Arts & Media❯Galleries

Internationally renowned artist Pipilotti Rist presents her major installation 4th Floor to Mildness in a West Coast premiere and only second exhibition in the U.S.

Pipilotti Rist dissolves exhibition spaces through luminous color, moving imagery, and melodic sound. 4th Floor to Mildness immerses the viewer in a soft, aquatically inspired environment, where a film shot underwater plays across two biomorphic-shaped screens hanging from the ceiling. A soundtrack by experimental musician Soap&Skin/Anja Plaschg adds to the ambience with lyrics about dreams, love, and memories as the camera catches glimpses of floating bodies. Two projected light circles move across the room, enlightening it with visceral hues. For Rist, this light represents a “desire to turn yourself inside out.”

Rist creates conditions for visitors to come together in unconventional ways so that they might better understand their relationships to one another, their own bodies, and nature. In the gallery, raft-like beds provide a place or visitors to rest and share social space as they watch the projection overhead. She asks: “What happens to our perceptions when we don’t have to stand or fight gravity?” The sensation of floating may evoke a sense of returning to an elemental state. For the artist, the work “describes the fantasy of [ourselves] being an organic plant . . . and simulates our dissolution into water, mud, slime, molecules and atoms.”

Originally created for the fourth floor of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, PAM adapted the work to the Crumpacker Center with the assistance of the artist’s team at Atelier Rist; production partner Portland Garment Factory, a woman-owned B-corp and zero-waste creative factory, created the curtains, beds, and bed coverings, and Figure Plant engineered and fabricated the hanging screens.

Gallery 408, 408 N.E. Fourth Ave., Camas, will feature an exhibit of tiny art by noted local miniaturist Lara Blair, host of the podcast Tiny Worlds, Big Stories. Blair creates detailed, story-driven miniature art displayed in shadow boxes and as small-scale scenes. This past spring, Blair appeared on NPR’s Think Out Loud to share her work and perspective on the world of miniatures. She is also the co-creator of the Tiny Gallery at Gallery 408, a miniature gallery featuring tiny art by local artists, which will also be on display with new art. Meet Blair and other artists at the exhibit’s opening reception from 5-8 p.m. Nov. 6.

Portland Art Museum invites the community to join a Free First Thursday event featuring free museum admission for all. This unique day includes a chance to explore the special exhibitions and PAM’s transformed campus and reinstalled permanent collection galleries.

October’s Free First Thursday features a special free film program presented in conjunction with The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art. The screenings celebrate film and video work by and about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people, offering another way to explore the stories, histories, and perspectives at the heart of The Stars We Do Not See.

This immersive tasting experience celebrates the creativity, craftsmanship, and intersection between artists and winemakers. Enjoy wines from 50 Willamette Valley wineries alongside engaging artistic experiences, seasonal culinary offerings, and opportunities for discovery throughout the evening.

• Tastings from more than 50 premier Willamette Valley wineries
• Pinot-friendly grazing boards and seasonal bites
• Five featured artists and winery pairings
• Live art demonstrations
• Hands-on interactive experiences throughout the event
• Opportunities to connect with featured artists and winemakers
• Access to artwork from the Portland Art Museum’s Rental Sales Gallery, with opportunities to purchase or rent pieces for your home

Anish Kapoor: Dissolving Margins, from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, is a bold and expansive exploration of nearly four decades of Kapoor’s printmaking practice and marks the artist’s first retrospective survey dedicated to this collaborative and technical practice. This exhibition presents an immense catalog of the artist’s printmaking–over 150 prints spanning from his earliest experiments to his most recent work.

Visit the exhibition, meet the curator, and enjoy light refreshments on the evening of October 22, 5 p.m.

Complementing the mansion's upcoming exhibit will be the 2026 Home for the Holidays — Holidays from Around the World annual celebration. Eighteen rooms throughout the mansion and Gate Lodge will be transformed into festive displays inspired by holiday traditions from Europe, the Middle East, China, India, South America, Mexico, and beyond.

Since March, dedicated volunteer decorators have been thoughtfully developing their design concepts and bringing their creative visions to life. For the first time, nine community organizations are joining the efforts. Through these new collaborations, Pittock Mansion introduces new members of the Portland community to the mansion while welcoming back familiar faces and longtime supporters to experience the warmth, beauty, and joy of the holidays at Portland’s beloved home — The Pittock Mansion.

Make this season the most memorable yet. Pittock Mansion‘s Home for the Holidays, Holidays Around the World. The Portland Then and Now: The Changing Demographics exhibit will also be open throughout the Home for the Holidays celebration. During the holiday season, visitors can enjoy both experiences with a single admission ticket.

Please join us in the Visual Arts Gallery and enjoy the Jennifer Harrison Exhibit. The exhibit opens on Monday, October 26, 2026, and closes on Thursday, November 19, 2026. Everyone is welcome and admission is free. The artist reception is scheduled for Thursday, November 5, 2026, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The location is the Visual Arts Gallery (VA20), Building 19 and is ADA Accessible. Gresham Campus Map Gallery hours: Monday through Thursday 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Friday & Saturday by appointment. It is closed on Sundays and Holidays. If you have questions, please email the Gallery Coordinator, Nathan Orosco, at [email protected] . MHCC is an EEO, Title IX, Title VI, Title VII, Title II, Section 504, ADA, ORS 659A Institution. People requiring accommodations due to a disability should contact the Accessible Education Services office at 503-491-6923 or [email protected] . Please contact us at least two weeks prior to the event.

PLUS PLUS Bizarre Bazaar is a brand new market bringing together a curated group of artists, publishers, exhibitors, game designers, community organizations, indie distributors, and creative collectives. It is free and open to the public. Stop by to browse and shop artist editions, books, comics, zines, physical media, prints, apparel, games, and more- then stick around to connect with the people who make it all happen!

