Vizarts monthly: day trips, local favorites, and virtual viewings • oregon artswatch

The cherry blossom trees are blooming! It can only mean one thing: the slow ascent into spring has begun. Let’s brighten our days with some fresh art, shall we? Galleries are remaining

COVID-safe, with ample opportunity to set private viewing appointments. For Portlanders itching to ditch the city for the day, this month’s round-up includes must-see shows in Astoria,

Eugene, and Newberg. Those who prefer to stay home can still enjoy new virtual exhibitions at Upfor Gallery and Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Common exhibition themes this month include

identity, cultural heritage, and shifts in landscape. There’s plenty of opportunity to challenge your perspectives, but Well Well Projects’ _What’s So Funny?_ promises some long-overdue

laughter, too. Enjoy, and don’t forget your mask. _Dear John_ March 19 – April 17, 2021 Adams and Ollman 418 NW 8th Ave (by appointment only) Adams and Ollman’s exhibition _Dear John_

celebrates John Ollman’s half-century career as an art dealer and his role as a champion and scholar of US-based, self-taught art. The exhibition features works by the self-taught artist

James Castle (1899–1977), whose pieces were exhibited and supported by Ollman. Castle’s multimedia sculptures and drawings, which cast light on life in 20th century rural Idaho, are shown in

conversation with works by 21 contemporary artists including Vaginal Davis, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Jeffry Mitchell, and Dina No. twenty-one several contemporary artists. Domesticity,

interiority, and landscape feature as shared themes throughout. _Nkame_: A Retrospective of Cuban Printmaker Belkis Ayón February 6 – May 2, 2021 Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art/University of

Oregon Virtual (click here to view) _Nkame_, a retrospective exhibit centering the work of Cuban printmaker Belkis Ayón, includes forty-eight of her prints and audiovisual materials ranging

from 1986 to her death in 1999. Ayón is renowned for her collagraph technique, which utilizes a cardboard matrix and press; she’s also famous for an intentional, stark, black, white, and

gray pallette. Ayón’s work focuses on the history and mythology of Abakuá, an Afro-Cuban brotherhood that came to Cuba in the early 1800s. _Nkame_ means “praise and salutation” in an Abakuá

language, which also encapsulates this exhibition’s vision and purpose. _Partial Permutation_ February 17 – April 17, 2021 Upfor Gallery Virtual (click here to view) Identity and existence

are explored through diverse mediums and subject matter in this group exhibition, which features works made exclusively by transgender and gender-nonconforming artists. Pace Taylor, Tabitha

Nikolai, Maya Vivas, and Ebenezer Galluzzo approach the topic of identity from outside the scope of cis-normativity, expanding the visual lexicon of transgender art. Each artist invites the

viewer to engage with their works without implicit comparison, thus reflecting on the multi-layered nature of being. Sponsor _Are You There Allah? It’s me, Taravat_ March 20 – May 9, 2021

Fourteen30 Gallery 1501 SW Market St (Fri-Sun 12-5 PM, by appointment only) Taravat Talepasand’s solo exhibition at Fourteen30 includes paintings, drawings, sculpture, and even neon work.

With a title inspired by Judy Blume’s iconic teen novel _Are You There God? It’s me, Margaret_, Talepasand’s works similarly navigate self-reflection, trust, and belief. Talepasand uses

cartoon figures to reflect on the powerful anarchy of innocence and imagination, and as the artist expands spiritually, dichotomies of familiar and grotesque, utopia and dystopia are

expressed in her works. Talepasand is Iranian-American connecting to the Iranian diaspora through her art; she now leans toward “becoming the hyphen”, embodying an in-between space. _Unquiet

Objects_ March 12 – May 2, 2021 Disjecta 8371 N Interstate Ave (open Fri-Sun 12-5 PM; limited entry, masks, and distancing required) Disjecta’s group exhibition _Unquiet Objects_, curated

by Lucy Cotter, brings into focus a separation between cultural objects and human life. Ten artists and cultural producers, including Kristan Kennedy, Morehshin Allahyari, and Ariella Aïsha

Azoulay, explore possibilities for accountability towards cultural objects. Questions considered are informed by “the foundational complicity of art’s notion of discrete objects with an

imperialist agenda, the agency of objects as portals into alternate worldviews, genders and subjectivities; issues of institutional restitution and reparations, as well as Quantum,

metaphysical and supernatural understandings of objects.” Further, participants extend their reflections by considering object futures in spaces influenced by AI technology. Toddd Molinari

