The Downstairs Gallery showcases works from BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and disabled artists
When Daren Todd opened The Downstairs Gallery in August, he was surviving, accepting opportunities after the coronavirus pandemic took both his bartending gig and his promising music career. Todd felt called to pursue his visual art practice with full force, and the chance to formalize an art gallery from auxiliary space at the downtown Portland studio Yoga on Yamhill seemed promising, if nerve-wracking.
“I didn’t have a choice but to take a chance,” Todd, who is an out transgender curator, told Street Roots.
The Downstairs Gallery is a collaborative effort between Todd and Yoga on Yamhill’s co-owner, Jen Johnson. Johnson felt a need to repurpose the yoga studio’s extra 1,500 square foot space amid the pandemic. She knew the space’s next iteration would have to safely unite people, keeping with Yoga on Yamhill’s community-minded ethos, but she couldn’t do it on her own.
“He’s super creative. He’s great to work with,” Johnson said of Todd. “He’s younger than me, so it’s really cool to see someone younger diving into this and coming up with ideas. We’re both kind of brainstorming on it, and he knows a lot more about the art world than me, which is fun because I’ve been immersed in yoga for the past 10 years. It’s been cool to see this from his perspective and see what he’s chosen.”
Johnson initially commissioned Todd to paint a colorful mural with hopeful text on the studio’s temporary plywood window covers. He’d already completed large, socially conscious murals in North Portland. The two were connected by local artists who realized each person’s service-oriented goals and personalities could be highly compatible. Johnson provides space and helps cover operational costs, while Todd works on the gallery’s functional needs.
“(Curation) was never in my immediate goal list,” Todd said. “I didn’t think that opportunity would ever be available to me, or I thought I would have to establish as an artist a lot more, just a myriad of things that you tell yourself.”
Todd is originally from Lompoc, Calif., and moved to Portland in 2017. He quickly embedded himself in the local music scene. Todd’s debut album, 2018’s RE:NA, is a thoughtful, introspective mix of rapping, singing, self-crafted beats and mellow guitar arrangements, evoking the softer sides of Childish Gambino, Lupe Fiasco and Anderson .Paak. Todd assembled a live band last winter, inspired by punk and jazz, but quarantine put their plans on hold indefinitely. He regularly livestreamed beat crafting sessions to boost his fans’ morale until protests against racism and police brutality began last May.
“It’s not that I lost the drive for music, just that something’s pulling me in a different direction, and I wasn’t able to ignore it, and I wasn’t able to facilitate doing both (music and art), in my mind,” he said. “I got to this point where I was like, ‘I think I have another voice I need to figure out how to use.’ It was one of those extreme changes where the stream just starts going in different directions.”
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Todd took to visual art before music, and as a child, he would fill his notebook papers’ margins — or really, any other surface he could find — with abstract lines and colors inspired by comic books. “If you ask my mom, she will say I was drawing on the walls since I was a kid,” he said. “She will literally say, ‘You always used to mess up your walls!’ She had this fear when I got my first apartment that I wouldn’t get my deposit back for painting on the walls, and she was right. She was 100% correct.”
Todd first pursued art professionally in December 2019, exhibiting at coffee shops before they were ordered closed. He found fulfillment in switching focuses from music to visual art.
“Art is just a perfect fit,” he said. “Music is a good fit too, but it’s really difficult to make a living doing just music … and with corona, now I think it’s just close to impossible to be a professional musician full time. Art just filled that gap in a way that I’m super thankful.”
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Todd’s pure perspective of art lets him pursue his curatorial vision free of academic bias or commercial pressure. Under Todd’s direction, The Downstairs Gallery prioritizes the work and perspectives of artists from historically underserved populations, including Black, Indigenous and people of color and members of the disabled and LGBTQ+ communities.
As with his own art practice, Todd’s favorite pieces strike a balance between aesthetic pleasure and intellectual punctum. With two socially distant exhibitions already staged and plans underway for quarterly digital shows until shelter-in-place orders are lifted, The Downstairs Gallery is proving itself as a crucial space in Portland’s contemporary art ecosystem.
