Seattle Blog Visual Arts

Human beings are constantly categorizing. “Polaroids: Personal, Private, Painterly" Photographs from the Collection of Robert E. Jackson, showcases a variety of Polaroids separated into the aforementioned categories. Out of the 13,000 photos in his collection, about 300 are Polaroids, 150 of which were selected and curated by Jackson in conjunction with Ben Heywood, chief curator at the Bellevue Arts Museum.

“Personal” refers to portraits. These images capture individuals, and the essence of who they are—the focus is on the photo’s subject rather than their actions or environment. There are certain parallels to be drawn between these portraits and selfies in our age of instant, digital cameras—they serve the same purpose. The importance doesn’t rest in what’s happening in the photo, but in the subject. However, when one thinks about photos as documents of history, even if they’re not depicting a well-known historical event, one can think about not just what’s going on inside the photo, but what’s going on in the world around that photo. Compiling photos from similar time periods can help you piece together foreign places. Social and political movements can cause people to make similar art and take similar photographs—the shared experiences of a group can influence a whole generation and their ways of thinking. Textbooks can easily miss out on depicting the way history has impacted individuals, but experiencing history through a lens makes the intangible, tangible, and the inaccessible, accessible. Conversely, capturing individuals in the context of different societies shows the universally human responses to situations, despite the circumstances. Two pieces framed together in this section portray two couples: one from the early 2000’s of a young pair posing by a fountain with flowers, and the other of a middle-aged couple posing on the beach, superimposed above the ocean. Although the individuals are from different worlds with different historical settings, they both display the same human response to being in love: a desire to capture their bond as couples.

Jimi Hendrix is a Seattle icon. Or so I'm told. Before going to see Bold as Love: Jimi Hendrix at Home at the Northwest African American Museum, I had never really gotten around to listening to his music. I'm also terrible at museums; I expect them to be stagnant and awkwardly informational. So the combination of a museum with a Seattle superstar I knew next to nothing about was mildly terrifying. I slunk into the exhibit with my head down, afraid all the fans would see the Hendrix-ignorance in my eyes, and prepared to be bombarded with trying-too-hard inspirational quotes.

The exhibit, guest curated by Jackie Peterson, is set up like a timeline, snaking chronologically around the edges of the room. Photographs and glass-encased objects—postcards, the sofa Hendrix slept on while home from tour, his grandmother's hats—drew me in with their quiet connection to this icon. I ended up learning about Hendrix's history almost accidentally: from Seattle, where he was born and spent his childhood, drawing comics and pretending to play guitar on a broom, to mid-60s London, where he almost immediately became a guitar star.

Art has one true purpose, to evoke feeling, to cause a reaction within someone.

The enigmatic art exhibit entitled "Between Bodies" conjures up complex, even contradictory, responses. At times the immersive installations made me feel as if I was both in our recognizable world and beyond it, leading me to reconsider ideas about representation, humanity, and the environment.

Imagine you’re standing in a dark room with mirrors scattered across it. TV screens hang from the walls and bubbles come across them every couple seconds. On one screen, a fisherman talks about his tradition of fishing. It’s very trippy, like you could be in "The Matrix." This mind-numbing experience is a work of art, “Glistening Troubles” by Susanne M. Winterling, just one part of the exhibition “Between Bodies” at the Henry Art Gallery.

The entirety of the exhibit felt like this. It didn’t seem to fit with other art exhibits. It stood out for its differences, mostly because of its tackling of environmental, social, economic and political issues from a perspective we don’t always see get a voice. Many of the artists use their experiences as members of LGBTQ communities to present these global issues in alternative ways, ways that promote collaboration and unity. It left the viewer thinking long after seeing it, trying to figure it out.

One of our favorite events of the year is THIS WEEKEND--join us for Seattle Art Fair from August 2 - 5. Stop by and enjoy more than 100 local, national and international galleries alongside the vibrant arts community of the Pacific Northwest!

