Gallery Hopping in Portland Oregon
so basically a perfect day
It starts with a lazy day—when you feel like you need to do something but can’t figure out what. No one is available, and you don’t want to spend money. It’s 2 p.m. on a Saturday you usually never have off. You can finally go and do the weekend things you normally can’t.
Here’s how my rare Saturday off went:
Behind The Museum Cafe
I got an iced matcha from Behind the Museum Cafe, a go-to Japanese cafe behind the Portland Art Museum (shocking).
HI Books
The first stop was HI Books, a few blocks from the cafe, and a recent find through Instagram. It is probably one of the smallest artbook stores I’ve ever visited, but she is FULL. There are mostly photobooks and zines here, but they also have a small gallery in this space! At the time I went, they were showing Paarsa Hajari’s show Heartsing, a photo series centered around growth as a form of “photo notation”
ily2
A recommendation from the owner of HI Books was my next spot, ily2. ily2 is a gallery and program that focuses on art access and underrepresented groups. The show at this time was Designing Women, a presentation of new work by Melanie Flood and Matt Morris, a mixed media show critiquing the question: what is a woman?
Blue Sky Gallery
Back on track, I went to Blue Sky Gallery to check out the photographs by Ivan McLellan that I had seen earlier from the Juneteenth Rodeo in Oregon. Upon arriving at the gallery there was a print sale going on in front of the entire show. Nonetheless, the images that I had seen were even more stunning on a larger scale. The show Eight Seconds documents western lifestyles of black men and women across the states.
This gallery also had a couple of other shows going on in other rooms (the Polaroid below that I cannot remember the artist’s name) AND a library of art books.
Lumber Room
Once I finally found Lumber Room the space was stunning. It seems as though it used to be an apartment turned gallery (it looks like a garage and residential door). The show at the time was Full Body Parentheses by Math Bass, a sculptural installation and overall experience. As someone who loves stripes and primary colors, this show was everything I could have ever needed.
Stelo
The last stop was Stelo with a group show A Mouth Holds Many Things, which accompanied an anthology by the same title. The exhibition featured visual-textual works of 12 artists in the book.
Now there would be more photos, there were a lot of pieces I liked but alas I was out too long and my phone died.
There are a few other galleries around Portland that I was unable to see these days, but I was able to go a few days later:
Industry One
First is Industry One which is located downtown but unfortunately, closed on Saturdays.
The exhibition I was able to see was on by Raul Urias called Infinite Human. Showing from small drawings to large-scale paintings, Raul Urias shows his skill and combination of cultural elements with different styles of art.
Nationale
Nationale is one of my favorite galleries and bookstores in Portland. My last time there they opened up a back room where they exhibit works of multiple artists.
The show in the main room was Charlie Salas-Humara’s Somewhere Off 290, an ode to memories cherished and memories forgotten
Nucleus
Nucleus is another gallery and print shop I was shown and I 100% recommend visiting. At the time I had gone, they were showing the work of Bill Rebholz, but they’re always showing some awesome work and selling prints from past shows and other artists.
This is an old piece that took me a WHILE to write because, well, I moved which most of you know, but if you are ever in Portland or bored in Portland these are some great places to check out. Or if you’re not in Portland, gallery hop in whatever city you’re in.
Hopefully, we will be back in the swing of things a bit, I would love to slowly start kicking things off again, so bear with! We’ve got some things coming!