Past Exhibitions

A colorful Japanese woodblock print depicting a bustling street scene. Women in traditional kimonos interact with each other, surrounded by banners and signs with Japanese characters. The print showcases detailed patterns and vibrant colors typical of Edo-period ukiyo-e art.

Rhapsody in Blue and Red Ukiyo-e Prints of the Utagawa School

Fay Boyer Preble and Virginia Cooke Murphy Wing

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In Winter 2019, Art History Professor Akiko Walley and Chief Curator Anne Rose Kitagawa team-taught an Utagawa School course in which students studied this vibrant artistic tradition and learned about exhibition planning in order to contribute to this installation, which features more than 30 loans from Lee and Mary Jean Michels along with prints from the museum’s permanent collection.

Pink and black silhouette of a woman walking by Mesoamerican engravings with a hoe over one shoulder and a rifle hanging from the other

Entre mundos Memory and Material

Morris Graves Gallery

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Entre mundos (Between Worlds) explores the spaces within, between, and among multiple worlds where transformation and change occur in art and individuals. The four works on view in Entre mundos entered the museum’s collection through the generosity of UO students, faculty and departments, and friends of the JSMA.

Red and black linocut of a face on a light brown background. The brain is visible on the forehead with tentacle-like nerves heading to each eye, circling the nose and mouth, then continuing down the neck

Nuestra imagen actual | Our Present Image Mexico and the Graphic Arts 1929-1956

Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Gallery

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The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (JSMA) and the Portland Art Museum (PAM) are co-organizing Nuestra imagen actual | Our Present Image: Mexico and the Graphic Arts 1929-1956. The exhibition aims to deepen and broaden the understanding and appreciation of the graphic art of post-revolutionary Mexico, a landmark in the history of twentieth-century printmaking and modern art.

Includes:
  • Video
Colorful, highly detailed artwork with various phrases, objects, and patterns. Central text reads 'UNDER THIS BRIDGE ASLEEP.'

Hallie Ford Fellows in the Visual Arts 2017-19

Coeta and Donald Barker Changing Exhibitions Gallery

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The Ford Family Foundation celebrates the contributions of outstanding Oregon artists working in fine art and craft with its prestigious Hallie Ford Fellowships in the Visual Arts, awarded annually to five recipients by an independent jury of regional and national arts professionals. This fall, the JSMA will present new and recent work by the fifteen artists named Fellows in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Includes:
  • Gallery Guide
Grids of light in a dark space

Laura Fritz/Rick Silva Encounters

A. Dean & Lucile I. McKenzie Gallery

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Encounters pairs works by Oregon artists Laura Fritz (b. 1970) of Portland and Rick Silva (b. 1977) of Eugene. Together, Silva’s web-based, audio-visual piece The Silva Field Guide to Birds of a Parallel Future and Fritz’s three-dimensional Alvarium 2 suggest interactions between the natural and the digital worlds, human and animal activity, and knowing and not knowing.

A delicate etching of a landscape featuring tall, bare trees against a soft, cloudy sky. The fine lines and shading create a tranquil and timeless scene.

Mildred Bryant Brooks

Online

The award-winning work of American etcher and master printer Mildred Bryant Brooks (1901-95) explores the physical and metaphorical beauty of the natural world.

Includes:
  • Gallery Guide

Mildred Bryant Brooks The Art of Etching

Artist Project Space

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The award-winning work of American etcher and master printer Mildred Bryant Brooks (1901-95) explores the physical and metaphorical beauty of the natural world. With a keen eye for detail, exceptional technical skill, curiosity, and empathy, Brooks brought to life the forest, desert, and ocean landscapes of her native California, reflecting on the symbiotic relationship between nature and humanity

Includes:
  • Read
A close-up photograph of a person's hand pointing towards a lizard on a rock, with a clear blue sky in the background.

