Oregon Contemporary

Name: Oregon Contemporary
Address: 8371 N Interstate Avenue, Portland, OR, 97217, US
Telephone: +15032869449

Home
United States
Portland, OR
Oregon Contemporary

Portland, Oregon
Oregon Contemporary is a space dedicated to art, community, and the exponential possibilities of contemporary art.

Friday: 12pm - 5pm
Saturday: 12pm - 5pm
Sunday: 12pm - 5pm
or by appointment

Open hours only while an exhibition is on view. Please check our website for more information.

08/26/2026

A personal note from Blake Shell, Executive and Artistic Director, on how Ox is moving forward (with a little ✨🪐 and a lot of hope). xoxo, Ox

07/08/2026

It has been a year y’all.

We’ve had some of the highest highs and definitely some of the lowest lows. We are so grateful for everyone who has supported us, visited us, and rallied behind us over the past year.

We are giving our staff a much needed break for July and are excited to welcome you back in August for Converge 45’s Here, To you, Now.

More about our past year:

During the past year, we've celebrated remarkable milestones, including our most-attended exhibition in 25 years — A Larger Reality: Ursula K. Le Guin; advocacy that helped secure $1.6 million in restored arts funding for Portland organizations, and the success of the 2026 Artists' Biennial: The Price of the Ticket.

This year has also tested Oregon Contemporary in profound ways — from federal funding cuts and reduced city support, to the devastating injury suffered by our Exhibitions Director, Dustin Williams. Through it all, our community has shown extraordinary generosity and solidarity.

Read the full End-of-Year letter from our Executive & Artistic Director Blake Shell's for reflections on this pivotal year, gratitude for our community, updates on Dustin's recovery, and how you can help sustain Oregon Contemporary's mission. More on our website.

07/02/2026

CONVERSATION�🗳️ The Price of the Ticket & Democracy
⁠
🗓️ Saturday July 4th
🕑️ 2:00-4:00pm⁠
📍 Oregon Contemporary
⁠
To begin the closing of the 2026 Oregon Artists Biennial, we invite the Portland community to a conversation on democracy, voting rights, & civic embodiment between Audrey de Coursey, President of the League of Women Voters of Portland, TK Smith, Curator of the Artists’ Biennial and artist, Katherine Longstreth.

Join us to learn more about the League of Women Voters, the 2026 Oregon Artists' Biennial, or to register to vote!

06/30/2026

End of a tumultuous, hard, and hopeful year for Oregon Contemporary, a letter from our Director Blake Shell linked in our bio.

06/30/2026

THIS SATURDAY 📣 Forum on the 4th: Closing celebration of the 2026 Artists' Biennial⁠
⁠
📅 Saturday, July 4th⁠
🕓️ 4:00-8:00pm⁠
📍 Oregon Contemporary⁠
✔️ Free and open to all, please RSVP on website
⁠
Join us this weekend for Forum on the 4th, the closing celebration of the 2026 Oregon Artists' Biennial.

Experience an afternoon of community reflection on the semiquincentennial, public readings by participating artists, and a conversation led by curator TK Smith as we gather to mark the close of this year's Biennial.

The celebration culminates with the final performance of Fifty Clocks Made to Strike Together by DeepTime Collective—a powerful concluding moment as we discover whether the Biennial can truly close on one accord.

Don't miss your last chance to experience the Biennial together.

06/29/2026

WORKSHOP�⬛️ the gesture and the shout: community printing, collages and design techniques⁠ with Marcelo Fontana + Wave Contemporary

🗓️ Thursday July 2nd
🕑️ 2:00-5:00pm
📍 Multnomah County Central Library

Tired of endless scrolling and digital noise? This workshop will help bring our message out of the digital ether and into the public sphere, reminding us that in a scattered world with distant posts, there's a lot of power in a real, shared action.

In this hands-on workshop, you'll learn the basics of wheat-pasting, collage and design. We'll create our own images, designs and messages and put them directly on the street. It's a chance to turn ideas into a collective act of presence. Come join us, make something real, and find your voice in the physical world.⁠
⁠
Ages 14+

06/24/2026

Forum on the 4th 📣 Closing celebration of the 2026 Artists' Biennial

📅 Saturday, July 4th
🕓️ 4:00-8:00pm
📍 Oregon Contemporary

We invite the Portland community to join us for Forum on the 4th, a closing celebration of the 2026 Oregon Artists’ Biennial, with community reflections on the semiquincentennial and public readings by participating artists, led by curator TK Smith.

The Forum will culminate in the final performance of DeepTime Collective’s Fifty Clocks Made to Strike Together, in which we will see if the biennial can close on one accord.

This event, in celebration of the closing of the 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘵 exhibition, will provide an open forum for engagement in response to the 250-year anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. There will be speakers—participating artists, writers and community members—throughout the day.

Free and open to all, please RSVP at link on website ✔️

06/23/2026

Biennial Events in July 🔥 The Biennial is coming to close with some exciting programming
⁠
Workshop: the gesture and the shout ⬛ July 2nd��
🕕 2:00-5:00PM�
📍 Multnomah County Central Library

Tired of endless scrolling and digital noise? This workshop will help bring our message out of the digital ether and into the public sphere. In this hands-on workshop, you'll learn the basics of wheatpasting, collage and design. Come join us, make something real, and find your voice in the physical world. Ages 14+

A RACE TALKS Heritage Tour and Cultural Archive 🌆 July 3rd�
🕕 10:00 AM-3:00 PM�
📍 begins at Oregon Contemporary

RACE TALKS presents a curated community transit experience that explores the juxtaposition of American independence with the "price of the ticket" paid by Black Portlanders. This tour serves as a mobile archival intervention, documenting the erasure of the Albina district while honoring the resilience of those who remain.

The Price of the Ticket & Democracy 🗳️ July 4th
Conversation about democracy, voting rights & civic embodiment
🕔 2:00–4:00 PM
📍 Oregon Contemporary

To kick off the closing of our 2026 Oregon Artists Biennial, join us for a special conversation between Audrey de Coursey, President of the League of Women Voters of Portland, TK Smith, Curator of the Artists’ Biennial and artist, Katherine Longstreth. Join us to learn more about the League of Women Voters, the 2026 Oregon Artists' Biennial, or to register to vote!

Forum on the 4th ✨ July 4th
A Closing Celebration of the 2026 Artists' Biennial
🕔 4:00–8:00 PM
📍 Oregon Contemporary

We invite the Portland community to join us for Forum on the 4th, an exciting afternoon of public readings, community reflections, performance, and delicious local bites as we celebrate the closing of The Price of the Ticket. Gather with artists, curators, and neighbors to reflect on the ideas, stories, and connections that have shaped this remarkable Biennial.

06/16/2026

Introducing our Season 12 Curator In Residence, Jamison Edgar, and their upcoming exhibition: 𝘚𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘊𝘺𝘤𝘭𝘦. ��⁠
⁠
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

06/11/2026

🔥 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

Address

8371 N Interstate Avenue
Portland, OR
97217

Opening Hours

Friday	12pm - 5pm
Saturday	12pm - 5pm
Sunday	12pm - 5pm

Telephone

+15032869449

Website

http://www.oregoncontemporary.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Oregon Contemporary posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Oregon Contemporary:

Want your business to be the top-listed Event Planning Service in Portland?

Oregon Contemporary

08/26/2026

07/08/2026

07/02/2026

06/30/2026

06/30/2026

06/29/2026

06/24/2026

06/23/2026

06/16/2026

06/11/2026

Address

Opening Hours

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Listing takedown request