The act of looking at his work is fundamentally an act of unraveling and interpretation: parsing the images, shapes, and signs for meanings about the times we are living in today.

(John Weber)

PDX Contemporary Art is pleased to present 2025: A logbook through darkness, a solo exhibition by Tad Savinar with accompanying hardbound book, essay by John Weber. Tad Savinar considers himself a reporter and his work is frequently a reflection of the cultural moment. 2025: A logbook through darkness responds to recent or anticipated losses and our social and political conditions.

This body of work, completed during the year 2025, serves as a documentation of the days as they unfolded. Rather than focusing on specific events, the works aim to capture the general feelings of apprehension and unease that the year held. The new digital prints use found photography and illustration which Savinar then manipulates with geometric forms and imagery. The work is layered— sometimes censoring or redacting information and other times highlighting unsettling details. The obfuscation of the more direct imagery urges careful looking and critical thinking about the cultural currents of our time. Savinar does not preach but rather engages his viewers through irony and disquiet.