News

Marie Watt’s solo exhibition, Storywork: The Prints of Marie Watt, From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, opens at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University on August 26 - December 6, 2025.

“Multimedia artist Marie Watt is a storyteller. As a member of the Seneca Nation (one of six Indigenous nations that form the Haudenosaunee Confederacy) with German-Scots ancestry, she tells stories that draw from both Native and non-Native traditions: Greco-Roman myth, pop music and Pop art, Indigenous oral narratives, Star Wars and Star Trek. 
Watt reminds us of the stories told by her Seneca ancestors: how the world came to be; what we have to learn from animals; our ethical obligations to the planet, as well as to past and future generations. She tells stories about humble, everyday materials and objects—blankets, quilts, corn husks, letters, ladders, dream catchers—that carry intimate meanings and memories. 

Over the course of her career, Watt has told these stories through prints. The collaborative printmaking process is consistent with Watt’s desire to build communities through art and storytelling. The stories the prints tell are personal, cultural, and universal, dealing with elemental themes including shelter, dreams, the earth and sky, the cosmos. 

As a Klamath elder once told her: “My story changes when I know your story.”

Since this exhibition debuted in 2022, Marie Watt’s repertoire of stories has continued to expand and grow. In our presentation of the exhibition at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University, we have the privilege of including new work Watt has created over the past three years, including Forest Shifts Light (Sequoia, Crest, Canopy) 2025, a jingle cloud commissioned for this presentation. We are further honored to present this exhibition in Watt’s hometown—she was born in the Pacific Northwest and has called Portland home for almost thirty years.”

For more information: https://sites.google.com/pdx.edu/jsma-at-psu/storywork-the-prints-of-marie-watt?authuser=0

Storywork: The Prints of Marie Watt, From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation
August 26 - December 6, 2025

Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University
1855 SW Broadway
Portland, OR 97201

Marie Watt's solo exhibition MARIE WATT: Tuning to the Sounds of the Skies is now open at The Gund

"Marie Watt’s installations are created—and lifted—by many hands. Suspended above us, her sculptures invite us not only to look, but to gather, breathe, and take part. Inspired by the Coast Salish story Lifting the Sky, as shared by Vi Hilbert of the Upper Skagit tribe, Watt reminds us of a powerful lesson: that even in moments of fragmentation, people can come together. In the story, the sky has begun to press down on the world, dimming the light and overwhelming life below. The people, though separated by different languages, find one word they can share: yəhaw̓—to proceed, to move forward, to do. United by breath, intention, and rhythm, they lift the sky.

MARIE WATT: Tuning to the Sounds of the Skies
July 9 - December 14, 2025
The Gund
Kenyon College.
101 1/2 College Drive
Gambier, Ohio 43022

For more information: https://www.thegund.org/exhibitions/marie-watt-tuning-to-the-sounds-of-the-skies

We are looking forward to James Lavadour’s retrospective- James Lavadour: Land of Origin, curated by Danielle Knapp, opening at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon on August 9, 2025.

“James Lavadour: Land of Origin presents the most comprehensive survey to date of works by painter and printmaker James Lavadour (Walla Walla). Spanning five decades of work, this national retrospective celebrates Lavadour’s deep connection to the eastern Oregon landscape, particularly the Umatilla Indian Reservation and surrounding Blue Mountains region where the artist has spent most of his life, and recognizes his esteemed place in contemporary American painting. The exhibition includes nearly thirty of Lavadour’s magnificent signature grid paintings, works on individual panels, and prints, most of which have never been exhibited together. It will draw on significant loans from the artist, major museum collections, and private lenders. Recognizing one of Oregon and the nation’s most original and powerful artists, James Lavadour: Land of Origin will also be accompanied by a full catalogue.

The exhibition catalogue for James Lavadour: Land of Origin includes essays by exhibition curator and JSMA McCosh Curator Danielle Knapp and guest writers Meagan Atiyeh, Rebecca Dobkins, and Marie Watt; an interview with Lavadour and JSMA Executive Director John Weber; a fully illustrated checklist with additional images of representative works; and a comprehensive artist’s CV.”

For more information visit: https://jsma.uoregon.edu/art/exhibition/james-lavadour-land-origin

James Lavadour: Land of Origin
Coeta and Donald Barker Changing Exhibitions Gallery
August 9, 2025 - January 11, 2026'

Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
University of Oregon
1430 Johnson Lane 
Eugene, OR 97403

Marjorie Dial's work is featured in the new issue of ARCADE NW and included in accompanying show LOOM, at Muutus Studio.

"Issue 42.1: Materiality will be released alongside a specially curated exhibition of work from national artists, centering the themes of material and material use.

Issue 42.1: Materiality
Co-edited by John Parman & Camilla Szabo
Design by Finnegan Schneider

Issue 42.1: Materiality centers around critical discourse on architecture and the built environment, materials and sustainability in relation to a rapidly advancing world, and ephemeral works relating to scent, photography, textile, and sculpture. Themes include tactile engagement with the natural world, craft as a record of time, the role of technology in material understanding, and Indigenous fables on timber, territory & extractivism.

Materiality is a rich, sweeping theme which can’t be contained by one literal definition. It can include the ephemeral—scent, a shadow, an echo... It can be the poetry of architecture, or a photograph which leaves a trace of a history—or obstructs history altogether. It can be a clay vessel casting an incantation, acting as both a transmitter and receiver. Or the discolored patina on a hand painted cabinet after years of wear, each door a slightly different shade than the rest.

