Visual Art

from the archive

Making a Scene

Gallery gal Elizabeth Leach has spent 25 years getting Portland’s art crowd up to speed.

02/13/2026 By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore

gimme five

5 Oregon-Made Comics to Know

Northwest Museum of Cartoon Arts’ Michael Rosen shares his essential list of superheroes, war journalism, and redrawn American classics.

01/26/2026 By Alex Frane

arts & crafts

The Old-School Japanese Printer Bringing Portland Artists Offline

How an ’80s office printer called the Risograph became a zeitgeisty, analog tool for art prints.

12/23/2025 By Isabel Lemus Kristensen

At the Gallery

Christmas Special: The Gay Folk Art of Jeffry Mitchell

With a Tannenbaum and fireplace, the Portland artist leverages folk art’s autobiographical traces to celebrate queer home life.

12/11/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

at the gallery

At 50, Blue Sky Gallery Still Believes in Photography

Portland’s international photo gallery has been one of the art form’s biggest players since day one.

12/04/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

Profile

Ralph Pugay Is Troubling Paradise

The Portland artist’s collages capture the fractured beauty of his own queer, immigrant experience.

11/13/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

Institutions

10 Must-Visit Museums in Portland

Museum-hopping without leaving city limits, from OMSI to the Zymoglyphic Museum.

11/11/2025 By Conner Reed and Matthew Trueherz

At the Museum

A Bike Path Now Runs Through the Portland Art Museum

PAM’s $111 million expansion is named for Mark Rothko instead of a benefactor and designed for Portlanders over tourists.

10/20/2025 By Matthew Trueherz Photography by Michael Novak

Arts Preview

Art Gallery and Museum Shows to See in Portland This Fall

An Ursula K. Le Guin exhibition, TBA, hagfish slime sculptures, and several very punk-rock women of hybrid identity.

08/06/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

I♥NY

What Portland’s First New York Art Gallery Means for the City

Is ILY2’s Manhattan outpost a local pipeline to the international art world?

08/01/2025 By Justin Duyao

Arts Preview

6 Art Gallery and Museum Shows to See in Portland This Summer

An archival feminist exhibit, Eugene’s “lesbian mecca,” 50 years of trans photography, and more.

05/13/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

the art world

Jess Ackerman: Between Making Art and ‘Making It’

Despite their ecstatically bright still lifes, the Portland painter is happiest lurking in the shadows.

04/28/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

talking trash

Artist-in-Residence, at the Dump

In the annual Glean program, artists rehash the city’s refuse. “Maybe this trash isn’t trash,” says the program manager.

04/16/2025 By Jaydra Johnson

at the gallery

Dinh Q. Lê’s Art Captured the Experience of Assimilation

At Elizabeth Leach Gallery, three decades of the internationally renowned Vietnamese American artist’s work juxtapose propaganda and documentary.

03/13/2025 By Jason N. Le

arts preview

5 Art Gallery and Museum Shows to See in Portland This Spring

More Monet at PAM, Dinh Q. Lê’s anti-propaganda, and the Holocaust’s long shadow.

02/11/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

at the museum

Please, Play with the Art

A new show at PSU’s Schnitzer museum celebrates play as a critical life force, and a means of political resistance.

01/30/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

All of the Lights

For the 10th Portland Winter Light Festival, Artists Look Forward

Since 2016, the Portland Winter Light Festival has illuminated the city with dramatic sculptures and interactive installations. This year, it imagines the future.

01/13/2025 By Brooke Jackson-Glidden

year in review

Portland Artists and Curators on their Favorite Shows from 2024

The art world moves fast. These are the shows that left their mark in the past year.

12/23/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

Arts Preview

6 Art Gallery and Museum Shows to See in Portland This Winter

The season breaks from the regular art-going schedule, with a play-themed museum show, otherworldly paintings, and a chess party.

11/21/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

art review

Jeremy Okai Davis Paints the Complex Legacy of Black Performance

Past and present, vaudeville to Pryor to Kendrick, the stage has been a fraught mix of expression and oppression.

11/15/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

Portland Monthly

Visual Art

Making a Scene

5 Oregon-Made Comics to Know

The Old-School Japanese Printer Bringing Portland Artists Offline

Christmas Special: The Gay Folk Art of Jeffry Mitchell

At 50, Blue Sky Gallery Still Believes in Photography

Ralph Pugay Is Troubling Paradise

10 Must-Visit Museums in Portland

A Bike Path Now Runs Through the Portland Art Museum

Art Gallery and Museum Shows to See in Portland This Fall

What Portland’s First New York Art Gallery Means for the City

Popular Content

Making a Scene

10 Must-Visit Museums in Portland

Dinh Q. Lê’s Art Captured the Experience of Assimilation

Ralph Pugay Is Troubling Paradise

The Old-School Japanese Printer Bringing Portland Artists Offline

The Portland Winter Light Festival Sets the City Aglow

6 Art Gallery and Museum Shows to See in Portland This Summer

Jess Ackerman: Between Making Art and ‘Making It’

Artist-in-Residence, at the Dump

Dinh Q. Lê’s Art Captured the Experience of Assimilation

5 Art Gallery and Museum Shows to See in Portland This Spring

Please, Play with the Art

For the 10th Portland Winter Light Festival, Artists Look Forward

Portland Artists and Curators on their Favorite Shows from 2024

6 Art Gallery and Museum Shows to See in Portland This Winter

Jeremy Okai Davis Paints the Complex Legacy of Black Performance

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