Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation

“Storywork: The Prints of Marie Watt from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation” is on view now at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California.    Featuring over 60 prints, sculptures, and textiles the exhibition spans Marie Watt's artistic journey from 1996 to the present. Known for her exploration of Native American traditions, history, and contemporary issues, Watt's work intertwines themes of storytelling, social justice, and ecological stewardship. The exhibition showcases her early collaborations and monumental artworks alongside prints, highlighting her interdisciplinary approach that blends cultural narratives, mythology, and minimalist aesthetics. Watt, a member of the Seneca Nation, draws inspiration from her heritage and upbringing, reflecting on the complex histories of colonization and Indigenous identity. “Marie Watt is a storyteller, a weaver of dreams, a visual poet of wrap and weft. Her artistic practice – traversing sculpture, textile, installation, and printmaking – is knit together by recurring themes, symbols, forms, and materials. The granddaughter of Wyoming ranchers and an enrolled member in the Turtle Clan of Seneca Nation (Haudenosaunee), Watt has described herself as ‘half cowboy and half Indian,’ a conscious of the entangled histories of colonizer and colonized. Braids, circles, loops, and Mobius strips regularly appear in her work, signs of the complex plaiting of personal and cultural identify, memory and myth, past and present.” -- excerpt from “Storywork: The Prints of Marie Watt”, written by John P. Murphy   See the exhibition for yourself at the Crocker Museum in Sacramento, California now through October 20, 2024. 🖼 Marie Watt  Transit, edition 7/25 2004 Lithograph and chine colle From the Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation Photography Credit: Aaron Wessling Photography   🖼 Blanket Stories: Continuum (Book I), edition 13/16 2007 Lithograph with chine colle From the Collection of the Jordan D. Schnitzer Photography Credit: Aaron Wessling Photography

Behind the Scenes of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation! We sat down for a Q&A with Art Preparator Chris Harmon to talk about his job and his path to working with the collection. How did you get into art preparation and framing?  I’ve been with Schnitzer Properties for six years, and my path into art--specifically print making--started in college. I went to school for print making, and the collection here is heavily print-focused, so that was a draw for me.  While I was in college at Portland State University, I worked as a picture framer in town, so that’s where I gained the experience. It was a retail picture frame outfit, and it was very high-volume, so I got a lot of experience there.    Can you tell me a little bit about what a regular workday looks like for you?  Every day is different, which is great. I’m handling art physically; my hands are on art every day. A lot of it is handling works on paper, and a lot of my day is collaborating with my coworkers. It’s a lot of problem solving as far as receiving artwork that has come in that Jordan Schnitzer has purchased recently as new acquisitions, uncrating and often unframing. What does art and working with art mean to you?  I try to remind myself that I am a caretaker for cultural objects. That’s what I’m here doing. Occasionally you realize that you’re not just viewing the work as a viewer when you’re working with it, you’re more often caring for it. But within that, especially with having an art background, it’s incredibly inspiring to handle the work and see how it’s made. It seeps in and inspires the artwork that I make as well. It’s an incredible education to be able to work around the post-war artists and the contemporary work that we get in—being exposed to new materials and new techniques.  Artists are communicating to the public and to the viewers by making these objects, and I get to witness that conversation firsthand. I get to see what they’re saying to other artists, what they’re wanting to tell the world, and I’m sort of invited as a fly on the wall to that conversation, so that’s pretty cool. 

Celebrate this 4th of July with a reflective journey through American art!  "When Art is a Mirror" is on view now at Christie's Los Angeles. The non-selling exhibition was curated in partnership with Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation. From iconic Pop art to poignant expressions of social activism, this exhibition dives deep into the American experience. Explore works by Andy Warhol, Hank Willis Thomas, Derrick Adams, Robert Longo, and more, each piece a mirror reflecting our society's past and present. Whether you're drawn to 1960s Pop culture or moved by contemporary themes of social justice and environmental activism, there's something here to spark thought and conversation. "When Art is a Mirror" is open now and runs thorugh August 9th, Monday through Friday, 10am to 5pm. Admission is free—come reflect with us this summer!

