BELLEVUE ART MUSEUM

510 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue, 425-454-3322

*LUMINOUS: LIGHT AS MATERIAL, MEDIUM, AND METAPHOR

Light as architectural element is one of Steven Holl's most famous tropes, and this exhibition was assembled to examine it further. It happily includes work by some of the artists you would expect to be represented: Dan Flavin, Joseph Kosuth, Tokihiro Sato, and Iole Allesandrini. Through June 17.

FRYE ART MUSEUM

704 Terry Ave, 622-9250

ALLAN ROHAN CRITE

This retrospective includes paintings, watercolors, and drawings by Crite, an African American artist largely ignored by the world until now. Crite--still alive and kicking at 90--focused on his neighborhood in Boston, creating a body of work that dignified ordinary life as he saw it. Through May 6.

HENRY ART GALLERY

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

*WOLFGANG LAIB: A RETROSPECTIVE

Laib's work resides in the delicate realm of contemplation and nature: pollen sifted into piles and large color field-like squares, "milkstones," forms built of beeswax. This is the first American survey of Laib's work--a touring show that has been shown at the Hirshhorn in Washington, D.C. and will travel to San Diego, Houston, and Munich. Through May 6.

PERFORMING PHOTOGRAPHY

Selections from the Joseph and Elaine Monson Photography Collection, chosen by the collection's curator, Michael van Horn. The idea is to demonstrate the medium's flexibility--from documentary to staged, entirely fictitious scenarios--but the upshot is just really good work by some of the best artists around. Through June 3.

THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF JOHN GUTMANN: CULTURE SHOCK

Images from the '30s through the '50s selected by the photographer before his death in 1998 comprise this exhibition of American street life. Through May 27.

ALEXIS ROCKMAN: FUTURE EVOLUTION

What happens when the natural is subject to continual and careless tinkering? New York artist Rockman puts genetic engineering in the crosshairs, and his aim is dead-on. Part meticulous Audubon illustration, part horror show, these paintings show us what kinds of flora and fauna might evolve (and therefore survive) in the terribly compromised circumstances we're creating on Earth. Through August 19.

SEATTLE ART MUSEUM

100 University St, 654-3100

SEWN

Sculpture by six local artists (Rachel Brumer, David Chatt, Alison Gates, Wendy Hanson, Sara Lanzillotta, and Keith Yurdana) who work with textiles and sewing. Through July 22.

SEATTLE ASIAN ART MUSEUM

1400 E Prospect St, Volunteer Park, 654-3100

*THE EMBODIED IMAGE: CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY FROM THE JOHN B. ELLIOTT COLLECTION

There really isn't any equivalent of calligraphy in American culture--a merging of art and poetry that is highly revered in Chinese culture. Elliott's collection, one of the best outside Asia, includes scrolls, album leaves, and other works, 70 of which are on view in this exhibition. Through May 27.

TACOMA ART MUSEUM

1123 Pacific Ave, Tacoma, 253-272-4258

CONTEMPORARY FOLK ART: TREASURES FROM THE SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM

The notions of outsider art and the self-taught artist are slippery and not very popular in most art-world conversation. However, we all seem to know folk art when we see it. So here's work from the last 40 years of folk art, in all its deceptive simplicity. Through June 17.

WHATCOM MUSEUM

121 Prospect St, Bellingham, 360-676-6981

*PETLAND

Artist Kathy Glowen has built a biography-through-inventory of the possessions of Mamie Laura Rand, a Spokane woman who lived to be 101. Looking at her accumulated belongings creates a negative space in which Rand emerges: centenarian, pet-store owner, single woman. Glowen's respectful arrangements are also conceptually appealing, an intricate visual catalogue of things. Through May 5.

WRIGHT EXHIBITION SPACE

407 Dexter Ave N, 264-8200

*THE WRIGHT COLLECTION

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

OPENING EXHIBITIONS

SAMI BEN LARBI

Here is anonymity taken to an alienating new level. Participants are dressed, one at a time, in latex suits which are then inflated, and given pairs of goggles fitted with LCD screens (which provide the only visual information in the installation) and then set loose in a room with other, similarly dressed folks to... interact. Opening reception Tues May 8, 6-9 pm. Sand Point Naval Station, 7400 NE Sand Point Way (follow signs to building #11). Through May 24.

JENNY DAVIDSON, DIANA FALCHUK

A show that addresses looking and the looked-at, with Davidson's photographs of women's eyes, and Falchuk's intricate sculptures made of books, wax, and twine. Opening reception Thurs May 3, 5:30-11 pm. Forgotten Works Gallery, 619 Western Ave, Fourth Floor, 343-7212. Through May 19.

