Author Archive

I’ve been thinking about these paintings lately. Lila Jarzombek, Untitled Series, 2008. Jen Graves liked them too.

You have 8 more days to see the MFA exhibition.

Listen up! Public Radio International show “Studio 360 with Kurt Anderson” aired a conversation between Misrach and Sarah Lilley on May 23.

Richard Misrach’s On the Beach opens at the Henry this October after showing at the National Gallery of Art.

My work aims to rearrange the idea of the ordinary through the reinvention of the function and context of everyday, utilitarian objects and materials.

Evan Blackwell’s site here.

Evan Blackwell, Crystallization of the Moment. 2008 Straws, zip ties, mylar, acrylic, steel, wood, and monofilament. 10 x 17 x 10 feet big

Julie Alpert’s MFA piece, Questioning the fabric of reality using formal considerations of painting and drawing, 2008 resembles a disfigured stage set. Five platforms are the underpinnings of the installation and ground her visual exploration of illusionism. In the Henry MFA ArtCast, Alpert talks about the ways her passion for theater, film, and painting have culminated in an exploration of the ways that people suspend disbelief though seeking experiences that internally transport them out of reality. Her interview is second in the podcast episode, load it on to your MP3 player and check into Alpert’s reality for a few minutes. Regina Hackett’s Art To Go review and comments here (the first one is stellar).

Julie Alpert, “Questioning the Fabric of of Reality Using Formal Considerations of Painting and Drawing,” detail, 2008

Fantastical Imaginings, Emergent Transitions: Conversations with the MFA Students of 2008

The annual Master of Fine Arts student exhibition showcases the culmination of graduates’ work at the University of Washington’s School of Art. This year from May 17 - June 15, 2008, 19 artists working in ceramics, fibers, metals, photography, sculpture, painting and drawing, are on display in the North Galleries. This Henry ArtCast features interviews hosted by Kira Randolph, Communications Student Assistant, in conversation with 10 artists about their creative processes, inspiration, and graduate studies. These students are: Nicki Sucec, Julie Alpert, Keeara Rhoades, Zack Bent, Allison Quemere, Molly Epstein, Jason Loik, Rachel de Conde, Susanne Lechler Osborn, and Noah Grossgott. Click here to access the website.

Last Friday was the MFA 2008 Community Celebration and I’ve never seen the Henry so packed. The North Galleries were virtually shoulder-to-shoulder full and the line to spend a few quiet moments in Nicki Sucec’s Home Is The Most Import Place In The World, 2008 snaked across the floor alongside Alicia Basinger’s Tracing Time.

The photograph below gives you a glimpse of one of the memorial tags that Sucec has hand crafted to honor over 200 individuals that have died living on the streets of Seattle since the year 2000. The installation structure is made of four box springs, and a red sleeping bag draped across the top creates a warm glow as you enter. Inside, a four minute audio loop from court hearings about encampment sweeps is playing.

Nicki talks about her experience creating this artwork on the MFA podcast that I am uploading tomorrow and later this month Jamey Summa is launching the Henry’s first videocast, which will have footage of the installation. Photograph courtesy of Nicki Sucec.

Cornish College of the Art’s Art & Design BFA Show, which closed last week preceded our MFA show at the Henry (on through June 15). Rachel Cavallo, 2008 BFA at Cornish AND Henry Art Gallery gallery attendant wins the award for the superstar review from The Stranger.

Her design for an Islamic Refugee Camp inspired Charles Mudede to write: “I found her installation exceptional because it has as its concern a current international crisis—refugees in the Middle and Near East. Cavallo, an interior designer, proposes a flexible, cheap, and modern architecture for refugees who follow the path and laws of Islam, [her] . . . proposal is both bold and beautiful.” Congrats Rachel! Read the full article here.

Photo from Charles Mudede’s “H(e)aven: In a Strong Cornish Show, a Design for Islamic Refugees” in The Stranger, May 21, 2008.

That’s right, 3 days and counting until the MFA 2008 Community Celebration this Friday! This is the first artwork you will see as you enter the North Galleries rotunda. It seems fitting that Fred Muram, 2007 MFA grad photographed this work by Noah Grussgott, Primary Institution, 2008, Manufactured play cubes, steel, acrylic, hardware. Courtesy of the artist, photo: Fred Muram.

The Master of Fine Arts 2008 Community Celebration is just around the corner. FYI: Friday, May 23 at 7pm, everyone is invited, be there or be square. 19 students + ceramics, fibers, metals, painting, drawing, photography, and sculpture = 45 pieces that represent the culmination of each artist’s creative process over the course of their degree. In anticipation of the opening this Saturday, today and throughout the exhibition, hankblog is spotlighting different artists with images of their artworks, beginning with Alicia Basinger:

Basinger had her first solo museum at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland as a Wendy L. Moore Emerging Artist Series recipient in 2005. She has a BFA in ceramics with a minor in glass. She has four pieces in MFA 2008, pictured below is Ripe. 2008. Balloons, acrylic, and water. Courtesy of the artist.

