Kenji Nakahashi (Japanese, 1947–2017), Time (B), 1980; printed 1985, gelatin silver print, image: 10 in x 13 in; sheet: 10 15/16 in x 14 in, Anonymous gift in memory of Kenji Nakahashi, All rights reserved © Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents, permissions needed, 2022.44.12
Kenji Nakahashi: Between Things
November 20, 2025 – November 20, 2026
Japanese photographer Kenji Nakahashi (1947–2017) moved to New York City in 1973, finding in the city the creative inspiration that would sustain his practice for the rest of his life. Both playful and profound, his conceptual approach to photography posed questions about everyday objects, materials, and surfaces. From the mundane, his images raise meaningful questions about the distance or difference between things, and about the relationship between parts of a whole. Alongside Nakahashi’s photographs, a selection of tea bowls by contemporary Japanese ceramicists invites viewers to consider Nakahashi’s questions in another, very different medium. All works featured in this exhibition are new acquisitions, on view for the first time.
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China, Jiangling Chu culture, Hubei province (Chinese), Zhenmushou (Tomb Guardian), 4th century BCE/3rd century BCE, wood and natural antlers with traces of lacquer, 38 in x 25 3/4 in x 18 in, The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Collection of Early Chinese Art, public domain, 2002.71.1a-e
Heaven and Earth: Chinese Art from the Collections
November 20, 2025 – November 26, 2026
Heaven and Earth spotlights powerful works of art in the Museum’s collections, spanning creative practices in China across several millennia. Historic objects and more recent works are brought into conversation, offering different perspectives on how we make meaning of the world and the diversity and creativity of Chinese artists and makers. Highlights include the Museum’s Han dynasty money tree, made of delicately filigreed bronze branches and leaves, and the Warring States period antlered tomb guardian (Zhenmushou), unique to the Chu culture. Among the highlights of more recent work by living artists is the monumental ink painting Heaven and Earth, by contemporary artist Hung Hsien, from which the exhibition takes its title. A rare, fine-line landscape by Shen Zhou (1427–1509), one of the most famous painters of the Ming dynasty, will be displayed in sections, allowing viewers to experience this exceptional, ambitious handscroll in its entirety over successive rotations.
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MAKERS: The Culture of Craft
November 20, 2025 – May 30, 2027
Makers illuminates the virtuosity of maker and material in Japan. Looking across time periods, this exhibition explores the porous boundaries between art, craft, design, and labor. Works on display range from Bizen pottery to lacquerware, hanging scroll paintings to bamboo sculpture, and metalwork that straddles the line between craft and fine art. These works invite consideration of materials and technique, as well as questions of identity and mastery—the named artist and the anonymous craftsperson—as well as function and aesthetics, and the emotional power of superbly crafted objects. Featuring many new acquisitions on view for the first time, the exhibition also nods to Portland’s own maker culture, which has long made the city a destination for creatives.
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Jang Jin-ik (Korean, born 1973), Fulfillment of Emptiness II, 2016, hanji (Korean paper) on copper frame, 65 1/2 in x 43 1/4 in, Gift of Yeon Deung Hoe (Lotus Lantern Festival) Preservation Committee, © Jang Jin-ik, 2017.87.1
Word in Flower: Arts of Buddhism
November 20, 2025 – August 22, 2027
This exhibition highlights the Museum’s small collection of Buddhist art, most of which originates from East Asia. Featuring sculpture, calligraphy, painting, photography, and more, the exhibition explores diverse expressions of Buddhist visual culture in this region from the 6th to 21st centuries. Some of the Museum’s rarest works of sacred art, such as precious sutra fragments and representations of the Buddha and bodhisattvas, are joined by secular works on Buddhist themes from the twentieth century and recent work by living artists.
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