Oregon Contemporary

I visited 2 years ago but still remember this great collection of art. A wide range of concept focused work.

Wonderful space with really cool art, lots of variety. I had a wonderful time walking through the space, highly recommended

Went to the Sitka Art exhibit. A good show and show space including live jazz music. Overall a lovely place for an art show.

Beautifully finished mixed use art gallery space. We saw an all ages show with a handful of artists. The humans that run the space are very kind, as well. It's located right in Kenton, so there are a lot of great food and drink options, starting a block away.

Came here with a friend to see the "System as Object" show and it was a blast. They managed to pack a lot of cool art to see inside this building and I really appreciated them checking vaccine cards and masks. The merchandise and prints for sale were all well made and the show we came for was captivating and fun. I would recommend this experience to any age, there were both adults and kids there when we were there. The location is nice, we walked to a local brewery afterwards and saw a bar doing trivia too.

Putting Our Minds Together Review [Part 3] "Ja'" (water in Yucatec Mayan) by Patricia Vázquez Gómez is an immersive listening space filled with the voices of a group of Mayan youth residing in Portland, Oregon. This piece illustrates the idea of "language power," showing how language can create unique knowledge and connections, it is a work that makes the presence of the Yucatec Mayan language and their sounds in this land noticeable and recognizable, often overlooked by many. Themes of opacity and decolonization resonate within this site-specific sound piece, emphasizing the ability to create knowledge not just through another language, but also through alternative forms of expression such as a choir. The darkness and the organic overlay of sounds and words from various directions stir our imagination, allowing us to hear a glimpse of Yucatec Mayan. This idea aligns with our term's discussions on knowledge outside Western paradigms, highlighting the importance of diverse linguistic and cultural perspectives in shaping our understanding of the world. As we observed in this exhibition, not all the pieces can fit into the ideas that we discussed in class, just as not all the pieces fit even into the idea of ​​the Biennial: “ablaze with our care, its ongoing song.” Throughout this term we have discussed and learned how these ideas are a process rather than an end, a process that we must (and have put into practice in this exercise) in practice day by day. At the end of the day as Slushy Points —a concept developed by Bayo Akomolafe in Black Lives Matter, But To Whom?— explains, we are the result of the conditions within us and it is what we do with it that counts/matters. This class is just a starting point and this visit is just one more voice in the sea of ​​possibilities that critical theories offer.

Putting Our Minds Together Review [Part 1] As part of the conclusion of our Critical Theories class this spring at Portland State University, we decided to visit the Oregon Artists Biennial to connect with the ideas we explored this term with the artwork included in the exhibition. Under the theme of Care, we discussed what care means and how it is represented by the artists featured in this exhibition. How do you imagine “care” connecting with ideas like Center vs. Periphery, Decolonization as a Metaphor, Opacity, Slushy Points, Critique of Excellence, lumbung, and Restorative Justice? Here are some thoughts on this. One of us was drawn by Horatio Hung-Yan Law’s Portal piece, a virtual tunnel created to transport the audience from Oregon Contemporary to New Chinatown, using augmented reality technology. Luis Camnitzer talks about the dynamics and tensions between center and periphery in his book Conceptualism in Latin American Art: Didactics of Liberation. In this text, he speaks about Latin America as the periphery and Europe/North America as the center. In Horacio's piece, we see the periphery manifested in Portland's Chinatown, in contrast to the rest of the city. Chinatown in Portland now has many houseless people after the pandemic, which has driven away many of the people who used to visit, and the number of visitors to the neighboring Chinatown Museum has drastically decreased. Hung-Yan Law brings the Chinatown Museum (the periphery) to Oregon Contemporary (the center) through his piece, confirming that center and periphery can exist in the same location, with boundaries not clearly defined.

Putting Our Minds Together Review [Part 2] A few pieces address the land and the environment, like Sarah Rushford’s, who connects the idea of land with the practices of video and poetry. In her piece, "Elk Woke Here Once (Aware of the World Already)," two women actors engage in a poetic dialogue they've written, conversing in a mossy, wet, highly textured Oregon riverside landscape on a small farm. As we discussed in this class, the importance of land is fundamental to decolonization ideas. What does land signify in contemporary artistic practice? Zoe Todd, in her text Indigenizing the Anthropocene speaks about the need to indigenize our thinking by “a reconfiguration of understandings of human-environmental relations towards praxis that acknowledges the central importance of land, bodies, movement, race, colonialism and sexuality.” Anne Greenwood's work "Shapes of Land'' seems to share a similar preoccupation. Greenwood uses machine-sewn text with embroidery, appliqué, natural dye, and cotton fibers to portray the concept of land. She retraces her footsteps from North Dakota, through travels with her husband to his native Argentina, and their time in Central America and Mexico, to their home in Oregon. Bridgette Hickey, Carla Bengstron and Meech Boakye bring the land to the gallery through their engagement with plants, animals and seeds.

Great staff, neat atmosphere, worth a stop in! Took a couple pics, and its free, got a little shop for gifts too

I can't believe I haven't heard of this place until recently! I was there last week for their annual action and it was fabulous. Disjecta is a medium/small gallery and performance space featuring a nice array if contemporary art. From what I understand most of their programs are free or low cost. The evening event I went to there was well organized, inspiring, lively and entertaining. I had a great time. I will definitely be paying more attention to what they have going on at Disjecta!

