Mark George Tobey (December 11, 1890 - April 24, 1976) was an American Abstract Expressionism Painter, born in Centerville, Wisconsin. Widely recognized throughout the United States and Europe, Tobey is the most noted among the "mystical painters of the Northwest." Senior in age and experience, Tobey had a strong influence on the others. Friend and mentor, Tobey shared their interest in philosophy and Eastern religions.

Morris Cole Graves was an American painter and a founder of the Northwest School of Visionary Art. Born in Fox Valley, Oregon, he spent much of his professional life in Seattle and La Conner, Washington, but moved to Eureka, California in 1964, and remained there until he died. A museum there bears his name. Along with Guy Anderson, Kenneth Callahan, and Mark Tobey, Graves founded the Northwest School. His works were influenced by East Asian philosophy and mysticism, …

Dale Patrick Chihuly (b. September 20, 1941 in Tacoma, Washington, USA) is an American glass sculptor.

Kenneth Callahan (1905 in Spokane, Washington-1986) was a noted 20th century artist and a founder of the Northwest School. Largely self-taught, he travelled extensively through Europe, Latin America, and the United States. Along with Guy Anderson, Morris Graves, and Mark Tobey, Callahan founded the Northwest School. He was the curator of the Seattle Art Museum from 1933 - 1953. He was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1954.

Guy Anderson born in Edmonds, Washington, (November 20, 1906-1998) was an American painter from the Northwest School. As a child he used to commute to the Seattle Public Library by bus to study their art books. In 1929, he won a Tiffany Foundation scholarship and spent the summer studying at the Tiffany estate on Long Island, New York.

George Tsutakawa, sculptor and painter was born in Seattle, Washington. Tsutakawa spent much of his childhood in Okayama, Japan, returning to Seattle at the age of 16 where he attended Broadway High School before earning a BFA at the University of Washington. Tsutakawa served in the U.S. Army during World War II as Japanese language instructor at the Army's Military Intelligence School.

Miranda July (born February 15, 1974) is a performance artist, musician, writer, actress and film director. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California, after having lived for many years in Portland, Oregon. Born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger, she works under the surname of "July," which can be traced to a character in a short story by a high-school friend. She was born in Barre, Vermont, the daughter of Lindy Hough and Richard Grossinger.

Imogen Cunningham was an American photographer known for her photography of botanicals, nudes and industry. Cunningham was born in Portland, Oregon. In 1901, at the age of 18, Cunningham bought her first camera, a 4x5 inch view camera, from the American School of Art in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She soon lost interest and sold the camera to a friend. It wasn’t until 1906, while studying at the University of Washington in Seattle, …

Harold Balazs (pronounced "blaze"), born in Westlake, Ohio in 1928, is a Mead, Washington sculptor and enamalist. He received his Fine Arts degree from Washington State University in 1951. He has been elected to three terms as a Washington State Arts Commissioner.

Bill Holm (born 1925 in Roundup, Montana) is a U.S. artist, author and art historian specializing in the visual arts of Northwest Coast Native Americans as well as a practitioner and teacher of the Northwest Coast art style. He is Professor Emeritus of Art History, and Curator Emeritus of Northwest Coast Indian Art at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture and occasionally lectures at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Brad Adkins born in 1973 in Kalispell, Montana is a self-taught artist and curator currently residing in Portland, Oregon. In 2002, Chas Bowie of The Portland Mercury declared Adkins "the poster boy of low-rent artwork." Also in 2002, DK Row of The Oregonian listed Adkins as one of ten "artists you don't know, but should." Matthew Stadler of Nest and Clear Cut Press calls Adkins "an orchestrator of the quotidian", …

Clyfford Still (November 30, 1904 - June 23, 1980) was an American artist, a painter, and one of the leading figures in Abstract Expressionism.

Gerard "Gerry" Tsutakawa, born 1947, son of artist George Tsutakawa, is an accomplished Pacific Northwest sculptor. Tsutakawa has had numerous public and private commissions, perhaps his best known being the 9' bronze sculpture titled "Mitt" outside of Seattle's Safeco Field.