Every Word was Once an Animal

Focus Gallery

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Every Word was Once an Animal explores the overlapping forces of nature and culture between humans, animals, and language, merging art, science, dance, music, and olfaction.

Includes:
  • Video
Two individuals in a workshop, one man examining a ceramic piece with a tool, and a woman taking notes beside him.

Early Ceramics from Southeast Asia Specimens from Thailand and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art

Education Corridor

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This exhibition, organized by UO Department of Anthropology Professor William S. Ayres with the assistance of MA archeology student Angelica Kneisly and Department of Anthropology Courtesy Research Associate Maury Morgenstein, compares archaeological potsherds from fieldwork in Thailand and ceramic objects from the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.

Includes:
  • Gallery Guide

Myriad Treasures The Soreng Gallery of Chinese Art

Betty and John Soreng Gallery

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The JSMA’s Soreng Gallery of Chinese Art has just undergone a long-awaited renovation facilitated through matched support from Betty Soreng and others who wish to remain anonymous. The largess of these donors made it possible to update the gallery floor, walls, casework, and lighting to a level commensurate with the quality of the collection.

Includes:
  • Virtual Tour
Houses in an internment camp surrounded by dust clouds with barbed wire fencing and a watch tower in the background. In the right corner, a large black silhouette of a soldier with an automatic rifle pointed toward the camp and a second rifle over his shoulder uses binoculars to watch a toddler riding a tricycle.

Roger Shimomura By Looking Back, We Look Forward

Coeta and Donald Barker Changing Exhibitions Gallery

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Over his long and prolific career, distinguished American artist and educator Roger Shimomura has channeled his outrage and despair into beautiful, provocative, often irreverent, and sometimes inflammatory art. He uses a brightly colored Pop-Art style to depict a dizzying combination of traditional Japanese imagery and exaggerated cultural stereotypes.

Includes:
  • Video
Two blurred images side by side, showing indistinct human figures.

Carrie Mae Weems The Usual Suspects

Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Gallery

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Nationally celebrated Portland-born artist Carrie Mae Weems uses photography, video, and installation to examine contemporary life and the African-American experience. In her exhibition The Usual Suspects, organized by Louisiana State University Museum of Art, Weems asks, “How do you measure a life?”

Includes:
  • Video
Drawing of pastel colored shelf fungi that form a circle on a black patterned background

Claire Burbridge Pathways to the Invisible

Artist Project Space

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Inspired by an almost microscopic examination of nature, Claire Burbridge creates beautifully drawn magical worlds. Her subjects, trees, flowers, plants, fungi, insects, morph from realistic depictions into a heightened reality that entices our vision and invigorates our spirit. The current exhibition features works produced since 2015, as well as new works, informed by a recent visit to Iceland.

Includes:
  • Video
A black and white photo of a wall with a cross beam and window. The beam has snow piled on top and there's snow on the ground at the base of the wall.

STILL Photography Selections from the Permanent Collection

Morris Graves Gallery

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Selected from the JSMA’s collection by Thom Sempere, Associate Curator of Photography, STILL Photography highlights thirteen images representing work that is wide-ranging in style, time, location and subject. Iconic images by Minor White, Imogen Cunningham, Lewis Hine and Raúl Corrales are brought together with contemporary works of Sally Mann, Dan Powell and Richard Tuschman, among others.

Includes:
  • Gallery Guide
A silver serving dish with a flower petal design and an ornate handle. The polished surface reflects light beautifully, highlighting its elegant craftsmanship.

The Graceful Table

John and Ethel MacKinnon Gallery

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The 2019-20 rotation of the Margo Grant Walsh Twentieth Century Silver and Metalwork Collection explores the history of table service, dining etiquette, and international food culture through twentieth-century tableware and dining accessories created by celebrated silversmiths such as Allan Adler and Porter Blanchard, Albert Edward Bonner, Alexander Sturm, and Carl Poul Peterson.

Includes:
  • Gallery Guide