BETSY EBY

New encaustic diptychs--the seam between the two pieces becomes a very physical split, a kind of lightning bolt through Eby's abstract fields. Opening reception Fri May 4, 5-8 pm. Ballard Fetherston Gallery, 818 E Pike St, 322-9440. Through June 6.

*LEIV FAGERENG

Welcome to the Quicksand Years showcases Fagereng's odd vision of the times--the world and our impact on it. Opening reception Fri May 4, 6-10 pm. Vital 5 Productions, 2200 Westlake Ave, 254-0475. Through June 4.

*CHRISTIAN FRENCH, MEGAN MURPHY

French has created a model for the gamble of art with an installation made of lottery tickets. Viewers are invited to contribute to a kitty for more tickets, and the winnings will be split three ways--between the artist, gallery, and purchaser, which is pretty much exactly how the risk involved in buying, selling, and creating art breaks down. With paintings by Murphy, in a series entitled Flesh. Opening reception Thurs May 3, 6-8 pm. Eyre/Moore Gallery, 913 Western Ave, 624-5596. Through June 2.

DAVID C. KANE, GLENN RUDOLPH

Kane's Book of Physiognomy is a series of 192 small monoprint portraits created, according to the artist, in an improvisational mood. From Rudolph, the landscapes and lifestyles of rural Washington State. Opening reception Thurs May 3, 6-8 pm. Esther Claypool Gallery, 617 Western Ave, 264-1586. Through June 2.

I.H. KUNIYUKI

Silver-print images from Kuniyuki's performance work. Opening reception Thurs May 3, 6-9 pm, with King Otto. Mary Vitold Gallery, 110 S Washington St, 624-9336. Through June 2.

MARGIE LIVINGSTON

Abstract work based on the observation of a thicket of trees and vines. Opening reception Sat May 5, 7-10 pm. SOIL Artist Cooperative, 1205 E Pike, 264-8061. Through May 27.

NIKI POLYOCAN

New photography in a series entitled Los Ninos de Sayulita. Rose Club Café, 3601 McClellan St, 725-3654. Through May 31.

PUBLIC DOMAIN

Graffiti and large work by Romson Bustillo, Meghan Trainor, Brady Trainor, Nhon Nguyen, and Jite Agbro. Opening reception Fri May 4, 8:30 pm-midnight. Secluded Alley Works, 113 12th Ave, 839-0880. Through May 24.

LAURIE REID

The faintest of marks--watercolor with only a trace of pigment--takes the act of painting down to pure gesture. Opening reception Thurs May 3, 6-8 pm. James Harris Gallery, 309A Third Ave S, 903-6220. Through June 9.

TANYA ROESIJADI, RANDY WOOD

Purrponius is the name of Roesijadi's emissary (through painting) into this strange world. He's part cat, part lizard (as far as I can tell), with a fuzzy demeanor and a forked tongue. Wood's installation uses work based on his comic book series Kitties!!! Do you sense a theme here? Opening reception Sat May 5, 6-10 pm. Pound Gallery, 1216 10th Ave, 323-0557. Through May 27.

*KARA WALKER

It doesn't come much more discomfiting than this. Walker's silhouettes show us slave narratives that are (somehow) both horrific and whimsical. Are these stories repressed by history? A personal expression of Walker's experience as a black woman? Greg Kucera Gallery, 212 Third Ave S, 624-0770. Through June 2.

CONTINUING EXHIBITIONS

DONNA BARR

Panels from Barr's comix series The Desert Peach, with World War II, Russians, and reindeer. Glo's Diner, 1621 E Olive Way, 529-2735. Through May 5.

WELDON BUTLER

Prints and drawings from one of Seattle's sparest geometric artists. Visual Abstractions, 1130 34th St. Through May 26.

CORNISH BFA EXHIBITION

Be the first to see the new talent. Cornish College of the Arts, senior studios: 306 Westlake Ave, 622-1951. Through May 11.

PETER de LORY

As artist-in-residence for Seattle Public Utilities, de Lory photographed many of SPU's operations, such as water and drainage. Bank of America Gallery, 701 Fifth Ave, Third Floor, 585-3200. Through May 25.

DESTRUCTION/CONSTRUCTION

Over the course of the show's five-week run, a scale model of First Avenue will be built in the gallery out of tiny little bricks. Li'l Red Shack Gallery, 1028 First Ave S. Through May 12.

BEN DRURY

Album sleeves and limited-edition toys. Houston, 907 E Pike St, 860-7820. Through June 2.

