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.
CENTER ON CONTEMPORARY ART
(at Consolidated Works) 410 Terry Ave N, 728-1980
INDEXTERITY
The show's title, laboriously translated from its semiotic roots, signals an inquiry into photography-as-truth, a deconstruction of its authority. In this show: Yauger Yauger, Timothy Ringsmuth (Ms.), Miguel Edwards, Travis Winn, and Deborah Coito. Curated by Dan Kany. Through April 8.
CONSOLIDATED WORKS
410 Terry Ave N, 381-3218
SUBlimina
This new exhibition is the touring Altoids Curiously Strong Collection--tied rather loosely to the Consolidation Series theme of public and private thresholds, but we'll forgive it for bringing some good contemporary work by 25 emerging artists. Through April 8.
FRYE ART MUSEUM
704 Terry Ave, 622-9250
ALLAN ROHAN CRITE
This retrospective includes paintings, watercolors, and drawings by Crite, an African American artist largely ignored by the world until now. Crite--still alive and kicking at 90--focused on his neighborhood in Boston, creating a body of work that dignified ordinary life as he saw it. Through May 6.
HENRY ART GALLERY
15th Ave NE at NE 41st St, 543-2280
*WOLFGANG LAIB: A RETROSPECTIVE
Laib's work resides in the delicate realm of contemplation and nature: pollen sifted into piles and large color field-like squares, "milkstones," forms built of beeswax. This is the first American survey of Laib's work--a touring show that has been shown at the Hirshhorn in Washington D.C. and will travel to San Diego, Houston, and Munich. Through May 6.
PERFORMING PHOTOGRAPHY
Selections from the Joseph and Elaine Monson Photography Collection, chosen by the collection's curator, Michael van Horn. The idea is to demonstrate the medium's flexibility--from documentary to staged, entirely fictitious scenarios--but the upshot is just really good work by some of the best artists around. Through June 3.
THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF JOHN GUTMANN: CULTURE SHOCK
Images from the '30s through the '50s selected by the photographer before his death in 1998 comprise this exhibition of American street life. Through May 27.
NORDIC HERITAGE MUSEUM
3014 NW 67th St, 789-5707
*BETWEEN SPACE AND TIME: CONTEMPORARY NORWEGIAN SCULPTURE AND INSTALLATION
It's hard enough to keep up with American and British contemporary art; what's going on in Norway tends to be a big hole for all of us. This touring show of six mid-career Norwegian artist--which was seen in Moss, Norway, and Atlanta and moves on to New York--includes Per Barclay's oil-room installations and BĂĄrd Breivik's delicate mesh forms. The theme of the show in no way proscribes it, proving that even in a place as isolated as Norway, regional aesthetic takes a back seat to the personal one. Through April 1.
PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER
200 Second Ave N, 443-2001
*MATHEMATICA: A WORLD OF NUMBERS... AND BEYOND
The original version of this exhibit, an exploration of mathematics, created by the furniture designers Charles and Ray Eames, was one of the Pacific Science Center's first shows. Through April 29.
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.
SEWN
Sculpture by six local artists (Rachel Brumer, David Chatt, Alison Gates, Wendy Hanson, Sara Lanzillotta, and Keith Yurdana) who work with textiles and sewing. Through July 22.
SEATTLE ASIAN ART MUSEUM
1400 E Prospect St, Volunteer Park, 654-3100
THE EMBODIED IMAGE: CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY FROM THE JOHN B. ELLIOTT COLLECTION
There really isn't any equivalent of calligraphy in American culture--a merging of art and poetry that is highly revered in Chinese culture. Elliott's collection, one of the best outside Asia, includes scrolls, album leaves, and other works, seventy of which are on view in this exhibition. Through May 27.
