Portland: Everyday Public Art Walk Postcards

Every city in the world these days has an active public art program, often requiring public art be incorporated into any new project, from highways to high-rises. Portland has been incorporating public art into its urban landscape for decades and as a result there are hundreds of public artworks scattered around the city.

You can download a map or an app to create you own art walk if you wish, but I like to just encounter the art as I find it on my walks. Here are some of the pieces I found when we last in Portland in March 2020.

Link: Public Art In Portland

A Human Comedy, ten terra-cotta medallions by Lee Hunt with the accompanying Streetwise Words Underfoot by Bill Will and Katherine Dun was the public art highlight of our most recent visit to Portland. it would be easy to walk by an miss the medallions that are at the second story window of a building along ???? Look for the Tiffany & Co. entrance (818 SW 4th Ave)and next to the figure holding up the clock and you will find one on each side.

The Streetwise Words Underfoot are more accessible on the side of the building but still easy to miss. Once I found them I had to walk back and start view them all.

Lee Hunt’s “Human Comedy” shows human faces embodying various states of emotion. They include the Laughing Woman, the Perplexed Man, the Competition of the East and West Winds, the Idealized Woman, the Wry Woman, Marat Alive, The Idealized Man, Children Watching from the Window, the Skeptical Woman, and the Architectus Mundi.

Skeptical Woman: You can’t fool me! Behind your hands and face, you are more than you show.

Competition of the East and West Winds: They must take turns since they can’t both bluster at once.

Perplexed Man: Must I document each life and judge it, to make a place for my own?

Wry Woman: As even you can see, you are what you wish for.

Idealized Woman: The child-mother Mona Lisa knows. She points the way.

Mary Alive: The heroic image of my death has you fooled. I would have it no other way.

Children Watching From A Window: They are witnesses to whatever passes: the parading human comedy.

Idealized Man: I am David, the giant-killer. But who are you?

Architectus Mundi: A designer of worlds, he brings together the diverse and strange elements of the cosmos.

I saw this artwork first from a streetcar and wondered if it was art or a building being torn down. Turns out it is both! Titled Inversion: Plus Minus there are actually two sculptures made from rusted steel angle iron that represent the “ghosts” of former industrial buildings on the site. The artist are Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo.

Facing The Crowd by Michael Stutz, 2001 sits outside the entrance to the Portland Stadium. It is a popular place to take photos. The artist says “Facing the Crowd’s dynamic presence becomes a celebration of joy and playfulness. My hope is that these giant totems engage the spectator with their simple and universal theme of maintaining humour in the midst of chaotic urban world.”

This fun whirly-gig is located at the entrance of a boutique hotel. We walked by it many times and always stopped to watch it twirl around.

Olivia’s Bench (In loving memory of Olivia “V” Spencer, daughter, sister, friend, neighbor and Chapman Student from 2008 to 2014 “you go on ahead sweetheart, 'i’ll be right behind you.”

Technically probably not public art, but I enjoyed the creativity and playfulness of these two bike racks.

Nepenthes is a series of four sculptures by Dan Corson along North West Davis Street in Old Town Chinatown.

The works were inspired by the carnivorous plants of the same name. They glow in the dark due to photovoltaics.

Tikitotemoniki Totem by Kenny Scharf, 2001 are 30 foot sculptures that cover the streetcar poles near Jamison Square.

Scarf is well known for his adaptation of cartoon images into fine art that either delights or unnerves the viewer.