U DISTRICT: Angry Animals & Dark Love

It's okay if you missed Valentine's Day, because the U District is showcasing an encore! I'm joined this eve by friends Corey and Jon, and our first stop is Starbucks, where Corey is having a solo show of her tiny angry animal paintings!

Artist Corey Skillman @ Starbucks

Across the street is Gargoyles with "Dark Love: The Sweet and the Sanguine" a group show featuring local artists and art exploring the darker side of love including Braden Duncan (me), Dani Bissonette, Heidi Estey, Jon Sproul, Lis Wright Ivec, Liv Rainey-Smith, Mike Mullins, Rebecca Tracy, Ryan Henry Ward, and Xavier Lopez Jr.

"Dark Love" @ Gargoyles

Corey & Jon @ Gargoyles

The last stop is BC Surf + Sport with their second annual "100 Art Show" featuring 100 local artists and over 100 pieces of art, all for only $10 each!

"100 Art Show" @ BC Surf + Sport

These shows are up all month, so stop by if you weren't able to make it out this eve!

Support your local art scene!

For Immediate Release: "Less Than Three"

For Immediate Release: 

 
Trabant Coffee & Chai and the Seattle Arts Coalition present: "Less Than Three"

February is the hearty month! A collection of artists have put together works based on two different shapes, (an anatomical heart and a graphic heart lovingly laser crafted by Bellevue Fine Art Reproduction), meant to showcase their experience of that whole love thing; known on the internet as the mathematical equation “< 3″ or ♥.

The opening reception will take place during the First Thursday Seattle Art Walk!

The show will remain up through the month of February, so if you can’t make the opening, you will still have an opportunity to come by and see the art!

Featured artists:
Alexandria Sandlin, Amanda Crowley, Andrew Miller, Aubry Andersen, Braden Duncan, Brandy Tomlin, Christine Brauch, Cody Hunemuller, Corey Skillman, Jesse Porterfield, Kassandra Davis, Kree Arvanitas, Laurie McClave, Rachel Setzer, Rick Strieck, Ronnie Taylor, Tom Steffans, Vikram Madan and more!

Curated by:
Braden Duncan & Rachel Setzer

602 2nd Ave.
Seattle, WA 98104

***AND***

"Valentine's Day Arts & Crafts Faire"

ONE DAY ONLY EVENT!

The Seattle Arts Coalition is putting on another Arts & Crafts Faire at Trabant on Saturday, 8 February from noon-4pm! Awesome art, jewellery, cards, and more by local artists! Come find something unique and handmade for your special someone(s) just in time for Valentine’s Day!

As of Valentine’s Day, Trabant will officially be open Late Night! We will be sampling some of their brand new dinner menu during the Arts & Crafts Faire, so stop by for a delicious preview!

Support your local art scene!

~ BCDuncan

MyLife presents: "The 10 Best Cities to be an Artist"

MyLife.com recently did a ranking of the 10 best cities in which to be an artist! They shared the link with me, so I'm sharing it with you!

I snagged the bits that were relevant to Seattle, but feel free to read the rest of the article to see who we were up against. (Used with permission from MyLife.com.) 

From MyLife.com:

If you are an artist who is looking to make a name for themselves, or at least make a little money, knowing how – and where – best to accomplish that can be perplexing. But [MyLife has] compiled a list of the 10 best cities in which to thrive on your chosen profession.

Here’s How [MyLife] Ranked Them
[MyLife] started with a list of the 50 most populous cities in the U.S. and ranked them from one to 50 in each of the following categories:

• Cost of Living – The lower the better. If you’re an artist, there’s a pretty good chance you’re not going to have two grand a month to drop on rent. This should help keep you from being a “starving” artist.
• People 20-34 years of age – Not that older people aren’t artists, but if you’re looking to move to a new city to start a new career, you are likely in this age bracket. So the more close to your age the better.
• People working in the arts industry – Much like knowing how many people are your age, you’d also probably like to know how many people are working in the same field as you. The more there are, the better possibility of meeting someone with the same ambitions as you.
• Number of museums and galleries in the city – Culture matters. If the city cares about art, there will be more of these to visit; thus there would be a solid chance you could have a good career there.
• Households with income greater than $200,000 – Let’s face it; potential buyers aren’t budgeting to buy art the same way they would a car or a house. If your art is going to be bought, you need more people with deep pockets.

