SOIL = 10 Years

randy_wood

If you are in Seattle this weekend**, you should know about SOIL Gallery’s 10 Year celebration , auction and book release partythat is occurring at Western Bridge (Friday September 30th- 7pm to midnight).

SOIL Artist Run Gallery is publishing a book to celebrate it’s ten years of going strong, and its a beautiful and ambitiously realized project that took three years to complete. Not only is the book a fine capsule of what is going on with SOIL right now, featuring profiles of current members and accompanying essays by such local writers and artists as Katie Kurtz (now departed), Fionn Meade and Stefano Catalani, but it’s a great overview of what has happened in the Seattle art scene over the past decade. Many working artists in Seattle have had some brush with SOIL along the line, thus documenting the importance of the gallery as a concept.

In the forward to the book, artist and SOIL member Yuki Nakamurawrites:

Because of the small number of contemporary art galleries, economic shifts, and a need for international connections, artists in Seattle often hope to move to larger cities, such as Los Angeles, New York or Chicago. In contrast to this trend, SOIL has been attracting emerging artists eager to establish a community— a space for innovative and collaborative artistic and curatorial work, dialogue with other artists, and the exchange of ideas and resources.

I was surprised myself to see how many names have been affiliated with the gallery and as they state their original purpose was to grow an art community, not an art institution. And so, numerous locations and multitudes of members later they are still going strong, which is phenomenal for any arts related organization.

soil

Go here for a list of artists who have contributed work for the auction(live auction begins at 8:30pm). SOIL member Randy Wood is showcasing the piece he has going into the auction on his site right now- check it out.

** Who are the scheduling powers to be that be that decided all roads lead to art openings on September 30th both up here and in Portland this year? I believe it must be the official start to the Fall Art Season.

Guilty Pleasure and More Art

ultra

My partner in art crime Yvette and I are getting ready to take to the road and venture down to Portland for their Jupiter Affair and whatever else Portland has to offer this weekend. So I’ve been keeping a steady eye on the websites that serve up the info on what is going on down there. My latest favorite and guilty pleasure: Ultra. Covering art, design and fashion in Portland, Ultra is the guilty pleasure I’ve become enamored with of late. And as any one who doesn’t live in a megalopolis, they know what they have to contend with and are ready to go:

What does it take to make a thriving fashion scene in a city, particularly when it is not a first tier, not a second tier city, but our beloved Portland? While New York, Paris, and Milan have long been fashion centers, viewed as leaders with the creme-de-la-creme in every sector of the industry, second-tier cities like Los Angeles, Sao Paolo, and London have thriving fashion weeks and fashion scenes that nurture up-and-comers and attract international editorial attention.

The adventurous buyer is the key. Because as much as it’s exciting to see a sold-out crowd at a fashion show, if the garments aren’t purchased by a store buyer and purchased again by a savvy and stylish consumer, the fashion show is a moment of theater or a moving art show and that’s not enough to financially sustain either a designer or a fashion economy….[more here].

Didn’t Eva Lake say this a few days ago (see 9.24) on her own site? “Show me the money?”

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Seattle artist Robert Yoder also has a savvy new show opening this weekend in Portland at participating-in-Jupiter-events galleryFroelick Gallery. I was lucky to attend an Artist Trust sponsored preview of his new work this weekend and can say – don’t miss it!

Five Seattle galleries will have representation at Affair this year:
Garde Rail Gallery
Howard House
Greg Kucera Gallery
Solomon Fine Art
( and my personal favorite) Platform Gallery

And yes, it’s a fine time of the year for a road trip as well.

 

Finalist Selected for 2005 Betty Bowen Award

marie_watt

Out of a total of 500 submissions from Washington, Oregon and Idaho- five finalists have been announced for the 2005 round of The Betty Bowen Memorial Artist Award*, an annual Pacific Northwest annual event (our Turner?)

October 1st is the date the winner will be announced on the BB* website, with an award Ceremony and Reception on October 27th at theSeattle Art Museum.

The 2005 finalists are:
Evan S. Blackwell (Washington)
Joe Feddersen (Washington)
Sean M. Johnson (Washington)
David Russo (Washington)
Marie Watt (Oregon)

And you may ask: What is the Betty Bowen Memorial Award?