• Video.Store.Age (indie film distributor)
• Midslumber Media (horror film shop and also books!)
• Cryptic Trinket Studio (animation / stop motion)
• Spencer Garland (VR Artist)
• Hungry Mantis (VR Artist)
• Fumerie Parfumerie (scent+film)
• Mind Marrow (scent + book + film)
• MENOPUNKS (doc + podcast)
• Estella Tse (VR/AR)
• Women In FIlm (film org /collective for women)
• NW Docs (doc org)
• Open Signal (community media center)
• AE PDX (motion design and animation community org)

• LIMINAL Music (record and music shop inspired by japan + more)
• KOOP radio (community radio hub)
• Tape Op Magazine (music recording magazine)

• Buckman Journal (publisher of artists and illustrators)
• Floating World Comics (comics shop)
• Nathan Mckee (paper cut/ layered images and screen prints)
• Sketchy People (illustrators)
• Kory Bing Illustration (risographs, zines, mostly about animals alive and extinct)
• Studio Mantissa (comics)
• S Mirk Comics (queer/nonbinary zines and comics maker/teacher)

• MADRE Linen (artisen linens/hometextiles)
• Mai Ide (the art of mending, sewing and kintsugi)

• Grilka Press (screen printers)
• Broccoli (art magazine)
• Storyboard Books + Art Supplies (book and art supplies for storytellers)
• Selected Stories (book store)
• Microcosm Publishing (beloved indie publisher)
• Sous les pavés la page (secondhand books and periodicals)

• Pink Tiger Games (founder/creator of former XOXO festival, pink tiger is primarily card games)
• PIGSquad (coming with three tables and an interactive projector)

• Nucleus Portland (contemporary art gallery)
• Mardeluna (art prints, apparel, plushies, giant mascot costumes)
• Lil Planets (360 photography art)
• Lauren Johnson Fine Art (cyanotypes, film+digital+watercolor images)
• Indui (fantasy art)
• Art Headliner (has murals all over NE portland that are rad!)
• Hustle Home Decor (electric colored sun catchers and mirror art)
• Swana Rose Center (Southwest Asia +North African art/culture community org)

• Portland Art Museum
• PAM CUT // Center for an Untold Tomorrow
• Kickstarter
• Portland Films and Events

Todd McGrain’s original bust of York, the enslaved man who was the only African American member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, was secretly installed on Mount Tabor Park in 2021. It was placed on the vacant pedestal where a statue of Oregonian editor Harvey Scott (1830-1910), a known racist, once stood. The surprising appearance of York, with no artist name attached to the work, is a local example of the protest art being created in the wake of political and social unrest. The unsanctioned installation of the original bust made a significant contribution to the spirited dialogues on American history, systemic inequality, and public monuments happening across the nation.

Made of mere plaster and paint, the original bust sustained damage from several acts of vandalism, prompting McGrain to come forward and offer the city a bronze version of the bust. This Spring, the Portland Art Museum debuted the bronze bust of York, temporarily, as a part of the 2026 Oregon Contemporary Artists’ Biennial: The Price of the Ticket. In collaboration with Oregon Contemporary and the City of Portland’s Office of Arts and Culture, Portland State University conducted a community survey to give Portlanders the opportunity to share their thoughts on where the monument should be placed for the long term.

Join a thoughtful discussion about McGrain’s act of protest and York as a historical figure significant to Portland's history and the wider nation. Led by biennial curator and historian TK Smith, the panelists will include: Todd McGrain, artist of the York portrait; Intisar Abioto, artist and curator who recently curated Black Artists of Oregon at the Portland Art Museum; Eric Fredericksen, the public art administrator of the City of Portland; and Zachary Stocks, historian and executive director of Oregon Black Pioneers.

Join Portland Japanese Garden and experience the awe-inspiring artistry of NUNO, the iconic Japanese textile design studio. Featuring vibrant and compelling fabrics produced across eight specific regions of Japan, NUNO’s championing of small-community makers illuminates the breadth and depth of contemporary Japanese textile design. This unforgettable exhibition includes site-specific installations and a hands-on touch wall that will make you rethink your relationship to cloth.

AQUA Gallery, 403 Quayside Place, Vancouver, welcomes the Rare Bird Exhibit, a second chance to see the colorful papier-mâché and resin birds that were displayed hanging from trees in Esther Short Park during the Vancouver Arts and Music Festival in August. Artists have also contributed additional art for the exhibit. Participating artists are Chas Martin, Hill Kent, Marila Guilliams, Marianna Cruz and Aly Diamond. See the birds and meet the artists at a reception from 6-8 p.m. Nov. 14. Learn more at aqua-gallery.square.site.

Heaven’s Gate (2021)
High-definition 3D 8K video with sound, color; 5 min., 45 sec., loop

A lavish and satirical take on the silver-screen spectacle of Hollywood dreams and excesses, Heaven’s Gate both celebrates collective storytelling and satirizes saturated glamour and stereotypes. The continuously looping video ascends through the seven levels of purgatory, each stage its own unique landscape of visual samples lifted from iconic moments in cinematic history.

Anthology (2025)
Photo–montage printed on wallpaper

Anthology mirrors the way we recall films: as iconic moments, cinematic scenes and emotional cues. By intuitively forming associations between set pieces and characters, Marco Brambilla constructs a compelling “memory timeline”, a series of powerful still images that represent narrative fragments, punctuating the rhythm of cinema across genres and eras.