As a museum studies nerd I get excited about institutional mission statements. The best ones (in my opinion) are memorable, snappy, and succinct. For example, “The Henry Art Gallery delivers a direct experience of the art of our time.” Mission statements are intended to be every museums’ northern star, they are the defining words for decision-making about exhibitions, programmings, and community partnerships, amongst other things. One component of the Henry Art Gallery’s mission statement is to serve as “a catalyst for the creation of new work that inspires and challenges.” The Henry does a great job fulfilling this mission in lots of ways, from exhibitions like Dawn Cerny: We’re all going to die (except for you)., to the annual Master of Fine Arts show next month, and through programs and events such as Open Floor tomorrow night, Tuesday, April 29 at 7pm.

Open Floor, as I understand it, emerged from a desire by the Henry staff to foster spontaneous, collaborative, artistic expression by providing a venue for a variety of creative Happenings (to borrow a term coined in 1957 by Alan Kaprow). I am loosely using this word because the first description that I read of open floor reminds me of 18 Happenings in 6 Parts (1959). Read this and let me know if you think it sounds reminiscent:

“Part artist survey, part lecture, part sing-along, part belly of the beast, each month Henry Staff, local artists, musicians, performers, and filmmakers present work with the hope of generating new creative relationships. As its title suggests, Open Floor encourages the release of whatever vibrancy you may have swirling in your chest. Discussion is appropriate. Debate seems necessary. Random shouting is required.”

Anyway, check it out (then share the love with me). The topic for tomorrow is Generative Creativity and Performance, more info from Betsey here.

Friday at the Western Bridge opening “You Complete Me,” Betsey introduced me as her “tireless Communications student assistant.” This week, however, I am in Denver, home of the 28-sided Denver Art Museum, Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, and the Denver Botanic Gardens. So, rather than chatting to UW MFA Students about their upcoming show, or attempting to tan from Josiah McElheny: The Last Scattering Surface, I am tirelessly seeing art and learning from some of this nation’s greatest museum leaders at the American Association of Museums Annual Meeting. The Henry Art Gallery is well represented here by our very own curator Elizabeth Brown who presented in panel entitled “Curators, Objects and Interpretation: New Approaches to Reach the Visitor” yesterday.

There is a lot of familiar art in Denver. Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt show that I saw last year at the Tacoma Art Museum is now at Denver Art Museum, along with Inspiring Impressionism, due to premiere at the Seattle Art Museum on June 19th. Between sessions I ventured to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver for my first introduction to David Altmejd’s sculptural installation. Two fellow museology students and I literally whooped for joy when we entered the exhibition.

STAR POWER: Museum as Body Electric is a seductive, mythological mirror-based installation that immerses you and reflects your body back in at least a dozen dimensions. The exhibition’s subtitle is from Walt Whitman’s poem, “I Sing the Body Electric,” in which “souls are reflected in nature,” from the Leaves of Grass compilation. Standing amongst those massive shiny cyborg gods it was impossible to forget my own physicality, which felt sublime in MCA’s Large Works Gallery.

Henry, I’m home! If you saw this post, then you know that former communications assistant Erin Langner and I spent the last week in Montreal representing the Henry Art Gallery at Museums the Web 2008. The final morning of the conference was dedicated to demonstrations conducted by museum professionals. In ours, “The Kids Are All Right: Reaching the Internet Generation using Interactive Web Technologies and NO MONEY,” we talked about how the Henry Art Gallery uses web 2.0 social networking tools such as Facebook to engage with students at The University of Washington.

On Facebook? Then become a fan of the Henry Art Gallery! Our page is a great way to receive invitations and reminders about upcoming events at the Henry.

Erin and I are in Montreal for the Archives & Museum Informatics, Museums and the Web 2008: the International Conference for Culture and Heritage Online. I heart Montreal; the conference is pretty exciting too, I’m only one day in and my imagination is already running rampant with the future of museums online. Read the rest of this entry »

Photographic Subjects: The Work of Jean-Luc Mylayne and Family Day at the Henry is now on our website, it is also my first podcast (produced with the expertise of Erin Langner)! I think that you might want to listen but read all about it first:

In conjunction with the exhibition of photography by philosopher Jean-Luc Mylayne showing in the North Galleries until April 27, 2008, the first segment of this ArtCast explores themes of subject matter, compositional elements, and color present in these works. This conversation with photojournalist and photographer Jill Hardy is accompanied by bird identification and commentary by local bird enthusiast Kris Lightner. The second half of this episode features children talking about art during family day at the Henry on March 16th. Recess Monkey played to a packed auditorium before visitors folded origami birds, jumped rope with On the Double (Dutch), and saw exhibitions by Jean-Luc Mylayne, Dawn Cerny, and Kader Attia.