Betty Bowen (1918–1977) was a Washington native and enthusiastic supporter of Northwest artists. Bowen’s friends established the annual Betty Bowen Memorial Award as a celebration of her life and to honor and continue her efforts to provide financial support to the artists of the Pacific Northwest. Every year since 1977, one artist has been selected by the committee to receive an unrestricted cash award of $11,000. At the discretion of the committee, PONCHO Special Recognition Awards are also often granted.

– SAM website

And who was Betty Bowen?

betty_bowen

HistoryLink has some great background on her, as does theUniversity of Washington’s Special Collections site, but essentially she was a great local supporter of the arts whose legacy lives on.

 

Don’t Miss this Must, Must Show

lazzarini_story

Western Bridge, who a friend told me this weekend has up their excellent Crash. Pause. Rewind exhibit is hosting a reception in honor of Lisa Corrin this Saturday, October 29, from 6-8 pm. “Come by, see the show, have a drink, and wish Lisa well in her new Berkshires bailiwick at the Williams College Museum of Art.” (Corrin is soon to be departed from Seattle Art Museum).

Top of my art viewing list is a stop to see what promises to be the most interesting exhibit up this fall.

 

High Heel Sneakers

As I sit here today, with the news going on in the background, which I promised I wouldn’t get addicted to again (but today resistance is futile) , it is good to read Regina Hackett’s report on Seattle arts efforts for Hurricane Katrina relief. I’ve also been over at NEWSgrist to see what Joy has gathered lately and on to Seattle’s own City Comforts….for a bit of analysis. If I had a megaphone and had to broadcast to the world I really think, I would ask Ms. Eisenman step in and do the honorsfor me.

sr bush megaphone

I know- we don’t expound on our political views often here as I think the Internet certainly has no shortage, but today I can’t help myself.

PS. As a brief attempt at humor I had to quickly comment on Regina’s third report on people wearing high heel sneakers. Read on….

NW Pocket Property

As a follow up to our genius story a few days ago, men were seen trolling for salmon on man made pocket island just a few short hours ago. Thanks to the real estate bubble here, this is all we have left.

But really, after finding out they were geniuses:

Artists John Sutton, Ben Beres and Zac Culler launched their creation into Lake Washington Sunday afternoon and slept there overnight. They plan to stay on the manmade and faintly cartoonist island indefinitely.

Unfortunately, the turning tide of events left the trio stranded off shore until a rescue crew from Spuds Fish and Chips showed up in a dinghy to save the day. Refusing to align themselves with theSmithson Island currently bobbing around offshore of Manhattan they infer their current real estate is a tribute to the recently deceasedBob Denver. Ahoy mates!

SuttonBeresCuller home web page.

Stranger Awards and a bit of persistence

Art Radio Seattle broke it first yesterday and later Regina Hackettquietly slips a report into yesterday’s paper that The Stranger, has rounded up their 2005 geniuses for Genius Awards:

Visual arts: Sutton,Culler,Beres

Film: Michael Seiwerath, Northwest Film Forum

Literature: Rebecca Brown

Theater: Gabriel Baron

Arts institution: Frye Art Museum

According to Regina this is the last year there will be any essence of tobacco funding for local geniuses:

Because Lucky Strike abruptly pulled out of Seattle arts funding, the Stranger has barely enough tobacco money left to fund the five grants. Other sponsors, including the anti-tobacco group Art Patch, have stepped in to cover the party, which will have a $21,000 budget

Here is more and more on the projects of Beres, Sutton and Culleras, reported previously by Vroom Journal.

Author Rebecca Brown has incidentally covered Seattle artists in her own work, a case in point being her selection in the Clear Cut Futureanthology, memorializing Seattle artist Helmi Juvonen in a piece called Finnish for Pearl.

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persist
(Persistence of this image?)

I’d also like to point out Vroom Journal’s excellent coverage of the round table discussion that John Boylan hosted last Monday night at the Capitol Hill Arts Center called: “Persistence of Painting in a Digital Age“. Vroom has an admirable memory for what occurred that evening and I will add my own thoughts, stating it is remarkable that 80+ people found a topic important enough for discussion to leave the comfort of their homes on a Monday evening. This gathering trumped any on-line bulletin board or forum I have witnessed. As one might expect for the subject, there was a slight bias in the room. When Boylan asked for a show of hands how many people in the audience were painters, it was like stepping inside a windmill factory, so many arms were chopping in the air. However, there was not as much disdain for the digital world as I have heard in previous conversations on the topic. I tried to broach this subject myself this summer while running a seminar in North Carolina, but ended up feeling like I was selling Amway in Amish country.

