A Larger Reality: Ursula K. Le Guin

October 31, 2025 - February 8, 2026
Lead Curator: Theo Downes-Le Guin

A Larger Reality: Ursula K. Le Guin offers a biographical and poetical portrait of one of Oregon’s best known artists. Curated by her son, with contributions from many others who knew the author or her work, the exhibition examines important moments and themes in Le Guin’s life and oeuvre. The exhibition encompasses a rich variety of media, immersing guests in the ideas, playfulness and hope that course through Ursula K. Le Guin’s art. 

Le Guin was raised in the language of scientific discourse, what she called the “father tongue.” She contrasted this to “the mother tongue,” or language as relationship and conversation. A Larger Reality honors both sides of this complex artist, intermingling contemplative and open-ended experiences with objects and text. Moving through the exhibition in whatever order they choose, guests encounter texts, images, audio, video, interactive experiences, ephemera and words, places to lean back and unwind, and places to lean in and engage. Whether super-fans or Le Guin novices, guests can zoom in and out to the levels of engagement that suit them.

During the three month exhibition run, A Larger Reality will be punctuated by programming that brings in time-based elements of Le Guin’s art that can’t be easily represented in an exhibition space: music, activism, and community engagement. An accompanying book, published by Winter Texts (Port Townsend) offers a series of texts (some Le Guin’s, some by other voices) in several thematic categories such as love, life of mind, culture, freedom, self and other.

This exhibition is supported by Oregon Cultural Trust, Autzen Foundation, The Kinsman Foundation, and The Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation.

Oregon Contemporary is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the James F. & Marion L. Miller Foundation, Oregon Community Foundation, the City of Portland's Office of Arts & Culture, and the Oregon Arts Commission, a state agency funded by the State of Oregon and the National Endowment for the Arts. Other businesses and individuals provide additional support.