Don’t stay home. You’re going to need two kinds of art in the days and months to come. You’re going to need the kind that calms you down and the kind that riles you up. As New York artist Marilyn Minter told Artnet.com, if you don’t want to see a Trump elected again, here are your operating instructions: “Feel the pain, until it passes thru you. Regroup, get angry, get tough, take notes.”
You won’t be able to do the second sentence unless you do the first, so here are some works of art you can see now in Seattle that will get you started on both, focusing on art made by LGBTQ people, immigrants, people of color, and women—anybody Trump’s campaign hatred targeted.
ART TO SOOTHE
To: Seattle | Subject: Personal
For the last seven years, while Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker was director and Robin Held and Scott Lawrimore (with others) worked as curators and educators, the Frye has been the largest institution devoted to the most urgent social, emotional, and intellectual questions of contemporary life. This show is a haunting reincarnation of what we are in danger of losing, with sterling, relevant works by Seattle artists Inye Wokoma, DK Pan, C. Davida Ingram, Cris Bruch, Degenerate Art Ensemble, Implied Violence, Jeffry Mitchell, Susie Lee, and Mark Calderon. On November 19 at 2 p.m., the museum presents a free conversation on national issues titled Seeing Art: A Multidisciplinary, Critical Discourse on Twenty-First-Century Art Practice with artists Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes, Bruch, and Sandy Cioffi, and Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat. (Frye Art Museum, Tues–Sun)
Judith Cooper Haden: The Women of the Milpa
These black-and-white photographs of Oaxacan women cooking are a testament to the wisdom of the elders and the fullness of time. The farmers and cooks have returned to indigenous traditions in the face of economic and environmental devastation, and their determination in these images is quiet and undeniable. (Seattle Central College, Mon–Fri)
ART TO MOBILIZE
Mark Calderon: Show of Hands
Seattle artist Mark Calderon’s lovely sculptures can be subdued, but new pieces made of mica are political. They’re hands, based on an example from the prehistoric North American “Hopewell” culture of a hand made from cut mica. One pair of hands rises to amplify a voice. It’s called Cry: Cry, then cry out. (Greg Kucera Gallery, Tues–Sat)
These 33 posters dating back to the founding of the United States and from all across the world are motivation to watch for vicious, racist imagery crusading as patriotic. (Northwest African American Museum, Wed–Sun)
The Bureau of Arts & Culture by PDL
Starting December 1, King Street Station will host 21 art proposals “designed to trigger a new enthusiasm for the direction of our city and how art can play a vital role in our future… tackling issues such as homelessness, gun violence, urban growth, cultural tourism, arts education, and human trafficking.” Part of the show is the Give Gallery, where if you donate blood between November 28 and December 16 through Bloodworks, you can take home, free, a work of art by a local artist from the gallery, including Jeffry Mitchell, Crystal Barbre, Charles Peterson, June Sekiguchi, Warren Dykeman, and Amanda Manitach. The Give Gallery will be open noon to 6 p.m. Dec 3–4, 10–11, and 17–18. (King Street Station)
A few more in brief: Guerrilla Girls on Tour 2016—17 at Form/Space Atelier), 30 Americans at Tacoma Art Museum, MOTHA and Chris E. Vargas Present: Transhirstory in 99
Objects at Henry Art Gallery, We Are the Ocean: An Indigenous Response to Climate Change at Wing Luke Museum.
