Poster design by Rodeo Studio at Portland State University
The Hold: Land & Water Stewards of Pacific Northwest Turtle Island: Intisar Abioto with Ms. De Lara-Vargas' Kindergarten Class
June 6, 2024 - November 21, 2024
At KSMoCA, Intisar Abioto exhibited selections from The Hold: Land & Water Stewards of Pacific Northwest Turtle Island. The series focuses on BIPOC stewards of the land across various landscapes—family farms, gardens, and other rural domains. During her KSMoCA residency, Abioto met with one of Dr. MLK Jr. School’s stewards, the incomparable Ms. Ruby who was the Nutrition Services Lead. For over fifteen years, Ms. Ruby served tasty and nutritious meals to students, emphasizing the importance of fresh fruits and vegetables until she retired from Portland Public Schools at the end of the 2023–2024 school year. Over cups of herbal tea in the school cafetorium, they discussed Ms. Ruby’s childhood experiences with school, food insecurity, making food for her siblings, her different careers before becoming “everybody’s grandmother” at Dr. MLK Jr. School, and passion for sharing the healing power of plants and gardening with students. As part of the residency, Abioto worked with Ms. Ruby to create her portrait which was added to the series and included in the KSMoCA exhibit.
Intisar Abioto is an artist and explorer working across photography, dance, and writing. Storytelling, dreams, history, memory, and geography are recurring themes that permeate every aspect of her practice. Her works showcase the rich, diverse narratives of peoples of African descent through projects that include The People Could Fly Project, The Black Portlanders, and The Black. She was also the curator of the monumental exhibition Black Artists of Oregon at the Portland Museum of Art. Her photography series, The Hold: Land & Water Stewards of Pacific Northwest Turtle Island, highlights BIPOC stewards of the land across various landscapes—family farms, gardens, and other rural domains.
Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, Abioto is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in Portland, Oregon. She has performed and/or exhibited at Ori Gallery, Portland Art Museum, Duplex Gallery, Photographic Center Northwest, African American Museum in Philadelphia, Poetry Press Week, Design Week Portland, Spelman College, Powell’s City of Books, University of Oregon White Box Gallery, Portland State University, Reed College, and Zilkha Gallery, among others. With the five women artists in her family, she is the co-founder of Studio Abioto, a multivalent creative arts studio.
Workshops with Intisar Abioto
Two workshops were part of Abioto’s residency. Ms. Ruby led the first workshop with Ms. De Lara-Vargas’ kindergarten class. Students had the opportunity to taste, touch, smell, and learn more about her favorite herbs, many of which were part of the recipes she developed and the students recognized from their favorite school meals, such as potatoes topped with basil. In the second workshop, the students depicted their favorite plants from the first workshop on shirts using markers and rubber stamps of the herbs they learned about. They wore the finished shirts to lunch the same day, creating a “Kinder GARDEN Parade” through Ms. Ruby’s lunch line. Also, the students collaborated on a shirt for Ms. Ruby which was presented to her at the end of the workshop. Documentation of the workshops was exhibited alongside selections from Abioto’s series of portraits and the wall labels included commentary by the students about what they saw in the images. The wall labels for Abioto’s work included similar commentary.
Special thanks to Sprig & Sprout who donated the plants and Stamp Connection who generously donated the rubber stamps and ink for our workshops.
Artist Talk with Intisar Abioto and Exhibition Opening
Over 50 students from different grades gathered in the school library for Abioto’s artist talk. She described her experiences making portraits of land stewards from communities throughout the state, including Ms. Ruby who she photographed on the school grounds. Every attendee received a copy of a small magazine about Abioto that was created by Portland State University students. After the talk, Ms. Vance paired eight kindergarteners with their siblings in her fifth grade class to give each other tours of the exhibit, followed by the remaining attendees. Families, classmates, school staff, and members of the public were all invited to attend and celebrate. The exhibition remained on view over the summer and during the fall term of the next school year.