& Francis Dot: _apokálypsis: an uncovering_ March 13 – April 3, 2021 Astoria Visual Arts 1000 Duane St, Astoria (Fri-Sat 12-4 PM or by appointment, masks and distancing required) Toddd

Molinari and Francis Dot’s _apokálypsis: an uncovering_ is an assemblage installation of multimedia objects that explore space redefined. Our ways of relating to places, objects, and other

people shifted with the pandemic in 2020, and continue to shift. In response to these changes, Molinari and Dot think about the “ancient sequence” of apocalypse, negative space, and

aesthetic/relational possibilities therein. Catch the exhibition before it closes on April 3! Molinari and Dot also discussed their work with KMUN’s “Arts: Live and Local”; listen here.

_What’s So Funny?_ April 3 – 25, 2021 Well Well Projects 8371 N Interstate Ave, #1 (open Sat-Sun 12-5 PM) Sponsor Well Well Projects’ group exhibition _What’s So Funny? _breaks silence with

a laugh and reflects on the “Lynchian absurdity” of our current world. Featuring eighteen artists based nationwide, the exhibition includes quirky characters and experiments with humor in

form, bodily function, wordplay, materiality, and perspective. The nuances of humor are explored in diverse ways by each artist, including Ben Galaday, Jiaqi Li, and Dulce Lamarca. _New

Color in the Times of Slow Coffee_ April 3, 2021 Stephanie Chefas Projects 305 SE 3rd Ave (by appointment only; schedule here) _New Color in the Times of Slow Coffee_ is a group exhibition

featuring exploratory, collaborative works that Kristin Texeira, Kelsey McClellan, and Michelle Maguire created within a makeshift artists’ residency during 2020 isolation. “Studio space”

consisted of snail mail, text messages, video chats, and emails. Inspired by Texeira’s paintings, McClellan and Maguire created a series of photographs, which Texeira then utilized to create

responsive paintings. Furthering their collaboration, McClellan and Maguire used Texeira’s resulting paintings to create another responsive series of works. This process of blending works

to create a colorful visual conversation helped carry each artist through a year in isolation. _If water had its way_: Susan Murrell March 27 – April 11, 2021 Carnation Contemporary 8371 N

Interstate Ave (open Fri-Sun 12-5 PM) Susan Murrell’s painting-based solo exhibition _If water had its way_ reflects on a charged relationship between water, land, and culture. Viewing

water’s potency through the lenses of birth, life, and death, Murrell considers how humans attempt to control water, particularly in an era of climate crisis. Through installations of

paintings, she explores inertia, equilibrium, and humanity’s ever-shifting role in the landscape. Murrell is an Associate Professor of Art at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande.

_Ikanum_: Contemporary Art from the Columbia River and Willamette Valley April 6 – 30, 2021 Chehalem Cultural Center 415 E Sheridan St, Newberg (Tues-Sat 12-6 PM) In tandem with the Chachalu

Museum in Grand Ronde, the Chehalem Cultural Center will present_ Ikanum_, a group exhibition sharing the stories of thirteen Native artists based in the Columbia River and Willamette

Valley areas. Artists featured include Sky Hopinka, a filmmaker whose work was recently featured in the Whitney Biennial, and Shirod Younker, who previously managed the only pre-college

Native American Art program for Indigenous teens at Oregon College of Art and Craft. Sponsor Garrick Imatani: _Monologue_ April 3 – May 1, 2021 ANTI-AESTHETIC 245 W 8th Ave, Eugene (Sat-Sun

12-4 PM; by appointment only, schedule here. Masks and distancing required, limited entry, visits limited to 30 minutes.) Garrick Imatani’s _Monologue _examines his own Japanese cultural

heritage to consider how perceptions of non-dominant cultural identities are formed. _Monologue_ questions how aesthetics inform assimilation and authenticity within the dominant canon, and

looks further at how inclusionary constructs operate in institutional frameworks. Imatani’s interactive, humorous objects encourage a decentralization and multi-faceted reading of varying

cultures. A related public program, _Making After Melancholia_: A discussion between Garrick Imatani, Lynn Yarne and Lu Yim, will consider the cultural representation of each participant’s

Asian American identity.