NGUYEN
Yours, is a commissioned text from writer and curator Kim Nguyen, posted here after the institution dissolved…
was a center for contemporary art in Southeast Portland, Oregon. It was led by a desire to support artists, propose new modes of production, and stimulate the ongoing public discourse around art. This website serves as an archive of Yale Union’s programming from 2011 through 2021.
Yale Union acknowledges that it occupies the traditional lands of the Multnomah, Chinook, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Tualatin Kalapuya, Molalla, and other Indigenous peoples.
Yours, is a commissioned text from writer and curator Kim Nguyen, posted here after the institution dissolved…
A publication on the letters between Alvar Aalto and Mount Angel Abbey, where Aalto designed…
A 3D rendering of the movement of sunlight across the YU gallery floor throughout a year…
July 16, 2020. Yale Union and the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation announce the transfer of ownership…
A publication to accompany “Sometimes, when birds make sounds, it feels like the sounds…”
To commemorate the centennial of the 1919 Portland laundry workers’ strike, we launch an online archive…
June 30–August 29, 2021. Marianne Nicolson’s first solo exhibition in Portland is Yale Union’s last show…
Ongoing. A George Kuchar retrospective, one *picture* at a time until we’ve screened them all…
February–December 2020. YU supports four Portland-based Artists in Residence throughout the year…
February 25, 2021. Composer Madalyn Merkey produces a new sound piece and video…
Yale Union is a non-profit contemporary art center in Portland, Oregon. Our program…
A continuously updated collection of critical reviews of exhibitions and of Yale Union itself, with links…
Yale Union is proud to support community members by regularly hosting programs and events…
Contribute to the ongoing renovation of the nationally registered historic Yale Union Laundry Building…
The spirit of volunteerism makes possible the vitality of our culture’s non-profit organizations…
Support our mission by using our space. To organize a tour of the building or learn more about our rates…
March–December 2019. Artists in residence, home school, present a series of events…
Sept. 20, 2020. Artist in residence Jamondria Harris curates an online performance event…
when birds make sounds, it feels like the sounds are coming out of me. June 2020…
July 3, 2020. A conversation with artist Kandis Williams and home school’s manuel arturo abreu…
April 4, 2020. CANCELLED. Sky Hopinka organizes the 2020 Yale Union Powwow…
March 28, 2020. CANCELLED. Artist and musician Asha Sheshadri will perform a live set…
June 12, 2020. Featuring Legacy Russell, S*an D. Henry-Smith, and manuel arturo abreu…
June 5, 2020. Yale Union screens a new long-form work by manuel arturo abreu…
April 18, 2020. We will livestream a talk by Marina Vishmidt on her recent book “Speculation as a Mode…”
March 13, 2020. Paris-based artists Charlotte Houette and Clara Pacotte give a virtual talk…
February 20, 2020. Singer-songwriter Ms. Carrie Stacks returns to Yale Union to give a solo concert of new…
On December 1, New York–based musicians Drumloop and 7038634357 will each perform solo sets.
Sept. 14–Oct. 20, 2019. Asher Hartman’s Gawdafful National Theater performs a newly commissioned play…
October 6, 2019. William E. Jones screens a selection of his videos in conjunction with…
August 24, 2019. Dominican-American artist and producer Kelman Duran will perform at…
A new edition of Yutaka Matsuzawa’s 1988 book published as part of the exhibition…
August 17, 2019. Art historian Ignacio Adriasola will give a talk and show the early films of Masanori Oe…
August 4, 2019. Yale Union and End of Summer co-present a talk by art historian Namiko Kunimoto…
June 29–August 18, 2019. Yutaka Matsuzawa (1922–2006) was considered the…
Bernadette Mayer publishes a new edition of her 1984 book and gives it away for…
July 11, 2019. UK artist and filmmaker Benedict Seymour screens his 2017 video “Dead the Ends”…
May 31, 2019. Jack Callahan will present a new sound piece involving a DMX-controlled light and a fog…
April 25–June 9, 2019. “What Was Always Yours and Never Lost,” an exhibition curated by Sky Hopinka…
