Five Standouts at Portland's Converge 45 Triennial
A review of the Portland art triennial Converge 45 highlights five standout works, including pieces by Trisha Baga and Marcus Fischer, while noting the
The latest edition of the Portland art triennial Converge 45, titled "Here, To you, Now," opened recently. The show, overseen by New York-based independent curator Lumi Tan, features 28 artists at 16 sites around the city, with some exhibitions running into 2027.
According to a broadsheet accompanying the exhibition, the title draws on Ursula K. Le Guin's 1985 novel Always Coming Home. Tan states the artists "take up Le Guin's challenge: to imagine other ways of living while remaining grounded in the present, producing new forms of thought and feeling that can be offered to others." The reviewer from the source publication attended the opening.
Overall Exhibition Context
The show was a mixed success. Tan's curatorial concept was stirring in the abstract, but its connection to many works was hard to see. The exhibition takes place mostly at established arts venues like the Pacific Northwest College of Art and Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA). A press itinerary involved taxiing from one "white cube" gallery to another, missing opportunities to use more offbeat venues that could reveal more about Portland itself.
More than half of the artists are Portlanders, including prominent figures like Srijon Chowdhury and Keyon Gaskin. Several artists are members of studios supporting artists with intellectual disabilities, an admirable inclusion that nonetheless seemed poorly integrated into the overall curatorial theme. The local context is challenging. A 2021 study cited by the source noted Portland is rich with artists but poor on arts funding. Tan's own informal survey of the city's arts community yielded a common refrain: "The city needs a comeback."
Five Standout Presentations
The source highlights five specific works from the triennial as standouts.
Trisha Baga
New York artist Trisha Baga's presentation "More"at the Portland Institute College of Art is described as the standout of Converge 45."Did you have a happy childhood?"The artist's child, wearing a headlamp, appears in homey footage that eventually resembles an asteroid field."titanic burst of the AI bubble."
Marcus Fischer
Artist and musician Marcus Fischer presented "Reliquary at the Veil"at Portland State University. A single tape runs through two vintage recorders, continuously playing a Swiss folk song from a hand-pumped air organ."What things will pass into legend? What things will die a quiet death?"
Ido Radon
Portland artist Ido Radon's show "Men make their own history..."at Pacific Northwest College of Art features a floor resembling a giant chessboard."My Hands Were Waving As If My Feet"at SE Cooper Contemporary engages with gourds as a sculptural medium."biological agency."
