by Chris Rauber
The Artistic Portland Gallery isn’t upscale, isn’t expensive, and isn’t snooty. It’s just a part of the B-W neighborhood community where 20 or so Portland artists exhibit their work and try to make a go of it.
The cooperative gallery features a variety of types of art, including paintings and photographs, jewelry, and various kinds of 3D art — like ceramics, glass art, and metalwork — striving to maintain a balance between them.
“We don’t have a metal artist right now,” for example, says co-op member artist Jen Cook-Chrysos. “So we’re looking for a 3D artist to complement the wall art we do have.”
This could be your lucky break — if you’re skilled at metal work and bold enough to face the co-op’s competitive jury process to select new members.
The shop is full of color and light. Everything’s authentic, handmade, and, by gallery standards, quite affordable.
Offerings vary widely, from Ben Gilbert’s crayon drawings on cardboard of people living on the streets to Brent Furstner’s handmade musical instruments, his wife Astrid Beatriz’s Salvadoran-inspired portraits in multi-colored woods, and Cook-Chrysos’s evocative paintings of natural scenes such as Sauvie Island.
Some of Artistic Portland’s member artists are full-time professionals; others work in different realms and squeeze in their art where they can. All share the chores associated with running the co-op. Those who work additional shifts pay proportionally less to cover rent, electric bills, and marketing costs.
Artists keep 75 percent of their sales proceeds, a figure Cook-Chrysos says “is better than the traditional gallery.” The remainder goes to pay the bills.
… the gallery very much depends on the local community …
The gallery moved to its current location in the Dutch Village building at 4110 NE Fremont Street three years ago, kitty-corner from Beaumont Middle School. It’s had several other venues during its 10-year lifespan, most recently on SW Taylor Street in downtown Portland.
The Fremont Street shop can be seen by people driving, busing, or walking by, but even so the co-op’s members fear that many neighbors don’t realize it’s there. To remedy that concern, a new wooden “Art and Gifts” sign, hand made by two of its members, now hangs across the entry.
But the gallery very much depends on its local community and is part of that community. It has collaborated with Beaumont Middle School art students and teacher Lauren Epifano, for example, to raise $1,200 for the Beaumont Family Resiliency Fund and fund a new kiln for the middle school. The money was raised through the gallery’s long-running Community Bowls project, a $15 take-home kit that includes a plain bisque bowl and all the equipment needed to paint it; firing was provided via the gallery.
“We have a lot of neighborhood folks who stop by, are so friendly and appreciative, and are repeat customers,” Cook-Chrysos says.
Still, the bottom line is sales, at a time when many arts organizations are failing. Stop by, visit Artistic Portland’s First Thursdays’ artist receptions, buy some art, all to ensure this community resource stays vibrant — and financially viable.
Chris Rauber and his wife, Kim Williams, moved to Portland and B-W in the summer of 2022 after many years in the San Francisco Bay Area. He worked as a journalist at the S.F. Business Times and other publications. He was born in Oregon.