These curated images resonate not because of their plot context but due to their visual and emotional impact. Chosen for their ability to stand apart, they act as pauses or reflections within the flow of a film’s narrative, exploring how singular moments in film can encapsulate entire stories. Characters and scenes become a visual grammar—pauses, interruptions, and exclamations— underscoring the evolving relationship between image, time, and viewer interpretation in cinema history.

One Nation brings together contemporary artists who explore the ideals and contradictions embedded in the American promise. Drawing on the national motto E Pluribus Unum — “Out of Many, One” — the exhibition reflects on how a diverse society strives toward unity while confronting social, political, and cultural divisions.

Across painting, photography, sculpture, textile, and mixed media, the artists consider themes central to American civic life: immigration and belonging, protest and dissent, labor and economic justice, religious freedom, racial inequality, and the enduring power of democratic ideals.

Personal histories and collective memory intersect throughout the exhibition. Portraits of leaders and everyday citizens appear alongside symbolic images of journeys, borders, and shared responsibility. Together, these works ask viewers to consider not only what unites Americans, but also what challenges the nation’s commitment to liberty and justice, and invites reflection on the role individuals and communities play in shaping the country’s future.

Join for a free guided tour on August 16. RSVP here.

Lookout Landscape is an immersive art exhibition by Oregon-based artist and designer David Buckley Borden and a team of collaborators working across forestry, design, and engineering. Inspired by fire lookout towers, trail culture, and backcountry gear, the exhibition invites visitors onto a fabricated “Lookout Trail,” where a series of imaginative scenes—from a trailhead to a weather station, campground, and tool shed—reimagine the visual language of forestry and outdoor culture in the Pacific Northwest.

Blending research, humor, and design, the exhibition explores the complex relationships between people and working forests, with wildfire as an underlying thread. As visitors move through the space, they are encouraged to reflect on how forests are shaped, valued, and cared for, and to consider their own connection to these landscapes.

PLUS PLUS Fest invites you to dissolve your boundaries, question everything and reimagine what could be.

PLUS PLUS is a 4-day festival celebrating bold storytelling across mediums. It is an exploration of art forms converging, where art, music, comedy, film and conversation collide. Join PAM CUT at the Portland Art Museum, the Whitsell, and the Tomorrow Theater for this yearly festival of unbound storytelling.

What does civic participation look like? How do communities shape the places where they live? How We Show Up explores the many ways Jews in Oregon have participated in public life—from building towns and holding office in the nineteenth century to advocating for civil rights, immigrant communities, and social justice in the decades that followed. Drawing from the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education’s collections, the exhibition traces a long tradition of civic engagement shaped by leadership, service, and advocacy.

Visitors will encounter stories of early Jewish mayors who helped establish towns across Oregon, women who organized networks of social welfare and immigrant support, and lawyers, activists, and community leaders who worked to expand civil rights and democratic participation. The exhibition also examines moments of tension and contradiction, exploring the limits of acceptance and the complexities of minority politics.

Presented as part of the national America 250 commemoration, How We Show Up reflects on the ongoing work of democracy. Through photographs, documents, and personal stories, the exhibition invites visitors to consider how communities participate in civic life—and how each generation chooses to show up.

Funding has been generously provided by the Judy Margles Education and Culture Fund, Craig E. Wollner Exhibition Fund, and Zera Foundation.

Your eyes, your ideas, one artwork at a time. Slow your pace in the galleries and join a Look With Me conversation. These 20-minute, drop-in sessions focus on one artwork, just enough time to notice things you might normally breeze past. Volunteer guides invite your perspective, spark questions, and help the whole group see something new.

Sessions take place every 30 minutes from Noon to 3 p.m. Look for signs in the galleries to join a session.

Come for one session or stay for a few. You’ll be surprised by what you start to notice.

Once a month, on third Sundays, some sessions are led in American Sign Language (ASL) and others in English. Every session includes ASL/English interpretation.

Included with general admission

This eye-opening exhibition introduces North American audiences to the diverse and distinct visual iconographies of Indigenous Australia, which is made up of more than 250 distinct Indigenous nations. Explore this rich and living history of creativity through over 200 works made by more than 130 artists. Drawn exclusively from the collection of Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria, The Stars We Do Not See offers a rare opportunity to experience some of the most significant examples of modern and contemporary Australian Indigenous art. Charting watershed moments in Indigenous art from the late 19th century to the present, this exhibition reveals a rich history of creativity that predates the arrival of the British.

The Cawein Gallery is excited to announce mia ide's art show: Boxed Woman. The show runs from October 16 to November 16, Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Close out 2026 with the Artist's new Holiday-focused show. Come in and buy your perfect holiday gifts, all priced at $800 or less. Treat yourself, or give your loved one the gift of fine art.
The opening reception will be on Friday, November 20, from 4-7 p.m.

A Proclamation for Peace joins poetry, global languages, and music to produce a short film advancing cultural exchange, education and global peace. The project draws on a poem by Oregon Poet Laureate 2018-2020, Kim Stafford, adapted into a vocal score by Theresa Koon and realized in a lyrical film by Ron Bourke.

The film is a gift from Oregon to the world that will inspire individual commitment to peacefulness everywhere. On this special evening we’ll present the first public preview of the film. Please join us in a toast to the many musicians, crew members, and supporters who’ve helped to turn our passion for poetry, music, film and peace into a reality. Poet Kim Stafford, composer Theresa Koon and filmmaker Ron Bourke will join a post-film conversation. Many of the principal artists and performers will be in attendance. Tickets are free but very limited and must be procured in advance.

The Portland Art Museum is pleased to present the recently acquired two-channel video installation, Do I Look Like a Lady? (Comedians and Singers), by internationally renowned artist Mickalene Thomas. Thomas’s work addresses themes of beauty and identity expressed through the myriad subjectivities of African-American women. Her multidisciplinary practice reconsiders Black womanhood and desire through a queer lens.

