The Portland Art Gallery Where Age Is an Asset
Geezer Gallery is invested in the notion that art benefits from a little—OK, threescore years of—lived experience. Unlike most galleries, which exclusively promote the work of serious practicing artists, the Geezer Gallery is also part arts center, sponsoring a slew of art therapy events and classes, often in partnerships around town. One of the organization’s goals is to engage art’s ability to sustain faculties and brain function as we age. In its exhibition space, the gallery shows the work of lifelong practicing artists and late bloomers alike.
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Image: Courtesy Geezer Gallery
Farooq Hassan
After a long career as an artist and art teacher in Baghdad, Hassan fled the Iraq War and moved to the US in 2010; he’s since been building his stateside reputation from scratch.
Image: Courtesy Geezer Gallery
Dianne Jean Erickson
A retired Silicon Valley graphic designer and marketer, Erickson decamped to Oregon in 2001, where she’s found more time to pursue her encaustic paintings.
Image: Courtesy Geezer Gallery
Ross Mercer
The primary focus of Mercer’s abstract acrylic paintings is how we perceive and experience color, a pursuit informed and inspired by his former career as a physicist.
Image: Courtesy Geezer Gallery
Thomas Rawdon
An interior architecture designer by day, many of Rawdon’s acrylic paintings draw on his fascination with the art of coachbuilt cars—pre-1960s, many cars required a custom-fabricated auto body, having come out of the factory with a mere engine and chassis.
Image: Courtesy Geezer Gallery
Candyce Scott
Scott began making her glass-like mobiles and jewelry in the ’00s at Portland Community College, after beating a decades-long battle with drug addiction. Pictured is a permanent installation at the First Unitarian Church in downtown Portland.
Image: Courtesy Geezer Gallery
Liz Thoresen
Thoresen turned to painting acrylic landscape and abstract canvases full-time in the mid-2000s, following a career teaching high school art, and another running a veterinary clinic.