After establishing a ranking for each of those categories, we assigned a score to each city for those categories as well. Once those were added up, we divided the sum into an average; the lower that average was the better.

Guess where Seattle ranked... #2 !

Entrance to the Seattle Art Museum. Photo courtesy bybeestone.com

The city known for tossing fish and angry Seahawks had good reason to come in at number two on our list. Despite ranking 40^th in cost of living, it more than made up for that by ranking fifth and fourth in percent of its population that are between the ages of 20-34, and in number of galleries and museums, respectively.


Read the full article HERE! 

Support your local art scene! Cheers!

~ BCDuncan

FEBRUARY Art Fix: Upcoming Events

If you need your art fix for the month of February (and I know I do!), here are some shows that you won't want to miss! February is traditionally the month of love, but if you're looking for an obscure holiday to celebrate aside from (or in addition to) Valentine's Day, check out these: Groundhog Day (2nd), Make a Friend Day (11th), Random Acts of Kindness Day (17th), International Kazoo Day (19th), Hoodie Hoo Day (20th), and Public Sleeping Day (27th)! If you're looking for a gift for that special someone, you only have to look as far as your local art walk to find a uniquely hand-crafted piece of awesome!


LAST CHANCE:

"Franz von Stuck" at Frye Art Museum featuring the renowned Symbolist painter, architect, designer, and cofounder of the Munich Secession. On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth and the 120th anniversary of his American debut, Franz von Stuck is celebrated in the first monographic exhibition in the United States dedicated to his accomplishments. The exhibition showcases his graphic and architectural design and his photography, as well as spectacular canvases that generated both praise and controversy among American critics of his day for their “cachet of strangeness, which comes from a modern treatment of legendary, biblical, mystic or symbolic subjects.” (from fryemuseum.org) Show closes Sunday, 2 February!

"Corvids & Kittens" at Gargoyles Statuary featuring black bird and black cat watercolors by Braden Duncan. She will have originals, prints, and cards available celebrating some of our favorite creatures! Show runs through 17 February!


COMING UP: 

"Catz!" at Ltd Gallery, Saturday, 1 February from 6-10pm. Cats; they don't JUST run the internet. Come celebrate your love of kitties IRL at this new art show! Featuring your favorite feline friends mashed up with your favorite Pop Culture characters/moments/worlds. Featuring the stylings of DJ Hojo and free libations!

"Happiness Is... A Cup of Coffee" by Vikram Madan at Local Color in Pike Place Market, Saturday, 1 February from 6-8pm. Presenting a series of 30 whimsical miniature oil paintings by Vikram Madan celebrating our love for coffee. On display at Local Color in Pike Place Market all through Feb and March 2014. There will be 3 other artists in the reception, each with their own mini show-within-a-show.

"Eros: Expressions of Desire" at A/NT Gallery, Saturday, 1 February from 6-9pm. Featuring art that celebrates the diversity of love and lust. Join is for the opening on February 1, 2014, from 6pm - 9pm. We'll have wine, food, and live music from Violet Heart. We'll be giving cash prizes for the best art work, determined by popular vote during the opening. Free to the public. All art lovers are welcome!

Scott Holloway @ Red Raven Gallery

The 1st Saturday Art Walk in Port Townsend, Saturday, 1 February from 5.30-8.30pm. Selected shows: 
Cellar Door - Braden Duncan, "Mechanical Aviary", wind-up miniature watercolour birds
Max Grover Gallery - Clarice Pollack, monotypes
Red Raven Gallery - Laurie McClave, "Underground Love" An underground love-themed art show!
Also check out new work at Earthenworks Gallery, Forest Gems Gallery, Gallery 9, Northwind ArtsAlliance, Port Townsend Gallery, Simon Mace Gallery, Williams Gallery, and more! If you get hungry along the way, stop into Elevated Ice Cream, Nifty Fifty'sDiner, Water Street Creperie, or Cellar Door (the delicious brainchild of local food afficionados Dominic Svornich and Stephanie Hoch). 