Who says that UW campus isn’t the place to be for Spring Break? The Yoshino cherry trees are in full bloom on the quad and this morning Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk was dismantled for routine cleaning. Both a crane and a flatbed truck were involved. I am more familiar with Barnett Newman’s zip paintings so this frenzy of activity inspired some musing (and consequently an internet search) about Broken Obelisk. Read Stephen Polcari’s article “Barnett Newman’s ‘Broken Obelisk.’ - sculpture” from Art Journal Winter 1994. Don’t forget to check out the sculpture when you hear Josiah McElheny speak in Kane Hall; you will probably walk right by it.

Hooray, it is spring break time! That means that most students, whether they be from primary school or graduate school (yep, that’s me), have a little more free time to surf the net. I already know that the Henry loves kids, which is why we had such a fun Family Day last weekend. Today, I have a special discovery to share with the kiddies who came to family day and want to learn even more about art. The Smart Museum at the University of Chicago has a really cool website designed for 7-12 year olds to prove how much they love kids too. Heck, even if you aren’t 7-12, check out the “art speak” section, it defines terms like unity, negative space and assemblage, not a bad glossary. Visit the site here.

P.S. - Betsey recorded some special visitors and their adult friends talking about Family Day; stay tuned for a playful podcast coming up soon! In the meantime, listen to our other Henry ArtCasts here.

Yesterday, when I was researching Einar Jarmund’s lecture on the Seattle Public Library website, I saw this photograph of participants in Oliver Herring’s Task performance at the Hirshhorn:

The Frye Art Museum is currently taking applications for the Seattle incarnation of Oliver Herring’s improvisational Task. This event comprises of 35 participants performing a series of “tasks,” first with Herrring’s guidance and then self-directed, in the Central public library branch on June 28th during operating hours from 10AM - 5:30PM. Oliver Herring, a New York based artist, is hand-picking participants based on applications (including 150 word response about your interest in participation). In addition to the SPL and the Frye, other fabulous partner organizations involved in this event include On the Boards and the Tacoma Art Museum.

Sadly, Kader Attia left Seattle on Saturday after a month long residence at the Henry but his Ghost installation will be on view in the Stroum Gallery until May 25th.

This article, “Pecked” by Rebecca Mead appeared on The New Yorker website on March 5, 2007 about Christie’s then-impending auction of Flying Rats, which originally premiered at the Lyons Biennial in 2005.

Don’t fret architecture buffs, even though Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA, our visionary art and architecture exhibition in the East Gallery closed on Sunday to make way for Josiah McElheny: The Last Scattering Surface (coming April 5th!), there is an exciting lecture planned at SPL downtown this Thursday.

Einar Jarmund, partner of the 17 person Oslo-based architectural firm that designed the Svalbard Research Center (pictured below, from Space.City) is speaking Thursday, March 6th at 6:30PM about his project in arctic archipelago, amongst others. Tickets are available from the beautiful Peter Miller Books and through Brown Paper Tickets, $10 advance/ $15 at the door.

More info, courtesy of Space.City, Seattle’s Art and Architecture Forum: 

Oslo-based architects Jarmund/Vigsns designed the Svalbard Research Centre in an arctic archipelago at 78 north, with the idea that every commission should be unique with reference to its site and circumstances. The geometry of the building was modeled on flows of wind and snow across the site Read the rest of this entry »

Check it out, two exhibitions are on show, Peoples of the Plateau: The Indian Photographs of Lee Moorhouse, 1898-1915 and This Place Called Home, plus meet one of the curators, Master of Arts in Museology second year student Miles Miller! See the shows and get a free donut at the Student Open House tomorrow, March 5, 7-9PM at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.

I’m checking this out after class, care to join me? Straight from the Jacob Lawrence Gallery website:

Jacob Lawrence Gallery

SoA Annual Open Juried Student Show

February 27th through March 16th, 2008An exhibition highlighting the creativity and diversity of the talented students of the School of Art. The 2008 School of Art Open will be juried by Billy Howard, owner of Howard House

Opening Reception
Tuesday, February 26th, from 4:00-6:00 pm

Don’t forget to check out The Cool School at NWFF, co-presented with the Henry Art Gallery. Regina Hackett is introducing tonight’s screening at 7:15 and Ruth Askey will introduce the Saturday screening, same time, same place. It runs through February 28 at the Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave. at Pike, Capitol Hill. Map here.

