Culture Fiend Blog

A&E News Briefs: New Hire at Intiman, Chief Curator at the Henry Is Out

And more on that Chihuly guy.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Aug 24, 2011 at 12:00PM Speech Bubble 0 Comments

In his two years with Intiman, Andrew Russell has served as associate producer and directed last season’s The Thin Place.

THEATER The much-beleaguered Intiman Theatre, which shut in April due to severe budget problems, showed signs of hope today when the company hired former associate producer Andrew Russell to serve as consulting artistic director through October 1. Intiman has yet to throw in the towel. (Seattle Times)

VISUAL ART Henry Art Gallery announced today that chief curator Dr. Elizabeth Brown will leave in mid-October after 10 years with the Henry. No reason was given for her departure, though director Sylvia Wolf did note “a new strategic plan” to reshape the Henry, including a nationwide search for a deputy director of art and education. Brown most notably curated last year’s I Myself Have Seen It: Photography and Kiki Smith exhibit. (Slog)

VISUAL ART Seattle Center broke ground on the new 1.5 acre Dale Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit yesterday, which is slated to open in time for the 50th anniversary of the World’s Fair in April 2012. It will be the largest collection of Chihuly glasswork in the world. (Seattle P-I)

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Tags: Henry Art Gallery, Intiman Theatre, Seattle Center, Chihuly

Visual Art

The Henry Opens ‘The Talent Show’ with a Party

Check out the new exhibit at a late-night open house on May 6.

Posted by: Suzanne Beal on May 05, 2011 at 10:00AM Speech Bubble 0 Comments

Image courtesy Henry Art Gallery.

David Lamelas, Limit of a Projection I, 1967, theater spotlight in darkened room, dimensions variable. Collection Walker Art Center.

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Dream of fame? Don’t we all. Henry Art Gallery’s The Talent Show brings together 20 multimedia works that explore what happens when artists include audience members as participants.

In 1983 Sophie Calle found an unidentified address book on a street in Paris. She returned it to its owner, but not before photocopying the contents. Calle contacted the individuals listed in it, then used the information gleaned from her conversations with them to piece together a portrait of the owner for Address Book. When the results were published in the Paris newspaper Libération, the address book’s owner, documentary filmmaker Pierre Baudry, threatened to sue for invasion of privacy. It’s this discussion of what’s public versus private in a reality TV–saturated world that drives the Henry’s new exhibit.

Wouldn’t mind a little more time in the spotlight? Climb atop Piero Manzoni’s pedestal, Base magica—Scultura vivente (Magic Base—Living Sculpture), or bask in the golden glow of David Lamelas’s Limit of a Projection. Whether you’re after privacy or notoriety, this exhibit promises a little piece of the action. View the slideshow for more images.

Upcoming events: Talent Show curator Peter Eleey (of Walker Art Center) discusses the complicated relationship between artists, audiences, and participants in the Henry Auditorium on May 7 at 2pm. Students and Henry members FREE. General admission $5.

The Henry holds an open house on May 6. Members preview is from 6–8, followed by a party for all from 8–11. Festivities include food, drink, live music by Melanie Valera and her Franco-American pop project Tender Forever, an “intervention” by artist Jason Hirata, green screen dancing in the Student Tech Lounge, and a costume contest judged by The Stranger’s David Schmader. Come dressed as your favorite reality TV star and win prizes. Henry members free. General admission $8–$12.

The Talent Show is on display at Henry Art Gallery May 7–Aug 21.

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Tags: Visual Art, Henry Art Gallery

Visual Art News

The Henry Announces Brink Award Finalists

Three emerging Seattle artists join the elite eight in this biennial competition.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Mar 16, 2011 at 12:00PM Speech Bubble 0 Comments

Work by Brink finalist Dawn Cerny: Camp Carmel, 2011, resin coated paper, fake flowers, vase. On display at Season in May 2011.

