Support Smart, Local Journalism
Make a Small Monthly Donation

Give now

Visual Art
Posted inVisual Art

Mercury Cover Artist of the Week: Justin “Scrappers” Morrison’s Sincere Celebrations

Making earnest art about how strange and beautiful it is to be alive right now.
Avatar photo Corianton Hale

Justin Morrison (Scrappers if you’re nasty) is a fascinating fellow who is hard to categorize. He’s a Portland-based visual artist who carves and paints brilliant little “monuments” in a primitive, outsider style that are both figural and conceptual, as well as silly, sexy, and tremendously charming. He’s also got a hefty pedigree as a designer […]

Posted inVisual Art

Hot Take at Portland State: Looms Are Computers

At Weaving Data, nine artists explore the shared history of textiles and tech.
Avatar photo Martha Daghlian

Computers are alchemical in the way that they use tiny assemblages of conductive squiggles and crystal wafers to generate images, solve complex mathematical problems, and connect people miles apart in real time. How does this transformation from material to information to image occur? Weaving Data, a group exhibition in the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art […]

Posted inVisual Art

The Future Past: Artists in Conversation

New exhibits at the Portland Art Museum showcase the conversation between Dakota modernist Oscar Howe’s work and contemporary Choctaw and Cherokee artist Jeffrey Gibson.
Avatar photo Jarrette Werk, Underscore News

Originally published by Underscore News. When artist Jeffrey Gibson reflected on the 2020 social uprising embodied by the Black Lives Matter movement and activism for Indigenous rights in Portland, Gibson knew he could create something special. Gibson, a citizen of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw who also has Cherokee ancestry, and Kathleen Ash-Milby, curator of […]

Posted inVisual Art

Two Portland Galleries Make Their Move

Both Blackfish Gallery and Chefas Projects are expanding, showing off the local arts community’s resilient side.
Avatar photo Martha Daghlian

Two local galleries, Blackfish Gallery and Chefas Projects are expanding into new locations—and its because they want to
Both Blackfish Gallery and Chefas Projects are expanding, and that’s a good sign for the local arts community.

In the midst of Portland’s changing arts scene, here are two moves that represent good news

Posted inVisual Art

The Fluorescent and Ungovernable Ocean of Like Liquid, Cut Loose

Paper-focused visual artist Morgan Rosskopf and electronic musician Ashlin Aronin transport Well Well Projects to a chaotic blacklight grotto.
Avatar photo Martha Daghlian

Paper-focused visual artist Morgan Rosskopf and electronic musician Ashlin Aronin created a chaotic blacklight grotto at North Portland’s Well Well Projects. Arts writer Martha Daghlian visited the immersive, “warm-hearted apocalyptic” installation.

Posted inVisual Art

Photographer Luke Misclevitz’s Wild Time Capsules

Misclevitz chronicles Portland’s underground—it’s music, fashion, and nightlife.
Avatar photo Corianton Hale

Twenty-year-old photographer Luke Misclevitz was born and raised in Portland, OR, where he was brought into the punk scene at a very young age. He discovered photography at age 14 and for the past four years, he’s been documenting Portland’s underground music, fashion, and nightlife scenes with style and fortitude. You may have seen his […]

Posted inVisual Art

Humaira Abid Confronts the World

Meet the Mercury Cover Artist of the Week!
Avatar photo Corianton Hale

Pakistan-born visual artist Humaira Abid moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2008. Her work centers on refugee experiences, societal upheavals, and the unique plight of women and girls in these harrowing situations. She’s also the Mercury cover artist of the week In our interview, we discuss suffering, resilience, and disrupting male-dominated spaces. Your work (and […]

Posted inVisual Art

Meet the Mercury’s Cover Artist of the Week!

Witchcraft, death, and tigers with visible skeletons… it’s all part of this week’s Mercury cover artist Mx. Morgan Robles’ fearless divination.
Avatar photo Corianton Hale

Mx. Morgan Robles is a surreal artist and illustrator most known for their depictions of animals and nature with macabre themes—and is the Mercury‘s cover artist of the week. Their personal work is often focused on their own journey with mental health and gender identity; the cycle of life, death, and decay; and environmental concerns. […]

Posted inTBA

TBA Review: They Can Never Burn the Stars Is TBA at Its Best

Standing in certain locations turned viewers’ bodies into conduits for deep vibrating bass lines.
Avatar photo Martha Daghlian

I must have missed something at the start of They Can Never Burn the Stars. A few minutes into the collaborative audiovisual performance by Pacific Islander interdisciplinary artist D.B. Amorin and Cree sound artist Chloe Alexandra Thompson, a few people stood up and started walking out. “Wow, rude! The show just started,” I naively thought. […]

Posted inFall Arts 2022

Portland Art Galleries, a Reintroduction

Fall visual art shows, and the galleries that love them.
Avatar photo Ashley Gifford

Whether you’re new to Portland or haven’t left your house in a while, fall is a great time to refamiliarize yourself with the multitude of spaces that make up Portland’s effervescent art ecology. Since the city has a longstanding history of being home to artists, makers, and all types of creatives, this list could get […]

Posted inVisual Art

This Week’s Mercury Cover: Steven Miller’s Spiritual Skinny Dipping

An Interview with the Photographer About His Collection of Underwater Nudes, Subsumed
Avatar photo Corianton Hale

Steven Miller has been producing beautiful and brave photographic work for 20 years, exploring themes like queer resistance and resilience, the sublime, and hot gay sex. His series, Subsumed, borrows from all of those interests, as it centers on naked figures suspended in underwater scenes. The photos capture the sublimity of skinny dipping in the […]

Posted inVisual Art

Performance Artists and More, Super Futures Haunt Qollective Are Ghosts of Love and Social Justice

Avatar photo Ann Guo

COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS “I was a daughter,” Fanny Ball’s oration begins, “I was born. I was the daughter of one of those chiefs, the ones that don’t die of old age. Kientpaush was hanged.” Kintpuash, Ball’s father, was also called Captain Jack. He was a Modoc leader who resisted militarized white settlers in defense […]

Gift this article