MUSEUMS AND ART CENTERS

BELLEVUE ART MUSEUM

301 Bellevue Square, 425-454-3322.

FIRST DESCENT: ART AND ARTIFACTS FROM

SNOWBOARD CULTURE

Subculture comes to the mall, this time as art. This exhibition examines the snowboard aesthetic beyond the baggy-pants thing. Through April 22.

CENTER ON CONTEMPORARY ART

65 Cedar St, 728-1980

JERRY PETHICK: OUT OF THE CORNER OF AN EYE

Pethick, a Canadian artist whose installations spin out ideas about seeing and perception, is setting up revised versions of mixed-media installations he has made over the last 20 years. His best work employs a variety of optic lenses in his work, so that background and foreground and depth of vision are all called into question. Through April 29.

CONSOLIDATED WORKS

410 Terry Ave N, 860-5245.

*EVIDENCE

For a good 20 years now, the art world has been going back and forth on the question of whether or not graffiti is art. Most people consider graffiti a criminal act rather than a craft, but does work have to be shown in a gallery (or, for that matter, be legal) to be art? Here's a chance to see graffiti in a different context: In this new exhibition, regional graffiti artists have created site-specific installations in the ConWorks space, so that we can see the evidence up close. Through April 30. Reviewed this issue, page 21.

FRYE ART MUSEUM

704 Terry Ave, 622-9250.

DONALD BARTON: AN AMERICAN ABROAD

It's a vanished event, or at least a changed one -- the Grand Tour, a young man's Wanderjahr around Europe before settling down. These days it's likely to be undertaken with a backpack and a Eurorail pass, a somewhat less-romantic undertaking. Donald Barton was a painter, and the snapshots of his 1928 trip have the added allure of his good eye. Barton focused his attention to architecture, and later turned those photographs into paintings. Through April 9.

THIS TRANQUIL LAND: HUDSON RIVER PAINTINGS FROM THE HERSEN COLLECTION

In the mid 1800s, a loosely formed group of artists concentrated their talents on representing the transcendentalist's Nature with a capital "N." It's a kind of romanticism we wouldn't be able to get away with these days; the wink-and-nod would be implicit. Also, those guys could make a canvas glow. Through April 16.

LISA ZWERLING

Zwerling's paintings reference old themes -- the seasons, man's relationship to nature -- and make use of traditional painting techniques. The mythical creatures who populate the works, however, come distinctly out of the New Age. Through May 7.

HENRY ART GALLERY

15th Ave NE at NE 41st St, 543-2280.

BANKS IN PINK AND BLUE

Genetics, aesthetics, and ethics -- it's a frequent theme in work shown in alternative galleries, and now it's at the Henry, in an installation by Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle. Here, mixed media is an understatement: Manglano-Ovalle uses sperm banks, a liquid nitrogen tank, and abstract DNA portrait photographs, as well as the more prosaic video and audio, to ask his unanswerable questions. This is the second of three in the series Future Forward: Projects in New Media. Through April 16.

*SAM TAYLOR-WOOD

The first in a series of video installations called "The Henry Collects: Video," which will bring to the gallery works by well-known artists in a still fairly unknown -- and poorly understood -- field. Taylor-Wood is a British artist with the most spot-on resume (Turner Prize, Sensation), whose work tends to focus on psychological, but unspecified moments; she shows events in which narrative and emotion are cut off from each other and from the viewer, provoking a simultaneous curiosity and discomfort. Hysteria, the 8-minute video running at the Henry, shows a woman moving through emotions from real laughter to utter dejection without skipping a beat. Through April 23.

SHIFTING GROUND: TRANSFORMED VIEWS OF THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE

Here's a show that makes a gallant effort to show how landscape portrayal has changed over time, and by implication, how our attitude toward the land has been altered in the process. Certainly an exhibition that encompasses both Albert Bierstadt's Manifest Destiny--like paintings and Robert Smithson's earthworks can make such a jump in perspective visible. Through Aug 20.

SEATTLE ART MUSEUM

100 University St, 654-3100.

PORCELAIN STORIES: FROM CHINA TO EUROPE

A kind of survey course in porcelain, which of course ends up being a lesson in the movement of culture over trade routes. A very complete exhibition, with works on loan from all sorts of public and private collections. Through May 7.