In recent years, Thomas has turned to video production as a way to expand her critical investigation into how mass media and entertainment distill the experiences of African-American women into a handful of archetypes. Do I Look Like a Lady? (Comedians and Singers) presents a dynamic checkerboard of moving image footage featuring African-American actors and singers from across the 20th century: from Jackie “Moms” Mabley to Eartha Kitt, Whoopi Goldberg, Whitney Houston, and several others. The video focuses on their individual voices as they express heartbreaking roles, pointed lyrics, sharp jokes, and strong statements of resistance to the dominant culture. The work is a powerful, and often riotous, reflection on the roles of Black women in the United States.

The 97116 art show will be featured in the Cawein Gallery Friday, Nov. 20 to Sunday, Nov. 22. Join us for the opening reception Friday, Nov. 20, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Friday, November 6 | 6–9:00 p.m. | VIP entry 6:00 p.m. | GA entry 7:00 p.m.

Portland Art Museum’s Mark Building | $40 VIP | $25 GA

Join us on the evening of Friday, November 6, for a preview of the exhibitor fair before the festival crowds arrive. Enjoy a drink from the cash bar while you browse the exhibitor booths, get a PBF-exclusive flash tattoo, and spin the prize wheel. Readers Night is an opportunity to show your love for Portland Book Festival, meet other dedicated book lovers, and extend your festival weekend! All ages welcome. VIP tickets include early entry, a drink ticket, and a tote bag.

NOTE: Readers Night tickets do not include entry into Portland Book Festival on Saturday, November 7.

One Last Gathering of the Crows. Join Darcelle XV Plaza for the Wildwood: Follow the Crows Farewell Weekend. After soaring across Portland all season, all 30 spectacular crow sculptures are coming together for one final celebration. This free, family-friendly event is your last chance to see the crows in Portland—and the only opportunity to experience the entire flock in one place.

Meet some of the talented artists behind the crows, collect autographs, take plenty of photos and support OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital through optional donations.

Costumes are highly encouraged. At 2 p.m. on Halloween Day, costumed guests can strut, flap or swoop through the plaza in a festive Costume Parade. Prizes will be awarded in both Adult and Under-18 divisions for:

• People’s Choice
• Best Themed Costume
• Best Crow Costume

Admission is free, and all ages are welcome. Bring your family, gather your flock and help give Portland’s beloved crows a send-off to remember.

Meet at 4:00PM, Walk at 4:15PM, the walk is 1.5 mile total out-and-back hike. Plan to meet at Lower Macleay Park - 2960 NW Upshur St, Portland, OR 97210.

Join Third Angle and World Forestry Center for an immersive All-Saints Day soundwalk to Witch’s Castle, featuring a spooky, site-specific soundscape created by local composer Bora Yoon. Grab your headphones, download the soundwalk, and join us under the bridge at Lower Macleay Park as we excavate memory, and bring to life place-based storytelling along the wooded path.

Church of Art's collaborative neurographics is a mindfulness-based creative activity that provides therapeutic relaxation through intuitive mark-making on a grand scale. For this mindfulness-based collaborative art activity, Church of Art will cover a long row of tables with a roll of paper and acrylic paint pens in a variety of sizes and colors. Participants will move freely around the table, filling the paper with sweeping, colorful doodles to the sounds of calming music. The giant scale allows for whole-arm movements, which signal brains to move out of fight-or-flight mode and into a state of mental relaxation and improved focus. The collaborative aspect of this workshop teaches one to let go of perfection and expectation through shared creative exploration, while working large encourages greater freedom of expression.

Neurographic art is a relatively new form of focused, intentional mark-making that uses curved, bold lines, vibrant colors and calming patterns. Physician and neurographics practitioner Ruben Halperin, M.D., will be the guide, co-facilitating this workshop with artist and Church of Art founder, Erika Halperin.

Immerse yourself in this beneficial form of meditative doodling and experience the mood-boosting effect of creativity coupled with community gathering.

Using paper and acrylic markers. All materials and supplies are provided by the studio.

Tickets Include:

• 2 hours of guided creative exploration in a supportive, friendly environment with all supplies included.
• Light snacks and non-alcoholic beverages are included.
• That wonderful feeling of joy and connectedness that comes from a few hours of in-person artistic play with other adults.

Each year, Milagro observes Día de Muertos with the premiere of a new production, altar displays, and community events with the Día de Muertos Festival. The Centerpiece event of the 31st Annual Día de los Muertos Celebration is Marigolds y Memorias, an original devised production inspired by the traveling carpa tradition, in which humor, music, and storytelling come together in a vibrant theatrical journey. Guided by an elder, a younger generation learns o build an altart, the heart of Día de Muertos, discovering the meaning behind each of its elements, from candles and marigolds to photographs, ofrendas, and cherished recuerdos. Through song, dance, and short theatrical vignettes, the altar gradually takes shape as an act of remembrance and cultural inheritance, inviting audiences to consider how traditions are taught, how memory is kept alive, and what is carried forward when we share rituals across generations.

Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a long-honored tradition with roots in Indigenous Mexican culture. Día de Muertos is observed annually in Mexican and other Latin American cultures on November 1st and 2nd as a remembrance of those who have passed. Individuals and families who honor this day set up ofrendas (altars) with offerings to their departed loved ones. Typical offerings include marigolds, calaveras, photos of the dead, and traditional food like “pan de muerto.”

What’s Up, Doc? (1972) Directed by Peter Bogdanovich. 1hr 34min. Rated G. 35mm.

