Exhibition Run: October 31 - December 30

First Friday Opening Reception with the artist: November 2nd, 6-8 pm

(Second Reception) First Friday December 7th, 6-8 pm

Wolff Gallery is pleased to present Illuminations by Tara Murino-Brault, a selection of intaglio prints and wood sculptures in which the artist's unique symbolism communicates themes of cultural power and powerlessness, spiritualism, mortality, and rebirth. Murino-Brault's illustrative and layered treatment of bones, fungi, animals, hands, and religious icons brings into focus the tension between light and dark, reason and folly, and good and evil, and the interdependence of each to define the other. With these iconic etchings, Murino-Brault moves us beyond the inviting surfaces of ink and wood to illuminate profoundly personal yet accessible underlying narratives.

Tara Murino-Brault was born and raised in Chicago. She received her BFA in Graphic Design at The University of Illinois at Chicago and her MFA in printmaking at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Currently, she is an artist and educator who resides in the Portland Oregon area with her wife, Emily and their eleven-year-old named Gus. She teaches a variety of classes at Portland Community College. As a maker, her favorite mediums are all forms of printmaking, book arts, laser cutting, and wood sculpture.

image: Pitcher Plant Ruse © 2018 Tara Murino-Brault

Grocery, LeBrie Rich's series of life-size branded food products, such as Fritos, Ritz Crackers, and Reese’s, are lovingly felted and stitched with painstaking attention to detail. The almost irresistibly soft texture of wool felt and the many hours of labor clearly spent on each piece invite us to slow down and (re)consider our connection to these familiar products. This work is both a tribute to and a critique of not only the foods that have shaped our lives and our memories, but also their branding. Through Rich’s careful rendering, each piece becomes a precious, tactile totem of our throwaway culture and an opportunity to reflect on our relationship to it.


LeBrie Rich is a visual artist who works in a variety of media including collage, mosaic, and fiber. Her work emphasizes experimentation in materials and processes and often explores the realm between the representational and the abstract. LeBrie’s work has been shown in diverse settings, including museums, galleries, storefront windows, and art vending machines. In 2014 she presented work in a two-person exhibition in Fukuoka, Japan and in 2013 & 2015 she attended the Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva, Florida. LeBrie is also the owner of PenFelt, a feltmaking studio in Portland, Oregon.

Exhibition Run: September 5th - October 28th, 2018
First Friday Opening Reception: September 7th, 6-8 pm
Sunday Meet & Greet: September 9th, 2-4 pm
Q&A with LeBrie Rich: October 5th, 7:00 pm

images © LeBrie Rich, photographed by Dan Kvitka

Wolff is pleased to present Fragmented Fruits, an exhibition by local artist M3AT that represents a year spent working through infertility, loss, depression, and new beginnings. Through the symbolism in their paintings, M3AT offers a look into what many women experience; a quiet, painful, and often shame-filled struggle with infertility that is often kept hidden. The artist has documented their personal journey as they move beyond the pain of the past and battle the unrealistic standards that society has set for women. This body of work is the first ever of its kind by M3AT and signifies a new chapter of growth in their life.

M3AT is the alias of Lorena Guerra Matteucci, a painter based in Vancouver, Washington. The artist received an associate’s degree in graphic design from Brooks College in Long Beach, CA in 2005 and pursued a graphic design career until 2014 when they decided to concentrate on fine art full-time. They have exhibited in various galleries and retail spaces in Los Angeles, CA; Portland, and Lake Oswego, OR; Dallas, TX; Mesa, AZ; New York, NY; and the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines. M3AT has been published in St. Sucia (Texas) zines and their work will be published later this year in APEP Publications (Maryland) and the Buckman Journal (Portland, OR). They have also completed two murals in the Alberta Arts District in Portland.

Exhibition Run: July 4-September 2, 2018

First Friday opening reception:
July 6, 6:00-8:00 PM

Second Reception: First Friday August 3rd, 6-8pm

above images © M3AT

Opening Reception: May 4th, 6-8 pm
Exhibition Run: May 2nd - July 1st, 2018

"Sometimes I have the feeling that my experiences are not fully my own, that I have borrowed feelings from the past. This has lead to a personal interest in epigenetics as I search for the parts of myself that are relics from the experiences of my ancestors or my earlier self."