SEATTLE COLLECTS LICHTENSTEIN

Seattle's most established art institution gives over space to one of the artists who, along with Warhol, most challenged the idea of originality and what is acceptable as real art. Now he's dead and an icon, and the works shown here are largely drawn from local collections. Through May 14.

SEATTLE ASIAN ART MUSEUM

1400 E Prospect St, Volunteer Park, 654-3100.

PAUL HORIUCHI

One of the Northwest's venerable masters is remembered in an exhibition spanning his work from the 1930s through his death in 1999. Through June 11.

WORLDS OF FANTASY: CHINESE SHADOW PUPPETS

Volunteer Park hosts more than 70 puppets from the 19th century. The majority of the exhibited works come from the collection of Theodore Bodde, who purchased the extraordinary objects while in Beijing in the 1930s. Chinese textiles with related themes will accompany. Through April 2.

TACOMA ART MUSEUM

12th and Pacific, Tacoma, 253-272-4258.

FAST FORWARD: THE SHAPE OF NORTHWEST DESIGN

It's no longer news: Design is irrevocably part of our visual culture. It doesn't make this show any less interesting, however, since the best design, like the best art, continues to delight and surprise. Participants range from the ubiquitous (Microsoft, Boeing) to Anoek Minneboo, a furniture designer recently named one of I.D. Magazine's hot young designers under the age of 30. Through June 18.

WRIGHT EXHIBITION SPACE

407 Dexter Ave N, 264-8200.

*THE WRIGHT COLLECTION

Virginia and Bagley Wright have rehung their foundation's exhibit space, devoting one gallery entirely to their great collection of '60s and '70s color field paintings, and introducing a large David Salle oil and the John Baldessari piece Two Onlookers and Tragedy to the mix. Other highlights of their collection include a Robert Longo, Eric Fischl, a huge Warhol Rorschach, and Jules Olitski's Thigh Smoke. Open-ended run.

GALLERY OPENINGS

RENA BASS FORMAN

Large-format photographs of sacred places in India. Not a new endeavor, but the images are rather stunning. Opening reception Sun April 5, 6-8 pm. Winston Wächter Fine Art, 403 Dexter Ave N, 652-5855. Through May 20.

CLAIRE GAROUTTE

Everyone, it seems, is going to Cuba these days, and bringing back pictures. Garoutte's focus is everyday life as it rolls out in front of her. The opening reception for this exhibition is next week. Photographic Center Northwest, 900 12th Ave, 720-7222. Through April 29.

JAMES LUNA

Luna, a Luiseño Indian, is a filmmaker who also works in performance, sculpture, and video. This installation, entitled Futuristic Native Outfits for Night Raids (and other Paraphernalia), features costumes and props from the artist's aggressive inquiry into cultural authenticity. 911 Media Arts Center, 117 Yale Ave N, 682-6552. Through May 7. See also "Events."

JENNIFER MCNEELY

McNeely's squishy, sexy sculptures openly resemble suggestive body parts. Some are cute (genitalia as conceived by a Cabbage Patch doll) and others are obliquely threatening. Which, when you think about it, is a pretty smart take on sex itself. Opening reception Sat April 1, 6-10 pm. Pound Gallery, 1216 10th Ave, 323-0557. Through April 30.

MEANS/ENDS

The material is plaster, and "means" and "ends" refers to its traditional uses versus the uses explored in this show. SOIL has assembled the work of an interesting group of local artists and ausländers to show the possibilities of this humble medium. Opening reception Sat April 1, 6-10 pm. SOIL Artist Cooperative, 12th and Pike. Through April 30. See also "Events."

*SUSAN ROBB

See Stranger Suggests, page 53. Lead Gallery and Wine Bar, 1022 First Ave, 623-6240. Through April 28.

CONTINUING EXHIBITIONS

APPROACH NEW ART

As deluged as we are with bad news from the art world -- closing galleries, studio-less artists -- the opening of a new gallery is a major event. Well, this may or may not qualify as an event, but Matthew Lennon (one of the featured artists) is a tireless arts activist and interesting painter, so go anyway. Other featured artists are Karen Kosoglad and Deborah Walker. Mary Vitold Gallery, 110 S Washington St, 624-9336. Through April 1.