I’m really into openings lately and I think that I’m going to pin it on the change in seasons. These blue skies and sunshine just make me itch to get out an explore new places. Come Fremont’s First Friday Art Walk on March 7th from 6-9PM I can add The Fremont Abbey to my list, it is a big old brick church building in the heart of the Center of the Universe. Built in 1914 and recently renovated to provide 9000 square feet of space for nonprofit community goodness, it also supports the Great Places Forum criteria: community + economic vitality + environmental sustainability, sounds like a winner to me.

Hilary Wilder, current artist in residency at Open Satellite has been busy. Join the artist for the reception of her site-specific painting installation tonight, Thursday, February 21, 6-9 PM at 989 112 Ave NE, Suite 102, Bellevue. She will also be speaking at the Henry on this Saturday, February 23, 4 PM to discuss her compositions “held in tension between ideas of order and disorder, stability and chaos, and the real and ideal.” More information from the Open Satellite website:

Informed by Romantic landscape painters, including Casper David Friedrich and J.M.W. Turner, Wilder’s impressive, large-scale installations attempt to examine the forces of nature and culture. Often depicting explosive and tumultuous scenes, her paintings are supported by a grid painted directly onto the wall, which acts to balance the drama that unfolds in the canvases. Read the rest of this entry »

The Northwest African American Museum opens on Saturday, March 8, at 11AM with a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, and the festivities last all week long with free admission until March 16th. To mark the celebratory occasion there will be live music, free tours and art activities Saturday, 11:30AM-4PM, 2300 S. Massachusetts St, Seattle.

Then, on Sunday, March 16 at 8PM is the Quincy Jones Extravaganza and Lifetime Achievement Award. Tickets range from $25-$250, with all proceeds going to NAAM. More info from the Paramount Theatre website:

Join us March 16th as the NW African American Museum honors Quincy Jones with their first Lifetime Achievement Award. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a shout-out about some various events that I am looking forward next week, in chronological order:

1. President’s Day long weekend, Monday, February 18, all day
2. UW Art History Lecture, David Anfam: Of the Earth, the Damned and of the Recreated: Clyfford Still’s Early Work, Tuesday, February 19, 6 PM FREE, Henry Art Gallery Auditorium. More info about Clyfford Still here, and David Anfam here.
3. NextBook Lecture Series: Jon Entine Genes and the Jewish Identity, Wednesday, February 20, 7 PM FREE, Henry Art Gallery Auditorium.
   
4. The Cool School, (Morgan Neville, USA, 2007, 86 min) Special Introduction with Regina Hackett, Friday, February 22, 7:15 PM, Northwest Film Forum. Tickets here.
5. Evening Lecture with Finnish Architect Juhani Pallasmaa in relation to his work at the new Nordic Heritage Museum, Saturday, Feburary 23, 7 PM.
6. February is the inaugural month for La Familia Gallery, SceneInSeattle tours, running Tuesday-Saturday. I’ll probably book one of those too. Tickets here.

Enjoy the long weekend!

Local artist Dawn Cerny has a totally cool website. I sit near Misa, the curatorial coordinator at the Henry and when I walked by her desk this morning I noticed that she had a webpage with a drawing of some mighty nice eye-glasses on her computer monitor. Being the curious sort I took a few steps backwards just to look a little closer. Sure enough, it was a “free glasses kit” (you gotta take a look at these, you can print out the page and everything!); I also highly recommend perusing through the galleries, and reading a few of The Personal Essays, Short Stories and One Acts.

Dawn Cerny: We’re all going to die (except for you). is showing here in the North Galleries right through April 27th. She is also working in the open studio format this Saturday, February 16th at 1pm.

Kim Jones: A Retrospective was on show here at the Henry Art Gallery from October 20, 2007 - January 27, 2008. Word on the street in Brooklyn is that his latest exhibition opened last Friday at Pierogi, 177 North 9th Street Brooklyn, NY. 

Untitled, 1980, Ink on Paper, 9 x 12 inches

Those of you who have seen Dawn Cerny: We’re all going to die (except for you). know that Dawn has a sizable obsession with antiquated memorabilia, evidenced by the Victorian-era mourning dresses and historic photographs in her North Gallery installations of the Henry. Joining Art Dialogue tonight at 7pm, talking about intriguing late nineteenth-century mourning customs and rituals is special guest Sandra Kroupa. In addition to being both a scholar and collector, Kroupa is also Book Arts and Rare Book Curator, UW Libraries Special Collections. If you haven’t seen the exhibition, read Jen Graves’ review in the Stranger for a glimpse of what she calls a “radically open new installation, which is performative and concrete at once.” The review should inspire you to come take a peak.

Also, I know that lots of art museums offer free admission for the first Thursday of every month, here at the Henry we offer free admission every Thursday and are open until 8pm to prolong the fun!

