This still is from Brent Watanabes live streaming mod of Grand Theft Auto V, which is played by this deer.
This still is from Brent Watanabe's live streaming mod of Grand Theft Auto V, which is played by this deer. Courtesy of the artist

1. Seattle artist Brent Watanabe's San Andreas Deer Cam is a live streaming version of Grand Theft Auto V in which a deer has been modded in as the player, and the deer simply plays the game.

The deer gets shot by gangs, hit by a plane, falls off a cliff, and draws the curiosity of the tough-talking people as it roams freely through the 100 square miles of the gamemakers' detailed fictional world, San Andreas. This deer has eternal life. It is killed, it heals, it keeps trotting. Nature keeps coming back to beat the game by sheer persistence.

Look for San Andreas Deer Cam at Out of Sight, which opens tonight and should be your first priority this weekend. (Yes, you can watch the work livestream online, but it's a whole different ballgame to see it projected large on the wall at historic King Street Station.)

Read Jen Graves' comprehensive guide to the Seattle Art Fair.

Sitting in My Old Backyard, by Seattle artist Elizabeth Lopez.
Sitting in My Old Backyard, by Seattle artist Elizabeth Lopez. Courtesy of the artist

2. Martyr Sauce opens its new location tonight, and the party will be going until 11 pm! This is the place Tariqa Waters runs, and its new venue is the old Bud's Jazz Records. Given that Waters's husband is the musical wizard Ryan Waters, formerly working with Prince, there will, for sure, be live music as well as the paintings of Seattle's Elizabeth Lopez.

Lopez has the most sincerely hope-inspiring artist statement in the world:

I am an artist 100% committed to convincing those who do not want to be affiliated with art (and those who do) that ART is the right thing to do.

Enso: At Our Side, 2015, by Takashi Murakami.
Enso: At Our Side, 2015, by Takashi Murakami. Courtesy of the artist and Kaikai Kiki

3. Takashi Murakami is coming to town with Juxtapoz magazine and they're doing an exhibition at Paul Allen's Pivot Art + Culture called Juxtapoz x Superflat. What I just said to you can be translated this way: "Superstar artist and superpopular rag hosted by superbillionaire in South Lake Union."

I'll be there with my superest self.

(*If this show isn't great, you'll hear from me later today that you can skip it—but I've already seen all the other stuff.)

Installation view of Roxy Paines work at Seattle Art Fair.
Installation view of Roxy Paine's work at Seattle Art Fair. Courtesy Seattle Art Fair

4. THE ROOM STARES BACK AT YOU, EXPECTANTLY. DUH-DUH-DUH. ART FAIR IS HERE.

So... Out of Sight is the best place to see a great big, beautiful, meaningful art exhibition this weekend (and through the rest of the month, so don't miss it—it includes the visual art and also a full performance schedule).

But Seattle Art Fair itself, at CenturyLink Field Event Center, is a spectacle all its own, and in year two it should be even more exciting.

It opens tonight, runs all the way through Sunday ($20 per day or $50 for all weekend starting tomorrow), and includes that creepily expectant room you see above (an installation by Roxy Paine), plus performances and talks by the likes of Carrie Brownstein, Kyle MacLachlan, Kim Gordon (yes, that Kim Gordon), and many other artists equally deserving just less famous.

Ola Volo in action at the Sodotrack project.
Ola Volo in action at the Sodotrack project. Photo by wiseknave

5. In celebration of Seattle Art Fair, Urban Artworks, working with curator Gage Hamilton and 4Culture, has finished the first phase of a huge, three-year project called Sodotrack: a corridor of new murals flanking Lander Street on the Light Rail corridor near the Sodo station.

It was a huge undertaking to get the landowners and business owners to say yes, so when you're appreciating the works, consider their civic as well as aesthetic merits. Best of all, Sodotrack is free and open to all.