Seattle Art Blog - News, Discussion, and Events

Oct 28, 2006 "Oh brave new world, that has such images in it: Kerry Skarbakka diving and falling, Liz Cohen mocking sexism and auto shops, and Susie Lee exploring a trace world of repressed feelings." Regina Hackett reviews the current exhibit on view at the Lawrimore Project with enthusiasm. The show is on through November 11.

She's also written an article about the show at the Kirkland Arts Center curated by Tracey Fugami, "Wired Forest." The show is up until November 15.
 Read both articles in the Seattle P.I.

Oct 23, 2006 Technorati Profile

Oct 21, 2006 In an article for the Seattle P. I., Regina Hackett says, "Although realists toil in studios around the world, most seem to operate on a dare-to-be-dull imperative. Their skills hobble them, as they value their ability to illustrate a scene more than their ability to think through and deliver on the complexity of that scene's visual meanings. Art has always been about thinking, and empty-headed portraits of people, places and things rarely cut it in the past and don't cut it now.

Two of Seattle's most important realists find different paths to making old-style depictions new: Norman Lundin at Francine Seders and Rachel Maxi at Baas Gallery." Pictured is Threesome at Six by Rachel Maxi of the Baas Gallery.

The show at Baas runs until October 28, and the show at Francine Seders runs until November 12.

Oct 17, 2006 Major art collector and Las Vegas casino owner, Steve Wynn,  accidentally punched a hole in Picasso 's  Le Reve,  a painting he paid $47.5 million for in 1997 and had just sold the day before for $139 million.   According to the article in a Las Vegas newspaper, he's going to have it  restored  and keep it.  Read the entire sad saga  in the Las Vegas Review Journal right here. 

Oct 13, 2006 I just read an article in the Art Newspaper on the web about how contemporary galleries are springing up in Moscow and Russians are making their presence known in the art world. That bit of  news was particularly fascinating to me as I've noticed an increase in Russian visitors to this site. In fact, last week we had 85 Russian visitors. Welcome Russians!

Oct 13, 2006 Sue Peters, writing in the Seattle Weekly, says, "It May be a surprise to learn that Seattle Art Museum has plans to include Native American art in its sculpture park project. Or it once did. A SAM press release from September 2004 states: 'In addition, the Northwest's Native American communities are working with SAM to determine exciting collaborative art projects for the future at the Olympic Sculpture Park.'

Sounds promising. In fact, the idea makes perfect sense in a region rich with Native American art and culture, in a city named after Chief Seattle. The park site itself—long before the Denny Regrade—was inhabited by the Duwamish people, who camped in the area every fall and used vast nets to capture migrating ducks." Read the entire article on the Seattle Weekly web site.

Pictured at the right is Marvin Oliver's Spirit of Youth, from his website,

Oct 11, 2006 Eva Lake at  Artstar Radio in Portland just rebroadcast her interview with Seattle photographer Alice Wheeler. It's a big file to download but no problem if you have broadband. Alice shows at Greg Kucera.
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Oct 10, 2006 What's the life of a curator like in Seattle? Read Regina Hackett's article in the Seattle P. I. and find out what opportunities are opening up out there for curators who are patricularly innovative and not content to sit around waiting for a job to open up at a university or museum. Read about people like Greg Lundgren who says, "When you work for yourself, you never have to worry about being fired." After you read this piece, you just might think about heading over to the Hideout  on Boren where you can just as easily buy a drink or a painting.

Oct 7, 2006 "The Ron Ho jewelry retrospective at the Bellevue Arts Museum is another good example of the reopened museum's new vision. It honors a nationally known local artist with a superlatively designed survey of 40 years of work and accompanies it with a full-color scholarly catalogue. Bellevue is going after and achieving top-museum status in its chosen field, the world of fine crafts and design" relates Matthew Kangas in a review for the Seattle Times.  "Dim Sum at the On-On Tea Room: The Jewelry of Ron Ho," is on view until February 18. Photo credit Rod Slemmons.