Seattle Art Blog - News, Discussion, and Events

Jun 26, 2006 Last Thursday
The last Thursday of each month Microsoft has a tour of its art collection. A maximum of 40 can register to go  and need to do so two weeks in advance. For more information, email artevent@microsoft.com .

First Saturday Gallery Walks
Langley on Whidbey Island. Galleries extend their hours to 8pm. Call 360/221-7737

Gig Harbor Art Walk along the harbor. 1 - 5pm.

Port Townsend Gallery Walk. 5-8pm. Call Ancestral Spirits Gallery at 360/385-0078.

June 30 - July 2
Taste of Tacoma -  Food, entertainment and lots of arts and crafts. Point Defiance Park at 5400 North Pearl. The ultimate family picnic with something for everyone.

July 1
Orcas Island Museum Historical Day Fair. This annual museum event features traditional craft demonstrations by island artisans, food, entertainment, merchandise and more! From 10AM to 3PM at the Eastsound Village Square Green on North Beach Road.

July 1 - 3
Artists In Action at Westcott Bay Sculpture Park, Roche Harbor on San Juan Island. All day sculptors will be demonstrating and exhibiting their artwork. Follow the bolded link for directions and lots more information.

Jun 23, 2006 The deadline for space reservations in the October through April issue of Art Guide Northwest is July 31. For more information, call Brenda at 206.367.6831 or email at btipton@artguidenw.com

Jun 23, 2006 "Painted On," showcases 11 local artists at The Hedreen Gallery at Seattle University. Read all about it in Regina Hackett's article in the Seattle P.I. The show, curated by Carrie E. A. Scott, is up until August 25.

Regina has another article about the "Trio of photo exhibits" at Photographic Center Northwest. The exhibits are up until July 11.

There's a great new blog at the Museum of Glass. Click on the bolded link to watch video interviews with Joyce J. Scott whose exhibit, "Kickin' It with Joyce J. Scott" is on view through October 22. The videos are very high quality but do take up bandwidth, so if you still have an old-fashioned dialup connection, you're missing out on a great web experience.

Here's another blog at the Burke Museum  with a discussion about wildlife photography.

Jen Graves at the Stranger  asks, "What is the purpose of an art collective like Soil?" Read the article to find out more.

Jun 22, 2006 The Seattle Times reports that ArtsFund 2006 is up 9.6 percent from last year for a total of $2,676,313. Formerly known as the Corporate Council for the Arts, ArtsFund will distribute grants to 70  non-profit arts organizations in Pierce and King Counties including $282,487 to the Seattle Art Museum.

Jun 21, 2006 Jim Demetre at Artdish  reports on curatorial changes at the Henry. Jim says, "I just received an email from the Henry letting me know that Sara Krajewski, the curator of this exhibition, has been promoted from Assistant to Associate Curator. Her other curatorial credits include Kelly Mark Thanks Everyone for Everything, Santiago Cucullu: The Fates Await (Serious Delirium or You Will Die Tomorrow), The Empty Room, Sign Language, Trimpin: Pfffft, and Playtime. Not back for an Assistant Curator, no? I guess it was about time for a promotion."

Down in Olympia four galleries have joined in promoting the work of Vivian Kendall who is in the advanced stages of multiple sclerosis. According to Childhood's End Gallery owner Richenda Richardson, "It's a way the gallery community could show support for someone we all admire and we all love." The participating galleries are Childhood's End, State of the Arts, SideDoor Studio and Art House Designs. Kendall's work is featured in permanent collections all over the Northwest, including the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, Safeco Corporation and the Microsoft campus in Redmond. Her credentials also include shows at the Bellevue Art Museum, the Tacoma Art Museum and Frye Museum of Art in Seattle, among others. Read all about it in the The Olympian.

Hot Tacoma has another brand new gallery--Winged Lion Studio on "C" Street in the Dome District. Northwest artist and gallery owner Mark Larson, "originally from Vancouver, Wash., describes his art as “classic surrealism.” Read all about it in the Tacoma Weekly.

Pauline Thompson at the Kirkland Courier interviews long-time Gunnar Nordstrom Gallery star Bill Braun. The gallery and artist have had a mutually beneficial relationship for over 14 years.

Jun 20, 2006 And the beat goes on as the Getty continues to negotiate with the Italians. Depending on whose quote you read, negotiations are either in a dither or going well. The Getty walks a delicate line while it makes a good-faith offer to return "some" artifacts to Italy. Read the latest in the LA Times.