DEBORAH ASCHHEIM

A site-specific work from New York-artist Aschheim. She'll fill the gallery with the kind of objects she's known for: light-reflective, ethereal, biological items clustering on the floor and ceiling. This is the kind of show that changes a space. Suyama Space, 2324 Second Ave, 256-0809. Through May 7.

GLENN BARR, MARK DANCEY

Barr has a penchant for really stacked women and B-movie scenes, painted with the care and technique of the Old Masters. Dancey is perhaps best known for being the genius behind Motorbooty magazine; he approaches his controversial topics in the same kind of style as the comics he publishes. Roq la Rue Gallery, 2224 Second Ave, 374-8977. Through April 7.

MARGARETHA BOOTHSMA

You-are-there landscapes that combine photography and paint with sand, branches, and leaves. Linda Hodges Gallery, 410 Occidental Ave S, 624-3034. Through April 1.

CHRIST2000

This pseudonymous environmentalist artist's solo show, Otherwise Landfill, features collages and sculptures made out of found trash, particularly stuff that's unrecyclable by conventional means. Discarded objects including gum wrappers, bread bags, soymilk boxes, and fragments of matchbooks are fashioned into simple, smart, tight compositions that evoke everything from the still lifes of Picasso or the landscapes of Stuart Davis to the tiny, potent sculptures of Richard Tuttle. The Little Theatre, 608 19th Ave E, 329-2629. Through April 23.

WILLIAM CUMMING

One of the lauded "Northwest School" is having an exhibition of recent paintings, which are loose, colorful, and lightly narrative. Woodside/Braseth Gallery, 1533 Ninth Ave, 622-7243. Through April 4.

DRAWN FROM

It's about time people paid more attention to the Commencement Gallery in Tacoma, and this show is a good reason to get off your duff and drive down there. It features work by local Asian American artists, and includes Mark Takamichi Miller, Doris Jew, and Gerard Tsutakawa. The exhibition quite happily declines to come to any conclusion about similarities among the artists' work or experiences. Commencement Art Gallery, Ninth and Commerce, Tacoma, 253-591-5341. Through April 28.

DRIVE-THRU GALLERY

Literally that. An installation by John Sutton. Cornish College of the Arts, North Building, 1501 10th Ave E. Through April 12.

*TATIANA GARMENDIA

Compelling and dark, Garmendia's drawings of x-rays ask new questions about surface, illusion, and depth in figurative work. Here, the artist as well as the machine has "invaded" the body; illustration of disease takes the place of character study. A mind-bending concept on paper. Phinney Center Gallery, 6532 Phinney Ave N, 783-2244. Through March 31.

*GEOFF GARZA

Garza has organized his show around the idea of wabi-sabi, which, loosely explained, celebrates the beauty and symbolic virtue of the ordinary and imperfect. This may be modesty, or it may be strategic understatement; Garza's paintings are exuberant color abstractions, with paint burnished into paper and panel. Ballard Fetherston Gallery, 818 E Pike St, 322-9440. Through April 4. See also Art Bio.

ANDREW HARE

Hare's paintings zero in on small urban architectural details -- a window ledge, a weathered door -- so that in the end, they document a disappearing aesthetic in the slickening city. Kimzey Miller Gallery, 1225 Second Ave, 682-2339. Through March 31.

INTRODUCTIONS 2000

Strictly speaking, they're not really introductions; many of the 10 artists exhibiting this month are associated with prestigious Seattle and Portland galleries. Nonetheless, a good lineup, including Elizabeth Jameson and Donnabelle Casis. With Close Observation Room, an installation by James Jaxxa. Seattle Art Museum Rental Sales Gallery, 1334 First Ave, 654-3240. Through April 8.

*KEN KELLY

Kelly uses mirror-image stencils to create shapes that are large and monumental on the one hand, but serpentine and movement-implying on the other. If that weren't enough, the surfaces of the paintings are amazingly worked. Howard House, 2017 Second Ave, 256-6399. Through April 1.

