Art first
Every decision starts with the work and what it needs — not with the calendar or the market.
Our story
From a shared studio to a city institution.
Artspace opened in 2009 in a former kiln works on the edge of Portland's Arts District, founded by a curator and two artists who were tired of work being crammed onto crowded walls. They stripped the building back to brick and light and committed to a single rule: show fewer things, but show them well.
Fifteen years on, that rule still defines us. We've grown from a single room into three gallery spaces and a represented roster of forty artists, but the pace has stayed deliberate — a handful of carefully built exhibitions each year, each given the time and the silence it needs.
Today Artspace welcomes more than 180,000 visitors a year and has placed work in nine museum collections. Admission has been free since the day we opened, and always will be.
Mission & values
What the gallery stands for
Our mission is to give bold contemporary work the room it deserves — and to make encountering it open to everyone. These values guide every show we stage.
Artist partnership
We represent artists for the long arc of a career, with patience, candour, and real support.
Open to all
Admission is free, the doors are wide, and no one needs an art background to belong here.
Room to think
We hang fewer works with more space, so each piece can be met on its own terms.
A wider conversation
We seek out voices and perspectives that broaden whose stories get told on our walls.
Care & stewardship
From conservation to placement, we treat every work as something held in trust.
Fifteen years, measured.
2009Year opened
120+Exhibitions staged
40Represented artists
180kAnnual visitors
The team
The people behind the programme
A small team of curators, registrars, and educators who live with the work every day.
Camille Voss
Founder & Director
Curator who opened the gallery in 2009 and still shapes every season.
Julian Hart
Senior Curator
Leads the solo programme and our artist commissions.
Priya Anand
Registrar & Collections
Oversees conservation, loans, and museum placement.
Marcus Okonkwo
Head of Learning
Runs tours, talks, and the gallery's schools programme.
Our approach
How a show comes together.
Every exhibition is built slowly, in close conversation with the artist — from first studio visit to the final adjustment of the lights the night before we open.
Studio first
We start where the work is made, listening before we plan a single wall.
Build with care
We design the hang, the texts, and the lighting around what the work needs.
Open the doors
Free admission, generous hours, and tours that welcome every kind of visitor.
Come spend an hour with us.
Whether it's your first gallery visit or your hundredth, there's always something new on our walls. Plan a visit and see for yourself.