Ongoing
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AHTSIK’NUK (Good with the Hands) A collection of “rare and unusual” carvings from the Nuu-cha-nulth Nations of BC and Washington. Steinbrueck Native Gallery, 2030 Western Ave., 441-3821, steinbruecknativegallery.com. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sun. Through Dec.
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Zack Bent
Lean-out, Lean-to is an installation inspired by a chance encounter with a truck canopy in Spokane. Bent takes that structural form and adopts it into a “monolithic chamber of secrets.” Jack Straw New Media Gallery, 4261 Roosevelt Way N.E., 634-0919, jackstraw.org. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri. Ends Feb. 6.
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Bruce Bickford If you live in Seattle and love animation, then bow down to this hometown hero. Since the ’60s he’s relentlessly churned out bewitchingly bizarre films featuring surreal landscapes both hand-drawn and crafted in clay. Although he’s most remembered for his half-dozen years as Frank Zappa’s resident animator, he’s continued to produce incredible work, including one of history’s greatest work’s of stop-motion, Prometheus’ Garden.
Vermillion, 1508 11th Ave., 709-9797, vermillionseattle.com. 4 p.m.-midnight. Tues.-Sun., Ends Feb. 7.
BAM Biennial: Knock on Wood Again, there’s a very materials-focused emphasis to this biannual group show. Clay and fiber art were featured in 2012 and 2010, respectively; now it’s the chisel-and-mallet set’s turn to display their creations. Some of the three dozen artists featured you know or have seen before at BAM (or local galleries), like Rick Araluce, Whiting Tennis, and W. Scott Trimble. The juried selection offers every variety of woodworking from the Northwest, ranging from indigenous Native American carvings to smartly modern furniture that might fit into your SLU condo. In addition to a juried award, which bestows a future solo show and a $5,000 prize (the winner to be announced this week), there’s a popular balloting system whereby visitors can select their own favorite pieces. Unlike the Frye’s current crowdsourced #SocialMedium show, here you cast your voting on regular old scraps of paper—appropriate, of course, since they were originally made of the same material the artists are using. BRIAN MILLER Bellevue Arts Museum, 510 Bellevue Way N.E., 425-519-0770, bellevuearts.org. $5-$10. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tues.-Sun. Ends March 29.
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John Brophy and Stacey Rozich Rozich’s new series of paintings, Shrine, continues her penchant for depicting fabulously patterned beasts and horned creatures—this time centered around the theme of death and death rituals. Brophy’s show The Saddest Heart on the Holy Mountain, examines the “absurdist nature of sadness” by rendering images via 3D computer software and then painting the results. Roq La Rue, 532 First Ave. S., 374-8977, roqlarue.com, Noon-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat. Ends Jan. 3.
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City Dwellers A dozen contemporary Indian artists are represented in this show organized by SAM and originating entirely from the private local collection of Sanjay Parthasarathy (a Microsoft millionaire) and wife Malini Balakrishnan. Scenes and icons from Mumbai to New Delhi are represented via photography and sculpture, from an all-native perspective. As tourists know, India is ridiculously photogenic, from its colorful idols and deities to the slums and beggars. It all depends on what you want to see. Photographer Dhruv Malhotra, for instance, takes large color images of people sleeping in public places—some because they’re poor, others because they simply feel like taking a nap. Nandini Valli Muthiah opts for more stage-managed scenes, posing a costumed actor as the blue-skinned Hindu god Krishna in contemporary settings; in one shot I love, he sits in a hotel suite, like a tired business traveler awaiting a conference call on Skype. Sculptor Debanjan Roby even dares to appropriate the revered figure of Gandhi, rendering him in bright red fiberglass and listening to a white iPod. Apple never made such an ad, of course, but this impudent figure tweaks both India’s postcolonial history and the relentless consumerism that now links us all, from Seattle to Srinagar. BRIAN MILLER Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave., 654-3121, seattleartmuseum.org. $12–$19. Weds.-Sun.
Ends Feb. 15.
