Exhibitions

ON VIEW NOW!

Social Forms: Art as Global Citizenship
August 24 - October 14
All around the world power is shifting. It is, we are told, becoming less top-down and more shared, open, and participatory. Art is at the vanguard of this and other changes that propose redefinitions of our societies at every level, but also of experiments that trend toward greater global citizenship and an increasingly participatory culture. Social Forms: Art as Global Citizenship is an exhibition designed to promote increased citizenship, a term used not to denote privileged political status but to propose a more inclusive category of belonging in the world. Opening in venues across the Portland metro area, this exhibit features 50+ artists across 15+ local venues. Parallax Art Center has been selected for the portion of the show titled Assembly, which will geographically center artwork in the Pearl. Along with Stelo Arts and PNCA, Parallax Art Center will host Karlo Andrei Ibarra, Adriene Cruz, Patrick Hamilton, Lisa Jarret, Nicola Lopez, Brian Maguire, Jeremy Okai Davis, Anastasia Samoylova, Sara Siestreem and Judith Wyss.

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MEET THE ARTISTS

JULIAN V.L. GAINES

Originally from Chicago, Julian V.L. Gaines now lives and works in Portland, Oregon. He received his BFA in Painting from Northern Michigan University in 2015. As a painter, Gaines’ artwork addresses activism, education, and tells stories that need to be told. He collaborated with Nike to create the collection “Game Worn”. As part of the sneaker release, he led a weeklong workshop that included art classes at Chicago’s South Shore Cultural Center. Gaines has received editorials from Northern Magazine, HYPEBEAST, and The New York Times. In December 2020, his artwork was featured on the cover of New York Magazine. His work has been exhibited at Art Basel, the Seattle Art Fair, and featured in an exhibition with Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects in New York. His artwork is in numerous private and corporate collections, as well as the collection of the Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR.

LISA JARRETT

Lisa Jarrett (she/her) is an artist working in social and visual forms. Her intersectional practice considers the politics of difference within a variety of settings including: schools, landscapes, fictions, racial imaginaries, studios, communities, museums, galleries, walls, mountains, mirrors, floors, rivers, and prisms. She recently discovered that her primary medium is questions; the most urgent of which is: What will set you free? She is co-founder/director of projects like KSMoCA (Dr MLK Jr School Museum of Contemporary Art); the Harriet Tubman Middle School Center for Expanded Curatorial Practice in NE Portland, OR; and Art 25: Art in the 25th Century. Lisa exists and makes work within the African Diaspora. She lives in Portland, Oregon where she co-authors social practice projects and continues her 14+ year investigation into Black hair and its care in various forms. She is Associate Professor of Community and Context Arts at Portland State University's School of Art + Design where she teaches classes in Art + Social Practice.

NARISISO MARTINEZ

Narsiso Martinez (Mexican American, born 1977) creates paintings, drawings, and mixed-media installations. His work focuses on portraits of farmworkers, often using found produce boxes in his artworks.Born in Oaxaca, Mexico, Martinez migrated to the United States when he was 20 years old. He attended Evans Community Adult School in Los Angeles, California, and completed high school at age 29. Martinez worked for nine seasons as a farmworker in Eastern Washington to fund his college education. He earned an Associate of Arts degree from Los Angeles City College in 2009. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2012 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in 2018, both from California State University Long Beach. He is based in Long Beach, California.

SARA SIESTREEM

Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos) was born in 1976. She is a master artist from the Umpqua River Valley on the South Coast of Oregon. She comes from a family of professional artists and educators; her training began in the home. Her lifelong mentor is Lillian Pitt (Wasco, Warm Springs, Yakama) and her weaving teachers are Greg Archuleta (Grand Ronde) and Greg A. Robinson (Chinook Nation). Siestreem graduated Phi Kappa Phi with a BS from PSU in 2005. She earned an MFA with distinction from Pratt Art Institute in 2007. She is represented by The Elizabeth Leach Gallery. She lives and works in Portland, Oregon.

VO

Vo is a multi-disciplinary artist and radical educator of inclusion, racial justice, intercultural communication, trauma-informed care, de-escalation and transformative justice. Editor of an internationally renowned publication, speaker, curator, visual artist and musician who has exhibited and toured in Australia, Germany, Indonesia, The Netherlands, Singapore, Croatia, Mexico, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, Vietnam, Sweden, Malaysia, and the US. They continue to focus on the resilience of BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+ and disabled communities.

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