On the first Thursday of every month hundreds of people head to Pioneer Square to view the latest art shows. Seattle’s oldest neighborhood is home to dozens of galleries and first Thursday is when they often showcase new exhibitions and artists from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Parking is free for artwalk visitors at Frye Garage (117 3rd Ave S) Butler Garage (114 James Street) 450 Alaskan (450 Alaskan Way - entrance on King Street). Here are a few shows you may want to check out on Feb. 7.
“James Martin: Riding the Moon Train” at Foster/White gallery
James Martin’s latest exhibition showcases his wildly imaginative works spanning the nonagenerian’s career. The works illuminate his evolution as an artist.
From the gallery: “One of Seattle’s most beloved and prolific artists, Martin is a natural storyteller drawn to the surprising, the surreal and the playful. Characters and objects interact in bewildering scenes on muddled brown paper, offering a glimpse into the world of the famously shy artist and inviting viewers to believe in the irrational. In Martin’s work, mermaids ride potatoes and dogs take the stage in ‘King Lear.’ A man looks out from a bedroom built within the belly of a whale and fish emerge from the wide mouths of tubas. Yet Martin’s humor is touched with poignant gravity.”
WHAT: “James Martin: Riding the Moon Train” at Foster/White gallery
WHEN: Opens First Thursday 6 – 8 p.m.; show runs until Feb. 23
WHERE: 220 Third Ave. S. #100, Seattle
“Caroline Kapp: Big Story” & “Evelyn Woods: Perambulations” at Prographica/KDR gallery
From the gallery: “‘Big Story’ encompasses two distinct series that are thematically connected: ‘STAGES’ from 2017, and “Big Story’ from 2018. Both series align the artist’s interests in visual perception with drawing, installation, and photography. The compositions are visual analogies, as both series derive from recording responses to buzzwords and trends in popular media coverage. Disclosure, hierarchy, strength, or believability are some of the concepts explored through combinations of familiar materials such as plumbing parts, canvas, ribbon, string, and glass vessels.”
From the gallery: “The autumn and winter landscapes most intrigue Evelyn Woods and are the focus of her exhibition ‘Perambulations.’ We walk alongside the artist through the rain and snow, as time slows and our attention is directed to the micro: light moving across and within a tangle of reeds. The stark beauty of the barren landscape in its stripped down structure and subdued color are evidenced in the paintings and drawings that comprise the exhibition.”
WHAT: “Caroline Kapp: Big Story” & “Evelyn Woods: Perambulations”
WHEN: First Thursday, 6 – 8 p.m.
WHERE: Prographica/KDR, 313 Occidental Ave S., Seattle
“Karey Kessler: between Place and Thought” & “Lynda Harwood-Swenson: Land of Nowhere” at Shift gallery
Kessler statement: “The works in ‘between Place and Thought’ explore the spaces between: between place and thought, between space and time, between the external world around us and the internal worlds within. My paintings use the imagery of cartography to create a network of thoughts about the environment, the expanse of geologic time, and the vastness of the cosmos and the world. Creating maps, as opposed to representational cityscapes or landscapes, gives me the freedom to depict more than what can be seen. A dotted line can be the trace of passing time, the movement of the stars, or the lines and dashes in the middle of the road, depending on the label I put next to them. I try to see the sacred in the mundane, to be present and full of awareness about the external world I live in and my internal world that remembers and forgets.”
Harwood-Swenson statement: “‘Land of Nowhere’ is a fantastical place of beauty, with lush fields of grass, trees, ocean and sky. It also suggests a lost place, a ‘no mans land’ with reflections on feminism, climate change and loss. One work, Sticks and Stones 1 & 2 (Lapidation), created by placing stones on photosensitive paper, with faces of women added where the rocks laid, asks the viewer to consider the treatment of women around the world, either through abusive rhetoric or by literal stoning. Through an installation of 12 monoprints on vellum titled Ocean, Ocean, and other prints of landscape, there is an immersive atmosphere for reflection and to ultimately ask the question, where do we go from here?”
WHAT: “Karey Kessler: between Place and Thought” & “Lynda Harwood-Swenson: Land of Nowhere” at Shift gallery
WHEN: First Thursday, 5 – 8 p.m.; shows run until March 2
WHERE: Shift gallery, 312 S. Washington St.
Lisa Edge is a Staff Reporter covering arts, culture and equity. Have a story idea? She can be reached at lisae (at) realchangenews (dot) org. Follow Lisa on Twitter @NewsfromtheEdge
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