John Economaki
Quality Is Contagious contains a small selection of the woodwork of Portland’s Economaki. Examples from the ’70s and ’80s are quite impressive—pure joinery (meaning no nails or screws), dovetails and elegant corners, interesting selections of grain, and completely one-off, handmade creations. Then comes the cruel turn: Economaki the woodworker somehow became allergic to wood dust, effectively ending his career behind the saw. In response—and this is the show’s main focus—Economaki started a new business called Bridge City Tool Works, which sells high-end planes, mallets, hand drills, jigs, chisels, and the like. So if you (or your dad) enjoy expensive tool porn, this is like a tour through a trade-show booth. BRIAN MILLER Bellevue Arts Museum. Ends Feb 1.
Ann Hamilton The artist has created new commissioned art for the Henry that she invites viewers to interact with through touch—elements of the show can be ripped off the wall and kept for later. Henry Art Gallery (UW campus), 543-2280, henryart.org. $6-$10. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Weds., Sat. & Sun. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Thurs. & Sat. Ends April 26.
Holiday Group Exhibition The annual group show features a variety of local artists. Gallery I|M|A, 123 S. Jackson St., 625-0055, galleryima.com. 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat. Ends Jan. 31.
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Idleness At last, a celebration of sloth! Man Ray and Duchamp are among the inspirations for this group show, also featuring work by Gretchen Bennett, Matt Browning, Tacita Dean, Claire Fontaine, Ripple Fang, Anne Fenton, Tom Marioni, Bertrand Russell, Edwin Shoemaker, Nicholas Bower Simpson, Mladen Stilinovic, and Andy Warhol (no slacker he). Jacob Lawrence Gallery (UW Campus), art.washington.edu. 10 a.m.-5 p.m Tues.-Fri. Noon-4 p.m. Sat. Ends Jan. 17.
Paul Leavitt He and other painters show figurative and lanscape scenes. Alki Arts, 1124 First Ave., 432-993, alkiarts.com. Noon-6 p.m. Wed.-Sat. Ends Jan. 2.
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Cathy McClure Her new exhibition Revisionism imagines a future overrun with creepy mechanical plush toys. In one piece, she wires12 robotic Mickey Mouse dolls together to move in unison. Method Gallery, 106 Third Ave. S. (Tashiro Kaplan Building), 223-8505, methodgallery.com, Noon-5 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Ends Jan. 3.
Making and Breaking In this multidisciplinary group show, Seattle artists confronted with our hyper-developing city respond to such so-called progress by considering the decay of what came before it. A show is called a meditation on “growth, destruction, and change.” Linda Hodges Gallery, 316 First Ave. S. 624-3034, lindahodgesgallery.com. 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat. Ends Jan. 3.
Miniature Art Extravaganza! Fifty artists show small works for $250 and under, perfect for holiday gifts. Ghost Gallery, 504 E. Denny Way, 832-6063, ghostgalleryart.com. 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Mon.-Sun. Ends Feb. 7.
THE MOMENTUM OF BEAUTY This group show from Margie Livingston, Kim Miller, Shaw Osha, Jo-ey Tang, and Kathleen Eamon examines the meaning and manifestation of beauty. SOIL Gallery, 112 Third Ave. S. (Tashiro Kaplan Building), 264-8061, soilart.org. Noon-5 p.m. Thu.-Sun. Ends Dec. 27.
Nick Mount There are about three dozen glass creations in the traveling show The Fabric of Work. The Australian Mount has been practicing his art for more than 40 years and even trained at Pilchuck, but this is a more recent selection. Certainly he has his craft well-honed. The control of color and shape is formidable in his bulbs, orbs, vases, and pendants. Some have delicate flowering stamens; others are intricate bottles with ornate stoppers. It’s all strictly decorative work, completely uninteresting to me, but suited to posh waiting rooms at dentists’ offices or on the mantels of gas fireplaces in new Bellevue highrises. BRIAN MILLER Bellevue Arts Museum, Ends Feb 1.
Michael Ottersen Gage’s newest professor showcases his highly geometric work. Gage Academy of Art, 1501 10th Ave. E., 323-4243, gageacademy.org. 8 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Mon.-Sun. Ends Jan. 23.
