What is Converge 45? Sometimes we hear this question asked with genuine bewilderment. Sometimes it’s rhetorical, delivered with wry self-awareness, imagining what our rarefied art ecosystem looks like from the outside.
The easy answer is that Converge 45 is a triennial curation of art shows, presented more or less at the same time. It’s also fair to consider all the shows a single entity that reemerges every three years and has done so since its start in 2016.
Portland is also host to a biennial, produced by Oregon Contemporary, but these are not the same event. The two -ennials phase in and out of sync with each other and other semi-regular events. 2026 happens to be one of those syzygy years of Converge 45 and the Oregon Biennial synchronicity.
The idea behind a city-wide triennial like Converge 45 is to have many simultaneous art shows in one place. They occur over the course of a season, from late August through the end of autumn. They are in one place—in the sense that they’re all in Portland—but they’re actually located at more than a dozen venues across the metro area. So then, maybe Converge 45 is more like one massive art show across many small places in a big place within a window of time?
Converge 45 is a big deal. The role of the artist is precarious in the best of times, and these are not the best of times. Arts funding—already in short supply—is further contracting as philanthropy shifts to meet basic human needs for a society in free fall without a safety net. The wealth hoarding scheme of real estate-as-investment has pushed art studio spaces and independent galleries out of existence in favor of perpetually empty retail shells, somehow described as “market rate.”
Converge 45 is an event with the resources to bring artists from around the world to show challenging, large-scale, and market-unfriendly work in our midsized American city. It also supports Portland artists in producing exhibitions that achieve triennial levels of ambition, which they might not otherwise have the chance to realize. Some of those resources may originate from the aforementioned crimes of capitalism, but hey nobody’s perfect, we live in a society, man, do you want to have a triennial or not?? I have to admit, despite it all, I do want a triennial.
The triennial is always temporary in nature. This triennial is also temporary in theme.
The official title of the 2026 edition of Converge 45—Here, To You, Now—comes from Ursula Le Guin’s Always Coming Home (1985). In the book, an anthropologist describes distinctions in the language of a society that described ecological collapse:
“The written word is there, for anyone, at any time. It is general and potentially eternal.
The spoken word is here, to you, now. It is ephemeral and irreproducible.”
In her curatorial statement Converge 45 curator Lumi Tan describes a celebration of the “temporary communities that form around art,” and the lessons to be learned from temporary communities that form after disasters. It’s an uncomfortable connection to make for a high profile contemporary art event that will take place at venues surrounded by temporary communities spawned by the disasters of extractive racial capitalism.
But press releases and curatorial statements are not how most viewers experience art exhibitions anyway. Many will simply stumble into—and out of—the triennial without even realizing it.
Three years ago, I visited galleries and viewed performances that I naively assumed to be standalone curatorial instances: A giant white pleather pretzel, a neon sign, a conceptual opera. Somehow, I missed the fact that these were all part of the 2023 edition of Converge 45, titled Social Forms. Would it have changed my experience to know?
You could consider Converge 45 an example of ecological philosopher Timothy Morton’s hyperobjects: “things that are massively distributed in space and time relative to humans.” Hyperobjects are defined as viscous or sticky, meaning that they stay with or become a part of whatever they touch. They cannot be viewed in their entirety all at once, but each of their many aspects bears some relationship to all the others. The most notorious example Morton offers of this concept is a nuclear explosion, which encompasses not only the blast, but the decades of radioactive fallout, the devastating effects of uranium mining, and the cultural trauma of mutually assured destruction.
Tan suggests thinking of Here, To You, Now as “an exhibition… intended to take up a lot of your time—there are a few long-form videos that are really rewarding to watch from beginning to end,” she says, “as well as installations that ask for close reading, listening, or [that] invite you to hold works in your hand.” Tan recommended going to “no more than two or three exhibitions in a day, and making sure to find a favorite place to eat nearby.”
Go at your own pace. No need to overthink it. There are a bunch of cool art shows happening all around the city, over the course of a few months. It’s ok to just enjoy them while they’re here. You’ll find a complete list of exhibitions for Here, To You, Now at converge45.org. Here are a few select shows to get you started:
Carnelian, Lex Brown (Rome, Italy)
I’m most familiar with Lex Brown through her now-defunct podcast, 1-800-Powers. That was an outlier for her practice, in some ways. However, in terms of subject matter, it fit right in: theatrical storytelling around themes of capitalism, science fiction, and spiritual self-care. For Converge 45, Brown will show her lush multimedia musical Carnelian, which unfolds across a series of videos and paintings, at the Reser Center art gallery. (The Reser Center, 12625 SW Crescent, Beaverton, Aug 27-Oct 18, Wed-Sat, gallery hours: noon-8 pm, more info, FREE, all ages. Opening reception and remarks Fri Aug 28, 3-5 pm.)
