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He/Art

An art sale that’s really a house party. Or is it the other way around?

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on May 03, 2012 at 01:00PM 0 Comments

Photo: Jen Ament

An encaustic painting by Jen Ament, who will be featured at He/Art on Saturday, May 12.

Think, suggests designer, maker, and gatherer April Pride, of an art opening and a house party rolled into one.

KEXP DJ Tim Betterley is providing the tunes, Hilliard’s will be poured and consumed, and art (more on that in a minute) will be available to trade for American cash. And it all happens in Pride’s Madison Park domicile at 1214 42nd Ave E.

‘I have always pondered why we don’t view art in the environment of a home,’ says Pride.

He/Art on Saturday, May 12 from 5 to 9 makes it happen with contributions from Irene Wood (you’ve seen her accessories in our fashion spread; she’ll show work in oil, acrylic, ink, and polyurethane here), photographer Jules Frazier, encaustic and ink-on-paper artist, Jen Ament, and glass artist JP Canlis.

You should go, and make yourself at home.

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Tags: Visual Art, Seattle Designer

Three Reasons to See BAM’s Latin Jewelry Show

What you’ll learn at the Belleuve Arts Museum’s exhibition of narrative, evocative accessories.

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Jul 15, 2011 at 07:15AM 1 Comments

Miguel Luciano’s platnum-plated plantain is part of BAM’s exhibit of Latin American jewelry. The show will explode your definition of “jewelry,” open your eyes to new ways of storytelling, and inspire all kinds of ideas about personal expression.

With more than 130 examples of body adornment from 90 artists representing 25 countries in Bellevue Arts Museum’s Think Twice: New Latin American Jewelry there are infinite reasons to spend some time inside the exhibit’s two intimate, story-filled rooms. Here are my top three:

1. Beauty sometimes comes from math and history. I’m always open to the historical perspective but rarely do I think of numbers and equations influencing style and aesthetics. I’m just not wired to consider things that way, but Luis Acosta’s Quipus, brooches made with paper and thread, reference ancient Incan record-keeping knots that kept encoded numerical data. To the modern trend-watching, style-hunting eye, the elegant, deceptively complex red and white pieces would seem to be ancestors to the current crop of colorful, soft, knotted and wound necklaces that keep showing up on racks and runways.

2. You don’t know bling. Teresa Margolles’ Ajuste de Cuentas will school you. Based on the gawdy, showy accessories of Mexican drug lords and fabricated by jeweler who often works for drug dealers, her rings contain 18 karat gold, diamonds, and thick, glistening shards of windshield glass taken from drug-related crime scenes.

3. Bling sometimes comes from history. Miguel Luciano works with popular culture, consumer culture, and colonialism in his work; his platinum-plated plantain (yes, a real plantain) is a study of high gloss and fruit rot. Pictured here, the necklace looks like something a 90s rapper would’ve sported at the MTV awards. Inside, the banana from 2006 is far less glamorous.

The show , previously only shown at the Museum of Art and Design in New York City, has been up since the end of May; it runs through October 16.

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Tags: Visual Art, Eastside, Bellevue Arts Museum

Latin Crew at Far 4

A new way to see glass art on June’s First Thursday.

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on May 27, 2011 at 10:00AM 0 Comments

Photo: Courtesy Edison Osorio Zapata

SLIDESHOW: The Latin Crew at Far 4. Edison Osorio Zapata of the Latin Crew was born in Venezuela to Colombian migrants. He grew up in Australia and as a young man, opened a restaurant in Japan. Not surprisingly, his work explores culture and language. This piece is called Eye. He has been to Pilchuck and had residencies in Brooklyn, and on June 2 he’ll be part of an opening at Far 4.

View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Edison Osorio Zapata

SLIDESHOW: The Latin Crew at Far 4. Edison Osorio Zapata of the Latin Crew was born in Venezuela to Colombian migrants. He grew up in Australia and as a young man, opened a restaurant in Japan. Not surprisingly, his work explores culture and language. This piece is called Eye. He has been to Pilchuck and had residencies in Brooklyn, and on June 2 he’ll be part of an opening at Far 4.

