PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Intisar Abioto arrived in Portland about 14 years ago. She comes from a family of artists but didn’t know what Black artists were doing in this region in earlier eras.
She began to research that history and information but it wasn’t readily available. About 4 years ago, she was contacted about curating a show of Black artists using the knowledge that she gathered from her research. She accepted.
Intisar Abioto is the exhibition curator of Black Artists of Oregon, with an exhibition through March 31 at the Portland Art Museum.
The show draws on the museum’s collection and collections of local artists and their families along with works purchased by Abioto.
“I started to do research about what Black people who are artists have been doing here since Black people have been here in the Pacific Northwest, through oral history interviews and through archival research, through buying works of elder artists or older artists that I was able to find,” Abioto said.
In all, there are 200 works from 69 Black artists dating from the 1880s to the present on display.
Watch the video above for a conversation with Intisar Abioto, and check out the video below for a tour of the exhibit.