WHATCOM MUSEUM
121 Prospect St, Bellingham, 360-676-6981
*PETLAND
Artist Kathy Glowen has built a biography-through-inventory of the possessions of Mamie Laura Rand, a Spokane woman who lived to be 101. Looking at her accumulated belongings creates a negative space in which Rand emerges: centenarian, pet-store owner, single woman. Glowen's respectful arrangements are also conceptually appealing, an intricate visual catalogue of things. Through May 5.
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
BEN DRURY
Album sleeves and limited-edition toys. Opening reception Sat March 31, 7-9 pm. Houston, 907 E Pike St, 860-7820. Through June 2.
HEARD SAID
Artist Stuart Keeler has interviewed and recorded the stories and sounds of immigrants (most of them living in Seattle) and turned them into a sound and sculpture installation. Opening reception Tues April 3, 7:30 pm. Jack Straw New Media Gallery, 4261 Roosevelt Way NE, 634-0919. Through May 31.
*CHARLES ROSENBERG
Works of paper, rather than on paper--in this case silky glassine sewed to handmade black paper. Rosenberg's art investigates ideas of pattern, shape, and sign. Nation, 1921 Fifth Ave, 374-9492. Through April 22.
CONTINUING EXHIBITIONS
BOOskA FUZZY LOVE TRIANGLE
Three artists salute pop-Japanese cartoons: Martin Ontiveros, Bwana Spoons, and Saiman Chow. Roq La Rue, 2224 Second Ave, 374-8977. Through March 31.
GEORGE CHACONA, THERESA BATTY
In Sorrows of Isis, Chacona takes the old and recombines it into something new: Egyptian drawings, text, photographs, and etched tile. The result is Egyptian pop art, more or less. Battey is involved with her own alchemical process, merging photography and glass. Esther Claypool Gallery, 617 Western Ave, 264-1586. Through March 31.
COVERING THE NEW YORKER
Forty covers from that East Coast literary behemoth, from the good old days of William Steig and Saul Steinberg to the controversial work of Art Spiegelman. D'Adamo/Hill Gallery, 307 Occidental Ave S, 652-4414. Through April 4.
*SEAN DUFFY
The Los Angeles-based Duffy takes an askance--but somehow still respectful--look at mod culture in an exhibition that will fill both Billy Howard's gallery and the furniture store that houses it. Howard House, 2017 Second Ave, 256-6399. Through March 31.
SHAWN FERRIS
Ferris' paintings--with a personal iconography of birds, eggs, and crowns--feel like medieval miniatures--detailed, cryptic, otherworldly. See Stranger Suggests. Two Bells Tavern, 2313 Fourth Ave, 441-3050. Through April 4.
CAIO FONSECA
New paintings by the Italian artist in his first Northwest show. Winston Wächter, 403 Dexter Ave, 652-5855. Through April 27.
YVETTE FRANZ
In her skilled re-representations of consumer products, Franz takes apart ideas of appearance and identity. This show, entitled Neara's Crown, features new work. Highline Community College Gallery, Building 25, 2400 S 24th St, Des Moines, 878-3710. Through March 31.
CHRISTIAN FRENCH
This show, entitled Transparence, includes previous and new work, including French's gorgeous bubble prints and some black-and-white road photography. Nico Gallery, 619 Western Ave, 264-1710. Through March 31.
KAREN GANZ
Ganz combines slapstick cartoonish characters with layers of paint, both translucent and aggressively opaque, on a large, inescapable scale. The humor is apparent; the darkness sneaks up on you. Grover/Thurston Gallery, 309 Occidental Ave S, 223-0816. Through April 1.
GEOFF GARZA
New work by Garza, whose abstract paintings on panel combine the best of minimalism with a kind of fun and feeling not usually associated with that movement. Ballard/Fetherston Gallery, 818 E Pike St, 322-9440. Through April 4.
GODDESS ODALISQUE IDYLL
The female figure translated into object of worship, through oil paintings and prayer mats. Erotic! Black Lab Gallery, 5208 Ballard Ave NW, 781-2392. Through April 11.
