Opening Reception: Wednesday, August 25th from 6-8 PM

Open hours: Thursday - Friday, and Saturday 11am - 6pm & by appointment

Prototypes is a physical container for the discussions, debates, reflections, and questions posed by Converge 45’s Portland’s Monuments & Memorials Project (PMMP), which for the past eight months has brought people together to consider the conditions and impacts of public monuments, including those that have been removed and those that should be built.

Gathered into a 5,000 sq foot space in Northwest Portland, this exhibition assembles over 30 artists, displaying a mixture of artworks, projects, and proposals. Prototypes highlights Oregon artists engaged in the national reckoning of our markers of history that compound racial injustice and social inequity. The exhibition contextualizes their work within past reflections on critical history within our shifting relationship to the violence of the American experiment. Also included in Prototypes is a selection of ideas shared with Converge 45 through its Open Call, which collected  ideas for new and re-envisioned monuments and memorials. We asked respondents:

What is an appropriate monument or memorial for this time and place? What monument or memorial would you want in your neighborhood?

A broad cross-section of the community has submitted ideas and proposals: Indigenous tribal communities, artists, disabilities rights activists, neighborhood associations, and other groups and individual community members.

During the six-week exhibition there will be online and public events that dive deeper into specific topics and perspectives regarding civic memory and the markers of the past, present, and future. Dates to be announced in August.

Artists include: Natalie Ball & Shirod Younker, Sandow Birk, Jodie Cavalier, Roland Dahwen, Tannaz Farsi, Steph Littlebird Fogel, Garrick Imatani, Baseera Khan, Nate Lewis, Malik Lovette, rubén garcía marrufo, Alan Michelson, Tabitha Nikolai, Deborah Oropallo and Andy Rappaport, Jess Perlitz, Trevino Brings Plenty, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Gregory Sholette, Sara Siestreem, Melanie Stevens, Marie Watt, Paula Wilson, and more to be determined. Artist bios are available upon request.

Portland’s Monuments & Memorials Project is an initiative of Converge 45, with guidance from Converge 45’s Curatorial Committee and the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) Public Art Committee, co-organized by Mack McFarland and Jess Perlitz. 

Prototypes is sponsored by The Specht Companies. 

Portland’s Monuments & Memorials Project is made possible by a grant from The Ford Family Foundation and additional support from the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) and the Cooley Memorial Art Gallery at Reed College.