Clifford Gleason: The Promise of Paint

August 20 – October 31, 2020

Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery and the Maribeth Collins Lobby

Clifford Gleason (American, 1913-1978), who grew up in Salem and spent his adult life in both Salem and Portland, was a talented and highly original artist whose work remains of keen interest to a small but loyal group of collectors and fellow artists but whose accomplishments are less generally known than those of other Oregon mid-twentieth-century modernists. 

Brenda P and Prints from the Permanent Collection

Aug. 20, 2020 - March 6, 2021

Focus Gallery in the Mark and Janeth Sponenburgh Gallery

Brenda P by Barkley Hendricks, on loan through March 2021 thanks to the Art Bridges foundation, serves as the centerpiece for this exhibition. Accompanied by a selection of prints from the museum’s permanent collection, the exhibition presents work by some of the most influential artists of the second half of the 20th century and touches on themes important to many Black artists working during that time – the figure, abstraction, and history

Lockwood Dennis: Woodcuts

October 24, 2020 – January 16, 2021

Study Gallery and Print Study Center

Please note: due to COVID-19 the exhibition dates may change

Lockwood Dennis (American, 1937-2012) was a highly regarded Washington printmaker who is known for his woodcut prints that captured iconic scenes of Seattle, Portland, and the artist’s travels throughout the western United States. 

Forgotten Stories: Northwest Public Art in the 1930s

November 28, 2020 – March 27, 2021

Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery and the Maribeth Collins Lobby

Please note: due to COVID-19 the exhibition dates may change

This is the first major exhibition to celebrate the bounty of artwork created in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana under the New Deal Federal Art Projects in the 1930s. Organized by the Tacoma Art Museum, the exhibition features work by such notable Pacific Northwest artists of the 1930s as Louis Bunce, Kenneth Callahan, Fay Chong, Elizabeth Colborne, Martina Gangle, Gordon Gilkey, Charles Heaney, Bue Kee, and Albert and Arthur Rundquist among others. 

Cayla Skillin-Brauchle: Locating

Exhibition Dates To Be Determined

Atrium Gallery

Northwest Perspectives: Selections from the Permanent Collection

On permanent view

Carl Hall Gallery

Visitors can explore new ideas of landscape, narrative, identity, form and process through a variety of paintings, sculptures and mixed media that highlight both visual and conceptual relationships between historic and contemporary art.

The gallery provides the museum with an opportunity to share many previously unviewed works that capture the rich and varied expressions that have taken place during the past century, which has been marked by rapid changes in the art world, the Northwest and its landscape.

This gallery is named for Carl Hall (1922-1996), who taught at Willamette University for nearly 40 years and painted a luminous record of his response to the region.

View the Northwest Collection

Ancestral Dialogues: Conversations in Native American Art

On permanent view

The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Gallery

Featuring works from the museum’s permanent collection of American Indian art, this exhibition is organized around the concept of dialogue. The focus is on native art history as a dynamic, rich legacy from which contemporary arts grow today. Art works are placed in conversation, juxtaposed so that the work of many generations is in visual dialogue across time, telling stories of creation, transformation, and renewal. Historic baskets, bags, regalia, and lithics are displayed side by side with contemporary art works by artists such as Rick Bartow, James Lavadour, Bud Lane, Lillian Pitt, Pat Courtney Gold, and Joe Feddersen among many others.

Across Continents, Through Time

On permanent view

Mark and Janeth Sponenburgh Gallery

This exhibition features selections from the museum’s European, Asian, and American Collections, which span 4,500 years and encompass four continents: Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. On view are paintings, ceramics, prints, sculptures, textiles, architectural fragments, archaeological artifacts, Orthodox icons and decorative arts that will deepen visitors’ appreciation for artworks of aesthetic quality and expressive significance from cultural traditions worldwide.

Many of the works of art displayed in this gallery were generously donated to Willamette University in 1990 by Mark and Janeth Sponenburgh, and formed the basis for the creation of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art.

Print Study Center

On permanent view

Print Study Center

The museum’s collections of works on paper – prints, drawings, paintings on paper, and photographs – are stored, studied and displayed in the Print Study Center. The collection includes many contemporary American works, particularly by artists of the Pacific Northwest. Other highlights include etchings by the 17th-century Dutch artist Anthonie Waterloo, and 19th-century American expatriate artist James Abbott McNeil Whistler, as well as an early pictorial photograph by Edward Steichen. Temporary exhibitions in the Print Study Center are designed to highlight works in the permanent collection, and complement and enhance the special exhibitions on view.