TODD KEPHART

In this exhibition entitled Glass Children (after the precocious family created by J. D. Salinger), Kephart stages tableaux of events usually lost by the march of time -- fleeting moments of insecurity, angst, and the simple mundane. FotoCircle Gallery, 216 Alaskan Way S, 624-2645. Through April 1.

LAYNE KLEINART

Paintings and prints by the Seattle artist. Atelier 31, 123 Lake St S, #102, Kirkland, 425-576-1477. Through April 11.

KÄTHE KOLLWITZ

No one equaled Kollwitz for emotionally turbulent images; given the period the German-born artist lived through, it's hardly surprising that her work is shot through with suffering. This exhibition of prints is a fine introduction to Kollwitz's world. Davidson Galleries, 313 Occidental Ave S, 624-6700. Through April 29.

*STEPHEN LYONS

Desire, disease, decay -- these are the essential elements of Lyons' vocabulary. This show consists of gorgeous chromogenic prints of the artist's assemblages, which use obscure and enigmatic objects floated in a deep amber resin. These are artifacts which don't give up their meaning on first glance. Pound Gallery, 1216 10th Ave, 323-0557. Through March 31.

TIM MARSDEN, KURT GEISSEL

Two idiosyncratic artists team up for a show called Strange Apothecary. Two Bells Tavern, 2313 Fourth Ave, 441-3050. Through March 31.

LYN MCCRACKEN

Landscape photography created during several trips to Cuba. These large-format prints of abandoned places have a formidable silence to them. Baas Gallery, 2703 E Madison, 324-4742. Through April 29.

GEOFF MCFETRIDGE

Rock Machine is an exhibition of McFetridge's silk-screened and lithographed fabrics, and they are never what you expect. A red brick background is patterned with suburban signifiers (kids on bikes, lampposts repeating into the distance); the camouflage base of Stoner Forest hides all sorts of sketchy activity. Houston, 907 E Pike St, 860-7820. Through April 29.

JOHN MCQUEEN

McQueen is a basket maker, and he works in traditional basketry materials (willow and waxed string), but this is an appealingly odd exhibition of self-portraits. Each figure is four feet tall and hollow -- a perfect container, in a way, for anything you care to put in it. Elliott Brown Gallery, 619 N 35th St, #101A, 547-9740. Through May 13.

MENAGERIE

Seven West Coast artists take on animal imagery. Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St, Kirkland, 425-822-7161. Through April 18.

DEBORAH MERSKY, SHIRLEY SCHEIER

Mersky shows patterned block prints inspired by 18th- and 19th-century textiles; Scheier's drawings incorporate ink, gouache, and collage in their investigation of everyday items. Neither artist is afraid of patterning and decoration. Esther Claypool Gallery, 617 Western Ave, 264-1586. Through April 1.

MIKE NIPPER

Recent paintings by the nice boy behind the reception desk at The Stranger. Re-bar, 1114 Howell St, 233-9873. Through April 14.

ROSY

All about the color pink, in all its myriad associations, from girlishness to kitsch. This exhibition, curated by Laurie Cinotto and Stephanie Carlson, includes work by Nicola Vruwink, Yvette Franz, Mariam Stephan, and the curators. SOIL Artist Cooperative, 12th and Pike. Through April 2.

ITALO SCANGA

There's almost nothing Scanga doesn't do -- painting, sculpture, ceramics, prints, glass -- and he really gets around. This month, the prolific Italian artist has a painting retrospective; next month, who knows? Bryan Ohno Gallery, 155 S Main, 667-9572. Through March 31.

SELF/DEVELOPED

Five artists, exhibiting for the first time in Seattle, show works that incorporate photographs of themselves. The results are as wide-ranging as the mandate is specific. Eyre/Moore Gallery, 913 Western Ave, 624-5596. Through April 1.

DONALD SULTAN

New York-artist Sultan's recent paintings and works on paper are big and bold and, well, big and bold. Take a flower, blow it up in deeply saturated colors, and it suddenly becomes something else. Winston Wächter, 403 Dexter Ave N, 652-5855. Through April 1.

