CENTER ON CONTEMPORARY ART
1420 11th Ave, 728-1980.

* DK PAN

Tactile landscapes compose innovative performance artist pan's installation, which features 2,500 pounds of salt, fake fur, fish, video monitors, projections, and a nude body, to be situated in the gallery for six weeks. Through Feb 26.

CONSOLIDATED WORKS
500 Boren Ave N, 860-5245

* SORTA

See Stranger Suggests. Opening reception Fri Feb 14, 6 pm-8 pm (gala opening follows until 2 am, $7). Through March 23.

FIFTH ANNUAL ALTOIDScolor="#FF0000">* CURIOUSLY STRONG COLLECTION

Don't write this off as yet another corporate attempt to build cred in the art world--there's almost always something good. Through March 23.

SEATTLE ART MUSEUM
100 University St, 654-3100.

* JACOB LAWRENCE

In its only West Coast stop, the extensive traveling exhibition of Lawrence's career in narrative takes residence at SAM. Through May 4.

OPENING EXHIBITIONS


DIANE KURZYNA

A remount of April's installation, featuring recycled trash for the ultimate anti-princess: White Trash Wedding. Seattle Pacific University Art Center Gallery, 3 W Cremona St, 281-2079. Through March 7.

SOPHIA SHALMIYEV

The inaugural art show at Pine Street's most schizophrenic clothing establishment, featuring Rita Ackerman-influenced and beautifully muddled works. Double Trouble, 508 E Pine St, 323-7451. Opening reception Fri Feb 14 at 9 pm, 9 pm. Through March 14.

DAVID SHANNON

Studio nudes and other delicacies inhabit Habitation, Shannon's premier exhibition. Opening reception Sat Feb 15, 7 pm-midnight. JGA Gallery, 1205 E Pike, Suite 1D, 323-4009. Through March 15.

* BRIAN SMITH

Cardboard boxes somehow transformed into art--the way Smith follows every rule of modernist aesthetics (while disregarding the sanctification of paint) is only part of the pleasure. Foster/White Gallery, 126 Central Way, Kirkland, 425-822-2305. Through March 9.

CONTINUING EXHIBITIONS


JOHN BAIN

Through the tech-talk of the incredibly obtuse press release sent to us by Polestar Gallery, I've garnered the following understanding: Some kinda crazy mess of electronics and radio transmitters and lasers or something are let loose in a room of seemingly random sound fragments that the viewer interacts with. Polestar Gallery, 1412 18th Ave, 329-4224. Through March 22.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Pigment and its cost: The city of Seattle honors black artists of their portable works collection, featuring the wares of Jacob Lawrence, Gwen Knight, Barbara Thomas, Almerphy Frank-Brown, and others. Key Tower Gallery, 700 Fifth Ave, third floor, 684-7171. Through May 9.

DEFINING THE HOMELAND

Thirty-three artists take a crack at post-9/11 definitions of "homeland" in Gallery 110's premier juried show. Gallery 110, 110 S Washington St, 624-9336. Through March 1.

BETSY EBY

Eby's first solo show features paintings of organic structures combined with calligraphy in a result that is "rich" in "abstraction," whatever that means. Winston Wächter Fine Art, 403 Dexter Ave N, 652-5855. Through March 6.

* THE FEMALE AIM

The brief timeline of photography--perhaps the most markedly uterine of the dominant visual arts--is dotted with an abundance of principal figures of the fairer sex. See G. Gibson's latest show (presented in conjunction with the current Frye exhibition) featuring the stunning works of Diane Arbus, Sally Mann, Lisette Model, and Imogen Cunningham, to name very, very few. G. Gibson Gallery, 514 E Pike St, 587-4033. Through Feb 28.

T. CHRISTOPHER HACKER

Spare, obtuse narratives of line. Bluebottle Art Gallery and Store, 415 E Pine St, 325-1592. Through Feb 27.

JENNIFER HARRISON

The first in its Blame Canada series, Garde Rail presents the paintings of self-taught (and apparently sane) "outsider" Canuck Harrison. Garde Rail Gallery, 4860 Rainier Ave S, 721-0107. Through March 29.

