An exhibition by four Portland-based artists exploring the themes of utopia and dystopia through various mediums including painting, printmaking, sculpture and photography.
A Good Universe Next Door is running at the Multnomah Arts Center through October 17, having opened on September 18. It's taking over the Front & Center Galleries, and it's curated by Melanie Stevens and Celeste Noche.
The show brings together four Portland-based artists, each working around the same set of ideas: utopia and dystopia, the gap between the devastating and the extraordinary, and how systemic barriers and reparations play out in their lives. It's a broad prompt, and the four artists take it in very different directions.
Orlando Almanza imagines futures built on safety, connection, and community. Ebony Frison treats utopia and dystopia as conditions that coexist in the same historical moment, working with archival research, printmaking, photography, and artist books. Amber Capwell makes sculptural works that envision utopian possibilities through Tarot readings for endangered Pacific Northwest flora and fauna, bringing in queer and trans identities. And Maryanna Hollomon focuses on the aftermath of war for children and the need to work in solidarity with those most oppressed.
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Because the four artists approach the theme from such different angles—one looking at community, another at archives, a third at the natural world, and a fourth at the human cost of war—the show ends up feeling like a conversation rather than a single statement. You can see how the same question about what comes next looks different depending on who's asking it.
A Good Universe Next Door runs through October 17 at the Multnomah Arts Center in Portland.
