VISUAL ART
BELLEVUE ART MUSEUM
510 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue, 425-454-3322
LUMINOUS: LIGHT AS MATERIAL, MEDIUM, AND METAPHOR
Light as an 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.
JUAN ALONSO: GIVE/TAKE
Recent paintings and large-scale works that draw on both Alonso’s memories of the architecture of his native Cuba and the new museum structure. Through April 8.
BIT PLANE (BUREAU OF INVERSE TECHNOLOGY)
The bureau of inverse technology arrived in Seattle last December and set out to create a portrait of the city through surveillance, observation, and interviews. Footage was gathered by the bit plane, a small remote-control aircraft, and is now presented in a site-specific installation. Through April 22.
FRYE ART MUSEUM
704 Terry Ave, 622-9250
REPRESENTING L.A.: PICTORAL CURRENTS IN CONTEMPORARY SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WORK
An exhibition of California representational art that opens up the term “realist” to welcome work all along the spectrum from the very real to the conceptual, portraiture to landscape, narrative to still life. There’s work by 70 artists–Alison Saar, Enrique Martinez Celaya, and Jim Morphesis among them–in this, the first show to conceptualize and gather together work in this stylistic vein. Through Feb 11.
MARY TIFT
Prints that combine the techniques of etching, silkscreen, embossing, and collage. Tift’s realm is everyday objects, rendered with an Asian feel. Through Feb 4.
HENRY ART GALLERY
15th Ave NE at NE 41st St, 543-2280
GRAPHIC DESIGN IN THE MECHANICAL AGE: SELECTIONS FROM THE MERRILL C. BERMAN COLLECTION
Covering the years around and between the World Wars, a time when design as we know it was born and really began to influence the way important information was seen; the styles that developed during that period still have currency today. Everything–the posters, the books, the ephemera–seems so elegant, and so powerful. Through Feb 18.
*UTA BARTH: IN BETWEEN PLACES
Barth is the best thing ever to happen to the still life. She returned the truth to the phrase, highlighting both stillness and life in her photographs of the places people tend to ignore. Corners, door frames, fields, light moving across the floor–these peripheral areas are events in Barth’s eye. This, the first museum survey of her work, features photographs from her famously blurred series Ground and Field, as well as her latest projects, nowhere near and …and of time. Through Jan 21.
NORDIC HERITAGE MUSEUM
3014 NW 67th St, 789-5707
TREES OF LIFE
This set of three installations by local artist Steve Jensen shows masks the artist created with kids from the Ballard community, wood sculpture, and a series of funeral boats. Jensen draws on both natural and mythological symbols to connect with his Norwegian ancestors. Through Jan 28.
SEATTLE ART MUSEUM
100 University St, 654-3100
CREATING PERFECTION: SHAKER OBJECTS AND THEIR AFFINITIES
An exhibition examining the Shaker culture through its furniture, textiles, and tools, as well as photographs, prints, and drawings. A selection of non-Shaker objects shows the influences absorbed, and rejected, by this simplicity-embracing group; an adjacent display of modern works traces a similarly strict formalism that artists use to create structure in the chaotic modern world. Through April 29.
GINNY RUFFNER: MIND GARDEN
As part of the Documents Northwest/PONCHO Series, Ruffner has transformed a gallery into a metaphorical map of the brain, using dried rose petals, steel, and glass. Through Feb 25.
*JOHN SINGER SARGENT
This show, curator Trevor Fairbrother’s swan song, pulls together an extensive representation of the work of Sargent, the premier portrait artist of his period (1856-1925). Included are a dozen of his famous portraits of the Wertheimer family, along with a good deal of his less famous works: his charcoal studies of male nudes and the watercolors he produced near the end of his life. Through March 18.
SEATTLE ASIAN ART MUSEUM
1400 E Prospect St, Volunteer Park, 654-3100
THE ART OF PROTEST
Social and political issues addressed through a variety of media, including the photography of Walker Evans and the mordant commentary of Jenny Holzer. Fang Lijun’s enormous woodcut, No. 19, dominates the exhibition. Through Jan 21.
WING LUKE ASIAN MUSEUM
407 Seventh Ave S, 623-5124
THROUGH OUR EYES
An extensive exhibition of Asian American photography of the Northwest, from journalism to fine art, including the photography of Frank Matsura and the contemporary work of Dean Wong and Jessica Kim. Through April 8.
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
*LESLIE CLAGUE
This is Clague’s first solo show–long overdue. It’s called Decaedent Objects (the misspelling is intentional) and combines the ideas of death and self-indulgence. The artist gently mocks her own practices, which include covering found objects (shown here in two window installations) in felt and wire, sampling and recombining thrown-away elements to create something part-quaint, part-obsession, part-memento mori. The theater’s lobby features drawings and larger-scale sculpture. Opening reception Tues Jan 16, 6-8 pm. Little Theatre, 608 19th Ave E, 675-2055. Through Feb 25.
