VISUAL ART


BELLEVUE ART MUSEUM

510 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue, 425-454-3322


LUMINOUS: LIGHT AS MATERIAL, MEDIUM, AND METAPHOR

Light as an architectural element is one of Steven Holl's most famous tropes, and this exhibition was assembled to examine it further. It happily includes work by some of the artists you would expect to be represented: Dan Flavin, Joseph Kosuth, Tokihiro Sato, and Iole Allesandrini. Through June 17.


BIT PLANE (BUREAU OF INVERSE TECHNOLOGY)

The bureau of inverse technology arrived in Seattle last December and set out to create a portrait of the city through surveillance, observation, and interviews. Footage was gathered by the bit plane, a small remote-control aircraft, and is now presented in a site-specific installation. Through April 22.


FRYE ART MUSEUM

704 Terry Ave, 622-9250


REPRESENTING L.A.: PICTORAL CURRENTS IN CONTEMPORARY SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WORK

An exhibition of California representational art that opens up the term "realist" to welcome work all along the spectrum from the very real to the conceptual, portraiture to landscape, narrative to still life. There's work by 70 artists--Alison Saar, Enrique Martinez Celaya, and Jim Morphesis among them--in this, the first show to conceptualize and gather together work in this stylistic vein. Through Feb 11.


MARY TIFT

Prints that combine the techniques of etching, silkscreen, embossing, and collage. Tift's realm is everyday objects, rendered with an Asian feel. Through Feb 4.


HENRY ART GALLERY

15th Ave NE at NE 41st St, 543-2280


BEYOND NOVELTY: NEW DIGITAL IMAGERY

An interesting little one-room show featuring artists who work with digitally manipulated images, some of them quite stunning. This is the logical extension to the question that photography poses about truth-telling, and about trusting what you see. Through Feb 4.


GRAPHIC DESIGN IN THE MECHANICAL AGE: SELECTIONS FROM THE MERRILL C. BERMAN COLLECTION

Covering the years around and between the World Wars, a time when design as we know it was born and really began to influence the way important information was seen; the styles that developed during that period still have currency today. Through Feb 18.


PETER SHELTON: STRETCHspread

Shelton is best known for his installations that expand to fill a gallery's whole space with forms that suggests the body and it parts. He's one of those eighties artists who steeped himself in this art-of-the-body theme, in shapes cast in different materials, from fiberglass to bronze and brass. STRETCHspread is a gift to the Henry's permanent collection from the deep-pocketed Lannan Foundation. Through April 8.


TERRAFORM 1

Developed by a group of artists with the support of CARTAH (the UW Center for Advanced Research Technology in the Arts and Humanities), Terraform contains a computer-generated structure that creates a new topography for the gallery, plus projected light, sound, and video. Through April 19.


SEATTLE ART MUSEUM

100 University St, 654-3100


CREATING PERFECTION: SHAKER OBJECTS AND THEIR AFFINITIES

An exhibition examining the Shaker culture through its furniture, textiles, and tools, as well as photographs, prints, and drawings. A selection of non-Shaker objects shows the influences absorbed, and rejected, by this simplicity-embracing group; an adjacent display of modern works traces a similarly strict formalism that artists use to create structure in the chaotic modern world. Through April 29.


*LANGUAGE LET LOOSE

A tiny little exhibition on the incorporation of text into the visual world. The show's centerpiece is Gary Hill's video installation House of Cards; there's also work by Walker Evans, Ed Ruscha, Alice Wheeler, and a set of Robert Heinecken's Recto/Verso pieces, complete with intelligent but unrelated commentary. Through April 29.


GINNY RUFFNER: MIND GARDEN

As part of the Documents Northwest/PONCHO Series, Ruffner has transformed a gallery into a metaphorical map of the brain, using dried rose petals, steel, and glass. Through Feb 25.


*JOHN SINGER SARGENT

This show, curator Trevor Fairbrother's swan song, pulls together an extensive representation of the work of Sargent, the premier portrait artist of his period (1856-1925). Included are a dozen of his famous portraits of the Wertheimer family, along with a good deal of his less famous works: his charcoal studies of male nudes and the watercolors he produced near the end of his life. Through March 18.


WING LUKE ASIAN MUSEUM

407 Seventh Ave S, 623-5124


THROUGH OUR EYES

An extensive exhibition of Asian American photography of the Northwest, from journalism to fine art, including the photography of Frank Matsura and the contemporary work of Dean Wong and Jessica Kim. Through April 8.