The Downstairs Gallery’s first exhibition, “And Then We Do,” used Todd’s artwork to christen the space and run a test of what socially distant gallery receptions could look like. Live musicians played outside as guests took in Todd’s mural, a text-based piece with candy-colored abstract shapes. Small groups were allowed inside to view Todd’s art: a collection of plywood paintings, graphic design prints and a quilted backdrop from a 2019 concert. Intuitive, organic line work suggesting limbs, foliage, splashing liquid and celestial symbology recur in Todd’s artistic practice, as do expertly selected color palettes. One painting shows a nightly array of purples and blues, while another shows a Southwestern take on the primary colors, aiding in the fight against seasonal depression.
The Downstairs Gallery’s second exhibition favored paintings, illustrations and graphic design-based art. “Black Lives Matter: An Online Poster Show” gave space to emerging Portland-area artists, many of whom made their art world debut at The Downstairs Gallery. Both exhibitions saw strong sales, encouraging Todd to power through self-doubt and step up as a creative leader.
The holiday surge of COVID-19 cases, however, has discouraged him from planning further in-person receptions.
“It just became irresponsible to try to facilitate that in-person aspect of (the gallery), but I foresee that it will come back around, and we’ll be able to safely and slowly get artwork in there,” he said.
This year, Todd will expand his artistic and curatorial practices beyond last year’s astronomical growth. The Neighborhood Arts Collective is a Seattle-based network of multidisciplinary artists who create work based around someone in a member’s residential neighborhood. NAC will relocate to Portland this year and has already tapped Todd to take on an expanded leadership role as they complete the migration. Todd also opened his own online art and apparel store , where patrons can remotely purchase original works, upcycled garments and self-designed face masks.
“Every single day, some other amazing stuff comes along,” he said. “One job has led to another; one opportunity has led to another. … I’m still shocked that I’m able to make a living off of just creative work.”
Between painting murals and starting up The Downstairs Gallery, Todd marched in last summer’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations. He performed an original song for protesters in June, also speaking about his intersectional experiences as a Black trans artist with low income.
“I was just really struck by the level of emotion you would feel as you’re marching,” he said. “Most of the marches, I was just in tears — happy tears, sad tears, angry tears, passionate tears, but tears — and I couldn’t ignore those feelings.”
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Todd sees many themes from last summer’s protests — as well as the aftermath of the Trump administration — carrying over into 2021’s artistic movements, trends and crucial moments.
“I’m kind of anticipating a lot of art that’s just a sigh of relief,” Todd said. “There’s going to be a lot of art from the next month or two that are just like ‘Ugh! I can maybe breathe for a second!’ But then in the same vein, I guarantee you that there are a lot of people that are going to go: ‘This is no time to rest, this is no time to be complacent, we’ve only barely begun to push things back towards the direction we need to go in.’
“I’m expecting a lot of intensity. I’m expecting change, a lot of change. I’m just really interested to see what becomes important as we move through these times as a country,” Todd said. “I know for me, I just miss togetherness. I miss the ability to call my friends and have everyone come over. I feel like there’s going to be a lot of art that will be reflective of how we’ve had to fortify ourselves in these times and we’ve had to make do. I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of art that focuses on Zoom calls, and not being able to leave the house.
“I just want to try to offer a voice and a platform for people that are sandwiched in this middle zone, where we don’t have jobs and we also don’t have any government support. I think there’s going to be a lot of art and anger at this random $600 check that’s not going to help anyone.
“I’m here for it, I’m here for it all. It’s hard to forecast what’s going to happen in this coming year, but if I can be a part of supporting artists that are just being honest and brave in their expressions of what’s happening on a middle- and lower-class level, that’s where I want to be at.”
Correction: This article previously stated that Daren Todd was the only out transgender curator in Portland, which is incorrect. There are now, and have been, other out transgender curators. Street Roots regrets the error.
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