CONTINUING EXHIBITIONS
00/01
An exhibition about the color white–ground zero for many artists (the blank canvas) but the goal for the 11 artists shown here. James Harris Gallery, 309A Third Ave S, 903-6220. Through Jan 27.
DANIEL ABRAMS
Intimate social settings rendered in oil paints. Trapeze Gallery, 1130 34th Ave, 329-3363. Through Feb 2.
GARTH AMUNDSON
A strangely glowing garden of patched-together portraits. Amundson’s suggestive and organic shapes are mounted on dowels, giving them the stalk-like grace of insects. SAM Rental Sales Gallery, 1334 First Ave, 654-3240. Through mid-January.
*ARTIST TRUST AUCTION EXHIBITION
The auction isn’t until mid-February, but the work will be up for a month beforehand. My spies tell me that there’s some amazing art showing up, including work by Phil Roach (of the fisheye dioramas), Thess Fenner (surveillance headgear), and a two-penised piñata by Patrick Holderfield. Opening reception Thurs Jan 11, 5:30 pm. See Stranger Suggests. Bank of America Gallery, 701 Fifth Ave, Third Floor, 585-3200. Through Feb 6.
LANNY BERGNER, LYNN GEESAMAN
Nature approached from two wildly varying poles. Bergner’s sculptures fuse organic materials, such as gourds, with hardware and glass, creating work that is both molecular and constructed. Geesaman photographs gardens in Europe, California, and Louisiana. Elliott Brown Gallery, 215 Westlake Ave N, 340-8000. Through Feb 3.
BLIND DATE
A group show, with a twist: each of the co-op’s members has invited another artist to exhibit work as well. Oculus Gallery, 216 Alaskan Way S, 442-9365. Through Jan 27.
SQUIRE BROEL
Still lifes with a collage-y, architectural feel. Eyre/Moore Gallery, 913 Western Ave, 624-5596. Through Jan 27.
CIRCUS OF THE NEW YEAR
A group show, including work by Tim Sullivan, Robert Jones, and Paul Davies. Commencement Art Gallery, Ninth and Commerce, Tacoma, 253-591-5341. Through Jan 31.
DRAKE DEKNATEL
Drawings of bodies in motion. Ace Studios Gallery, 619 Western Avenue, Third Floor, 623–1288. Through Jan 31.
AMY DIED, BERND HAUSSMANN
Sculptures assembled out of found materials by Seattle artist Died; Massachusetts artist Haussmann shows oil on board and canvas. Ballard/Fetherston Gallery, 818 E Pike St, 322-9440. Through Feb 3.
CHRISTEL DILLBOHNER
An installation by Dillbohner, who has been working and showing internationally in this genre since the ’70s. About Sippwells and Other Places is an earthy reconstruction of the process of imagination and drawing on the unconscious. Suyama Space, 2324 Second Ave, 256-0809. Through Jan 19.
JOE MAX EMMINGER
Emminger’s world has an affinity with Marc Chagall’s: dreamy, but somehow logical, populated with stray figures doing strange things. The work is eminently likable, with big blocky areas of color and small specific narratives. Grover/Thurston Gallery, 309 Occidental Ave S, 223-0816. Through Feb 10.
STEVEN FEY, MALCOLM EDWARDS
Two kinds of environments caught by the camera: Fey trains his lens on the sandstone canyons of Utah, and Edwards documents the construction of the Seattle Chinese Garden (currently underway near South Seattle Community College). Benham Photography Studio/Gallery, 1216 First Ave, 622-2480. Through Jan 27.
*VICTORIA HAVEN
Haven builds strength through the repetition of delicate materials. Her recent rubber-band wall sculptures neatly crossed genres: partly like drawings, partly like sculpture, partly like the road map of an idea. This, her first solo show at Howard House, features the further exploitation–and elevation–of office materials, including white-out, tape, and carbon paper. Howard House, 2017 Second Ave, 256-6399. Through Jan 20.
*HAROLD HOLLINGSWORTH, ARTHUR S. AUBRY
Reaching back to the rec rooms of his youth, Hollingsworth offers oil paintings of croquet balls and racing car decals. Aubry continues his investigation of the mechanical world with Large Color Photographs of Industrial Ephemera. Esther Claypool Gallery, 617 Western Ave, 264-1586. Through Feb 10.
LIZABETH HOUCHIN
Paintings and prints of women in private and in public. I Capolavori, 2519 Fifth Ave, 448-2825. Through Jan 19.