Pan Gongkai As we see in Withered Lotus Cast in Iron, his first U.S. show, Pan is very much a safe, state-sanctioned Chinese artist with academy positions and institutional laurels. He’s no dissident, no innovator, and his large ink-on-paper paintings have a comfortable heft and solidity. They’d look good on the walls of bankers’ high-rise conference rooms in Shanghai or Hong Kong. Organic forms are paramount; there’s even one landscape (a moonlit lake from 2005); and the recent Frye-commissioned works are studies of the richly symbolic lotus flower. Pan, born two years prior to the 1949 birth of Communist China, lived through the Cultural Revolution (when his father, a political prisoner, was persecuted to death). But to succeed in the modern Chinese state, he’s learned to paint around such unpleasant things. The patient lotus endures muddy tumult; the flower can survive 1,000 years and even seemingly resurrect itself from death. If not a symbol of overt resistance, it remains aloof from man’s petty, short-term squabbling. A century’s political upheaval means nothing to such delicate fortitude, which Pan presents on a near-monumental scale. BRIAN MILLER Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave., 622-9250, fryemuseum.org. Free. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sun. (Open to 7 p.m. Thurs.) Ends Jan. 18.
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Pop Departures Mostly sourced from SAM’s own collection, this exhibit isn’t purely devoted to Pop Art—meaning Warhol, Lichtenstein, Oldenburg, and company, who so thoroughly disrupted the art scene of the 1960s. Instead, says museum director Kimerly Rorschach, the show “is tracing a lineage” from those old, white elders of Pop to their heirs of the ’80s and beyond—call them the Departees, perhaps? The grabby images are up front, mixing roadside iconography (Ed Ruscha), Hollywood faces (Warhol), comic-book panels (Lichtenstein), and even familiar plates of diner food (Oldenburg’s sculptures, which haven’t aged well). They still have the power of their simple graphic clarity, their appropriation of the commercial lexicon of advertising, signage, and celebrity. Further in, we detect a growing sense of irony and criticism as we proceed through later examples of borrowed imagery, including Richard Prince’s cigarette-ad cowboys and Barbara Kruger’s framing of Warhol’s own iconic face (a decade after his 1987 death). Jeff Koons’ gilded kitsch further collapses notions of high and low culture (even while commanding very high price tags). Moving past the millennium, SAM curator Catharina Manchanda sees “the foregrounding of a culture of display,” more engagement with the market and commodification. Here, unlike the elegantly reproduced old Brillo boxes and gas station signs, younger artists reject any lingering notions of beauty. Uncle Andy would not be amused. BRIAN MILLER Seattle Art Museum.
Ends Jan. 11
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Rhythm of Colors A group show of abstracts from Camille Patha, Isabel Kahn, Akiko Masker, Lisa Buchanan, Patricia Hagen, and Justin Lytle. Bryan Ohno Gallery, 521 S. Main St., 459-6857, bryanohno.com. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. Ends Jan. 10.
Seattle Icons This group show collects photos and paintings of famous Seattle landmarks like Discovery Park, the Pioneer Square Pergola, and Lake Union. Lisa Harris Gallery, 1922 Pike Place, lisaharrisgallery.com, 443-3315. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Mon.-Sat. Ends Dec. 28.
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Malick Sidibe & J. D. ’Okhai Ojeikere The two important African photographers are represented in a show called Back to Front. The great Malian portrait photographer Sidibe has been featured in the gallery before. He apprenticed in a photo studio in Bamako, the capital of Mali, just as colonial rule was coming to an end. Once he could afford a camera, he went freelance, soon becoming Bamako’s top party and studio photographer of the ’60s and ’70s. It was a giddy, heady time—the French were leaving, rock and roll was being discovered on LPs and transistor radios, men and women were allowed to mingle at dances, where the girls wore miniskirts and the guys sharp suits and ties. Sure, there’s poverty and drought outside the frame of Sidibe’s bright-flash images, but these are celebratory shots of people who want to celebrate (or dance or show off their new motorcycles). Ojeikere, who died in Febrary, was one of Nigeria’s most acclaimed photographers, who often focused on the hypnotic braids and abstract whorls of elaborately styled hair. BRIAN MILLER M.I.A. Gallery, 1203 Second Ave., 467-4927, m-i-a-gallery.com. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat. Ends Jan. 3.