In her solo exhibition, you i everything else, Alyson Provax highlights this phenomenon of inherited memories and behaviors, and particularly how it manifests in the language used by current and past contestants in the reality television series, The Bachelor. The artist's letterpress prints, light boxes, animations, and mirrors isolate words and phrases participants on the show often repeat from season to season, revealing a shared vernacular that helps to reinforce a particular experience of love and what "authentic" connection looks like. However, as Provax points out, "loneliness exists not in solitude but in concealment. The idea that we should be a consistent and watchable self is a form of this loneliness. We are all inconsistent, the individual self is neither static nor true."

Alyson Provax is a printmaker and an animator. She was born in California in 1984 and lives and works in Portland, Oregon. She has shown regionally at Wolff Gallery, Upfor Gallery, Bridge Productions and the Whatcom Museum, nationally at A.I.R. Gallery and The Untitled Space in New York, and internationally at the Blueproject Foundation in Barcelona. Her work appeared in articles about artists’ responses to the 2016 election in New York Magazine, Newsweek, and ArtSlant. In May 2018 her work will also be on view as a part of A LONE curated by Vignettes and Gramma in Seattle.

images © Alyson Provax

Opening Reception: March 2nd, 6-8 pm

Join us for First Friday April 6th, 6-8 pm

Exhibition Run: Feb 28th - April 29th

Legend has it that the Octavius, a three-masted schooner, was found adrift by a whaling boat in October of 1775. A search party of five from the whaler climbed aboard the Octavius and discovered the entire crew of twenty-eight fully dressed and frozen at the helm. The captain was seated at his desk, pen in hand...also frozen. According to his log, last dated October of 1762, the Octavius had been lost at sea for over thirteen years.

Inspired by tales of ships floating aimlessly in open waters, suddenly abandoned or with passengers and crews left in various stages of decomposition, Smith Eliot's Ghost Ships consists of photographs and objects that position people as these vessels adrift, and as similarly impermanent, transient, and mysterious entities. Eliot's images are the result of digital and analogue photographic processes, encased in vintage frames with convex glass to visually reference ships' portholes. Many of these frames also function as time capsules and contain small objects alongside the artist's photographs.

As part of her solo exhibition, Eliot will also present a selection of her Little Boxes, which focus on the passing of time, memory, and challenging relationships. These one-of-a-kind objects include the artist's original photographs, antique doll parts, found animal bones, insects, and old books. In many cases viewers must touch, unlock, and open each box before many of these surprises may be revealed.

images © Smith Eliot 

First Friday opening reception:
January 5, 6:00-8:00 PM

Exhibition Run: January 3-February 25, 2018

"sometimes it can seem easy to flex in the flux, to bend and not break

going through the motions day to day

but I’ve learned through the lessons

one must break to rebuild

yearning to understand beyond words, what this riddle of sentience reveals

within the multitudes of selves I carry

I gravitated towards the transformative nature of photography"


Wolff Gallery presents Generous Mystery by Dorothy Glenn, a series in which photography serves as a medium for self-exploration. Glenn turns the camera on herself, creating in-camera multiple exposures in addition to more straightforward yet delightfully surreal imagery. Through these methods, she embraces the experimentation, change, and uncertainty inherent to these processes that also mirror the demanding but generative work required for personal growth.

image © Dorothy Glenn

NEW HOURS beginning January 3rd:
Wednesday-Sunday, 11:00-6:00 PM
First Fridays open until 8:00 PM

Featuring work by Sonya Hamilton, David Lechner, Olga Shchepina, Larry Supnet, and Dawn Westover

Facilitated by Carissa Burkett and Lauren Moran, curated by Zemie Barr

November 28-December 30, 2017

First Friday opening reception:
December 1, 6:00-8:00 PM

Field of View is an artist residency program placing visual artists with developmental disabilities* in three-month-long artist residencies throughout the Portland community over the past year. The goals of this project are to help artists with disabilities gain access to spaces and communities that they have not been able to access before, provide artists with developmental disabilities with more visibility and opportunity for connection and exchange with new communities, and help them develop their professional practice and gain broader audiences for their work. 

