Brian Gillis / Kirkland Arts Center

Brian Gillis

If you needed an extra reason to pop across Lake Washington to see Brian Gillis' show,

NO! Disobedience, Abstraction, and the Opposable Thumb, Cable's made it real easy for you. On Saturday, there will be an artist walk-through at noon. You can rsvp here. And if that leaves you wanting more, there will also be a party that night from 6-10pm. Check it out - a great show!

[The American Context #3] American Gothic / Luke Haynes

[The American Context #3] American Gothic by LUKE Haynes
90" x 90", fabric

"This piece lies at the intersection of fine art lore and functional creativity.

My work deals with quilts as a media and fabric as my tool for expression.

The fabric comprising the background of this piece comes from used textiles, garments, towels, table runners, etc. This speaks to the history implicit in quilt making calling back to the times when quilts were made from any and all fabric available as a means to keep warm during the night. Making quilts from clothes and cast off textiles brings to the piece a series of stories and histories imbued in the fabric already, making the quilt an amalgam of the community from which it was created. In this case its fabric from Seattle.

The image is a re-appropriation of an iconic piece of American art, taking a more contemporary look at the subjects and the population of todays time. The people are my friends, though they represent to the viewers a generation of people to respond to as peers rather than figures known by their inherent notoriety.

Its a "pop" interpretation of high art made as a functional item.

Plus its cool looking." - LUKE Haynes

View the work in person at Gallery LUKE 604 (former Howard House location). Open on First Thursday Oct. 7.

Vereinigung / Connie Watts

Vereinigung by Connie Watts, 1997

Photo by Spike Mafford

Harborview is holding an awakening/blessing for Connie Watts' piece, Vereinigung. Watts made the piece during her recovery from a traumatic brain injury in 1997 and is happy to have it placed at the hospital.

The ceremony happens Saturday (Oct 9) from 2-4:30pm in the Ninth and Jefferson Building at Harborview.

The Henry's Open House!

Have you gotten your tickets yet for this Friday's Open House at Henry Art Gallery? These are always so much fun!

There will be 2 new exhibitions, live 60s soul music by The Witness, beer, wine and Cupcake Royale babycakes, an awesome glow in the dark slideshow by Sol Hashemi, rousing games in the Skyspace with Dawn Cerny and myself and much more!

The Sun is Always Setting Somewhere Else…. by Lisa Oppenheim

image via The Henry

Image Transfer sounds like a great show - it explores the increasing popularity of image reappropriation for new creating new art.

Artists, as both producers and consumers in today’s vast image economy, freely adopt and adapt materials from myriad sources. Images culled from the Internet, magazines, newspapers, advertisements, television, films, personal and public archives, studio walls, and from other works of art are all fair game.

SuttonBeresCuller. Computer rendering for Panoptos installation

I'm really excited to see SuttonBeresCuller's breakthrough way to view the art in their installation Panoptos, the next iteration of Vortexhibition Polyphonica. They culled the permanent collection for some of their favorite (and sometimes not even previously displayed) works of art and hung them salon style. A high definition camera is attached to a grid that allows viewers to control which painting to focus on. This sounds like it took forever to make happen.

Friday, October 1, 2010, 6:00 - 10:00 PM

$12 General Public; $8 Students and Seniors; Members FREE

More details here.

Timothy Siciliano / Catherine Person Gallery

Xintai Highway Sunset Explosion, 2010 by Timothy Siciliano

Acrylic gouache on paper, 38"x 50" (image via Catherine Person)

I'd highly recommend checking out Timothy Siciliano's Dongguan Highways Hot Pink, up through October 9th at Catherine Person Gallery. Here's a quote from my recommendation for Visual Art Source.

Siciliano deftly combines vintage advertising, Eastern mythology and sexual taboos, resulting in a colorful orgy of old and new. His use of pink effectively gelds the grotesque imagery and renders it impotent. Most paintings are anchored by a target, the perfect symbol to act as both a reference point in a rapidly changing society and as a Western icon for consumerism.

