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Seattle Show Listings

As of Mar.01.2006

Welcome to the first installment of the Visual Codec Seattle show listings!! Note that this is a compilation, meaning we take most of the descriptive text on word from the venues. To be considered for inclusion in our show listings next month, send an email to sealist@visualcodec.com after reviewing our submission guidelines.

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All City Coffee
306 S Washington (TK Bldg), 206.652.8331
Steven Holden, New Work, 03.03:00.31
The newest hot coffee spot in town not only thanks to its environs and bitchin' coffee, but also thanks to its location in the artist-rife Tashiro-Kaplan building.

Baas Art Gallery
2703 E. Madison, 206.324.4742
Jeanne Edwards & Kathy Collins, New Paintings, 03.01:00.31

Ballard Featherston
818 E Pike, 206.322.9276
Dorothy Rissman and Benton Peugh, New Work, 03.03:04.01

Ballard Works
2856 NW Market
Feel free to drop in on these artist spaces during the monthly Ballard Artwalk (Second Saturdays).

Bauhaus Coffee
301 E Pine St, 206.625.1600
Todd Hardman, New Prints, 03.01:00.31

Bemis Building
55 S Atlantic
Feel free to drop in on these artist spaces on First Thursdays.

Black Box
4911 Aurora Ave N, 206.650.3464
Call to confirm current artist and hours.

Bluebottle Gallery
415 E Pine, 206.325.1592
Amanda Visell, Popping Through Pictures, 03.01:03.30
Amanda Visell's paintings have been featured in group shows at La Luz de Jesus in Los Angeles, Mendenhall Sobieski in Pasadena, the Shooting Gallery in San Francisco, and most recently a solo show at Lunar Boy Gallery in Astoria. Her main influences are Mary Blair and 60's era Disney. She describes her style as lighthearted and sarcastic, and feels her paintings are just childlike enough to appeal to adults.

CoCA
410 Dexter Ave N, 206.728.1980
Group Show, Shard , 02.11:03.12
Curated by Seattle poet David Francis, Shard aims to bring together parallel developments in visual art and contemporary poetry and will feature an ongoing installation of diverse media, totaling approximately 60 pieces by more than 30 artists from the United States and Europe, including a special focus on work by current faculty, staff, and students Cornish College of the Arts.

ConWorks
500 Boren Ave N, 206.381.3218
Winter Program Series 02.17:03.12
Consolidated Works features acclaimed Seattle video and installation artist Gary Hill in the ConWorks Gallery, a provocative Agit-prop installation from The Bread and Puppet Theater, a pop culture assault from Negativland, as well as new work by Seattle artists Monika Proffitt and Alan Hurley. ConWorks also unveils three new exhibit spaces, including galleries dedicated to large scale urban art and technology-based environmental installation.

Crawl Space
504 E Denny Way #1, 206.322.5752
Group Show, Non-non-referential Painting , 02.18:03.12
An exploration of the austere discipline of referential painting through the work of five young artists: Kevin Bernstein, Bradley Biancardi, Michelle Bolinger, Emily Gherard and Matt Murphy. This framework of abstraction and representation of source is necessary and unavoidable to each exhibiting artist. Curated by Crawl Space member artist Bradley Biancardi and guest artist Michele Bolinger, "Non-non-referential Painting" intends to create a respite from the modern flood of superfluous imagery through this collection of elemental works. (Note: Gallery sits behind a wooden fence...)

Davidson Contemporary
310 S Washington (TK Bldg), 206.624.7684
Tram Bui, New Paintings, 03.03:04.01
Tram Bui's meticulous drawings of buildings covered with scaffolding turn the mundane and overlooked into seductive lines and complex geometric patterning in vivid colors. Her dichromatic silhouettes are beautifully orchestrated, showing a talent for composition and draftsmanship. Bui's paintings
subtly employ abstract tendencies through the simple grids and blocks. Yet, the building's structure and mass unexpectedly materialize. The resulting images, hard edged and spare, are a study in color and composition, though the subject is immediately identifiable and faithfully reproduced.