*JENNY HEISHMAN
New sculpture by Heishman, who recently returned from a fellowship working with Charles Ray. SOIL Artist Cooperative, 12th and Pike, 264-8061. Through April 1.
INTRODUCTIONS
Work by Rod Appleton, Barbara DePirro, David deVillier, John Jenkins III, Gemma Molera, Laura Ross-Paul, Junko Yamamoto, and Hamid Zavareei. SAM Rental Sales Gallery, 1334 First Ave, #140, 654-3240. Through April 7.
STEVE JENSEN
Wall of Masks is a work Jensen has created over the past year with kids from the Maple Lane High School (a juvenile correctional facility), Diversity Dance Workshop, and Lambert House. The emphasis is on communication through art, and these masks, made with found objects as well as traditional materials, offer these kids ways of expression outside therapy-speak . Seattle Art Museum Rental Sales Gallery, 1334 First Ave, 748-9482. Through May 13.
SALLY LARSEN
Digital projections that suggest water and other personal imagery. Sacred Circle Gallery of American Indian Art, Daybreak Star Arts Center, Discovery Park, 285-4425. Through April 1.
*MANIA
Fuzzy Engine's core artists take on excess, obsession, and cultural enthusiasm. Fuzzy Engine, 2801 NW Market St, 789-6951. Through March 31.
ROBERT MIRENZI
Mixed-media sculpture using, among other things, dried pig snouts and ears, architects' templates, and crayons, contained in wax, plaster, or found containers. Francine Seders Gallery, 6701 Greenwood Ave N, 782-0355. Through April 1.
*JASON PUCCINELLI
Remember those paintings with the holes where the heads should be? And you'd put your head into the hole and have a picture taken as the bearded lady? Puccinelli is reviving this sideshow tradition with full-scale paintings that offer photo ops of a much more disturbing kind. Vital 5 Productions, 2200 Westlake Ave, 254-0475. Through April 4.
SOPHIE RYDER
You can see her Minotaur and Hare in Kirkland's waterfront sculpture park, and then check out the smaller works in the gallery. The creatures are built out of bronze and bound wire, and have a rough shagginess that is quite appealing. Atelier 31, 122 Central Way, Kirkland, 425-576-1477. Through April 11.
BRYAN SMITH, DAVID TRAYLOR, CATHY McCLURE
Smith transforms cardboard, screws, and wire into formal elements in his abstract work. Traylor's spiky, organic ceramics have the heft of some heavier metal; they're satisfying and repellent at once. In the video room, new work by Seattle's McClure, who harnesses light, movement, and music like nobody's business. Commencement Art Gallery, Ninth and Commerce, Tacoma, 253-591-5341. Through April 12.
* S.M.S. PROJECT, LOUIS MUELLER
It stands for "shit must stop," and is a collection begun in 1968 by the painter William Copley. He invited artists to submit work to be sold to subscribers in portfolios, with all the commercial work (the replicating, the selling) done by artists. It includes representative work from a number of important 20th-century movements, including Fluxus, Pop, and conceptual art, with work by Marcel Duchamp, Yoko Ono, John Cage, and Christo. Mueller's painted bronze sculpture is also on view. Elliott Brown Gallery, 215 Westlake Ave N, 340-8000. Through April 14.
EVENTS
FOTO REVU
Here's how it works: the first 67 photographers to register with the Photography Council will get three 20-minute review sessions with a panel of photography professionals. The registration fee for the March 31 all-day event is $45 for students, $60 for Photography Council Members, and $75 for everyone else. To register, call the Council office at 654-3119.
OPPORTUNITES FOR ARTISTS
CoCA NORTHWEST ANNUAL
This year's annual--which typically draws a kind of weary controversy over the final selections--will be juried by Michael Sweney, the director of the Charles Cowles Gallery in New York. If you live in Washington, Montana, Oregon, Alaska, or Idaho, send your submissions to 410 Terry Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109; it must be postmarked by April 27 or hand-delivered by May 4. For more information, call 728-1980 or go to www.cocaseattle.org.