Oregon Contemporary

Introducing our Season 12 Curator In Residence, Jamison Edgar, and their upcoming exhibition: 𝘚𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘊𝘺𝘤𝘭𝘦. ��⁠
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Jamison Edgar is a community organizer sowing roots in Southern California. A historical triangulator and avid student of the dancefloor, Edgar sculpts archival fragments into exuberant gatherings of joy and resistance. Their exhibitions, essays, and public programs emphasize the indispensable role that q***r, trans, Black, Brown, and Indigenous artists play in shaping revolutionary spirit.

Drawing on their research, Edgar will reconfigure Oregon Contemporary into an unruly site where visitors can meditate on the revolutionary relationships that emerge from our spiritual lives. In this sense, 𝘚𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘊𝘺𝘤𝘭𝘦 is a portrait penned by a nation-wide cohort of organizers who retool the terms of sanctuary in the face of escalating political and ecological precarity.⁠

CIR Season 12 is in partnership with Sitka Center for Art and Ecology 🌿 Learn more about the upcoming season + partnership on our website

📸 by Amina Cruz

🔥 1 week until HOME/LAND by 🔥

🗓️ June 18-21st & 25-28th
🕖️ 7:00pm
📍 Zydell Yards
🎟️ Ticket link on site

HOME / LAND is an immersive journey along the paths of personal and collective memories. Within a context of critical instability, when displacement and forced migrations have caused many to leave their homes and everything they hold dear, audience members are each assigned a temporary unit in a fictional government-run shelter village called Lot 6B.

HOME / LAND takes you on a journey to explore the past and present times experienced in Portland, Oregon, and the US at large. The show asks audiences to reflect on the forces that have worked over the centuries to bring living beings here as well as caused them to leave.

This show is a collaboration between Portland's Hand2Mouth Theatre, France's Begat Theater, and NYC's WaxFactory.

📸: Sarah Marguier

About the piece 📺️ 𝘊𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘯𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦
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The second iteration of Don’t Shoot PDX’s 𝘊𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘯𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 draws on archival evidence, along with preserved materials and media resources to create a Liberated Archives interpretation of Guernica.

A central theme is of America as a site of injustice, the work balances 250 years of systemic violence with a freestanding replica of the original Center at 927 NW Everett in Portland. By inviting community members to occupy the space, the installation highlights how communities have existed at the center of injustice while also generating mutual aid, resistance art, and collective organizing.

𝘊𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘯𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 is a call to action, challenging divisions maintained by white supremacy and fostering dialogue across communities.

Developed in collaboration with Media Pollution, the installation and accompanying media are designed to be continually researched, reframed, and updated in response to the needs of the communities whose solidarity sustains the work.

Special Biennial Program 🕰️ Join us for an Artist Talk with DeepTime Collective, KSMoCA’s Spring 2026 Artists in Residence⁠

📅 Thursday June 4th / 10:00-10:30am
📍 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr School / 4906 NE 6th Ave (Portland)

DeepTime Collective artists Amanda Leigh Evans and Tia Kramer explore how we experience and understand time through collaborative art, performance, and creative learning. During their residency, they worked with third-grade students to imagine alternative ways of keeping time, transforming drawings into movement-based performances.

Learn more about their practice and recent projects at this public artist talk in the gym. Please sign in at the main office to receive a visitor badge.

First Saturday with Joe Kye: 𝘗𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘭 🎵
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🔥 Saturday, June 6
🕔 5:00–8:00 PM (open to the public)
✨️ Performance at 6:00 PM⁠ (Sold out)
📍 Oregon Contemporary⁠
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For this special Biennial First Saturday, musician and installation artist, Joe Kye, in collaboration with botanical artist, Theresa Bear, invites the Portland community to join them in creating 𝘗𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘭, a collective ritual to honor our ancestors.

As a Korean American musician, he uses his practice to keep traditional Korean music, language, and culture alive, as well as to connect to the sounds and experience of life as an immigrant in the Pacific Northwest. This seance event incorporates musical performance, storytelling, letter-writing, and collective making to inspire conversations with our ancestors, and hopefully, conversations between our ancestors.

