Join Converge 45 Contemporaries this August for a gallery walk in Portland's historic Pearl District, situated on the northwest side of the city. The Pearl is known for its converted warehouses, fancy high-rise condos, and its appeal to both artists and upmarket residents. Considered the city’s arts hub, the Pearl District houses numerous galleries and studios showcasing a diverse range of contemporary art installations from local and international talent alike.

Schedule

5:00 Elizabeth Leach Gallery

5:30 ILY2

5:45 The BLACK Gallery

6:15 Happy Hour @ Black Fish Gallery

Register Here

In their shared studio, the artists Jeffry Mitchell and Ivan Carmona create ceramic sculptures that push the boundaries of what we see in traditional methods. You will also learn how Ivan and Jeffry use different aesthetic approaches to develop works that explore the dualities of life including death, religion, nature, place, sex, and celebration. Learn more about the artists.

Converge 45 Contemporaries connects local professionals with Portland’s contemporary art scene through monthly curated experiences scheduled every third Thursday.

Join Converge 45 for a bespoke experience of the 2024 Artists’ Biennial at Oregon Contemporary. The Biennial is a survey of works by visual and performing artists who are defining and advancing Oregon’s contemporary art landscape. Jackie Im and Anuradha Vikram curated the 2024 edition, titled ablaze with our care, its ongoing song, explores themes of networks, community, care, and support.

Participating artists are Carla Bengtson, Meech Boakye, Srijon Chowdhury, Epiphany Couch, Megita Denton, Michael Espinoza, Marcus Fischer, Bean Gilsdorf, Patricia Vázquez Gómez, Anne Greenwood, Bridgette Hickey, chimæra/project, Horatio Hung-Yan Law, Maxx Katz, Rainen Knecht, Methods Body, Morgan Ritter, Sarah Rushford, Tyler Stoll, UwU Collective, and Vo Vo⁠.

Converge 45 Contemporaries connects local professionals with Portland’s contemporary art scene through monthly curated experiences scheduled every third Thursday.

Image: Installation view of 2024 Oregon Contemporary Artists’ Biennial⁣⁣⁠. Photography by Mario Gallucci Studio courtesy of Oregon Contemporary.

Join co-hosts Converge 45 and The Cooley for a lecture with Amanda Donnan titled Dreaming, doubting: artistic strategies within and against the museum, presented by the University of Oregon Center for Art Research’s Critical Conversation Program.

It is now widely recognized that museums are not neutral containers for art. As theorized by Brian O’Doherty and Aruna D’Souza, among others, museums are ideological constructs that legitimate art objects as commodities and reproduce dominant (and dominating) ways of seeing the world. In this talk, curator Amanda Donnan considers contemporary artistic approaches to working within and against the museum’s’ collecting, display, and programmatic conventions to propose alternative models. Reflecting on a selection of her recent projects and current research, she addresses the museum’s role as a site of colonialist extraction and Indigenous resistance through Omaskêko Cree artist Duane Linklater’s work; a space of self-care and communality in the participatory “clinic” Group Therapy (2018); and secular temple for the practice of attention in ESTAR(SER)’s collection intervention The Third, Meaning (2022).

Critical Conversations is part of The Ford Family Foundation’s Visual Arts Program. It providesa collective space for artistsand cultural producers rooted inexchange and inquiry. Led by the Center for Art Research at the University of Oregon Departmentof Art in collaboration with the Douglas F. Cooley MemorialArt Gallery at Reed College and Pacific Northwest College of Art at Willamette University.

Join Converge 45 at Las Vegas Ikebana: Maren Hassinger and Senga Nengudi, the Cooley’s first exhibition focused on the pioneering collective and cross-genre practices of artists Maren Hassinger (b. 1947, Los Angeles) and Senga Nengudi (b. 1943, Chicago). Since their first encounter in Los Angeles in 1977, Hassinger and Nengudi have developed an expansive body of time-based collaborations that span nearly five decades. Exceeding categorization, their works are grounded in performance, conceptual ideas, and a passionate exploration of the body in motion—tied to their shared training in movement languages developed by choreographers such as Lester Horton and Rudy Perez.

Converge 45 Contemporaries connects local professionals with Portland’s contemporary art scene through monthly curated experiences scheduled every third Thursday.

Join Converge 45 for a night of celebration and recognition of Portland’s arts ecosystem while raising funds for its year-round and citywide art exhibition.

Themed Happening, the 2024 gala is a celebration of place with Honorary Chair Rukaiyah Adams and Community Honoree Halprin Landscape Conservancy.