Mark Kang O'Higgins @ 4Culture

Robert Ernst Marx @ Davidson Galleries

"Unpredictable Gravity" @ Roq la Rue

The 1st Thursday Art Walk in Pioneer Square, Thursday, 6 February from 5-8pm. Selected shows:

4Culture - Mark Kang O'Higgins, paintings 
AXIS Pioneer Square & Gage Academy of Art present "Mark Kang O'Higgins & the Artists of the Atelier" featuring 20 Gare artists
Core Gallery - "Rise with the Lark" by Mary T. Enslow, sculptures

Davidson Galleries - Robert Ernst Marx, paintings

Greg Kucera Gallery - "Quasicrystals" by Claude Zervas

SOIL - "New Members Show" featuring Jessica Dolence, Julia Heineccius, Margot Quan Knight, Nikki Sucec & Pete Fleming

Roq la Rue - "Unpredictable Gravity," (encore opening) a beautiful pop-surrealist group show featuring 30 artists with part of the proceeds donated to cancer research
SAM - "Abstract Impulse" by Robert Davidson artist talk from 6-8pm 
Trabant Coffee - "Less Than Three [ <3 ]" curated by Braden Duncan and Rachel Setzer of the Seattle Arts Coalition. February is the hearty month! A collection of artists have put together works based on two different shapes, (an anatomical heart and a graphic heart lovingly laser crafted by Bellevue Fine Art Reproduction), meant to showcase their experience of that whole love thing; known on the internet as the mathematical equation "< 3" or ♥.
Wheelhouse Coffee - "The Exhibition on Observations of Ecliptical Imaging and Quantum Stratigraphical Content: A Collaboration" featuring Cornish College artists Bradley Taylor & Lauren Iida
 Also check out new work at 57 Biscayne, Angle Gallery, Art Xchange, The Belfry Oddities, Delicatus, Flatcolor Gallery, Foster/White Gallery, Gallery 110, Gallery IMA, goCstudio, Heart, Linda Hodges Gallery, Method Gallery, Nord Alley & the Alley Network Project, Occidental Square Park, OK Galley, Pioneer Square Saloon, Punch, Room 104 Gallery, SAM, SAM Gallery, Shift, Stonington Gallery, TK Artist Lofts, and more! Pioneer Square is the oldest art walk in the United States, and features over 50 galleries, studios, and other art spaces!

Michelle Anderst @ The Sweet Spot

The 1st Friday Art Walk in Fremont, Friday, 7 February from 6-9pm. Selected shows:

The Sweet Spot - "Decay & Flourish" by Michelle Anderst. Recent paintings by Michelle Anderst will be featured at The Sweet Spot Studio for the months of February and March. Her newest works range from tiny gouache creations inspired by microscopic pollen to oil paintings on wood panel depicting transcendental natural habitats involving snails, seed pods and fungi in all it's wide range of mysterious forms.
Also check out new work at ArtFX Gallery, Asgard Tavern, Atlas Clothing, Bellefleur Lingerie, evo Timesinfinity Gallery, Frame Up Studios, Fremont Health Club, GiGi Retro Inspired Clothing, Hub and Bespoke, Johnson Architects, Makerhaus, Pel'MeniDumpling Tzar, Portgage Bay Goods, Sanachi Massage, Saturn, Space, Starbucks Coffee, and more! 

The 1st Friday Art Walk in Madison Park, Friday, 7 February from 6-9pm. Featuring art from over 30 local artists! Check out new work at Cactus, Madison Kitchen, Madison Park Bakery, Park Bench Gifts, Red Wagon Toys, Starbucks,and more!

Caroline Cooley Browne @ BAC

The 1st Friday Art Walk in Bainbridge Island, Friday, 7 February from 6-8pm. Selected shows:
Bainbridge Arts &Crafts - "Bowled Over" by Caroline Cooley Browne, fiber arts
Also see new and exciting work at Blackbird Bakery, the BPA, Danger, Fork & Spoon, Ginger, Harbour Public House, IslandGallery, Pegasus Coffee, Pauli Dennis Gallery, PrettyStick, Roby King Gallery, Sally Robinson Gallery, and more!