SEAN MICHAEL HURLEY
Sequential panels in acrylic that may or may not reflect a narrative. OK Hotel, 212 Alaskan Way S, 621-7903. Through Jan 31.
STEFAN KNORR
Knorr’s paintings, which combine found images with created ones, are savvy about the world and tend to make the media (in all its manifestations) their subject. Of late, Knorr has been moving toward images from the natural world. Gallery Unpublished, Methodologie, 808 Howell St, Sixth Floor, 623-1044. Through Feb 7.
LINKAGES
A group figure exhibition. The Fountainhead, 625 W McGraw St, 285-4467. Through Jan 27.
PAUL MARIONI
This show is called Agnosia, a term that refers to the state of not being able to understand what you’re seeing, a perceptual lapse that could also refer to the blank slate of the viewer in front of a work of art. This show includes prints and drawings as well as glasswork, which rocks, gyrates, and has definite sexual references. William Traver Gallery, 110 Union St, second floor, 587-6501. Through Jan 28.
*RYAN MCGINNESS
Where a lot of graphic designers seem content to watch the form slowly infiltrate the art world, McGinness takes a more kamikaze approach (for example, sneaking into major museums and covertly stuffing his own postcards into the sales racks). This show features his work in paintings, models, and skateboards. Houston, 907 E Pike St, 860-7820. Through Jan 27.
RICHARD MORHOUS
Highly colored interior and exterior views that verge on patterns but retain a feeling of painterly space. Lisa Harris Gallery, 1922 Pike Place, 443-3315. Through Jan 27.
ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG, JAMES ROSENQUIST, PETER MILLET
New prints from one of the first artists to muck around in that art-and-life gap, some of which incorporate images of his family and childhood. In the back, more new prints, this time from Rosenquist, and sculpture from Peter Millet. Greg Kucera Gallery, 624-0770. Through Jan 27.
NORIKO SATO
Sumi painting in an exhibition called FuRuSaTo (Home Town). RAW Gallery, 409 Seventh Ave S, 340-1445. Through Jan 31.
SARAH SAVIDGE
Urban Iconography–paintings on canvas and wood panels, using iconography from Asia and Africa. Virginia Inn, 1937 First Ave, 728-1937. Through Feb 27.
MICHAEL SCHULTHEIS
Paintings and drawings that recall Cy Twombly’s passionate scribblings, but here arranged and colored to suggest bits of discrete–but unreadable–information. Patricia Cameron Fine Art, 108 S Jackson St #207, 343-9647. Through Jan 31.
SCATTERED, SMOTHERED, AND COVERED
Recent acquisitions of folk, self-taught, and so-called outsider art from gallery owners Karen and Marcus Pina’s trips through the Deep South and Midwest. Garde Rail Gallery, 4730 35th Ave S, 760-3720. Through Jan 31.
SETH SEXTON
A series of drawings that meditate on cloning and artificial limbs. Victrola Coffee, 411 15th Ave E, 325-6520. Through Jan 31.
SOIL INVITATIONAL
Work by artists chosen by SOIL’s members, including christ2000™, Rebecca Luncan, and Nancy Blum. SOIL Artist Cooperate, 1205 E Pike, 264-8061. Through Jan 27.
MICHAEL SPAFFORD
A survey of Spafford’s prints from 1985-1999, many of them treating mythological themes. Francine Seders Gallery, 6701 Greenwood Ave N, 782-0355. Through Jan 28.
JOHN A. TAYLOR
Small Neighborhoods, a stoneware collection of apartment buildings, complete with people and animals going about their daily business. King County Art Gallery, 506 Second Ave, Room 200, 296-7580. Through Jan 26.
RON VAN DONGEN
More sensual close-ups of flora, but these are more Blossfeldt than Mapplethorpe. G. Gibson Gallery, 122 S Jackson, 587-5751. Through Jan 14, then Jan 21-27.
DARRELL M. WESTMORELAND
In this show, entitled Behind the Lens, Westmoreland shows 30 years’ worth of music photography. Crocodile Cafe, 2200 Second Ave. Through Feb 3.
EVENTS
JAMES MONTFORD
The artist who created the Artist Dollars Project (now on view in SAAM’s Art of Protest) speaks on issues of patronage and race. SAAM, Volunteer Park, Thurs Jan 11, 7 pm.
MADAME X REVISITED
Trevor Fairbrother lectures on what might be John Singer Sargent’s most famous work. SAM, Plestcheeff Auditorium. Fri Jan 12, 7 pm; $21 ($15 members).
*SEX WORKERS’ ART SHOW
Visual and performance art from sex-industry works from all over the United States. One night only! Capitol Theater, 206 Fifth Avenue, Olympia, 360-753-2388. Sat Jan 13, 8 pm; $10.