Selections from Portland2012:
A Biennial of Contemporary Art

Exhibition Statement

Portland2012: A Biennial of Contemporary Art was conceived of and produced by Disjecta Contemporary Art Center in Portland, Oregon and curated by Prudence F. Roberts. It was the second installment of the biennial—following Portland2010, curated by Cris Moss—in an ongoing survey of contemporary art practice in Oregon. SMA Acting Director Erika Leppmann worked with curator, Prudence Roberts, and Disjecta Director, Bryan Seurath, to select a group of artists from the Biennial for the fall exhibition at the Schneider Museum of Art.

Prudence F. Roberts served as curator of American Art at the Portland Art Museum from 1987 to 2000. Curator Roberts reviewed 280 applications and made roughly 50 studio visits in her process for selecting art works for the Portland2012 exhibition. The participating artists represented a broad range of contemporary practice including emerging and mid-career artists with varying approaches from craft traditions to social practice, installation, photography, painting and film/video. A majority of the selected artists created new works specifically for the Biennial.

Says Roberts, “It has been an equal challenge and pleasure to select the artists for Portland2012 because of the rigor of artistic practice… Many of the artists I visited are working with a deep awareness of art history, even though they are questioning the canon, as it were. I am fascinated by how much work questions the act of perception and the veracity of image, sound, or text. Another theme that emerged for me is that of history and narrative, both personal and political: several pieces in Portland2012 draw upon material from extended and ongoing scholarly research.”

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