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Past Exhibitions

The Human Touch: Selections from the RBC Wealth Management Art Collection
April 26, 2014 to September 14, 2014
Barker Gallery
This exhibition, drawn from the RBC Wealth Management Art Collection, features major works by international contemporary artists, all of which explore creative interpretations of the human figure. Ranging in scale and media, these whimsical and provocative pieces include works by John Baldessari, Chuck Close, Lalla Essaydi, Roland Fisher, Roy Lichtenstein, Hung Liu, and Elizabeth Peyton.
Vanessa Renwick: Hunting Requires Optimism & Medusa Smack
April 25, 2014 to June 29, 2014
In conjunction with Cinema Pacific and made possible by a JSMA Academic Support Grant, the JSMA is pleased to present two video installations by Portland-based artist Vanessa Renwick. Renwick’s installations address serious issues, related to our environment, in often humorous ways.
Contemporary Oregon Visions: Jo Hamilton and Irene Hardwicke Olivieri
April 01, 2014 to August 03, 2014
Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Gallery
These two contemporary Oregon artists offer substantially different but equally innovative approaches to figurative art.
Ten Symbols of Longevity and Late Joseon Korean Culture
April 01, 2014 to June 28, 2015
Jin Joo Gallery
The JSMA is proud to unveil our recently conserved Ten Symbols of Longevity screen along with a selection of Korean objects spanning the 19th and 20th centuries. This rotation features a number of court and Buddhist paintings and textiles, prints of traditional Korean subjects by Scottish artist Elizabeth Keith (1887–1956), and a few contemporary works.
WPA Impressions: The Reality of the American Dream
March 11, 2014 to July 27, 2014
Morris Graves Gallery
Curated by University of Oregon undergraduate art history major Merrit Thompson, the exhibition features prints in the JSMA collection by artists who worked for the Works Project Administration in the 1930s and took as their subject matter the pursuit of the American Dream.
The Delicate World of Josefine Allmayer: Papercuts from the Permanent Collection
March 04, 2014 to May 25, 2014
John and Ethel MacKinnon Gallery
Austrian artist Josefine Allmayer was born in a small town near Vienna in 1904. Allmayer’s father taught her the art of psaligraphy, or papercut silhouettes, when she was a child. The works in this exhibition feature enchanting renditions of life along the Danube River, painstakingly cut from tissue-thin papers with scissors.
NewArt Northwest Kids: Food for Thought
February 25, 2014 to June 08, 2014
Teachers of public, private, and home school students in grades K-12 submitted work from schools across Oregon for this year’s theme, which explores the relationship of food to art and draws inspiration from the pursuit of healthy eating. Sponsored by D. Michael Balm and Dee Carlson.
ASARO—Asamblea de Artistas Revolucionarios de Oaxaca
February 11, 2014 to April 27, 2014
Focus Gallery
The Assembly of Revolutionary Artists of Oaxaca (ASARO—Asamblea de Artistas Revolucionarios de Oaxaca) was born in the wake of the 2006 uprisings in Oaxaca, Mexico and this year marks the eighth anniversary of the collective’s commitment to engendering social change through art.
Emancipating the Past: Kara Walker’s Tales of Slavery and Power
January 25, 2014 to April 06, 2014
Barker Gallery
Emancipating the Past: Kara Walker’s Tales of Slavery and Power explores Walker’s transformation of historical materials through a range of different projects, bringing together some of her earliest and most recent artworks. Taking her silhouette imagery beyond cut paper, she has worked in a variety of other mediums, from drawing and printmaking to metal sculpture, shadow puppetry, and film.
We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live
January 18, 2014 to March 16, 2014
Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Gallery
We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live explores how these contemporary artists embrace a cross-disciplinary approach to art making wherein the legacies of art, craft, and design merge in work that expands and explores the tactile, conceptual, imaginary, material, and critical potential of cultural production.
The Messengers
January 14, 2014 to March 16, 2014
Artist Project Space
An interactive installation by Vermont-based artist Kathy Marmor, The Messengers relies on user content to create Twitter-influenced mashups. Randomized sentences, displayed in dynamic LED lights, depict abbreviated communication gone awry and run the gamut from hilarious nonsense to poetry.
Art of Traditional Japanese Theater
October 08, 2013 to July 06, 2014
In the fourteenth century Nō (also written Noh) and its comic counterpart, Kyōgen, evolved from earlier dramatic and musical performance traditions to become the medieval dance-drama of Japan’s warrior class. This rotation features prints by Tsukioka Kōgyo and others documenting performances of this subtle, elegant art, along with paintings, books, theatrical properties and netsuke toggles.
Song Tao, From Last Century, 2004-6 (34minutes, 7seconds)
September 28, 2013 to December 31, 2013
Artist Song Tao’s three-part video humorously and poetically engages the dynamic cityscape of Shanghai, China’s largest metropolis. The artist and his cast transform public wastebaskets, crowded bus stops, wide boulevards, and sprawling high rises into spaces of play and personal reflection.
National Geographic Greatest Photographs of the American West
September 28, 2013 to December 31, 2013
Barker Gallery
In this special exhibition, wide open spaces, spectacular rock formations, and the cowboy life are examined alongside struggles for limited natural resources, Native American cultural continuity, and new energy sources.
CSWS: “Women’s Stories, Women’s Lives”
September 09, 2013 to January 26, 2014
This special selection of photographs from the permanent collection are on view in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the Center for the Study of Women in Society, a campus organization that creates, funds, and shares research that addresses the complicated nature of gender identities and inequalities.

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