Attention art walkers, it will probably rain Thursday night. Why should you go on art walk anyway? Well, I will give you three of my reasons (regular hankblog readers already know that I really like lists but for you infrequent readers, this is a treat). Read the rest of this entry »

Museums and Radiohead are on my short list of favorites. On Saturday I combined two of my loves at the Seattle Laser Dome in the Pacific Science Center with Laser Radiohead. I know, pretty hot date idea.

In the spirit of inclusiveness I have two announcements. Firstly, I was talking to my friend Kris Anderson, interim director over at the Jake, and they have a call for work from All School of Art Majors (both undergrad and grad students) for their SoA Annual Open Juried Student Show, February 27-March 16. This year the Open will be juried by Howard House owner Billy Howard. Submissions are due by February 19th, other details are available over here at the UWSOA Jacob Lawrence Gallery website.

Secondly, (and this is the “moderately artistically inclined” folks section) this Saturday, February 2nd is I Wanna Make it With You: Valentine Craft-in at the Henry. It is free with admission and runs from 1-3PM in the Education Studio. Straight from our website:

Join local artists for a Valentine making party! Paper, vintage images, embellishments, and other materials will be on hand for creating an unconventional card or gift that will make your Valentine swoon. Bring your own materials to personalize your creations.

I’ll be there and I’m thinking about bringing some of those little conversation hearts that say stuff like “You’re Cool!” to paste onto my valentines.

P.S. - Once I finish my valentines I’m going to bring one to Dawn Cerny in the North Galleries where she is working in open studio format as part of her show Dawn Cerny: We’re all going to die (except for you). Probably the one with the “You’re Cool!” conversation heart on it.

Dawn Cerny is a breath of fresh air into my art universe. This statement is somewhat ironic since her work is about death, but in an art world where alter-egos can be rife and cryptic artist’s statements abundant, Dawn means what she says and says what she means. I first met Dawn during our University Art Institute Come Together with Harrell Fletcher, a community forum where various community members directly affected by the Vietnam or Iraq wars shared their stories. Dawn spoke candidly and elegantly about her internal journey trying to make sense of war. I experience her installations in the North Galleries of the Henry that engage with themes of grief, loss, death, and mourning rituals as visual explorations of the inner meditations she spoke of in September. Even without this context, spending time in these galleries evokes an opportunity to consider our fallible human condition, especially in the face of destructive forces.

In We’re all going to die (except for you). one installation is a composite of archival jewelery, photographs, two Victorian-era mourning dresses from the Henry collection, taxidermy owls from the Burke Museum of Natural Culture and History, and funeral wreaths, alongside her t-shirt drawings on paper. The other gallery has been transformed into a joint waiting room/ studio space. The waiting room is outfitted with the home and garden variety of periodicals, a library of books considering death, hung with 19th-century landscape oil paintings, and on Saturdays during the exhibition, Dawn will be working in an open studio format on an evolving project (yesterday it was a disposable paper-solider narrative battle scene but I plan on investing some time in the waiting room to see how it changes).

The members-only opening celebration for Jean-Luc Mylayne and Dawn Cerny: We’re all going to die (except for you) is at the Henry tonight from 6-9pm, RSVP to rsvp@henryart.org by 4pm.

MWW, Museum Without Walls, a brand new initiative based right here in Seattle’s u-district is keeping busy planning some pretty interesting upcoming projects. A little birdie told me to expect everything from an historical exhibition about local activism planned for Fall 2008 to the commission of sculptures to commemorate the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition in 2009. What is a Museum Without Walls? Essentially, this interdisciplinary group engages in museum projects such as exhibitions, community forums, walking tours, and oral histories, without being confined to one specific location.

I love the idea of serendipitously walking into a Museum Without Walls exhibition but for news on specific projects you can read their blog. More info below from their website:

The project will celebrate many well-known sites and highlights of civic life in the UDistrict, but seeks also to discover more personal stories, shared by residents past and present, that reflect the many ways that neighbors have connected in the UDistrict, and what they’ve come to value in the community. We appreciate your interest in sharing your stories and images with us, and welcome your response.

I just got back from an interview with a reporter from The Daily of the University of Washington about why students should come see Silver See, a Portfolio of Photography from Los Angeles on show here at the Henry until March 30. For the last year or so, The Daily has been producing videocasts about cool UW stuff and general u-district joy including  Small and Flat: Work Within Limits showing at the Jake last November, click here to check out the enjoyable episode.

Back to the interview; UW students can’t go really wrong visiting the Henry (besides the slightly pesky part about checking your backpack). We get into the Henry for free, this premiere museum is home to James Turrell’s Light Reign (one of my favorite between-classes breather spaces), and there are 16-25 exhibitions here a year, which always includes one photography show. As for the glossies in the Silver See, they are sexy, clever, and quite different from one another (both in photographic processes and subject). Plus they offer interesting insight into the photographic concerns of artists working in LA in the 70s.