Cookhouse Dinners / good news & bad news

First the bad news - the cookhouse dinners at Kurtwood Farms will be ending soon. If you haven't had a chance to go yet, the dinners are coming to a close December 26, 2010; ending a near six year run of local, delicious food and fun.

However, we'd be (understandably) selfish to just bemoan the loss without explaining why he's had to do it. Here's where the good news comes in - Kurt's going to be busy promoting his book in 2011. Growing a Farmer has already received great advance feedback. There might even be a follow-up.

In addition to the book, hopefully by now you've had a chance to sample his other passion: Dinah's Cheese. With the farm's cheese cave now completed, Kurt's been busy working on the hard cheese, Francesca's. I can't wait to try it!

Congratulations Kurt and thanks for all the deliciousness!

Free art for the weekend

Start your Friday off right and go to the opening of Pun(c)uation's latest show. Matika Wilbur's iHuman combines large format photography with woven cedar. Reception starts at 8pm.

by Gala Bent

ACK! How on earth did I forget to include this show? Tonight from 6-8pm at Gage Academy, Gala Bent, Chauney Peck and Matt Sellars will be showing work for Kaleidoscope. Artist talk at 7pm. This show will be awesome, so don't miss!

image via G Gibson Gallery

Love to hear great artists talk about their works? Then swing on in to G. Gibson Gallery tomorrow at 2pm to hear Saya Moriyasu and Maija Fiebig discuss the art from their current show Charm.

Then later that night, you should check out NEPO House for Klara's 4th installation of her open house with an artistic bent. Tomorrow's show is the largest to date with all artist showing under their "pencil" names. It goes from 6pm - midnight and includes a live performance from Shenandoah Davis. Should be lots of fun!

Face Time with Uncle Eli!

Feel like getting crafty? Then you won't want to miss this slumber party of crafts at the Hedreen Gallery. Eli Hansen will be leading the 3rd installment of Face Time. 8pm to 8am. First one asleep gets their bra frozen!

Amanda Manitach / Gallery 40

die verkehrte Welt; la monde renversé; il mondo alla rovescia:

THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN.

by Amanda Manitach

If this image is what Amanda Manitach is currently obsessed with, I can't wait to see what she's been up to for her Gallery 40 opening tomorrow (Thursday).

“THIS LITTLE PIG WENT TO MARKET”

My mama had the remains of her childhood pet pig in a 16 ounce wide mouth ball jar for my entire childhood. It always remained on our kitchen bar or counter, it was stuffed with a creamy melange of rancid fat and sour striated muscle. It was the leftovers from the slaughter, a keepsake.

I am working towards recreating a diorama of baroque pork, castrating the carnival pig, celebrating the demarcation of time-interval and entropy via the metronomic holler of the open-mouthed squeal. via

What perfect synchronicity for Amanda to be living in such close proximity to a butcher. (Previous to Rain Shadow Meats' neighborhood arrival, she would hit the Market for her animal parts.) I can't wait!

More details here.

Gretchen Bennett on Governor's Island

studio on Governor's Island

If you read this blog much, you probably have already realized that I'm pretty much always interested in what Gretchen Bennett is up to. Here are some studio shots and recent works.

Of course I was really interested to hear that she's looking for owls. One of the most amazing things about Gretchen (it's a pretty long list!) is her ability to quietly spot wildlife. "Do you see that beaver? How about the nest of red robins?" Usually after about a couple minutes of her pointing, I'll finally be able to see them. Her eagle-eye focus isn't just used for spotting wildlife. She'll also use it to spot stickers on her urban walks or curved pieces of wood on her nature walks.

Turner and Ruskin

It looks like she's still doing lots of thinking about J. M. W. Turner and Turner advocate/artist John Ruskin.

I'm loving these text pieces of found wood. I also love her use of the floor as the best way to display work. My first inclination is always to put items like these on a shelf (to 'elevate' them). She keeps it simple; if it's found on the ground, keep it there.

