Seattle will have one fewer venue for contemporary art come August, when Platform Gallery closes its doors after 12 years in Pioneer Square’s TK building.
Stephen Lyons, the stalwart owner who can be found day after day sitting in the gallery, often by himself or personally greeting one visitor at a time—except during show openings, which are packed—has decided it’s simply time for a change, he said. He’s taking the gallery and all of its 18 represented artists online.
I’ll miss Platform’s presence acutely. And Lyons is nothing but a pleasure to work with and talk about art with, as anyone who knows him will tell you. I hardly know what else to say at this moment, but I wanted to get the word out.
His statement:
From the Square to the Cloud
Platform Gallery, well into its 12th year, will be moving from its brick and mortar space in Pioneer Square into the cloud. Beginning in August 2016, Platform will be promoting, showing, and selling work on a revamped website that will include many of the artists that we’ve worked with, believed in, loved, and supported over the past decade.
The three remaining exhibitions in the Pioneer Square space will include Adam Ekberg’s newest photography in his show, “Theatre of Lost Years.” (April 2 to April 30). There will be an artist reception and book signing of his recently published monograph, “The Life of Small Things,” on First Thursday, April 7 . The gallery will then host a retrospective of Patte Loper’s work selected from the four solo exhibitions she’s had at Platform since 2004 (May 5 to June 18). A catalog marking her history with the Gallery will be available and the exhibition will overlap with her installation project at Suyama Space (opening May 23). The last exhibition in the space will feature new sculptural work by Scott Fife (June 23 to August 6).
Since September of 2004, 91 group and solo exhibitions were mounted, the work of 88 artists shown, 96 reviews written, and the Gallery participated in 13 art fairs. Platform has remained true to its original mission, consistently showing strong, important, challenging work. This new phase of the Gallery will continue that tradition as well as spotlighting new and under-exhibited artists through monthly online exhibitions.
A special thank-you goes to those people who fell in love with a work of art they saw in Platform’s space or on the Gallery’s website and decided to add it to their lives. Mission accomplished with more to come—online!
