Let's Play: Group Exhibition

Let's Play opens at Elizabeth Leach Gallery in conjunction with Portland Arts Week: Art x Sports, a group exhibition exploring the intersections of athletics and aesthetics. Reflecting on the gallery's 45 years of exhibiting regional, national, and international art, Let's Play brings together works that capture the pathos, angst, and exhilaration embedded in athletic competition and spectatorship. The exhibition spans a broad range of approaches: John Baldessari, Claes Oldenburg, M.K. Guth, and Jonas Wood engage the humor and absurdity latent in sports culture, while Paul Pfeiffer examines its darker psychological terrain. Modou Dieng Yacine + Amadeo Carvalho and Jeremy Okai Davis foreground the dynamism of athletic movement and the weight of sports history, and Hank Willis Thomas and Mark R. Smith work directly with found materials, Thomas repurposing jerseys and Smith incorporating clothing left behind by fans, to interrogate how sports objects carry collective memory and identity. The exhibition features both unique works and limited editions, alongside contributions from Robert Rauschenberg, Susan Rothenberg, Derek Fordjour, Malia Jensen. 

Learn more about Portland Arts Week 
July 9 - 12, 2026 

John Baldessari
Jeremy Okai Davis
Moudou Dieng Yacine and Amadeo Carvalho
Derek Fordjour
M.K. Guth
Malia Jensen

Claes Oldenburg
Paul Pfeiffer
Robert Rauschenberg
Susan Rothenberg
Mark R. Smith
Hank Willis Thomas
Jonas Wood