Join us this Tuesday in the Henry Art Gallery Auditorium 6-7:30 for Dance Dialogue: The Memory of War Through Generations, a free community arts forum. Choreographer Ea Sola has spent the last decade creating works that explore the post-war identities of Vietnam War survivors. This Tuesday she discusses her work in conversation with Christoph Giebel, UW Associate Professor of Viet Nam Studies and Southeast Asian History.

Then next week, Thursday-Saturday, January 17, 18 & 19 at 8:00 PM, UW World Series at Meany Hall for the Performing Arts presents Ea Sola’s In Drought and Rain, Vol. 2, according to UW Arts Ticket Office:

Since 1995, choreographer Ea Sola has been on a journey of discovery and reflection, creating dance works that have explored the experiences, memories, and identities of the people who fought and lived through the horrors of the Viet Nam War. In Drought and Rain, Vol. 2, the company of 13 dancers and six musicians from the National Ballet of Vietnam-Hanoi continues that exploration, examining how the memory of war travels across generations. A serious work for serious times.

The inaugural University Art Institute: Art as A Catalyst for Exploration series at the Henry considers the legacy of the Vietnam War in relation to our fall exhibitions An-My Le: Small Wars and Kim Jones: A Retrospective (showing until January 27).

The inaugural series is concluding tonight at 7pm, Kane Hall with guest lecturer Robert Storr, commissioner of the 2007 Venice Biennale and dean of the Yale School of Art speaking about his work both at the Biennale and with artist Kim Jones. The Stranger’s Jen Graves has called it “the most important art lecture of the year.” Seeing as it is only January. . . you just wouldn’t want to miss out.

Last night in an attempt to stave off a cold and stay awake until bedtime (woe is jet-lagged me), I went to the opening night of Shades of Gray. Yep, instead of art walking in wet Pioneer Square I sat in a warm theater watching “brutes, babes and bullets in the city that wants you dead” then drank champagne and ate cake. This “live noir comic book show from the creators of Jet City Improv” is the latest from Wing-It Productions at The Historic University Theater. Like all good improvisational theater, this show is completely unscripted. To this effect, the audience determined two character’s fates by randomly selecting one of artist Sean Patella-Buckley’s tarot cards. It runs Thursdays and Fridays, Jan. 3-18 and Jan. 31- Feb 8. The really brilliant part? Every performance is totally different.

This is museologist and Henry blog-contributor Kira Randolph reporting from Oz. Why? Well, because loads of good things often happen in Australia first. Take, oh, oh, oh - got it - Christmas! Christmas arrives for me in Melbourne a full 17 hours before it does for Pacific Northwest art-aficionados. Only instead of Christmas coming tomorrow, it sort of came for me today, because I saw one of those art exhibitions that made me feel like skipping. Obviously this will need a little explanation.

Even though I am in Melbourne for the holidays, today I made a special trip to the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra to see Culture Warriors: National Indigenous Art Triennial. A lot of people don’t know that the capitol of Australia is Canberra. Our taxi driver from the airport to the NGA joked that because politicians couldn’t put parliament in either Melbourne or Sydney, they ruined a perfectly good sheep paddock by choosing Canberra. Since Canberra sometimes retains the reputation for being as culturally exciting as a paddock, Brenda Croft Senior Curator at the NGA, creates shows worthy of flying to a field to see. Then, in the case of the triennial, selected works will tour the Art Gallery of South Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, and the Art Gallery of Western Australia before attracting international hosts.

This inaugural National Indigenous Triennial comprises contemporary works of thirty artists. These aren’t just contemporary artworks, they are really recent, as in all of the pieces have been produced in the last three years, some specifically for the exhibition. The works in the show use a range of traditional mediums like possum skins, basketry, and bark, along with a hearty dose of photography, oil on canvas, and digital media, to unabashedly grapple in a major way with ongoing issues of culture wars in Australia since European contact in the late eighteenth century. The National Indigenous Triennial demonstrates that contemporary Australian art, whether in the form of dot-dot paintings or silver gelatin prints, is a continuum of one of the oldest living traditions in the world.

P.S. >> For you Seattleites that want a fix of some indigenous Australian art, visit the Australian Aboriginal and Oceanic Art Gallery at the Seattle Art Museum.

Coupling, you know, a little like collaboration but more intimate?? Waaaaaaay back in 2002, Strange Couplings, a UW artist-run group started pairing students with local professional artists, provided them with materials, and let their artistic genius run rampant. The outcomes are displayed at Coupling, an annual spring show. This Friday, 7-10PM is the benefit for said artistic-social experimentation and features an auction run by Laura Michalek and Sand Point Studios, Building 5, Bay C, 2nd floor.

