On the first Thursday of every month, Seattleites flock to the streets of Pioneer Square for the city's central and oldest art walk, which offers opportunities to stroll, sip on wine, and attend as many gallery openings as possible. But, in most cases, the shows are up for longer than just one night, and the historic neighborhood is a great place to check out art any day of the year. So, below, we've compiled the most promising exhibits that are having opening receptions on June 7âcomplete with a handy Google map at the bottom. You can also find more options on our First Thursday calendar or our complete visual art calendar.
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Adrianne Smits: Serpentine
Adrianne Smits has a PhD in ecology and a BS in biology and painting, and her love of the earth emerges in her animistic natural landscapes, which compress perspective and elide details to create a Middle Earth-like aesthetic. Her work is directly inspired by her own scientific field research in the wilds of Alaska and southeast Asia.
Bryan Ohno Gallery
Alexander Miller and Alexander Nagy: Spacefillers
In Spacefillers, Alexander Miller and Alexander Nagy have taken the liberty of reimagining the history of physics using "algorithmically generated light," music, and sculpture. Come for the artist talk, stay for the mesmerizing twinkly lights.
Mount Analogue
Anastacia-Reneé: Poetry in a Time of Chaos
Seattle's Civic Poet seemingly has boundless reserves of energy: After publishing three books in one year, she's been performing at readings almost constantly. Now, she'll mark the end of her tenure with an installation, including her own work and a "blow-up interactive poem-environment" constructed in collaboration with Seattle Design Nerds. In addition, the gallery will host writing workshops, and the event will close with a party on June 30th for the second printings of Anastacia-Renee's (v.) and Sarah Galvin's Ugly Time (both published by Gramma Poetry, which shares the space).
Mount Analogue
Coley Mixan: F.I.B.E.R. Earth-Bound Training Center
Coley Mixan is a writer, musician, and visual artist whose psychedelic, saturated Vimeo channel is described as "attempting to impose a credible order upon ordinary reality." This exhibition serves as both an indoctrination site and training program for something Mixan calls F.I.B.E.R. (Feminists Improving Boundless, Eternal Rock ân' Roll). F.I.B.E.R. aims to fight patriarchal conspiracies and constipation in the form of "toroidal pastries" (doughnuts?) traveling through the G.U.T. (Grand Unified Theory of space-time). The strategy of trying to dislodge the patriarchy with F.I.B.E.R. so that it can be shit out is so fanciful, it just might work. EMILY POTHAST
Gallery 4Culture
Evan Cohen: VISIONS
âWe are not lostâ are some of only a handful of words in New Yorkâbased animator and illustrator Evan Cohenâs book Visions. The story features a central male figure who multiplies and contracts throughout the pages, wordlessly telling a tale of togetherness and belonging. The simple blue and pink palette with occasional shots of yellow make for a serene telling of âa brief glimpse into a world guided by trust,â as the artist told me. The show features risograph prints (risograph is a Japanese high-quality digital photocopy and printing machine) of the book released by Cold Cube Press and a monitor showing Cohenâs animations. Cohenâs work is complemented by prints from Portland-based illustrator and ceramic artist Lindsay Watsonâs Year of the Nightmare. The sentence, "She is quarrelsome critical violent" accompanies an image of the central nude female figure holding a replica of her own head in her hands. âSheâ is the nightmare itself and appears to be exploring the hellscape that is America in 2018. KATIE KURTZ
X Y Z
Joan MirĂł: Etchings & Lithographs
The Catalan painter and sculptor Joan MirĂł, like Salvador DalĂ and others in the surrealist movement, was galvanized by the theories of AndrĂ© Breton. Intrigued by the idea of plunging into the unconscious, he ditched his early investigations of realism, cubism, and naive art to play with geometric, organic, vividly colored forms in striking compositions. MirĂł hasn't had the same pop-culture impact as DalĂ, but his body of work is less encumbered by his contemporary's dogmatism and attention-hogging. Here, you can see his lithographs, posters, and etchings. JOULE ZELMAN
Davidson Galleries
Joel Sayre, Kate Wallich, YC2
Sayre's sculpted wooden objects will inspire dance by Kate Wallich (the maven of Dance Church) and the young dancers of YC2, the residence company of Velocity Dance Center.
Peter Miller Books
Jun Kaneko: Visual Language
A veteran of the Contemporary Ceramics movement, Omaha-based Jun Kaneko has pieces in museums all over the world, including the Smithsonian, and his enormous outdoor sculptures of ceramic heads in Omaha are considered a groundbreaking use of the medium. His style ranges from figurative to geometric to decorative.
Traver Gallery
Masters of Disguise IV: Group Mask Exhibition
This iteration of Masters of Disguise will once again examine masks and their specific cultural, social, and economic place in Pacific Northwest and Alaska, featuring modern and traditional works by a variety of artists in media including glass, wood, stone, hide, fiber, metal, and ceramic.
Stonington Gallery
Matthew Ryan Herget: I See Better With My Eyes Closed
Herget's paintings depict astronauts on a journey through the void, contrasting cool and fiery colors in dramatic, gestural strokes.
Treason Gallery
Nadia Gohar: Foundation Deposits
In ancient Egypt, temples and tombs were often built on top of foundation deposits: ritual objects buried at specific points in the architecture. When these buildings are excavated, the foundation deposits are revealed like clues to an unattainable past. Nadia Gohar grew up in Cairo, but her family relocated to Toronto after the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. In Gohar's first solo exhibitionâcurated by local luminary Minh Nguyenâfoundation deposits serve as a proxy for the place that is left behind in a migration, as well as the intangible aspects of culture and memory waiting to be unearthed. EMILY POTHAST
Soil
Party Hat Pride: Live Print Party + Queer Pop Up
Queer creators will fill Party Hat with art and goods to buy. Self-taught artist Alyssa Anne will have a collection of visual art to peruse, The Stranger's Kim Selling will be vending vintage clothing, and Ashley Nieves will sell you her screen prints. What's more: Nieves, Ashley Anne, Andrea Marcos, and Andrew Lamb Schultz will print designs on your blank t-shirt for $5 to $20.
Specialist
Stay Happy Central: Guayaba, 52 Kings, Reverend Dollars, Gifted Youngstaz
Local alt hiphop and psych-soul favorite Guayaba will perform with support from fellow stars 52 Kings, Gifted Youngstaz, and Reverend Dollars. In between sets, peruse a collection of work under $50 from 20 local artists.
Central Saloon
Zac Culler, Lisa Golightly
Zac Culler is one-third of the mischievous, Stranger Genius Award-winning artistic trio SuttonBeresCuller, known for their prankish stunts and installations. Among his other visual art, Culler makes mandalas out of motifs like hummingbirds, insects, and figures from Tarantino movies. Lisa Golightly, who paints figurative and abstract works, makes excellent use of dapples of light.
Linda Hodges Gallery
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