Send listings two weeks in advance to visualarts@seattleweekly.com

First Thursday

Ace Studios Distressed and antique-looking photographs of deserted interiors and landscapes explore the artists’ struggles with fibromyalgia. Reception: 6-8 p.m. 619 Western Ave., 206-623-1288. 1-5 p.m. Sat., or by appointment.

Bryan Ohno Katina Huston’s lovely, near-abstract studies of bicycles employ a variety of inks and washes on Mylar. Reception: 6-8 p.m. Artist talk: noon-1 p.m. Sat. March 5. 155 S. Main St., 206-667-9572. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Crespinel Studio Patrick Finney’s lascivious and satirical comic art drawings skewer religious and sexual hypocrisy. Reception: 6-10 p.m. 2312 Second Ave., 206-427-1987. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. daily.

Gallery 4 Culture Eric Olson generates his dot paintings using random tables of numbers, then hand-paints each tiny blob of acrylic on sheets of aluminum—for that personal touch. It’s a clever if slightly sterile excursion into issues of chaos, order, and how much of our creative process is driven by forces we have no control over. Reception: 6-8 p.m. 506 Second Ave., Suite 200 (Smith Tower), 206- 296-7580. 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri.

Gallery 110 Gary Oliveira’s photos of post-coital motel rooms (clothes strewn about the Magic- Fingers bed, cigarette burns on the nightstand); plus, Cynthia Bittenfield’s photographs of Normandy beaches, which pay earnest tribute to her father’s involvement in D-Day. Reception: 6-8 p.m. 110 S. Washington St., 206-624-9336. Noon-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat.

Garde Rail New ship sculptures cobbled from lumber, tin cans, and other flotsam by John Taylor. (See SW This Week, p. 41). Reception: 6-8 p.m. 110 Third Ave. S., 206-621-1055. 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Wed.-Fri.; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat.

Greg Kucera Minimal, color-saturated abstractions and near abstractions (stars seen through tree branches, landscapes, and such), executed in encaustic by Northwest painter Joseph Goldberg. Reception: 6-8 p.m. 212 Third Ave., 206-624-0770. 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Grover/Thurston More figurative paintings of sorta-surreal tricycles, fedora hats, and other everyday objects by Patrick LoCicero. Reception: 6-8 p.m. 309 Occidental St., 206-223-0816. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

James Harris New work by Peter Schuyff, whose carved pencils and obsessively layered paintings make excursions into pattern and geometry. Reception: 6-8 p.m. 309A Third Ave., 206-903-6220. 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat.

Linda Hodges Brad Rude’s paintings and sculptures place animals in vaguely ritualistic or shamanist compositions. Reception: 6-8 p.m. 316 First Ave. S., 206-624-3034. 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Lisa Harris New, vigorous, boldly colored Northwest landscapes by Brit-born transplant John Cole—all of which are firmly rooted in the tradition of Madsen Hartley, Arthur Dove, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Reception: 6-8 p.m. 1922 Pike Pl., 206-443-3315. 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Mon.-Sat.; 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sun.

Vera Project A silent auction and group gallery show to support Broken Ground, a new nonprofit that works with artists to provide funds to humanitarian causes. Art featured includes work by UW ceramics major Charles Thomas and local photographers Jacob Canini and Sean Simpson. Reception: 6 p.m. 1122 E. Pike Street #849, 206-956-8372. 2-6 p.m. Tues.-Thurs.; 2-5 p.m. Fri.-Sat.

Other Openings

Baas Art Barbara Eiswerth’s watery-mystical paintings of flowers and abstract swirls suggest certain parts of the female reproductive anatomy. Reception: 5-8 p.m. Wed. March 2. 2703 E. Madison, 206-324-4742. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat.

Ballard/Fetherston Big, sunny abstraction by Benton Peugh, and Dorothy Rissman’s meticulously layered and sanded multimedia paintings. Reception: 5-7 p.m. Sat. March 4. 818 E. Pike St., 206-322-9440. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Blue Heron Gallery Art Hansen’s watercolors, drawings, and lithographs of Northwest landscapes are quite rewarding—a pleasing mix of recurring patterns, textures, and spare forms. All proceeds from this exhibit will be donated to Vashon Allied Arts. Reception: 7-9 p.m. Fri. March 4. 19704 Vashon Hwy. S.W., Vashon Island, 206-463-5131. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Fri.; noon-5 p.m. Sat.