I don’t feel very witty today. Not that I want to use hankblog as my personal soapbox, but while Betsey is where the sun shines in Art Basel Miami Beach, and Erin is checking out art in some of my favorite European cities, I have been taking exams and submitting papers - yay. However, I finished up this morning and now that the pizazz is nearly back in my step I come bearing news of fun stuff:

Firstly, four photographers from Youth in Focus, a really cool organization that has had some of their glossies exhibited in the Education Studio here at the Henry has a show in the City Hall Lobby Gallery on until January 1st. The subject of the works is Pike Place Market, one of Seattle’s favorite icons, and features 27 black and white photographs all taken by teens.

Next, (if you feel like double or triple-booking yourself tonight) the Northwest Film Forum is screening “A Walk into the Sea” to launch their Back to the Factory: Revisiting Stories and Works from the Warhol Factory series. Click here for John Harti’s review in The Seattle Times. Also, just in case you didn’t see enough art at the First Thursday Art Walk downtown last night, Vermillion Gallery in Capitol Hill is hosting Gathering, a group show and food drive. Oh, and don’t forget A Ben Waterman Project at Drop City Gallery.

Finally, and this isn’t until December 14 & 15th, but it has weird and wonderful potential, the Seattle School is taking over Northwest Film Forum with a multi-talented, multi-media project called Clockwork Reduction Live to honor Andy Warhol. This is what they have to say about it:

We think Andy Warhol’s 1965 film “Vinyl” is super. Warhol adapted the Anthony Burgess novel “A Clockwork Orange” a full 6 years before Kubrick’s version. It’s super. So we’ve decided to remake it. But remaking a film is expensive and difficult and time-consuming. And we’re not filmmakers. And we’re not big fans of recorded media. And we’re not fans of singular vision. We like collaboration. We like watching artists who know that their visions will be foiled, agendas blocked, try with enthusiasm anyway. We want to see brilliant people rapidly maneuver around constraints. So we’ve decided to remake “Vinyl”, but actually we’re going to let other artists remake it for us. Read the rest of this entry »

Speaking of collaborative art spaces in South Lake Union, in addition to NineOneOne Media Arts Center, I should also mention Drop City Gallery, lower level 964 Denny Way. This is a newish space with a pretty philosophical narrative beginning, check out their website for the history. Their mission to “to introduce an approachable venue for creative concepts, culture, and dialogue in our community,” begins with the inaugural exhibition A Ben Waterman Project: Reckoning of a Mile opens on Friday, December 7th from 6-9pm. Read more about the project here.

The Next Step: NineOneOne Media Art Center’s Premier Fundraising Event is coming up on Sunday, 9 December at one of my top destinations in Seattle to see contemporary art, Western Bridge. Located in South Lake Union, for those of you who haven’t been to NineOneOne before, it is the epitome of an collaborative community art center. They sponsor exhibitions by both established (Gary Hill, for example) and up-and-coming artists, offer classes and facilities for utilizing digital media, screen films, offer scholarships, and host cool parties.

This year, their annual fundraising event features the presentation of The Anne Focke Arts Leadership Award to Richard Andrews, director of the Henry Art Gallery. In addition to a lavish meal, the evening features appearance by performance artist Martha Wilson, a talk by NineOneOne’s recent scholarship recipient Margot Knight, and interactive games, all before the they even give the award out! Link to Brown Paper Tickets here.

Thursday, November 29th at 7:30PM the Henry presents Opening Conversation: SANAA with Ken Tadashi Oshima, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, University of Washington, Lucy Styles and Sam Chermayeff of SANAA studio.

Sejima AND Nishizawa AND Associates = SANAA. Established in 1995, SANAA is a visionary architecture and design firm collaboratively organized by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa. The firm reached international acclaim in 2002 with the Arnold Brunner Memorial medal of the American Academy of Art and Letters, which is an annually awarded honor that recognizes an architect or architectural firm “who has contributed to architecture as an art” (I consulted the Almanac of Art and Design 2006 for that one!). Then, in 2004 they were the recipients of the Golden Lion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2004, click here for the La Biennale di Venezia homepage.

The studio has several trademarks that are evident through the body of work in this exhibition. I particularly like the projects that create interior spaces that meld the indoors with the outdoors through extreme attention to light, dimensions, and materials. Some examples include The New Museum of Contemporary Art (NY),  the Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art (Ohio), and the Museum of the 21st Century in Kanazawa, Japan. I was curious what an exhibition of work by an architectural firm entails so I had a peak into the East Gallery. Yes, I know that is a little like shaking Christmas presents before December 25th but I wanted to let people know what they can look forward to on Thursday! I am happy to report that not only is there video footage of recent projects, but there are also models, building plans,  and design objects.