Trabant Coffee & Chai and the Seattle Arts Coalition present: "Valentine's Day Arts & Crafts Faire" on Saturday, 8 February from noon-4pm. Awesome art, jewellery, cards, and more by local artists! Come find something unique and handmade for your special someone(s) just in time for Valentines Day!

Ryan "Henry" Ward, mural

The 2nd Saturday Art Walk in Ballard, Saturday, 8 February from 6-9pm. Selected shows:
Monster Art & Clothing - Ryan Henry Ward. Monster is very excited to welcome for the first time, the infamous art of Ryan Henry Ward! Ryan's artwork can be seen all over the city of Seattle and is quickly spreading to other parts of Washington (even other states!). If you look for the "henry" signature, you'll find his art in Wallingford, Ballard, Sodo, Capitol Hill and other neighborhoods. With his loyal dog Merlin by his side, Ward is emblazoning his whimsical art all over the city. His quirky characters and creative use of colors has gotten him recognized as one of Seattle's most prominent artists.
Check out new work at Annie's Art &Frame, Art & Soul, Ballard Metal Arts, Ballard Works, The BalMar, Blowing Sands Glass Studio, Building C Studios, Cupcake Royal, Filthy Rich, Full Tilt, Habitude, Kiss Cafe, Liberte, Miro Tea, Nightingale Gallery, Savour, Spark Studio, the Sunset Tavern, Venue, and more!


The 2nd Saturday Art Walk in the Central District, Saturday, 8 February from 6-9pm. Check out new happenings at the Neptune Gallery Sculpture Garden, Atelier Autumnthing, Hi-Spot Cafe, Pratt Fine Art Centre, Twilight Exit and more!

The 2nd Saturday Art Attack in Georgetown, Saturday 8 February from 6-9pm. Selected shows:
Eight and Sand - "Red" a group show. Red is a very powerful color. We relate it to love and anger, it’s the color of our blood when it flows out. In this group show the artists were asked only to have the work somehow relate to the color or the word. local and national artists are participating.
Georgetown Arts & Cultural Centre - "Hotel Valentine: Get a Room!" Celebrate love and art at our special group show. Resident and visiting artists will transform the art center (formerly a 1900s hotel) into a love nest! Come view sculpture, installations and other media that touches upon all the aspects of love. Find something special for your special someone. Enter a raffle for prizes, including a free night at Hotel Valentine (tickets available night of event).  
LxWxH Gallery - "Volumetric" by Jess Rees. Jess Rees presents a body of gouache paintings focusing on the structure and geometry of architectural spaces. Her work depicts houses, city blocks, and spaces that simultaneously embody both hollow and solid natures, exploring the idea of architecture’s role as both object and container. Her experience as a human living above ground in urban apartments plays into her exploration of things that are undeniably rooted to the ground.
LxWxH Subscription Project - "Every Day." This individual artist set features original work by Rumi Koshino and a chapbook by Jennifer Borges Foster. Titled LxWxH (xED) - "EveryDay", this issue of LxWxH is a languid study of fleeting moments in daily life both beautiful and tragic, and sometimes quiet. $150 for the set.
Also check out new work at 9lb Hammer, Artcore Tattoo, Belle & Whissel, Fantagraphics Bookstore, Georgetown Trailer Park Mall, Krab Jab Studios, Nautilus Studios, The Roving Gallery, Smarty Pants, Totally Blown Glassworks, Two Tartes Cafe, Wax Expressions, and more!

The 2nd Wednesday Art Walk in Wallingford takes place May-September from 6-9pm.
Until then, you can always find art at the Assistance League Thrift Shop, Blue Star Cafe, Cafe Appasionato, Chocolati, Cutz Meridian, Frame Central, Fuel Coffee, Kerf Gallery, Lucky 7 Salon, Seamonster Lounge, Seattle Mosaic Arts and more! Don't forget to stop into Archie McPhee's as well! It doesn't exactly showcase 'art,' but it's fantastic and ridiculous, and you won't be disappointed...