Foster/White
123 South Jackson, 206.622.2833
Carmen Lozar, Stills, 03.01:00.46
Carmen Lozar creates a story out of a single moment. Working in small scale figurative glass sculptures set in richly detailed scenes, Lozar suggests a snapshot from a complex narrative. Each scene in glass and mixed media is a nursery for the imagination—Lozar presents works that "appear innocuous or even charming, but contain undertones of blind faith, sexuality, greed, and vulnerability. The pieces are small, fragile, and unobtrusive, obscuring their more telling suggestions of darker motivations."

Francine Seders Gallery
6701 Greenwood Avenue N, 206.783.6593
Group Show, Clay and Related Materials , 03.03:04.02

Frye Art Museum
704 Terry Ave, 206.622.9250
Group Show, Swallow Harder, 02.24:05.14
Swallow Harderis a snapshot of the contemporary art collection of Ben and Aileen Krohn. Since its beginning in the late 1990s, this Seattle-based collection has grown to several hundred pieces, including series by important artists in photography and works by emerging artists in video.The "one off" approach to collecting, in which a collector purchases one significant work by an artist and moves on to the next artist of interest, is a model not used by the Krohns. In contrast, the Krohns have consistently collected in depth the works of local, regional, or international artists who intrigue them. Visceral and vital, the Krohns' cutting-edge contemporary collection continues to evolve. Therefore, Swallow Harder, the first museum exhibition of this collection, makes no attempt to codify the Krohns' collecting intentions or shut down meaning on their collection to date. This exhibition is instead organized in the spirit of hungry intelligence and restless inquiry that defines the Krohns' collecting partnership. (Note: Visual Codec cover photographer Alice Wheeler is just one among many local artists included in the collection.)

G. Gibson Gallery
300 S Washington St, 206.587.4033
Bill Jacobson, Photography, 03.02:04.15

Gallery 110
110 S Washington St, 206.624.9336
Group Show, Fabulous, 03.01:03.31

Gallery 63 Eleven
6311 24th Ave NW, 206.478.2238
Bootsy Holler, Ruby and Willie, 02.11:03.08
From the Artist: "These images are just a sampling of the more than 800 images taken in Ruby and Willie's home, located at 1824 Davison, Richland, Washington. Ruby, passed in 1978, leaving Willie to live alone in the house until 2002. He lived in the basement and kitchen, not touching any of the rooms. I documented each room as I would a museum, capturing all the small details in the kitchen, living room, dining room, hallway, boys' room, girls' room, Ruby's room, the downstairs TV room, and finally Willie's basement bedroom. I began documenting the home in December of 2001. Maybe I knew this home, which looked to me like a movie set, would soon be destroyed. A few months later my grandfather fell sick and died in April of 2002. This home, which hadn't been changed in more than 25 years, was soon stripped down to nothing. Everything was gone. As generations leave us, they take with them their environments. I used photography for what it does best: to document a place and time before it is gone."

Gallery4Culture
101 Prefontaine Pl S (TK Bldg), 206.296.8674
Brian Lane, The Continuing Fragmentation of Language, 03.02:00.31
The large-scale color photographs by Lane interpret and abstract the marks of graffiti. They remove the importance of its physical location and literal meaning, hinting of the surface but illuminating the composition. By using a short depth of focus, Lane is able to create depth where none existed and take the written word one step closer to abstraction. In capturing the beauty in the degradation of surfaces, Lane acknowledges the work of the late New York artist Aaron Siskind and invites you to see the overlooked.

