HOLDING ME, HOLDING YOU By Pamela Hadley 📍 Carnation Contemporary, 8371 N Interstate Ave 🗓️ Jan 10 - Feb 1, 2026 ✨Opening reception Saturday, Jan. 10, 5–8 p.m. ⏳ Hours: Sat-Sun 12-5 p.m. 🆓 to the public An immersive installation featuring abstract projection-mapped animation and sound compositions that open paths to new futures through ecology, relational aesthetics, and the phenomenological. Slowness is not just a method; it is a core strategy of Hadley’s practice—a deliberate act of healing from and resistance against a culture that often reduces the value of human life to what one produces while prioritizing rapid consumption and immediate outcomes. Facilitated here by perceptual experience, slowness and stillness invite reflection and connection and create space to imagine the ways in which we will remake our world. Visitors are ushered into the darkness by small light works before discovering the full-room installation that is the focal point of this show. There, they will navigate the space, each other, and, if they remain still for long enough, perhaps the sequestered locales within their own inner landscape.

Mark your calendars! Portland Winter Lights Festival is coming back next year 🌟Feb 6-14, 2026🌟

Someone Once Told Me the Grass Is Much Greener, Diego Morales-Portillo 📍 Center for Contemporary Art and Design - Studies Lab Room 138, 511 NW Broadway 🗓️ until Dec 20, 2025 ⏳ Hours: Monday-Saturday 9-5pm 🆓 to the public Someone Once Told Me the Grass is Much Greener is an immersive installation that creates a literal border through the gallery space. A reflection on the immigrant experience—the process of acculturation, of shaping a new identity while holding on to fragments of another life, this installation evokes the feeling shared by many immigrants of living between worlds, where the person we once were may no longer exist on this side. #artandaboutpdx #onviewpdx #portlandartscene

Craft Talk at Portland Camera Club, Sara Meadows and Hali Autumn 🗓️Friday, December 19 from ⏳5-7 PM 📍832 SW 4th Ave Sharing perspectives on the history and craft of spirit photography and the spectral feminine, tracing lines and techniques through the present day. Hali will be sharing a Super 8 film, and following the talk, you’ll have time to look at prints, chat about film and the ephemeral, plus drinks will be provided.

@morningceramics holiday sale this weekend 🗓️Saturday (11-7) & Sunday (11-5) 60+ local vendors Live Raku Firing 🔥 Workshop + Swag Giveaways! Guest artists from East Creek Art & Exploring Professional Pottery Students

Oh, just Nationale looking extra cute right now (as always) 🧡 #artandaboutpdx #gallerybookshop #portlandartscene

Jeffry Mitchell @jeffrymitchell “Winter Blooming” is tender, intricate and delightful! 🐘🌟🎄 on view till the 27th at @pdxcontemporaryart

Sou’wester Arts Week 2026: The Space Between 📍 The Sou’wester Lodge 3728 J Pl, Seaview, WA 🗓️ March 8-16, 2026 ✨Opening reception March 13, 2026 from 6-10pm 🆓 to the public Every March, the Sou’wester hosts over 30 artists and collectives for a weeklong residency, culminating in a weekend of performances, installations, and studio tours. This annual celebration invites the community to engage with the creative process and connect with artists who bring a new light to the evergreen coast. There is strength in what moves underneath, in the hush of process, in the soft roots that link us. In a world that keeps us apart, they turn toward the liminal space, a living network of creative crossings. Here we find connection becoming luminous, tender, and deeply alive. Sou’wester Arts is accepting applications for the 8th annual Arts Week, a weeklong creative residency that brings more than 30 artists and collectives to the Washington coast each March. The residency culminates in a full weekend of performances, installations, and studio tours. This gathering invites the community to experience the artistic process up close and connect with creators who bring fresh perspective to the evergreen coast. This year, we’re extending that spirit of collective creativity into the wider community by hosting showcases at Ilwaco Cider Co. and the Historic Chinook School. Arts Week welcomes a wide range of disciplines including writing, music, performance, visual art, craft, culinary arts, engineering, and interdisciplinary work. Artist Applications Open: November, 25, 2025 Applications Close: January 5, 2026 Artist Notifications: by January 26, 2026 Public Artist Announcement: February 12, 2026