WRIGHT EXHIBITION SPACE

407 Dexter Ave N, 264-8200


*THE WRIGHT COLLECTION

Virginia and Bagley Wright have devoted one gallery entirely to their great collection of '60s and '70s color field paintings, and introduced a large David Salle oil and the John Baldessari piece Two Onlookers and Tragedy to the mix. Other highlights include a Robert Longo, Eric Fischl, a huge Warhol Rorschach, and Jules Olitski's Thigh Smoke. Open-ended run.


OPENING EXHIBITIONS


KATIE BALDWIN, COLLEEN COX

The elements of quilting--piecework, integration--and the human body. Opening reception Thurs Feb 1, 6-9 pm. Oculus Gallery, 216 Alaskan Way S, 442-9365. Through Feb 23.


GREG BERNHARDT

Large paintings on instant gratification and dehydrated reconstituted life. Bernhardt is escaping Seattle for Prague this spring, so catch him while you can. Opening reception Thurs Feb 1, 6-10 pm. Independent Media Center, 1415 Third Ave, 262-0721. Through Feb 28.


*CAROL BOLT

An installation about abundance and need, built out of starlight peppermints. See Bio Box. Opening reception Thurs Feb 1, 6-8 pm. King County Gallery, 506 Second Ave, Second Floor, 296-7580. Through Feb 23.


*THE DYSFUNCTIONAL CHAIR SHOW

Don't sit! The only stricture for artists participating in this group show was that the chair be impossible--or dangerous--to sit in. It's not just a gag, but inquires into the very identity of the object. When is a chair no longer a chair? Opening reception Fri Feb 2, 7-11 pm. Vital 5 Productions, 2200 Westlake Ave, 254-0475. Through March 1.


ERIC ESCHENBACH

Landscape paintings from Horse Canyon and other sites in central Washington. This is the last show in the gallery's Madrona digs; the next show will be in a new Capitol Hill space. Opening reception Sat Feb 3, 6-10 pm. Trapeze Gallery, 1130 34th Ave, 329-3363. Through Feb 25.


JOHN MOLLOY

An oddly chilling pair of themes: photographs taken while Molloy was at his brother's funeral in Ireland, shown with images of Capitol Hill by night. Opening reception Fri Feb 2, 6-8 pm. Photographic Center Northwest, 900 12th Ave, 720-7222. Through Feb 27.


MARIA PORGES

Bay Area artist Porges is populating the world with wax vessels. Displayed like shop items on a wooden ledge, the multicolored bottles are imprinted with words, creating layers of text and meaning. Opening reception Thurs Feb 1, 6-8 pm. James Harris Gallery, 309A Third Ave S, 903-6220. Through March 10.


THE PRIVACY SHOW

Six artists interpret the ways the world invades our lives. With work by Tyler Cufley, Paul Davies, Jeffrey DeGolier, Rachel Johnson, Samantha Scherer, and Claude Zervas. Opening reception Sat Feb 3, 6-10 pm. SOIL Artist Cooperative, 1205 Pike St, 264-8061. Through Feb 25.


ROUTE 7 PROJECT

The seven refers to the bus, and the work in this show--by artist Nhon--might feel... familiar. In fact, you've seen it on bus shelters along the route. RAW Gallery, 409 Seventh Ave S, 340-1445. Through Feb 24.


JENA SCOTT

This is Scott's second solo show at Eyre/Moore, and this time her theme is Explorers and Other Historical Figures--including the artist herself (as well as Calamity Jane and Pamela Anderson Lee). Eyre/Moore Gallery, 913 Western Ave, 624-5596. Through Feb 24.


PATRICIA SMITH

Smith's oil paintings focus on bodies--the fleshy actuality of them. The exhibition is entitled Barby: A Daughter's Introspective, and is accompanied by text (of the introspective kind, one imagines). Opening reception Fri Feb 2, 7-9 pm. Phinney Center Gallery, 6532 Phinney Ave N, 783-2244. Through Feb 23.


MERRILL WAGNER

Both in and out of the studio, Wagner explores paint on what can only be called the world--paint on rocks, paint on asphalt, paint on concrete. This show features new paintings on steel and minimal manmade landscapes. Opening reception Thurs Feb 1, 6-8 pm. William Traver Gallery, 110 Union St, second floor, 587-6501. Through Feb 25.


