Grit & Grain
Exhibition Dates:
May 15 – June 14, 2025
Gallery Hours:
Thursdays 5:00 – 8:00 PM
Fridays 12:00 – 6:00 PM
Saturdays 12:00 – 4:00 PM
Reception:
Saturday, June 14, 2:00 – 5:00 PM
Curated by Sharita Towne, ilish bath, and Christina Martin of nůn studios
About the exhibition
Grit & Grain is a group exhibition that brings together more than 50 contributors to celebrate five years of print work made at nůn studios since its founding in early 2020. Specializing in risograph printing, nůn studios (pronounced "noon") in Northeast Portland, Oregon offers production, design, distribution support, education, and studio access to counter-hegemonic voices.
The exhibited works come from a wide range of community members and organizations, including ten diptychs from artists and writers selected for nůn studios’ inaugural portfolio, Grit & Grain: 5 & 5. Sharita Towne pens the colophon, in which she states the show and portfolio share the title Grit & Grain as “an ode to ancestral grit, grain as food, as paper, as film, as dirt, as direction, as particle, texture & time.”
Featuring works by the people and projects that have brought the studio to life, Grit & Grain dovetails with the studio’s efforts to fundraise both for its operations, and for the community causes for which it lends design and print. Follow nůn studios’ Instagram to learn more about their fundraiser.
Artists
manuel arturo abreu
Araceli
Elizabeth Arzani
ilish bath
Meech Boakye
Moe Bowstern
Derrais Carter
Jodie Cavalier
Sam Choi
M.E. Cobb
Oregon Caste Abolition Collective
golden lionheart collier
Erika Rier, Kacy McKinney, and Olivia DelGandio
Jakelen Diaz
Demian DinéYazhi
Alec Dunn
emmy eao
Luna Enriquez
Sarah Farahat
Black Futures Farm
Feed’em Freedom Foundation
Indo Fulcher
Patricia Vázquez Gómez
Mudbone Grown
Queer Cat with Tama Hamamoto
Bridgette Hickey
Jordan Jackson-McCoy
amber jaitrong
Jaleesa Johnston
Kavi
Vaughn Kimmons
Mei Love
Christina Martin
maximiliano
Kai and Moonyeka
Oliver Myrhe
kiki nicole
marvin parra orozco
Roger Peet
Prismid
Inés Paulina Ramirez
Ella Ray
Olivia McKayla Ross
Alexandria Saleem
Coalition of Communities of Color, with work from Nikita Daryanani, Khanya Msibi, and Santi Sanchez
Stephanie Adams Santos
Melanie Stevens
dao strom
ariella tai
garima thakur
Bailey Thi
Sharita Towne
hanna trejo
Bryan Yonki
About nůn studios
nůn studios is a burgeoning member-run risograph print shop in Northeast Portland, Oregon. Launched in 2020, the studio opened as a Black-stewarded space offering production, design, distribution support, education, and studio access to counter-hegemonic artists and organizers. Today, nůn operates with two MZ1090 duplicators, 30 ink colors, and a range of DIY binding and finishing tools. As a collective, mycelial in its reach, utility, poetic, and care, the studio offers free and highly subsidized printing services for organizers, writers, and artists who work in local to global solidarity movements, community wellness, and independent publishing, among other schemes and dreams.
nůn studios was born from A Black Art Ecology of Portland (BAEP)—a transdisciplinary convener and resource mobilizer cultivating networks of creative care for Black artists and communities. Through BAEP's continued support, proceeds from the 5 & 5 portfolio, as well as prints and publications from the studio’s first five years in operation, nůn hopes to launch a transdisciplinary artist-in-residence program that focuses on diasporic voice(s) and solidarity, and supports its communities in need.
Support
This exhibition is supported by the Regional Arts & Culture Council and Meyer Memorial Trust’s “Justice Oregon for Black Lives” portfolio.