View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Hector M. Flores

Diana by Hector M. Flores; included in the 32nd Annual Pilchuck Glass School auction

View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Luisa Restrepo

From a collection of mantra or chanting pieces by Mexico-based Luisa Restrepo.

Well, there were the plush folks. And the metalsmiths. And whomever else we missed. I hadn’t thought to think about it before, but I see a pattern emerging: Group of artisans and enthusiasts travels to Seattle for a gathering, local retailer hosts some type of sale, show, or other event to help them maximize their time here. Definitely a win, win.

An international clan of glass artists who call themselves the Latin Crew is about to roll into town for the Glass Art Society’s 41st annual conference. (What, you didn’t know Seattle is hosting this year?) On Tuesday June 2, their Northwest experience will include an opening party for a show of their contemporary glass work at Far 4.

Around here, we’re quite used to giant, alien/sea animal-like blown creations hanging above grand pianos and restaurant tables, but in Chile, for example, where Josefina Munoz resides, there are only a few people crafting with glass. No matter if the scene in Seattle has you excited by or indifferent about the material, this show ought to make things feel new.

Check out the short slideshow here to preview the work, and plan to visit the shop on the edge of Downtown and Pioneer Square, where genre-busting glass art and world-sourced meticulous craft are nothing new, on First Thursday, June 2 from 6 to 9.

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Tags: Visual Art, West Edge, Far 4

Slideshow: Bilinear Art with Krista Kelly

Taking style home and to work.

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on May 20, 2011 at 07:45AM 0 Comments

SLIDESHOW: Style Counselor Krista Kelly at work with Bilinear Art. Here, she commissioned a New York-based street artist to create work for a client’s residential game room.

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SLIDESHOW: Style Counselor Krista Kelly at work with Bilinear Art. Here, she commissioned a New York-based street artist to create work for a client’s residential game room.

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The master bedroom of a residential client; Bilinear placed a diptych pyrograph by Japan-born Seattle-based artist Etsuko Ichikawa. The use of blown glass and cotton paper in Ichikawa’s work adds to the natural elements of the national award-winning residence. “My inspiration for the placement came from the idea of the couple dreaming beside each other,” says Kelly.

View Slideshow » Photo: Glassworks Architectural Glass

In the Spring of 2010, Luxe Magazine featured downtown’s Escala building in Downtown Seattle and highlighted the work of five interior designers within the spaces. Bilinear consulted with Jeffrey Lamb of J Lamb Studio; shown here is a triptych and artwork positioned inside the wall and a sleek, minimalist bar.

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For another condo in the Luxe spread, Bilinear selected a piece titled “In the Dream” by a Korean artist for the ceiling of the master bedroom. A portion of the graphic design was blurred to create a triptych which softened the attached master bath and created a unity between the two rooms. In order to activate the color palette and shapes, Kelly commissioned custom-made light boxes for the bathroom.

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Using whale vertebrae and rib found on shore off the coast of Alaska, native Eskimo artists carved the sculpture here, positioned next to floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Seattle skyline. “The juxtaposition of the city and whale’s architecture signifies the beauty of the Pacific Northwest,” states Kelly.

View Slideshow » Photo: Malcolm Smith Photography

Acting as part of a consulting member of Columbia Tower Club’s arts committee, Kelly organized an exhibition in order to create an opportunity for Seattle’s galleries, curators, and art enthusiasts to gather. The participating galleries in the resulting “Sky Tour” were R E Welch, Cullom, and Woodside/Braseth. The exhibition featured artwork from the first SAM curator, 1800s Japanese woodblock prints, and contemporary European oil paintings.

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In 2009, Bilinear created an exhibition called “Innovative Design: Seattle Architects for the Port of Seattle.” Twelve of Seattle’s top architecture firms were showcased in display cases throughout Sea-Tac International Airport. Some of the firms included: Olsen Kundig, Miller|Hull, Weber Thompson, Sclater, LMN, Ankrom Moisan, Hinthorne Mott, and VIA. Pictured is Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership’s proposed 5th and Columbia building.

