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Lectures and Events

Artist Talk: Mary Coss The artist, who is currently showing her welded, soldered, cast, and found objects in the gallery, will talk about her working process. 7 p.m. Thurs. Sept. 9, Columbia City Gallery, 4864 Rainier Ave. S., free, 206-725-2001.

Festival: Best of the San Juans There will be a juried art exhibit, plus 100 sculptures by local artists awaiting discovery amidst food booths, performance stages, and children’s craft workshops. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat. Sept. 11, Westcott Bay Reserve Sculpture Park, north end of San Juan Island, donation requested.

Artist Reception: Periel Aschenbrand The woman who apparently originated those T-shirts you see everywhere that say “Lick Bush,” “Fuck Bush,” etc., will be on hand to meet, greet, and register voters. You can also buy a T-shirt and/or see Aschenbrand naked on her Web site www.bodyasbillboard.com. 6-9 p.m., Sat. Sept. 11, square room, 1316 E. Pike., free, 206-267-7120.

Openings

SAM Rental/Sales Gallery “In Focus: Seattle’s Friessen Gallery” features Friessen artists Matthew Dennison, Reilly Jensen, and Steve Jensen, and just might spur a whole series of gallery shows about other galleries. Opens Wed. Sept. 8. 1220 Third Ave., 206-654-3158. 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat.

Joe Bar You gotta have at least one gimmick to make it these days, and Chris Crites has two, both damn good: mug shots and paper bags. He paints one on the other and—to judge by this jpeg I’m squinting at—has a great eye for the humor in clueless and grumpy criminal faces hauled before police cameras. Reception: 6-9 p.m. Wed. Sept. 8. 810 E. Roy St. 206-324-0407. 7:30-9:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri. 8:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Sat.-Sun.

Photographic Center Northwest “Photography Past/Forward: Aperture at 50” features prints that originally appeared in the legendary photography periodical founded in 1952 by Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and Minor White. Reception: 6-8 p.m. Fri. Sept. 10, 900 12th Ave. 206-720-7222. Noon-9:30 p.m. Mon., 9 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Tues.-Fri., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat.

Hugo House Prints and light boxes by Mary Simpson and Valerie McEvoy (from Alaska and Ireland, respectively) that explore the theme “Another Country.” Reception: 5-7 p.m. Fri. Sept. 10. 1634 11th Ave., 206-322-7030. 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Mon.-Fri., noon-5 p.m. Sat.

Solomon Fine Art Wood panels that have been painted, drawn on, and gouged in an expressionistic manner by Page Davis. Opens Wed. Sept 8. 1215 First Ave., 206-297-1400. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat.

Galleries

Alexandria Rossoff Jewels & Rare Finds Rare behind-the-scenes photos of the Beatles by photojournalist Harry Benson. 402 University St., 206-381-3949. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri.; 11 a.m.- 5 p.m. Sat.

Atelier 31 Doug Smithenry’s fragmented, ironic portraits of men pick apart notions of realism and masculinity, while Seattle-based Japanese artist Junko Yamamoto’s sunny abstractions pop and fizz. 2500 First Ave., 206-448-5250. 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Tues.; 10:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat.; noon-5 p.m. Sun.

Artemis Dynamic electrical assemblages cobbled together from industrial trash, lightbulbs and other detritus by Jay Humphreys and Jules Manoogian 3107 S. Day St., 206-323-0562. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Baas Gallery Nature-inspired paintings from Jared Rue Thornton and accomplished mixed-media paintings laden with wildlife and intricate abstraction by M.A. Papanek-Miller. 2703 E. Madison, 206-324-4742. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon-Sat.

Bryan Ohno Larry Bemm’s open, casual abstractions in pastel-colored oils are painted directly to wood panels. 155 S. Main St., 206-667-9572. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Cafe Septieme Erin Frost’s erotic black-and-white self-portraits explore the interaction between lust and power. 214 Broadway E., 206-860-8858.

Capitol Hill Arts Center Here’s a somewhat intriguing theme for a show: “Claustrophilia,” featuring artwork by those whose day jobs are in the tech industry. On hand will be work (not necessarily tech-related) by Beatrice Billard, Vlada Breiburg, Janet Galore, Sharon Matsumoto, and Erin Moscatello 1621 12th Ave., 206-388-0600. 6-10 p.m. Wed.-Fri.; 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. Sat.