Wolff Gallery is pleased to host the culminating exhibition featuring painting, drawing, screenprints, ceramics, and performance created by Sonya Hamilton, David Lechner, Olga Shchepina, Larry Supnet, and Dawn Westover during their Field of View residencies. 


* permission given by the artists to disclose this information

above image: "Pizza World" © 2017 Larry Supnet

First Friday Art Walk November 3rd, 6-8 pm

Exhibition Run: October 3rd-November 25th, 2017

Artist Reception October 6th 6-8 pm

"I bleed to make space for other spaces. Let gravity pull the water downward. Let gravity pull the water down.

The Bleed is Working. The Bleed is Working It out. Make space for voiceless spaces.

This is a practice in comfort. This is a practice in discomfort. I hold onto both, and don't let go. I let go.

Wordless thoughts. Motion loves them. Motion gives them soft power. Motion gives power.

I want it to be wrong. It comes out pretty. I like pretty. I like pretty. It comes out pretty. Obliterate it. Build it back up.

Let it bleed. It bleeds. It flows.

The Bleed is Working."

Wolff Gallery is pleased to present The Bleed Is Working, a solo exhibition by Portland-based artist Tyler Mackie. In her series of sculptural gouache paintings and panels, Mackie visualizes the contradictions of a female experience, making space for comfort alongside discomfort, softness as power, and the beauty of being viscerally, unapologetically human.

Tyler Mackie holds a BFA in Studio Arts from Oregon State University (2005) and an MFA in Studio Arts from Louisiana State University (2009). Her work explores relationships between performance, visual, and craft-based communities, with an emphasis on the female experience. Recent projects include Bridge for Blankets, an installation on the Broadway Bridge (2013), and creative contributions are ongoing as a member of the international, collaborative collective, Expanded Draught (2009-present). 

above image © Tyler Mackie, photo by Mario Gallucci

Calethia DeConto: "Gently Wild" 

Show run: August 4th - September 30th, 2017

“Somewhere in between my bones and soul I feel gently wild and always have. It's a quiet ferocity like weeds pushing through concrete or a murmuration of birds above traffic lights in Los Angeles. The natural world is my deepest source of inspiration and fascination. Gently Wild is a visual love note to some spirits I have met along the way who have helped me evolve a little bit more and reminded this body how we all connect.” 

On August 4th, Wolff Gallery reopens in Eastside Portland with Gently Wild, a photo-based solo exhibition by Los Angeles-based artist Calethia DeConto. DeConto’s series is a mixture of black-and-white photographs, cyanotypes, and collages that reflect her deep spiritual connection to the natural world, particularly the ocean. DeConto also draws inspiration for much of her imagery from the Yoruba goddess of the living ocean, Yemayá, who is believed to be the source of all life and whose colors are traditionally blue and white.

Calethia DeConto (b. 1980) is a visual artist whose work explore themes of nature worship, the divine feminine, intimacy and our relationship between body and soul.

Born into a military family that quickly became divided, Calethia spent the majority of her childhood and adolescence in about a dozen different places stateside and abroad. Over a five year period she studied photography at two city colleges while printing and developing copious amounts of film for a professional photo lab in Carlsbad, Ca. While assisting other photographers at the age of twenty-three Calethia began shooting commercially and soon had her own thriving photography business.

In 2007 she moved to Los Angeles to exhibit her photography in group exhibitions, galleries and alternative venues. Her greatest source of inspiration is the western coastline, odd postures, subtle movements and natural artifacts she finds. Calethia is an admirer of the Surrealists and all things Avant Garde. Her studies in Vedic,Yoruba and Shaman philosophies have become threads woven into her own esoteric world; part personal cosmology and part mystery.

images © Calethia DeConto

Wolff Gallery is moving to the Eastside in August! 

