Zymoglyphic Museum

Museum Events

Upcoming

Museum renovation

The museum is undergoing a major renovation and is currently CLOSED.

It is scheduled to reopen late in 2026. For details, see here.

Recent

The Space Between Worlds: The Zymoglyphic Museum; 6215 SE Alder St.; Opening Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025 3-5 PM; Closing event Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025 11 AM - 3 PM; Museum resident Christina Lafontaine presents a dreamy alternate world in miniature!

"The Space Between Worlds is a liminal place, a gateway to other worlds that exists in a fluid state of time - past, present, and future occurring all at once. The sculpture represents a place of crossroads with doorways to unknown numbers of parallel worlds - remnants of scaffolding with various connectors - ladders, tracks, slides are overgrown with moss and fantastical plants, showing signs of life, but also abandonment. The piece is sculpted using mostly synthetic materials inspired by both natural landscapes and our constructed realities, playing on feelings of wonder, nostalgia, and the uncanny."
Meet the Mini Museums!: Hangar 13 at the Freakybuttrue Peculiarium; 2234 NW Thurman St; Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025 12-4 PM; Portland's brand-new Mini Museum Alliance presents exhibits from:
- The Freakybuttrue Peculiarium
- The Portland Insectarium
- The FLIP Museum
- Star Tropics Pinball Museum
as well as the new Zymoglyphic Museum Roadshow!
Check it out!; There is no admission fee for this event or reservation required, but you can RSVP here.

Mail Art!: The Zymoglyphic Museum; 6215 SE Alder St.; Sunday, Oct 26, 2025 2-4 PM; Artist-in-Residue Nonlocal Variable will be showing mail art and a diorama inspired by the museum. Guests will receive special memorabilia!

The Freak Family Roadshow: The Zymoglyphic Museum; 6215 SE Alder St.; July 13 & Aug 10, 2025 11 AM to 3 PM; Jo Cunningham's traveling diorama was parked in front of the museum during its regular hours!

"The Freak Family Roadshow is a traveling sculptural art installation of a gorilla mother, an alien father and their strange hybrid baby, cruising the backroads of America, trapped in an eternal time loop, confined to a canned-ham-style 1950s era trailer."

Museum as Muse IV: 1122 Gallery; 7629 SE Harrison, Portland, OR; Opening Friday, Sept 13, 2024, 6-9 PM; Open Day Saturday Sept 21, 12-4 PM
: The fourth annual group show of art from the museum's 2024 residency program, featuring the work of:; Heléna Dupre Thompson - Abstract macrophotography of selected museum artifacts - pigmented kombucha scobies, bacteria, algae, and copper patina; Lyndsay Hogland - 3-D Painting with metal salts, preserved in resin; Patty Burns - A miniature gallery of the Plastic Age; Alice Langlois - Botanical anomalies; Zac Banik - A priestly robe, a language machine, and speculative ethnography; Sam David - A Rust Age ceremonial artifact; See here for details!

Museum as Muse III: Experiment PDX; 1421 Stark St.; Opening Sept. 8, 2023, 6-9 PM
Last day Sept. 30
Available for viewing during Experiment's open hours; Third annual residency show! This year's residency show has moved indoors to Experiment PDX, a Portland science-and-art themed event venue. The show includes a literal depiction of a hidden natural world, art grown from crystals and fungus, art made from chemical processes and algorithms, and the perennial themes of natural object assemblage, museums, curiosity cabinets, and creatures that live nowhere else but the Zymoglyphic realm.; Details here.

Algae Happy Hour: Experiment PDX; 1421 SE Stark St, Portland, OR; Sept. 12, 2023 at 5:30 PM; 2023 resident and algae enthusiast Shelly Smith of Seattle's Studio Cornix presents a lecture with algae-based cocktails and snacks!

Museum as Muse II: 1122 Gallery; 7629 SE Harrison, Portland, OR; Opening Aug. 19, 2022, 6-9 PM; Open day Aug. 27, 1-4 PM; Closing event with artist panel, Sept. 11, 5-7 PM
: The second annual group show featuring art from the museum's 2022 residency program!
Featuring the work of:; Sam David; Eileen McGarvey; Nicole Quarles; Pamela Hadley; Terra Fenderson; See here for more information on the show and the residency!

Atlas: Carnation Contemporary; 8371 N Interstate Ave #3, Portland OR; Dec. 4-19, 2021; Group show featuring samples of work from Portland's artist-run art spaces and initiatives, including the Zymoglyphic Museum.