Jun 19, 2006 June 21
911 Media Arts Center
Exhibition hours: Monday thru Friday, Noon-6pm. 911 Media Art Center presents Documentation Cube, an experiment in showing images in a non-linear format to the public in a surround environment. The four walls of the media arts gallery will have four video projections displaying five years of sculptural installation work by the artistic trio of SuttonBeresCuller. From their early experiments in the now defunct Cornish Westlake Studios in the vanished Trick & Murray building to their more recent works,the exhibit will present the digital images used to chronicle their artistic endeavors that first appeared on several different web-sties over the years. This exhibition is not art; it is simply documentation of their works. Curated by art historian and critic Steven Michael Vroom, the Cube represents a departure from the traditional documentary methods of presenting an artist's body of work. Projections replace printed matter and will leave no visible trace in the gallery after the exhibition. Most of the images will have already appeared in various forms on the Internet with additional materials coming from the digital archive of VroomJournal.com.

June 22
Lawrimore Project
Highly anticipated opening of the first show in this new contemporary gallery is scheduled for Thursday at 7pm. Located at 831 Airport Way South, the opening show is by performance trio SuttonBeresCuller. SuttonBeresCuller will enter a 32ft x 32ft x 12ft box in the Installation Space of Lawrimore Project. For three weeks the artists will work in the box hermetically sealed from any human interaction beyond their own. Spectators will be able to hear the artists building their ‘exhibition’, but will not be able to see what it is they are working on, even the gallery owners. The revelation ceremony will be July 15. Pictured is a neat graphic of the map included with their press release.

June 22
Mukilteo Art Walk? I didn't even know they had an art gallery in Mukilteo. Anyway, they call it Fourth Thursday, held from 6-8pm, the very first art walk sponsored by the Mukilteo Arts Guild . Here's a pdf file Mukilteo ArtWalkMap.pdf of a map they sent with the press release.

June 24
Starving Artist's Feast and Art Sale by students of the Gage Academy from 7-10pm, Saturday, June 24 in the St. Nicholas Building, Skinner Auditorium.

June 24 - 25
LaConner Arts Festival. All day for two days, artists' booths will stretch over 5 blocks. Artists from throughout the Pacific Northwest will showcase their handmade, unique wares along the street that leads to La Conner’s historic waterfront district. This family-oriented event will feature activities for children throughout the weekend.Call 360/466-4778.

Shoreline Arts Festival. Continuous entertainment, music and dance, juried art shows for adults and students, a photography show, artists and crafters in action, hands-on art, readings, theatre presentations, a used-book sale, and food. There is sure to be something for everyone! Held at 18560 1st. Avenue NE.

<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Art+Exhibitions" rel="tag">Art Exhibitions</a>

Jun 19, 2006  Hmmm. When it rains, it pours. It seems 350 more artifacts worth some 100 million dollars are of questionable origin at the Getty. The Italian authorities claim the items were illegally excavated and exported. According to an article in the U.K. Guardian, "The talks between the museum and the Italian authorities are due to resume in Rome today. But Maurizio Fiorilli, the lead negotiator for the Italian ministry of culture, told the Los Angeles Times that the Getty's failure to disclose information about the 350 items raised questions about its sincerity. Italy's new culture minister, Francesco Rutelli, told Il Messaggero newspaper that restitution remained a priority. 'This explains to the trustees and officials that the period of great plunder is over,' he said."

Jun 16, 2006 Now here's a neat little article in the Port Townsend Leader about our very own Valerie Brewster. When Valerie first started doing the graphic design for Art Guide Northwest several years ago, she had a very convenient office in Pioneer Square. A couple of years later she announced that she was moving to Port Townsend but still wanted to do the work for the guide. Hmmm.  I told her we'd try it for one issue, but I had serious doubts about whether our "long distance" relationship would work. Here we are years later and thanks to the internet, email, faxes and Fedex, we're still together—on the cutting edge of telecommuting.  Her Port Townsend years have been productive ones as Valerie has also become a book designer of considerable note. Read the article to find out more.

Jun 13, 2006 Well, that's what Regina Hackett says in the Seattle P.I. this morning, and it's apparently  for a worthy cause. Greg Kucera is having a benefit for the Gay City Health Project on June 23 from 7-9pm. She says, " an excellent private collection of more than 50 photos featuring men will be available for purchase.