Davidson Steven Heino’s wood and aluminum “Effigy” series of sculptures arrive at human figures through cubist-looking geometric forms, while his abstract paintings are concerned with chandeliers, corsets, and other delicate structures. Also showing: grim paintings by local Russian-born painter Alexander Petrov. 313 Occidental Ave. S., 206-624-7684. 11 a.m.- 5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Forgotten Works Yet another gallery sets up shop in the Tashiro-Kaplan building and Mayor Greg Nickels will speechify at the opening. The show, “Before, During and After,” is an assortment of work from past and present gallery members, including Allison Agostinelli, Antjuan Oden, David Chick, and Su Job. 619 Western Ave., 206-343-7212. noon- 3 p.m. Sat.-Sun.

Foster/White New paintings by Alden Mason, the reigning dean of abstract painters in the Northwest. Still going strong, he’s managed to retain that distinctive Mason look while venturing into new territory. This new series offers more of the improvisational, almost scribblelike quality of his work and sketchy, childlike forms. Also on display, Louise Kikuchi’s “Spanish Allusions,” abstract color grids loosely inspired by visits to Madrid’s Prado Museum. 123 S. Jackson, 206-622-2833. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat.; noon-5 p.m. Sun.

Francine Seders Fred Birchman’s “History of Flight” includes two-dimensional works and several sculptures that engage in near-abstract meditations on airplanes, flight and freedom. 6701 Greenwood Ave. N., 206-782-0355. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.- Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun.

Gallery 110 Lisa Sheets’ collages manage to fuse pop images, religious iconography and fabric patterns into tightly controlled compositions. Meanwhile, Thomas Ager’s “(E)Scapes Landscape Project” is all over the place with paintings and collages all transferred to transparencies. The goal of the project is to call attention to the Northwest’s disappearing wild deserts and coastlines. 110 S. Washington St., 206-624-9336. Noon-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat.

Gallery 4 Culture Combing ethics and aesthetics, artists Sarah Morris and Christ2000TM take on the wasteful consumption economy by turning household trash into texturally rich sculpture and installation. 506 Second Ave., Suite 200 (Smith Tower), 206-296-7580. 8:30 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri.

Greg Kucera Minimalist sculptor Peter Millett has been living and working in Seattle for more than 30 years, and this exhibit of new work showcases his finely-crafted geometric forms—including stairs to nowhere, rhythmic braids of steel, and wall sculptures that find a kind of joyous simplicity in paint and natural wood grain. 212 Third Ave., 206-624-0770. 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Grover/Thurston In “After Nature,” Seattle artist Deborah Mersky paints talismanlike birds tangled within otherwise abstract compositions. 309 Occidental St., 206-223-0816. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Howard House In “Soft Sport” Jenny Heishman’s photos on vinyl address the weird emptiness and sex appeal of golf. In addition to the photos, the show includes a series of abstract sculptures that test the bounds of plastics and vinyl—whether using layer upon layer in rainbow compositions or constructing a phony mountain range. Mark Takamichi Miller’s “Zion” transforms a roll of anonymous snapshots discovered at Utah’s Zion National Park into portraits so thickly painted they seem to pop from the vast empty canvases that surround them. 604 Second Ave., 206-256-6399. 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Jack Straw New Media Gallery Seattle’s Iole Alessandrini installs interactive lasers and other optical gizmos in this multimedia experience intended to explore “the distributed body, multiple-self, and transmigration of presence.” 4261 Roosevelt Way N.E., 206-634-0919. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri.

