Spotlight on Isaka Shamsud-Din
Explore "Rock of Ages" (1976) and learn about the Portland-based artist, educator, and activist who is championing the Black American experience.
Meet the artist
Isaka Shamsud-Din is one of Portland's most prolific artists, who has been working in the Rose City for over 50 years. Shamsud-Din's practice centers the vitality and strength of the African American experience, informed by personal experience and extensive historial research.
Exhibition of portraits
Isaka Shamsud-Din: Rock of Ages was a solo exhibition at the Portland Art Museum, on view from 2019-2023, that celebrated the artist’s trademark portraits, which are rich in a narrative, combining history, personal stories, and folklore.
Installation view, "Isaka Shamsud-Din: Rock of Ages," Portland Art Museum (November 2, 2019–March 12, 2023) (2019)Portland Art Museum
An artist for the people
Shamsud-Din’s paintings celebrate and honor "everyday working folks," including his own father—whose portrait was the keystone work, and title, of his exhibition at PAM.
Rock of Ages (1976)
This portrait depicts the artist's father, Isaac Edward Allen, Sr. (1898–1990), who was a skilled farmer. He left Texas after a violent attack by a group of white men in 1947 and relocated his family to Vanport, Oregon. He ended up in San Bernardino, California in the 1960s.
Rock of Ages (1976) by Isaka Shamsud-DinPortland Art Museum
This portrait depicts his father in the beautiful garden that he cultivated. The canvas is embedded with a mirror—the artist's invitation to share and exchange the gaze of his father. With gold leaf framing the painting, this is in every way a painting that honors his father.
Public art for all
In addition to celebrating historical figures, Shamsud-Din constantly educates and illuminates the richness of Black life and culture that exists in Portland through his public murals.
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Now is the Time, the Time is Now, 1989
Located at NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and NE Shaver St.
An early mural
One of Shamsud-Din’s earliest murals, Vanport, 1965, is located at Portland State University’s Smith Memorial Student Union. It illustrates the devastating impact of the Vanport flood of 1948, which directly displaced Shamsud-Din’s own family.
Installation view of "Bilalian Odyssey" mural (1983) by Isaka Shamsud-DinPortland Art Museum
An epic mural, Bilalian Odyssey, 1983, sited in the Oregon Convention Center’s south wing, depicts important African American figures from 1805 to the 1920s who contributed significantly to the settling of the West.
"Bilalian" is synonymous for “African American” and is associated with Bilal, the first minister of Islam; the word connotes courage and strength.
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Honey in the Bee Ball
Located at Dawson Park, 1 N Stanton St.
Honey in the Bee Ball is a joyful array of portraits surrounding Dawson Park, a longtime cultural hub of Portland’s African American community. The phrase “honey in the bee ball, I can’t see y’all” was used in the South during the game of hide-and-seek.
"My humble testament and homage to a few African American men and women whose works vividly portray the highest ideals. Spirit, courage, creative, resilient, resourceful are just some attributes that apply.” —Isaka Shamsud-Din
VIRTUAL WALK-THROUGH: Isaka Shamsud-Din: Rock of AgesPortland Art Museum
Discover the exhibition with Grace Kook-Anderson, The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Northwest Art.
Isaka Shamsud-Din (African American, born 1940) came to Portland via Texas when he was in the first grade. The sixth of 14 children, Shamsud-Din became aware of the many inequitable systems as a young black person navigating his world on a daily basis. However, Shamsud-Din has maintained his commitment to art, education, and work for the African American community and his home.
In 2019, Shamsud-Din was recognized with Isaka Shamsud-Din Day, a Juneteenth celebration at Portland’s City Hall honoring his work as an artist and social justice leader.
Special thanks to the close collaboration with Shamsud-Din, the support of the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC), and the partnership of Teressa Raiford of Don’t Shoot Portland.