I’ve always wanted to explode that whole take-your-daughter-to-work-day thing out a little further. Once a year, we ought to get a free pass to bring and/or tag along with friends, sig others, moms, dads, neighbors, siblings, former college roommates, and yes style counselors and check out each other’s work world.

Until such time as International Here’s What Your Friend Does at Her Office All Day Day, you’ve at least got the chance to see some of the art consultation projects completed by Style Counselor Krista Kelly;. (You’re on your own if you want to actually get inside her office at the old Rainier bottling plant.)

“I find I am excavating and interpreting my client’s style,” Kelly told me when I asked if stylish people live in stylish environments, and vice versa. “Most people have opinions on their taste and just want to be informed about their options.”

To see how that’s worked out in a number of Seattle homes, offices, and public places, take a stroll through the slideshow here.

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Tags: Visual Art, butch blum, Style Counsel, Home Decor

BAM Celebrates Contemporary Fiber Art

The Mysterious Content of Softness exhibit explores the transformative power of fiber.

Posted by: Sarah Hirsch on Feb 08, 2011 at 08:00AM 0 Comments

Slideshow: Preview a few of the pieces to be featured at BAM’s fiber art exhibit.

This artist: Diem Chau, “Bound”
Porcelain plate, organza, cotton fabric & thread

Photo: Courtesy of the artist

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Slideshow: Preview a few of the pieces to be featured at BAM’s fiber art exhibit.

This artist: Diem Chau, “Bound”
Porcelain plate, organza, cotton fabric & thread

Photo: Courtesy of the artist

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Diem Chau, “Empty Hand”
Porcelain plate, organza & thread

Photo: Courtesy of the artist

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Lauren DiCioccio, “Two Dollar Bill”
Hand-embroidery on cotton

Photo: Ben Premeaux

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James Gobel, “Someday You Will Find Me”
Felt, yarn and acrylic on canvas

Photo: Courtesy of the artist

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Rock Hushka, Salve
Embroidered cotton (modified bullion stitch and seed stitch) mounted on linen

Photo: Courtesy of the artist

Most women and many men know the importance of a strong piece of clothing; a wardrobe piece that makes the wearer feel confident, pulled-together, and yes, maybe even transformed. Sure, like Lady Gaga in a lobster-themed ensemble or Bjork and her swan, but many of the other non-wildlife encumbered things we pull on on a daily basis have a metamorphosing power.

Between the more dramatic transformations of the couture and red carpet scenes and the kitschy, hipster popularity of knitting and crochet, the Bellevue Arts Museum’s Mysterious Content of Softness, looks at the connection the human body has to fiber-based products by presenting sculptures, installations, and crafts that incorporate fabric, thread, and other soft (or once soft) filaments into art. What results is a study not just of clothing and personal identity, but also gender identity and the fragility of life.

The show is up now and runs through June 26.

Of the 11 national and international artists in the show, Stefano Catalani, curator of the exhibit, says: ‘They were chosen for their emotional response to and understanding of fiber’s potential for capturing the fluidity of life.’

That 11 includes a local: Diem Chau, fine artist and Urban Craft Uprising participant, will discuss her past and present work — which includes a bizarre and wonderful combination of porcelain plates and silk thread — in a free lecture March 4 at 6:30.

See the slideshow here for a preview of The Mysterious Content of Softness.

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Tags: Bellevue, Locally Made, Visual Art, Bellevue Arts Museum, Fiber Art

UPDATEDOpening Soon: Built for Man Open Space

Seattle’s most obsessive menswear designer launches an art space and community catchall near Seattle University.

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Jan 28, 2011 at 08:45AM 0 Comments

What we talk about when we talk about the man behind Built for Man is passion and enthusiasm. In last year’s 100 Reasons to Love Seattle feature, we put it this way, No one believes in Seattle’s viability as a World-Class Fashion City more than designer Francisco Hernandez.

