1420 11th Ave, 728-1980.
* BLURRED
Architects, game designers, graphic designers, and other non-traditional practitioners in a series of site-specific installations. Featuring ABBP, Iole Alessandrini, Michelle Arab, Mike Barrette, Michael Culpepper, Marc Dombrosky, James Harris, John Jenkins III, Mark Johnson, lead pencil studio, r-b-f architecture, Alex Schweder, SHED, Philip Thiel. Through Sept 13.
FRYE ART MUSEUM
704 Terry Ave, 622-9250.
WILLIAM BECKMAN
Gutted of sentimentality, Beckman's personal portraits seek to reflect a stark inspection of their subjects, in both presence and tone. Through Oct 27.
GABRIELLE BAKKER, GLORIA DeARCANGELIS
Artifice and Representation combines modern mythology with classical constructs to create warm, saturated portraits. Through Sept 8.
THE PERCEPTION OF APPEARANCE
A whole mess of figure drawings composed in the America of the 1990s. Warning: Brief Nudity. Featuring the work of Steven Assael, William Beckman, Jane Fisher, Kent Bellows, Sydney Goodman, and more. Through Sept 22.
HENRY ART GALLERY
15th Ave NE & NE 41st St, 543-2280.
* SHORT STORIES
See review of Elizabeth Jameson's splendorform, this issue. Through Nov 10.
SEATTLE ART MUSEUM
100 University St, 654-3100.
* DO-HO SUH
Korean artist Suh understands the power of "a lot," understands how repetition gives a kind of dignity to modest things. He imbues his projects--a suit of armor made from thousands of dog tags, a floor held up by thousands of tiny figures, wallpaper made of thousands of faces cut out from his high-school yearbook--with political feeling as well. (Emily Hall) Split between the Seattle Asian Art Museum (Volunteer Park) and Seattle Art Museum, the first American survey of Suh's work arrives in our city. Through Dec 1.
OPENING EXHIBITIONS
NEW... IDEA, MATERIAL, PROCESS
Artists exploring avenues in their work that are, um, new. Featuring Gail Grinnell, Elaine Housman, Pat De Caro, Philip Govedare, and Lynda K. Rockwood. Francine Seders Gallery, 6701 Greenwood Ave N, 782-0355. Through Sept 1.
NORTHWEST MASTERS
Culled from the city's portable arts collection, this mixed medley of works combines the good, the bad, and the eye-patched of Seattle's "illustrious" arts history. Includes efforts by Chuck Close, John Cage, Lee Friedlander, Dale Chihuly, Sonja Blomdahl, and many, many more. Opening reception Tues Aug 20, 5-7 pm. Bank of America Gallery, 701 Fifth Ave, 749-9525. Through Sept 20.
* PROJECT 18
See Stranger Suggests. Opening reception Sat Aug 17, 7-11 pm. Sand Point Magnuson Park, Building 18, 522-9529. Through Sept 28.
CONTINUING EXHIBITIONS
* ARTHUR S. AUBRY
Aubry's photographs of industrial sites and debris have an eerie stillness that takes them somewhere beyond documentation. Also featuring Saya Moriyasu's Service, a series of clayworks about the service industry. Esther Claypool Gallery, 617 Western Ave, 264-1586. Through Aug 24.
* LEO SAUL BERK, DONNABELLE CASIS
Surveying explores Berk's fascination with the timber industry in the form of his 100-foot veneer ribbon sculpture, which promises to literally envelop its viewers. Vague, flirtatious oil forms compose Casis' hanker. Howard House, 2017 Second Ave, 256-6399. Through Sept 7.
* JIM BLANCHARD
Roq la Rue welcomes its second showcase of Blanchard's elegant, subtle, and widely successful sticker paintings of huge pop icons. Roq la Rue Gallery, 2224 Second Ave, 374-8977. Through Aug 23.
JOY BROOM, BRENNA HELM
With Renaissance reproductions and antiquated Italian field maps as points of inspiration, Joy Broom fabricates imaginary artifacts, coated in beeswax, in her Italian Sketchbook Series. Also featuring Helm's oils on panel. Linda Hodges Gallery, 316 First Ave S, 624-3034. Through Aug 31.
CHRISTOPHER BUENING, KATHY ROSS
Personifications, personal and perverse. Gallery 110, 110 S Washington, 624-9336. Through Aug 24.
TOM DEWAR
Hand-screened concert posters designed for the likes of Mudhoney, Unwound, and Dick Dale. Area 51, 401 E Pine St, 568-4782. Through Aug 29.
* CLAUDIA FITCH, KATY STONE
Fitch's Attic Moderne comments on the commercialization of precious artistic icons, recasting them in the image of plastics and imitation wares. Coupled with Stone's Mylar-and-paint botanicals. Greg Kucera Gallery, 212 Third Ave S, 624-0770. Through Aug 31.