CONTINUING EXHIBITIONS


*ARTIST TRUST AUCTION EXHIBITION

The auction isn't until mid-February, but the work will be up for a month beforehand. There's some amazing art showing up, including work by Phil Roach, Thess Fenner, and Patrick Holderfield. Bank of America Gallery, 701 Fifth Ave, Third Floor, 585-3200. Through Feb 6.


JOHN BOWMAN

The primary reference for Bowman's paintings is the theater, and what we see is a fraction of it: the curtain, the stage, a chandelier. But that's all we get--the interrupted narrative is ours to provide. Winston Wächter Fine Art, 403 Dexter Ave N, 652-5855. Through March 3.


*LESLIE CLAGUE

This is Clague's first solo show--long overdue. Decaedent Objects combines the ideas of death and self-indulgence. The artist gently mocks her own practices, which include covering found objects (shown here in two window installations) in felt and wire, sampling, and recombining thrown-away elements to create something part-quaint, part-obsession, part-memento mori. The theater's lobby features drawings and larger-scale sculpture. Little Theatre, 608 19th Ave E, 675-2055. Through Feb 25.


JOE MAX EMMINGER

Emminger's world has an affinity with Marc Chagall's: dreamy, but somehow logical, populated with stray figures doing strange things. The work is eminently likable, with big blocky areas of color and small specific narratives. Grover/Thurston Gallery, 309 Occidental Ave S, 223-0816. Through Feb 10.


*TATIANA GARMENDIA, DAVID PIRRIE

Garmendia's graphite-and-silver-leaf drawings take us to the body's interior in a series of x-rays, somehow both hallucinatory and solidly real. The bodies painted by Pirrie are also clinical and monochrome, but the effect is entirely different. Atelier 31, 122 Kirkland Way, Kirkland, 425-576-1477. Through Feb 6.


PATRICK HOLDERFIELD

A window installation with one of Holderfield's food paintings, this time an interpretation of John Singer Sargent's Aesop. SAM Rental Sales Gallery, 1334 First Ave, 654-3183. Through Feb 24.


*HAROLD HOLLINGSWORTH, ARTHUR S. AUBRY

Reaching back to the rec rooms of his youth, Hollingsworth offers oil paintings of croquet balls and racing car decals. Aubry continues his investigation of the mechanical world with Large Color Photographs of Industrial Ephemera. Esther Claypool Gallery, 617 Western Ave, 264-1586. Through Feb 10.


ILDIK" KALAPÁCS

Work by the Hungarian-born, EWU-educated Kalapács. Walden's Art Gallery, El Centro de la Raza, 2524 16th Ave S, #201, 323-1273. Through Feb 17.


STEFAN KNORR

Knorr's paintings, which combine found images with created ones, are savvy about the world and tend to make the media (in all its manifestations) their subject. Of late, Knorr has been moving toward images from the natural world. Gallery Unpublished, Methodologie, 808 Howell St, Sixth Floor, 623-1044. Through Feb 7.


*MANIA

Fuzzy Engine's core artists take on excess, obsession, and cultural enthusiasm. Fuzzy Engine, 2801 NW Market St, 789-6951. Through March 3.


*MARK TAKAMICHI MILLER

Miller's recent work has consisted of big, flirty paintings, saturated--almost garishly--with color poured over and staining the canvas. This show, with eight new paintings, moves away from pure abstraction to explore the possibility, however faint, of narrative. Howard House, 2017 Second Ave, 256-6399. Through Feb 24.


NORTHWEST PRINTMAKERS

Prints in a variety of methods by Larry Bemm, Dionne Haroutunian, and Joan Stuart Ross. SAM Rental Sales Gallery, 1334 First Ave, 654-3240. Through Feb 17.


SARAH SAVIDGE

Urban Iconography--paintings on canvas and wood panels, using iconography from Asia and Africa. Virginia Inn, 1937 First Ave, 728-1937. Through Feb 27.


EVENTS


PETAH COYNE

A lecture by the much-lauded Coyne, a sculptor whose work lives in more than a few national museums. Presented by the Contemporary Art Council. SAM, Fri Feb 2, 7 pm, $7.


DURAN DURAN RETROSPECTIVE

For three days only: all the memorabilia (with over 150 posters) you miss from the guys with the big blonde hair, courtesy of Durandy Productions. Art/Not Terminal Gallery, 2045 Westlake Ave, 233-0680.