News

Ellen George is a 2024 recipient of the SOLA Award.

Founded in 2016 by Seattle artist Ginny Ruffner and funded by her friends’ generous contributions, the SOLA (Support Old Lady Artist) Awards are five unrestricted awards of $5,000 given annually to Washington State female-identified visual artists, age 60 or over, who have dedicated 25 years or more to creating art. These awards recognize artistic excellence, professional accomplishment, and longstanding dedication to the visual arts.

You can learn more about the award and the recipients here: https://artisttrust.org/2024-th-sola-awards-recipients/

Congratulations, Ellen!

Georgina Reskala will be in conversation with artist Lisa Kokin on Thursday, August 22, 2024, at 11:30am at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, CA. Georgina's work is currently on included in the California Jewish Open on view at the museum through October 20, 2024.

"In this in-gallery talk, artists Lisa Kokin and Georgina Reskala, whose works are featured in the California Jewish Open, discuss their artwork and creative processes. Kokin, known for her fiber-based art and commentary on social justice, and Reskala, whose work deals with ideas of memory, history, and the power of narrative, will explore their artistic practice and how their Jewish heritage influences their art.
Join us to explore how these two artists engage in storytelling through diverse materials and techniques, humor, and empathy."

For more information: https://www.thecjm.org/programs/1359

Jeffry Mitchell's work is included in Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture now on view at the Seattle Art Museum through September 2, 2024.

"Poke in the Eye celebrates the aesthetic practices that emerged across the West Coast in the 1960s and ’70s. Reacting against the sleekness, formality, and coldness of East Coast movements like Pop Art and minimalism, artists on the West Coast—particularly in Seattle and the Bay Area—began creating artwork that was intentionally offbeat. These artists used traditional craft techniques and bold color, centered figuration and narrative, and often employed an irreverent sense of humor. Poke in the Eye draws primarily on SAM’s collection to present an inclusive view of this countercultural style that continues to reverberate today.

Poke in the Eye is the first major exhibition curated entirely for SAM by Carrie Dedon, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. Working within the museum’s collection, Dedon brings together compelling examples of these works that together shed fresh light on art movements distinct to the West Coast and its artistic community. Poke in the Eye incorporates works by renowned Northwest artists including Patti Warashina, Fay Jones, and Howard Kottler, whose innovative and playfully garish creations provided the foundations of this alternative movement, as well as more recent artworks by Jeffry Mitchell and Woody De Othello, whose contemporary sculptures have revived a global interest in craft and ceramic art."

For more information visit the Seattle Art Museum website: https://seattleartmuseum.org/exhibitions/pokeintheeye

Blake Andrews interviews Prudence Roberts about the photographer and curator ,Terry Toedtemeier's, work, approach, and legacy for Oregon Artswatch.

"Terry Toedtemeier (1947-2008) was an Oregon-based photographer and curator. His work is the subject of two shows this spring: Terry Toedtemeier: Photographer at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon (open through August 11th) and Arches (and apertures) at PDX Contemporary Art in Portland (open through June 1st).

Prudence Roberts is a curator, writer, and art historian based in Portland, Oregon. She and Toedtemeier met while working at the Portland Art Museum and married in 1995. Blake Andrews is a photographer based in Eugene."

You can read the full interview here: https://www.orartswatch.org/terry-toedtemeiers-many-forms/

JOE RUDKO | Heirlooms

We are thrilled to present you an opportunity to commission well known photography artist Joe Rudko for a unique collage using your family photographs. This is your chance to be a part of his new project titled 'Heirlooms.’

Many of us holds a treasure trove of memories in our personal photo collections, more than what can be neatly arranged in albums. Rudko's new, innovative project will preserve your personal photographs by crafting them into a one-of-a-kind heirloom artwork of your pets, people. and/or places. Each piece will be a treasure of your family's unique legacy, history and memories presented in a fresh and captivating way. 

