BELLEVUE ART MUSEUM

510 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue, 425-519-0770.


HELEN LESSICK: RESIDENT HOUSES

BAM's current artist in residence shows house forms cast and sculpted from the materials of Bellevue. Through June 9.


WRIGHT EXHIBITION SPACE

407 Dexter Ave N, 264-8200


* SELF-PORTRAITS

Local collectors Bill and Ruth True have a generous definition of a self-portrait; in a way, it's anything looked at by the artist. There's some great and seminal work here that you won't find at any local institution--Nicholas Nixon's The Brown Sisters series, a Jim Campbell LED sculpture, a Gary Hill installation with a strobe light and a lot of grunting. We love the Trues. Open-ended run.


OPENING EXHIBITIONS


* DRAW

It sounds like a command, doesn't it? With work by Mark Ryden, Charles Burns, Blair Wilson, and others. Opening reception Fri May 17, 6 pm. Roq la Rue, 2224 Second Ave, 374-8977.


* BLAKE HAYGOOD

At the risk of repeating myself: Haygood's prints of fantastic, useless machines are superb. Opening reception Fri May 17, 5-8 pm. Ballard Fetherston Gallery, 818 E Pike St, 322-9440. Through June 12.


MARC LAWRENCE, KEITH TABELLIONE

Two artists look at the signs, symbols, and clutter that surround us. Opening reception Sat May 18, 6-10 pm. Li'l Red Shack Gallery, 1028 First Ave S, 621-7807. Through June 30.


CONTINUING EXHIBITIONS


VICTORIA ADAMS

Landscape paintings of those wide-open spaces. Winston Wächter Fine Art, 403 Dexter Ave N, 652-5855. Through May 31.


BETSY BEST-SPADARO

Linocuts on Fun and Games. Phinney Center Gallery, 6532 Phinney Ave N, 783-2244. Through May 31.


BEYOND BOUNDARIES

Skip the first two artists; go straight to Masami Teraoka. Solomon Fine Art, 1215 First Ave, 297-1400. Through May 31.


JOHN BISBEE

Three Tons refers quite literally to the amount of material shaped by the artist into large, prickly sculptural landscapes. In this case, it's three tons of nails. Suyama Space, 2324 Second Ave, 256-0809. Through Aug 16.


JONATHAN BLUM, KATE WOLF

Animal portraits from Blum, altered Polaroids from Wolf. Artemis Gallery, 3107 S Day St, 323-0562. Through May 31.


JEFFREY BRAVERMAN

Black-and-white photographs in Chalkboard Portraits. Photographic Center Northwest, 900 12th Ave, 720-7222. Through May 30.


EDUARDO CALDER"N, JOHNINE MAJCHROWICZ

New silver gelatin prints from CalderĂłn, and botanical paintings from Majchrowicz. CalderĂłn will give a talk Thurs May 16 at 7 pm. Esther Claypool Gallery, 617 Western Ave, 264-1586. Through June 1.


JD DAVIS

New paintings in Recent Studies in Contemporary Aesthetics. This gallery is about to close, so pay your respects. Cut Kulture Gallery, 2018 First Ave, 374-8753. Through May 31.


DANA ELVIDGE, KAITLYN ELVIDGE, L. E. PAULSON

Three Friends, Two Generations. Artists' Gallery of Seattle, 902 First Ave S, 340-0830. Through May 31.


FIRST WAR OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM

We are all waiting, waiting, waiting to see what great art arises out of post-9/11 minds. Here's a try. SOIL Gallery, 1317 E Pine St, 264-8061. Through May 26.


JEFF FISHER, SAMANTHA FISHER

Jeff's machines work on the model of using cast-off parts to make charmingly intricate machines that do... nothing much. From Samantha, paintings that look at modern life's inevitable pastiche of images. Gallery 110, 110 S Washington St, 624-9336. Through May 25.


* JOHN GRADE

What makes Grade so good is that he's as interested in decay and its possibilities as he is in immortality, which gives his work human scale and duration as well as the chill of death. Davidson Galleries, 313 Occidental Ave S, 624-7684. Through June 1.


* WENDY HANSON, YUN-FEI JI

In his first solo exhibition, New York artist Yun-Fei Ji (whose work is in this year's Whitney Biennial) shows two series of ink-on-rice-paper drawings. Hanson quite literally reflects on vanity with life-sized Mylar silhouettes. Howard House, 2017 Second Ave, 256-6399. Through June 1.


CHRISTOPHER HARRIS, JOHN LYSAK

Harris' light-mediated abstraction are actually prints taken from a pinhole camera. With figurative monotypes and lithographs from Lysak. Lisa Harris Gallery, 1922 Pike Place, 443-3315. Through June 1.


IT AIN'T THE SIZE THAT COUNTS

An exhibition of itty-bitty paintings by gallery artists, including new discovery Mark O'Malley. Garde Rail Gallery, 4860 Rainier Ave S, 721-0107. Through June 1.