Garde Rail Gallery
110 Third Ave S (TK Bldg), 206.621.1055
Jennifer Harrison, Blocks, 03.01:00.53
Self-taught artist Jennifer Harrison was born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1972. Since 1998, Jennifer has been a full-time painter, exhibiting throughout North America. Her favorite subject will always be the Victorian houses surrounding her Toronto home. "I spent a lot of years living in horrible apartments with no heat and no windows and I think houses were something to aspire to. I guess I got a little obsessed. Also, before I wanted to be an artist, I wanted to be an architect. I work with oils because it's the only way to get the colours I want, and canvas just because I enjoy the feel of it, the paint goes on smooth and it's responsive to my brush." Evoking English seaside towns, Jennifer's row houses fill up a canvas in pastel tones. The thick, almost icing-on-the-cake-like quality of her work radiates a simple charm that is difficult to ignore.

Gasworks
3815 4th Ave NE
View the work of a dozen artists in one huge ultra cool space once a month during the Fremont Artwalk (First Fridays). Bring potatos for charity (no kidding).

Gold Rabbit Studio
619 Western
Fourth floor, south side of the building, usually open First Thursdays.

Greg Kucera Gallery
212 Third Ave S, 206.624.0770
Henri Matisse and Louise Bourgeois, Selected Works, 02.16:04.01

Grover/Thurston
309 Occidental Ave S, 206.223.0816
Gary Nisbet, Simplicity, 03.02:04.01
Simplicity continues Nisbet's exploration of forms drawn from the domestic lexicon. In his lushly surfaced paintings, pattern and still life montages (vases, flowers, fruit, shoes) overlay grounds of collaged fabric, wallpaper, and the printed page. Nisbet's painting style has its roots in Abstract Expressionism. The rich layering of paint over collage references Nisbet's past experience in architectural restoration. The interplay of color and texture with still life elements and random pattern results in complex compositions that hold the viewer's eye in a process of steady revelation.

Howard House
604 Second Ave, 206.256.6399
Lauren Grossman, Not Consumed, 02.16:04.01
A veteran Seattle Artist, Grossman consistently galvanizes viewers with her formally engaging sculptures and biblical subject matter. Although it is uncommon for a contemporary artist to be so invested in Judeo-Christian iconography, Grossman's work points to the persistence of the ecclesiastical in the functions of western thought. Her metaphors are apt in a world marred by fundamentalism.

James Harris Gallery
309A 3rd Ave S, 206.903.6220
Keith Tilford, Works on Paper, 02.16:04.01
James Harris Gallery is pleased to announce the second exhibition of works on paper by Keith Tilford. Continuing his use of pen and ink, Tilford's recent subject matter is derived from photographs of crowd scenes downloaded from the internet. As in his previous work, swift yet meticulous marks compose small forms which repeat and combine to reveal a larger coherent image. Figures that appear to float and dissipate off the paper break down as the viewer approaches the drawings. While skilled and elegant in their form, more importantly, the construction and subjects of Tilford's work reveals an epistemological discourse that treats the artistic process as a way of thinking concurrent with a range of other philosophical inquiry.

Joe Bar
810 E Roy, 206.324.0407
Monthly curations by Jess Van Nostrand mostly featuring local artists.

Lark
926 12th Ave, 206.323.5275
Engaging artwork (mostly paintings by Joey Veltcamp) housed within a top-drawer dining setting.

Lee Center for the Arts
12th Ave Btwn Madsn & Marion
Group Show, Collecting Drama, 02.14:05.31
As the debut show in a visual arts space that moonlights as the lobby to a theatre, Collecting Drama self-consciously celebrates a theme shared across the arts. Whether acted out in a play, written in a novel, or painted on a canvas, drama is a central element in art. As Shakespeare wrote, "all the world's a stage..." Collecting Drama is thus our play, the paintings our actors. Including a diverse, albeit small, group of artists (Kenneth Callahan, Marc Chagall, Nina Mikhailenko, Cindy Sherman, Robert Rauschenberg, and Anthony Quinn) we present a narrative about the drama in visual art while also telling a story about art in Seattle.

