Robert Yoder at Howard House. Sept 1-26.
In the wake of his five-figure commission to design a public art piece for the new football stadium, Yoder has graduated from the ranks of emerging artists. Blowing Dust Area will show off his new work in a method he's practiced for years: cutting up and reassembling, then partially painting over road and shop signs so their original meanings are lost. What's left are intriguing symbols that seem freighted with illegible language and meaning.
James Lavadour at Grover Thurston. Sept 2-Oct 2
In this solo show Lavadour continues to express, through paintings and prints, his passionate relationship with the land.
Northwest Masters at Kurt Lidtke. Sept 2-Oct 2
One of only a few local galleries with a devotion to the mid-century generation of NW artists, Lidtke shows a slice of their most famous members, including Morris Graves, Kenneth Callahan, Paul Horiuchi, Mark Tobey, and Guy Anderson.
Fandra Chang at James Harris. Sept 2-Oct 2
L.A. artist Chang's multi-panel paintings mix actual painted passages with photographic reproductions mounted on Plexiglas or aluminum.
Mark Calderon at Greg Kucera Gallery. Sept 2-Oct 2
Calderon's work has been heavily influenced for years by botanical forms and various religious symbology, and his current body of sculpture continues this exploration in new mediums. Calderon has cast in metal and glass before, but has now branched into casting cement, which lends itself well to the intended rough elegance of Calderon's objects.
"The Self, Absorbed" at Bellevue Art Museum. Sept 4-Nov 7
This group show looks at contemporary self-portraiture, much of it involving new technologies. Curator Brian Wallace has conceived the category widely enough to fit in everything from Chuck Close's holographic images of his own head to French performance artist Orlan's documentary footage of plastic surgeries she's undergone in order to resemble figures in historical paintings.
"We Love You Jar Jar!!" at Milky World. Sept 4-30
Taking a controversial stand in favor of the most unloved computer animated character ever, Milky World regulars pay tribute to the gay, West Indian, bumbling oaf from Star Wars.
Richard Marquis at Elliott Brown Gallery. Sept 10-Oct 2
The Animal Kingdom contains murrine (a glass mosaic technique) vessels with animal silhouettes, and sample boxes full of each of the 32 different murrine animals featured on the vessels. Also exhibited are Marquis' signature glass teapots.
Norman Lundin at Francine Seders. Sept 10-Oct 3
Concurrently with a one-person exhibition at the Frye Art Museum, Lundin shows landscapes and still lifes at Seders. Lundin's gray compositions explore the cold Northwest light of winter in near-empty rooms -- typically, a studio.
"Nuggets" at Houston. Sept 11-Oct 17
Capitol Hill's newest artspace introduces the artists who will show during its first year, including photographer Simon Larbalestier, graphic designer Shawn Wolfe, graffiti artist Phil Frost, and clothing designer Green Lady.
"Menagerie" at Seattle Art Museum Rental/Sales Gallery. Sept 16-Oct 16
A group show of works containing animal imagery entitled Menagerie, featuring some very interesting regional artists including Shawn Ferris, Kathryn Glowen, Carolyn Krieg, and Cheryl dos Remedios.
"Art Detour Seattle." Sept 17-19
Art Detour Seattle is the brainchild of artist/arts administrator Sarah Savidge, who envisioned an open studio event that would provide artists the opportunity for broader exposure and the public a chance to see where and how artists work. A map of locations and a directory of participating artists are provided. For more information call 726-8836.
Bellevue Art Museum groundbreaking. Sept 21
In a little more than a year, BAM intends to complete its move into a stunningly original building designed by Steven Holl Architects, designers of Seattle University's Chapel of St. Ignatius. This groundbreaking ceremony kicks off the construction.
"An American Century of Photography" at Seattle Art Museum. Sept 30-Jan 2
Drawn from Hallmark's corporate collection, this show of some 250 photographs spanning more than 100 years includes work by Muybridge, Stieglitz, Strand, Arbus, Warhol, and Cindy Sherman. As its subtitle, From Dryplate to Digital suggests, it traces the effects of technological change on the art of photography.
Jackie Hunsaker at Ballard Fetherston Gallery. Oct 3-30
A solo exhibition of figurative, brightly colored oil paintings by Seattle's Jackie Hunsaker. Her cast of introspective characters live on various perspective planes and rarely interact with each other, creating a varied and complex narrative.
Jeffrey Simmons at Greg Kucera. Oct 3-30
Simmons' target paintings, made by spinning his canvas around on a lazy Susan to make perfect, pin-striped, concentric circles have gotten him a lot of notice. In his new work, he emphasizes the Op Art, psychedelic tendencies of his technique.
Tae Won Yu, Jason Faulkner, and Andy Rohrman at Zeitgeist. Oct 7-Nov 3
A trio of graphic designers, including K Records' brilliant designer Tae Won Yu, show individual and collaborative work.