Dick by Justin Kane Elder

Dick, 2009 by Justin Kane Elder

mixed media, 60" x 60"

"My working process involves layering portraits with geometric forms. Most pieces adopt techniques used by op artists to distort an image. Dick was inspired by the geological formations found throughout Utah's canyons. The textures and layers mimic the character of the sandstone, giving the subject a weathered demeanor that evokes an unspoken wisdom." - Justin Kane Elder

Currently on view at Cupcake Royale (Capitol Hill).

Face Time / Emily Pothast & David Golightly

Tonight's agenda: Bliss out and transcend the bullshit.

Say hello to Trenton Doyle Hancock

Concept Design for Teardrop Pattern, 2009–2010

Image via Seattle Art Museum

Hello Trenton! I'm curious how site specific this piece was? Would you have still used the recycling theme and raindrops if this went into a sculpture park in Ohio?

It is specific in the sense that it turned out to be a perfect fit for the space. Perhaps if the piece were in Ohio I would've used more brown.

Vegan Arm, 2006

Image via James Cohan Gallery

A Better Promise references a previous painting of yours called The Bad Promise. Can you talk about the connection?

"The Bad Promise" references an ending to a story where a promise for salvation isn't upheld. In that painting, the failure to follow through is characterized by an outstretched hand, but the hand is riddled with holes. "A Better Promise" is a much lighter and more inviting piece but it still uses the motif of the holey hand.

The Bad Promise, 2008

Image via Seattle Art Museum

I don’t know if it was your intent, but when I think about your upbringing (son of a Baptist minister), the word ‘promise’ and your use of the rainbow, it’s hard for me not to think of the Bible’s Great Flood. Does that play in at all?

There is, in fact, a connection to the rainbow, the flood, the colorful plastic tops and the rain pattern. Hopefully, the flood is restaged by the public as they bring in their plastic tops in such abundance that the receptacles overflow. Maybe the piece should have been called "A Better Flood".

The Ossified Theosophied, (Aborted but Beautiful), 2005

Image via Seattle Art Museum

You’ve mentioned how you like the flexible format of comic books. I love your observation that the plastic tops in this exhibit are materially the same as toys. And like other adult males our age, we’ve talked about the importance of our childhood toys and favorite cartoons. How does your childhood continue to influence your art?

I constantly look back on my childhood, and I try to find clues as to how I got where I am. I also look for clues as to how I am to get to the next place in life. I examine the drawings that I did when I was young in order to locate the truth. The same can be said for the items we collect as children. There is a certain truth held in the impulse to collect those things. I am trying to understand what those truths are.

I think some folks might be surprised to find out that you (along with choreographer Stephen Mills and composer Graham Reynolds) developed a ballet. Did I just dream this or will Cult of Color: Call To Color be performed here in Seattle?

Yes, I did collaborate to create a ballet. Who knows. The piece could travel to Seattle one day. Dreams can come true!

Meddler, 2008

Image via James Cohan Gallery

What other projects can we look forward to from you in the near future?

I currently have a one person painting, drawing, and sculpture show at Dunn and Brown Contemporary in Dallas, Texas. The title of that show is "Work While it is Day For When Night Cometh, No Man Can Work". In January 2011, I will have a one person museum show at the University of South Florida Museum. That show is called "We Done All We Could and None of it's Good".

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Trenton Doyle Hancock's installation A Better Promise is on display at Olympic Sculpture Park's PACCAR Pavilion through March 2, 2012

Joe Penrod / Fulcrum Gallery

I'm not exactly sure why but I've always loved shadows. Maybe it's the whole yin/yang thing of needing light to see the darkness. Tacoma artist Joe Penrod is also in love with shadows but in a bit of a different way. Using blue painter's tape, Joe is interested in capturing time as it relates to objects.

Tonight at Fulcrum Gallery, Joe will be hosting a reception for hist latest show about this idea.

"Object permanence is the concept that allows us to understand that objects continue to exist in time and space even when we cannot see, hear, or touch them. We come to accept this as children when a toy that disappears from our sight is spotted again or when our mother leaves the room but soon returns. Without this understanding, objects would have no separate, permanent existence outside our personal interaction with them."

image via Sundance Blog

The reception is at Fulcrum Gallery from 6-9pm. More info here.