Space Available, Morgan Ritter (Portland, OR)
I find Morgan Ritter’s alchemical approach to working with eclectic materials and poetic texts enchanting. Her installation in a display case at the airport includes a hand-sewn textile curtain and an assortment of sculpture and should bring some much-needed magic to the cursed domain of iPad interfaces, surveillance tech, and corporate extortion. (Portland International Airport, 7000 NE Airport Way, Concourse E, Aug 27-February 2027, more info, all ages)
Other Spaces, Amy Ruhl with Sophia Cleary and Lu Yim, (New York, NY)
Perhaps the greatest volume of art and artists gathered in one venue for Converge 45 can be found at Oregon Contemporary. New York-based multimedia artist Amy Ruhl will present a collaborative installation with performers Lu Yim and Sophia Clearly. The subject has something to do with “ambiguous utopias,” and promises to include panoramic video, inflatable sculpture, and interactive audio environments. Return to a human scale with a group show featuring paintings and sculptural objects by members of Elbow Room and North Pole Studios, two Portland-based art collectives representing neurodivergent artists such as Elmeater Morton and Ricky Bearghost. (North Pole Studio and Elbow Room are both located at Oregon Contemporary, 8371 N Interstate, gallery hours: Fri-Sun, noon-5pm, more info, all ages. Other Spaces performance Sat Aug 29, 5 pm. artists of North Pole Studio and Elbow Room opening reception Sat Aug 29, 6-8 pm.)
Tanp D’ær/Spline + Elegy, sidony o’neal with keyon gaskin, (Portland, OR)
One of the programs I’m most excited for in this year’s Converge 45 is a collaboration between visual artist sidony o’neal and performance artist keyon gaskin, which will take place at downtown dance venue Barn Radio. Tanp D’ær/Spline + Elegy combines architectural installation, ambient sound, and movement in a eulogy of sorts, based on traumatic histories of racial violence associated with a since-discontinued petroleum-based insecticide. If that sounds like a lot of information to take in, try letting your mind relax. Instead, trust your physical and emotional experience of the artwork to guide your understanding. (Barn Radio, 215 SW 1st, Aug 27-Oct 4, viewing hours: Fridays, noon-6pm, FREE, more info, all ages. keyon gaskin performance Sat Aug 29, 8-9 pm, RSVP required.)
Credit: Mario Gallucci
Untitled, Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork (Los Angeles, CA)
Another art twofer awaits at PSU’s newly completed Schnitzer School of Art, where artist Jacquline Kiyomi Gork will present an inflatable Japanese lantern atop the building, accompanied by a soundtrack from Grouper (aka Astoria’s Liz Harris). Inside the shiny new facility, which was funded by Portland mega-collector Jordan Schnitzer. Patricia Vázquez Gómez continues her ongoing work with Portland’s Mayan youth, a previous iteration of which was shown in an exquisite video installation last year at PICA. (PSU Schnitzer School of Art, 2000 SW 5th Ave, Aug 27-Dec 5, various gallery hours, FREE, more info, all ages. Opening reception Thurs Aug 27, 2:30-4 pm.)
Men Make Their Own History… Ido Radon (Portland, OR)
Portland artist Ido Radon’s new sculptural works use vintage Erector set components to construct modernist follies, fusing the roots of mid-century design and ideas of technological progress with children’s games. Are we winning yet?? Also, stop by Radon’s curatorial project Society across the river (711 SE Grand) to interact with her experimental digital archive, Alice. (Center for Contemporary Art at PNCA, 511 NW Broadway, Aug 27-Oct 3, gallery hours: Son-Sat, 10 am-4 pm, FREE, more info, all ages. Opening reception Thurs Aug 27, 4-6 pm.)
Converge 45 shows will be held at various locations through fall, with an opening weekend of Aug 27-30, converge45.org, FREE, all ages.
A version of this piece first appeared in Initial #4, a physical media only print publication co-edited by Jaydra Johnson and Martha Daghlian.