Featured print journal contributors include Saul Becker, Kim Clements, Madeline Cotton, Lisa Di Donato, Marjorie Dial, Lydia Felty, Rocky Hanish, Noor Hiyeri, Peiting Li, Claire Needs, Garrett Nelli, Meg Partridge, Andrew Rabeneck, Anne-Catrin Schultz, Katrina Spade, Madeleine Stearns, Loren Supp, and Nina Wigfall.

Art Opening: Featuring work by Saul Becker, Imogen Cunningham, Lisa Di Donato, Marjorie Dial, and Jessie Homer French."

https://www.arcadenw.org/

Mutuus Studio 

6118 12th Ave S

Iván Carmona and James Lavadour both have work included in Color Outside the Lines, opening August 19 at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Washington State University.

Color Outside the Lines from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation examines the ways artists have used color to question institutions, beliefs, and expectations. Some of the artists included here celebrate and amplify colors intrinsic to their cultures, showcasing beauty once dismissed or rendered invisible.

Artists like Faith Ringgold and Christopher Myers, for instance, create works inspired by African quilts and stories; these pieces emphasize the vivid contrasts in color often prevalent in African textiles. Other artists employ color to confront stereotypes and subvert expectations. Derrick Adams’s Eye Candy (2022) incorporates images of a Black man wearing brightly colored leotards; these images are borrowed from 1970s underwear advertisements, prompting contemplation of ideas around masculinity, sexuality, and who is considered worthy of being portrayed.

Color Outside the Lines
August 19, 2025 – March 14, 2026
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at WSU
1535 NE Wilson Road
Washington State University
Pullman, WA 99164

Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm

For more information: https://museum.wsu.edu/exhibit/2025-color-outside-the-lines/

Seattle Art Fair 
July 17 - 20, 2025
Booth #C05

Lumen Field Event Center 
800 Occidental Ave S 
Seattle, WA 98134 

We are pleased to be returning to Seattle Art Fair and to have the opportunity see old friends and meet new ones. Our booth will be filled with exciting new work by gallery and invited artists. 

Please join us as a guest with complimentary tickets, courtesy of PDX CONTEMPORARY ART. 

The pass will grant you access to the fair during the following hours:        

Opening Night

Thursday, July 17, 2025: 6— 9pm

Public Hours

Friday, July 18, 2025: 11am — 7pm
Saturday, July 19, 2025: 11am — 7pm

Sunday, July 20, 2025: 11am — 6pm
 

The gallery will be closed on Friday, July 4 for the holiday.

Marie Watt's work is included in Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969, curated by Candice Hopkins (Carcross/Tagish First Nation), at the Mackenzie Art Gallery, May 23, 2025 – September 21, 2025.

"Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969 is the first large-scale exhibition of its kind to centre performance and theatre as an origin point for the development of contemporary art by Native American, First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and Alaska Native artists, beginning with the role that Indigenous artists have played in the self-determination era, sparked by the Occupation of Alcatraz by the Indians of All Tribes in 1969. Native artists then and now are at the vanguard of performance art practices and discourse. As part of Indian Theater, their work uses humour as a strategy for cultural critique and reflection, parses the inherent relationships between objecthood and agency, and frequently complicates representations of the Native body through signalling the body’s absence and presence via clothing, blanketing, and adornment. In the exhibition, song, dance, and music are also posited as a basis for collectivity and resistance and a means to speak back to a time when Native traditional ceremony and public gatherings were illegal in both the United States and Canada. In addition to artworks, the exhibition includes important archival material documenting the emergence of the New Native Theater movement in Santa Fe in 1969 as well as materials directly related to the early self-determination era."

For more information: https://mackenzie.art/exhibition/indian-theater-native-performance-art-and-self-determination-since-1969/

Matt Watt's work Sky Dances Light (Forest) IV, Sky Dances Light (Forest) V, and Sky Dances Light (Forest) VI will be included in  “Making a Noise: Indigenous Sound Art” at the Shelburne Museum (Shelburne, VT) opening Saturday, June 21st - October 26th. This group show merges sound and textile design to explore connections between humans and the nonhuman world. Indigenous artists explore this connection through interactive, multisensory works that honor artistic histories and speak to contemporary issues.

"Although they are often treated as separate artistic mediums, sound and textiles are inextricably linked: the swish of silk, rustle of cotton, or scratch of tulle all bring to mind memories of textiles that have spoken their presence. Today, prominent Indigenous artists are making art at the intersection of sound and textile design. They draw on historic forms to create complex, culturally pressing work. Many of these works are interactive, allowing visitors to both feel and hear the layered meanings."

Making a Noise: Indigenous Sound Art
Shelburne Museum
June 21 - October 26, 2025

For more information: https://shelburnemuseum.org/exhibition/making-a-noise/

Ellen George and Adam Sorensen both have work featured in Through the Light: The Sublime in Contemporary Northwest Art, curated by Chloe Dye Sherpe, at the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner Washington.

"The Pacific Northwest is often synonymous with nature, but what is it about the landscape that inspires such an emotional, intuitive, and often immediate response? The artists included in Through the Light: The Sublime in Contemporary Northwest Art all view nature through a unique lens tied to various elements found in our world: light, water, earth, and energy. Organized by the phases of light that drew artists to the Skagit Valley, the exhibition is rooted in the idea that nature can be felt and so often stirs a deep response that resonates and connects."

Through the Light: The Sublime in Contemporary Northwest Art

Museum of Northwest Art

June 28, 2025 - September 28, 2025
 

For more information: https://www.monamuseum.org/through-the-light