Speedy Graphito, The Dream of Roy, 2017

We're stoked to offer our teen members exclusive access to $5 TeenTix tickets per day, in addition to a 20% discount on all ticket types for adults. Click here to purchase tickets online, or use your TeenTix Pass at the door!

Mickalene Thomas’s most recent exhibition, MUSE: Mickalene Thomas Photographs at the Henry Museum and tête-à-tête is a reminder of the importance of community in the process of creating and experiencing art. The collection features Thomas’s photography and film—both lesser known aspects of her artistic repertoire, but ones that deserve just as much appreciation as the imposing rhinestone-studded paintings she’s best known for. The exhibit, based on a book of the same title released in 2015, is embellished with a tête-à-tête of works curated by Thomas of artists she knows and takes inspiration from, including the work of Derrick Adams, John Edmonds, and Carrie Mae Weems among others.

Derrick Adams. Crossroads. 2012. Courtesy of the artist.

I’m skeptical about art exhibits, I enjoy them enough, but find trouble in writing reviews for them. The art of painting has never been a breathtaking experience for me, in creating or viewing, and so when visiting paintings I find that my perspectives can be more negative and unappealing than most. But with "Figuring History," I was surprised—it felt new and different. The exhibit features three different artists, who all portray black America and forgotten black figures.

George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page from an American History Textbook, 1975, Robert Colescott

“Figuring History,” - a powerful new exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum- insists on representation for the underrepresented. “Figuring History” features the cross-generational work of three artists—Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, and Mickalene Thomas—whose paintings highlight the ways in which people of color have been traditionally left out of art and history. This exhibition changes the subject of the rich history of painting, and tells the stories of people of color from their own perspectives. This, combined with the exuberance of each artist’s work, makes this exhibition a must-see.

The exhibit begins with the paintings of Robert Colescott (1925-2009), who invokes a dream-like quality through warped figures that meld into each other in large mural-like paintings where you don’t quite know where to look. His work highlights people of color in history who many have never heard of, often juxtaposing these little known but important figures with less noble caricatures of black people. One of the first paintings in the exhibition, “Knowledge of the Past is the Key to the Future: Matthew Henson and the Quest for the North Pole,” depicts Matthew Henson, a black man who played a major role in the first team of explorers who reached the North Pole in 1906. This painting, and others in the series, highlight the lack of knowledge about the vital role people of color have played in history, and points out how detrimental that is to today's youth of color who don’t see themselves represented positively in history or popular culture.

Souvenir I, 1997, by Kerry James Marshall

One of our favorite things about The New Guard: Teen Arts Leadership Society is that it opens doors for teens to create and curate the art they want to see in the world. In true youth arts leadership fashion, New Guard members Abbey S. and Esme D. are piloting a brand new annual program: the Teen Arts & Opportunity Fair, happening May 6th at Washington Hall!

From Abbey: "This is an event where teens can come with their friends and families to check out the different arts opportunities that our city offers through TeenTix & our partners. We are calling this an ‘Opportunity Fair’ and not a ‘Career Fair’ to promote exploration of the many various opportunities to engage in as a teenager in our community."

One of our favorite things about The New Guard is that teens get opportunities throughout the year to take trips to TeenTix’s Partner Organizations! A few months ago, The New Guard used their time to take a formal outing to the Wing Luke Museum. Not only did they get to enjoy a personal tour of the museum and learn about its history in in Seattle’s lively International District, but New Guardians also had a couple hours to spend with the art, and followed up the whole experience with dim sum at a local restaurant! And, since they were closeby, the group took a jaunt to Seattle Art Museum’s Teen Night Out—overall, a fantastic night of fun, friends, and food.

Are you interested in leadership? Are you highly opinionated? Want to learn about yourself and the world through art?

YOU can help make SAM fun and engaging for teens when you join Teen Arts Group (TAG)!

Bellevue Arts Museum and the Teen Arts Council are pleased to present an exhibition showcasing young artists in the Puget Sound area. Local artists under the age of 20 may apply to have their artwork featured in the 20 Under 20 Exhibition, which will be on view in BAM's Community Education Gallery from June 3 to October 9.