Join Film School x PAM CUT @ The Whitsell for What’s Up, Doc (1972) in 35mm. The 1972 screwball comedy, starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal, follows a wild and eccentric mix-up of plaid luggage through 70’s San Francisco. This portrait is tailored to showcase Barbra Streisand’s unique and distinct comedic persona and the chaotic magnetism she brings to the screen—echoing the screwball heroines that came before her.

Film School is a community film club hosting monthly screenings, discussions, and a blog. They celebrate cinema, spark conversation, and connect film lovers—on and off the screen.

We do not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, and films exhibited don’t necessarily reflect the views of PAM CUT or the Portland Art Museum. In addition to the synopses, trailers, and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on sites like Common Sense Media, IMDb, and DoesTheDogDie.com.

Here we are surveys contemporary art from the Portland Art Museum’s collection. Featuring work across a range of media, the exhibition showcases recent acquisitions alongside signature works and reflects on the constant change and shifting narratives that mark the contemporary world and networked lives.

In the current globalized, digitized ecology, contemporary artists observe, document, and reflect. Their voices and visions imagine what is possible and tell stories that expand knowledge. They question, prompt, and call to action, while creating both beauty and criticism. The exhibited artworks invite the viewer to ponder the real, virtual, and imagined spaces humanity currently inhabits, alongside the moments, thoughts, and experiences that define selfhood and purpose. Highlights in this gallery include works about our sense of self and identity such as Sentinel IV (Gold) by Simone Leigh, Fred Wilson’s black glass mirror I Saw Othello’s Visage in His Mind, and Maja Ruznic’s painting Daughter (Red). Large scale works by Chiho Aoshima, Carrie Mae Weems, and Wolfgang Tillmans consider relationships to place, another prominent theme. Others, including Jeppe Hein’s Please Participate, Katherine Bradford’s Ritual, and Jeffry Mitchell and Tivon Rice’s Panda speak to the human connection and the creative process.

Wildwood is a handcrafted epic fantasy that transports audiences into a secret, dangerously alive world. A girl’s desperate quest to save her baby brother unfolds into a spectacular, high-stakes adventure through a forbidden forest full of enchanted creatures, endearing allies, and formidable adversaries — where an entire hidden realm hangs in the balance. In an era of automation, LAIKA delivers its most ambitious and globally accessible film yet — a bold fusion of human-crafted artistry and cinematic storytelling from the makers of Coraline.

Duration: 2h 19m | Rating: PG-13 | CC and AD Available | Accessible Entrance Available

$9 Adults, $8 Seniors, $7 Youth | OMSI Members receive 50% admission for this screening
Member Empirical vouchers are not applicable.

DATES:

Saturday, October 24 at 12pm, 2:45pm

Sunday, October 25 at 1pm, 3:45pm, 6:30pm

Tuesday, October 27 at 4pm, 6:45pm

Wednesday, October 28 at 3:30pm

Thursday, October 29 at 4pm, 6:45pm

Friday, October 30 at 5pm, 7:45pm

Saturday, October 31 at 2pm, 4:45pm, 7:30pm

Sunday, November 1 at 1pm, 3:45pm, 6:30pm

Tuesday, November 3 at 4pm, 6:45pm

Wednesday, November 4 at 4pm, 6:45pm

Thursday, November 5 at 4pm, 6:45pm

The ancient Greeks loved wall murals and small portable paintings, but most of these have been lost over time. Instead, their art is best known from objects such as ceramic pots and vessels, excavated from rubbish heaps and graves. These ordinary household wares were produced in vast quantity, and some were even decorated by artists of extraordinary talent. Those that survive, often reconstructed from shards, continue to inspire artists and all of us with the stories and culture of ancient Greece and Rome. The stories range from the labors of Herakles to the poet Orpheus, and range in time from Greek antiquity to the age of Pablo Picasso. Here, we can see how later artists have interpreted those eternally relevant stories and themes for their own generations.

In Smith Claudel's third solo exhibition with Carnation Contemporary, the yard is both a symbol and a physical source material, juxtaposing the enclosure of nature and its display with the control of the body. In this exhibition, temporary sculptures of raw clay, harvested from the artist’s yard, will soon return to the earth. A series of botanical drawings was made with the artist's menstrual blood. And a site-specific installation displays a collection of yard work specimens: a small patch of grass unnaturally maintained, nail enamel coating unfired pinch pots, and plant clippings caught in resin.

Yard Work examines the absurdity and care of maintaining one's landscape, and the tension between being kept and being desired.

Kim Smith Claudel is an artist and visual designer based in Portland, Oregon. Working across painting, sculpture, and installation, Smith Claudel creates work that exists in deliberate flux. Her process-driven approach embraces the ephemeral, the decaying, and the mundane, building visual systems that resist completion. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including a recent solo exhibition (End Cycle) at The Vestibule in Seattle. Other recent solo exhibitions include The Arts Center (Corvallis, OR), The Painting Center (NYC), Mt. Hood Community College (OR), and KyotoBA (Japan). Recent residencies include Building 5 in Portland and the Boston Center for the Arts. She holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. She received an MS in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Lab, where she was a Learning Innovation Fellow. She is a member of Carnation Contemporary Gallery and the WAVE artist collective.

Opening Saturday, October 03, 5–8 p.m.

In Tenderhead, Lisa Jarrett weaves together her interest in migration and tracing lost familial histories to Beauty Supply stores and salons—critical intersections of Black life. The artist’s first solo museum exhibition in Oregon features new works and site-responsive installations that activate the abundant patterns, colors, images and textures found at the Beauty Supply. She says, “The Beauty Supply is my art supply store.” It is a site where she accesses physical materials as well as the less tangible memories activated by these materials, so important to her work.

