Call for Artists:
Blackfish Gallery’s Layered Perceptions Exhibition
DEADLINE FOR ENTRY: OCTOBER 18, 2025
Blackfish Gallery’s Layered Perceptions Exhibition is a celebration of Portland Oregon as a creative hub and diversity of artistic talent within its energetic artistic community. This juried exhibition, opening in February 2026 at Blackfish Gallery, focuses on the contemporary art being created in the Portland Oregon Metropolitan Area while celebrating the layers of diversity of its artistic talent and individualism.
Eligibility: Artists living and working in the Portland Metropolitan area are invited to submit work for consideration. For this call, that area is defined as Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, and Yamhill counties in Oregon, and Clark and Skamania counties in Washington State.
Accepted Mediums: We accept most 2D and 3D mediums, including painting, drawing, photography, digital, original prints, fiber art, collage, mixed media, sculpture, and ceramics. We are not accepting film, video, or installation art for this call.
Meet Our Jurors:
Don Bailey – Known for his complex, richly colorful compositions, Bailey is a Hupa tribal member who was raised on the Hoopa Valley Reservation in California and taught art at Chemawa Indian School, the oldest continually operating federal boarding school in America. He has been featured on the Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) show Art Beat, CC Media show Insights, and Sasse Museum of Art (Pomona, CA) catalog “Native American Artists.” His work is in the collection of the Hallie Ford Museum (Salem, OR), University of Oregon (Eugene, OR), University of New Mexico (Albuquerque NM), Mayor’s Office (Portland, OR), State Library of Oregon (Salem, OR) and in private collections across the United States. He is a member of Blackfish Gallery, an artist owned and operated gallery in Portland’s Pearl District, and works out of his studio in Portland, Oregon.
Angenette Escobar – A Mexican American artist raised along the Mexican border in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, Escobar is a working artist and teacher living in Portland, Oregon. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree specializing in Sculpture and a minor in Art History from the University of Nevada. Her MFA from the University of California, San Diego, focuses on Sculpture, Installation and Performance Art. Escobar has a Master of Arts in Teaching from George Fox University and is an instructor for Latino Art and Culture and 3D Art and Design at Wilsonville High School in Wilsonville, Oregon. She currently exhibits at Blackfish Gallery in Portland, Oregon.
Michael Knutson – Knutson received a BFA from the University of Washington and an MFA from Yale University. He taught at Reed College from 1982 to 2022 and has been a member of Blackfish Gallery since 1997. He is also represented by Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle. He has received an Individual Artist Grant from National Endowment for the Arts, a Purchase Award from an invitational exhibition at the Academy of Arts & Letters in New York, Juror’s awards in two Oregon Biennials, and a Betty Bowen Award from the Seattle Art Museum. A twenty-five year retrospective of his work was shown concurrently at the Art Gym, Marylhurst University, and the Hoffman Gallery, Lewis & Clark College, in 2006.
Submissions and Requirements:
• There is a submission fee of $35
• You may submit up to 3 high-quality images of your work, no less than 72 DPI and 800 pixels wide
• Images should be no larger than 10 MB
• All images should be cropped to show only the artwork (with exception of 3d work)
• File names should include the following information: Last Name, First Name, Title, Dimensions, Medium
• Artist statement, 300-word max.
• All artwork included in the exhibition will be for sale.
• All selected artists will be responsible for dropping off and picking up their work personally. Work may not be shipped.
Important Dates:
• Deadline for entry: October 18, 2025
• Artists Notification: December 1, 2025
• Artwork Drop off: December 26,27,28, 2025
• Exhibition Opening: January 8, 2026
• Exhibition Closing: January 31, 2026
• Artwork pick up: January 31, 2026 after 5:00pm.
More Info
https://www.blackfish.com/open-call
Location
Portland, OR
Opportunity Region
local
Commitment
nonapplicable
Contact Email
blackfishcollective@gmail.com