpdx #pdxartgalleries #discoverart #artblog #artplatform arthappenings #artgallery #artgallerypdx #travelportland #artistsupportartists
ASS, CASH, & GRASS, Ellen O’Shea and Will Zeng
📍Well Well Projects, 8371 N Interstate Ave. #1, Portland
🗓️ June 7-29, 2025
⏳Hours: Sat-Sun 12-5 p.m.
✨Opening receptionFirst Saturday, June 7, 5-8pm
🎟️ Free to the public
In ASS, GRASS, & CASH,Ellen O’Shea and Will Zeng explore the politics of desire, gender as social conditioning, and how we establish identities through consumption through the imagery of and objects surrounding car culture.
The exhibition features O’Shea’s larger-than-life sculpture of the iconic “mudflap girl” logo—a reflective silhouette of a reclining woman. By combining the mirror and the shape of a female figure, O’Shea’s work highlights the power, pleasure, and misogyny inherent in the gaze. In BOYRACER, Zeng takes compositional inspiration from a photo of supermodel Devon Aoki sitting on the hood of a car. BOYRACER replaces the image of Aoki with a male figure, transforming the sensuality and assumed heterosexuality of fetishized car models into something distinctly homoerotic. By setting the figure and the car in a pastoral backdrop, the painting frames the redirection of pleasure towards the male body as potentially utopic. Both works take seriously how desire and objecthood function in relation to gender.
Invested in kitsch and bad taste, the artists highlight how car ornamentation becomes a commercialized and aestheticized form of identity. Throughout ASS, GRASS, AND CASH, O’Shea inserts framed vanity plates and car paraphernalia, emblazoned with phrases popular in the early 2000’s that reflect the language used toward women’s bodies. Through these kitschy, gendered symbols, she critiques a male-dominated culture, capturing the attitudes of a moment. Zeng takes Asian patterns from ceramics and textiles, often read as excessive, and puts them on automobiles. The older form of ornamentation on the car form complicates the car as a symbol of the futuristic, modern, slick, and masculine. Through the ornamentation, the car becomes racialized and further draws the connection between car and body.
#artandaboutpdx #artgallery #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #pdx #pnw #whattodothisweekendpdx

Visit 𝒲𝒪𝒪𝒟𝒞𝒪𝑅𝐸 with us at @artscounciloflakeoswego 🪵🪜
Featuring work by Megita Denton, Bobby Mercier, Leroy Setziol, Monica Setziol-Phillips, Julian Watts, Ben Young & Adam Zeek. Including a little corner curated by @lowellshopgallery and a tactile table (perfect for kids and adults alike!)
🪃On view until July 11, 2025. Free & open to the public.
Special thanks to @raisin_consciousness for the thoughtful insight around the artists and their work!
Artists at NW Marine Art Works are opening their studio doors for a dynamic two-day event — 🔵May 31 and Sunday, June 1. 🔵 Guests can watch artists at work, enjoy engaging demos, talk with makers and check out the spaces where some of Portland’s best art is created.
📍NW Marine Art Works, 2516 NW 29th Ave
🗓️May 31 + June 1 ⏳ 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
This twice-a-year event, located in Portland’s NW industrial area, is not to be missed. With more than 75 local artists and artisans participating, you’ll find everything from jewelry and apparel to paintings and printmaking, ceramics, photography, sculpture, accessories, housewares, and more!
Listen to live music and enjoy food and drink while watching artists show their process at this vibrant event that embodies Portland’s creative spirit.
NWMAW is excited to host our third annual SMALL ART / BIG GIVE fundraising event at this summer’s Open Studio. 50+ artists will create and donate 6” x 6” original works to raise money for one of Portland’s exceptional nonprofits.
100% of the small art sales will benefit North Pole Studio, which offers a professional studio, art programming, and a creative community for adults and teens with autism and developmental disabilities, enabling many to enjoy independent careers in the arts. This exciting fundraising event starts when the door open at 10 a.m., so come early for the full selection of original works.
#nwmarineartworks #potlandart #portlandartevents #portlandartscene #pdxart #artandaboutpdx #artandabout #madeinportland #portlandoregon #pdx #contemporatyartportland #artistsinportland #pnwart #pnwartist
@ginnysimsceramics sculpture and pottery, at @nationale ✨
#artandaboutpdx #artgallery #onviewpdx #portlandartscene #contemporaryart #pdxart #artinpdx #pdx #pnw #whattodothisweekendpdx #ceramics