Come celebrate Wolff's last night in our Old Town location, 618 NW Glisan St. 
First Thursday, July 6th, 2017  6-9 PM

In honor of our last First Thursday art walk, artist Alyson Provax will be releasing a gorgeous limited edition letterpress print exclusively through Wolff Gallery, with all proceeds going to the Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP).

10% of all additional artwork sales made on July 6th will
also benefit the SRLP. "The Sylvia Rivera Law Project works to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination or violence."

Please note: Wolff Gallery will be closed beginning July 7th until we reopen on Friday, August 4th at our new Eastside location:2804 SE Ankeny Street Portland, Oregon 97214

Stay tuned for information about our grand re-opening celebration and new open hours.

"Just because we lose, we are not lost. At these raw times we can see so clearly the fundamentals and use those ideas as seeds for the future. And so, it is though razing we can rise within ourselves."

Wolff Gallery is pleased to present To Raze is to Raise, a solo exhibition of new oil and gouache paintings by Amanda Dawn Potter. Drawing upon the Japanese tradition of “wabi-sabi,” Potter’s series focuses on the beauty of imperfection and impermanence inherent to the human condition and modeled by the natural world. Exaggerated human figures commingle with the organic forms of plants and animals in the artist’s surreal dreamscapes. Often, remnants of Potter’s past work can be seen peeking through the layers of newer paint as reminders that creation is a cyclical process, and that the human spirit can still flourish amid chaos and destruction.

First Thursday Opening Reception:
May 4, 2017 6-9 pm

Exhibition Run: May 4th - July 1st, 2017

Open during the First Thursday Art Walk June 1st

Amanda Dawn Potter is a self-taught painter. She moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2011 from Salt Lake City after a difficult year spent recovering from a serious bicycle accident and the death of her partner. Her artwork is autobiographical and she uses it as a tool for communicating with her emotional self. Potter’s work focuses on mental wellness, gender and sexual identity, and open communication about emotions. Recent exhibitions include shows at the CoHo Gallery in Portland and the Huntington Gallery in Seattle. Her watercolor series Remember to Water the Garden about self love and sex positivity was featured in an interview with Eleven PDX in 2015.

image © Amanda Dawn Potter

Opening Reception: First Thursday March 2nd, 2017 6-9 pm 
Exhibition Run: March 2 - April 29, 2017

Also on view during the First Thursday Art Walk on April 6th

"As a young Christian, I grew up in a particular sect that claimed to advocate the true meaning of Jesus’ teachings: the physical world, with all its pleasures and pains, was actually a dream, and reality was completely spiritual. My health and well-being depended on my mental affirmation of these ideas. The Narrow View illustrates in symbolic images the frustration, isolation, and limitations of trying to be perfectly spiritual, while being very human.”

Throughout the months of March and April, Wolff is pleased to present The Narrow View, a new series of original paintings by Zemula Fleming that focus on the often unrealistic expectations placed on women by Christian doctrine. Alongside allegorical imagery that reflects her experience growing up in a religious household, Fleming re-imagines Mary, the mother of Jesus, from a personal and historical perspective, one that resists a traditional Western view of the Madonna as simply meek and pure, and instead embraces her as a powerful, creative, and nurturing life force.

The exhibition will include three additional bodies of work by Fleming, including the Dashboard Retirement Series and the Out of the Pocket Series. These small mixed media shrines serve as well-deserved resting places for tiny religious statues that have lived in cars and pockets, in traffic and battlefields, standing bravely against misfortune, accident, and death. The artist’s playful and intimately-scaled Doll Heads paintings, which push against notions of ideal beauty represented by porcelain dolls, will also be on view.

Zemula Fleming was born in Southern California. She has been an artist since childhood and studied art throughout her school years. She majored in studio art at Whitman College and afterwards studied illustration at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia. Since school she has been both a commercial and a fine artist working in many media.

While no longer religious herself, she has a great love for the historical expressions of Christian art and architecture and often brings those elements into her work.