At any rate, the discussion at CHAC was lively and it was nice to see an event could pull such a broad range of ages into one setting. People passionately responded with care about what was being said. I think Seattle is lucky to have such an intelligent presence as Liz Brown in our midst. I am used to just seeing Brown introduce artists at Henry lectures and it was great to hear her point of view on a variety of topics during the course of the evening.

Another fine thing, I found out by the end of the evening I had been sitting next to a particularly lively and funny person who turned out to be one of my favorite painters- MaryAnn Peters, whose work I hope to see more of in the future.

Mary Ann Peters, ITALY DIARY 2004

As far as where do I fall myself on this topic? As much as I love the Internet, and there have been years where I have loved the Internet, a weekend falling down the rabbit hole building a website is never as enriching as hours spent painting or drawing. I guess I like dirt under my fingernails, which I become particularly clear on this summer.

Art: 21 premieres tonight

If you are home tonight don’t forget that PBS is starting up their third season of Art:21 this evening. Tonight’s show features one of my favorite artists Ida Applebroog, and also Cai Guo-QiangLaylah AliKrzysztof Wodiczko and Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler. The following three Fridays will bring the additional installments, and will include Mike KelleyMatthew RitchieRoni Horn and another favorite Ellen Gallagher among others.

Trippin’ Balls : A Mycological Exploration

Tonight, I’m proud to be part of a new show at the outstanding gallery space in Portland known as V-Gun. The exhibit called Trippin’ Balls : A Mycological Exploration was curated by the illustrious Bruce Conkle and Marne Lucas. Just in time for the fall mushroom hunting season.

The reception is from 5-7pm.

trippinballs

I’m looking forward to seeing the show when I come down later this month.

Happy Birthday Eva….

And a fine time was had tonight, thanks to the instigation of Ms. Eva Lake. Some of us who spend time in both the art world and on-line met up this evening to celebrate Eva’s 49th. Steven Vroom, of Vroom Journal and I finally met after passing like ships at enough events to be ridiculous (including last night’s Persistence discussion at CHAC), happily Yvette was able to come tonight too, which was great and Eva was accompanied by her insanely nice husband. Much fine discussion occurred including insights between our Artstar Radio founder andArt Radio Seattle proprietor.

After Eva departed for the night we saw her lovely lip blot sitting there and I said, “this is so going on the site tonight”. Ah happy birthday.

Belated Krafft at Roq la Rue

 

I haven’t gotten out to see art in the past few months, but last Friday I was kicking myself for realizing I’d missed the last day of Charles Krafft’s and Frank Kozik’s The Devil’s Hobby Hut show at Roq la Rue. I took the bus over to the gallery that night anyway and found them still open- Krafft intact.
I was so blown away. I know as an off again-on again Seattleite I am coming into my Krafft knowledge late, but standing there I was very glad I hadn’t missed the latest work, featuring Mad Cow Creamers,Lugers and other porcelain objects that keep your tongue smashed into your cheek during viewing.

I waited a half hour to nab my sidekick who was meeting me downtown, to bring him back to the gallery. After a few silent moments of viewing Krafft’s beautifully painted Delft ceramics saturated with references to Nazi Germany and Holland- he proclaimed it was one of the best shows he had ever visited.

Gallery owner Kirsten said the latest imagery did not go over well in Holland where he recently made and showed his work. I can see why, having visited Amsterdam twice, and realizing even everyday conversation is still strewn with bitterness over what happened half a century ago. Krafft has traveled so much and shows also in Los Angeles I asked foolishly if he was still living in Seattle, which of course he is.

Reading about Krafft’s adventures in Slovenia, and travels with NSKlead me to believe he is the doppelganger of writer of William T. Vollman, whose own work has been a running commentary of the same subject matter.

Good news for fans of Roq La Rue, tonight the gallery opens Mark Mothersbaugh’s Beautiful Mutants (opening 6-10pm), a new series of “corrected” photographs by Devo frontman and Life Aquatic composer himself. Bonus extra good news, starting next month Roq La Rue is moving next door, opening their October show in new expansive headquarters that are three times larger than the current gallery and will feature a bookshop.