April 13, 2019. Sky Hopinka organizes a powwow as part of his project “What Was Always Yours…”
March 21, 2019. Onyx Ashanti performs beatjazz on his unique 3D-printed body mesh instrument…
February 20, 2019. Silvia Kolbowski screens a new video and talks with curator Kari Rittenbach at…
November 3–December 16, 2018. McIntyre Parker presents a new commission for Yale Union on 16mm…
November 25, 2018. The vocalist and producer from Brooklyn performs solo at…
July 21–September 16, 2018. Cathy Wilkes makes her first West Coast solo show for which…
August 7, 2018. Art historian and writer Joanna Fiduccia will give a talk as part of CATHY WILKES…
June 23, 2018. The London-based singer and DJ will bring summer to Yale Union…
❤️ April 14–June 10, 2018. A solo exhibition by Belgian artist Jef Geys (1934–2018) curated by…
❤️ For 50 years, Jef Geys published a newspaper that he took over in De Kempen, his home region in Flanders…
March 16, 2018. Legendary Japanese experimental musician Phew will perform vocal…
March 10, 2018. Elysia Crampton performs Red Clouds, an audiovisual lecture that takes…
October 31, 2017. SEIZURE WARNING. Total Freedom with DJ massacooramaan…
October 29, 2017. Poet and scholar Jennifer Bartlett will give a talk about poet Larry Eigner…
October 16, 2017. A talk by French artist Eva Barto on two recent publications about…
October 5, 2017. Yale Union at EMBERS presents Steven Warwick with DJ Kath and DJ Perfect Health…
July 15–September 10, 2017. Questionnaire, an exhibition by Morag Keil and Georgie Nettell…
July 29, 2017. New York City–based producer and multi-media artist Sadaf H Nava will perform…
An exhibition and screening series presenting the work of a group of filmmakers active at UCLA during…
June 25, 2017. A screening and conversation with Don Amis as part of THE COMBATIVE PHASE…
May 26, 2017. Philadelphia-based electronic music and art duo will perform on…
May 7, 2017. A screening of “The Hour of the Furnaces,” as part of THE COMBATIVE PHASE…
April 10, 2017. Artist Emma Hedditch will talk about her research on cooperatives…
Verbatim report of entitlement suit initiated by 501(c)(3) Yale Union against Multnomah County Assessor…
March 3, 2017. South London based musician Klein will perform. “Lagata,” her most recent work…
February 18, 2017. Fayetteville, NC–based artist N-Prolenta, a.k.a Brandon Covington, will perform…
December 31, 2016. Legendary Ethiopian musician Mahmoud Ahmed will perform…
October 16–December 11, 2016. The Secret Garden, an exhibition of new work by Lutz Bacher…
A reader published on the occasion of MOMMY, with excerpted texts by Ferrante, Federici, Butler, etc.
Yale Union and Rhea Anastas publish an edition with R.H. Quaytman to support the printing of…
September 29, 2016. James Ferraro will debut “Mind Storm,” a ballet for one dancer accompanied by Ferraro…
THE USE is a book of writing by Chris Mann. It is also a translation of his ongoing web project…
July 23–September 4, 2016. A group exhibition curated by Kari Rittenbach with work by…
Friday, August 19, 8pm. A screening as part of TREES IN THE FOREST, curated by Kari Rittenbach…
July 30, 2016. Daryl Seaver will perform solo. Her piece, “Twenty Regards for a 21st Century Adult”…
A free textile workshop presented by Susan Cianciolo and others. Materials and tea will be provided. RSVP…
May 22–July 10, 2016. An exhibition of kits, costumes, films, clothes, and photographs by Susan Cianciolo…
ZIP: 01-01-14…12-31-14 is an annual. It records, in photographs, a year of an ongoing work Yuji Agematsu…
CURRENCY, a collection of new and older poems by Rae Armantrout. Printed at Yale Union…
June 5, 2016. Tori Kudo’s band Maher Shalal Hash Baz will play a set as part of Susan Cianciolo…
Kirsi Peltomäki will discuss Michael Asher’s practice through notions of the proposal, site specificity, and the…
May 11, 2016. Dutch designer Karel Martens will give a talk in Yale Union’s print shop…
April 13, 2016. Jason Lescalleett will perform solo. His tape-based music is crummy and lo-fi…
March 24, 2016. Writer and artist, John Russell will give a talk, “Press Release”…
After Orchard’s website lapsed, we rebuilt it on a different domain in HTML5 and will host it…