Disjecta is a scrappy art and performance space that grew up. It has had a rough time with real estate in our town because the building owners ejected them for higher paying tenants. They negotiated a very solid long term lease in Linton which everyone said was too far out. Those critics were proven wrong. The founder did a great job with experimental music bookings and progressive performers before they reached the PICA TBA stage. The spaces have also hosted artist studios. A few years ago they switched up their art curation by bringing in national and international curators. Those curators have been exporting Portland artists and importing work to challenge local artists. Disjecta has in turn been supported by local artists who donate work to their auction. The building also hosts other art groups like Flock Dance. That group was ejected from a Central Eastside building. The Disjecta events are a great meeting place for all the cool kids in the creative community. Now the board of directors, under a director who themselves was ejected from the Oregon Art Commission in Salem has ejected the founder. It was done poorly, so we will just wait to see how they pick up the pieces. If they want to up the Disjecta game, they need a fundraising board and they don't have one. Go to their events. See how it evolves.

Beautiful space, nice outdoor area and v fun murals on the exterior walls. I went here for the University of Oregon MFA Thesis Exhibition 2019 last week. The space is beautiful, modern and big enough to hold larger crowds.

Disjecta is a multi-function art space up in NoPo that offers a home to a vastly under-served community. The space is fairly small and intimate, and the uses range from art installations to parties to (from the sounds of it) all sorts of interesting stuff. I can't say all that much about the space - I was there for the Modified Style fashion show in 2011 - but I can say that it worked well for the event. There was a large room for models to get prepped, a decent-sized space for a runway, and ample entrance/exit areas set back on a guarded parking lot area. I hear from the owner that the parking lot area may become a park space/outdoor exhibit space, which if it happens will take the level of awesomeness up a few notches. They have the ability to do alcohol (full) which is a must for shows like these. The bathrooms are adequate and designed more for an art-space/loft than an event, but I understand events are not the primary purpose for the space. I'm definitely interested to come back and see some art in this space.

I've done 3 shows at Disjecta and had a positive experience each time. The stage inside the warehouse is decent sized, so you can do a lot with the space. For stage performances, with curtains drawn around the stage area and chairs, the feeling is a little cozy, but with the vast, high ceilings, it's not at all constraining. The acoustics can be challenging, but it's not bad. All around, there's just a very good, relaxed vibe. You can get a full bar set up here too, which is nice. I have a feeling I'll be back.

I wish the space was larger . The parking isn't great but its do-able, some on street some off. The booze is a +

Very cool art space. Saw interesting "music" (noise) performance here the other night by a Japanese guy...name is slipping my mind but it was well worth coming out for. I'm very happy this place exists and it will be on my radar as an event calendar to check regularly.

The first thing to love about Disjecta is that all of its programming is free and open to the public. An essential part of Portland's cultural landscape.

At first I saw people who looked like moms of performers, waiting with half smiles. There were light projections I had to adjust my eyes to and when I did I saw the ever changing colorful square patterns they made on the wall of the entry way. There was already a decent crowd waiting for the next open mic performer. After a moment of piercing feedback someone was introduced who started singing careful guitar melodies for a few minutes. This was my first time at Deep Under Ground or DUG and the good energy was felt immediately. This event on Friday January 15 celebrated their first year in action and their first time at a public venue, Disjecta. The stage was set in the middle of the room in the form of a few different platforms. Art hung on the walls in a few clusters. In the corner artist Steven Christian worked on a painting of MLK adorned with a crown, casually seated on a throne and surrounded by illustrated characters. I remembered the last time I was mesmerized by live painting at a music event in San Cristobal de las Casas Mexico. I thought of the similar vibes of social action and wondered about the history of live painting at music and art events. One thing I couldn't help but notice and feel excited about was the diversity in the audience, participating artists and organizers, something that has been lacking in my experience with the Portland art scene since moving here in August. After a few more artists played and spun lyrics over beats it was announced that they were moving into a spoken word and performance art section. "Channeling discontent into creative outlets to create nonviolent direct action" is the motto of DUG and after a few more performances that motto was felt. Spoken word artist Isaiah Spriggs moved about the space frenetically while listing out traumas and reflecting on ways to be more generative "I try to tell myself perfection is reflection, but do I believe it though? I turn on my tv and my radio / and witness what happens to non whites / now its no wonder that my older brother dyed his hair blond twice / by the age of 16 / can you tell me what this shit means?" "Growing up in Portland where whiteness is a standard I know they want you to adore". My friend introduced me to Mia O'Connor, one of the curators and founders of DUG, who later participated in a sweet dance performance set to acoustic guitar strumming. I feel like an outsider in Portland still, observing without knowing many people, and it was clear as the night unfolded at Disjecta that a community has formed around DUG in the past year. I could feel the joy of those who were running the show at having been able to accomplish a developed and solid program for a widening public. It felt like a vital and important event and I was grateful to be able to listen to what artists had to say and eager to come again. The later part of the night moved into performers and DJs and the party grew and grew.