PDX is now accepting commissions and are happy to feature Joe Rudko's project at the 2024 Seattle Art Fair (July 25th - 28th) as the exclusive source for "Heirlooms" at the fair.

If you are interested please inquire by email to info@pdxcontemporaryart.com and we will send you the details on the process, price, and timeline. 

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Heirlooms Sample Prices

9" x 12" — $2,520
15" x 11" — $3,600
30" x 22" — $7,200

We are honored to be among the sponsors of the U.S Pavilion.
"The Portland Art Museum and SITE Santa Fe, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, present Jeffrey Gibson as the representative for the United States at the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
Celebrated for an artistic practice that combines American, Indigenous, and Queer histories with influences from music and pop culture, Gibson creates a dynamic visual language that reflects the inherent diversity and hybridity of American culture. Using abundant color, complex pattern, and text, he invites deep reflection on identity, inspires empathy, and advocates for a widening of access to democracy and freedom for all. On view April 20 through November 24, 2024, Jeffrey Gibson: the space in which to place me provides international audiences with the first major opportunity to experience Gibson’s work outside of the U.S.
For the U.S. Pavilion, Gibson will activate the interior and exterior of the building with a series of new and recent works that invite reflection on individual and collective identities including sculpture, paintings, multimedia works, and a site-specific installation activating the pavilion’s courtyard. The title of the exhibition references Oglala Lakota poet Layli Long Soldier’s poem Ȟe Sápa." PAM

There will be a talk about Terry Toedtemeier's legacy and current exhibition "Terry Toedtemeier: Photographer" at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on Saturday, May 5, 2024.

TALKING ABOUT TERRY: A CONVERSATION ABOUT THE TOEDTEMEIER LEGACY
Saturday, May 11, 2024 — 2:00pm

Artist Terry Toedtemeier (1947-2008) was an influential photographer, curator, and historian who made a lasting impact on the state of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Join his colleagues Craig Hickman, artist; Prudence Roberts, curator and partner; John Weber, JSMA Executive Director, in a conversation moderated by Thom Sempere, JSMA Associate Curator of Photography.

https://jsma.uoregon.edu/events/talking-about-terry-conversation-about-…

Solo exhibition Terry Toedtemeier: Photographer, will open at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art May 4 - August 11, 2024.

"Terry Toedtemeier: Photographer brings together a special collection of prints by the artist, given to the JSMA by his friends, family, and colleagues. Born and raised in Portland, Toedtemeier was a fixture in the Oregon cultural community until his untimely passing in 2008 at the age of 61.

The exhibition highlights the range of Toedtemeier’s photographic work. It begins with his early experimentations made in the 1970s when, as a self-taught artist, he explored the boundaries of the photographic medium. The exhibition culminates with his impeccable later Northwest landscape images, where he balanced a discerning, scientifically-trained eye with an aesthetic interpretation of nature.

The fortuitous combination of art and science in Toedtemeier’s work began when he earned a bachelor’s degree in earth sciences from Oregon State University in 1969. His coursework included experiential learning as students walked the land to understand that observation and description were foundational skills necessary to interpret the meaning of geologic processes. Over time, he came to intuit that perceiving how the land was formed only increased its beauty."

Terry Toedtemeier: Photographer is curated by Thom Sempere, Associate Curator of Photography.

For more information: https://jsma.uoregon.edu/TerryToedtemeier

Marie Watt's exhibition, Marie Watt: LAND STITCHES WATER SKY, will be on view in the Forum Gallery at Carnegie Museum of Art from April 13 - September 22, 2025.

Watt presents a new body of work that explores steel and glass—materials deeply tied to the region’s industrial history—from a contemporary Indigenous perspective, challenging assumed contradictions between visibility and invisibility, strength and vulnerability, and presence and absence.

There will be a conversation in the Carnegie Museum of Art Theater between Marie and her local collaborators on Saturday, April 13th, at 3:30pm, followed by CarnegieLab, multisensory activities inspired by Marie’s practice.

For more information visit: https://carnegieart.org/exhibition/marie-watt/