Currents Gallery

Currents opened in 2005 as a small artist-run gallery on Third Street, and the founders will tell you they had no idea whether it would work. Twenty years on, it represents more than seventy Oregon artists and is considered one of the state’s premier galleries.

It’s owned collectively by six artist-partners who came to art from other lives — a lawyer, a graphic designer, an educator, an administrator, a drafter, a sales rep — and are all full-time artists now. Seven associates volunteer their time running the gallery alongside them.

That ownership structure changes the experience. Walk in and one of the partners or associates is behind the desk, and there’s a decent chance they made something hanging on the wall. They’ll tell you the story behind a piece, which is the thing that turns a purchase into something you keep.

The space started small and doubled within two years, adding a classroom and a storage room where more work is available to view. The main display runs about 1,000 square feet, dense with watercolors, oils, pastels, mixed media, fiber art, clay and wood and glass and metal sculpture, block prints, jewelry, whimsical clocks, and musical instruments. Prices span a wide range, deliberately.

The feature wall changes monthly, so the gallery looks different every visit. Once or twice a year they run a themed juried show open to all Oregon artists, including an annual Fiber Arts Show each fall.

They also teach. Ongoing classes cover wet-on-wet oil painting, basket weaving on gourds, and more, with recorded Zoom sessions available for people who can’t attend. The gallery coordinates the annual Art Harvest Studio Tour of Yamhill County and runs fundraisers for organizations including the Give a Little Foundation and Mercy Corps.