‘Black Artists of Oregon’ exhibition at Portland Art Museum honors Black life and community – Rlane Studios Gallery Site

Walking through “Black Artists of Oregon,” the ambitious exhibition currently on display at the Portland Art Museum, it’s impossible not to be impressed by the range and power of the work, made by more than 60 creators. Paintings, mixed media, textiles, sculptures, photographs, and much more reflect joy, anger, activism, thoughtfulness and beauty, the personal expressions of artists from the 19th century up to the present day.

Though some of the artists’ names – Carrie Mae Weems, Al Goldsby, Arvie Smith, Charlotte Lewis, Robert Colescott, Thelma Johnson Streat, and Isaka Shamsud-Din, just to name a few – may be familiar, “Black Artists of Oregon” is also, as one of the panels introducing the exhibition says, a consideration of “the absence of Black artists’ work in institutional collections and how that exclusion affects our understanding of American art history and the history of the Pacific Northwest.”

For Intisar Abioto, the artist and guest curator of “Black Artists of Oregon,” the exhibition will, as she said in a recent interview, “Reveal the people who are truly here, and have always been here. Black artists and Black art are an expression of Black life, of Black community.”

“Black Artists of Oregon” grew out of research that Abioto began in 2018, a process that involved interviews with Black artists such as Adriene Cruz, Bobby Fouther, and others, as well as research into archives from the Portland Art Museum and other sources.

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Abioto, 37, grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, among a family of artists. After graduating from Wesleyan University in 2008, she moved, along with members of her family, to Portland, in 2010.

During her time in Oregon, Abioto has become involved in the state’s cultural life. She has performed in dance events; exhibited her art in the Oregon State Capitol in Salem, Portland State University, Reed College, and other venues; and written about Black people in the state, including a 2019 essay titled “Black Mark, Black Legend,” which appeared in Oregon Humanities magazine and explored some of the history of Black artists in Portland, what they experienced, and their legacy.

“I just continued to do it,” Abioto said of her work researching, going through archival sources and interviewing Black artists. The process sometimes led her to find works that she purchased, and to learn more.

The subject of Black artists in Oregon felt especially important because of the art establishment’s frequent practice of excluding work by artists of color, and also because of Oregon’s shameful history of discrimination, including Black exclusion laws, which included an 1849 law that generally made it illegal for any Black person to “enter into, or reside” in Oregon.

But learning more about Oregon’s history and Black artists was just a starting point.

“Research is great, but if it’s not shared, it’s just dead knowledge,” Abioto said. “So how could that information be given back to us?”

The opportunity to create what became “Black Artists of Oregon” came about when Grace Kook-Anderson, the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Northwest Art at the Portland Art Museum, contacted Abioto in 2020. Kook-Anderson asked if Abioto would be interested in working on an exhibit.

“We have great moments in our history, but still, there have always been under-represented artists of color, and specifically women,” said Kook-Anderson, who began working for the Portland Art Museum in 2017.

“In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, we had an opportunity to apply for a grant that looked at our collection, and also presented a newer interpretation, or different interpretation of American art in the collection,” Kook-Anderson said. “And I was thinking about Intisar’s work, and Black artists in the region, and I asked Intisar if she would be interested in being the guest curator for the exhibition.”

The process included bringing together works from the museum collection, but also pieces loaned by other institutions, by the artists themselves, and by artists’ family members.

“I feel really grateful that we have been able to do this,” Kook-Anderson said, particularly at a time when arts institutions across the country are still struggling to lure visitors back in the wake of the pandemic.

“As Intisar likes to remind us, it’s really not about the museum, it’s really about the stories of the elders, and stories of the community,” Kook-Anderson said. “I’m excited that the museum has gotten to be a part of it, and I hope that we continue to learn how to be great allies.”

In doing a “deep dive” into the museum collection, Abioto said, she saw very few black artists, and even fewer female Black artists.

“Where are we in this place?” Abioto remembered thinking. “Black art is eternal. It’s forever. It predates this museum, it predates Portland, it predates the concept of America.”

The idea that it’s somehow a “privilege” for artists of color to be in spaces such as museums is a complicated one, Abioto said, in that it suggests that such artists are finally being brought into spaces that have long been dominated by white founders, and white patrons.

“It can be a fraught endeavor,” she said, considering controversies that have arisen from museums collecting objects from different countries or cultures that people in those countries or cultures have tried to get back.

“Who are museums for?” Abioto said. For so long, the idea was that the “white gaze” was the valued gaze. “But for me,” she said, “it’s not a Black show unless Black people are there.”

Impressive as the talent represented in “Black Artists of Oregon” is, Abioto said, “I want people to understand this is not an end point for me.” She wants a bigger and better Black arts infrastructure, preservation of Black art, and support for Black artists as they pursue their careers.

“The art is an expression of care for Black people,” Abioto said. “Being a part of a lineage of revealing Black artistic presence here is about caring for Black Portlanders, Black Oregonians, Black people.”

“Black Artists of Oregon” is on display through March 17, 2024, at the Portland Art Museum, 1219 S.W. Park Ave., Portland.

— Kristi Turnquist

503-221-8227; kturnquist@oregonian.com; @Kristiturnquist

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