The Portland Art Museum in Oregon has opened its first major international exhibition since its expanded campus was unveiled in November 2025, and it is an ambitious one. The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art is described by the museum as the largest presentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art ever shown in North America. It runs until 3 January 2027, and Portland is its only West Coast stop.
A whole collection on the move
All works come from the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. Counting depends on who you ask: the museum lists more than 100 works by more than 130 artists, while local listings speak of 147 works by over 100 artists — the discrepancy partly reflects how many pieces were made collaboratively, a common practice in Indigenous art communities.
The Schnitzer Sculpture Court has been filled with brightly painted hollow logs, large-scale canvases and woven forms suspended from the ceiling. The chronology stretches from the late nineteenth century to today: ochre bark paintings, conceptual “map” paintings from the Central and Western Deserts, experimental fibre works, neon, video installations and photography.
Names to look for
Among the featured artists is the Anmatyerr painter Emily Kam Kngwarray, whose luminous late canvases transformed the international reputation of desert painting. The show takes its title from the senior Yolŋu artist Gulumbu Yunupiŋu, known for her shimmering images of the night sky. Contemporary voices include Brook Andrew, Destiny Deacon and Betty Muffler, whose works address memory, identity, healing and the long shadow of colonial history.
More than a touring blockbuster
What makes the exhibition compelling is its refusal to treat Indigenous art as a single tradition. Visitors move between ancient visual languages and pointed contemporary critique, between Country and city, between ceremony and pop culture. For American audiences, who rarely see this material at such scale, it is a rare chance to understand why Australian Indigenous art is one of the most dynamic fields in global contemporary art.
The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday; admission for adults is $27.50, with free entry on the first Thursday of every month.