Here come the masters

Portland State’s graduating fine arts master’s students are kicking off the summer with a group exhibition this Thursday. And, thanks to the efforts of curators active in the community, they’ll have the opportunity to display their work right in the heart of downtown’s Pearl District.

The graduate exhibition, titled “Here Come the Warm Jets,” will feature works by artists Mami Takihashi, Will Bryant, Rene Allen, Steve Brown and Leif Anderson. They will show at the Upfor Gallery, an in-development art space to be fully opened this fall by curator Theodore Downes-LeGuin.

The show will be guest curated by Jeanine Jablonski, owner and director of the downtown-based Fourteen30 Contemporary gallery.

Jablonski noted that Downes-LeGuin and the Upfor Gallery are providing the students a unique chance to show on one of the busiest days for art in the city.

“It underlines that people are really interested in what PSU is doing with its MFA program,” she said. “Typically, the MFA [shows] are at Disjecta. To put them in the middle of the Pearl is a great opportunity.”

Jablonski hand-picked the work she felt was each artist’s most effective, putting them together in a show that will be rich with new media and sculptural works.

Jablonski mentioned several works by each artist, such as a video by Anderson that was shot in a dumpster and a room Allen constructed to fit her body specifically.


“My curation really ranges, so I tried to let the work speak to me,” she said. “The show is very loosely about a constructed space, whether mythological or in a dumpster or the space of a cardboard box.”

In addition to directing Upfor, Downes-LeGuin is also the current board chair of Portland’s Disjecta Gallery. He noted that PSU faculty members frequently work with artists to produce effective programs.

“PSU encourages a degree of experimentation in its MFA students that is really important and refreshing, but it is experimentation with intent and structure, which is also important,” Downes-LeGuin said in an email. “I hope to find ways to continue support for student programs. Several Portland galleries do a good job of respecting the commercial imperative while supporting noncommercial aims, so there is a template. Thesis shows are one of my favorite experiences and they deserve wide exposure.”

The exhibition will also be a sort of preview of Upfor Gallery itself, which will open for business later this year. In addition to balancing commercial and social objectives, Downes-LeGuin also hopes to encourage more new media into the region and to take on artists equipped with more vision than fame.

“The initial program will be a reflection of my interests, which are diverse, possibly undisciplined,” he said. “The gallery will work with artists who don’t have wide market exposure, who are grappling with significant ideas, and will emphasize digital and new media work. Digital can be challenging to present and collect so perhaps we can contribute to the community by taking some risks in this area.”

Jablonski is no stranger to curating within the Portland art community. Her space, Fourteen30 Contemporary, has shown a variety of contemporary artists over the past five years. Jablonski enjoys being in a city where artists emerge, often before moving on to bigger cities.

“I exist within the in-between of the mainstream and the many alternative spaces in the city,” Jablonski said. “This year is an entire calendar year of presentations by solo artists that I think everyone should see. The gallery has also grown as the artists have grown. Five years is a big marker for a gallery in the city.”

Jablonski often works closely with the university’s fine arts program. In addition to the upcoming exhibition, she also curated last year’s graduate exhibition at the Cleaners Gallery. For that show, she paired students with regional artists to create a dialogue between works. She stressed the efforts of faculty such as MFA Chair Pat Boas in challenging students.

“Because [the fine arts department is] small, they’re constantly evaluating the strength of the program,” she said. “A big part of that is what their alumni are doing after leaving school. It’s the strength of the their work and the strength of the faculty that sets it apart.”

The show will be an important first step into the greater art community for the graduating students. Downes-LeGuin noted that they are stepping into an art community that is really coming to life.

“We are early in an exciting arc,” he said. “This is a place that many people in the art ecosystem, from artists to curators to collectors, want to be [in] or visit. Portland is in the vanguard of poking at what it means to be an artist, especially the connections and compromises between artists and other members of the creative classes.”