Johanna Houska, To illuminate (detail), 2023, Ceramic tile, indigo, Tencel, banana fiber, 36 x 10 inches, © Johanna Houska, Courtesy of the artist
PORTLAND, OR -- The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University is
pleased to present the Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize exhibition from February 28 –
April 29, 2023. A public reception will be held on Thursday, March 2, 2023, from 5 – 7
pm. To mark the prizes’ decade-long establishment, please join the PSU School of Art +
Design in celebrating the work of our 2022 Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize recipients:
Johanna Houska (BFA Art Practice, ‘22), Shelbie Loomis (MFA Art + Social Practice,
‘22), and Nia Musiba (BFA Graphic Design ‘22).
“As a leader of art and culture in Portland, my late mother Arlene inspired my
lifelong passion for art and the desire to share art from my collections with
diverse audiences. This annual prize is a fantastic opportunity to honor her
memory and legacy while lifting up the next generation of artists. Congratulations
to this year’s recipients! We look forward to following your careers and enjoying
your art for years to come!” said Jordan Schnitzer, President of the Harold and
Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation.
PSU School of Art + Design is extraordinarily grateful to the Harold and Arlene
Schnitzer CARE Foundation for their support in creating the Arlene Schnitzer Visual
Arts Prize. It was established by Arlene Schnitzer in 2013 to recognize student
achievement in the School of Art + Design and to raise awareness of the quality of art
education at PSU. To learn more about how the Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize has
offered PSU students a springboard for a career in the arts please visit
pdx.edu/arts/news/arts-artists-making
About the Recipients
Johanna Houska (she/her) received her CHE in Fashion from London College of
Fashion in 2018 and her BFA in Art Practice from Portland State University in 2022. In
her practice, Houska specializes in developing textiles for use in garments, furniture,
and fine art. Houska aims to utilize a radically responsible perspective on textile design
and application through ethical and sustainable sourcing, design, and construction. A
strong belief system guides her work that design and craft are tools for problem-solving,
as a way of recognizing and questioning what materials can bridge our relationship to
nature, and improve connections between people and products.
Networks considers how textiles can establish links between objects of varying utility.
Each piece in this series is connected through its materials and techniques but differs in
use and visual narrative. The physicality of the textiles elevates how these handmade
pieces can communicate craft while serving a purpose on our bodies or in our space.
This body of work considers craft as webs between design and functionality, and textiles
as the means of storytelling.
Shelbie Loomis (she/her) is a neurodivergent social practice and studio artist. Since
graduating with her MFA in Art + Social Practice from Portland State University, she has
founded Park Arts AIR of Jantzen Beach on Hayden Island, North Portland. Her artwork
explores the Hayden Island community and history, the value of time and labor,
relationship building, and grief. She uses her drawings and digital 3D rendering to
explore the ephemera of her engagement with her neighbors in hopes that it will bring
attention to the lives of a changing neighborhood.
Park Arts AIR of Jantzen Beach is an arts organization founded by Shelbie Loomis as a
continuation of a socially engaged art project called The Art We Value (2022). Loomis
continues her collaborations with the residents of Hayden Island by highlighting
neighbors in the RV Park & Mobile Home Community to cultivate public programming
for others to share. By activating her neighbors as artists that already reside on the
island, she aims to bring community recognition and value to their passions and
publically celebrate the people living on an island under gentrification threat.
Nia Musiba (she/they) is a multidisciplinary creative based in Portland, Oregon with a
lifelong commitment to diversifying art and design spaces. Since 2019, this has
manifested primarily in community-based projects, public art, and taking up space within
her personal practice in an attempt to inspire other people who hold marginalized
identities to take up space of their own. Nia is interested in collaboration,
experimentation, question-asking, friend-making, and above all else, dreaming big. She
views her depictions of Black and brown bodies as a way to reclaim the tenderness and
complexities of her own identity as well as an opportunity to hold space for other people
of color who historically have been misrepresented in overly flattened, brutalized, and
hyper-sexualized ways within art and media.
This is A Sign explores the human instinct to seek out signs as a way to place meaning
on otherwise arbitrary words, symbols, and circumstances in the pursuit of finding
answers. In questioning what a sign is, or can be, it allows space to consider instead
what signs do for us. Through this series of posters, objects, and found images, This is
A Sign invites viewers to experience signs for all that they are – deeply specific yet
somehow universal, intensely meaningful yet completely meaningless, childish and
intellectual and exciting and mundane and everything in-between.
The Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation
The Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation was established in 1998 as a result
of the sale of the historic Claremont Hotel, which provided the Schnitzer family a way to
support the community that long supported them. Harold, Arlene, and Jordan always
believed in the importance of giving back and the family is honored to join those who
also believe that the riches of our cities are our citizens and the cultural, social,
religious, educational, and medical institutions that provide so much for all of us!
The mission of the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation is to support arts &
culture, youth, education, medical, social services, and community activities that
enhance the quality of life for the citizens in the community. The Foundation operates
two programs: The Care to Share program which anonymously serves low-income and
medically fragile children and their families through a partnership with Oregon Health &
Sciences University. And CommuniCare, the Foundation’s primary operating program,
which was established to encourage youth philanthropy.
For more information on the Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation please visit
www.schnitzercare.org
PSU School of Art + Design
Driven by a belief in the power of art to shape society, Portland State University's
School of Art + Design and its dynamic faculty provide a place where emerging artists,
designers, and art historians can question, create, reflect and learn. With over 1,100
undergraduate majors, a vibrant and growing graduate program, a faculty of
internationally recognized artists, designers, and scholars, PSU's School of Art + Design
brings students from a variety of backgrounds together to exchange ideas and cross
conventional aesthetic boundaries. Whether in the studio, computer lab, lecture hall, or
working in the community via internships, service projects, exhibitions, and
collaborations, our students have the opportunity to forge connections between
traditions of visual art and their own developing expression.
pdx.edu/art-design
JSMA at PSU
Located in downtown Portland on the South Park Blocks, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum
of Art at Portland State University opened its 7,500 square foot space in November
2019. Developed as a cultural hub for university students, the Portland community, and
visitors to the city, the museum aspires to make art and culture accessible to new
audiences through engaging programs and exhibitions that feature local, national, and
international artists. The museum provides free admission year-round to all visitors.
WHAT: Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize
WHEN: February 28 – April 29, 2023
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 2, 5-7pm
Museum Hours
Tuesday: 11 am – 5 pm
Wednesday: 11 am – 5 pm
Thursday: 11 am – 7 pm
Friday: 11 am – 5 pm
Saturday: 11 am – 5 pm
Sunday: Closed
Monday: Closed
Please check the website for updates.
Information is available online at www.pdx.edu/museum-of-art/
Social
Instagram: @psu_museum_of_art
Facebook:@JSMAatPSU