Efrain Almeida at James Harris. Oct 7-Nov 6
Almeida, a Brazilian artist from Ceará, shows small carved wooden sculptures which relate to traditional religious art but also to contemporary social problems.
Artificial Life at Consolidated Works. Oct 8-Nov 28
A new multipurpose art center opens in temporary South Lake Union digs this fall with an art show, a new theater piece by the Compound, and a film series curated by Debby Girdwood of WigglyWorld, all under the theme of Artificial Life. The art component, curated by Meg Shiffler, includes a large installation by New York artist Sandy Skoglund.
"Settlers" at Kirkland Arts Center. Oct 14-Nov 19
Settlers is a group show curated by Norah Flatley featuring artists who use materials from everyday life including felt, yarn, cloth, and other found materials. The influence of pioneering, homesteading, and homemaking is evident in the works of Wendy Hanson, Jean Hicks, Martha Parish, and Colleen Tracy.
Gilles Barbier at Henry Art Gallery. Oct 15-Jan 2
As part of Côte Ouest, a string of West Coast exhibitions organized by the French Embassy, Marseilles installation artist Barbier overlaps the systems we use to describe economics, biology, psychology, genealogy, linguistics, and so on, looking at how they overlap and break down each other.
"What It Meant to Be Modern: Seattle Art at Mid-Century" at Henry Art Gallery. Oct 16-Jan 23
The Henry goes back over the apparently glorious moment when Seattle had maybe four artists that the rest of the world had heard of. Anderson, Tobey, Callahan, and Graves are joined by their less famous compatriots, as well as archival ephemera (reviews and letters) in an attempt to prove the importance of that moment.
Simon Larbalestier at Houston. Oct 21-Nov 28
See "Underdog" profile.
George Stoll at Winston Wachter Fine Art. Oct 28-Nov 27
Los Angeles artist Stoll creates sweet, quirky little objects and paintings about household items. Included will be his balsa wood sponges mounted in little stacks, and lots of other goodies created specifically for his first solo show in the Northwest.
"Dusk" at CoCA. Oct 30-Dec 18
Curated by Milky World director De Kwok and former Seattleite Kim Collmer, Dusk is a millennial show looking at the kind of figures we fear in the post-Littleton era, mixing work by local and national artists.
Shrinky-Dink Art Open Invitational at Zeitgeist. Nov 4-Dec 1
Just like it sounds: A group of local artists exhibit work in the sadly neglected format of the Shrinky-Dink.
Gaylen Hansen at Linda Hodges. Nov 4-27
Works on paper and canvas by this Northwest master. Hansen's fantastical narratives generally take his characters across the dry Eastern Washington landscape and through adventures with giant insects and crazy dogs.
Karen Ganz at Grover Thurston. Nov 4-27
Ganz's paintings revolve around a small stable of '40s cartoon types -- a harried traveler with a suitcase, a man balancing an umbrella, a sweating businessman. Ganz uses and reuses the figures in her red and black compositions, which range from small artist books to expansive, collaged canvases.
Drake Deknatel and Marion Peck at Davidson Galleries. Nov 4-27
Deknatel is an artist's artist. He mixed his own pigments and paints with technical proficiency, being true to abstraction in its purest form. In his new Reconstruction series he starts with the figure and then tears it down until what is left is pure line and texture.
Peck's figures crowd their interior settings and live in rooms that are perspectively impossible. Old ladies at tea parties, a redneck prom queen, an old man drying his hands in the bathroom... loaded images tinged with poignant truth and loneliness.
Kathryn Glowen at Francine Seders Gallery. Nov 5-28
Glowen's Architecture of Language includes a series of 26 alphabet collages and a group of three-dimensional assemblages incorporating shorthand details. This exhibit is her first since her intensive five year focus on the development and creation of the celebrated large-scale installation Petland.
Mark Takamichi Miller at Howard House. Nov 6-28
See "Underdog" profile.
Michelle Fierro at James Harris Gallery. Nov 11-Dec 18
At a distance this Los Angeles artist's paintings on canvas and paper come across as a complex, random array of chunks and spots. Upon closer examination those chunks and spots are revealed to be a wide variety of detritus including string, bits of paper, lint, and blobs of paint. The muck sits on a fresh and clean white surface with such delicate spontaneity that it appears as if it could all blow away at any moment.
Game Show at Bellevue Art Museum. Nov 20-Jan 30
BAM explores the links between games and art-making. With John Cage as a spiritual godfather, this show groups artists with professional game makers of both the high and low-tech variety, and has them create new games during residencies at the museum. Participants include Paul Berger, Barbara Ellman, Beryl Graham, Robert Kalka, Cathy McClure, Mark Newport, and Laura Ruby.
Inside Out: New Chinese Art at Henry Art Gallery and Tacoma Art Museum. Nov 20-March 5
See "Blockbuster" profile.