ALAN FULLE, MASAMI KODA, ERIC NELSEN, RICK ARALUCE
Works in anagama-fired clay, mixed-media paint and sculpture, and beautifully intricate miniature mixed-media diorama. William Traver Gallery, 110 Union St, Second Floor, 587-6501. Through Aug 31.
* ELIZABETH JAMESON
See review this issue. Ballard Fetherston Gallery, 818 E Pike St, 322-9440. Through Aug 31.
* JULIE JOHNSON
Sensory manipulation infuses Johnson's Virtual, a collection of interactive ceramics works serving as "no-tech" virtual reality simulators--in actual reality. Ceramics Gallery, University of Washington, 4205 Mary Gates Drive, 543-0178. Through Aug 19.
HENRY KINER
Photographic documents of the beauty inherent in waste products populate Consumed. King County Art Gallery, 506 Second Ave, Suite 200, 296-7580. Through Aug 30.
RACHEL MAXI, NINO YUNIARDI
Ordinary and mundane facets of the urban landscape are uncovered with subtle grace in Maxi's The Green Show, exhibited along with Yuniardi's peaceful Rush series. Artemis Gallery, 3107 S Day St, 323-0562. Through Aug 30.
* CHRIS McMULLEN
Composed of over 2,500 cubic feet of tons of steel and stone, Process Physics expands McMullen's absurdist mechanical obsessions into yet another "interactive kinetic installation." Vital 5 Productions, 2200 Westlake Ave, 254-0475. Through Sept 2.
* SARAH MORRIS
The goals of commerce, as illustrated through an accumulation of shopping bags. Seattle Art Museum Rental/Sales Gallery, 1334 First Ave, Suite 140, 654-3240. Through Sept 29.
MUSTANG SUMMER
Group show featuring Thin Ice, Jack Daws, Max Galesi, Chris Grant, Kelly Kempe, Bran Meade, John Seal, and Megan Szczecko, among others. SOIL Gallery, 1317 E Pine St, 264-8061. Through Sept 1.
* ANTJUAN ODEN
Oden's coffee drawings--coffee-powder paste applied with twisted tissue paper--were done during a 28-day stay in solitary confinement. They are something. With acrylic color paintings. Garde Rail Gallery, 4860 Rainier Ave S, 721-0107. Through Sept 28.
PRINTWORKS 2002
Works by 26 national printmakers, including Weldon Butler, Squeak Carnwarth, Kara Walker, and Darren Waterston. Key Tower Gallery, 700 Fifth Ave, third floor, 684-7312. Through Oct 25.
REGROUP/REVIEW
It's August, and that means one-stop shopping at all the adventurous local galleries. The upstairs gallery is given over to Chris St. Pierre's emotional and fractured drawings and Demi Raven's perplexing modern-world paintings. Solomon Fine Art, 1215 First Ave, 297-1400. Through Aug 30.
KATRINA SANTORE, CHRISTY CUSICK
Doubly exposed photographs, digital prints, and mixed media. The Pound Gallery, 1216 10th Ave, 323-0557. Through Aug 18.
* SICK SHOW
What looks to be a truly charming collection of works by the likes of Amanda Kindregan, Sam Trout, Betsy Deboer, and Isaac Novak--all tracing the many familiar facets (pharmacy, healthcare professionals, the digestive and respiratory system) of being under the weather. Black Lab Gallery, 5208 Ballard Ave, 706-7017. Through Aug 31.
* KELLY STATON
A series of paintings, entitled The Secret Life of Nancy Drew. Rather than fucking with some supposed hidden meaning in the text, or deconstructing it, or turning it into some grotesque feminist platitude, Staton's paintings bring Nancy Drew to life by sticking to the text: The conservatively dressed young detective appears in a series of stills from make-believe mystery stories. What Staton does differently is subtly add a dash of human angst to the mix, so that the mystery is no longer an external one, but rather reflected back onto Nancy herself. (Josh Feit) Little Theatre Gallery, 609 19th Ave E, 343-9653. Through Aug 24.
* JENNIFER WEST
We are losing Jennifer West to Los Angeles at the end of this month--a huge loss, since she's one of the best video artists around. Her installations explore how video projections shape emotion and dimensionality, in this case with water towers and industrial silos collapsing in reverse, exploding the act of witnessing and the very contemporary addiction to documentation. Bye-bye Jennifer. (Emily Hall) James Harris Gallery, 309A Third Ave S, 903-6220. Through Aug 31.
JIM WOODRING
In Drawings Pleasant & Unpleasant, Woodring takes a break from the outlandish color of his brilliant comics work with a collection of complex charcoal drawings. Elliott Bay Café, 101 S Main St, 682-6664. Through Aug 31.
EVENTS
EVOLUTION TATTOO CONVENTION
This week only. Show off your mutilation tendencies with three g(l)orious days of blood, sweat, butterflies, and hepatitis C--complete with fire and breakdancing! Consolidated Works, 500 Boren Ave N, 860-5245, Fri-Sun Aug 16-18, noon-10 pm.