Uyen Tran-Gjerde @ Ghost Gallery

The 2nd Thursday Art Walk in Capitol Hill, Thursday, 13 February from 5-9pm. Selected shows:
Blindfold Gallery  - "Magic Nudes" Photographs by Paul Dahlquist and Almendra Sandoval
Ghost Gallery - "Portraits & Dream Worlds" by Uyen Tran-Gjerde. Uyen Tran-Gjerde is a figurative painter who has always held a fascination for abstract art. She uses both color and shape to convey a sense of dimension, depth and meaning. Her primary focus continues to be the figure as she is most interested in the human condition — the psyche, what’s hidden beneath the surface. She creates a world where dream and reality converge. Her art expresses a sense of joy and exhilaration as well as tranquility, longing, anticipation and mystery.
Ltd Gallery - "Catz!" (encore opening) featuring over a dozen artists and pop culture cat-themed art!
True Love Gallery - "Current Events" featuring Joey Veltkamp & John Rizzotto
Vermilion - "TOUCH ME: I am Violent." The concept is born out of the wall that exists when experiencing art. The first rule is not to touch the work. Rightly one of the purposes of exhibits and museums is to sustain and protect the work. And touching expedites the process of deterioration. Featuring Christopher Shaw, Crystal Barbre, Daveda Russell, Ellie Dicola, Greg Lundgren, Janet Galore, Jennifer McNeely, Kat Larson, Lucien Pellegrin, Megumi Shauna Arai, Sharon Arnold, Siolo Thompson, and Tariqa Waters.
Also check out new work a Apocalypse Tattoo, Boom Noodle, Cafe PettiRosso, Cloud Gallery at Frame Central, Cupcake Royale, High 5 Pie, IN Arts Collective, Joe Bar, Laughing Buddha, Online Cafe, Poco Wine + Spirits, Retrofit Home, and more!

"Transmission" at the Mercury, Thursday, 13 February from 9.30pm til late. You do not have to be a member for this night, and you do not need a member to sign you in. It is open to the public. No dress code. Free for members before 9.30pm, $5 for non-members. Starts at 9pm and goes til 2am. The performer will go on around 10.30 and again at 11.30, and the artist will be there all night. Come buy art, drinks, hear music and watch a sexy lady dance. "Transmission" happens the 2nd Thursday of every month.

Jen Kiaba @ Twilight Gallery

The 2nd Thursday Art Walk in West Seattle, Thursday, 13 February from 6-9pm. Selected shows:
Skylark Cafe - "Come Draw With Me!" Live drawing session with Joseph Brooks!
Twilight Gallery - "Fade into You: An Artist's Mixtape" Songs of heartbreak accompany us throughout time as we makeup and breakup. What mix of songs do you play when you crush, love, fuck, fuck-up, pine, ache, obsess and deny? Can a compilation of songs save you or explain you? Can the mood or theme of the mixtape make the object of your affections UNDERSTAND how you really feel in your achy, achy tortured soul? Is the art of the mixtape a universal art form? Fade Into You asks artists to assign a song title to their visual expression of the exquisite arc of pain we call love. From the fleeting first-love, to an unquenchable lust, to the socialized ideal of commitment, and finally to the inevitable end of despair and heartbreak. It is art inspired by the history of love and loss in music within the context of an individual’s relationships and experiences.
Also check out new work at Arts West, Click! Design That Fits, The Heartland Cafe, Hotwire Coffee, Shadowland, Shoofly Pie, West 5, Wild Rose's, Windermere, and more!

 

Quadrapus

The 2nd Friday Art Walk in the Greenwood-Phinney neighbourhood, Friday, 14 February from 6-9pm. Selected shows: 
Bherd Studios - "Streetlights & Torches, Priuses & Centaurs: Exploring the Role of Myth & History in Our Everyday Lives" (encore opening) featuring Kate Protage & Crystal Barbre
Echo Echo - "Full Frontal" an evocative, no-holds barred V-Day extravaganza featuring our brand new artist line-up Agent Zero, Artifact Ripley, Braden Duncan, Chani Murat, Jess Helfox, Xavier Lopez Jr!
Push/Pull - "No Love Lost" fresh art by Seth Goodknd & Maxx Folis
Quadrapus - "There Goes the Neighbourhood" by Sarah Denby 
The Space is Ours - "Totes M'Goats" featuring Andrew Miller, Joseph Brooks, Narboo, Starheadboy, and Tngler.