Kye and Bear invite you to bring photographs and stories to honor your ancestors to the event.⁠

In addition to the Biennial, new exhibitions will open at our neighboring galleries, and

THANK YOU to all the organizations that have supported Oregon Contemporary & this year's biennial: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘵 🫶

The Artists’ Biennial 2026 is supported by The Ford Family Foundation, Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation, Autzen Foundation, Multnomah County Cultural Coalition and the Oregon Cultural Trust.

Oregon Contemporary is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the James F. & Marion L. Miller Foundation, Oregon Community Foundation, the City of Portland's Office of Arts & Culture, and the Oregon Arts Commission, a state agency funded by the State of Oregon and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Other businesses and individuals provide additional support.

Biennial Events in June 🔥 Check out the upcoming + ongoing programs⁠
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First Saturday ✨ Saturday, June 6
🕔 5:00–8:00 PM⁠
Performance at 6:00 PM⁠ (RSVP link on website)
📍 Oregon Contemporary⁠
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For this special First Saturday, musician and installation artist, Joe Kye, in collaboration with botanical artist, Theresa Bear, invites the Portland community to join them in creating Portal, a collective ritual to honor our ancestors. This seance event incorporates musical performance, storytelling, letter-writing, and collective making to inspire conversations with our ancestors, and hopefully, conversations between our ancestors.

KSMoCA Opening + Artist Talk 🕰️ Thursday, June 4
🕕 10:00-11:00 AM
📍 KSMoCA
All are invited as KSMoCA presents a forthcoming exhibition and programming with DeepTime Collective working directly with the elementary students of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School.

Hand2Mouth Theatre: HOME/7LAND 🌆 June 18-21 & 25-28th
🕕 7:00 PM
📍 Zydell Yards
🎟️ Ticket link on our website

HOME / LAND is an immersive journey along the paths of personal and collective memories. Within a context of critical instability, when displacement and forced migrations have caused many to leave their homes and everything they hold dear, audience members are each assigned a temporary unit in a fictional government-run shelter village called Lot 6B.

🖼️ Ongoing Programs 🖼️ ⁠
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March 31 - January 31, 2027
Todd McGrain: Debut of York
📍 Portland Art Museum⁠
The Portland Art Museum debuts this bronze bust of York by artist Todd McGrain.⁠
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April 3 - July 5th
Rememory: A Poem
📍 Ori Gallery⁠
Ebony Frison and Stephanie Adams-Santos present an exhibition grounded in memory as a living, persistent force.
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April 4 - July 5th
Invite Hope: Marcelo Fontana + Wave Collective⁠
📍 Multnomah County Central Library⁠
Marcelo Fontana and Wave Contemporary transform the Multnomah County Central Library into a space for poetic resistance, inviting the viewer to see hope as an active power rather than a passive wish.

Have you checked out 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘵 yet? 🎟️✨

Our 2026 Artists’ Biennial is in full swing, and it’s one you won’t want to miss. Here’s a glimpse of the exhibition through a few detail shots. Stop by and experience the biennial in full this weekend!

2026 Artists’ Biennial: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘵 is on view through July 5.

Gallery hours:
Fri–Sun, 12–5 PM

📸 Mario Gallucci

Some amazing press about the 2026 Biennial 🔥✏️

We’re so grateful for the incredible reception to The Price of the Ticket this month. Huge thanks to our curator, TK Smith, whose vision for this biennial is thoughtful, expansive, and deeply resonant.

Read more on our press page — link in bio.

🗞️ “The Price of the Ticket is Cost-Conscious” — Portland Mercury

🗞️ “Oregon Contemporary Artists’ Biennial explores ‘The Price of the Ticket’ in 2026 art survey” — OPB

POETRY READING 📚️ Part of the 2026 Biennial

📅 May 17th / 4-6pm
📍Ori Gallery

All are invited to an afternoon poetry reading at Ori Gallery featuring the words of Portland-based poets Ebony Frison, Stephanie Adams-Santos, and Makayla Terrell. Rememory: A Poem is a focused exhibition that incorporates visual art and the written word to reflect on memory as something active and persistent that lingers in image, land, and the body. Join us in creating an open space to recall, reflect, and hold grief.