MARK TAYLOR

Nudes and landscapes in acrylic on Masonite and china board. Trapeze Gallery, 1130 34th Ave, 329-3363. Through April 1.

TOM OF FINLAND

In honor of Washington State Leather Pride Week, go take a gander at Tom of Finland's iconic images of gay men. A cocktail party closes the show on Sat April 1 at 9 pm. Admission is $15; proceeds benefit the Tom of Finland foundation, which works toward the preservation of gay culture. Animal's Espresso, 550 12th Ave. Through April 1.

THREE GENERATIONS OF MEXICAN MASTERS

A sampling of Mexican art comes to Tacoma, thanks to the collaboration of a couple of cultural and bureaucratic entities. Still, here in the restrained Northwest, the work (including some by Diego Rivera) brings a certain needed heat. Random Modern Gallery, 1102 Court D, Tacoma, 253-383-5659. Through March 31.

*DAVID TUPPER

Recent paintings from Tupper, who makes vigorous use of color, layering architectural shapes with silhouetted stenciled figures that reappear from piece to piece. Ballard Fetherston Annex, 307 Pike St, 322-9440. Through April 5.

*FRIESE UNDINE

Undine's paintings resemble nothing so much as propaganda posters, but whereas propaganda overtly announces its meaning, these paintings are as cryptic as they are -- weirdly -- beautiful. William Traver Gallery, 110 Union St, Second Floor, 587-6501. Through April 2.

ALICE WHEELER, JOHN BUCK

Most of us know Wheeler for her grunge photographs; her images of Kurt Cobain and other musicians were among the first to emerge as the scene defined itself. Her current show moves away from personalities and toward landscape, but she brings the same grittiness to them. Wheeler turns her sharp eye to urban landscapes as well. Buck exhibits folk-arty sculptures of wood and copper, as well as woodblock rubbings. Greg Kucera Gallery, 212 Third Ave S, 624-0770. Through April 1.

JUNKO YAMAMOTO

The exhibition is entitled Shunyata, which is a Buddhist term that references emptiness and temporariness. Yamamoto's paintings reflect this concept through empty thought-balloons in fields of saturated color and heavily worked surfaces. The implication is thought over speech -- a refreshing idea these days. King County Arts Commission, 506 Second Ave, Room 200, 296-7580. Through March 31.

*AMIR ZAKI

Zaki favors empty spaces in Los Angeles at night, and the resulting photographs are dark and eerily quiet, relieved only sporadically by artificial light. There's a beauty to such uncrowded work; the parking lots and apartment houses seem almost like stages, awaiting even the smallest burst of activity. James Harris Gallery, 309A Third Ave S, 903-6220. Through April 2.

EVENTS

CHRISTIAN BIRNIE

The Chicago artist lectures on his past and current work, which is featured in this month's Means/Ends at SOIL. Thurs March 30 at 6 pm at the UW Ceramics and Metal Arts Building, 4205 Mary Gates Memorial Dr. For information, call 543-0178.

THE NEW DEAL AND THE FEDERAL ART PROJECTS

David Martin, of Martin-Zambito Gallery, will give a lecture on the last great union of government and art. Roger Van Oosten will give a slide show on murals from that era. Sat April 1 at 1 pm in the McEachern Auditorium at the Museum of History and Industry, 2700 24th Ave E, 622-6952. Admission is $20, $15 for MOHAI members.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR ARTISTS

CALL FOR ARTISTS

It's time: The 2000 Pacific Northwest Annual at the Bellevue Art Museum is ready for your work. Call 425-454-3322, ext. 110 for an entry form, or e-mail miriams@bellevueart.org. Deadline for submissions is April 14. BAM is also accepting applications for their summer Artist-in-Residence program (deadline April 14) and for a film and video festival (deadline May 19). All information is available at the number listed above.

VIDEO ARTISTS

Submit your short films for the Tacoma Art Museum's "After Hours" party. Send a non-returnable VHS tape to TAM, attention Michelle Bufano, 1123 Pacific Ave, Tacoma, WA 98402-4399, or call 253-272-4258 ext. 3007 for more information. Deadline is April 17.