Artist and curator Paul Middendorf was born on June 13th, 1978 in Neuenbürg, Germany to parents Mary and Robert Middendorf. Paul spent his earlier years growing up in Lake of the Ozarks Missouri and continued to live there until 1996. In 1996 he moved to Chicago, Illinois to study at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2000 Paul received his BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and launched his career as a painter.

Bennett Welsh (1922-1998) was an American potter from Oregon. Born and raised in Gresham, Oregon, Bennett Welsh was one of the first potters in the Pacific Northwest to work with high temperature stoneware clays. He had a vast technical knowledge and he shared this with hundreds potters who were his students, employees and friends during his 50 year career in clay.

Harrell Fletcher is an artist in Portland, Oregon who creates socially engaged interdisciplinary projects. Harrell now is on the faculty of Portland State University in the Art Department. He has exhibited at SF MoMA, the de Young Museum, The Berkeley Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in SF, The Drawing Center, Socrates Sculpture Park and Smackmellon in NYC, DiverseWorks and Aurora Picture Show in Houston, PICA in Portland, OR, CoCA in Seattle, WA, …

Sharon Grace is an American artist, currently serving as an Associate Professor of New Genres in the San Francisco Art Institute, who is known for helping to initiate the use of many forms of electronic media based in audiovisual technology. Since 1970, Grace's work has been completely interactive; in 1977, she worked as an artist/technician at NASA and produced the first artistic transmission via satellite, EMITE/RECIBE, using NASA's communication satellite.

Doris Totten Chase was born in 1923 in Seattle, Washington. Chase, painter and teacher, sculptor of monumental kinetic forms, is best known as a pioneer in quite another field. Beginning in the 1970s, she produced more than 50 videos regarded as key works in the history of video art.

Urban Scout (AKA Peter Bauer) is an environmental educator, primitivist and local celebrity icon from Portland, Oregon. He believes that civilization is going to collapse and so has decided to drop out of the economic system to live as a primitive hunter-gatherer believing when collapse happens it won't affect him. Inspired by modern day philosophers Daniel Quinn, Derrick Jensen, John Zerzan, Martin Prechtel and Tom Brown, Jr..

Gus Van Sant Jr. (born July 24, 1952 in Louisville, Kentucky) is an American Academy Award nominated film director, photographer, musician, and author. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon. His early career was devoted to directing television commercials in the Pacific Northwest. Openly gay, he has dealt unflinchingly with homosexual and other marginalized subcultures without being particularly concerned about providing positive role models.

Carl Morris (1911-1993) was an American artist. Morris was born in Yorba Linda, California and he studied at the Chicago Art Institute and in Paris and Vienna. He opened the Spokane Art Center through the Federal Art Project during the Great Depression. He met his wife, sculptor Hilda Grossman (Deutsch) when he recruited her as a teacher for the center. Other notable teachers at the center include Guy Anderson and Clyfford Still.

Maverick, onetime "New Queer Cinema" director Todd Haynes was born on January 2, 1961, in Encino, California, and has had a controversial career. His 1987 film, "Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story" (which chronicles the life of American singer Karen Carpenter using Barbie dolls as actors) caused Richard Carpenter to sue him and was removed from distribution. His 1991 debut, "Poison", based on the writings of Jean Genet, …

Peter Max Lawrence (born March 19, 1977 in Topeka, Kansas) is a contemporary media artist working within painting, video installation, sculpture, photography and drawing. Big Mag Magazine's art critic Roberta Soltea called Lawrence "the most relevant American artist of his emerging generation." Lawrence directed and starred his first feature-length film, Queer in Kansas (2007). Other artists Lawrence has collaborated with over the years include Krystle Warren, …

Hilda Grossman(Deutsch) Morris (1911 - 1991) was at the center of the Northwest's avant-garde for much of her career, producing a large body of innovative, influential bronze sculpture. Morris and her husband, the Abstract Expressionist painter Carl Morris, settled in Portland, Oregon in 1941. Except for extended trips to her hometown New York and in later years Pietrasanta Italy to cast bronze sculptures, she worked in Portland, Oregon.