Northwest Emerging Artists

Have I got a house to sell you. Cheap! One of 130 in a brand-new development. Bad credit not a problem. How do we keep prices so low? All the tiny domiciles in Great Tasting Goodness! are identical in plan, but made of different materials. Very cheap materials—old wrappers and cardboard packaging that once housed Glad bags, Cheez-Its, toothpaste, Captain Crunch, Oreos, mac ‘n’ cheese, and other detritus from our throw-away society. Spokane artist Gabriel Brown is one of 14 represented in the city’s third “Northwest Emerging Artists” exhibit. In design, his little bungalows resemble the old Monopoly pieces we used to move around the board. (Ah, those innocent days of real-estate speculation!) Now, the subprime mortgage crisis has reduced some homes in value to the level of trash—precisely where Brown began his construction project. What we once assumed to be a solid investment is just another disposable item. And his colorful, wall-mounted colony is probably worth more than some Florida ramblers today. (Also on view: Abra Ancliffe’s amusingly rephotographed and mistranslated TV shows; and a wooden-block container ship mishap by Seattle’s Matt Sellars.) BRIAN MILLER

Mondays-Fridays, 5 a.m.-7 p.m. Starts: Jan. 5. Continues through April 2, 2010