Pearl

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

Join us in the evening to celebrate the opening of November 2026 exhibitions5 - 8 PM

Yukai Chen brings The Factory of Desire to Blue Sky

Yukai Chen, Offering, 2024

Ashley Peña’s Ebb and Flow comes to Blue Sky

Ashley Peña, Enshrouded In Blue Matter., 2025 ]]>

Portland artist Eva Wrzesinski spent months visiting Blanchet House’s free café, drawing portraits of 22 guests while learning about their lives. The result is "At Our Table", a portrait exhibition that invites viewers to see people experiencing poverty, homelessness, addiction, and mental health challenges as unique individuals with stories worth hearing.

The event offers an opportunity to view the portraits and interview Wrzesinski and participating café guests about their experiences.

Each portrait includes excerpts from interviews that explore guests’ memories, relationships, challenges, and hopes for the future.

Enjoy a vibrant outdoor street gallery that features 150+ artists who transform NW 13th Avenue into a bustling pedestrian scene that welcomes thousands of attendees each month. You’ll find an inclusive and dynamic mix of talented creatives, ranging from fine artists with decades of experience to emerging makers and designers sharing their work for the very first time. Guests can expect an upbeat, welcoming vibe where they can talk directly with artists, discover one-of-a-kind pieces, and connect with fellow art lovers while enjoying delicious foods from the neighborhood’s many bars and restaurants. The Pearl District comes alive with music, movement, and artist energy and with different artists cycling through, every month is a little different, making it the perfect event to keep coming back to.

First Thursday in the Pearl, started in 1986, is a district-wide celebration held on the first Thursday of each month, initiated by the founding members of PADA (Portland Art Dealers Association). Originally a gathering of art collectors and dealers, the celebration has grown into a monthly event attended by over 10,000 people, including art enthusiasts, wine aficionados, and scenesters looking to see and be seen. During this year-round, monthly event, galleries in and around the Pearl District and Northwest host opening receptions for new exhibitions. Many PADA members continue to follow the First Thursday schedule—keeping the tradition alive—while also hosting events throughout the month.

Parking gets very difficult in the area on First Thursday. It is recommended to take public transportation to the Pearl or park nearby and walk into the neighborhood.

Please join us on Zoom for an artist talk from Yukai Chen, whose 2025 En Foco Fellowship exhibition, The Factory of Desire, will be on view at Blue Sky from Nov 5 - 28, 2026.This artist talk will take place on Zoom.

Sign up for this event

Yukai Chen, Bedroom, Tiger ,Sailor Moon ]]>

This exhibition highlights a distinct artistic collaboration between printmakers Cassie Ferguson and Charlie Cohan, marking the creative intersection of their independent yet interrelated studios, Lost Bearings Press (LBP) and BurnPrint Studio (BPS). Centered on a shared dedication to traditional printmaking, the showcase features a diverse range of techniques, including stone lithography, screen printing, polyester plate lithography, and relief printmaking.

The conceptual foundation of this exhibition hinges on a collaborative print created by Cohan and Ferguson in 2017, which juxtaposed the iconic Burnside Skatepark with an urban overpass. This visual conversation continues in Ferguson’s ongoing series of stone lithographs capturing DIY skateparks. Her work seeks to honor and archive the subcultural spaces that have shaped her lived experience. Because these grassroots spaces often thrive under overpasses and within neglected industrial zones, her prints seamlessly connect with Cohan’s imagery of Portland’s monumental bridges. Together, the artists offer a multifaceted view of the city, championing the gritty beauty of structural environments. Their works invite viewers to reflect on their own relationship to the municipal landscape and to find new ways of seeing everyday urban scenes.

Additionally, the exhibition introduces recent work by Nakemiah “Kiki” Williams, produced in collaboration with Ferguson and Cohan at LBP and BPS. This project marks the debut publication for LBP and brings their history full circle, as both Williams and Ferguson are alumnae of Cohan’s printmaking program at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. This collaboration marks the beginning of collaborative print work at LBP, which is now open for publishing and for contracted prints, primarily of stone lithographs.

There is an invisible web holding all that surrounds. Everyone has the opportunity and choice to perceive it or not. Call it universe, Spirit, love… It connects one to every person, creature, plant, mushroom, moment, breath, and cloud. The work in Zenyatta’s first solo exhibition, Inner Planes, features decades of visionary collages and sculptures created in tandem with the unseen. Most of the artwork in this exhibition has never been shown. Synchronicity and happenstance inform the work, and if you ask Zenyatta, it’s as if the pieces created themselves.

Zenyatta is a lifelong artist. Beginning in her teenage years, she was drawn to collage. She begins by hand-cutting and meticulously organizing her collage materials through a complex system. Compositions are not planned, but completely intuitive; each collage piece informs the next to be pasted down. In March 2026, Zenyatta exhibited her art for the first time in a group show titled New Buds at the GMS Gallery.

Opening Reception: Thursday, November 5, 2026, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

The Unveiling is a solo exhibition by GMS artist Faera J. Valore. Featuring mixed-media pieces, The Unveiling explores the concepts of multifaceted self-exploration, realms both seen and unseen, Trans Euphoria/Dysphoria, and liminality.

Faera is a vibrant, Queer/Trans, mixed-media artist who joined the GMS Collective in 2023. She has worked on several murals in the WeShine community, The Mullowney Project, and the Midsummer Night’s Dream Machine fashion show in 2025. Currently, she is experimenting with fiber arts and various collaging materials and is working on a poetry anthology called 8x8.

Opening Reception: Thursday, November 5, 2026, 5:30–7:30 p.m.

Join us in the gallery and meet participating 2026 Pacific Northwest Drawers Artists on Sat, Nov 21 from 1 - 4 PM. This event is FREE and open to the public.

We will be offering a special 10% discount on prints that are available for purchase, this discount only applies to the purchases inside the gallery during the day.

Browse 2026 Pacific Northwest Drawers ]]>