Jay Backstrand

Jay Backstrand studied art at the Pacific Northwest College of Art (then known as the Museum Art School at the Portland Art Museum) from 1958 to 1961 and at Slade School of Fine Art, University of London as a Fulbright Fellow from 1964 to 1965. He went on to become an influential instructor in the Northwest, serving long tenures at both Portland State University and the Pacific Northwest College of Art. He also co-founded the Portland Center for the Visual Arts in 1971.

In 1984, he was honored with a 10-year retrospective at Marylhurst College, Portland, Oregon and was the subject of an exhibition at the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington. More recently his work was included in Tacoma Art Museum’s Eighth Northwest Biennial. His work is included in the collections of the National Gallery, Washington, DC; the Oxford University Press Print Collection, England; the Portland Art Museum; the Seattle Art Museum; the Henry Gallery at University of Washington; and Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University, Salem, Oregon.