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Skyspace James Turrell’s Skyspace stands on two concrete pillars in the Henry’s erstwhile sculpture courtyard. On the exterior, thousands of LED fixtures under the structure’s frosted glass skin create slowly shifting colors, making the pavilion a spectacular piece of public art every night. Inside, the ellipse of sky seen through the chamber’s ceiling suddenly appears to be very, very close, a thin membrane bulging into the room. Wispy bits of cirrus clouds passing by appear to be features on the slowly rotating surface of a luminous, egg-shaped blue planet suspended just overhead. Emerging from the Skyspace, I find the night wind and the light in the clouds come to me through freshly awakened senses. A dreamy, happy feeling follows me home like the moon outside my car window. DAVID STOESZ Henry Art Gallery
Small Wonders Works in a variety of media, all size S, are displayed from Tina Albro, Bill and Kathryn Booze, Sally Drew, Carol Hershman, Ellen Hochberg, Sarah Parent, and Olivia Zapata. Also on view, works by the Northwest Collage Society. Columbia City Gallery, 4864 Rainier Ave. S., 760-9843, columbiacitygallery.com. Noon-8 p.m. Weds.-Fri. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat. & Sun. Ends Jan. 11.
#Social Medium The Frye is proudly calling this its first “crowd-curated” exhibit, selected in August from 232 museum-nominated paintings by 4,468 online voters. Now 41 works are on view through January 4, with their likes tallied and selected online comments appended. The top five vote-getters are displayed up front, with the following 35 bridesmaids arrayed more by curator’s eye. The elect group is led by the obscure—to me, anyway—Julius Scheuerer and his 1907 Peacock, which earned 3,525 likes on Tumblr. It’s no great painting, but it’s got an easy, Audubon-style accessibility. Plus there are animals involved (as with #4, Moulting Ducks), and there’s a landscape aspect to it (like #5, The Shepherdess). I would’ve placed my money on the Frye’s signature Franz von Stuck nude Sin to win, but it ended up #2. Plumage trumps sex? Go figure. The danger here is the trivialization of art as clickbait. (“You’ll be shocked by this one weird painting the Frye curators don’t want you to see!”) Moreover, the show’s conceit is better and broader than the art it actually contains. The Frye’s crowdsourcing experiment is another example of the leaderless quantification of taste, like The New York Times’ list of most-e-mailed articles. If other people think it’s good, you’re more likely to turn in that direction. Peacock won by a wide plurality over the next four paintings not because it’s better but because it was trending upward, like a penny stock or a Taylor Swift song. BRIAN MILLER Frye Art Museum, ends Jan. 4.
Star Wars: An Art Show Original and licensed Star Wars art from the Acme Archives. Ltd. Gallery, 501 E. Pine St., 457-2970, ltdartgallery.com. 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Tue.-Sat. Ends Jan. 30.
Stephen Stum and Jason Hallman Going under the alias “Stallman,” the Seattle duo created sculpture inspired by cellular biology. Hall|Spassov Gallery, 319 Third Ave. S., 453-3244. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tues.-Sat. Ends Dec. 31.
The Toy Gallery members created work themed around the idea of “the toy” and its importance in play and imagination. Gallery 110, 110 Third Ave. (Tashiro Kaplan Building), 624-9336, gallery110.com. Noon-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat. Ends Dec. 27.
Jason Walker A giant deer towers over the city, like all those Amazon construction cranes above South Lake Union. An elevated roadway turns to a river, pouring commuters over the brink of a waterfall. Aberrant chickens lay coins instead of eggs. Welcome to the fanciful urban menagerie of Bellingham’s Walker, whose solo show On the River, Down the Road has been specially created for BAM. The local artist works mainly in ceramics, combining whimsy and satire, “exploring American ideas of nature and how technology has changed our perceptions of it.” That notion of transmogrification seems apt in our booming, post-recession Northwest (Bellevue is sprouting as fast as Seattle, after all). There’s a woodsy surrealism to Walker’s work, as if unfathomable forces—hatched almost from dreams—are burrowing into our conscious cityscape. With Bertha slumbering underground, almost like a dormant monster, his fairy-tale phantasmagoria may be closer to reality than we think. BRIAN MILLER Bellevue Arts Museum, ends March 1.