Linda Hodges
316 1st Ave S, 206.624.3034
Helen O'Toole, Dwellings, 03.02:04.01
For many years O'Toole grappled with the inherent dichotomy between abstraction and working from observation. Now, she has fully embraced the challenge of investigating these dual forces simultaneously. Utilizing color, light space and (recently) form, O'Toole has arrived at a place in her exploration where she is making paintings that are conceived abstractly and evolve out of the process of painting, rather than working from an external model. Formative ideas arise from the inside the work rather than outside the work. Her awareness of the act of moving paint around the canvas is continually questioned in relation her understanding of the painting and the external reading of the work. For her, the act of painting is a visual and visceral experience in terms of abstraction and observation.

Lisa Harris Gallery
1922 Pike Place, 206.443.3315
Royal Nebeker, Paintings, 03.02:04.02
Nebeker often explores issues of power, relationship, and gender, as well as themes of growth and death. The figures inhabit a theatrical, dream-like space. Cultural references such as flags and ethnic costumes allude to the universal experience of heritage. Nebeker occasionally uses text to enhance meaning, borrowing a line from a song or a literary work. The use of a collaged bus ticket or other vestige of travel bridges the distance between a painted or imagined world and the viewer's everyday experience.

Lower Level Gallery
1621 12th Avenue, 206.551.0210
Group Show, Illuminated Works, 02.02:03.27
An imaginative and rare assortment of work produced by a premier group of up and coming local artists. The third in a series of illuminated exhibits, this is another scintillating feat for this budding artist collective. Each artist works in their own preferred medium and translates their chosen materials into creative, original pieces of fine art. Features work by: Janet Galore, Monika Proffitt, John Haaland, Bob Burstein, Lou Pimentel, Eric Osborne, Mary Enslow, Katherine Neumann-Hughes and Ellen Ito.

MS Bldg 33
MS Conference Center (Bldg 33), 425.706.0033
See website for art programming by one of the region's largest collectors.

Platform Gallery
114 Third Ave S (TK Bldg), 206.323.2808
Matt Sellars, Diaphaneity, 02.16:03.25
In his exhibit entitled "Diaphaneity," Matt Sellars' new sculptural work reminds us that memories can often become as thin and ephemeral as a vanishing barn. Just as light pours through an old barn's bare slats, memory itself often becomes diaphanous and everything but the most pertinent information falls away. All the works in this exhibit reference various stages of life: youth and vitality, age and decrepitude, hope and the guarantees against an uncertain future, all with a mixture of humor and sadness.

Roq la Rue Gallery
2316 2nd Ave, 206.374.8977
Group Show, Triple Threat, 03.10:04.08
Featuring new work by Ryan Heshka, Davey, and Brian Despain.

SAFA
1501 Tenth Ave E, 206.526.2787
Group Show, Painters' Prints, 03.15:04.23
What happens when artists accustomed to expressing themselves with paint and brush take up the etching needle? This exhibition is a collection of works made by a group of prominent 19th- and 20th-century British painters not normally associated with printmaking. Curated by SAFA Artistic Director Gary Faigin and showing in the Steele Gallery (3rd Floor).

Sandpoint Gallery
UW Bldg #5, Bay C
A faction of the UW arts community has been gestating out at the Sandpoint base (the longtime home of the infamous Soundgarden). A gallery seems to have been born out of this endeavor...

Seattle Art Museum
Multiple Locations, 206.654.3100
In case you hadn't heard yet, be aware that the programming for SAM and its spawn (the Seattle Asian Art Museum, the Olympic Sculpture Park, and the SAM Sales and Rental Gallery) will be impacted by construction over the course of the next two years. Be on the lookout for temporary closures in and of SAM (for expansion), the temporary split of SAAM (to accomodate both collections), the opening of the sculpture park, the grand reopening of SAM, the temporary closure of SAAM (for infrastructure updates), and the subsequent reopening of SAAM. In between there will still be a lot of groovy stuff to experience, but it's all gotten too complex for us to cover in detail at this time. Please see the website for the current lowdown.