ROBERT C. JONES, ROBERT McNOWN

New paintings and other works on paper. Francine Seders Gallery, 6701 Greenwood Ave N, 782-0355. Through June 2.


ROB LARSON, TOOTS ZYNSKY

In Ephemera, Larson's first solo show, the artist modifies society's detritus into telling artifacts. With new glasswork from Zynsky. Elliott Brown Gallery, 215 Westlake Ave N, 340-8000. Through June 1.


STEPHEN McMILLAN

Eerie aquatints. Fine Impressions Gallery, 8300 Fifth Ave NE, 784-5270. Through May 31.


NORTHWEST CONCRETE AND VISUAL POETRY EXHIBITION

Text as art, in this case very, very heavy art. With an audio presentation of great 20th-century sound poets. OSEAO Gallery, 14th & Pike above the American Artificial Limb Co.; for information call 725-1650. Through May 29.


MINORU OHIRA

Sculptures made of wood saved from demolished East L.A. homes in Nature's Hand. Bryan Ohno Gallery, 155 S Main St, 667-9572. Through June 1.


OUT OF THE FRAME

Nontraditional photography, mixing suggestively with other media. G. Gibson Gallery, 122 S Jackson St, Suite 200, 587-4033. Through June 15.


PARS and AHF

AHF is Amir Fallah, who created that lovely vomitous installation at the Independent Media Center a few months ago. His latest work is a collaboration with Pars, called .925. Nation Gallery, 1921 Fifth Ave, 374-9492. Through June 9.


BRIAN J. PIKE

A most modest exhibition, entitled Some Stuff. The Pound Gallery, 1216 10th Ave, 323-0557. Through May 19.


RECENT IN ORIGIN: A VISUAL ANTHEM FOR THE WET FRONTIER

Work for wet beings by Mary Gross, Meghan Trainor, Chris Putnam, Joseph Dierker, and Ben Beres. Secluded Alley Works, 113 12th Ave, 839-0880. Through May 24.


* AMY REUFFERT

Glass work based on Reuffert's obsession with some patterned bedsheets from the 1970s. She never simply makes objects; she looks backward at nostalgia and the retro fetishes. Opening reception Sun May 19, 2-5 pm. Vetri, 1404 First Ave, 667-9608. Through June 16.


SARAH SAVIDGE

New prints and paintings in Kustom Kollage. Kuhlman Clothing, 2419 First Ave, 441-1999. Through May 22.


* MICHAEL SCHULTHEIS

Math and randomness. Still Life in Fremont Coffeehouse, 709 N 35th St, 547-9850. Through June 16.


SIDETRACKED

The West Coast artists in this show lament that their creative energy gets co-opted into that pesky task of making a living. So do we all, folks, so do we all. Thinklab Gallery, 1932 Second Ave, 770-7800. Through May 31.


SCOTT SZLOCH

He's a blacksmith. FeCuSi Gallery, 2036 NW Market St, 706-4011. Through June 4.


LINO TAGLIAPIETRA

A lot of glass artists try to imitate Tagliapietra's sexy, singing, curvaceous work. Few succeed. William Traver Gallery, 110 Union St, #200, 587-6501. Through June 30.


ALEX TOUSSAINT-PERREAULT

New paintings. Ace Studios Gallery, 619 Western Ave, third floor, 623-1288. Through May 31.


* NICOLA VRUWINK

The lonely objects of the disco era. James Harris Gallery, 309A Third Ave S, 903-6220. Through May 18.


WANTBUYHAVE

The absurdity of the marketed world we live in; shades of Beatkit. Independent Media Center Gallery, 1415 Third Ave, 262-0721. Through June 1.


* DARREN WATERSTON

Paintings of flowers drifting through sublime spaces. Greg Kucera Gallery, 212 Third Ave S, 624-0770. Through June 1.


MAUREEN WHITING and ROBERT CAMPBELL

Choreographer Whiting and video artist Campbell collaborate on an installation called and there was concrete skin for your face. Performance by the Maureen Whiting Dance Company Fri May 17 at 8 pm. Jack Straw Productions, 4261 Roosevelt Way NE, 634-0919. Through May 31.

EVENTS


FERTILE OR FALLOW? CULTURAL INCUBATION IN SEATTLE

This looks promising--more than the usual yammering about how nothing ever happens in this pokey town. With some damn smart people: Anne Focke, Matthew Richter, Philip Wohlstetter, and others. Fri May 17 at 7:30 pm, Talley and Kolb loft, 1101 E Pike St, 2nd floor. $15 suggested donation; call 624-0432 for a reservation.


LAVA 2002

See Stranger Suggests. Fri May 17, 7-11 pm, and Sat May 18, 6-11 pm. Noodleworks, 802 Sixth Ave S, 652-0636.