POP THIS / Troy Gua & Mike Leavitt

The Kims, or The Lil’ Kim Jong Il by Troy Gua

I can be a bit geographically challenged (see my previous post) but hopefully you are more adventurous that I am. If you are, I'd like to recommend a great day trip to see some great art up (or is it over?) in Port Townsend.

Troy Gua and Mike Leavitt have combined forces in a show about pop culture called Pop This. I know that "pop" is a dirty world for some of you but not to me - I love it. The candy colors, unusual materials, glossy surfaces, and cultural references all line up perfectly for me.

installation shot (via Troy Gua)

In fact, I'd say that this show really highlights the fact that Mike and Troy can make pop art like few others. If you're curious as to why they make pop art or what inspired their individual pieces, you should head up on Sunday, Sept 26 at 1pm for their artist lecture.

Cardboard Chuck Taylor by Mike Leavitt

You might have already seen one of Mike's pieces - it was on the cover of The Stranger last week.

More information here. Also, if you'd like to know more about Troy, here's an interview we did a while back.

Seaside, Oregon

I took an old friend up on an offer to get of town this past weekend. We cruised down to Seaside and I had the best trip. Using Bond Huberman's "Illuminating Things" as a loose template, here are my highlights.

1. I am such a hillbilly so it's nice to remember that there is life off the hill. (Yes, most of you already realize this.)
2. Apparently, I can go 24 hours without drinking a Pabst.
3. As ADD as I am, I was happily surprised to find out that I can quietly sit on a beach for hours watching the fog roll in and out.
4. If you get caught beneath hundreds of flying seagulls, push Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds out of your head and just enjoy the moment. It can be magical.
5. I won't get in Lake Washington if the weather is below 75 degrees. The ocean, however, feels fantastic - even when it's only in the 60s.
6. It would be a better world if everyone was told that they are too hunky for their own good at least once a month. :)

Good news - I believe I'll have a computer back tonight and will resume regular blogging. Thanks for your patience. xo

Take your pick of art!

NYC Disco (1980s) by Joey Veltkamp

Tonight Bherd Studios (part of the Greenwood Collective) is hosting a show called You're So Vain. Curated by Chris Sheridan and Kate Protage, ten different artists present their take on self-portraiture.


NO! by Brian Gillis (image via KAC)

Tonight you can swing by the Henry to hear visiting artist Brian Gillis talk about his current show (opening tomorrow) at Kirkland Arts Center. Free for members. Curious? You should be!

"NO! will bring together a tank, a hydroponic grow room, a safe-dialer, and
fully-functional reprographics center in an effort to understand how “NO!” can
be affirmative."

Work No. 360 by Martin Creed (image via WB)

Martin Creed will be showing 4 pieces at Western Bridge (exhibit officially opens up Saturday, 9/11).

"I think that the best things get under people's skin, make them remember them.
People aren't stupid. They know what's fake and what's not. They respond to
things. Art is just things in the world, usually an arrangement of colour and
shapes. It's people who have the feelings and the reactions." - Martin Creed

Overturn, 2000 by Primitivo Suarez-Wolfe (image via OS)

Tonight, Open Satellite is having an reception for their latest show Set-apart from Memory by Time, new work by California artist Primitivo Suarez-Wolfe.

"Three related, yet distorted hallways highlight and explore notions of intimacy,
distance, and continuity in terms of their relationship to spatial perception,
particularly senses of contraction and expansion."

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Also tonight: Lullaby Moon

Opening up tomorrow night is the kick-off for Hedreen Gallery's 5 week series, Face Time. First up, Anne Mathern and Mike Pham!

City Arts Art Walk & After Party / September 2010

Artists Troy Gua, Ryan Molenkamp and myself had a great time walking around on Capitol Hill checking out all the great art tonight. It's never easy to pick a favorite but we managed to settle on these 3 for City Arts best of Artwalk Award & After Party.

by Zack Bent

Ryan selected the amazing Zack Bent who has had a great (and evolving) show up at Vermillion. There's still a little bit of time to check out now that it's been extended.