James Harris Shaun O’Dell’s color drawings are filled with an intricate, well- balanced tangle of pilgrim heads, wildlife, and networked tree branches that add up to a sort of spiritual map of the clash between human economy and nature. Sample title: “Prophesy Extraction at the Confluence of Kykuit, The Western Medicinal Compact and the Southern Decline of a Blind Consensual Chiming.” 309A Third Ave., 206- 903-6220. 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

JEM Studios Now showing at this Georgetown studio is a selection of paintings by Eddie Maurer, who, when he’s not in Seattle lives in the jungles of Costa Rica. 6004 12th S., 206-250-6186. Noon- 6 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Kittredge Gallery This is welcome news: Esther Luttikhuizen, formerly of the long-vanished Esther Claypool Gallery, gets a new gig as director of University of Puget Sound’s Kittredge Gallery. Looks like she’ll have a free hand in curating: the lineup into 2005 includes artists such as Alfredo Arreguin and Phil Roach. This month features politically charged ceramic figures by UPS faculty John McCuistion and sumi paintings by Fumiko Kimura. University of Puget Sound campus, 1500 N. Lawrence (Tacoma), 253-879-2806. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon.-Fri.; 1-4 p.m. Sun.

Kurt Lidtke A “Fall Salon” of the usual Northwest Masters: Mark Tobey, Kenneth Callahan, Morris Graves, Paul Horiuchi, etc. 408 Occidental Ave. S. 206-623-5082. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Linda Hodges “Contours” is a group show of contemporary variations on landscape including work by Jennifer Beedon, Lead Pencil Studio, and Brenna Helm. 316 First Ave. S., 206-624-3034. 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Lisa Harris Richard Hutter’s abstract paintings and collages have a tightly balanced composition and employ bold motifs in layer upon layer of musiclike forms. This collection, “Supernature,” promises new work that alternates large, silent color fields with noisier, more intricate patterns of abstraction. 1922 Pike Pl., 206- 443-3315. 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Mon.-Sat.; 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sun.

Martin-Zambito Mid-20th-century paintings, prints and photographs by lesser-known Northwest artists, including Inez Hill Bailey, Glen Alps, James Peck, and Wendell Brazeau. 721 E. Pike St., 206-726-9509. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Metropolis Local artist ABDEL’s “The Red Series” offers expressionist figure studies in bloody reds. 318 Callow Ave. (Bremerton), 360-373-4709.

Platform Platform Gallery, a new artist-owned artspace in the Tashiro-Kaplan complex, celebrates its debut with “Still Lives:” work by two artists obsessed with fusing human and natural worlds. Keith Yurdana offers disturbing drawings and sculptures of human-animal metamorphosis and Carlee Fernandez’s creepy taxidermy grafts things like grapes and strawberries onto hapless dead birds and rodents. 114 Third Ave. S., 206-323-2808. 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Thurs.-Sat.

SOIL “Masquerade,” a group show of self-portraits (or subverted facsimiles thereof), with work by painters Buddy Bunting, Margie Livingston, and Randy Wood, sculptor Yuki Nakamura, and photographers Thom Heileson and Debra Baxter. 112 Third Ave. S., 206-264-8061. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Thurs.-Sun.

ToST New, simple-but-cool painting of furniture, tricycles, flowers, and other nice stuff by Todd Karam. 513 N. 36th St., 206-547-0240. 5 p.m.- 2 a.m. Tues.-Sat., 5 p.m.-midnight Sun.-Mon.

Vain “Broken Windows” features roughly painted, fashion-savvy portraits by Casey Garcia. 2018 First Ave., 206-441-3441. Noon-7 p.m. Sun.-Tues.; 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Wed.-Thurs.; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Fri.-Sat.

William Traver Gregory Grenson’s reverse paintings on glass depict a variety of women in a raw and unflattering light. But there’s none of the De Kooning misogyny here—just unschooled, brightly colored portraiture somewhere between Egon Schiele and Lynda Barry. Also on display, blown glass thingamadoos from David Levi. 110 Union St., second floor, 206-587-6501. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri.; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat.; noon-5 p.m. Sun.

Zeitgeist Eric Olson’s dot paintings are studies in randomness and chaos—each color is given a number and distributed evenly by computer-generated randomness. So, in the future, will artists be replaced by robots? Have no fear, Olson hand-paints each dot to give it that special human touch. 171 S. Jackson St., 206-583-0497. 6 a.m.-7 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Sat.-Sun.

Museums

Frye Art Museum In “Figuring the Forces,” contemporary realist painter Scott Goodwillie brings a baroque sensibility to contemporary anxieties and conflicts. “Eloquent Vistas” collects American landscape photography from the second half of the 19th century by Eadweard Muybridge, William Henry Jackson, and many others. And for those who don’t know a watercolor from a mezzotint, the Frye’s new selection of works on paper offers a tutorial in techniques such as lithography, drawing, and engraving. 704 Terry Ave., 206-622-9250. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.; noon-5 p.m. Sun.; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thurs.

