Blackfish Gallery

Blackfish Gallery is honored to announce a new grant with the Collins Foundation- one of the regions strongest supporters of the Oregon cultural landscape. We are thrilled with their generous foundational support of all things Blackfish and look forward to an amazing year of art, community, partnership and growth.

Call for Art: Q***r Spirit 🌈

What does it mean to make space for joy, care, resistance, and radical possibility?

Blackfish Gallery invites greater Portland-based artists to submit work for Q***r Spirit, an exhibition centering q***r identity, community, lived experience, and the expansive possibilities of q***rness.

At a time when q***r and trans lives are being targeted, this exhibition is a refuge and a gathering of artists whose work affirms our full, unshakable presence. We welcome LGBTQIA+ artists and artists of all backgrounds whose practices engage these themes.

We are seeking 2D and 3D work, especially experimental, thought-provoking, and installation-based practices.

Deadline is September 15th. More details and submission guidelines: https://app.entrythingy.com/blackfish/q***r-spirit/

Our Blackfish Gallery Director Kendra Roberts has curated the exhibition: "What We (Be)hold", featuring works by Mae Al-Jiboori, Justin Auld and Libby Wadsworth at Artspace Gallery, Art Council of Lake Oswego. The exhibition embraces the spirit of what holds our focused attention, wonder, admiration, or spiritual contemplation, as well as what we keep, retain, or clutch close.

Now on view through through October 30, 2026. Stop by! 380 A Avenue, Lake Oswego, OR

Image detail:
Justin Auld
Quantum Painting # 95
oil on board
65 1/2“ x 25 1/2”

The eight “studio habits of mind” (Develop Craft, Engage & Persist, Envision, Express, Observe, Reflect, Stretch & Explore, Understand Art Worlds) by Ellen Winner will provide structure for this month's artists talk

Come by the gallery on Sunday, August 16th at 2PM for a discussion moderated by gallery director Kendra Roberts(). Listen and join in on a conversation that looks deeply into intentional, mindful supports for a thriving studio practice.

Blackfish is located at 938 NW Everett Street, Portland OR 97209

Join us tonight for 1st Thursday 5 to 8pm at Blackfish.

This August Blackfish Gallery is excited to present a new solo exhibition of paintings by Amy Turnbull, Portraits of Perception. We are also proud to exhibit the solo shows Invite the Cloud In by Hannah Theiss and SPRING 1974 by Michael Knutson.

ARTIST TALK August 16, 2026 2 pm with Amy Turnbull, Hannah Thiess and Michael Knutson




Amy Turnbull
Archival II
2018
oil on canvas
36” x 48”

Hannah Theiss
Liminality
2026
Mixed Media (acrylic, sand, cheese cloth, rope, labelmaker)
26" x 28" x 2.5"

Michael Knutson
Alexander’s Trapeze
1974
watercolor
30” x 42”

As air quality remains poor across Oregon, Blackfish Gallery offers a welcome indoor escape. Join us tomorrow for First Thursday 5-8pm and the opening of our August exhibitions featuring Amy Turnbull, Hannah Theiss, and Michael Knutson.

Stay safe out there!

📸Akshay Manhas

Coming to the James Hibbard Gallery at Blackfish in August:

Michael Knutson: SPRING 1974

Drawn from an early collection of work by Michael Knutson, SPRING 1974 presents a picture of the contemporary abstract painter in flux. Prefacing his later embrace of ambiguous geometric forms and spaces, this selection of five watercolors gives viewers insight both into a pivotal point of inflection for Knutson, as well as entrance into ongoing dialogue between representation and abstraction.

Exhibit Duration August 5 - August 29, 2026
First Thursday Artist Reception August 6, 2026 5 – 8 pm

ARTIST TALK August 16, 2026 2 pm with Amy Turnbull and Hannah Theiss

Coming to gallery two at Blackfish in August:

Hannah Theiss: Invite the Cloud In

Simultaneously disorienting and exhilarating, Hannah Theiss’ new exhibition uses tapestry assemblages of warped plastic, netting, sting, and wood to approach the paradoxic freedom of loss. Invite the Cloud In navigates this strange landscape of separation through Theiss’ unique visual language as it finds a synthesis of emotion and material aesthetic.

Extending out of her previous work in Qualia (2025), Invite the Cloud In continues Theiss’ exploration of the emotional potentiality of weight and transparency. Confronting the liminal space of mental processing, Theiss responds with complex structures of overlapping opacities which mimic the distortions of feeling that accompany trauma.

Exhibit Duration August 5 - August 29, 2026
First Thursday Artist Reception August 6, 2026 5 – 8 pm

ARTIST TALK August 16, 2026 2 pm with Amy Turnbull and Michael Knutson