"Mel Bochner: Words Mean Everything" is making headlines! Check out this wonderful feature from Oregon ArtsWatch spotlighting the newest exhibition at the Schnitzer Collection. This insightful piece delves into the exhibition "Mel Bochner: Words Mean Everything," now on view at The Schnitzer Collection at NW Yeon in Portland, Oregon. Writer Angela Allen sits down with our founder, Jordan Schnitzer, to discuss this new show, the exhibition space's unique atmosphere, and Jordan's profound vision for his cherished art collection. Schnitzer takes immense pride in sharing his art freely with museums, prioritizing smaller institutions across 120 museums, including his three university museums at the University of Oregon, Washington State, and PSU. As written in the article, "The Schnitzer Collection—its fancy name—started out as Jordan Schnitzer’s warehouse, which it still is, but turned into a public space in 2023." This transformation followed the success of Portland Art Biennial Converge 45, where "We Are the Revolution" made a significant impact, prompting Jordan to open our 4,000-square-foot permanent space to the public. Thank you to Angela Allen and Oregon ArtsWatch for capturing the essence of our mission. Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/gSCMaCEj #Art #OregonArt #OregonArtsWatch #Portland #PorlandArt #ArtNews #Bochner #MelBochner #SchnitzerCollection #MelBochner #ArtInspires #CommunityArt #JordanSchnitzer #ArtForAl

"LOVERULES - From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation" was just featured in CNN Style! The exhibition is open now through August 4, 2024 at the Henry in Seattle, Washington. "Over the last 20 plus years, Thomas has made a name for himself responding to culturally ingrained narratives of race, gender, class and their intersections in the United States through various mediums — from photo to fabric. Whether he’s mirroring a three-point stanced football player with an enslaved person picking cotton in “The Cotton Bowl,” or mimicking a maze made out of prison uniforms and American flag fabric in “Justice,” Thomas’ work successfully identifies patterns of oppression and asks us to consider how we participate in these systems." -Abigail Glasgow, CNN Style #HankWillisThomas #Art #CNNStyle #Seattle #JordanSchnitzer #Unbranded #contemporaryart #henryart

ICYMI: "Hank Willis Thomas: LOVERULES - From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation" was featured in Forbes, shining a spotlight on the remarkable friendship between renowned artist Hank Willis Thomas and our founder, collector Jordan Schnitzer. This exhibition features 90 works covering 20 years (2002-22) of Thomas’s work and is drawn from the collection of the Jordan D. Schnitzer Family Foundation. The exhibition features some of the artist’s most iconic and well-known artworks across a range of media, investigating critical awareness, civic engagement, collaboration, and empathy. Read an excerpt for the article: Thomas and Schnitzer’s friendship evidences itself in “Hank Willis Thomas: LOVERULES,” at Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington in Seattle through August 4, 2024. The exhibition represents one of the largest solo presentations of Thomas’ work to date, drawn entirely from the collections of Jordan Schnitzer and his Family Foundation. Encompassing photography, print, mixed-media, sculpture, and neon–including LOVE RULES–”LOVERULES” covers over 20 years of work and touches on the artist’s most significant practices and themes: the impact of corporate branding, the construction of gender and race, and the struggle for liberty and equality. “When I see his work, the first thought is, ‘wow!, how did he come up with those ideas,’” Schnitzer said. “You don't need to know anything about an artist to appreciate their work, but when you get to know more about what they were influenced by and how they came about doing what they're doing, it adds a greater dimension to the appreciation.” Read all about it in the article penned by Chadd Scott, as he delves into the story behind this unique artistic collaboration. https://lnkd.in/ghpvT3jV #ConversationsExhibition #ArtistsAndCollectors #FriendshipInArt #JordanSchnitzerFamilyFoundation #ForbesFeature

Portland State University announced today that Portland real estate developer and philanthropist Jordan Schnitzer has made a $10 million gift commitment to support arts education and access at PSU while investing in downtown Portland. The funds will provide capital support for a new PSU building dedicated to art, art history and design, as well as funding for the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU, a free campus art museum launched in 2019 with support from Jordan Schnitzer. The gift will also help enhance the PSU campus as a downtown arts destination. In recognition of the Schnitzer family’s longstanding support, PSU will name its school of art and design the Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gkjwfuJn Portland State University College of the Arts Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation Schnitzer Properties