DAVID ECKARD

Some kind of ritual happened here--but what? Eckard has created an arena with a series of conceptual question marks. Suyama Space, 2324 Second Ave, 256-0809. Through June 8.

*JON HADDOCK

Life as video game. Haddock takes real-life events and imagines them as settings for computer games. Howard House, 2017 Second Ave, 256-6399. Through May 5.

HEARD SAID

Artist Stuart Keeler has interviewed and recorded the stories and sounds of immigrants and turned them into a sound and sculpture installation. Jack Straw New Media Gallery, 4261 Roosevelt Way NE, 634-0919. Through May 31.

ERIC HILDEBRANDT

Colorful drawings, paintings, and installation. Velocity Art and Design, 2206 Queen Anne Ave N, #201, 781-9494. Through May 12.

IN TRANSITION

A rotating show that explores transitional spaces, with artists Mel Curtis, Michael Gesinger, Fred Lisaius, Spike Mafford, and Marsha Karr. Seattle Art Museum Rental Sales Gallery, 1334 First Ave, 654-3240. Through May 26.

*BILL JACOBSON, DOUG KEYES

Jacobson uses the out-of-focus photograph to redefine seeing. From Keyes, more of his very cool book pictures--every page photographed and superimposed into one very condensed, but somehow ethereal image. G. Gibson Gallery, 122 S Jackson, Suite 200, 587-4033. Through May 26.

STEVE JENSEN

Wall of Masks is a work Jensen has created over the past year with kids from the Maple Lane High School, Diversity Dance Workshop, and Lambert House. SAM Rental Sales Gallery, 1334 First Ave, 748-9482. Through May 13.

JESUS SAYS BUY MORE FOLK ART

It's not just an excellent exhibition title; it's jazzy folk art from New Orleans. The artists are Sainte-James Boudrot, Charles Gillam, Reginald Mitchell, and "Big Al" Taplet. Garde Rail Gallery, 4750 35th Ave S, 760-3720. Through May 26.

TERRY JOHNSON

These figurative paintings have an eerie clinical feel to them, so much so that they swerve toward the surreal. But very, very precise. It might just start you reconsidering the relationship between likeness and reality. Black Lab Gallery, 5208 Ballard Ave NW, 781-2392. Through May 10.

JOHANNA NITZKE MARQUIS, MAYME KRATZ

Collages from Nitzke; cast resin sculpture from Kratz. Elliott Brown Gallery, 215 Westlake Ave N, 340-8000. Through May 26.

RON McCOMB

Paintings and drawings from the artist whose very varied career includes all those photographs for the rolfing book--you know. This show has the excellent title of The blind homunculus gravitates toward form. Little Theatre, 608 19th Ave E, 275-3055. Through May 20.

NATURAL CONFORMITY

This collaborative installation--the work of Kelly Wilbur, Momcilo Bozic, and Nguyen Anna Ford--features stacks of old televisions showing multiple points of view, part pre-recorded, part passers-by. 911 Media Arts Center, 117 Yale Ave N, 682-6552. Through May 20.

NORTHWEST WOOD

More work in wood, from 16 artists including Amy Died, Joe Max Emminger, and Dan Webb. Gallery at Madison Audio, 909 Western Ave, 292-9262. Through May 28.

*AMY RUEFFERT

Luminous vessels are just the beginning in a show called Beyond Tupperware. Rueffert has created a kind of domestic fantasy based on the colors of a set of Tupperware spoons; her vision is generous enough to include a bunny with switchable tails, little sweaters for the bottles, and a patio chair upholstered in stripes from the same palette. Bubba-Mavis Gallery, 1158 Eastlake Ave E, 405-3223. Through May 10.

JOSEPH WARTES

Subconsciously Trashed features assemblage--in the tradition of Cornell and Rauschenberg--made of found stuff, the dirty and cast-off reimagined into art. Nation, 1921 Fifth Ave, 374-9492. Through May 27.

BRENT WATANABE, FERNANDO PADILLA, MELODY CRUST, ELLA KOOLEY

Watanabe's work is in the video room in the back. He takes found videotapes--home movies, mostly--and edits them down to heighten the taut surrealism of family life. Commencement Art Gallery, Ninth and Commerce, Tacoma, 253-591-5341. Through May 10

*BLAIR WILSON, ANTHONY AUSGANG

Wilson's paintings and illustrations are absolutely eye-popping; he creates them out of thousands and thousands of hand-rendered benday dots. Ausgang's bright cartoon-like paintings are equally trippy. Roq la Rue, 2224 Second Ave, 374-9877. Through May 5.