SOIL
112 3rd Ave S (TK Bldg), 206.264.8061
Sean M. Johnson and Jason Wood, Stunt n Growth, 03.02:03.26
For the month of March SOIL will feature an artist collaboration between Sean M. Johnson, and Jason Wood titled Stunt n Growth. Sean M. Johnson is a recent graduate of the University of Washington's MFA program and a 2005 Betty Bowen finalist. Sean's compositions of steel and wood propose a physical relationship with the viewer that is based on ideas of balance and tension. His sculptures reflect the precarious balance of life and the harmony of personal and emotional stress. Also a recent graduate of the University of Washington's MFA Program Jason Wood is engaged in both the discovery of history as a visual object as well as his own compulsive desire to bring order to his world. He alters and brings together his materials not only to manipulate them, but also to come to an understanding of the life they lived before they were appropriated to become our generic trade materials

Solomon Fine Art
1215 1st Ave, 206.297.1400
Group Show, Words to Live By, 02.15:03.31
The third annual group show at Solomon Fine Art of work that uses text. The focus this time is communication in its broadest meaning. Words are among the many modes of communication and vital to our survival. Given the dearth of understanding amid a surfeit of information, this is a timely issue to address. Doing so in a wide range of forms spanning steel sculpture, prints, glass and artist books only increases the possibility of engagement.

Space Gallery of Art and Design
1907 2nd Ave
Group Show, 03.01:03.31
A new gallery and event venue on the edge of Belltown features a wide vareity of modern art and media. Artists showing include: Derek Voss, Jose Torres Jr., Carlyle Moore, Roland Rodriguez, Brian White, Shannon Welles, Jess Edwards, and purveyor Guy Warren.

Suyama Space
2324 2nd Ave, 206.256.0809
John O'Brien, Dis-Place in Time, 01.16:04.07
John O'Brien has for many years created work that is intended as sites for`interpretative interaction. Often, he starts from a specific interest in an object or image that evokes memories of things and people who are no longer present. The Suyama Space installation features a large architectural chamber of translucent wall membranes made of cast fiberglass over aluminum beams. Attached are interconnected handrails floating overhead with the intended analogy of how objects trigger our memory to reconstruct the past in our imagination. The central chamber is the visual equivalent of a massively oversized illuminated jewelry box that cannot be accessed except by visually navigating the twists of the rails that float high above. Juxtaposed are two display cases, each housing unique, small sculpted silver
and laser cut stainless steel elements that metaphorically function as delicate bulwarks against loss, and facilitate an understanding of displacement of time.

The Henry
15th Ave NE, 206.543.2280
Roy Lichtenstein, Prints 1956-97, 02.25:05.07
Roy Lichtenstein is widely known for his comic-book images and Benday dot patterns, which many consider the most enduring of all pop art imagery. He explored every print-making medium, producing more than 300 print editions (with multiple runs of each). This exhibition of 77 lithographs, screenprints, etchings, woodblocks, and mixed-media prints, it offers an accessible and spirited survey of the work of this central late 20th-century artist. Among the great holdings of this collection are a substantial series of Lichtenstein's riff on Claude Monet, the Cathedral Series, an extensive lithographic suite from 1969; three mixed-technique prints from the Paintings Series of 1984; and several of the monumental Interiors from 1990/91. On one level, Lichtenstein's Pop art has attracted a wide and diverse audience from its introduction in the early 1960s and continues to be popular. On another level, his work contains vast and under-explored subtleties. The artist's nuanced exploration of multiple and contradictory signifiers, the messages behind the initial experience of his work, established one new way for contemporary art to address the viewer. What appears on the surface as a brash slap in the face is actually a complex, nuanced exploration of art and ideas

The Hideout
1005 Boren Avenue, 206.903.8480
Performance Installation Slash Gallery Slash Bar, 05.2005 - 11.2010
The Hideout is many things. It's a haven for artists. It's an alcohol-fueled cultural center. It's a five year performance art installation with a full bar. It houses works by fifty or so local artists at any one time, as well as the 'secret' Vital5 headquarters and the Vital 5 quarterly review. It's also an excellent landing pad after First Thursday excursions

TK Building
306 S. Washington Street
Shift Cooperative Gallery and at least a dozen or more artist studios are usually open First Thursdays up the stairs in the teeming TK Building. Downstairs you'll find a host of cutting edge galleries such as Platform and SOIL.