March 18, 2016. Matt Browning presents Jos De Gruyter and Harald Thys’ films at 8pm…
March 4 and 5, 2016. Michael Smith performs as alter-egos “Baby Ikki” and “Mike,” and screens seminal videos…
January 1–March 1, 2016. Two of Jos De Gruyter and Harald Thys’ puppens ride around in a black car…
February 17, 2016. Phill Niblock, a composer from NYC, will perform solo…
February 20, 2016. Composer and instrument builder Yoshi Wada and his son Tashi Wada will perform…
October 10–December 20, 2015. A group exhibition that considers the mother, with work by…
In 2016, Yale Union completed a historic rehabilitation project, turning a loading dock entry into a main pedestrian entrance to enhance both the street-level view of and accessibility to the historic building. Located on Tenth Street, the original loading dock was used by horse-drawn carriages to bring coal to the steam-powered industrial laundry. For years […]
December 1, 2015. Jeff Preiss will be here to screen his feature-length film STOP…
November 14, 2015. A newly commissioned performance by artist Karin Schneider as part of…
December 18, 2015. We will screen a video in the Yale Union kitchen as the closing event for MOMMY…
September 12–November 7, 2015. In an exchange of spaces, Yale Union will make a show with Anne-Mie…
November 5, 2015. Berlin-based producer M.E.S.H will perform. The set begins at 9…
September 14, 2015. The industrial band Club Moral will perform in suburb of Paris…
August 1–September 6, 2015. In an exchange of spaces, castillo/corrales will open “Theory of Achievement”…
A detailed account of Yale Union’s development from the purchase of the building in January 2008 until now…
August 1, 2015. Jeff Witscher will debut “Cuban Heels,” an electronic composition…
August 2, 2015. Richard Hawkins, a Los Angeles artist, will give a talk as part of…
May 30–July 19, 2015. Willem Oorebeek opens his exhibition with a series of open-ended works…
June 18, 19, 20. Richard Maxwell directs Jim Fletcher and Bob Feldman in the play SHOWCASE…
June 6, 2015. Elysia Crampton, a producer from Virginia, will perform a new set and a give a talk…
May 2, 2015. keyon gaskin will continue the performance he’s been working on for the last two…
April 10, 2015. New York–based guitarist Loren Connors performs solo…
March 13, 14, 15, 2015. Charlemagne Palestine will show videos, play two pianos, and perform in a church…
February 27, 2015. The British electronic musician Mark Fell will perform a new set…
An acquisition of books published by Edition Hansjörg Mayer. The collection includes Roth, Hamilton, and others…
March, 2015. Choreographer and dancer Sarah Michelson will be at Yale Union to rehearse…
November 8–December 21, 2014. An exhibition of Terry Atkinson’s “Greasers” and drawings…
November 21, 2014. Detroit-based electronic musician DJ Stingray will perform solo…
November 15, 2014. James Hoff talks about his publishing house Primary Information…
November 9, 2014. Terry Atkinson and Richard Birkett will talk about Atkinson’s work and exhibition…
September 5–October 19, 2014. An exhibition by Park McArthur ♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♩ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♩…
October 16 and 18, 2014. The poet Rae Armantrout will give a reading and a talk on two evenings…
October 17, 2014. Chicago-based musician Kevin Drumm will perform solo. His work…
September 6, 2014. A solo performance on trombone by Stuart Dempster whose records…
September 5, 2014. Vanessa Place, a criminal appellate attorney and writer, and artist Alex Fleming will perform…
April 26–June 29, 2014. Since the middle of the 1980’s, Yuji Agematsu has sustained a…
Liberation Literacy is a social justice nonprofit led by formerly incarcerated individuals.
End of Summer is a cross-cultural art program based in Portland, Oregon hosted at Yale Union. It is comprised of an annual summer residency for artists from Japan and a lecture series. Outside of this core summer program, symposiums, exhibitions and other related projects are also organized in Japan, and internationally. End of Summer exists […]
Neighbors is a program that provides subsidized studio space to Portland-based artists.