It might be said that no one believes more fervently in the potential of Capitol Hill and the Seattle U district, either. In speaking with Hernandez about his soon-to-open Built for Man Open Space, the creative force says, ‘The Seattle University neighborhood is going to be Tribeca to Capitol Hill’s Soho.’

(He also said, with a laugh, that his passion for helping build and grow a fashion community here sometimes borders on obsession — which I thought was just plain charming. I love it when people embrace the truth.)

This idea about the get-in-now-before-it-gets-really-really-cool nature of the nether region between the Hill and the ID has a lot to do with why he and his collaborators decided to make a home for their showroom/art space/forum/community catch-all on 13th Avenue near East Jefferson.

Here’s what we know about what that catch-all will be:

-The space will serve as a place to go check out the chunky, urban-nomadic men’s knitwear, shirting, and accessories that are building the Built for Man brand.

-The space will also be like an art gallery; Hernandez was an art consultant in a former life. My favorite thing about going to the Built for Man design loft is staring at the enormous Stephan Sprouse painting. Add to the list of his passionate obsessions: The idea that fashion and art are intricately linked, and collaboration between designing minds of all kinds is vital, but it’s not worth much if you’re not there, too.

-The first show in the space centers on video art and is called Push/Pull. Key collaborator on the premier show, which culls the work of 11 artists and will run for four continuous hours each day once the curtain is up, is recently transplanted New York artist John Criscitello.

-The majority of the video artists in the show are women. Why? Hernandez believes that video art is marginal and women in art are sometimes marginalized, and he wants to explode that. (I guess I’m not sure that I think video art is marginalized anymore, considering everything happening at the intersection of the internet and fashion is happening via video, but I’m still interested in the concept and the reach of the show.)

UPDATE: Date has been announced: February 17. No, there is no date yet for opening night. We’ll update you here once there is one. It’s looking like mid-February. Until that time, please check out the video here by Liliana Velez, who joins Janet Biggs, Michael Greathouse and others in the show.

Untitled from Liliana Velez on Vimeo.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Visual Art, Seattle Retail News, Built for Man, Video Art

Sale: Frye Museum Shop

Save on books, toys, gifts, and ephemera.

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Sep 10, 2010 at 10:00AM 1 Comments

Photo: Frye Art Museum

This Friedrich August von Kaulbach rendering of Spanish dancer and actress Rosario Guerrero is neither on sale nor for sale at the Frye Art Museum’s Pre-Inventory gift shop sale. But since the entire museum is free, you can go say hello to it after dropping in on the good deals.

Where: Frye Art Museum Gift Shop

What: It’s okay if, for you, a day at the museum usually means a day in the museum shop. In fact, we all but sanctioned skipping the walls and halls for the book shelves, gifts, and accessories in this round-up of Seattle’s best museum shopping. Included therein is the Frye Art Museum, who, as of yesterday, began prepping for their annual inventory count by trying to get rid of it. That means stuff’s on sale.

What kind of stuff? Big beautiful art catalogs and books, toys to learn and experiment with, and gifts that reference and play off of past exhibits and conceptual art themes. Is September too early to start shopping for the holidays? Not when these kinds of goods are knocked down between 25 and 75 percent.

And don’t forget: The museum is always free, as is the parking lot across the street, so maybe you’ll want to leave some time for those halls and walls afterall.

When: Now through September 19, during regular business hours.

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Tags: Visual Art, frye art museum, Gift Guide

Opening: Coming Soon

Local multidisciplinary visual artist Jesse Brown shows paper, light, and graphic summer scarves on Saturday night

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Jul 08, 2010 at 12:00PM 0 Comments

Slideshow: images from Of Paper and Light by Jesse Brown at Coming Soon

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Slideshow: images from Of Paper and Light by Jesse Brown at Coming Soon

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Coming Soon owner Jessica Park reports that the artirts she features in her small space tend to love the challenge of less.