She has lived in Oregon for the last thirty-one years and currently is living happily on the coast with her husband, who sustains her with his love, good sense of humor, and ability to live graciously with artistic chaos. Her greatest joy is having raised a daughter who is herself an artist and who cherishes art and creativity as a central part of life.

“Creating these pieces has become a therapeutic a way of biting back and reclaiming my sense of self. I’m reclaiming the validity of my emotions. I’m learning how to feel the anger while still holding on to my empathy without justification of abuse.”

For her forthcoming solo show at Wolff Gallery, Leslie Dorcus has created a new series of paintings and screen prints that visualize the polarizing emotions that emerge after an abusive and destructive partnership ends. Dorcus’s fiercely visceral imagery communicates a narrative of self love in the face of trauma and violence, and the potential for strength alongside vulnerability. With this work she reclaims her story: “I am taking off my layers of protection. I am the one spitting knives."

Leslie Dorcus is a printmaker based in Portland, Oregon. She received her BFA in printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design, and she has exhibited solo shows at Holocene and Flight64 Studio in Portland, as well as at Gowanus Print Lab in Brooklyn and the Woods-Gerry Gallery at RISD. She is a member of Flight 64, a community print studio on Alberta Street.

Opening Reception: First Thursday, January 5th, 2017  6-10 pm 

Exhibition Run: January 5 - February 25, 2017

First Thursday Art Walk: February 2, 2017 6-9 pm

“Every story starts with a truth and then through the passage of time, the telling of one person to the next, it becomes an exaggeration, a fantasy, a lie. But stripped of its trappings and embellishments, at its root there is still a truth—something that resonates with each storyteller who passes it along.”

The Stories People Tell brings together multiple series of Jamila Clarke's photographic work—including new images making their first gallery appearance—that serve as visual interpretations of folktales from the artist's contemporary perspective. Clarke's interest in these stories stems from the underlying truths that are often encased in the theatrics of magic and fantasy, elements that she seamlessly folds into each captivating photograph she constructs.

Jamila Clarke is a fine art photographer whose focus is conceptual portraiture. She was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in the Pacific Northwest. She studied Studio Art with a focus in Fine Art Photography/Digital Video at Oberlin College. Her work uses practical effects and digital post­processing to stretch the truth to explore things that are experienced internally and usually unseen. Her work has been featured in various galleries and publications around the United States.

Opening Reception: First Thursday, September 1st, 2016 6-10 pm
Exhibition Run: September 1st - October 29th, 2016

“Everything starts with a line as the base, then each placement after is a relationship to the first. There is never a plan, rather a feeling of connection. How does each line, color and form speak to the other? The end result is either a harmony or a conflict.”

For her debut exhibition in Portland, Chicago-based artist Liz Mares has created a new series, Rhetorical Geometry, which continues her ongoing creative focus on the relationships among line, form, color, and negative space. Her intimately-scaled compositions on paper are drawn with acrylic and ink and function as meditations upon connectivity and balance. Previous works by Mares employing mixed media on paper and recycled birch panels will also be included in the show.

Liz Mares is a contemporary artist and collector living in the Chicago area. Her work has been exhibited at the Customs House Museum in Clarksville, TN; Walnut Ink Projects in Michigan City, IN; 33 Contemporary Gallery in Chicago, IL; and Roman Susan Annex in Chicago, IL. This is Mares’ first solo show in Portland, Oregon.
 

“My objective is to shed light on the often dark and stigmatized topic of mental illness by creating a visually engaging text that encourages further awareness, greater understanding, and compassion for ourselves and others.”

Jo Lundberg’s Sentient Spaces is a series of painted portraits created to illustrate the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5 (DSM-5), a standard text that is commonly referenced by mental health professionals when making diagnoses. Lundberg draws from her experience as a clinician and art therapist and uses diagnostic criteria from the DSM-5, statistics, notable case studies, and Google image searches to create composite portraits of what various mental health disorders might “look” like. Each painting extends beyond its frame, often into sculpture, enveloping viewers in a shared experience with the individual portrayed in order to create an empathetic space. The work on display at Wolff Gallery is part of the artist’s ongoing project that will culminate in a printed publication.