ToST Lounge
513 North 36th, 206.547.0240
Phil Scroggs, Paintings, 03.03:03.31
Phil Scroggs grew up in Augusta, Georgia, where he watched an unhealthy amount of Saturday morning television, and got carpal tunnel syndrome from playing too much Atari. After double-majoring in Graphic Design and Photography at the University of Georgia, Phil started his career in Atlanta as a desktop publisher. After a few years in the printing business, he then began teaching graphics software classes. In June of 2000, Phil drove across the country to live in Seattle. Fueled by caffeine and pop culture, he currently spends his time as an illustrator and web designer.

VAIN
2018 1st Ave, 206.441.3441
Rotating and often intriguing installations by pre-emergence emerging artists help populate local and national artists help populate this hipster salon slash retail space slash gallery.

Velocity Art & Design
2118 2nd Ave, 206.781.9494
An art venue posing as a retail space featuring top-drawer livable design such as Isamu Noguchi.

Vision Gallery
312 S Washington St (TK Bldg), 206.264.0609
Timothy Ryan & Bret Corrington, Works in Oil, 03.02:03.31
A new art studio and gallery space sponsored by VSA Arts of Washington and housed in a great location—the most popular arts building in town.

Western Bridge
3412 Fourth Avenue, 206.838.7444
Group Show, Boys and Flowers, 03.30:08.12
Who's not interested to see how The Bridge executes on this intriguing new theme??? Western Bridge is a nonprofit space dedicated to contemporary art, founded by the Seattle collectors Bill and Ruth True. The True Collection contains important works in video, photography, and other media by an international roster of mid-career and emerging artists. Works from the collection have been exhibited in many major museums in North America and Europe. Western Bridge originated from a desire to keep more of the collection on view here in Seattle.

William Traver Gallery
110 Union St, 206.587.6501
Gregory Grenon, Tell the Truth, 03.03:03.02
New paintings by Portland-based artist Gregory Grenon. Using brilliant, expressive colors and thick, bold brushstrokes, Grenon creates startlingly developed characters in reverse on glass. Layer by layer, starting with just the outline and details and finishing with broader expanses of color, he provides just enough detail to portray a face-to-face encounter with his subjects, who either ignore or confront the viewer as they see fit. The people, usually women, depicted in Gregory Grenon's paintings have been described as raw, aggressive, defiant and accusatory. They are meant to elicit an intense emotional response in the viewer, and Grenon is often surprised by the strong reactions they inspire even in himself. The artist's work is often compared to German Expressionism and Outsider Art, yet his paintings transcend art historical categorization and the techniques used: they make us feel.

Winston-Wachter
203 Dexter Ave N, 206.652.5855
Group Show, Spring Highlights, 03.01:04.13

Woodside Braseth
2101 9th Ave, 206.622.7243
Paul Horiuchi, Selected Works, 02.23:03.18
Says the artist: "I have always wanted to create something serene...the quality needed to balance the sensationalism in our surroundings today. Maybe I'm old fashioned but I'm seeking beauty and truth in nature..."

Zeitgeist Coffee
171 S Jackson St, 206.583.0497
Owned and operated by the proprietors of the city's best coffee and doughnuts (Top Pot), Zeitgeist has long been the artist's coffee shop of choice in Pioneer Square proper. The monthly art installations are often more suitable to an art gallery than a coffee shop and seldom disappoint.