December must see art 🌟 New & Now and Don’t Miss Are you subscribed to our free monthly art newsletter?! Sign up — artandaboutpdx.com/newsletter (links where they always are!) More than just the basics you get in mainstream newspapers or other media outlets. We cover the visual art scene with artists and fellow art lovers in mind. A more inclusive, grassroots, overview what art is happening each month in Portland. ➕ Seattle highlights ➕ Anything else we think is cool/worth knowing about in the Pacific Northwest 💌Delivered to your inbox the first Wednesday of the month, just in time for First Thursday! 📌The go-to guide for planning all the cool openings and shows monthly 👀We’re always on the lookout for the latest news in the visual arts scene in Portland that you might not find elsewhere, or have to piece together. Taking the guesswork out of the art scene and making it more approachable. #artandaboutpdx 💚Support on Patreon — patreon.com/artandaboutpdx

THE OPEN HOUSE w. @ethereal__reflections an artful evening in a #rummerhouse featuring artworks by: Christopher Belluschi Ben Latham Aremy Stewart Steph Ketty Nicole Neu Chris Cassimatis Carvers Collective Jesse Kamerzell Brittany Venner Tylor Rogers Ben Ewing Form + Function Kat + Maouche Wilma Opulence

35 Trips Around the Sun: Members’ Anniversary Show 📍Gallery 114 🗓️Dec 4–27, 2025 🌟Public birthday party, Sat, Dec 13, 1–3 p.m. Gallery 114 has been a cooperative gallery in Portland since the end of 1990. During those thirty-five eventful years this collective art space has remained a living, changing community—continually shaped by the artists who have come through its doors. Founded on the belief that creativity thrives in collaboration, it has evolved through generations of members, each bringing new perspectives, materials, and ideas. Many artists join the collective seeking the freedom to create on their own terms—to experiment, take risks, and shape their own exhibitions within a supportive environment. Change has always been part of the gallery’s rhythm. As artists move on and others arrive, the space renews itself, reflecting the shifting landscape of contemporary art and the shared drive to explore, question, and connect. Now celebrating thirty-five years, the collective honors its history while embracing transformation as its defining strength—a space that endures not by staying the same, but by continually becoming something new.

Measured, New work by Dan Gluibizzi, David Schell and Benjamin Terrell 📍 One Wall Gallery 30 East 11th Ave, Eugene 🗓️ December 5, 2025 - January 31, 2026 ⏳ Hours: Monday thru Saturday 10-7 Sunday 12-6 🎟️Free to the public Three painters explore what it means to find space between extremes, be it description and abstraction, rhythm and cadence or even knowledge versus intuitive understanding. @dangluibizzi @schell_david @benjamin_Terrell_painting #artandaboutpdx #oregonartscene

Supporting children’s art and education at the German International School for their “Light Up for the Arts” 🥨🕯️🌟 a little market with gifts and handmade works of art from students as young as 2, to 8th grade, with German and Chinese Culture in their language immersion program. We had so much fun, ate so many sugar filled snacks and savory food. Plus picked up a bunch of gifts. Anyone else think children’s art work is kinda the best?! Clearly the next generation is so talented, we love the emphasis on learning and expression through art and play that is cultivated at the school.

There are so many incredible #holidaymarkets happening now through Christmas! This one at @oldpalpdx is going to be tasty, beautiful and crafty 🍐🍐 don’t miss it — Sunday, December 14 from 10-3. 🌟 Koop Kitchen donuts will be made out front, the bar will be open with hot mulled cider, fresh shucked oysters and Alpine Cheese and Potato Soup available. 🦪🍲🍩🤤 #portlandartscene #shoplocal

Jeﬀry Mitchell, Winter Blooming 🗓️December 3 - 27, 2025 📍PDX CONTEMPORARY ART, 1881 NW Vaughn Street, Portland, OR 97209 ⏳10 am – 6 pm, Tuesday – Saturday, and by appointment 🎟️ Free and open to the public The changing of seasons brings a new feeling,. Autumn and its moribund wetness is ushered away by the bright clarity of winter. The crisp sting of cold air and the blanketing of snow draws us inward and indoors in search of warmth and comfort. This hibernation creates spaces of gathering, sharing, and contemplation as well as wonder and magic. There is great delight to be found in the bleakness of winter. The welcoming of colder seasons also brings with it an urge to decorate—adorning a tree with ornaments or making cozy a domestic space. Winter Blooming features a variety of work—drawings and prints in artist-made frames, handcrafted wooden furniture, ceramic vessels and sculpture, small porcelain and pewter figures, bronze elephants and andirons, and plaster tables. The use of diﬀerent materials is important to Mitchell, who, under his grandmother’s tutelage, learned a variety of decorative design and handicraft. His aﬀection for simple materials like pen, paper, scissors, and glue remain and he continually returns to these craft roots in his art practice.