First Thursday Strategies

The Seattle Weekly has an article this week on The Bemis Building, an artist filled live/work building near the Pioneer Square area of downtown Seattle. The main gist of the article discusses the lack of foot traffic they get during the First Thursday gallery walk, due in part because the hive activity spirals out around the Occidental Square blocks of Pioneer Square. Parking is a bitch downtown at best and I am pretty sure baseball/football games are not planned with art appreciators in mind. Last Thursday a Mariner’s game was just getting out as First Thursday was about to start, leaving the area a sea of stalled cars right around the time people were getting off work and coming to the galleries.

“Abstract painter Don Rissler, who shares a loft with his wife, photographer Kara J. Higgins, agrees that getting the Art Walk crowd to the Bemis has been an uphill battle. “We’ve basically done lots of ads in Art Access, which is your basic guide for most people doing First Thursday, but it’s not within easy walking distance of Pioneer Square,” he says, adding that parking availability in the area depends largely on whether or not there’s a Seahawks or Mariners game.”- Seattle Weekly.

One thing about Seattle is the bizarre scheduling of First Thursday in not-so-close pockets of the city. Art Radio Seattle discussed in theirJuly 31st broadcast the newly sanctioned Capitol Hill Arts Walk…occurring on the First Thursday of the month. A small personal confession about Capitol Hill is having been a driver for just over two years, my parallel parking skills stink, so I don’t go there a frequently as I could (The Frye with its glorious free parking lot an exception). Any one who has taken a bus around Seattle knows its not the speediest option (although with gas prices soaring…that Metrocard is looking real good again).
Ballard holds a Second Saturday Art Walk, which is good, but unfortunately the Nordic Heritage Museum participates in First Thursday. Such is life.

Belltown, where one my favorite galleries in town Roq La Rue is located, tends to hold openings on the Second Friday of the month and they stay open late. Mark Mothersbaugh opening there this Friday (9/9). I just squeaked under the wire and caught Charles Kraft there last Friday, which I have to go into more detail about later, being one of the best shows to pass through Seattle this year.

When I went down to Portland’s First Thursday last winter, I found they tend to run into the same situation, many of their galleries are similarly open on the same night. A solution though is a lot of their galleries stay open longer, some even like Gallery 500 I am under the impression are almost open all night (I didn’t stay long enough to fact check that one). When a van load of PDXers came up to Seattle this last spring to see Laura Fritz’s exhibit at SOIL, they were pretty dismayed after getting stuck in hell traffic and finding almost all the spaces closing at 8pm, a few minutes after their arrival.

For more on the topic, Seattlest is another site who is covering the exhibits around town.

Artdish runs editor’s picks of shows to see around town.

Mr. Vroom of Vroom Journal is always covering topical events- my best local art news comes through my headphones walking my dog now that Art Radio Seattle is in existence.

And Bre Pettis, who we spoke of last week and fellow art goer Daniel Mountshave been attending First Thursdays for years together- Bre always files a good tip off of shows to see the next day.

________________________________

Footnote to yesterdays post:
Marja-Leena has a great post on Marimekko from her site yesterday, and being originally from Finnland has some nice memories of the fabric.

First Thursday Strategies

The Seattle Weekly has an article this week on The Bemis Building, an artist filled live/work building near the Pioneer Square area of downtown Seattle. The main gist of the article discusses the lack of foot traffic they get during the First Thursday gallery walk, due in part because the hive activity spirals out around the Occidental Square blocks of Pioneer Square. Parking is a bitch downtown at best and I am pretty sure baseball/football games are not planned with art appreciators in mind. Last Thursday a Mariner’s game was just getting out as First Thursday was about to start, leaving the area a sea of stalled cars right around the time people were getting off work and coming to the galleries.

“Abstract painter Don Rissler, who shares a loft with his wife, photographer Kara J. Higgins, agrees that getting the Art Walk crowd to the Bemis has been an uphill battle. “We’ve basically done lots of ads in Art Access, which is your basic guide for most people doing First Thursday, but it’s not within easy walking distance of Pioneer Square,” he says, adding that parking availability in the area depends largely on whether or not there’s a Seahawks or Mariners game.”- Seattle Weekly.