Jarrett suggests that the Beauty Supply, salon, and kitchen sink are places undeniably linked to migration and diaspora as surrogate homelands. The geographic locations, aesthetics, layout, products, customers, and economies of the Beauty Supply locate it firmly in this “in-between” place, setting it apart as a complicated site of joy, nostalgia, desire, and unmet need. Jarrett investigates how these relatively mundane places and objects function as dynamic living archives in Black communities and families that accompany us from generation to generation. Places like the Beauty Supply (as well as the people, objects, ideas, and experiences contained therein) are the foundation of the work in this exhibition. Tenderhead refers to a question that she (and many others) vividly remember being asked while getting their hair done as children: “Are you tenderheaded?” Jarrett says, “It’s a loaded question,” and this exhibition offers windows into her reply.

Doomsday is an MF Doom-themed group art exhibition celebrating the life, legacy, music, and unmistakable visual identity of one of hip-hop’s most influential and mysterious artists. Presented in partnership with Unspoken and More Than February Art Gallery, the exhibition brings together a diverse group of artists working across painting, illustration, sculpture, design, fashion, and mixed media to reinterpret the world of MF Doom through their own creative lens.

Timed around the anniversary of Doom's passing, Doomsday is both a tribute and a celebration—honoring an artist whose impact extended far beyond music. From the iconic metal mask and comic-book-inspired mythology to his intricate lyricism, production, and independent spirit, MF Doom created a universe that continues to inspire artists, musicians, designers, and fans around the world.

The exhibition will feature original artwork and special installations inspired by Doom, including sculpture, collectible objects, apparel, prints, collaborative pieces, and one-of-a-kind interpretations of the mask and character. Guests will also be able to experience interactive elements including an MF Doom-inspired photo booth, music, merchandise, raffles, and special collaborations created specifically for the exhibition. At its core, Doomsday is about bringing together art, hip-hop, community, and independent creativity while giving artists a space to celebrate a cultural figure whose influence remains deeply present.

Opening Reception: Thursday 6 p.m.–9 p.m.

Nuwave Runway is a celebration of the Pacific Northwest fashion community and the many designers, models, creatives, businesses, nonprofits, and organizations that make it unique. This year’s theme is “Awareness,” focusing on increasing visibility of the fashion industry in the PNW and highlighting communities and talent that deserve more recognition.

The evening will begin with a pre-show dinner social at 6:00 p.m., followed by the fashion show at 7:00 p.m., featuring over nine designers from across the Pacific Northwest, showcasing their unique designs and perspectives on the runway.
Throughout the show, designers will have an opportunity to introduce themselves, share the stories and inspiration behind their designs, and talk about who they are. Select sponsors will also have the opportunity to speak about their fashion-related business or nonprofit, helping connect the audience with organizations contributing to the growth of the PNW fashion community. The dress code is to wear anything fun and fashionable in your own way.

Julián Delgado Lopera reads from his new novel Pretend You’re Dead and I Carry You at Portland Art Museum in the Northwest Art gallery (Level 4, Room 402), paired with V. Maldonado, Sala Roja. Presented by the National Book Foundation.

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION

From the award-winning author of Fiebre Tropical, an electric, highly anticipated novel set in Colombia’s underground queer scene.

It is a known fact that the queens who refuse their destiny are haunted. Rejection turns itself inward, a bullet to the heart of said queen, and unleashes, per Travesti Lore, a river of curses.

Cloistered in a dreary Bogotá apartment, Ignacio’s light has dimmed, leaving his teenage daughter, Valentina, to raise herself in the wake of her mother Alma’s death. Lonely and love-starved, Valentina aches to discover the details of her mother’s drowning, and for her father to snap out of his depression. But Ignacio can’t. He spends listless afternoons smoking cigarettes in long blonde wigs, telenovelas humming in the background, haunted not only by matrimonial guilt, but by memories of a young man he once loved and betrayed.

From Ignacio’s tragic past emerges the luminous queen of Bogotá’s queer underground, Mamadora Eléctrica, the wise travesti who he first met under the silvery lights of Club Aquario when he was just a shy country boy. With Alma gone, Mamadora steps in as a mother figure to Valentina the way she once did for the girl’s father. But as an expert in Travesti Lore, she fears the worst: that Ignacio’s self-destruction may have unleashed a curse on them all.

From “a writer who is grinding their own colors” (Dwight Garner, New York Times), Pretend You’re Dead and I Carry You is a profound and richly imagined story about coming undone.

Join Dr. Mas Subramanian, the inventor of YInMn Blue—the first new blue pigment discovered in more than 200 years—for a fascinating lecture on the science, history, and future of color. Dr. Subramanian will share the story behind this accidental discovery and explore the role of pigments in art, design, technology, and everyday life, offering a unique perspective at the intersection of scientific innovation and creative practice.

This lecture is now a virutal event.

This program is offered as part of the programming for Anish Kapoor: Dissolving Margins, From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation. This exhibition will be on view at the JSMA at PSU through December 5, 2026.

Samantha Swindler, a reporter with The Oregonian, will talk about the newspaper's history as it celebrates its 175th anniversary. The Oregonian was founded in 1850. It’s the oldest newspaper on the West Coast and one of Oregon’s oldest continuously operating businesses. The talk will include ties to Clackamas County, such as the race between Portland and Milwaukie to see who would get a newspaper first, and Oregonian editor Thomas Dryer’s infamous feuds with Asahel Bush, editor of the Oregon Statesman, originally founded in Oregon City.

Samantha Swindler joined The Oregonian in 2013 as editor of the weekly Forest Grove Leader suburban newspaper and has since been a columnist, video producer, editor and reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Before moving to the Portland area, she was publisher of the Tillamook Headlight-Herald on the Oregon Coast, and served as editor of rural newspapers in Texas and Kentucky. In 2010, she received the Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, integrity and tenacity in rural journalism following a series of reports on corruption within an East Kentucky sheriff’s department. She currently covers news and features from Oregon City and other parts of Clackamas County, where she also lives.