This exhibition is designed to feature youth ages 13 – 19 as emerging artists, and is juried by the Teen Arts Council in collaboration with Bellevue Arts Museum curators. This exhibition is an exciting opportunity to display work in a public and professional space, and will showcase a range of artistic media highlighting some of the best talent of the next generation of artists and craftspeople.

The exhibit Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art at the Seattle Art Museum features artists many have heard of, but not always the style or subject we’re used to. The 71-piece collection from the National Gallery of Art, most of which were donated by siblings Ailsa and Paul Mellon, is comprised of works that were meant to be shown indoors, in domestic spaces. Most of these paintings were done in the 1860s and 70s, but were never shown in salons. Many were meant as gifts from the painter to a friend or fellow Impressionist, so the exact date they were made is unclear. All the Impressionists you’ve heard of are in the show: Manet, Renoir, Monet, Boudin, Cézanne, Bonnard, with a few Post-Impressionists like Gauguin and Van Gogh thrown in for good measure. Being a huge fan of Impressionism, I loved all of the paintings, but three stood out. The first I noticed was Eugene Boudin’s “Coast of Brittany”. Made in 1870, most likely in France, the oil-on-canvas painting drew my attention because of the lighting. It is dark on the foreground over the water with moody clouds, but the light drastically changes toward the center of the painting, which portrays the far-off coast. The town on the hillside is beautiful, with not more than two or three brushstrokes making up each house, but it is still obvious that is a quaint little French-countryside town. The next piece that I fell in love with was a little country scene by Alfred Sisley, called, plainly, “Meadow”. The scene depicts workers bending over, picking a nondescript grain, with other beautifully checkered fields behind them. I was drawn to this painting because it is so bright and cheery. I was also impressed with how the viewer can tell what the workers were doing, even though they are very simply done. The clouds are fluffy cotton balls on a sky of bright blue.

"Meadow" by Alfred Sisley. Photo by Harper M.

A fully immersive experience is rare when it comes to art. More often viewers are separated by glass and velvet ropes. When one gets the opportunity to leave a trace, it invokes a visceral response. With the common S E N S E, Ann Hamilton asks viewers to go beyond viewing and achieves a highly intimate relationship between the work and the viewer. Artist Ann Hamilton has been given the unusual chance to take over the entire Henry Art Gallery. The exhibition is site-specific, created for the space using the resources the gallery and surrounding area could offer. The resulting work weaves old and new, buoyed by her collaboration with the nearby Burke Museum. The scans of dead animals from their collections have an intensely eerie quality. The garments made of animal skin and fur, laid out reverently, are practically funereal. In the brightest room downstairs, where skylights have been opened for the first time since 2001, machines approximate animal-like flapping or calls. At times it feels like a mausoleum, at others a place of worship. The choral singers wandering through add to this ambience, as do the readers sitting here and there, transcribing from a book while muttering the words to themselves. It’s odd – but also oddly calming. There are so many layers to the common S E N S E, at first it may appear impenetrable, the pieces disparate or disconnected. Allow a little time though, wander through the successive rooms, and it will give up its secrets. The lighting lends it a dream-like, surreal atmosphere. What seems random or odd at first slowly becomes clear the more you explore. Hamilton facilitates a process of finding and discovery. Though everyone starts with the same “conditions,” as she put it, each visitor excavates individually. Different senses jump out in each room; touch, sight, sound. The signs of compression and human wear on a coat. The air vents gently disturbing stacks of paper on the walls. The act of drawing aside a curtain to view an artifact. To walk through the gallery is to meditate on your own mortality and the effect of humans on their environments. As the viewer moves through the exhibition, connections reveal themselves naturally. Papers line the walls in stacks, and you are invited to read these photos and snippets of text, taking ones you connect with. By the end of the visit, you have curated your experience. In doing so though, the visitor takes away from the exhibition in a tangible way: The photos on the wall of three of the rooms will never be replaced, and the texts will ebb away to be replaced by new ones. Knowing this, there is an urge to tread lightly, to consider carefully what matters enough to take. Be prepared: the common S E N S E requires a certain level of commitment that most exhibitions do not ask of us. For some, this might feel overwhelming. The choice to participate in the exhibition is not so much a choice as a prerequisite if you want to fully engage with it. Ultimately, what makes the common S E N S E stunning is how it drives the viewer to self-examination. What you find depends on you.

the common S E N S E Henry Art Gallery October 11, 2014 - April 26, 2015

Unsurprisingly, the Seattle Art Museum does not fail to impress with their current Modernism in the Pacific Northwest exhibition.