Bluebottle Mike Maas’ “TV Party” offers a bunch of tiki- and mod-retro 1970s nostalgia paintings made three-dimensional with multiple layers of cut Masonite. Call me crazy, but I feel like Planet of the Apes characters drinking from coconuts is just kind of . . . tired. Reception: 7-10 p.m. Sat. March 5. 415 E. Pine St., 206-325-1592. 1-7 p.m. Tues.-Fri., noon-6 p.m. Sat.-Sun.

Francine Seders New mixed-media assemblages by Robert Mirenzi, who works with materials ranging from plastic doll heads to cheap Chinese party favors. Also: Juliana Heyne’s monoprints and landscape paintings inspired by a recent trip to Spain. Reception: 2-4 p.m. Sun. March 6. 6701 Greenwood Ave. N., 206-782-0355. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun.

Goods Illustration and type design by the Vancouver-based team of Robin Cameron and Niall McClelland. Reception: 7-10 p.m. Fri. March 4. 1112 Pike St., 206-622-0459, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Mon.-Sat., noon-5 p.m. Sun.

Jacob Lawrence Gallery Children’s drawings created during wartime, from the Spanish Civil War to Kosovo. Opens Wed. March 2. UW campus, Art Building, Room 132, 206-685-1805. Noon-4 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Photographic Center Northwest “Fotografenbüro” features documentary work chronicling the dramatic changes affecting Eastern Europe, by five photographers from Lux, a Berlin-based photo bureau. Reception: 7 p.m. Sat. March 5. 900 12th Ave., 206-720-7222. Noon-9:30 p.m. Mon.; 9 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Tues.-Sun.

Revolutions Espresso & Bakery Realist paintings of Seattle cityscapes by Gretchen Batcheller. Reception: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thurs. March 3. 7012 Woodlawn Ave. N.E., 206-527-1908. 6 a.m.- 10 p.m. Mon.-Fri.; 7 a.m.-9 p.m. Sat.-Sun.

Shoreline Community College Art Gallery Jessica Dodge’s figurative paintings on glass of the adolescents she’s known. Reception: 1-4 p.m. Sat. March 5. Building 1000, 16101 Greenwood N., 206-546-4101 ext. 4433. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.

SOIL In “Knock-Off,” Nina Zingale and Gina Rymarcsuk transform tacky European art and religious souvenirs into—well, tacky photo booth snapshots. Also on display: Toi Sennhauser’s one dozen sewn felt oysters. Reception: 7-10 p.m. Sat. March 5. 112 Third Ave. S., 206-264-8061. Noon-5 p.m. Thurs.-Sun.

ToST Evan Blackwell and Marc Lawrence’s big, bold 3-D wall sculptures created from found lumber and other colorful junkyard detritus. Reception: 6-9 p.m. Fri. March 4. 513 N. 36th St., 206- 547-0240. 5 p.m.-2 a.m. Tues.-Sat., 5 p.m.- midnight Sun.-Mon.

Last Chance

10 Dravus Kim David Hall’s “Biospace Particulates,” a show of hand-formed polymer sculptures said to be “a journey from cellular topography to deep space.” 10 Dravus St. (Gulassa & Co.), 206-283-1810. Noon-4 p.m. Mon.-Fri. Ends Fri. March 4.

CoCA “People Doing Strange Things With Electricity” is a collection of electric-powered visual art, robots, and other stuff Edison never imagined by Iole Alessandrini, Ginny Ruffner, W. Scott Trimble, Ellen Ziegler, and others. 410 Dexter Ave. N., 206- 728-1980. 2-8 p.m. Tues.-Thurs., noon-5 p.m. Fri.-Sun. Ends Fri. March 4.

SCCC M. Rosetta Hunter Art Gallery “The Pacific Northwest African-American Quilters” brings together the work of five talented quilt artists. 801 E. Pine St. (Seattle Central Community College near cafeteria), 206-344-4379. 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri. and 5-7 p.m. Tues. and Thurs. Ends Fri. March 4.