Portland Art Museum invites the community to join a Free First Thursday event, offering free admission to the museum for all, plus a Live Wire event as part of the Literary Arts Portland Book Festival. Visitors can take in the afternoon gallery pop-ups, the evening show, or both!

4:30 – 6 p.m. — Free, pre-show, pop-up performances will take place throughout the Museum’s galleries. Performers are poet and rapper Dessa, bestselling children’s author Mac Barnett, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Ed Park, and Portland comedian Mx. Dahlia Belle.

Free First Thursday tickets can be reserved online one week in advance and are also available at the door.

7 p.m. — Enjoy a fully seated, ticketed Live Wire taping hosted by Luke Burbank with announcer Elena Passarello, featuring a blend of interviews, comedy, and music performed live for the audience, then edited into an episode for broadcast to over 200 public radio stations nationwide. Performers are poet and rapper Dessa, bestselling children’s author Mac Barnett, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Ed Park, and Portland comedian Mx. Dahlia Belle. Doors will open at 6:30pm.

GA Tickets are $15. Preferred Seating is $40. Discounts available to Portland Book Festival passholders.

Dessa is a singer, rapper, and writer who fell in love with language as a toddler—and just never got over it. Now, she works in fields that traffic in words: she’s recorded rap bangers as part of the fiercely independent Doomtree collective, released a live album with the Grammy-winning Minnesota Orchestra; contributed to The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler; delivered a TED Talk on the intersection of romance and neuroscience that’s notched more than 4 million views; hosted 2 seasons of behavioral science podcast Deeply Human (BBC/American Public Media); and published a memoir recounting most of the above called My Own Devices (Penguin Random House).

Mac Barnett, the 2025–2026 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, is a New York Times bestselling author of stories for children. Mac’s books have won many prizes, including two Caldecott Honors, three New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Book Awards, three E. B. White Read Aloud Awards and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, as well as several international prizes. He lives in Oakland, California. His latest book, illustrated by X. Fang, is Tom Nancy: The Sheep Who Swapped Brains with a Boy. From two of the most exciting picture book makers today comes a hilarious trickster tale and Freaky Friday switcheroo story: a sneaky, cheeky sheep named Tom Nancy has a brain swap proposal for an innocent farm boy named Felix that will change both of their lives forever. Laugh-out-loud, subversive, and totally unexpected.

Ed Park is the author of the novels Personal Days and Same Bed Different Dreams. He is a founding editor of The Believer, and has worked in newspapers, book publishing, and academia. His writing appears in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. Profound, wily, and beautifully wrought, his new book Three Tenses: A Transmission from the Nineties is a meeting of memory and myth, confession and obfuscation, coalescing to offer a singular picture of creativity in action.

The princess of Portland comedy, best known for her breakout performance on the popular Netflix special Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda, Mx. Dahlia Belle has been compared to a Swiss Army knife—different tools to extract sharpness, softness, vulnerability, hope, and wicked wit. She’s been declared one of “11 Trans Comedians… Funnier Than Dave Chappelle” by Out Magazine, repeatedly featured on NPR, and has written for Cosmopolitan Magazine, The Guardian, The Stranger, and Portland Mercury. Her live performances have included NW Black Comedy Festival, Upper Left Comedy Festival, SF Sketchfest, and an awkward conversation with John Waters and Piers Morgan. In the upcoming live taping of her comedy special Affirmed at Polaris Hall on November 22nd, Mx. Dahlia Belle delivers 60 new minutes of stand-up to celebrate and affirm being human in the modern world through a combination of the wholesome and mundane, anecdotes about house cats, liscivious foibles of the LGBT community, and an unapologetic account of her personal journey with gender-affirming care, all delivered with her trademark free form wit.

Free First Thursdays at the Museum and PAM CUT’s Tomorrow Theater aligns with the revitalization of the long-standing Portland art galleries’ tradition of opening their doors for openings, receptions, and events on the first Thursday of each month. In recent months art and culture organizations have joined to bring back this popular activity, including the Pacific Northwest College of Art and the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in the North Park Blocks.

Generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program.

This installation celebrates prints by Black artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including many recent acquisitions shown for the first time at the Portland Art Museum. The work offers stories of the Black experience in the United States, allowing visitors to trace serious issues as brutal labor practices, as in Kara Walker’s Cotton, and lynching, in Hale Woodruff’s harrowing By Parties Unknown, as well as leisure and joy, evident in the bathers of Emma Amos and Derrick Adams.

Artistic production is another throughline. Viewers can trace the broad influence of Robert Blackburn, the founder of the influential Blackburn Print Workshop, who taught Romare Bearden, among others. Ron Adams honors Blackburn with a portrait. Although working across various printmaking media, including etching, lithography, and screen printing, the artists share a commitment to graphic expression and bearing witness to the breadth of Black representation in America.

Join the Farewell Weekend at Darcelle XV Plaza. See the entire flock gathered together for the first—and final—time before the sculptures head to auction in support of OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.

Adornment is often reserved for the aristocracy. The common person is expected to wear plain colors and utilitarian shapes meant for labor; clothes that blend in. In Loose Threads and Raw Edges, the GMS Collective explores adornment as a form of identity. The exhibition celebrates our artists’ love of color, texture, and responsiveness to material. These creations are meant to be seen and felt. They are the antithesis of the erasure that many artists experience in this capitalist society.

