Cliff Notes
Each week, our regional Cliff Notes columnists Hayashi Wilder, Emily Small, Jade Ichimura, and Renée Reizman pick the most exciting events and exhibitions on the West Coast.
I Have Some Ideas: Sara Wynn
Art Center East, La Grande, OR
July 1–August 30, 2025
Earlier this week, I stared at a collection of stacked moving boxes scattered across the living room of my new home. Covered with dust, tape, and sweat, each box is labeled with a brief description of its contents. A box of “tea, coffee, utensils” collapsed by the pantry, “video and board games” were thrown on top of the couch, and “knick-knacks and books” were sitting at the foot of a bookcase. Some of these things I’ve only owned for a few weeks, while others have traveled across the country with me. Nonetheless, they all belong to me in this moment, in this lifetime.
In the same nature, Sarah E. Wynn’s solo exhibition, I Have Some Ideas, reflects on our relationships with everyday artifacts and the potential moments those items honor. Selecting subjects she adores, Wynn paints each object with personality and narrative! While some of her paintings portray one everyday item in a slightly surreal landscape, other paintings portray multiple objects in a grid system that includes recognizable phrases, open-air landscapes, and adorable belongings. Coupled with these illustrative depictions are oil-painted signs with short instructions like, “ART SAYS KEEP GOING.”
Absurd, childlike, and mid-day dreamy, Wynn’s paintings ask us to craft our connections, if not through bodies, then through belongings, memories, and collective narratives.
Reflection: What object in your home has its own story?
Pace Taylor: Last Call at the Rainbow Cafe
Nationale, Portland, OR
June 21–August 24, 2025
Through blended lines, contrasting shadows, and intimate everyday imagery, Pace Taylor’s fourth solo exhibition at the Nationale, Last Call at the Rainbow Cafe, is rural, romantic, and bittersweet. Conceived during Taylor’s drives between Pendleton and Portland, each soft pastel drawing whispers about the role of care during the quiet political dystopia of the rural northwest.
We’re given poignant scenes of lovers kissing amongst the backdrop of a Love’s gas station, a group of folks in western attire drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon beer while showcasing their pistols, a car dashing off after leaving a small rabbit dead on the street, and a couple holding each other during a game of pool and darts. Each drawing feels cinematic, performed perfectly for a curated script about the flickering light of the rustic west, where humankind continues to gather for the sake of survival and hope. Part fantastical, part confrontational, each esoteric moment feels clandestine in nature. Like small-town secrets, there are parts of the story I feel I am missing, and yet, that is the point.
The drive from Pendleton to Portland is along the Columbia River. I took this same route when moving to Portland from the Midwest. I was passing through magical countryside on a winding road to a city everyone on the internet seemed to hate. As I kept moving towards the setting incandescent sun, I couldn’t stop looking at the darkly painted hillsides behind me. Last Call of the Rainbow Cafe asks us to tenderly reach for each other across the darkness, across the hillsides, because the art of gathering is only a road trip away.
Reflection: What deep introspection have you experienced on a trip?