The air is cooler and crisper, the leaves are dropping and the kids are back in school, so it must be time to contemplate indoor recreation again.
That’s where museums come in. Here’s a look at nine exhibits and events around Oregon worth your time this fall:
Portland
“Standing for Justice: The Japanese Americans Shaping Oregon”
As part of Oregon’s America 250 commemoration, the Japanese American Museum of Oregon has mounted an exhibit featuring Japanese American contributions to our state. You can learn about the legal and judicial paths blazed by Minoru Yasui, Lynn Nakamoto, Peggy Nagae and Elisa Dozono. You get a taste of the business and civic contributions of George Azumano and Bill Naito. Some of the contributions are happening now: Learn about the work of Oregon state Rep. Mari Watanabe and Portland City Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane and the history that inspires them. With a focus on justice that was denied and stories that aren’t always told, this exhibit couldn’t feel more timely.
Through Oct. 25, Japanese American Museum of Oregon, 411 N.W. Flanders St., Suite 100, Portland. Details: https://jamo.org/standing-for-justice/
“How We Show Up: Oregon Jews in Civil Society, An America 250 Exhibition”
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education also is contributing to the America 250 discourse with this exhibit, which explores how Oregon Jews have participated in public life. Mayors, social activists, lawyers, community leaders and more all get a turn in the spotlight through photographs, documents and personal stories. Don’t miss the Oct. 4 conversation featuring Oregon Humanities and community organizer Wendy Willis, who will discuss what it means to “mutually pledge” ourselves to one another today.
Through Nov. 29, Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, 724 N.W. Davis St., Portland. Details: ojmche.org
“Anish Kapoor: Dissolving Margins From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation”
If you’ve visited the stainless steel sculpture “Cloud Gate,” also known as “The Bean,” in Chicago, you’ve visited the work of Anish Kapoor. In addition to sculpture, the Indian British artist has long worked in prints. This exhibit is his first retrospective in this medium, with more than 150 unique impressions. “I cannot imagine anyone visiting this exhibition not being swept away with emotion as these colorful prints and sculptures challenge our perceptions and transport us into Kapoor’s extraordinary vision,” said Schnitzer, an ARTnews Top 200 Art Collector and Portland-based real estate developer. Kapoor is also known in the art world for a controversial move a decade ago to buy exclusive rights to Vantablack, thought to be the darkest substance ever created by humans, thus blocking other artists from using it. While Kapoor has used Vantablack in installation pieces, you won’t find it in his prints, which use standard inks.
Through Dec. 5, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University, 1855 S.W. Broadway, Portland. Details: pdx.edu/museum-of-art/
“The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art”
This is shaping up as the fall’s must-see exhibit, with 147 works that the Portland Art Museum has been working for years to bring to the West Coast. Curated by Australia’s storied National Gallery of Victoria, the exhibit arrives in Portland following stops in Washington, D.C., and Denver; its only other U.S. showing will be in Salem, Mass. Reviews have been mixed: The Washington Post called the exhibit “a mess”; The Wall Street Journal described it as “fascinating, frustrating, engaging and baffling’; The Denver Post wrote that “the connection between old techniques and modern sensibilities is the exhibit’s magic.” Draw your own conclusions as you survey the creations of more than 100 artists in a show that Kathleen Ash-Milby, the Portland museum’s senior curator of Native American Art, called “a contemporary art exhibition but rooted in thousands of years of culture and expression.”
Sept. 5-Jan. 3, Portland Art Museum, 1219 S.W. Park Ave., Portland. Details; portlandartmuseum.org
“Lookout Landscape”
Wildfires and their smoke have become an increasingly unignorable aspect of living in Oregon. That makes this exhibit, featuring work by David Buckley Borden and a collaborative team of scientists, artists and designers, quite timely. According to Borden, the exhibit was inspired by his time as designer-in-residence at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest between Eugene and Bend. “This body of work was six years in the making, so I discovered a lot about the complex, and often conflicting values at play in the forests of Oregon,” Borden said by email. “I learned to check my own bias in order to get a better understanding of the intersection of culture and ecology. In many respects, I am reporting back my understanding of the PNW forest through the exhibition.” Borden added that he hopes the show “challenges folks to question their own beliefs and assumptions in support of regional landscape stewardship.”
Sept. 5-Feb. 28, World Forestry Center, 4033 S.W. Canyon Road, Portland. Details: worldforestry.org
“Monsters of the Abyss: Aquatic Predators Past + Present”
During the 1980s and ‘90s, it seemed every other kid wanted to be either a paleontologist or a marine biologist. This exhibit speaks to both those youthful yearnings, with fossils and replicas of prehistoric creatures (think Elasmosaurus and Megalodon) next to live specimens of creatures from today’s bodies of water. The exhibit was developed by Little Ray’s Nature Centre, an exotic animal rescue based in Canada that also works toward habitat preservation.
Oct. 4-Feb. 16, OMSI, 1945 S.E. Water Ave., Portland. Details: omsi.edu
Bend
“Coyote Encounters: Art Inspired by a Storied Earth”
Spend enough time with Native American folklore, and you’re sure to encounter Coyote, alternatively cast as a trickster, hero, villain, victim and more. An upcoming exhibit, in partnership with Pendleton-based Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts, features Coyote depicted in various mediums, including prints, paintings, sculptures, baskets and textiles.
Oct. 31-March 7, High Desert Museum, 59800 S. Highway 97, Bend. Details: highdesertmuseum.org
Eugene
“Jeffrey Gibson: They Teach Love, from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation”
If you didn’t make it to the Venice Biennale, known as the Olympics of the art world, in 2024 to enjoy Jeffrey Gibson representing the United States, here’s another chance to take in his portfolio of vivid, multi-hued sculptures, installations and other works. Schnitzer, a prolific collector, has been acquiring the Mississippi Choctaw and Cherokee artist’s work since first seeing it at the 2019 Whitney Biennial. Schnitzer told the art website Ocula in 2024, when this exhibit was at Georgia’s Kennesaw State University, that he hopes visitors learn about the history behind Gibson’s work. “If just one person is touched by the art, if their life is perhaps changed for the better, or if they come to reflect on Gibson’s experience or the experience of Indigenous people,” Schnitzer added, “then I see the show as a success.”
Sept. 12-March 7, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at University of Oregon, 1430 Johnson Lane, Eugene. Details: jsma.uoregon.edu
Roseburg
“1883 O&C Rail Car: A Window Into Oregon’s Timber Heritage”
After a 13-year, $100,000 restoration, a piece of Oregon and Pacific Northwest history is about to go on public display. Douglas County museum officials and supporters will celebrate a 1883 Oregon & California Railroad car that once carried people and mail between Portland and San Francisco. The car “represents an important time when the railroad and timber industry were helping connect Southern Oregon to the rest of the state and beyond,” Douglas County Commissioner and museum liaison Tom Kress told the news website NR Today.
Ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m., followed by an open house until 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, Douglas County Museum, 123 Museum Drive, Roseburg.