One thing about Seattle is the bizarre scheduling of First Thursday in not-so-close pockets of the city. Art Radio Seattle discussed in theirJuly 31st broadcast the newly sanctioned Capitol Hill Arts Walk…occurring on the First Thursday of the month. A small personal confession about Capitol Hill is having been a driver for just over two years, my parallel parking skills stink, so I don’t go there a frequently as I could (The Frye with its glorious free parking lot an exception). Any one who has taken a bus around Seattle knows its not the speediest option (although with gas prices soaring…that Metrocard is looking real good again).
Ballard holds a Second Saturday Art Walk, which is good, but unfortunately the Nordic Heritage Museum participates in First Thursday. Such is life.

Belltown, where one my favorite galleries in town Roq La Rue is located, tends to hold openings on the Second Friday of the month and they stay open late. Mark Mothersbaugh opening there this Friday (9/9). I just squeaked under the wire and caught Charles Kraft there last Friday, which I have to go into more detail about later, being one of the best shows to pass through Seattle this year.

When I went down to Portland’s First Thursday last winter, I found they tend to run into the same situation, many of their galleries are similarly open on the same night. A solution though is a lot of their galleries stay open longer, some even like Gallery 500 I am under the impression are almost open all night (I didn’t stay long enough to fact check that one). When a van load of PDXers came up to Seattle this last spring to see Laura Fritz’s exhibit at SOIL, they were pretty dismayed after getting stuck in hell traffic and finding almost all the spaces closing at 8pm, a few minutes after their arrival.

For more on the topic, Seattlest is another site who is covering the exhibits around town.

Mr. Vroom of Vroom Journal is always covering topical events- my best local art news comes through my headphones walking my dog now that Art Radio Seattle is in existence.

And Bre Pettis, who we spoke of last week and fellow art goer Daniel Mountshave been attending First Thursdays for years together- Bre always files a good tip off of shows to see the next day.

________________________________

Footnote to yesterdays post:

Marja-Leena has a great post on Marimekko from her site yesterday, and being originally from Finnland has some nice memories of the fabric.

Garth Amundson in Ballard

On Sunday I toodled over to Ballard, Seattle’s fine Scandinavian neighborhood to visit the Nordic Heritage Museum.

There was a great little Marimekko exhibit too, tucked away in the Finland room and put together by one of the Museology students from the University of Washington. The N.H.M. should be capitalizing on these funny little pieces of culture they have tucked away- I literally stumbled upon it and it was a treat.

There were many displays focusing on not only the five countries of Scandinavia, but also the history of Scandinavian immigration to Seattle (and thus Ballard), impacting our logging and fishing industries.

The main reason I went was to see the exhibit by Garth Amundson, in the contemporary gallery on the third floor. Amundson, as I mentioned last week, is a photographer who manipulates and crafts his own lens contraptions out of clear plastic. It was a bright sunny day when I was visiting and the installation looked very elegant in the light. Definitely worth checking out, and if you have lived in Seattle with out ever visiting this Scandinavian outpost in Ballard, you owe it to yourself!

Afterwards I met up with my sister at the trendy Cupcake Royale . Even a few years ago people were still joking that quiet Ballard was for the “newly weds and nearly deads”, but I don’t think that is the case now at all.

Shift Open on Fridays too

NoteShift Gallery will be open on Fridays and Saturdays through September, 12-5 pm.

Last night’s opening was a blast and a lot of people came by, including our fellow blogger Bre Pettis who has a great First Thursday report up on his site this morning. Thanks to his write up I now know about a new gallery in the Pioneer Square area named the Catherine Person gallery. Upon closer inspection I realize I had seen (and written about) a beautiful show she had mounted last year in Belltown. This is where I saw and fell in love with the work of Teresa T. Schmidt, so I will have to go check it out in person. There is actually a lot of new little spaces popping up in and around the Tashiro-Kaplan Building, and despite the dreadful parking and post baseball game traffic last night, the area was a hive of gallery attending activity. Thanks again to everyone who stopped by.

A nice mention by Vroom Journal, in Steven Michael Vroom’s round up of First Thursday offerings.

[Distil] Bill

The website I made for my exhibit that opens tonight: [Distil] Bill is unleashed. I will update and tweak it as time marches on.

If you’re in the Pioneer Square district of Seattle tonight please stop by the show!