Galleries

911 Media Arts John Feodorov, who as a child was told that the lava bed down the road was actually the coagulated blood of a slain giant, brings mythological imagination to bear on office cubicles and other contemporary places in the installation “Four Sacred Spaces.” 402 Ninth Ave., 206-682-6552. 1-7 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Artemis Painter Matthew Porter (who also co-owns Bluebottle gallery on Capitol Hill) serves up more of his odd-cute paintings of gigantic cats eating Seattle (one too many double-shorts, perhaps?), and monkeys, monkeys, and more monkeys. Who doesn’t love monkeys? 3107 S. Day St., 206-323-0562. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Consolidated Works “Ergonomicon,” a carnival-like array of work on the theme of bodies and environments, includes Jealous Poché’s video projections that put the viewer in the picture, Alex Schweder’s fully plumbed and operational Peescapes, and Sami Bin Larbi’s Sur Place, which aims to destabilize your perception with mirrors, video cameras, and a pair of adjoining stalls. 500 Boren Ave. N., 4-8 p.m. Thurs.-Fri., 1-8 p.m. Sat.-Sun. 206-860-5245.

Davidson Take off your shoes and walk on Jill Weinstock’s squishy rubber-encased nylon stockings while checking out the oil paintings of Sally Cleveland, who’s drawn to scenes of cows standing around, as well as to poetic urban details like the sky reflected in a stream of water running down an alley. 313 Occidental Ave. S., 206-624-7684. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

G. Gibson A group show of gallery favorites—in celebration of Gibson’s return to Pioneer Square—features staged tableaux by Lori Nix, Richard Misrach’s epic landscapes, and Doug Keyes’ multiple-exposure impressions of Chinatown. 300 S. Washington St., 206-587-4033. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat.

Greg Kucera New work by Gregory Kucera—not the gallery owner but the L.A.-based conceptual and video artist of the same name. Kucera The Artist does an assortment of stuff, including frenetic videos of urban life, digitally created stripe paintings, and sculptural “paintings” in which holes have been cored into thick sheets of plastic. 212 Third Ave., 206-624-0770. 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Howard House This small show of Joseph Park’s new work (he also has a retrospective at the Frye Art Museum) moves into more lonely territory. The subject of this handful of technically brilliant paintings is the nature of light. Each of the pictures (which, though they have the limited palette and theatricality of animation stills, are devoid of Park’s trademark cartoonlike figures) focuses on certain plays of light: lens flares, a bare light bulb in a laundry room shining on a go-kart, sunlight pouring down on a row of brownstone apartments. 604 Second Ave., 206-256-6399. 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Jeffrey Moose Al Loving, African-American art legend, has been making his way in the art world since the 1960s. Not long ago, he completed a huge mosaic in a Brooklyn subway station; here he shows a series of color-saturated acrylic/rag paper collages. 1333 Fifth Ave., Rainier Square, second level, 206-467-6951. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri.; noon-5 p.m. Sat.

Kittredge Gallery New work by Seattle painter Alfredo Arreguín, who does amazing, mystic abstract and figurative work in rich, stained-glass colors; plus, Phil Roach’s voyeuristic peephole installations hiding little dioramas of domestic interiors. University of Puget Sound campus, 1500 N. Lawrence St. (Tacoma), 253-879-2806. 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Mon.-Fri.; 1-4 p.m. Sat.

National Parks Conservation Association Shots of alpine wildflowers in Olympic and Mount Rainier National Parks by local photographer Gary Luhm. 313-A First Ave., 206-903-1444, 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., noon-5 p.m. Sat.-Sun.

Platform Scott Fife’s “I Am What I Am” portrays a small, random assortment of celebrities—Popeye, Frida Kahlo, and Mies Van der Rohe among them—using his extraordinary sculptural technique, which makes use of layer upon layer of cut gray cardboard. 114 Third Ave. S., 206-323-2808. 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Thurs.-Sat.

Solomon Fine Art In “Small Tales,” Ellen Garvens, Chris St. Pierre, Nik Tongas, Peter Stanfield, and Linda Welker showcase small paintings, photographs, wall sculpture, and charcoal drawings. Also on display: Fred Holcomb’s bright abstract paintings. 1215 First Ave., 206-297-1400. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat.