Even with no knowledge of the title and just a few minutes in the gallery, anyone would know that this is artwork from the Pacific Northwest. There is a miraculous similarity in colors, mainly featuring darker earth tones that scream Pacific Northwestern. I was actually quite surprised at the overall completeness of the color scheme, even between artists.

Teen Night Out is a fun, hands-on experience with the art at the Seattle Art Museum. The latest rendition, on May 2, involved a photobooth, painting, henna, a concert, a sugar bar, and a writing project.

I had fun taking pictures in the #SAMSelfie booth, including one I got for my significant other, Troy that involved a chalkboard and a fuchsia feather boa chosen from a huuuuge box of props and costumes ranging from giant sunglasses to a sailor hat. I also had a blast at the Tacocat (best band name ever, in my opinion) concert, rocked out at a failure of a dance circle, looked through all the exhibits (Hardly anyone looks through them during Teen Night Out, so definitely take advantage of this. It’s a great chance to see things up close!), laid in the Italian room, and sat and looked at one spectacular painting of a seascape for quite some time because I rarely get the chance to do that.

“As I walked into the Miró: The Experience of Seeing at Seattle Art Museum, I noticed first off the gorgeous use of color in the artwork itself. A greeting piece that demands attention, Miró’s ‘Woman, Bird and Star’ is the essence of larger-than-life colors. The second thing I noticed was not the other art pieces, but the bright, crimson wall that stands out from its white peers. There are several atmospheric touches like this throughout the exhibition, including quotes by Miró that are printed onto the walls, as well as a room that is completely painted black. Continuing on the topic of the atmospheric setup, the lighting is absolutely spectacular. As pertaining to the sculptures, the lighting is such that you can see shadows, which creates incredible depth and a more natural viewing perspective. Almost unnoticeable, the lights trained on the paintings are centered so that the outer corners of the walls are darker than the focal point.” - Hattie S.

“One of the most fascinating parts of this exhibition is the use of color in the works. Miró's sculptures are cast from bronze and have a mystifying tint to them: a combination of blue, green, white, black, and tan. His paintings are dramatically different, consisting of vibrant blues, reds, and yellows, outlined in pure black lines. The two divergent value themes serve to play off of each other, creating a sense of harmony and balance.” - Georgia G.

In contrast to the brutal cold weather on Bellevue’s Snowflake Lane, the Bellevue Arts Museum is immediately welcoming with its warm, fresh, and modern atmosphere. On the third floor awaits your transportation into a vast new world, “A World of Paper, A World of Fashion” to be specific. The first observation of the exhibition to be taken in — simple but significant — are the colors. A wide variety of deep reds, eccentric aqua, and accenting silver and golds are present on these beautiful articles of clothing. Stepping in to view closer (if you’re fortunate enough to not have security breathing down your back) an obvious realization hits, “Oh my gosh...this is entirely made of paper.” Isabelle de Borchgrave’s intricate folds, crumples, and molds make a cohesive collection of clothes any girl would desire to try on herself. Walking through each section is like taking a visit back in time to Greek, Indonesian, Japanese, African, and Islamic cultures. One type of dress that is very prevalent throughout the exhibition is the Delphos Dress (Grecian style wear). A delicately hand-pleated dress that elegantly falls to the ground is accessorized with a thin piece of overlaying silk. Photographs of Mariano Fortuny's designs hang throughout the room, so one is able to witness an almost identical resemblance with Borchgrave’s masterpieces. Who is Fortuny you may ask? Fortuny is, in short, the backbone of Borchgrave’s inspiration in this collection. Think of him as today’s Versace, Fortuny was the leading designer of the early 20th century (Fun fact: influential women such as Natacha Rambova, aka Valentino’s wife, were known to wear his designs!). He died known as a legendary textile and clothing designer, and fortunately through Borchgrave, his remarkable works (originally made with luxury textiles such as silk, velvets, and chiffons) are brought back to life through paper. I guarantee you’ll leave BAM with at least three distinct thoughts after experiencing this exhibition: How long did it take Borchgrave to make all of that clothing? How was it transported there?! I can’t believe that was all made from paper…

