Art Galleries

1st Annual One College Virtual Art Student Exhibition

Unmuted: PCC Art Student Exhibition 20/21

Over one year ago, Portland Community College moved to remote operations to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. Since then, students, faculty, and staff have been doing heroic work from home, and art students have continued their education remotely, making work in the midst of personal, local, national, global crises and revolutions. This has become a year of raising voices and making art – in spite of, and in response to the challenges of being alive in this time. To honor the art that PCC art students have created during this pivotal year, our first ever college-wide virtual art student exhibition invites student artists to “unmute” themselves and share their art work with the world.

Join us for a Zoom awards ceremony with the juror Patricia Vázquez Gómez on Friday, June 4, 2021, 12 noon.

(Zoom link for the awards ceremony.)

Juror’s selections

  • Cut out of a Hindu inspired figure version of Angela Davis meditating upon a wall made up of the garden of earthly delights by Hieronymus Bosch and the voice of space spherical bell to their side.
  • A polymer clay project in white of a shoe pair transforms to a butterfly.
  • Woman wearing a read blanket over her head with her eyes closed and hands holding the blanket.
  • A spray painted print of the silhouette of a butterfly shaped as a barcode that is centered and engulfed by the negative space of the composition.
  • It's a portrait of Amanda Gorman.
  • An image of a woman with blue gemstones under and over her eyes. She is standing in front of a pitch black background. She is looking straight towards the camera and the light.
  • A black and white painting of a man's face with a mustache.
  • Orange bodies of two musicians, doubled and singing a song on an abstracted blue-green background.
  • Visitors engage with family members in a living room, three people gather in the back and one person sits on a couch.
  • A black and white drawing of a plate of eggs on toast with a dark mug full of tea. A metallic fork rests partially on the edge of the plate and angles downward to touch the wood-grain table.
  • A quote from William Gibson reading "When you want to know how things really work, study them when they're coming apart" is written in a blocky style on multiple lines filling the page from top to bottom. Lines of text alternate between white letters on a colored background, and colored letters on a white background. The words "coming apart" are tilted and staggered to suggest movement. The color ranges from red orange at the top of the page, to red violet at the bottom.
  • A watercolor self portrait painting of the artist: a white woman with blonde and blue hair, white lilies sit atop her head, she is crying, tears streaming down her face, she is wearing a maroon sweater and the background is dark grey.
  • This is a buffalo standing alone in an empty field.
  • A self portrait drawn in colored pencil, of a girl wearing her headphones lopsided while also having her hands under her chin.
  • Black ink was used for lettering. The words read, you can't say all lives matter until black lives matter. Numerous skin tones fill in the letters and spaces with color.
  • A beam of light coming out of the clouds and shining on the ocean.
  • A painting of a child and adult male confronting each other, eye-to-eye, in the light from a window with a lamp in-between.
  • A black and white pencil rendering of a pocket knife, a set of dice, a animal caller and woodland printed sunglasses.
  • A painting in color of the partial profile face of a woman, partial hands, and partial translucent organic elements over basswood panel.
  • A mixed-media painting of a cold and apocalyptic world, a large robotic figure which is part of the landscape holds a Covid virus in its palm, diagram lines direct the eye around the piece.
  • A hand burnishing relief print of a deconstructed human physique centralized in the composition with exaggerate anatomical features.
  • In the first image, a large silhouetted bee hovers in the foreground of a green meadow and blue sky; in the second image, the bee's empty silhouette is visible alongside a representation of a bottle of Roundup weed killer.
  • This is a black and white photo of a man on a bicycle under a bridge. He is illuminated by a beam of light that shines through a gap in the bridge as he rides along the path.
  • A bowl of cereal and a glass of milk held up by bright red strings, with the milk pouring in to the bowl. The images are surrounded by black so they appear to float in space.
  • A black in white print of a barn owl sitting on a tree in the foreground, birch and unspecified trees placed throughout the background decreasing in detail.
  • A painting depicting a great horned owl with its head turned right so that its gold left eye stares directly at the viewer.
  • A self portrait with hat and beard.
  • A picture of a waterfall.
  • Landscape drawing with a body of water on the left and blue sky, next to darker clouds on the right.
  • A picture of a peaceful alley inside a bustling city with eateries and cafes.
  • A graphite and charcoal drawing of a person on the left. A computer proccessed, colored version of the drawing on the right.
  • Color poster image of the girl in the foreground standing in the Venetian courtyard seen in the background.
  • Portrait of a woman looking to the side with lines painted on her face.
  • Black and white drawing of fish in a fish bowl, patterns and a UFO.