One of the Yale Union laundry building’s most stunning features is the row of arched windows that provide ample light to the space. These windows are significant because their inclusion was an early concession to improve working conditions for laundry workers by attempting to improve air quality and also provide plenty of natural light in […]
June 8, 2014. A sound performance by Graham Lambkin as part of Agematsu…
June 10, 2014. Two works by Michael Snow will be shown at NWFC as part of Agematsu…
May 30 & 31, 2014. Friday night Andrew talks about Kuchar. Saturday afternoon he talks about Agematsu…
April 4, 2014. A commission and performance of a new composition by Spanish musician Evol…
March 22, 2014. Madalyn Merkey presents a solo performance at Reed College’s…
February 28, 2014. Lubomyr Melnyk will give a solo piano performance, his first in Portland…
January 4–February 11, 2014. Documentary films that record how goods are produced and distributed…
Marjorie Perloff opens the sixth and last in a series of Ian Hamilton Finlay exhibitions…
November 15–December 1, 2013. A video installation by New York based artist Liz Magic Laser…
October 5–December 1, 2013. Susan Howe opens her first solo exhibition with new work…
October 2013. TOM TIT TOT. A book of recent rectilinear poems by Susan Howe…
November 8, 2013. Portland-based musician Best Available Technology will perform a set…
November 9, 2013. Critic Marjorie Perloff will give a talk about Ian Hamilton Finlay…
October 25, 2013. Writer & translator Lydia Davis will give a talk about translation at PSU…
October 11, 2013. Chicago footwork DJs RP Boo and his friend DJ Manny perform…
October 6, 2013. Composer & musician David Grubbs and Susan Howe present a new performance…
September 13, 2013. Aaron Dilloway will perform a solo vocal and tape loop set…
August 1, 2013. Kris Cohen will introduce and screen videos by Sadie Benning…
July 19–September 12, 2013. This summer, Lucy Skaer will be at Yale Union, producing new work…
June 8–14, 2013. An installation by Alvin Lucier. June 20, 2013. A performance by Ellen Fullman…
May 2, 2013. Hieroglyphic Being will give a 90-minute performance beginning at 9pm…
April 20, 2013. Michael Stirling will perform three ragas. He starts at 10pm and goes well into the morning…
Your name will be on the will call sheet at the front door. Don’t forget the can of food for Oregon Food Bank. Thank you. We’ll see you at the show.
March 30/31, April 5/6, April 12/13, 2013. The films of Thom Andersen and Morgan Fisher…
April 10, 2013. Japanese musician Keiji Haino makes a rare West Coast appearance…
March 22, 2013. Angie Keefer presents the final of five talks over three months…
February 15 and 16, 2013. Charles Curtis will give two different cello performances…
January 20, 2013. A 35mm screening of Douglas Sirk’s melodramatic Magnificent Obsession…
January 19, 2013. Musician Curtis Roads performs a 6.2 channel audio piece…
October 12–December 15, 2012. Marianne Wex presents her first show in the United States…
December 15, 2012. Patrik Csak will perform Walter Marchetti’s piano piece Natura Morta…
November 18, 2012. Avigail Moss talks about Marianne Wex and painting as a horizon for…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 communications@yaleunion.org (503) 236-7996 MARIANNE WEX October 12–December 15, 2012 September 4, 2012, Portland, OR – Yale Union (YU) is thrilled to announce the exhibition of Marianne Wex’s photographic panels that comprise the book Let’s Take Back Our Space: “Female” and “Male” Body Language as a Result of Patriarchal Structures, […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 3, 2012 communications@yaleunion.org (503) 236-7996 IAN HAMILTON FINLAY YALE UNION INVITES ARTISTS AND SCHOLARS TO CREATE VARIED EXHIBITIONS OF IAN HAMILTON FINLAY’S ARTWORKS, DRAWING FROM THE REED COLLEGE LIBRARY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS ARCHIVE July 2012– Yale Union (YU) is pleased to announce, in collaboration with Reed College’s Special Collections Library, the introduction […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 17, 2012 communications@yaleunion.org (503) 236-7996 The Right Way, a Fischli & Weiss film presentation Join Yale Union on Thursday, August 9, 2012 at 8pm for a screening of The Right Way, a film by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss- a final program to conclude the exhibition STEINBERG, SAUL. THE […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 25, 2012 STEINBERG, SAUL. THE NEW YORKER. NEW YORK, 1945–2000. (HAROLD, WILLIAM, ROBERT, TINA, DAVID, EDS.) June 16–August 10, 2012 April 25, 2012, Portland, OR—Yale Union (YU) is pleased to announce its Summer 2012 exhibition, a telling of Saul Steinberg’s five-decade relationship with The New Yorker magazine. For more than 50 […]
