5 young Black Portland artists to watch
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Intisar Abioto at the Black Artists of Oregon show she curated. Photo: Courtesy of Portland Art Museum
Intisar Abiato curated the groundbreaking show Black Artists of Oregon, featuring 100 years of art often overlooked by galleries and collectors.
🎨 We asked her for five young Black Portland artists to watch.
Maya Vivas is a multidisciplinary artist who incorporates ceramics into performances, such as the piece "Soft Between the Elbows" where they manipulate a 3-foot-tall lump of clay while dancing.
manuel arturo abreu is also known for a complex multidisciplinary approach. For "Untitled (Herramienta)," abreu showered next to a nylon painting for six months to stain it, then placed a video screen behind it.
- It is a work about "Afro Diasporic domestic aesthetics, with reference to electric-powered religious art," abreu wrote.
Sidony O'Neal recreated their piece "Interim" for the museum. A bathtub, partially filled with resin and toy sheep, is part of an inquiry into "histories and philosophies of translation, mathematics and computing."
- O'Neal is going back to Reed College to pursue studies in Mathematics.
Penda Diakite is the daughter of prominent Portland artists. In her collages of dancers in West Africa, "Penda is telling stories of the experience of being a biracial black woman," said Abioto.
Tristan Irving is influenced by Basquiat and Rembrandt, but Abioto called him "a Caldera kid," referring to the mountain retreat founded by the Wieden + Kennedy ad agency.
- "We met there, he had just come back from living in his van in L.A., and he was so focused. Now he's living in New York, he's a self-employed artist," said Abioto.
What Abiato is saying: "In the African diaspora, art practices are already interdisciplinary," she told Axios. "The music goes with the art, with the textiles, it's a way of thinking about forms."
- "For folks in the African diaspora there's a choice of refusal, of not having to explain into understanding," said Abioto.
Where it's happening: The show runs through March 31 at the Portland Art Museum.