Artist Jason Hirata (image by Daniel Carrillo)

Troy picked Jason Hirata's awesomely coercive show at The Living Room. Enlisting the help of strangers, Jason's made a really interesting show in a post-9/11 world.

by Andy Reynolds

I picked NYC transplant Andy Reynolds who is showing his "fun stuff" at Ghost Gallery right now. Congratulations Andy and welcome to Seattle!

Fortress of Solitude / Ryan Wilson Kelly

I woke up wanting to see Superman really bad because I wanted to see the Fortress of Solitude. Ryan Wilson Kelly's video just scratched that itch.

Art! / Bumbershoot

I know I'm a little bit late on this but you still have today and tomorrow to run down and check out all the amazing art at Bumbershoot. I want to give Chris Weber a huge shout-out for all his amazing work on this project. There's not a bad show in the entire line-up.

I got to spend a couple of hours watching folks interact with Sounds Human (curated by Lele Barnett and Kathy Lindenmayer). There are some really cool pieces - a couple of them are even interactive. The graffiti room (curated NKO) blew my mind. It's really cool to graffito installations indoors. And I loved the Larry Reid's show about the history of comics. I saw some seminal artwork.

I had the best time at Ryan Molenkamp's The Portrait Challenge. It made me so happy to see everyone drawing. The best ones were done by the folks who claimed, "I can't draw!". It's such a democratic process and really illustrates that everyone is an artist!

Lawrimore Project 2.0

Favorites, Picture Taken 8:00pm, August 20, 2010
Leica M6, Polaroid (2002), balsamic vinegar, Jack Daniels,

empty cigarette box, jar of aniline dye, silver gelatin photogram (2002)

by Isaac Layman

Hell, yes! Lawrimore Pojrect is open in their new location. Isaac Layman's Taking Pictures will be the inaugural exhibit. There's a brand new website with a stripped down roster that's nearly all local artists. Leo Saul Berk, Matt Browning, Cris Bruch, Elias Hansen, Jennie C. Jones, Isaac Layman, Lead Pencil Studio, Susie J. Lee, Tivon Rice, Susan Robb, SuttonBeresCuller, and Alex Schweder La.

A big congratulations to Scott - we're all dying to check out the new space and raise a glass!

Via email:

Has Art?

This, therefore, will have been an exhibition. The dice will have been cast and they will have come up double sixes—twelve months for twelve solo throws. As the future will have perhaps been perfect, this exhibition and a publication will have been evolving—a constellation will have laid bare its erection. Each month, artists will have been pitted against the lodestar—Stéphane Mallarmé’s A Throw of the Dice Will Never Abolish Chance. Twelve individual pages for twelve individual artists, not in the service of one illustrating the other, but rather paired in opposition and contrast to expose their unique heavens. This ultimate meeting with probability will have been consecrated by writers whose own sidereal light was emitted inaccord with such obliquity. The chance—le hasard—will have been a stellar outcome. NOTHING WILL HAVE TAKEN PLACE BUT THE PLACE, EXCEPT PERHAPS A CONSTELLATION.

Has Art?

New address:

117 S. Main Street, Suite 101

Seattle, Washington, 98104
Telephone: (206) 501-1231

Betty Bowen Finalists 2010

Big congratulations to the 5 finalists for Seattle Art Museum's 2010 Betty Bowen Award!

I'm not paranoid because I'm high (2009) by Eli Hansen

Waltz (2009 by Barbara Sternberger

We Will Cover Your Fallen Body, Beth O'Brien, and Tell You That It

Was Not In Vain. The Forest at Eagle Creek Remains! Let It Echo

Your Most Valiant of Names:

Horehound... Horehound... by Ellen Lesperance

Empty Structure (2010) by Chris Engman

Untitled (2010) by Emily Gherard

1st Thursday / September 2010

Sweet Child O' Mine (2010) by Tim Bavington

There will be plenty of great things to see this Thursday. My list of picks is over here.

Also, don't forget about all the great art at Bumbershoot. Flatstock! Sounds Human!! The Portrait Challenge!!! And much more. Check out the art for free on Friday from 12-7pm.