Museum as Muse: 1122 Gallery; 7629 SE Harrison, Portland, OR; Opening Sept. 10, 2021, 6-9 PM; Open hours Sept. 19, 1-4 PM; Closing Oct. 10, 2-5 PM with artist panel discussion at 3 PM; An excellent review of the show!; Art from the Zymoglyphic Museum's Residency Program; Assemblage from the museum's archive; Healers - Erinn Kathryn; An Excavation - Chandra Glaeseman; Dioramas; Moments in Time - Sam David (work in progress); The Fairy Forest - Alex G.; Stop-motion Animation; Bestiary Unknown - Alice Langlois; More about the residency; Color Studies of the Zymoglyphic Region
Prints by Coleman Stevenson; At the opening: The Zymoglyphic Museum Press; Pop-up bookshop featuring the just-out second volume of the Zymoglyphic Anthology; Disembodied readings from Hotel Zymoglyphic by the author, Jason Squamata

Zymoglyphic Art of the Modern Age

Bimble Gallery, Aug. 19 - Sept. 12, 2021

900 block of NW Flanders St., PDX

First Thursday festivities begin at 5:30 PM, Sept 2

The Bimble Gallery is now Eye Spy Art Gallery

A traveling exhibition in a wandering gallery currently located in Portland's Pearl District. The museum attempts to shed its notoriety as a quirky tourist destination and sneak into the art world by the back door!


Quick video tour by Jennifer LaMastra	Exhibition catalog (PDF)

Archive

Rose City Art-Song Project: Valentine's, Nov. 8, 2019; Two cantos from Hotel Zymoglyphic set to music by Christopher Corbell (Cult of Orpheus)
Airstream Poetry Festival: Souwester Historic Lodge and Vintage Travel Trailer Resort, Seaview, WA, Oct. 25, 2019 (sponsored by Mother Foucault's Bookshop); Jason Squamata reads from his "Indestructible Object" in The Zymoglyphic Anthology
Zodiac: Splendorporium, Portland, June/July, 2019; Two collages shown in which the night sky consists of actual constellations instead of mere stars
Byte Me 8.0: AFRU Gallery, March 2019; Annual show of art and technology, including the "Microbiota" version of the Cybernetic Aquarium; Video of show
Zymophonic Music: In January of 2019, DJ Leo Daedalus devoted his two hour radio slot on Freeform Portland to a playlist inspired by the museum and its region. The music was interspersed with a live, in-studio interview with the curator.
The Zymoglyphic Society: March 13, 2017 to April 15, 2018; Occasional gatherings of like-minded folks
Byte Me 7.0: AFRU Gallery, March 2018; Public debut of the Cybernetic Aquarium

photo: Judith Hoffman

Zymoglyphic Mushroom Tasting March 3, 2018: "An exploration of artifacts and art from the Zymoglyphic region, paired with a five-course mushroom sampler." The dishes were themed around the historical eras of the Zymoglyphic region.
Sponsored by Atlas Obscura; Photos of the event by staff photographer; Food photos by diners here and here

Curious Gallery 2016/photo: Dillon Pilorget/Oregonian

Curious Gallery 2017: Portland's annual celebration of all things wunderkammer, with esoteric presentations, purveyors of curiosities, and an art show! This year featured Corviid's monumental WunderKreature and a preview of the work-in-progress Portland Insectarium!
Curious Gallery 2016: The curator was quoted in the Oregonian's coverage of the event. The diorama appears briefly in KOIN-TV's coverage

It's a good thing [the curator] was on the other side of the table, because this got me so excited that I probably would have humped his leg with glee otherwise. -- attendee Elizabeth Metz
Curious Gallery 2015: The curator made a presentation about the museum and was part of a panel discussion on "Morbid Curiosities"
Under the Hawthorne Bridge (2015-2016): First Friday events with the Bathtub Art Museum and 3 gallery shows at the museum's first Portland location
"Mail/Art/Book" - February through April, 2014: San Francisco Center for the Book
Mail art show including a Zymoglyphic Museum postcard
San Mateo (2000-2014): Annual open days, Obscura Days, and visits from esoteric societies
Maker Faire - May 18-19, 2013: San Mateo County Fairgrounds, San Mateo, CA
"The greatest show and tell on earth", this event showcases the modern do-it-yourself movement.
The museum presented a roadshow with emphasis on "Creating and curating your own museum".
Space was shared with Laura Mappin's Belly Button Museum
Book Arts Jam - October, 2010-2013: Foothill College, 2010/2011; Lucie Stern Center, Palo Alto, 2012/2013; This annual event is organized by the Bay Area Book Artists.; The museum presented prints and books from the Zymoglyphic Museum Press as well as a sample of exhibits.
Blog entries: 2011 - 2012
The Mushroom and Hot Dog Basement Show - May 17-June 28, 2012: Art show at Musee 16 in Los Angeles
Included a collage and a drawing from the museum's collections that had mushroom-like elements
Obsessions: Selected Personal Collections - Sept. 27-Dec 4, 2008: An exhibit at the Peninsula Museum of Art about local collectors and collections. It featured the museum's Xenophora collection as a collection of collectors.
Curiosity Cabinet of the Collective Unconscious - 2005: A repurposed library card catalog was refitted with miniature scenes in the drawers in place of the cards.
The museum contributed a "crustacean mini-diorama" The card catalog was on display at the Hive Gallery, Los Angeles, in August of 2005 and as part of the Funhouse at Burning Man 2005
Boxes - 1991: California Crafts Museum, San Francisco
Exhibit included an early diorama, "Bug Wars", and a Rust Age artifact