Prices range from $57,000 for a rare Irving Penn print, "Patissiers, Paris" from 1950, printed in 1976, signed by Penn, to anonymous prints of posing male lovelies for $400. In between are images that are substantial art works by anyone's measure, including Richard Avedon's portrait of the nude Rudolf Nureyev in 1961, at the height of his physical appeal. Margaret Bourke-White's 1931 image of a Russian bricklayer is haunting, and Henri Cartier-Bresson's 1954 print of a young boy preening as he walks down a Paris street is charm itself.

Other choice prints include those of Marsha Burns, Paul Cadmus, Larry Clark and Immogen Cunningham. The exhibit titled "XY: A Rare Collection of Male Photographs" includes a silent auction for a few prints and a catered reception. Admission is $25, which goes to the Gay City Health Project. Tickets are available at www.gaycity.org"

Jun 12, 2006 Third Thursday
Tacoma Art Walk. Tacoma's galleries, Museum of Glass, the Washington State History Museum and the Tacoma Art Museum are open from 5 - 8pm. All three museums are free. Info line; 253/272-4258. Tacoma's galleries are pretty danged smart with a web page for the walk that includes a great map. Click on www.artwalktacoma.com to get it. 

Edmonds Art Walk. 5 - 8pm. Call 425/776-3778.

Art Collective Issaquah. 6 - 9pm. Train Depot, 15 Rainier Blvd. N., Downtown Issaquah.

June 16 - 18
Annual Edmonds Arts Festival. Washington's third largest arts event, with 240 artist exhibitors. Celebrate a fun Fathers' Day family weekend. Visit  www.edmondsartsfestival.com.

June 17
Museum of Northwest Art Annual Art Auction in LaConner at 5pm. Preview 10am - 4pm, June 16 - 17. Visit www.museumofnwart.org or call 360-466-4446.

Super Saturday Arts and Crafts Fair at The Evergreen State College, Olympia. Call 360/867-6001.

Fremont's 2006 Summer Solstice Celebration starts with a noon parade on Sat. June 17. Sponsored by the Fremont Arts Council, the weekend in an outpouring of artistic creativity and community as summer arrives.

Jun 9, 2006 Carolyn Zick's Studio Notebook  has an interesting post with a link to the Platform Gallery podcast interview with artists Patte Loper and Claire Cowie. The podcast was apparently recorded as their shows were opening at Platform and James Harris.

On another note she says, "Another nice nugget came to our attention this week- The Henry is opening a show on June 20th of Cat Clifford’s videos (whose work, currently at Howard House I found greatly appealing at lasts Thursday’s art walk)"

She also takes issue with the recent article by Peter Gaucy in the Stranger by saying "And finally, why always the debate if paper is a second class citizen in the art world? As noted in this week’s Stranger, Peter Gaucys has the opposing opinion to my own about the two concurrent shows up at Howard House this month."

Jun 8, 2006  The Museum of History and Industry,  MOHAI,  presents a special event this Saturday, June 10 at 1:00 pm--the "Family Fashion Challenge" in honor of the "Fashion at MOHAI" exhibit (on display through July 16).  Think "reality TV" filtered through the sensibility of Seattle's most venerable history institution--as families learn fashion history together, and then compete against other families to come up with innovative and interesting fashion designs.

Jun 5, 2006 The internet lawyers are blogging away as they weigh in on the Chihuly lawsuit, particularly since the NY Times article came out. Professor Michael J. Madison of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and the author of numerous articles on intellectural property, seems to think Rubino "has a plausible claim of joint authorship." He also has a pdf copy of  chihulyfax.pdf  the fax Chihuly sent to Rubino that said, “Here’s a little sketch but make whatever you want.” Madisonion.net is the name of the legal blog.

Jun 3, 2006 Carolyn Zick's Studio Notebook has a first-hand account of the weather and the sparse turnout for First Thursday. She and some friends saw Fay Jones and the Spaffords at the Gerard Tsutakawa opening at Foster White but all seemed to agree that the Howard House show was their favorite. Speaking of Howard House, Lucia Enriquez, in a special to the Seattle Times, has a piece discussing the  Alexander Kantarovsky show as well as the Robyn O'Neil (that everyone has reviewed) at the Frye.