Henry Art Gallery thinks these eight emerging artists are on the “brink” of something big. No word how big, exactly, but let’s just say that if they were teenage drivers, you’d feel comfortable handing them the keys to the Benz. The 2011 Brink Award finalists, who will compete for $12,500 and a solo show at the Henry, are: Grant Barnhart (Seattle, WA), Debra Baxter (Seattle, WA), Dawn Cerny (Seattle, WA), Andrew Dadson (Vancouver, BC), Tannaz Farsi (Eugene, OR), Allison Hrabluik (Vancouver, BC), and artist team Anna Gray and Ryan Wilson Paulsen (Portland, OR).

The winner will be announced on April 22, after the selection committee—a crew of big wigs that includes Henry director Sylvia Wolf, Seattle artist Victoria Haven, and Brink benefactors John and Shari Behnke—tours the artists’ studios in March and April. Inaugural Brink winner Isabelle Pauwels, a rising Vancouver-based artist, managed to both tantalize and frustrate with her video installation at the Henry in 2009. Here’s hoping the new winner takes big risks, too.

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Tags: Visual Art, Henry Art Gallery, Brink Award

The Weekend Starts...Now.

Met Pick: Kiki Smith

Famed sculptor leads lecture on her work tonight at UW’s Kane Hall.

Posted by: Caitlin King on Mar 04, 2010 at 09:00AM Speech Bubble 0 Comments

Kiki Smith, Untitled (Head of Guanyin), 2002, chromogenic color print. Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York.

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Since the 1970s, German American artist Kiki Smith has created sculptures depicting both the female form and the female anatomy—down to the organs—that encourage feminist discourse. As revealing as they may be, the new Smith exhibit at Henry Art Gallery delves even deeper. I Myself Have Seen It: Photography and Kiki Smith (March 6-August 15) introduces a series of photographs that chronicle Smith’s creative process and show the different perspectives that influenced her long and successful career in sculpture, media and printmaking. If that’s not enough, Smith herself joins Henry chief curator Elizabeth Brown tonight in a discussion of Smith’s work, starting at 7 at UW’s Kane Hall, Room 120. Tickets are $12-$15 and available here.

This clip features Smith in the PBS series Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century.

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Tags: Visual Art, Henry Art Gallery, Kiki Smith

Visual Art

Last Chance to See Polaroids: Mapplethorpe, Michelangelo at SAM

Several art shows close this weekend—don’t miss out.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Jan 28, 2010 at 09:00AM Speech Bubble 0 Comments

Photo: Courtesy Fondazione Casa Buonarroti

The Michelangelo Public and Private exhibition is showing at Seattle Art Museum October 15–January 31.

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Check out these shows before they close on Sunday. If you’re on the fence, read what we had to say about each:

Polaroids: Mapplethorpe, Henry Art Gallery
“Though they do feature the formal portraiture that would later bring him renown, Mapplethorpe’s Polaroids possess a touching sense of freedom absent in his more famous photos. You can almost hear Mapplethorpe and his various subjects breathing heavily, or giggling furiously, over their often horny camaraderie. The shared privacy with transgressive partners at play lends these pictures a soft, singular innocence.” [Read more here.]

Michelangelo: Public and Private, Seattle Art Museum
“Michelangelo wanted us to believe that he painted the Sistine Chapel with divine inspiration and without sketches. Don’t believe the hype… 12 of his original drawings—charcoal sketches of arms, legs, torsos, and faces—offer insight into the arduous process of painting the Sistine Chapel and The Last Judgment. They hang framed next to floor-to-ceiling reproductions of the two masterpieces, so you can see how an outline becomes art.” [Read more here]

Eirik Johnson: Sawdust Mountain, Henry Art Gallery
“Bleak snapshots of Washington and Oregon rivers, felled trees, weathered outdoorsmen, rundown cabins, and gray forest landscapes capture a primitive Northwest untouched by urban life.”

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Tags: Visual Art, Robert Mapplethorpe, Michelangelo, Seattle Art Museum, Henry Art Gallery, Eirik Johnson, Last Chance