Urban Light Studios - "Light Pollution" On Valentines Day this year, come and bask in the low, romantic light that will be cast ever so lightly on these nocturnal landscapes by Orion Misciagna. Also, "A Child's Heart: A Tribute to Hayao Miyazaki" (encore opening) featuring work from over 40 local artists, as well as vendors and musicians!
Also check out new and exciting work at Chocolatti, Gainsbourg, Home Suite Home, Naked City Brewery, Two Bird Tattoo and more! 

"Feminist Eclat" @ Form/Space Atelier

The 2nd Friday Art Walk in Belltown, Friday, 14 February from 6-9pm. This Friday is "Lovers Art Walk" in Belltown! Hit up 5 artwalk venues, get your map stamped at those venues, and you'll be entered to win a prize from neighborhood establishments, including tote bags, free classes, and more! Also, as a bonus, the Belltown Community Center has Parent's Night Out, so you can walk the Lover's Walk kid-free! Selected shows:
Form/Space Atelier - "Feminist Eclat No. 9 & Fallen", a site specific installation by Hayley Boyd will exhibit January 10- March 8, 2014, providing Form/Space Atelier's annual Feminist Eclat exhibition with new and exciting visual information to narrate the thematic premise.
Stylus Salon - "Signs & Omens" by Salyna Gracie. Show runs through 8 March.
Also check out brand new work at A/NT Gallery, Bikes + Art, City Hostel Seattle, Patricia Cameron Gallery, Pintxo & The Upstairs, Rudy's Barber Shop, Sassafras, Seattle Ink & Oil, and more!

The 3rd Thursday Art Walk in Edmonds, Thursday, 20 February from 5-8pm. Selected shows:
Otherworlds - "Winging it with Whim and Whimsy: Yet Another Gaggle of Humorous & Whimsical Art" by Vikram Madan. In addition to the art walk, Otherworlds regularly hosts fun and exciting steampunk/gamer/geek/sci-fi/fantasy/gothic/horror-themed events!  
Cheesemongers is right next door if you find yourself in need of something delicious, and you can check out new work at ARTspot, Arts Now, C'est La Vie, The Papery, Red Petal Cakes, Stunningly Strange Gallery, and more than 30 other Edmonds art spaces!

"Here Amid the Wild Woods" at Auguste Clown Gallery in Victoria, Australia! Friday, 21 February. This one isn't in Seattle, but I had to share it anyway! Step into the daydreams of Seattle artist Kari-Lise Alexander, and enter a curious world where maidens and creatures roam! Inspired by her Scandinavian heritage, fairy tales and Norwegian folklore, Kari-Lise uses the traditional art of rosemaling to detail her paintings and explores ideas of wild nature within. With past exhibitions across the United States and the United Kingdom, “Here Amid the Wild Woods” marks Kari-Lise's first solo show in Australia. On view through 9 March.

"Dark Love" @ Gargoyles

The 3rd Friday Art Walk in the University District, Friday, 21 February from 6-9pm. Selected shows:
BC Surf & Sport - "2nd Annual 100 Show" featuring 100 artists and $10 art! 
Gargoyles Statuary - "Dark Love: The Sweet and the Sanguine" A love themed group show featuring Braden Duncan, Ryan "Henry" Ward, Xavier Lopez Jr, and more!
Also see new work at Boulevard Grocery, Cafe Allegro, Cafe Solstice, Lucid Gallery, Starbucks Coffee, Trabant Coffee & Chai and more! Don't forget to stop by Boulevard Grocery for a bag of fresh-roasted coffee hand-painted by a local Seattle artist!

"FaerieCon West" at the Seattle Doubletree Hilton, Friday-Sunday, 21-23 February. A convention for all things faerie! Featuring music, authors, and artists from all over the globe! Don't miss “Faeries: An Exhibition of Modern Masters of Fantasy.” Curated by Julie Baroh of Krabjab Studio in Seattle, we will present original paintings and drawings by an amazing collection of internationally acclaimed faerie and fantasy artists for both exhibit and sale!