For Immediate Release: March 2012 communications@yaleunion.org (503) 236-7996 ETHIOPIAN SUPERSTAR MAHMOUD AHMED TO PERFORM AT YU YU Contemporary is pleased to announce that Ethiopian musician Mahmoud Ahmed will perform on Saturday, May 5, 2012. Ahmed is one of the pioneers and great innovators of modern Ethiopian music, a true legend who has influenced […]
For Immediate Release: March 2012 communications@yaleunion.org (503) 236-7996 YU welcomes world-renowned sound artist Daniel Menche, who will perform on April 21, 2012. Daniel Menche’s compositions consist of layered soundscapes crafted from typically non-musical sounds that he transforms, with extensive processing and manipulation, into a highly structured sonic whole. Starting with raw field recordings, Menche records […]
For Immediate Release: February 13, 2012 communications@yaleunion.org (503) 236-7996 YU PRESENTS AN UNRESTED IMAGE, BY SHANNON EBNER A talk by the artist about how she negotiates between influence and production Friday, March 2nd at 7pm, YU hosts a talk by Shannon Ebner about the relationship between the ‘unrested’ images that possess her and the ones […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JANUARY 24, 2012 NEAL@YALEUNION.ORG (503) 236-7996 FearNoMusic AND YU PRESENT 100 YEARS OF JOHN CAGE The premier Cage centenary event in the Pacific Northwest to be held FEBRUARY 17 AT YU as Portland joins worldwide celebrations of the iconic avant-garde composer throughout 2012 Ten seminal Cage compositions to be performed by renowned […]
For Immediate Release: July 7, 2011 YU PRESENTS: TOM MARIONI’S THE ACT OF DRINKING BEER WITH FRIENDS IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF ART Tom Marioni returns to Portland for the closing event of YU’s first Preview Project and inaugural exhibition Selections from the PCVA Archive On Saturday, July 30 from 4-7pm, YU will present Tom […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE APRIL 7, 2011 NEAL MORGAN, COMMUNICATIONS NEAL@YALEUNION.ORG (503) 236-7996 YU INTRODUCES THE FIRST IN A SERIES OF PREVIEW PROJECTS SELECTIONS FROM THE PCVA ARCHIVE exhibition, programs to revisit and honor the legacy of the Portland Center for the Visual Arts, consider the history of contemporary art in Portland YU to open […]
November 6, 2012. A 35mm screening of Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman at NW Film Center..
November 4, 2012. The writer Chris Kraus will read from her latest book Summer of Hate…
October 30, 2012. A screening of Helke Sander’s 1978 film The All Around Reduced Personality…
October 25, 2012. Caitlin Murray and Tim Johnson will give a talk on the work of Ian Hamilton Finlay…
October 16, 2012. The first performance on the West Coast by British musician Mark Fell…
September 30, 2012. The critic Charles Bernstein will introduce three late videos by George Kuchar…
People who own the means of production think differently about the nature of production…
June 16–August 10, 2012. For more than fifty years, Saul Steinberg was The New Yorker’s in-house observer and…
August 9, 2012. A screening of The Right Way, a film by Peter Fischli and David Weiss…
July 21, 2012. A visit to Alvar Aalto’s Mt. Angel Abbey Library in St. Benedict, Oregon…
May 7–July 30, 2011. This exhibition considers the wins and losses of the Portland Center for the Visual Arts…
July 3, 2012. Stuart Bailey talks about the precarious relationship between literary medium and romantic value…
June 25, 27, 29, 2012. Three evening performances by artist-in-residence Will Holder…
May 12, 2012. New York based musical trio Black Dice performs without an opening act…
April 21, 2012. Daniel Menche will perform with multiple PA systems for multiple hours…
Minimal as the architecture is, it still governs what we do like a rule in a game…
April 7, 2012. The Birthday Party, a sort of crazed celebration and scholarship on behalf of Barthelme…
March 28, 2012. Oregon Book Award winner Tom Blood performs the advance publisher’s copy of exp…
March 5, 2012. Benjamin Thorel will inaugurate our new season with Les Vacances de Monsieur Castillo…
March 2, 2012. An Unrested Image, a talk by Los Angeles photographer Shannon Ebner…
February 17, 2012. John Cage Centennial. Ten live performances of Cage compositions…
February 11–12, 2012. A marathon reading of The Collected Poems of Barbara Guest…
Though it will grow, the immediate iteration of the library is consciously unassuming…
October 5, 2011. Suzanne Cotter discussed the practical, theoretical, and developmental migraines of…
July 30, 2011. Tom Marioni’s The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form…
June 21, 2011. A solstice trip to Michelle Stuart’s earthwork in the East Columbia gorge…
May 24, 2011. A discussion on archiving by David Senior, Dr. Christina Olsen, and David Abel…
January 16, 2011. A reading of Charles Olson’s Maximus Poems in the kitchen with The Spare Room…
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