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Katherine Ace, the visionary Portland artist whose career spanned three decades, died on Monday, April 17. She was 70 years old.
“I’m very sorry to have to share that after complications from rapid and aggressive metastatic breast cancer, Katherine passed away peacefully in her sleep early today,” Ace’s daughter, Corinna Ace, posted on her mother’s Facebook page. “She wanted to send love and gratitude to all her friends and the arts community. Thank you all for your kindness and support.”
Among Portlanders, Ace was revered as both an artist and an advocate. According to Oregon ArtsWatch’s Bob Hicks, “She was known, among other things, for her painterly evocations of scenes and characters from classic fairy tales and for her quiet yet determined advocacy for women in the art world.”
Katherine Ace was born in Chicago in 1953. At age 10, she became enamored with oil painting at a summer children’s class at the Art Institute of Chicago. By age 14, she was painting several hours a day in her basement.
In 1975, Ace graduated from Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. She then took art-adjacent jobs across the country (including working as a quick sketch artist in New Orleans and casinos in Reno and Lake Tahoe).
Ace also illustrated textbooks, completing 36 portraits of composers for Simon & Schuster’s World of Music. Other accomplishments included portraits of the founding father of the Oakland Children’s Hospital and the founders of the Jelly Belly Candy Company.
Ace moved to Portland in 1990 and worked here until her death, though her work has been shown across the country.
In a Facebook comment, Sandy Rowe, former editor of The Oregonian, wrote: “Katherine’s passing is a huge loss to the Northwest art community and all of us who were fortunate to count Katherine as a friend. Katherine’s mind was one of the most alive, creative and complex of anyone I know.”