Henry Art Gallery Emmet Gowin’s “Changing the Earth,” features more than 10 years of aerial photographs of human-altered landscapes across the American West; Seattle video genius Gary Hill’s mysterious installation “Tall Ships” is a preview of the ambitious “Work of the Work” exhibit exploring artist-viewer interaction; and “Santiago Calatrava: The Architect’s Studio” showcases the work of the ultramodern Spanish architect with a fondness for organic swoops. “Selections from the Collection of William and Ruth True” offers a sampling from the collection of these two keen-eyed art collectors and longtime patrons of the Henry. UW campus, 206-543-2280. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sun.; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Thurs.

Museum of Glass Motorized, kinetic sculptures by Museum of Glass favorite Gregory Barsamian. Plus: Venice is the mecca of glassblowing, and the island of Murano its epicenter; the survey “Murano,” showcases more than 200 pieces of 20th century Murano glass from the Olnick Spanu Collection. 1801 E. Dock St. Tacoma, 253-396-1768. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat. (third Thurs. of the month until 8 p.m.), noon-5 p.m. Sun.

Museum of Northwest Art “600 Moons: Fifty Years of Philip McCracken’s Art” presents a retrospective of the Northwest sculptor known for combining exquisite craftsmanship with a deep respect for the natural world. 121 South First St. (La Conner), 360-466-4446. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily.

Royal B.C. Museum A huge touring exhibit of ancient Egyptian artifacts from the British Museum will make its only stop in the Pacific Northwest at Victoria’s Royal B.C. Museum. Expect to see heaps of gorgeous treasures, including intricate golden death masks, a multiton granite lion, scraps of Egyptian scrolls, and yes, real, dead mummies. 675 Belleville Street (Victoria, B.C.) 888-447-7977. 9 a.m.-5 p.m daily.

Seattle Art Museum “Van Gogh to Mondrian: Modern Art from the Kröller-Müller Museum” offers a rare opportunity to get up close and personal (oh, just elbow your way through the crowds) with some truly great examples of Van Gogh’s work. Also in this traveling exhibit from The Netherlands are other exemplars of the modernist movement, including some early Picassos, cubist work by Juan Gris, freaky mythological scenes by Odilon Redon, and pictures by Leger and Seurat. Also on display: the video “Shadow Procession,” a recent SAM acquisition by South African artist William Kentridge, is a low-tech shadow parable, “The View From Here,” offers selections of Pacific Northwest art from 1870 to 1940, while “Modern in America,” explores the interaction between photography and the paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe, Jasper Johns, and other 20th century artists. “Song, Story and Speech” is a multimedia installation exploring how oral tradition is crucial to Native Coast Salish culture. 100 University St., 206-654-3100. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sun.; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thurs.

Tacoma Art Museum TAM’s Northwest Annual, this year with the moniker “Buildingwise,” is a grab-bag of local art, some quite good and some just OK. Standouts in this juried show include a painting and time-lapse video of its creation by Patte Loper, realist paintings thick with queasy pinks and greens by Robert Jones, a couple of clever video installations by Juniper Shuey and Iole Alessandrini, large-scale abstractions by Margie Livingston, and Rachel Brumer’s quilts-as stained glass. Also on display: “Andy Goldsworthy: Mountain and Coast, Autumn Into Winter,” presents photographs from the nature artist’s 1987 residency in Japan, plus four sculptures of burnt wood and other natural materials. Also: The late UW professor and ceramics maven Howard Kottler is celebrated in “Look Alikes,” a selection of kitschy and witty commemorative plates from the 1960s to the 1980s. 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253-272-4258. Every third Thursday free. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thurs.; noon-5 p.m. Sun.

Wing Luke Asian Museum The juried exhibit “Beyond Talk: Redrawing Race” attempts to break open the lockbox of dialogue on race. 407 Seventh S., 206-623-5124. 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tues.-Fri.; noon-4 p.m. Sat.-Sun.