PURL SAMOHEYL // It Feels like a Tuesday
On view in the Project Room November 6–December 5, 2026
Opening reception Saturday, November 7 (2–4 p.m.)
Nationale is pleased to present It Feels Like a Tuesday by Portland-based Purl Samoheyl. The back wall of the Project Room is lined in a neat and uniform grid of colored pencil drawings, stacked like short poems floating on clouds. At 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches each, the free-spirited line-making distinguishes each composition as a singular expression of unencumbered exaltation. Restlessness, anxiety, uncertainty, and hours spent trying to quiet an incessantly chattering mind gave root to the inspiration for this exhibition, the resulting shapes described as old patterns that would dance around in the artist’s head like catchy songs.
In the quiet of the gallery, these miniature vignettes transport viewers into a colorful world born from an earnest desire to share it. Most drawings are abstracted: pastel cross hatchings, sinewy ribbons, and ecstatic marks that appear to blend end and beginning. Curled springs repeated over and over seem to reference an embedded kinetic energy frantically bursting from the surface of the paper. Others take on a loose figurative or representational form: the silhouette of a head and shoulders, or a window into another landscape. The softness of these imagined realities is complemented by the utilitarian, recycled materials used to create them. The heavyweight stock paper used for these works was salvaged from Samoheyl’s years working on a commune, where it originally served as filler paper for packaging seed orders. This practice of repurposing materials, of turning one object into another, forms the foundational throughline of Samoheyl’s practice. When inspiration strikes, what are the most efficient materials to hold that outpouring?
The eastern and western walls display a selection of irregularly sized drawings, some made directly on the reverse side of salvaged food boxes. In the center of the room is an antique, hand-crafted “tramp box” found by the artist. Inspired by long-standing folk art traditions, these vessels are built with hidden compartments to hold one’s art. From these boxes, makers would showcase and trade their works in community. For the occasion of It Feels Like a Tuesday, a few drawings on recycled recipe cards peek out of the two drawers on either side of the hand-hewn box. Kind exclamations reading “Get well” or “Thank you” greet any visitor that peers inside for a closer look. The central placement of the box serves as a source of grounding, a point around which this show revolves. When these works are not on display, they return safely nestled within the box's drawers awaiting the next occasion for their reveal. Visitors are welcome to look, but please do not touch.
Samoheyl’s book, Patterning the Pandemic, which features the works on display in the Project Room, has been a staple of our bookshop’s selection for a few years now and will be available as part of the exhibition. The regular edition will be displayed alongside unique, signed editions featuring original, hand-drawn covers on reused shopping bags, channeling Samoheyl’s distinct charm and energy.
Sean “Purl” Samoheyl (b. 1974) is an artist whose practice is deeply shaped by craft, manual labor, and rural living. Raised in Houston and Denver, Samoheyl spent his early adulthood working many jobs—from retail and restaurant work to bike messaging—before spending 18 years in a rural Virginia commune. There, he mastered diverse manual trades, ranging from nannying and weaving hammocks to working in a tofu factory, milling timber, and growing food. This intense, hands-on background directly drives his improvisational approach to material and function. Now based in Portland, Oregon, Samoheyl works in furniture restoration and art framing while maintaining a painting studio inside a converted RV on undeveloped land in Lyle, Washington—which he affectionately calls "The Hermitage.”
SNEAK PEEK
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