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Shadows, light, addition, subtraction: Jesse Brown’s work at Coming Soon

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The open-concept space in Fremont

Where: Coming Soon

What: Paper sculptures and objects of wonder by local multidisciplinary visual artist Jesse Brown on display inside Fremont’s pint-sized open-concept hut. Set to music, also by Brown, the clean white pieces leave lots of open space for ideas about design, urban planning, cartography, textiles, and ancient alphabets (well, okay, that’s what we thought about when we saw them; you might think about anything, including a zenlike nothing at all).

To go with them: Hand-stamped summer scarves, a collaboration between Brown and Coming Soon owner (and fashion label Ampersand as Apostrophe creator) Jessica Park. These complete the promise of retail outlined in Park’s dream of a space that puts art, fashion, design, and commerce in the same room.

When: Saturday July 10 at 8. Opening affairs at Coming Soon are a good time; the block has lately become a gathering spot of arty, urban, architectural types who aren’t afraid to loosen up their advanced degrees and drink cheap beer. Don’t you love summer in Seattle?

Wear: Something crisp and white, but graphic at the same time.

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Tags: Visual Art, Fremont, Coming Soon

Walk This Way

Project Runway and Portland resident Seth Aaron on mixing it up at SAM with you and Andy Warhol.

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Jun 03, 2010 at 08:00AM 0 Comments

Photo: mylifetime.com

Seth Aaron is looking forward to meeting 1,000 strangers on Friday night

First things first: If you don’t already have tickets for tomorrow night’s Remix at SAM, you might as well avoid heartache and make other plans. The museum’s every-season city-wide parties are sold-out, solidly packed affairs. Though I did hear something about free entry for the first hundred people to show up wearing a wig …

Among the guests this time around: Project Runway winner Seth Aaron. The Portland-based (okay, Vancouver, but he’s about seven minutes from downtown) designer is leading one of SAM’s My Favorite Things tours. I spoke with him on Memorial Day (he hadn’t given himself the day off; he was cutting patterns and getting ready to deliver them to a Portland factory when I rang) about what he’s got planned.

“The Warhol stuff did it for me. That’s why I agreed to do a tour. My stuff is all about pop art so its’ a great fit,” he told me.

Did he get a chance to come up and preview the other exhibits, or is he going to wing it?

“Nah, I don’t like to plan ahead. I don’t really know what else is there – I’m getting in around 3p and I’ll be able to walk though and check it out, but I’m more into just doing what feels right at the moment. It’ll be really fun to meet people and talk to everyone. That’s where I’m most comfortable. *I like the idea of a room full of 1,000 people that I don’t know.”*

Any interest in the Kurt Cobain stuff? After all, his stuff does feel … sort of rock- and 90s-influenced, too.

“Oh yeah, I mean, I had Nirvana’s studio album about a year before it came out, and I own all their records, it’ll be cool to see that stuff, but it’s about Warhol.”

What type of art is he most drawn to?

“Photography is definitely an interest. I’m fascinated by all of — I guess I don’t really care for folk art, but I grew up in a house where art and design were in our every day world. My dad was a cartoonist, he worked for Disney, and my mom was always sewing and making things. We had an art-filled life. We just shot my collection for the July issue of Marie-Claire, and I’ve been a fashion stylist here in Portland for ten years, so I work with photographers all the time, I love fashion photography. "Rafael Astorga,”:http://www.rafaelastorga.com/ here in Portland is one of my favorites."

And how’s life after Tim and Heidi?

_"You have to work every bit as hard. All the doors are open now, bu you can’t just sit around and wait for things to happen. I’ve done 101 interviews from radio to TV to print, and I’ve got a publicity company in LA and I’m with DMA in New York, but yeah, I’m still cutting my own patterns. Anne Bocci sells my stuff here in town, but she’s been sold out for awhile and wanted more. As you get bigger, you can always have your personal projects, so that’s what this is for me."

So the Northwest still feels like home?

"I’ve had so much support from this area, and stuff like this (SAM’s Remix) is how I can show my support in return. The next morning I’ll be back in Portland to be the grand marshal at the Rose Parade. It’s good to mix it up."

Indeed.

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Tags: Reality TV, Visual Art, Locally Designed, Style at SAM