October 31, 2025 - February 8, 2026

Lead Curator: Theo Downes-Le Guin

Photos by Mario Gallucci

A Larger Reality: Ursula K. Le Guin offers a biographical and poetical portrait of one of Oregon’s best known artists. Examining 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. The exhibition is curated by Theo Downes-Le Guin, the author’s son, with contributions from many others who knew the author or her work.

A Larger Reality honors many facets of this complex artist, intermingling contemplative and open-ended experiences with texts, images, audio, video, interactive experiences, and ephemera, places to lean back and unwind, and places to lean in and engage. The exhibition offers different levels of engagement for fans and Le Guin novices alike, and includes murals by Ursula Barton, installations by Day Gay, Josh Michaels and Jeremy Rotsztain, visual art by Julia Goodman, Brittany Nelson, Tuesday Smillie, and video by Arwen Curry.

During the three month exhibition run, A Larger Reality will be punctuated by programming that brings in other elements of Le Guin’s art including music, activism, and community engagement. An accompanying book, published by Winter Texts (Port Townsend) offers a series of texts by Le Guin and others.

The exhibition The Word for World: The Maps of Ursula K. Le Guin, with curation led by Sarah Shin and Harriet Jennings and design by Standard Deviation, runs concurrently from October 10th through December 6th, 2025 at the Architectural Association in London. It is accompanied by the book The World for World: The Maps of Ursula K. Le Guin published by Spiral House (a new imprint of Silver Press) and AA Publications and edited by So Mayer and Sarah Shin.

A Larger Reality: Ursula K. Le Guin is supported by Oregon Cultural Trust, Autzen Foundation, The Kinsman Foundation, and The Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation. Sarah Miller Meigs as well as other anonymous individuals supported this exhibition.

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. 

Additional Programming:

Saturday, December 6th
Event: First Saturday, Talk with Michelle Ruiz Keil & Ashley Stull Meyers and Screening of CROSSLUCID’s Vaster than Empires
Time: 5:00-8:00pm, 6:00pm start of event
Location: Oregon Contemporary
Description: CROSSLUCID is an artist collective (est. 2018) that engages in highly collaborative cross-disciplinary projects in co-evolution with technology. CROSSLUCID’s bespoke, generative AI film inspired by Ursula Le Guin’s Vaster than Empires and More Slow is the genesis for this event. After the screening of Vaster Than Empires (2024), writer Michelle Ruiz Keil, curator and writer Ashley Stull Meyers will lead a discussion and Q&A about artist collaboration with generative AI.

Sunday, January 25th, 2026
Event: Speculative Mapmaking Workshop with Sara Hensel
Time: 1:00-4:00pm
Location: Oregon Contemporary
Description: Join artist Sara Hensel for a mapmaking workshop inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin's maps of alternate worlds as well as contextual material exhibited in A Larger Reality. We will design and sculpt a 7"x7" topographical map of our own fantasy world. This offering will balance discussion with practical sculpting time, asking us to consider what a map can/ must/ could/ should do, how a map's design might reflect the attitudes and values of its cultural context, and how we might translate those ideas to a 3D sculpture that represents a landscape. Get your tickets here.

Saturday, February 7th, 2026
Event: Todd Barton performance of Music and Poetry of the Kesh by Ursula K. Le Guin & Todd Barton with a screening of Kesh, a short film by Rankin Renwick
Time: 5:00-8:00pm, 6:00pm start of event
Location: Oregon Contemporary
Description: An evening delving into the creative collaboration of the Music & Poetry of the Kesh with Ursula K. Le Guin. Todd Barton will perform some songs and pieces using the original environmental field recordings done in the Kroeber/Le Guin homestead in the Napa valley in the early 1980’s. Barton will be singing as well as performing on the Japanese shakuhachi and the Buchla Music Easel with stories about the creation of the songs. There will also be a group sing of the Kesh Long Singing followed by the screening of Renwick’s short film Kesh.

Past Programs:

November 1st, 2025
Event: A Larger Reality Salon
Time: 4:00-5:00pm
Location: Oregon Contemporary
Description: This salon will include remarks by Theo Downes- Le Guin, a special reading by Daniel H. Wilson, and attendees will also receive a copy of the accompanying book, published by Winter Texts (Port Townsend) including a series of texts by Le Guin and others. Enjoy drinks and bites as you explore this remarkable exhibition at Oregon Contemporary.

November 1st, 2025
Event: First Saturday Opening Reception
Time: 5:00-8:00pm
Location: Oregon Contemporary
Description: Join us in celebrating the opening of A Larger Reality: Ursula K. Le Guin, a biographical and poetical portrait of one of Oregon’s best known artists. Examining 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. The exhibition is curated by Theo Downes-Le Guin, the author’s son, with contributions from many others who knew the author or her work.

November 2nd, 2025
Event: Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin with Dir. Arwen Curry
Time: 7:00pm
Location: PAM CUT Tomorrow Theater
Description: Join us for an evening celebrating one of the most influential voices in science fiction and fantasy. Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin offers a rare, intimate journey into the life and imagination of the legendary Portland-based author, whose groundbreaking works, including The Left Hand of Darkness and the Earthsea series, forever reshaped the genres she loved. After the screening, stay for a conversation between director Arwen Curry and Katherine Murphy Lewis of From the Ground UP.

November 7th, 2025
Event: A Larger Reality: Ursula K. Le Guin exhibition with introduction by Theo Downes-Le Guin
Time: 4:00-5:00pm
Location: Oregon Contemporary
Description: Come enjoy happy hour with a special viewing of A Larger Reality during Portland Book Festival’s Cover to Cover weekend. Curator Theo Downes-Le Guin and director Blake Shell will share some insights into the exhibit.