Back in 2016, the late artist Matt Jay started a residency program in Portland that bridged a gap between East and West. Entitled End of Summer, each iteration included six artists from Japan who would live and work within the bustling Pacific Northwestern city.
The initiative served as a springboard for each artist to explore their creative sensibilities, while gaining a mutual understanding of their peers’ respective practices and the Portland area, gaining access to showcase work at local galleries and institutions. “End of Summer is in many ways a continued evolution of the basic impulse to share this place with others, and have an experience together in a fixed amount time,” said Jay in a statement.
Jay tragically and unexpectedly passed away on November 22, 2022, but his vision for a more diverse and equitable future for the arts persists on through End of Summer and the work done in collaboration with Portland’s Japan Institute. “I care as much about who an artist is as an individual in the world as I do the result of their work,” Jay previously said.
The latest iteration of End of Summer ends today and showcases work on view by noteworthy creative visionaries, including Tom Sachs, Sho Shibuya, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Neville Brody and Mic Crenshaw, whom donated art to Jay to be shown. Whilst the program ends for its 2024 campaign, Jay’s visionary mission lives on through a new foundation that is being formed in his honor, which the public is being encouraged to donate and participate here.
Bullseye Gallery
300 NW 13th Ave.
Portland, Oregon
