Global Icons, Local Spotlight: Contemporary Art from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer, puts some of the most recognizable names in modern and contemporary art in the galleries of the Portland Art Museum. The exhibition highlights the collection of Oregon’s foremost fine art collector while giving local audiences rare access to more than 65 works by artists who shape—and continue to shape—the art world.

Wide-ranging and with a huge breadth of art, visitors encounter iconic works by mid-20th-century masters such as Jasper Johns, Helen Frankenthaler, Ellsworth Kelly, and Robert Rauschenberg alongside dazzling creations by contemporary heavyweights including Nick Cave, Mickalene Thomas, and Hank Willis Thomas. 

Making the exhibition possible is Jordan Schnitzer, a Portland native, business leader, and internationally recognized collector. Named to the ARTnews Top 200 list of global collectors, Schnitzer makes it his mission to share his collection with the widest possible audience. Through the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, he lends work to museums and cultural institutions across the country. For him, exhibition is both deeply personal and civic-minded.

“Instead of traveling to New York City to go to MoMA or the Whitney, all you have to do is visit the Portland Art Museum,” Schnitzer says. “Each year, when I collect new works, I think about how to share them. My hope is that they inspire audiences who might not otherwise have the opportunity to see these amazing artists.”

The lineup reflects Schnitzer’s expansive vision of what contemporary art is and can be. Visitors see paintings, sculptures, photography, textiles, glass, ceramics, and mixed-media works from an impressive roster: Roy Lichtenstein, Jeff Koons, Judy Chicago, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Julie Mehretu, Dinh Q. Lê, Tschabalala Self, and many more. The exhibition’s inclusivity is also notable, with a strong emphasis on women, Native American, Black, and other artists of color—voices that continue to reshape both the local and global art conversation. Among the show’s highlights is Christopher Myers’ Let the Mermaids Flirt with Me, a luminous chapel-like installation of stained glass paintings in lightboxes, on view only once before since debuting at Art Basel Miami in 2022. 

Global Icons, Local Spotlight opens amid the Museum’s much-anticipated campus expansion (opening November 20), a transformation that adds nearly 100,000 square feet of gallery and public space. With these new facilities, the Museum offers fresh ways for visitors to connect with its growing collection—and this fall’s exhibitions set the tone for what’s to come.

VISIT 

Hours
Wednesday to Sunday - 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
*Beginning Nov. 25, Tuesday to Sunday - 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Tickets
Free Members
Free Children 17 and under
$25 Adults
$22 Seniors 62+ and college students
Free First Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. (except Nov. 6 and Dec. 4)
Free Community Days, November 20 - 23

*Beginning November 1
$27.50 Adults
$24.50 Seniors (62+)
$22.50 Students (18+ with ID)
$24.50 Adult Groups (12 or more)