June News from Portland in Color
Featuring Orlando Almanza and requesting your community nominations
Happy Summer Solstice, friends. This is PIC Founder, Celeste, writing this month’s newsletter and the newsletters to come. We hope the season greets you with fresh berries, summer bike rides, and picnics with your best buds.
We’d like to dedicate this month’s newsletter to celebrating Orlando Almanza’s work (more very soon), but also to reintroduce an old PIC tradition of nominating an artist or submitting your own work to be featured. We’re slowly waking from a Features hibernation, but in the meantime would love to dedicate future newsletters to spotlighting members of the community.
We know that too often, it feels like we need to wait for someone to recognize us or to see value in our work. We hope that PIC can be a place that you can share work you’re excited about, find community, and learn from one another. If you are or know an Oregon-based BIPOC artist that you’d like to see featured in an upcoming newsletter, please nominate them (or yourself!) here.
Spotlight On: Orlando Almanza
For many of us who call Portland and Oregon home, our journeys here are interwoven into the larger tapestry of migration that shapes us as people. Making a home in a new place takes courage and hope for a better future—whether that migration is voluntary or involuntary. With so many folks in our community who have experienced migration either first hand or within their family history, we’d like to celebrate the artists whose own experiences shape their work and how they see the world.
This month we’re excited to feature Orlando Almanza (he/him), who not only honors community and ancestral legacies, but invites us into alternate universes where the natural and spiritual come together to tell us stories.
Orlando Almanza (b. 1989) is a Cuban painter, draftsman and printmaker who lives and works in Portland, OR and Havana, Cuba. His work pulls us into his dreamworld of memory, myth and loss through figurative works focused on the people, places and stories that shaped him. His stories take place in the natural world where figures are intertwined with water, plants, animals and light. The omnipresent river of Almanza’s childhood connects his subjects to their ancestors, to the spiritual world, and to those who are yet to come. Each painting invites us in, to search for meaning and truth. Almanza received his B.A. in printmaking from the Institute of Superior Arts in Havana, Cuba.
In 2024, Almanza presented a solo exhibition titled “Gente de Rio” (River Folk) at Froelick Gallery in Portland, OR, which explored themes of solidarity, rest and community. The luminous group portraits captured Almanza’s deep dedication and pride for the resilience and beauty that can be found in everyday life. This exhibition is currently on show at Portland Center Stage, through August 2025.
We asked Orlando, “How does immigration relate to or inform your work?” to which he answered:
“Dear little brother,
Much time has passed since our farewell on the dirt road of the neighborhood alley.
Remember when I taught you how to run like the horses, coo like the owls, to swim like the fish, through the river and to the sea, all in one breath.
Remember when I taught you to fly as high as the carrier pigeons, to arrive where the sea and horizon meet, and still know your way back home.
Remember what our ancestors taught us, that time is not linear, we can see eachother anytime.
When you want to see me, light a candle in the river, say the magic words and I will be there with you.
Take care my little one,
The Shapeshifter
I was born in a small town in the countryside of Eastern Cuba during a period of economic and political crisis. In my childhood, our most powerful resource was community. It was how we endured hardships and overcame obstacles. Our community was built on shared stories, ancestral knowledge of the land, river and animals, and the knowledge of the spirits and shapeshifters that intertwined with everyday life.
My artistic practice is a dedication to my own community, stories and ancestral knowledge.
My work honors my family and people from my home, creating a visual memory that honors their beauty and power. As an immigrant, my work has expanded, to intertwine with the communities, people, and places who have embraced me along my journey.
My life's work is to create symbols that uplift and celebrate historically marginalized communities, creating visual universes that reflect my values of community, solidarity and dignity. I hope to create this visual memory for those to come and to inspire the next generation to be proud of their roots, their heritage and their ancestral stories.”
Thank you to Orlando for sharing your work and reminding us how interwoven our journeys are to our own practices and how we can create the worlds we want to live in. Orlando’s recent honors include a documentary feature of his work on OPB Oregon Art Beat as well as a Volunteer award for his volunteer work as an art instructor at Friendly House NW. In Portland, Orlando is represented by Froelick Gallery, who can be contacted for available work and upcoming events.
See more of Orlando’s work at https://www.orlandoalmanza.com/ and on Instagram.
Upcoming Events and Opportunities
Online auction open until Wednesday, June 25th at 9:00 PM in support of 5th annual Native Elders Picnic
Beyond, Beyond, a journey through expansion is Cosmos Dark’s last improv music residency show with the Creative Music Guild on Wednesday, June 25, 2025 from 8-11pm, $15
Art Girl Rising’s Free Art Planning Q3 Session - free for women and non-binary artists. Wednesday, June 25, 2025 at noon EST.
Free Weekly Food Boxes for BIPOC Folks every Tuesday, June 3rd - October 27th, 2025.
Artist Self Promotion Panel - Join local artists Max LaZebnik, Nia Musiba, and Rachel Mulder for a panel discussion and presentation about artist self-promotion online and beyond. June 27, 2025 from 1-3pm. $30
PIC Co-founder Emilly is hosting Drawing the Draft a hybrid pop-up installation and interactive workshop exploring the behind-the-scenes making of her memoir-in-progress, OUTLINES. Sunday, June 29, 2025 at 6pm. Free
PLAYA 2026 Art/Sci Awarded Residency is accepting applications until June 30, 2025.
QUEER|ART|MENTORSHIP supports a year-long exchange between emerging and established artists in four different creative fields: Film, Literature, Performance, and Visual Art. Begins January 2026, applications due July 31, 2025.
Artist Self Promotion Panel - Join local artists Max LaZebnik, Nia Musiba, and Rachel Mulder for a panel discussion and presentation about artist self-promotion online and beyond. June 27, 2025 from 1-3pm. $30
Free Weekly Food Boxes for BIPOC Folks every Tuesday, June 3rd - October 27th, 2025.
Black Rose Wellness is hosting Sacred Love, a retreat for Black women and femmes on July 19. 2025 12-4pm.
The Miller Foundation’s 2025 Spark Award for Oregon Artists is now open, offering $20,000 grants to 20 midcareer media and literary artists creating original work. This round focuses on supporting individual artists at a pivotal point in their creative journey. The funding is designed to be catalytic, helping artists overcome barriers and sustain or advance their practice. Applicants must submit samples from three distinct bodies of work within their primary discipline. Applications are due July 2, 2025.
Thanks for joining us this month and being in community with us. As always, if you have an event or opportunity you would like us to include in the newsletter, please email us at portlandincolor@gmail.com
In solidarity and community,
Celeste and the PIC Team