  • Ophelia is large in the center of the image and is floating in water, wearing a billowing white dress. This image includes art nouveau style framing around Ophelia and the background. In the background is a lake with a large willow tree with a broken branch. The branches of the willow tree are placed so they appear as a continuation of Ophelia's hair that is radiating out around her head. Around her torso is also a round art nouveau frame that includes illustrations of all of the flowers that she gave to others. The colors are bright and warm, and there is a sunset in the sky in the background. A small deer is also laying in the grass in the bottom right foreground.
  • A masked character with a robe, gloves, and serpent-like body floating above a crack in the foreground, glowing orbs protrude from it's sleeves and there are grey clouds in the background.
  • A drawing in NuPastel and charcoal of a vintage oil can in four details.
  • Flowers, planets, clouds and ladybugs in the foreground as well as middleground. Girl with magical book. A fishing pole is coming out of the book as a cat jumps " Connected to the pole is a beta-fish that weaves its fin into the girl's hair. A frog jumps out from the middleground and the negative space is full of stars.
  • Black and white pattern using cut paper.
  • A painting of a dark landscape. The silhouette of a crane flies over a dark home with lit windows. In the foreground, the silhouette of a woman wielding a shotgun aims at the crane.
  • Three figures with subtle animal images in the background.
  • A macro photo of a zester with light coming through the holes.
  • A painting of a snowy scene with buildings in the foreground and purple mountains in the background.
  • An arch shaped watercolor painting featuring a portrait of a young man in the foreground, surrounded by hands in various positions and laurel leaves, with dark abstract background.
  • Lonely oak tree in a field of lilac flowers, overseeing hills.
  • A black and white photograph of a backlit Japanese maple tree in the fall.
  • A drawing of two people looking at fires in a distance in a landscape.
  • A watercolor Painting of a white house with red roof in a field with trees silhouetted against a cloudy sky at sunset.
  • An ink drawing of a knife and wooden doll making a fainting gesture inside of a concaved baseball cap on the seat of a chair.
  • Two people standing in front of a rainbow in a galaxy with two spaceships. Holding signs that say "Workers of the World Unite" and "Black Lives Matter".
  • A painting of a man dressed in a shirt and tie leaning against a bedroom wall, asleep.
  • A gestural drawing depicts a black grid and two orblike shapes. One is in the lower left part of the grid and the other in the upper right.
  • An up-close photograph of a man who is experiencing both anger and loss.
  • Bare stomach with the word Mother written in red on it.
  • Colorful leaves and shapes.
  • Young girl holding an orb in the midst of the galaxy.
  • A still life oil painting of three antique books, a vertebra and a tall jar filled with some dried plants and a child's paintbrush.
  • A full moon shines down on snowy fields as the fox turns to look back, across the hills to a distant farm house, chilly blues and white of the landscape contrast with his ruddy fur.
  • A vibrant bouquet of flowers and greenery with a large succulent and bird skull included on a dark washed background.
  • In red ink, broadside features an image of a woman wearing traditional Plains Cree clothing dancing. Half of the image is solid red, and in the negative space it reads, "She had some horses who said they weren't afraid". On the other side of the woman, in red ink, it reads, "She had some horses who lied".
  • A figure in a room.
  • A painting from the perspective of a boat, with the corner of the stern visible as red orange hues coat the ocean and hazy Golden Gate bridge and lights on the bay in the distance.
  • Pomegranate pieces and seeds on a mirror with a golden background.
  • A 3D design of a lower half of the face mask, covered in rocks and decorated with live flowers.
  • A black and white painting of a hooded figure slumped over a table. It has a white, statuesque face illuminated by its lamp-like right hand. Cables spill out from beneath its cloak.
  • A female figure masking her face with a bull's skull, while standing in an abstract field of billowing pinwheels, all in black and white, save for one pinwheel.
  • A tree concealed by the night sky.
  • A symbolic representation to the 2020 presidential debates featuring profile views of Biden and Trump, a flag-like background, the date 2020 and significant words written below the candidates.
  • A photograph capturing the movement of a woman in distress standing in a bathroom near the door in a long, black prom dress, sliding her back down the white bathroom wall to sit on the white marble floor.
  • My shadow with my arms and head touching tree branches, causing an illusion that I am tall and thin.
  • Person in a wedding dress eating cake with their hands.

All submissions to Unmuted: PCC Art Student Exhibition 20/21

About guest juror Patricia Vázquez Gómez

Patricia Vázquez Gómez works and lives between the ancient Tenochtitlán and the unceded and occupied lands of the Chinook, Clackamas, Multnomah and other Indigenous peoples. Her art practice investigates the social functions of art, the intersections between aesthetics, ethics and politics and the expansion of community based art practices. She uses a variety of media to carry out her research: painting, printmaking, video, exhibitions, music and socially engaged art projects. The purpose and methodologies of her work are deeply informed by her experiences working in the immigrant rights and other social justice movements. Explore Patricia’s work on her website.

About PCC art galleries

Portland Community College is home to four art galleries: the Helzer Gallery, the North View Gallery, the Paragon Arts Gallery, and the Southeast Gallery, each located on one of our four comprehensive campus locations in Portland, Oregon. The art galleries are dedicated to supporting education and community building through the arts.

Special thanks to our award donors