Jen Graves, who was The Stranger's art critic for more than a decade and who resigned yesterday, is an extraordinary critic, a fierce reporter, and a brilliant essayist.
I will never forget reading her work in the Tacoma News Tribune, driving to Tacoma in a friend's borrowed car, taking her out for burritos at Tacos Guaymas, and talking her into coming to work at The Stranger. (I will also never forget how she ate that burrito—with a knife and fork! First step: making a dozen stab wounds that she then filled with hot sauce.) Though I haven't been her boss at The Stranger in almost a year, there are things she wrote here that will live in my mind forever. You've probably had that experience, too. Her work is unforgettable.
She brought intelligence, integrity, and insight to everything she did, and for her talents she was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism in 2014.
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Akio Takamori's Drawings and Sculptures of Men Apologizing
An essay about the great Seattle artist Akio Takamori reckoning with his own mortality, published right before he died.
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The Outside Artist: A Profile of Buster Simpson
How Buster Simpson turned his righteous anger about development, the environment, and Seattle's economic disparity into art. VALERIE SILVER/COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
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Charles Krafft Is a White Nationalist Who Believes the Holocaust Is a Deliberately Exaggerated Myth
"If Charles Krafft is a Holocaust denier, what does that say about his revered artwork? What exactly does he believe happened, and didn't happen, during the Holocaust?" IMAGE COURTESY OF FINE ARTS MUSEUMS OF SAN FRANCISCO
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Eden Was a Scary Movie About Sex-Trafficking Based on a True Story—Or Was It?
What does art that claims to be "based on a true story" owe its audience? When the "true" part gets called into question, and the art-makers go silent, what are we supposed to think?
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The Seattle Art Fair Was So Successful, the City Literally Applauded
Who knew Paul Allen cared this much about art? SOFIE LEE
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Paul Allen Gives to Arts with One Hand but Takes Away with the Other
As the billionaire's flashy new art center prepares to open, the rest of the arts in the Northwest wait to hear if he's abandoned them for good. COURTESY VULCAN INC.
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The Most Unusual Art Gift Ever
The conceptual artwork Gift of Sale consisted of an artist using prize money to buy feminist and queer art for Seattle Art Museum to fill gaps in SAM's permanent collection. COURTESY OF ANN LEDA SHAPIRO AND SEATTLE ART MUSEUM
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Seattle Is One of the Most Outrageous Land Sculptures in American History
Fifty million cubic yards of earth were moved to sculpt Seattle as we know it. No wonder Seattle artists respond to the earth so distinctly. COURTESY OF SEATTLE PUBLIC LIBRARY
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Susan Robb Is Going from Mexico to Canada Like No Artist Has Gone Before
A profile of the artist Susan Robb during her five-month walk along the Pacific Crest Trail, when she was Instagramming nature, replicating rocks, and Facebooking the sublime. Courtesy of the Artist
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A Profile of the Artist Susie Lee
Susie Lee created 12 silent video portraits of residents of a nursing home, each a half hour long. Kyle Johnson
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A Profile of the Artist Jeffry Mitchell
"Jeffry Mitchell's art is ejaculatory, in every good and holy and dirty and wrong sense of the word."
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Deeply Embarrassed White People Talk Awkwardly About Race
In addition to art criticism, Jen wrote brilliantly about social issues. Please don't skip this story just because you're not racist. Sean Johnson