First and foremost, the GMS artists create for themselves. In a world obsessed with production, efficiency, and exploitation, it is a solace to experience art made to fulfill individual creative impulses rather than be commodified. This exhibition asks, “How can I make the most creative impact with the least amount of environmental impact?” In the hands of the GMS artists, simple threads, notions, and trims are alchemized through countless hours of experimentation. Gold spun from rubbish. Discarded textiles are treated like jewels, meticulously assembled into garments and tapestries fit for royalty — creating a kingdom of one’s own.

Funded in part by the Regional Arts & Culture Council and the Arts Access Fund.

Show Opening: Thursday, September 3, 2026, 5:30–7:30 p.m.
Gather:Make:Shelter Group Exhibition

This exhibition features a concise, chronological display of works by the renowned American artist Mark Rothko. The Museum’s new entrance pavilion is named in honor of the artist, who, along with his family, emigrated from Russia (present-day Latvia) in 1913 and grew up in Portland. Rothko graduated from Portland’s Lincoln High School and took his first art classes at the Museum’s school. He left Portland to attend Yale University, eventually leaving college in 1923 to settle in New York City and pursue art full time. Today, Rothko is celebrated for his important contribution to the evolution of abstract art in the mid-twentieth century.

In this presentation, visitors will take an in-depth look at eight artworks from different periods in Rothko’s career. Early representational work demonstrates his interest in representing the figure as a means to communicate universal human experiences. Paintings from the 1940s reveal his transition to abstraction, starting with Surrealism, before leaving the referential behind for good. Rothko’s embrace of color as an evocative material reaches its peak in two large scale, classic works from the 1950s. At this time, he arrives at his signature style: layered blocks of color that complicate visual perception while heightening emotion and psychological responses.

Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World (2026) Directed by Sasha Waters Freyer. 1hr 31min. Not Rated.

If poetry had a pop icon, Mary Oliver would be it. Best-selling poet and Pulitzer Prize-winner, lover of dogs and long walks in the woods, queer and out but intensely private—Oliver’s poems inspire liberals and conservatives, atheists and believers, naturalists and urbanites. She was America’s unlikely, contemporary mystic, stalking the ponds and forests of Cape Cod for nearly fifty years in order to open herself—and us, her readers—to the known and unknowable world. Sasha Waters’ beguiling portrait features poems read by Helena Bonham Carter, Steve Buscemi, Stephen Colbert, Lucy Dacus, Jesse Welles, and Oprah Winfrey.

This film is featured as part of Portland Book Festival’s Cover to Cover.

We do not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, and films exhibited don’t necessarily reflect the views of PAM CUT or the Portland Art Museum. In addition to the synopses, trailers, and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on sites like Common Sense Media, IMDb, and DoesTheDogDie.com.

Celebrating 20 years of cinema, culture, and community—a very special milestone celebrating two decades of building bridges between Latin America and Portland through film.

Over these 20 years, the stories have made audiences laugh, reflect, and feel deeply, while offering new perspectives on identity, collective memory, and cultural diversity. What began as a dream has grown into a vibrant community of filmmakers, artists, volunteers, sponsors, and audience members who believe in the power of cinema to bring the community closer together.

This year features the generous collaboration of musician and composer José Manuel Aguilera, who has authorized the use of his song "Confabulario"—from the album *Tinta negra y roja*—as the official theme for this anniversary edition. The official poster for the twentieth edition was designed by Gilberto Martínez and inspired by the work of renowned graphic artist Joel Rendón. Its visual power and rich symbolism reflect the creative spirit and cultural diversity that have defined the festival over the past two decades.

On the first Wednesday of the month, join us in the Discovery Museum’s reading nook for Forest Stories. A storytime dedicated to forests and forest-themed books that connect adults and children and engage the imagination. Coloring pages are also available.

This offering is included with museum admission.

We've all heard the phrase, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Turns out, nature seems to agree! From the fossil record to the animals living around us today, evolution has a funny habit of coming up with the same solutions again and again. Different animals can end up looking remarkably alike and sometimes even behaving alike despite evolving completely independently. This fascinating phenomenon is called convergent evolution.

In this fun and fascinating pub talk, paleontologist Nico Spadafora will take you on a journey through the weird, wonderful, and oddly repetitive world of convergent evolution. We'll explore how it happens, why evolution keeps repeating itself, and what these evolutionary "reruns" can tell us about the incredible diversity of life on Earth.

Science Pubs are a casual lecture series located in fun venues across the region, recommended for ages 10 and over.

Science Pub Mission Theater is a monthly event that is open to anyone and everyone. No scientific background required. Just bring your curiosity, sense of humor, and appetite for food, drinks and knowledge! For more information or to sign up for our mailing list, email: [email protected].

Tina Chang reads from her new poetry collection Lion at Portland Art Museum in the Native American Art gallery (Level 2, Room 215), paired with Sara Siestreem, fastened to the rock (blood, sweat, and tears).

In Lion, Tina Chang mines personal and collective memory to explore safety and danger, visibility and invisibility as an Asian American woman. Throughout the collection, Chang responds to multi-hyphenate women artists, including Haena Yoo, Hồng-An Trương, Astria Suparak, and a collective whose work paid tribute to the life of Christina Yuna Lee, a young woman who was killed during the height of anti-Asian hate crimes. Responding to art across various media—text, illustration, painting, video, and sculpture—Lion sparks cross-disciplinary dialogue on Asian American perspectives, surveillance, and the myth of the model minority.

As the aftermath of the pandemic is examined, so too are the structures of bias, racism, and violence that continue. The collection’s title explores the word’s cultural history, composite Chinese iconography, and lion-centered explorations of strength and mastery. Lion traverses the closeness and distance between the racialized self the world views and the perceived self who endures and survives.

“An urgent exploration of Asian American identity from a poet with a ‘fearless imagination.’”–Tracy K. Smith, winner of the Pulitzer Prize