KATHRYN JACOBI, ALEXANDER PETROV, JEANETTE PASIN SLOAN

Sex is boring. Petrov's Commotion of Love is tired of lust, and just wants a nice girl to settle down with. Also featuring Jacobi's Sleepwalkers Through the Apocalypse, which reminds us once again of that whole "September 11" thing. Davidson Galleries, 313 Occidental Ave S, 624-7684. Through March 1.

DAVID KONIGSBERG

At once "conceptual and objective" and "soft and approachable," Konigsberg's work clearly defies plausible description. Ballard Fetherston Gallery, 818 E Pike St, 322-9440. Through March 1.

LET THEM EAT CAKE

Final week. Twenty-one local artists (including Claire Cowie, Debra Baxter, and Curtis Taylor) take a look at the titular fated phrase in a variety of media. ArtReach Gallery, 1405 Boylston St, 551-3991. Through Feb 13.

JOHN McCORMICK

My, what sparse landscapes you have! Lisa Harris Gallery, 1922 Pike Place, 443-3315. Through Feb 28.

* DYLAN NEUWIRTH

Reviewed this issue. Artcore Studios, 5501 Airport Way S, 767-CORE. Through March 7.

* KLAVIER NONETTE

Final week. An installation of nine antique toy pianos souped up with electromechanics and programmed with compositions commissioned specifically for the exhibition. Bring a quarter for their jukebox-coaxed mechanisms, and immerse yourself in clang. Jack Straw Productions, 4261 Roosevelt Way NE, 634-0919. Through Feb 18.

* MATTHEW PICTON, MARK TAKAMICHI MILLER

Casting molds of dried Oregonian lakebeds, Picton creates sculptures of rubber and resin that act as fossils or frameworks of absent water. Miller's Moon over Maui collects a series of paintings based on random photos he's essentially stolen from one-hour development centers. Howard House, 2017 Second Ave, 256-6399. Through March 1.

* THE PUSH PROJECT

Reviewed this issue. Roq la Rue Gallery, 2316 Second Ave, 374-8977. Through March 1.

* LAURIE REID

Dots of extreme delicacy verge on chaos. James Harris Gallery, 309A Third Ave S, 903-6220. Through March 15.

DAVID SAMUEL ROBBINS

Martin Scorsese jus' can't get enough of this guy. There's no question that Robbins' documents of the inexplicable, mysterious Himalayas are gorgeous, but why does ol' Marty have to keep drilling it into everybody's freakin' heads? Photographic Center Northwest, 900 12th Ave, 720-7222. Through Feb 27.

SAMANTHA SCHERER AND RANDY WOOD

Inspired by what is perhaps the most inane (and I mean that in the best way possible) song in the scope of the Pixies' inanity cannon, La La Love You further extends Wood's deliberate challenge of the gallery setting, posed in his final One Night Only--this time separating subject from context in a multiangled installation. Also featuring Scherer's latest--a look at every-fucking-body's favorite subject, consumerism. Soil Gallery, 1317 E Pine St, 264-8061. Through Feb 23.

STEPHEN SCHILDBACH, RENEE ADAMS AND JUSTIN GIBBENS

With mixed media on wood, Schildbach documents the simple objects that compose his surroundings. Shows with Adams and Gibbens' Branch, Beetle and the Biologic. Artemis Gallery, 3107 S Day St, 323-0562. Through Feb 28.

* JEFFREY SIMMONS

Smart and expensive op art paintings that look more than a little like tacky screensavers. But, you know, smart. Greg Kucera Gallery, 212 Third Ave S, 624-4031. Through March 1.

* FRIESE UNDINE, HANS NELSEN

Seattle expat Undine returns from Chicago with Perdition in Chickentown, a series of monotypes that combine words and images in an exploration of the tumultuous nature of the Windy City. With Nelsen's woodwork. William Traver Gallery, 110 Union St, second floor, 587-6501. Through March 2.