Helen Gamble
As part of its annual spring Introductions show, SAM Gallery is showcasing an installation by Helen Gamble in its north window. Gamble, who has been making art in Seattle for more than a decade, has crafted a slatted wooden walkway, suspended from frayed, stringy ropes. She likes to use familiar objects, worn with use in prior lives, before she adapts them into new sculptural works. Inside the gallery proper, Chris Crites shows his familiar (and often stunning) 40s-era mug shots painted on brown bags, while Diana Falchuk displays organic-looking figure drawings of fantastical creatures on Mylar. Lydia Bassis works in gouache on paper, with delicate, compelling results that seem to float in the picture plane. Troy Gua, last seen at Suite 100 Gallery, creates Pop Art composite portraits in bold acrylic huesincluding Ronald McDonalds face superimposed over Ronald Reagans. Gamble and company, along with a half-dozen other Northwest artists, remain on view through April 11 (closed Sun.). ADRIANA GRANT
March 12-April 11, 2009