So, after you come to the Opening Conversation here on Thursday, you will want to attend Japan Envisions the West: An International Symposium on 16th-19th Century Japanese Art from Kobe City Museum at the Seattle Art Museum for a broader view at Japanese art produced in response to Western contact. Six international scholars from the US, Japan, and the Netherlands are presenting their research and thematic frameworks of the exhibition in panel discussion on both Friday, November 30 and Saturday, December 1st. Oh, and make sure that you have a chance to see the exhibition first. It was larger than I expected and a total pleasure.

Cat Clifford, whose artworks were exhibited at the Henry Art Gallery last year, was not only just announced as a finalist for the 2008 Contemporary Northwest Art Awards, but she also has a show with Jenny Heishman opening tonight at Howard House. The majority of works in Cat Clifford: Fall are a series of photographs taken during a family road trip this summer back to to L.A. and Texas where Clifford revisited and documented nostalgic places of her past.

Opening Reception tonight at Howard House 6-8pm, 604 Second Ave, Seattle.

Ever since I jumped on the hankblog bandwagon I can’t get enough of all of these fun artsy events in Seattle. For example, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center on 4408 Delridge Way SW Seattle, West Seattle is having an Open House and Studios event on Saturday, December 1st from 4-10PM. The details aren’t on their website yet but rest assured that it will be a day of art, music, and performance.

My picks are the 2007 Touring Reel Youth Film Festival preview featuring film shorts by talented artists under the age of 19, an exhibition of krumping, readings by Youth Speaks participants in National Youth Poetry Slam, and mingling with resident artists (in their studios!) above Youngstown’s Promenade Gallery.

I am excited about this show for lots of reasons. Let me count the ways: (1.) It is showing at The Jacob Lawrence Gallery (2.) The exhibition is of student work, that means that when these artists become famous you can say that you saw their work “way back when. . .” (3.) Seriously brilliant exhibition title. Try it on your friends. Friend: “what are you doing?” You: “Oh, going to see “Small and Flat” - face it, it just sounds like a spiffy 3D and works on paper show.

Small and Flat: Work Within Limits
November 21 - December 8, 2007

A juried exhibit featuring small 3D and works on paper by University of Washington School of Art undergraduate and graduate students. Opening Reception: Tuesday, November 20, 4 – 6PM

This holiday season I’ve got another shopping destination and you’ll never guess where it is, drum roll please, King County Solid Waste Division and Seattle Public Utilities! Back for its twelfth year, King County is sponsoring “Waste Free Holidays,” and the Henry Art Gallery is getting in on the action by offering a 2-1 membership promotion until December 31st. This time of year is notorious for the extra trash that we all generate, giving experiences as gifts is not only way more festive but it also reduces waste in our landfills. Last year there were loads of great businesses participating, everything from museums to restaurants, sporting events to theater, and the best part is that all gifts in the Waste Free Holidays are offered at 15%-50% off normal prices.

In 1997, when Martin Puryear’s sculpture Everything That Rises (see photo below) was installed on UW campus, students joked about its semblance to a peanut. Kurt Kiefer, our Public Art Administrator and fellow blog contributer said that “the thing that seems to disturb people the most is simplicity. . . a lot of people, when they see something simple, think that the artist is trying to pull the wool over their eyes. In fact, some artists choose to make things simple for a reason. They want to create something that makes people slow down. If an artwork makes people stop for a minute, then it’s done its job.”

Martin Puryear has done a job of it for 30 years and is being commemorated with a retrospective at MoMA the runs until January 14.

See Roberta Smith’s fantastic review in The New York Times. Then read Regina Hackett’s engaging response.

Martin Puryear. Everything that Rises. University of Washington Campus.

Days really have a tendency to fly by around this time of year, my goodness, hello November! Ever since Betsey posted this on October 25, I have been so looking forward to Pieter Hugo’s lecture here tomorrow:

Aperture West Collaborative Lecture Series: Pieter Hugo
Saturday, November 3-5 PM
Henry Auditorium / FREE

This weekend I rekindled my childhood love of two things, hula-hopping and dancing with one of those twelve feet long rhythmic ribbons. Those activities got me thinking about all of those other fun stuff that I deserted on the playground like say, for example, JUMP-ROPING!

Do you remember the days of the old school yard? Were YOU a jump-roping whiz kid? Well, why not rediscover or learn the key to jump-rope-induced-joy with NorthWest Double Dutch! This “get up and jump” double dutch league organization offers youth, grown-up, and family classes. There is a six-week Saturday session for kiddies beginning this weekend at Seattle Center details here.

Also, On The Double Dutch performed last night (with a public participation jump-in) at our SweetArt Student party here at the Henry!

Practically everyone at UW, Seattle Pacific, Cornish and Seattle U already know that the Henry is hosting SweetArt, a massive all-student party on November 1st from 5-8PM.