Wed, Jan 7
Red Bull Sound Select: Waxahatchee
With emotionally cutting lyrics and a soft southern drawl, Waxahatchee (aka singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield) created one of the best records of 2013 in Cerulean Salt. After recently signing to Merge Records, her highly anticipated follow-up album is due in early 2015. In the meantime, she stops by Seattle for a Red Bull Sound Select show featuring Portland bands Us Lights and the Ghost Ease. Sunset Tavern, $3 (with RSVP).

Thru Jan 8
Winter Sleep
Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes 2014, the Turkish drama Winter Sleep tells the story of a former actor who visits the Anatolian village in which he owns property, thus enacting a stark divide between the haves and have-nots in the region. The whole thing is centered around the inhabitants of a local hotel. So think Newhart, only as a scathing cultural critique with subtitles. Grand Illusion Cinema, $9.

Jan 8–Feb 14
Concinnitas
Mathematician G.H. Hardy once wrote, “The mathematician’s patterns, like the painter’s or the poet’s, must be beautiful; the ideas, like the colors or the words, must fit together in a harmonious way.” Concinnitas presents math as art, with formulas and equations hand-drawn by their creators in stark white-on-black beauty. Greg Kucera Gallery, free.

Jan 8–31
Fred Holcomb
It’s all a blur. Rapid motion underlines Fred Holcomb’s latest collection of paintings at Linda Hodges Gallery. His images of natural beauty evoke the view outside a speeding car on a remote two-lane road. The effect gives a vitality and sense of action to the lush still scenery. Linda Hodges Gallery, free.

Fri, Jan 9
Steven Hendricks with Stacey Levine and Miranda Mellis
In his debut novel, Little is Left to Tell, Steven Hendricks invites the reader into a world conjured up by an unconventional source: a man in the throes of dementia, telling bedtime stories for a long-lost son. Hendricks is joined by Stacey Levine, author of the funny and raw short story collection The Girl With Brown Fur, and Miranda Mellis, whose own collection None of This Is Real also revels in the alternate realities we create. Elliott Bay Book Company, free.