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Finding Our Way


  • lumber room 419 Northwest 9th Avenue Portland, OR, 97209 United States (map)

Over the past 10 years the lumber room has established itself as a meeting ground, exhibition space and private residence, with a goal of creating access and community around a shared interest in the arts. Our current exhibition aims to highlight the idea of the lumber room as a place in-between roles; a site that strives for domestic comfort while inviting discourse around contemporary art. Finding Our Way explores the collection as a point of entry for understanding the person who built it, Sarah Miller Meigs, and the artists and ideas she supports. 

With an intention of engaging the collection within the setting of a home, this exhibit will experiment with informal modes of display and a regular rotation of work being moved in and throughout the space. 

Finding Our Way continues with work by: Joseph Beuys, Kathy Butterly, Vaginal Davis, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, Nan Goldin, Lonnie Holley, Sheree Hovsepian, Johanna Jackson, Tomashi Jackson, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Martha Jungwirth, Stanya Kahn, Deana Lawson, Ruth Laskey, Zoe Leonard, Jasmine Little, Alice Mackler, Nevine Mahmoud, Anna Maria Maiolino, Dave McKenzie, Ana Mendieta, Helen Mirra, Ragen Moss, Kate Newby, Cornelia Parker, Laure Prouvost, Mary Obering, Jennifer Rochlin, Susan Rothenberg, Su-Mei Tse, Arlene Shechet, Carrie Mae Weems, Hannah Wilke and Jesse Wine.

In addition to the rotating art on view, Finding Our Way also includes a contemporary film program with visiting works from both regional and international new media artists. This month we are honored to share Lonnie Holley’s digital film I Snuck Off the Slave Ship, 2018 (20 min). Directed by Lonnie Holley and Cyrus Moussavi, I Snuck Off the Slave Ship is the first time Holley, an acclaimed visual artist and musician, has directed a film. Built from the scraps of his life and sci-fi alternative realities, this short film is an assemblage of Lonnie’s encounters with the slave ship “America” and a testament to imagination as resistance. As the phantoms of historical trauma collide with the advancement of technology, Lonnie’s efforts to memorialize and preserve converge with his own physical metamorphosis into memory and digital abstraction. Shot around Lonnie’s home in Atlanta, GA. the film features cameo appearances by gospel legend Theotis Taylor and the Edeliegba Senior Dance Ensemble. 

Images of the current exhibit are now online, and we are hosting visitors by appointment through the holiday season. All appointments are single party visits, doors open and mask required.