The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture is excited to announce the 2023 exhibition calendar for ARTS at King Street Station. Upcoming exhibitions will explore a plethora of ideas and identities including Indigenous culture, Japanese heritage, 1% for Public Art’s 50th Anniversary, and Black culture from local artists such as Naoko Morisawa / Morisawa Studio, Le’Ecia Farmer, Antoine Fougere, and more. All exhibitions are free and open to the public.
“The exhibitions slated for 2023 at ARTS at King Street Station will be impactful, challenging and a glimpse into the mind and artistry home to Seattle. We are excited to host such a talented roster of artists this year, allowing Seattle to better understand how art makes our city a more cohesive and civic society.”
royal alley-barnes, Interim Director, Office of Arts & Culture
February 2 – April 6, 2023
digital indigiqueer: a showcase of trans transmedia
Hexe Fey
A showcase of transgender and sacred gender indigenous artists working in digital media, transmedia, film, 360 video, glitch art, contemporary interpretations of traditional forms, and future mediums. digital indigiqueer: a showcase of trans transmedia includes 11 individual pieces exploring the diversity of contemporary indigenous creativity and touching their futures and pasts. Work from Raven TwoFeathers, Ty Defore, Raven Kameʻenui-Becker, Communidad Catrileo+Carrion, Elijah Forbes, and organizer Hexe Fey.
Happy Room – Mosaic Collage
Naoko Morisawa/ Morisawa Studio
Specializing in intricate natural and oil-dyed wooden and paper mosaics, artist Naoko Morisawa invites viewers to experience Happy Room – Mosaic Collage, a collection of over 50 small, mid, and large-scale works that evoke a sense of joy and draw from the Hygge lifestyle. The artwork selection is divided into four rooms Shoes/Closet, Kitchen/Living Room, Theater Japonism/Living Room, and Heart Room. Each room and piece transform everyday objects like a dependable pair of shoes or a pastry from a café into ornate, dynamic mosaics that invite viewers to find beauty in the details. Happy Room – Mosaic Collage features pieces from various bodies of work from the past 15 years including pieces from My Collection Shoes, Mosaic Café, Japanese Opera – Noh Mask, and newer abstract works.
May 4 – July 6, 2023
The First 50 Years: Highlights from the Civic Collection, 1973-2023
Since the 1% for Public Art ordinance was created in 1973, the Seattle Civic Collection has grown to include 4,112 artworks, 3,674 of which are displayed throughout city buildings. The remaining 438 are permanently sited throughout Seattle. The First 50 Years includes artworks that highlight the breadth and depth of the collection and artistry of the region. Artists in the exhibition include national icon Jacob Lawrence, Sherry Markowitz, Marita Dingus, Susan Point, Akio Takamori, Jeffry Mitchell, and newer artists in the collection including Humaira Abid, Robert “Running Fisher” Upham, Natalie Ball and Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas.
The Civic Collection is an amazing living history focused mainly on artists in the Pacific Northwest region and offers a snapshot of the area’s artistic output over the past 50 years. Curated by Blake Haygood, ARTS Curator, and Collections Manager.
Spotted in Seattle
Agustina Forest
Agustina Forest’s Spotted in Seattle is a collection of visual stories of the strangers she observed while exploring the streets of Seattle. For Forest, sidewalks are scenarios with stories constantly unfolding in front of us. Spotted in Seattle features 30 artworks ranging from epoxy resin sculptures, pencil sketches, and oil pastel pieces.
August 3 – October 5, 2023
Space Cowrie
Le’Ecia Farmer
Space Cowrie is a multimedia exhibition exploring African diasporic desire – the whirring space of longing, grief, joy, and healing. Through experimentation with traditional and nontraditional forms, Le’Ecia Farmer examines both the fragmented and whole sides of individual and collective desire. The exhibition will include paintings, textile pieces, constructed garments, and video installations.
Perceiver/Perception
Eymah Nuzhat
Eymah Nuzhat’s installation Perceiver/Perception transforms the narratives of women’s experiences of sexual assaults, through the lens of the perceiver, into powerful visual autobiographies. Nuzhat portrays the stories and emotions of abused women – particularly when the perpetrators are family members – and how this alters the victim’s self-perception over time. Her work also exposes how society’s reactions can shun the victim, which leads to the glorification of the abuser. Perceiver/Perception features watercolors, handmade gold paint, and gilding on traditional hand-glued paper.
October 5 – 7, 2023
On the Edge: 2nd International Latinx Performance Art Festival
On the Edge: 2nd International Latinx Performance Art Festival is the second Latinx performance art festival based in Seattle, showcasing a wide range of experimental performances grounded in the themes of inclusion, identity, and intersectionality. Featuring a wide range of pan-Latine/x artists and supporters, these performances will range from intimate, single-person storytelling, to medium-length, mixed-media group performances, as well as durational, non-traditional, conceptual, and video performances. The event is headlined by visiting artist, Katherine Adamenko, a Cuban-born, New York-based performance artist and Butoh writer, who will be presenting an iconic third-wave feminist piece from the 90s, “Beauty Borg.” Accompanying the live performances will be video showcasing further work by the performers as well as major historical pieces in Latine/x performance art history. This festival is supported by the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture and 4Culture, with further support from La Sala, Centro Cultural de Mexico, CoCA, and others.
November 2 – January 4, 2024
Places Between
Tammie Dupuis
Tammie Dupuis explores the intersections of her heritage as an Indigenous and Western European person in her exhibition, Places Between. Using both Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of making and seeing, her work spans several different processes and materials including paper, wood, textiles, glass beads, bone, hair, teeth, canvas, relief print, stamp, and paint. Places Between features over 30 works that explore ideas of visibility/invisibility of the Indigenous body and how it affects her personal visual identity, spiritual recognition/non-recognition of place and family, and didactic work of the reservation system and other assimilationist policies.
Make it. Make Sense.
Antoine Fougere
Make it. Make Sense is a collection of photos that are based around artist Antoine Fougere’s childhood and imagination. The installation will feature approximately 20 works including digital and film photographs and video artworks. Fougere’s goal is for the artworks to spark a conversation with one another and help inspire his community to continue to create.
*This information is current as of February 9, 2023. Please check back for updates on our website.
About ARTS at King Street Station:
ARTS at King Street Station is a dynamic space for arts and culture in the heart of Seattle, dedicated to increasing opportunities for communities of color to generate and present their work. ARTS at King Street Station – which incorporates a 7,500-square-foot cultural space available to the general public, a studio for artists-in-residence, and offices for the staff of the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture – was conceived to reflect and foster the creativity and talents of people that continue to create the fabric of Seattle.
ARTS at King Street Station is free and open Wednesday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. On First Thursdays, the gallery is open until 8 p.m. Learn more on our website.
