SOIL in residence

Susanna Bluhm

SOIL was recently approached by the Seattle Design Center to do a three month installation in one of their vacant spaces in Georgetown. Almost every one of the current 25 members is showing something. And with 11,000 square feet, there's plenty of room to stretch out.

Ben Hirshkoff

Being brand new to the gallery, I was a bit nervous as to how this would all go down. The veteran SOILers are aces at diplomacy though and I thought the process was pretty painless. The majority of the group met up on a Monday. Folks who couldn't make it sent in their requests ("good light"). We walked through the space and discussed the relationships we thought would work best. Then, over a week period, everyone came down and installed their work.

Randy Wood

The space feels connected but there's also plenty of surprises around each corner. In one end of the gallery there's a grouping of medium sized cubes that make perfect mini-galleries. There are cut-outs that make perfect homes for a painted-on-site piece by Cable Griffith and plywood crystals by Chauney Peck. Susanna Bluhm was able to show many of her large paintings for the first time. I lucked out and got a 28 foot wall and was able to install a new piece called Rainbow Bears.

Chauney Peck (front), Timea Tihanyi (back)

In the front of the temporary gallery, the members of SOIL are working on a large collaborative drawing on two walls. We'll add to it each time we're there. I think it will be open Thursdays from 11-4. We'll also be hosting an opening soon.

Joey Veltkamp

I think it was 3 weeks from when we were asked to when we had the whole show installed. I think that's pretty dang good. Full fllickr set here.

To visit the installation, the SDC is at 5701 6th Avenue S. and we're in suite 288.