LCC Press Center

Umico Niwa is about to do something to the installation. It’s already been up for three weeks, but that isn't stopping her. She’s been living above the gallery since then, close enough to hear it breathing, or at least to imagine she can. She may be leaving Portland soon, but that's just enough time.

She heads to the hardware store down the street for egg-yellow spray paint without removing her apron. While I await her return at ILY2, I step on a tomato. The seeds spit onto the hardwood floor atop a splotch of Klein blue spray paint. The scattered tomatoes are part of the work. Niwa’s prank on the viewer, taunting: you’re part of this too.

Written by Nic Porter   Jules Latimer wants me to feel at ease. I can tell right away. They offer a warm smile, a self-deprecating joke, a generous laugh. They’re wearing a plain white T-shirt, and behind them hangs a slightly crooked picture of a woman napping on the steering wheel of a red sports car — Flaming June by Sir Frederic Leighton meets ’80s car catalogue.

Off the jump, Latimer is charming in a way that feels authentic and easy. I later learn “Cool Jules” was hard-won. Their story is one of coming out while being raised in a religious household, of finding belonging in unexpected places, of being one of the only Black, queer, masculine-presenting people in elite acting spaces.

Written by Carrie Hinton, Photo above by PDX Insectarium   A Youth Arts Program in a Dying Mall daelyn allis...