About the artist:
Using the pew as a desk and kneelers as her seat, Jo Lundberg taught herself how to draw as a child during Catholic mass. She never stopped doodling. Often described as “surreal,” her work is inspired by the natural world, Frida Kahlo, human anatomy, and psychology. Lundberg has shown extensively along the west coast and her work is housed in private and public collections, including that of St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, Oregon. She currently lives and works in Portland, Oregon.

Opening reception: First Thursday, August 4th, 6-10 PM

Exhibition on view: August 4th-28th, 2016

“This house and the people in it were, and still are, crucial to my journey of sobriety and building a life for myself. I became human in this house. I found my love of photography in this house. I went back to college and thrived scholastically in this house. I learned how to be a good friend, roommate, and neighbor in this house. I found humility, honesty, and compassion for myself and others in this house. I found peace of mind and the woman I am today in this house.”

North is an intimate photographic portrait of the house in North Portland where Jenny Olsen lived for three years. This was the first place she called home after getting sober in 2011, and where many other life-changing experiences transpired. Her evocative color images capture the quiet moments spent in this sanctuary, memorializing a past time and place that continues to inform the present.

Jenny Olsen is a Portland-based artist originally from Kansas City, Missouri, where she grew up surrounded by art in the gallery her parents owned. She is currently completing a Bachelor’s degree in Art Practices at Portland State University with a minor in photography, and she plans to pursue graduate studies in teaching and art therapy. Olsen’s photography has been exhibited at Newspace Center for Photography, One Grand Gallery, and Port City Gallery in Portland, among other venues.

Opening Reception: Thursday July 7, 2016  6-10 pm

Exhibition on view:
July 7-31, 2016

“I am interested in how we approach that which we do not know – and all of the excitement, the uncertainty, and our attempts to make sense of it all.”

Wolff Gallery is pleased to present Out There by printmaker Alyson Provax, which is a meditation upon the expansiveness of the universe and eerie encounters with the unknown. Through experimentation with textures, shapes, and composition, and by using a combination of collage and monotype techniques, Provax isolates moments within her Diagrams prints to highlight the relationships among forms and the beauty of manual glitches. Provax takes a similar experimental approach to the unique letterpress pieces that compliment the larger monotypes in the exhibition, playing with placement and multiple layers of text to echo the aesthetics of concrete poetry. The words are found or written by the artist and attempt to describe ineffable experiences such as first-person accounts of UFO sightings.

Alyson Provax was born in California in 1984. She received her BFA in Printmaking from Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, where she lives and works today. Her work focuses on personal mundane experience. Provax is interested in wasting time and the feeling of repeating oneself, and the simple yet powerful moments of realizing that you are living in a delicate body in a shifting environment. She works primarily with silkscreen monotype and letterpress processes, using both in a fluid and experiential way.

Opening Reception: Thursday June 2nd, 2016, 6-10 pm
Show Run: June 2 – July 3, 2016

Please join Wolff Gallery in celebrating our grand opening at our new permanent exhibition space on NW 6th and Glisan!

For our first exhibition, Wolff Gallery will host Now I am Myself, a group show featuring five female artists, all of whom are photographing themselves or other women in ways that reject, challenge, or circumvent the male gaze. Although this is not a new revisionist effort for feminist artists, equitable representation of women within popular media culture continues to be rare. This show exists as another divergence from the status quo, with each artist offering her unique narrative and vision in order to create space for herself in front of the camera and move the discourse beyond objectification to empowerment.

Featured Artists: Audra Osborne, Briana Cerezo, Calethia DeConto, Jamila Clarke, and Lauren Crow.

Opening reception: First Thursday, April 7th, 6-10 PM

Our show has been extended to May 13th!
Show Run: April 7th – May 13th, 2016

Closing Reception During First Thursday May 5th, 2016

A Pre-Valentine’s Day Art Show at Portland Cider House!
Exploring different experiences and emotions that can happen on Valentine’s Day, whether they be sweet, funny, or disappointing.

