Eric Slade

Dylan Martinez likes to challenge our perceptions, creating provocative and often deceptive clear glass sculptures. His iconic water bags, utterly convincing sculptural renditions of a water filled plastic bag, have delighted and perplexed viewers around the world.

Symbiosis immerses audiences in an extended reality experience that includes not just sight and sound — as in traditional virtual reality — but also touch, taste and smell. Guests explore a landscape 200 years in the future, where they must adapt to a collapsing ecosystem. Symbiosis had its U.S. premiere in November at the Portland Art Museum’s Center for an Untold Tomorrow.

James Lee Hansen is one of the Northwest’s most prominent and influential sculptors. His imposing bronze installations are on view at the Portland Art Museum, Maryhill Museum, Clark College and institutions throughout the region. Hansen established his own foundry in Battle Ground, Washington in the 1970s. Today, at age 97, Hansen is proud of the more than 600 sculptures he’s created. “It's a legacy,” he says, “and I think everybody wants to have a legacy.”

Allison Wonder’s Beaverton, Oregon apartment is a magical fairyland – floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with dolls and their accessories. “The thing I love most about dolls,” he says, “is that I can do pretty much anything I want, it’s just in miniature.” He creates custom costumes, props and sets for his dolls then takes them on location for elaborate photo shoots. Growing up in small-town Michigan, Allison wasn’t allowed to play with dolls. Today he never leaves home without one.

Portland artist Sa'rah Melinda Sabino explores what it means to be mixed race in America. Her work is at the intersection of basketball, Moroccan culture and worlds that don’t yet exist.

Master water color artist uses tiny brushes to create intricate detail in her portraits of birds she observes near her home. Hiroko moved from Tokyo to Pendleton in 1986 – a culture shock at first, but today she can’t imagine leaving the beauty of Eastern Oregon.

Wallowa County ceramic artist Ted Juve remembers being six years old, watching his father build a barn on the family farm. Today that barn is Juve’s studio where he creates hand-etched bowls and mugs that have made him one of the area’s most in-demand artists.

Portland felt artist LeBrie Rich creates life-sized felt sculptures replicating some of this nation’s most iconic snacks. Her work has been featured at galleries and museums throughout the country. “I've discovered in making this work that we all have these nostalgic connections to certain brands or certain foods, and they're connected to very deep, very real memories,” she says.

Nataki Garrett took on her new role as Oregon Shakespeare Festival's artistic director in 2019. Within months the coronavirus shuttered all of her theatres for more than a year. Now the Festival is reopening, and Garrett is excited to announce a full season of shows for 2022.

Jesus Torralba has been painting since he was a child, when friends introduced him to the art of graffiti. Today his colorful commissioned murals can be seen throughout Portland, each capped with his “Heysus” signature. Torralba’s designs draw on his indigenous roots in Oaxaca, and on his love of cartoons, creating a distinctive style.