By Jim Redden
The art show that President Trump doesn’t want you to see about the 250th anniversary of the founding of America will open in North Portland on April 3.
That is the description of the upcoming 2026 Artists’ Biennial at the Oregon Contemporary gallery offered by Blake Shell, its director. Although criticizing Trump is de rigueur in the art world, Shell has proof. The National Endowment for the Arts canceled its $30,000 grant for the exhibition when it learned the curator and most of the participating artists are members of historically marginalized communities.
“The show on the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence focuses on voices who have never been included in ‘We the people,’” Shell told the Portland City Council’s Arts and Economy Committee on March 10. He was there to advocate for more city support for arts and culture organizations.
“Last fall the NEA denied our already-approved grant for the Biennial based solely on the names and biographies of the artists.”
Public response to an emergency fundraising appeal means the show at 8371 N Interstate Ave. and related events throughout Portland can take place in coming months, however. They will include exhibitions and performances at the Portland Art Museum, the Multnomah County Library Central Branch, Zydell Yards, Ori Gallery, and other locations.
The exhibition will conclude at Oregon Contemporary on July 4, the 250th Anniversary of the signing of the document that declared American independence from Great Britian, with voluntary readings and responses by those in attendance.
“This pivotal document emancipated the 13 American colonies from British rule, establishing the new nation with the promise of certain ‘unalienable rights’ to all citizens. Since its signing, there have been long and violent battles over who is considered a citizen and therefore granted rights and protection under the law. Often the most vulnerable of us are left to reconcile the disparities between ideal and reality,” Oregon Contemporary said when announcing the upcoming opening and related events.
The 2026 Artists’ Biennial is titled “The Price of the Ticket,” based on Black American writer and activist James Baldwin’s proposed book of the same title. It was intended to explore the political realities of post-Civil Rights era America, including progress and lack thereof. Never finished, the title now exists as the introduction to a collection of Baldwin’s non-fiction works and as the name of a biographical episode of American Masters.
“The romance of treason never occurred to us for the brutally simple reason that you can’t betray a country you don’t have. (Think about it.) Treason draws its energy from the conscious, deliberate betrayal of trust—as we were not trusted, we could not betray. And we did not wish to be traitors. We wished to be citizens,” Baldwin wrote.
Highlights of the exhibit will include the public display of the newly created bronze Bust of York by artist Todd McGrain. York was the only Black man in the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery’s exploration of the Pacific Northwest. It is the permanent version of McGrain’s initial bust, which was built of Styrofoam painted bronze and surreptitiously installed on the pedestal where a statue of former Oregonian editor Harvey Scott, a known racist, had once stood in Mount Tabor during the height of the racial justice protests in 2021. After eight months, the preliminary Bust of York was eventually vandalized and toppled off the pedestal.
More details about the 2026 Artists’ Biennial and related events can be found at oregoncontemporary.org.