ONGOING: 

"Nightmare Inductions" @ CoCA

"Nightmare Inductions" at CoCA, Thursday, 16 January through Thursday, 10 April. CoCA is pleased to present Nightmare Inductions, a series of interactive installations by the arts collective Noxious Sector. With the aid of brain wave entraining sound and video, participants are guided through a shared trance induction experience. Each experience focuses on a common nightmare theme. Three separate themes are offered in three induction areas: Dreams of Falling; Dreams of Teeth; and Noxious Sector's most recent creation, Forgetting. 

The SAAM is featuring "A Fuller View of China, Japan & Korea." The exhibition runs through 13 April 2014. Dr. Richard Fuller’s 40 years as the museum’s founding director are the bedrock of its history, and his passion for art resonates with collectors of his time and beyond. In commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum, this installation shows how Dr. Fuller, his family and friends, and several more recent Seattle collectors, built SAM’s celebrated Asian art collections. Featuring some of SAM’s best-loved works such as the Poem Scroll with Deer, the installation showcases the incredible quality and diversity that make SAM’s Asian art collection one of the finest in the country. The selected Chinese paintings and calligraphy also celebrate the launch of an innovative online scholarly catalogue, a multi-year project sponsored by the J. Paul Getty Foundation. (from www.seattleartmuseum.org)

Robert Davidson @ SAM

The SAM is currently featuring a multitude of exhibits! Check out:
"Abstract Impulse" by Robert Davidson. Robert Davidson has been a pivotal figure in the Northwest Coast Native art renaissance since 1969, when he erected the first totem pole in his ancestral Massett village since the 1880s. For over 40 years he has mastered Haida art traditions by studying the great works of his great-grandfather Charles Edenshaw and others. More recently, Davidson has interjected his own interpretation of the old forms with forays into abstraction, explored in boldly minimalistic easel paintings, graphic works and sculpture, where images are pared to essential lines, elemental shapes and strong colors.
The exhibition will feature 45 paintings, sculptures and prints created since 2005, as well as key images from earlier in his career that show Davidson’s evolution toward an elemental language of form.

"In a Silent Way," photographic reflections on African American identities and histories. Show runs through 1 December.
"William Cordova: Machu Picchu After Dark," installation sculpture. Show runs through 19 January 2014.
"From Abstract Expressionism to Coloured Planes." Early in the 1940s, artists in New York began to develop an expressive, abstract style of painting that was a stark departure from previous ideas, both artistically and historically. Up until World War II, the center of artistic production in the West had been Paris, and artists from around Europe, the United States and South America had flocked there to study and to work. This changed profoundly in the 1940s. Featuring Arshile Gorky, Hans Hoffman, Jackson Pollack, and Lee Krasner.

The Henry Art Gallery is currently hosting "The Bikeriders" in the North Galleries, photographic work by Danny Lyon. During the 1960s and 1970s several photographers, including Diane Arbus, Larry Clark, and Susan Meiselas, documented life on the fringes of society, providing a glimpse of counterculture from the inside out. These images were often published as narrative sequences in books that told complex stories in multiple pictures. In the early 1960s Danny Lyon (U.S., born 1942) joined the Chicago Outlaw Motorcycle Club and began photographing his fellow Hell’s Angels while traveling with the club on his 650cc Triumph motorcycle. The result was one of the seminal photographic essays of his generation, and the 1968 publication The Bikeriders that contained over 50 photographs and interviews with Lyon’s subjects. (from www.henryart.org) Show runs thru 4 May.

The Frye Art Museum is featuring Isamu Noguchi and Qi Baishi: Beijing 1930. This exhibition brings together for the first time the work of two of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, Isamu Noguchi (American, 1904-1988) and Qi Baishi (Chinese, 1864-1957). Comprising drawings, ink paintings, calligraphic works, and sculptures from the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, and private and public collections, it presents forty-three works by Noguchi and twenty-three by Qi Baishi. The exhibition and its accompanying publication document the period of six months that Noguchi spent in Beijing and shed new light on the little-known relationship between the two artists.” (from fryemuseum.org)  The Frye also hosts an art lecture series every Thursday night.

With this much going on, you couldn't possibly complain that there's nothing to do in Seattle!

Support your local art scene! Cheers.

~ BCDuncan