Two Oregon Artists Chosen to Create Large-Scale, 2D Public Artworks at Portland International Airport

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Left: Portrait of Ryan Pierce by Sadie Wechsler. Right: Portrait of James Lavadour by Walters Photographers, Pendleton, Oregon.

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Portland, OR —June 23rd, 2025. In collaboration with the Port of Portland, the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) is proud to announce that Oregon artists James Lavadour and Ryan Pierce have each been chosen to create a large-scale, 2D public artwork for Portland International Airport (PDX), anticipated to be installed in late 2025 and debut to the public in 2026. Both artists were selected by the PDX Terminal Core Redevelopment (TCORE) Public Art Committee.

The renovation of the airport’s main terminal aims to increase the capacity, flexibility, and resilience of the airport, while improving the travel experience and adding more of what people love about PDX–including more art. Pierce’s and Lavadour’s artworks are among several exciting new public art projects RACC is managing within the new PDX.

Lavadour’s work will be featured in the south entry hall, greeting both entering and exiting visitors to PDX. With its contemporary abstraction of landscapes, Lavadour’s painting will become a companion piece to the abstract landscape mural by Louis Bunce originally commissioned for the airport in 1958 that will be displayed in the north entry hall.

Located at the north end of baggage claim, Pierce’s artwork will greet passengers exiting international arrivals and will also be prominently visible from a waiting lounge for travelers to meet family, friends, and colleagues. The work will welcome passengers to Portland, and provide a first impression of Oregon.

“RACC is proud to partner with the Port of Portland to bring James Lavadour’s and Ryan Pierce’s visionary works to PDX. Lavadour’s Conduit honors our region’s landscapes and Indigenous artistic legacy, while Pierce’s Liberated Luggage invites travelers to engage with the resilience and playfulness of our natural world. These installations exemplify RACC’s commitment to ensuring public art reflects the diversity of our communities and enhances our shared spaces,” says Kristin Law Calhoun, Director of Partnerships and Programs at the Regional Arts & Culture Council.

“Our essential partnership with RACC continues to enrich cultural experiences at PDX by providing new opportunities for artists to exhibit their incredible work in public places,” said Wendy Given, Art Program Manager at the Port of Portland. “It is an absolute honor to gain large-scale installations for the Port’s permanent collection from celebrated regional artists James Lavadour and Ryan Pierce. Sharing the spirit, creativity, cultures, and pride of the Pacific Northwest with travelers and visitors is our responsibility.”

About the Artists & Artworks

James Lavadour (Walla Walla; b. 1951, Pendleton, OR) is a self-taught artist whose painting practice is informed by an intimate attention to and deep connection with the natural world. Lavadour’s paintings are created through a process of improvisation, resulting in abstract landscapes of rich colors and broad brushstrokes. His publicly commissioned artworks are carefully considered compositions made up of multiple paintings installed in relationship to one another in linear or grid formations.

Lavadour’s work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions and can be found in many collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY), Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, DC), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Bentonville, AR), Seattle Art Museum (Seattle, WA), Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, WA), Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR), and University of Oregon (Eugene, OR). Awards and recognitions include a Hallie Ford Fellowship of The Ford Family Foundation, an Oregon Arts Commission fellowship, an Oregon Governor’s Arts Award, the Betty Bowen Memorial Recognition Award, and an Honorary Doctorate of Human Letters from Eastern Oregon University (La Grande, OR). Lavadour is the co-founder, past president, and past board member of Crow’s Shadow Institute for the Arts (CSIA). Located on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, CSIA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization committed to preserving and promoting contemporary and traditional Indigenous cultural practices and is a nationally recognized studio known for advancing Native voices in contemporary fine art printmaking. Lavadour is represented by PDX Contemporary Art gallery.