So go ahead and experience a history of fashion through the blend of Borchgrave and Fortuny at Bellevue Arts Museum, and leave not only mesmerized but hopefully inspired by the art of fashion — paper or not.

Seattle Art Museum has outdone itself once again after the Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion exhibition during the summer. If the past exhibition was a look out into the future, Peru: Kingdoms of the Sun and the Moon is a look back into the past. Although the artwork in this exhibition represents three thousand years of history and showcases different cultures expressed in different forms, there is one underlying theme holding everything together: harmony. According to the exhibition guide, Peru’s ancient Andean civilizations valued the unity between two opposing sides — unlike other cultures around the world, which held more significance in the differences between things. In the exhibition, the ancient civilizations’ works are excellent examples of the efforts the artisans of the past put into showing this idealistic unity. The most prominent example is perhaps the Sican culture’s ‘Double-spout vessel decorated with human figures and snake heads,’ which melds two spouts into one vessel with delicate patterns and miniature statues. The most interesting point about this piece is the simplicity that prevails over the intricate and complex patterns. As I observed the piece, I was at first only able to pay attention to the details of the vessel, such as the shape of the holes. But when I took a step back and just looked, the patterns gathered together to form one simple, unified display. And the beauty of its simplicity simply overwhelmed me. As anyone would notice if they walked around the exhibit, a significant amount of the pieces on display are made out of flashy materials such as gold or silver. But it never seem like too much. Why is that? The “Frontal ornament with feline head and octopus tentacles ending in catfish heads,” otherwise known as Peru’s “Mona Lisa,” embodies the reason these pieces do not seem extravagant. Just like Mona Lisa’s ethereal smile, the ornament captures its audience through its geometric unity by the usage of decalcomania. The two sides are so identical with each other to the point that it’s as if the artist simply made one side of the ornament and copied it over — copy and paste, copy and paste. The appreciation of harmony seems to have been carried into the more modern day Peru. For example, the sculpture named “Virgin of the Fifth Seal” made in the 18th century showcases the balance between Spanish and Peru's native cultures. Although the Peruvian artist sculpts Virgin Mary, her appearance is unlike the ones from Europe. Other images of Virgin Mary were always with her in soft, light colors to represent her purity and ultimate good. But this piece chose to show the harmony between both good and evil; she is seen with both light and dark colors on and has fair skin with dark hair. This whole exhibit was an eye-opener for me. After the exhibition, I discovered a whole new world of unity in our own culture. For those who haven’t visited the exhibit, I would highly recommend it. Who knows? You might just figure out what all those gurus’ talk about yin and yang is really all about.

Peru: Kingdoms of the Sun and the Moon Seattle Art Museum Through January 5, 2014

In case you hadn’t guessed from the title, Robert Davidson’s current exhibition, Abstract Impulse, at the Seattle Art Museum is, well, abstract. And it’s apparently impulsive in its confusion of titles, captions, loud colors, and shapeless forms. I walked out of the exhibition baffled.

Robert Davidson began the Northwest Coast Native art revival in 1969, when he created the first totem pole to stand in his ancestral village, Masset, since the 1880s. He has studied the artistic style of his tribe, the Haida, for years, and the exhibit holds a collection of 45 sculptures, prints, jewelry, and paintings by the artist, all based on the traditions of Northwest Native art.