Suyama Space Feldman’s architectural sculptures are designed to be unsettling—literally. The three installations, each about the size of Thoreau’s cabin, are built simply from 2-by-4s and other framing materials, and are meant to be experienced. Each structure is made to rock and teeter; one is made with an Escher-like zigzag of parallelograms and takes random and disturbing lurches as you walk about. The most memorable of the three pieces is sealed off in sensory-deprivation blackness. 2324 Second Ave., 206-256-0809. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.

Washington State Convention & Trade Center Mexican photographer Javier Hinojosa’s photos of Mayan ruins and artistic motifs. 800 Convention Pl., 206-694-5000. 5:30 a.m.- 10 p.m. daily.

Wingnut Galleries Lisa Mei Ling Fong’s memento boxes made from old photos and antiques. 1205 E. Pike St., 206-328-2978. Noon-7 p.m. Tues.-Sat.; noon-6 p.m. Sun.

Winston Wächter Toronto artist Tony Scherman’s broadly brushed figurative works of mysterious women and birds have a ready-made decay to them. 203 Dexter Ave. N., 206-652-5855, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Museums

Frye Art Museum In Robin Held’s first exhibition since taking over as curator at the Frye, Seattle artist Joseph Park gets a solo show, “Moon Beam Caress.” The precise paintings draw upon Japanese animation and film to create an alternate noir world peopled with angst-ridden cartoon creatures. Park also has work currently on display at Howard House. Also: 20th-century artist Philip Pearlstein’s intense drawings of nudes. 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 As laterally mobile curator Robin Held’s first show continues at the Frye, her last at the Henry opens: “Celebrity Skin” pairs photos of famous 19th-century French people with Alice Wheeler’s photos of Nirvana, which are startlingly immediate enough to penetrate any jadedness you might feel toward Cobain and company. UW campus, 206-543-2280. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sun.; 11 a.m.- 8 p.m. Thurs.

Museum of Glass Brothers Einar and Jamex de la Torre create glass wall sculptures with contemporary twists on Mexican folk art. 1801 East 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 “Northwest Matriarchs of Modernism” showcases work by a dozen artists working between 1940 and 1970, including figurative painter Viola Patterson, abstract painter Mary Henry, and sculptor Hilda Morris. 121 S. First St. (La Conner), 360-466-4446. 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. daily.

Nordic Heritage Museum “Mirror on Wood” is a journey through 100 years of Finnish woodcut prints, from angst-ridden symbolism to serene rural landscape. 104 N.W. 67th St., 206-789-5707. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tues.-Sat.; noon-4 p.m. Sun.

Seattle Art Museum “Between Past and Future” showcases contemporary Chinese video and photography, much of it focused on the body in relation to the world (see visual art spotlight, p. 72). “Africa in America” provides a varied and complex exploration of slavery, displacement, and ethnic culture as portrayed in African-American art of the late 20th century. The centerpiece of the show is Marita Dingus’ powerful collection of small fabric torsos, 400 Men of African Descent, inspired by the slave forts of Ghana. 100 University St., 206-654-3100. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sun.; 10 a.m.- 9 p.m. Thurs.

Seattle Asian Art Museum “Mountain Dreams” collects contemporary ceramics incised with Buddhist text by Korean artist Yoon Kwang- cho. Volunteer Park, 1400 E. Prospect Ave., 206- 625-8900. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sun.; 10 a.m.- 9 p.m. Thurs.

Tacoma Art Museum Marsden Hartley isn’t exactly a household name, but the 20th-century American painter, poet, critic, and dandy was a solid experimenter in form and color. This touring retrospective marks the first major show of his work in the Northwest in 20 years. Meanwhile, “A Decade of Excellence” showcases Northwest artists who’ve been awarded the Behnke Foundation’s “Neddy” Artist Fellowship since it began 10 years ago— including work by Michael Spafford, Juan Alonso, Claire Cowie, Susan Dory, and Mark Takamichi Miller. 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253-272-4258. Every third Thursday free and open until 8 p.m. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.; noon-5 p.m. Sun.

Washington State History Museum Do you remember being able to think about 9/11 without cursing Bush for dragging us into the bloody quagmire of Iraq? We can’t either, and we’re not sure that “September 11: Bearing Witness to History” will help. It’s a touring show of charred flags, blackened firefighter helmets, and twisted steel from the WTC, all presented like sacred relics. 1911 Pacific St. (Tacoma), 253-272-3500. 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Tues.-Wed. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Fri.-Sat. noon- 5 p.m. Sun.