Reception: Saturday February 13th, 6-10 pm
Show Run: Feb 13th – Feb 27th
Event is Free
21 and over

Featuring work by:
Audra Osborne, Jamila Clarke, Jason Horvath, Jenny Olsen, Jo Lunberg, Karen Schmid, Leslie Dorcus, Mary Harding, Shannon Rowland, Thomas Mack, Zemie Barr

Curated by Zemie Barr & Shannon O’Connor of Wolff Gallery
Hosted by Portland Cider House

Jamila Clarke
Annie Oldenburg

Curated by Wolff Gallery

On View January 8 – January 29, 2016
Opening Reception Friday, January 8, 2016 5 – 7 p.m.

Port City Gallery
2156 N Williams Ave
Portland OR 97227
Gallery Hours: 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Monday through Friday

Port City Gallery & Wolff Gallery present an exhibition of photographic work by Jamila Clarke and Annie Oldenburg. Created using a combination of practical and digital effects, the works on display represent a deliberately generative manipulation of image. The compelling visual narratives that unfold within each print are only obtainable through skilled alteration and a desire to push beyond the limits of the camera as a tool, photography as a medium and the natural world as an objective reality. Guest curated by Shannon O’Connor and Zemie Barr of Wolff Gallery, the exhibition seeks to present the constructed image as a unique mode of communication and as a portal to new possibilities.

About the Artists

Jamila Clarke is a fine art photographer whose focus is conceptual portraiture. She was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in the Pacific Northwest. She studied Studio Art with a focus in Fine Art Photography/Digital Video at Oberlin College. Her work uses practical effects and digital post­processing to stretch the truth to explore things that are experienced internally and usually unseen. Her work has been featured in various galleries and publications around the United States. More of her work can be seen at www.jamilaclarke.com/photo.

Annie Oldenburg is a conceptual artist working with the medium of photography to explore landscape, nature, and ecology. Oldenburg received her BA in Studio Arts from the University of Wisconsin in Green Bay and her MFA in Visual Studies from the Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. She currently resides in Chicagoland where she actively creates art while teaching photography at Carthage College. To see more of Annie’s work, please visit her website www.anniethingart.com.

About Port City Gallery
Port City Gallery is a multi-functional artspace in NE Portland. Operating as part of ProjectGrow, the space regularly exhibits multi-disciplinary work from local, national and international artists in an effort to integrate work of practicing contemporary artists into the ProjectGrow program. Artists are also invited to host workshops with ProjectGrow artists to further explore their practice in a collaborative, experiential manner. Port City Gallery is open to the public between 9AM – 4PM with workshops often taking place during operating studio hours.

ProjectGrow is one of many programs of Albertina Kerr. Albertina Kerr strengthens Oregon families and communities by helping children and adults with developmental disabilities and mental health challenges, empowering them to live richer lives.

Pop-up exhibition, Saturday, August 29, 2015, 6-10 pm

The screen prints on display are a selection from the artist’s project, Print-52, in which she made one print a week for one year, creating a visual diary of a time in her life that was filled with grave transitions. The project explores themes of love and loss, facing a developing addiction of a loved one, and levels of self-discovery and hatred. Dorcus uses visceral imagery of bodily dissection and abstraction within narrative landscapes to convey feelings of despair and longing, as well as discomfort in her own body. In the artist’s words, “I’ve always been equally fascinated and repulsed by the idea of dissection. I feel like there is something extremely intimate about it—like exposing a deep secret as the layers of armored skin are peeled away. I express this intimacy in my prints, each abstracted self-portrait getting closer and closer to revealing what’s underneath.”

Leslie Dorcus is a printmaker based in Portland, Oregon. She received her BFA in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and she has exhibited solo shows at Holocene and Flight64 Studio in Portland, as well as Gowanus Print Lab in Brooklyn and the Woods-Gerry Gallery at RISD. She is a member of Flight 64, a community print studio on Alberta Street.