A Stand of Pine in a Tilled Field: 21 Years at PDX

In 1995 Jane Beebe hired architect Brad Cloepfil to design a gallery space. The following July PDX CONTEMPORARY ART opened its doors with a group exhibition titled Fire & Ash, an unstated homage to William Jamison. The title of this 2016 milestone exhibition is A Stand of Pine in the Tilled Field: 21 Years at PDX with the thought that pine trees seem solidly and surely before us, yet the rings of growth tell us they are not static but in constant change. There are times of vigor and times of slack. Pine trees can prosper with the occasional fire.

Many of the gallery’s artists are influenced by Asian art which so often employs pine tree imagery, and then there is old fashioned fragrance of art, the smell of Turpentine. Pines are found through out the world yet each region has its own particular type and each tree is its own being, just like artists.

So, now PDX is 21 years old, still happily in Oregon with roots reaching out and beyond, having participated in over 50 art fairs, placing art across the country, Japan, Russia, India, Mexico, Canada, the British Isles, Pakistan, Taiwan, Africa and throughout Europe with collectors and institutions.

Maybe not like the bristlecone pine with a lifespan of 4,900 years, but 21 years is quite a long time for a gallery.