You have two strong reasons to go to this show: James Lavadour is the J.M.W. Turner of the Northwest, a maker of landscape paintings that are layered and gauzy and vivid, full of weather and invitation. He’s a member of the Umatilla Tribe, and his relationship with the land was, and continues to be, his school of art, but these surfaces reveal influences from pop artist Robert Rauschenberg to Chinese painting. Your second reason to go? Grover/Thurston is moving. Say good-bye to the gorgeous, double-height old Occidental Square space the gallery has been in since 1993. Starting in August, Grover/Thurston will be housed in the squat nearby space that Catherine Person Gallery recently vacated. In this economy, mixed news is good news. (Grover/Thurston Gallery, 309 Occidental Ave S, 223-0816, 11 am–5 pm, free)
Jen Graves (The Stranger’s former arts critic) mostly writes about things you approach with your eyeballs. But she’s also a history nerd interested in anything that needs more talking about, from male... More by Jen Graves
I’ve been fortunate enough to have run into James Lavadour’s work in assorted places in the Northwest, and the “J.M.W. Turner of the Northwest” is an apt description. One of my absolute favorite contemporary Northwest artists, and I hadn’t realized until now the Rauschenberg influence. (And I should have. I’m someone who once treasured a Rauschenberg umbrella from the Guggenheim.)
Speaking of absolute favorite contemporary Northwest artists… Between Lavadour and Terry Turrell, the Grover/Thurston has been on a hot streak lately.