23 Sandy

An excellent gallery which specializes in Book Arts. The owner is very friendly and knowledgable, the works are top of the line and the shows are great! Definitely worth repeated visits.

Portland is a photography town and a book town. 23 Sandy combines those ideas.
23 Sandy is primarily a photography and art gallery. They specialize in collage work and contemporary-​romantic styles, often mixed media. It’s not my interest, but they do it well. I’ve always found the owner helpful when I’ve visited and supportive of the artists. Their website shows a history of shows so you can see the work they show.
They are also one of Portland’s only artist book sellers. The gallery hosts national and international book arts shows every year. These are one of a kind or small edition, often hand made books, with more visual elements than text content. Artist books have their own collector community.
Worth a visit to see how far the idea of book can be stretched and a good place to shop if you are looking for these unusual, limited edition items.

I wanted to update this review by posting the NASTY email, just to show what kind of Scam artists are running this hole.
She even spelled my name wrong after much correspondance.
«Carol,
You were allowed to apply late to the show as a favor. We did that only because we had not completed the jurying process by that time. You were afforded the same exact consideration as every other applicant. I’m sorry, but your work was just not a good fit with all of the other work in the show. We always strive to curate a show of cohesive and consistently high-​quality work. Your work was more conceptual than the rest of the show. Good college level work, but not appropriate for our audience.
Lesson learned on our end. Never do a favor for an artist.
Your payment has been refunded even though entry instructions say that the show in nonrefundable.
Laura»

A nice space in an unexpected neighborhood. When I visited it was featuring the photography of Bea Nettles. What was interesting about the show was that the photographs were silver gelatin prints printed from digital negatives. That all sounds impressive until you see the prints up close. They have a fine moiré pattern similar to what you would find in a magazine (but not as bad as a newspaper) reproduction. They had none of the depth or warmth of a silver gelatin print. The prices seemed to be quite high considering the quality of the prints (even if you do Google the artist’s name and see her CV.)