Final weeks – Exhibit Closing October 15

Black Domain, a photographic exhibit by Portland-based artist Intisar Abioto, explores places of home, worship, creativity, and healing through environmental portraits of Black Portlanders and Oregonians. Focusing on sites of architectural, cultural, and historical relevance to Black communities, Abioto’s photographs capture the spirit of Black domain as sanctum, rejuvenation, and liberation experienced by generations of Black people in Portland and in Oregon.

The exhibit is a visual complement to the Bosco-Milligan Foundation/Architectural Heritage Center’s research, documentation, and advocacy about places of Portland’s Black history as well as the many community histories about Black place. In this project, Abioto documents, through her eyes, the homes, small businesses, community centers, and other sites whose deep cultural meaning illuminates their architectural significance. 

Organized by the Architectural Heritage Center, Black Domain is the largest solo exhibit to date of the work of Abioto (b. Memphis, 1986), a multidisciplinary artist who works across photography, dance, research, and writing. Recently featured in The New York Times, she helped document places of historic relevance to Portland’s Black communities, a project accepted into the National Register of Historic Places in 2020.