For the PDX airport, Lavadour has been invited to create a site-specific large-scale painting composition. Lavadour’s largest public artwork to date, the piece will be composed of 36 individual painted 24” x 30” panels in a grid formation that create one unified, complex painting. Conduit, the title of the painting, represents the idea of a passage or connector. Meaningful in the context of the airport, “conduit” as a theme is also personally significant to the artist: aware of the significant challenges faced by Indigenous artists trying to gain the recognition of mainstream galleries, Lavadour founded Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts in 1989, the only professional printmaking studio on a reservation in the USA, to provide a conduit for Native artists. Painted in Lavadour’s signature expression over a period spanning more than 10 years, the assembled panels represent the depth and breadth of Lavadour’s painting practice, his commitment to uplifting Native artists, and a welcome to visitors. In Lavadour’s words, “I think of this painting as similar to a beaded belt to be given as a welcoming gift to all that pass. This homeland is open and welcome to all.”

Ryan Pierce‘s paintings, prints, and experimental artist books envision a world recovering from human industry amid the throes of climate chaos. He draws on influences from ecological theory, literature, and folk art to create scenes that portray the resilience of the natural world. His work has been shown nationally and internationally, including solo exhibitions at Elizabeth Leach Gallery and Nine Gallery in Portland, and Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder (Trondheim, Norway). His work has also been shown in group exhibitions at the Schneider Museum of Art (Ashland, OR), STREAM Gallery (New York, NY), the Henry Art Gallery (Seattle, WA), and Irvine Contemporary (Washington, DC). In 2019, Pierce was selected to participate in the inaugural exhibition of the Portland Art Museum’s regional triennial titled the map is not the territory…

Pierce received an MFA from California College of the Arts and a BFA from Oregon College of Art and Craft. Recognitions and awards include grants from the Joan Mitchell and San Francisco Foundations, an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission, and a fellowship at the Jordan Schnitzer Printmaking Residency at Sitka Center for Art & Ecology (Otis, OR). Pierce currently chairs the low-residency MFA in Visual Studies at Pacific Northwest College of Art and is represented by Elizabeth Leach Gallery, both in Portland.

For the PDX airport, Pierce will paint Liberated Luggage, an original panoramic landscape to be translated into kiln-formed glass in collaboration with Glasmalerei Peters Studios (Portland/Paderborn, Germany). The composition is inspired by the question: What if your luggage got to Oregon before you, and your things were already having a good time? The landscape leads travelers on a visual journey through the ecoregions of Oregon from the Coast to The Great Basin. Endemic flora and fauna populate the composition, as do the things travelers carry: roller bags, duffels, and backpacks, whose vacationing contents are representative of international destinations linked to PDX. Those who stop to look closer will discern a story that’s quirky, playful, and rooted in the pride of place that makes travel as rewarding as coming back home.

Please find a folder of images for use here.

About the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC): For decades, RACC has aimed to serve every neighborhood of our region to ensure that arts and culture are accessible to all. Our nationally acclaimed public art program enlivens parks, community centers, government buildings, libraries and health clinics; brings people and communities together; and makes our region a more vibrant and welcoming place to be. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, we work to elevate the voices and visibility of individual artists, creative organizations and arts nonprofits – especially those that serve underrepresented communities – amplifying their impact through grants, professional development and other vital resources. Through strategic partnerships, our team works to build coalitions and lead new initiatives, crafting a shared vision for an equitable future for arts and culture in our region. For more information, please visit racc.org.

About Port of Portland:  With three airports, three active marine terminals, and five business parks, the Port of Portland is an economic engine for transforming the region into a place where everyone is welcome, empowered, and connected to the opportunity to find a good job or grow their business. The Port works to pull down barriers and provide access to people and local businesses who have been left out of the region’s economic growth—including people of color, low-income workers, and people with disabilities. Collectively, the Port leads big projects in the region, including building a new PDX with a community-centered approach; transforming a former marine terminal into a site for innovation in the housing construction and mass timber industries; and providing more options for Pacific Northwest businesses to send their products around the world. For more information, visit www.PortofPortland.com.