Mutable Paintings, Jaq Chartier 📍 Elizabeth Leach Gallery, 417 NW 9th Ave., Portland 🗓️ Dec 5, 2025 - Jan 10, 2026 ✨Opening reception First Thursday, Dec 4, 5:30 - 7:30 pm ⏳ Hours: Tues-Sat, 10:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. 🆓 to the public Mutable Paintings, is an exhibition of new work by Jaq Chartier, an extension of the artist’s Testing series. Known for her rigorous, experimental approach to materials and process, Chartier’s latest body of work builds on her decades-long investigation into the behavior of colors as they interact with light across time. Confronted with the discontinuation of a key material used in her previous works led the artist to reimagine her approach, pushing her to experiment with new processes and revisit previous self-imposed rules. The necessity of using novel materials created new possibilities for exploration, presenting the artist with the opportunity for further evolution of her practice. Mutable Paintings reflects this renewed sense of experimentation in which chance, variation, and the artist’s gestures all play an equal role in the creation of the work. Like a director setting the stage for actors, the materials in Chartier’s studio, including paint, dye, inks and stains, become characters of their own, leading to surprising and unanticipated interactions and “interesting mistakes.” The works in Mutable Paintings feature cube-like forms and shifting marks that seem to interact as though they are tiny worlds in motion. Each mark and movement is informed not only by the artist’s gesture, but also by the materials’ own unpredictable responses. This new work invites viewers to consider impermanence, adaptation, and transformation, both within the artwork and beyond. #JaqChartier #ElizabethLeachGallery #artandaboutpdx

‘Tis the season for Oregon Ballet Theater’s production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker 🩰🎄🌟 Can’t think of a better way to start off holiday season festivities! @oregon.ballet.theatre at the one and only @kellerauditorium #thenutcracker #nightattheballet

Where we went on First Thursday this month @augengallery @hibiki.miyazaki @davidjoelkitcher @elizabethleachgallery @jaqchartier @lvdesignandgallery @scottgellatly @thewritersblock.studio @palafoxartpdx #artandaboutpdx #portlandartscene #closelooking

Domestic Topographies, Colin Kippen 📍 Well Well Projects, 8371 N Interstate Ave. #1 🗓️ January 3 - February 1, 2026 ✨Opening reception First Saturday Dec 6 from 5-8pm ⏳ Hours: Sat-Sun 12-5 p.m. 🆓 to the public Colin Kippen presents new sculptural work for his first solo exhibition as a member of Well Well Projects. His brightly painted castings of everyday textures (like the embroidered stitching on a mattress or the quilted pattern of an oven mitt) emit an ethereal glow that beckons a closer look. Kippen is interested in the relationship the body has to everyday things we interact with. He is drawn to objects that envelope, protect, or support the body in the elapsed time of daily activities like relaxing, sharing a meal with family, cooking, or sleeping. Each sculpture memorializes these daily routines, presenting the viewer with a brightly colored facsimile of textures and forms.

Already Been Chewed, Wynter Jones 📍 Imperfecta, 117 6th street, Oregon City OR 97045 🗓️ Dec 6-27, 2025 ✨Opening reception Dec 6-27 5-7 pm ⏳ Hours: Wed-Friday, 11am-4pm and Saturday, 11am-5pm 🆓 to the public Drawing from her early experiences growing up within the Mormon faith, this body of work unearths embedded memories—some tender, others painful, many absurd—that continue to revisit her internal landscape 25 years later. Rather than presenting a linear narrative, this body of work wanders, stumbles, and circles back on itself, mimicking the nonlinear nature of memory and the way it persists or dissipates. Through drawing and painting, she attempts to shape the intangible and blurred impressions that persist long after the doctrine has been rejected and abandoned. What emerges is more than a denunciation of patriarchy, but a complex act of witnessing. Already Been Chewed sits with the discomfort, the absurdity, and the ambiguity of what remains. It asks: What stays with us, even when we think we’ve moved on? What narratives and past beliefs do we internalize, and how do they continue to echo in our body? @imperfectaxyz @wynterjonesart #imperfectaxyz #darialoicurator #portlandartist

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