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Art Beat

Office of Arts & Culture news and events

Exhibition features staff picks from city’s collection

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Hugo Ludeña, Chambelanes (detail), 1999, chromogenic print, 20″ x 30″.
 

What artworks from the city’s Portable Works Collection would our staff choose to be in an exhibition? Find out in the exhibition Staff Picks, on display at Seattle Municipal Tower Gallery through March 31.

Staff Picks features 24 artworks including sculptures, drawings and paintings by artists such as Glen Alps, Meng Huang, Hugo Ludeña and Charlotte Meyer. See the complete list of artists here.

See artworks such as Peter Ivanoff’s How the West Was Won and Lost, a drawing of shopping carts circling like covered wagons. Huang built a face from found objects including hubcaps and gloves in his sculpture Take a Look. Justin Gibbens created an Audubon-like illustration of a fantastical creature in his Double-headed Red Tail.

The Portable Works Collection contains more than 2,800 artworks managed by the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs.

Words are theme of city exhibition Word Play

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Words come to us in a myriad of ways: through the books we read, billboards that line our highways, the e-mails and texts that link us to others, radio, TV and the music on our iPods.

In the exhibition “Word Play,” on view at Seattle Municipal Tower Gallery, Oct. 4 to Dec. 30, 16 visual artists express themselves with words. “Word Play” features 31 artworks that include photographs, prints, ceramic sculpture, collaged artworks, drawings and mixed media.

Sometimes words are part of the scene in the artwork. In Peter deLory’s “With Dignity” from 1979, a carefully arranged tableau of a love letter, portraits, spilled wine and lingerie belies the content of the letter.

Sometimes words are the artwork. Jenny Holzer’s documentary photographs (c. 1984) show the artworks from her “Truism” series, which consist of short statements, common myths or phrases as slogans in LED lights running on a reader board.

In other artworks, words appear because of the artist’s choice of materials.  In Ross Palmer Beecher’s “Hershey’s Chocolate Quilt” from 1986, scraps of Hershey’s syrup containers are woven together to form a traditional, log-cabin quilt design.

City Curator and Collections Manager Deborah Paine selected the artworks from the city’s Portable Works Collection managed by the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs.

The featured artists are: Scott Aho, Ross Palmer Beecher, Carl Chew, Clair Colquitt, Elizabeth Connor, Peter deLory, Garek Druss, David Gihooly, Jenny Holzer, Mark Selcuk Onat, Berkeley Parks, Manoun Sakkal, Ted Savinar, Margaret Stratton, Bethany Taylor and Blair Wilson.

Image: Ross Palmer Beecher; Hershey’s Chocolate Quilt (detail); 1986; stitched tin with wire, bike tire tubing, and auto tail lights; 64″ x 48″. Photo courtesy of the artist.

The Built Environment at Seattle Municipal Tower Gallery

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An exhibition highlighting 22 artists’ responses to the built environment just opened at the Seattle Municipal Tower Gallery. Aptly titled The Built Environment, the exhibition features two categories of artworks: drawings or sculptures that represent ideas for proposed public artworks and artworks which reflect artists’ responses to architecture.

Included in the exhibition is a 1996 model of a house by Rolon Garner and Ken Leback for the public artwork Equality – featuring dozens of small granite houses laid out  in a grid – in Seattle’s Sturgus Park. Joseph Park’s 2002 painting Rouen is his take on Monet’s studies of the Rouen Cathedral painted during different times of the day. Park’s version is harder-edged and painted at night. Contrast this with the linoleum print Armenia III/The Church by Dionne Haroutunian. Here the building is viewed as little more than a house, rustic but welcoming, whereas Park’s cathedral is looming and ominous.

John Stamets’ photograph Experience Music Project, Madonna Wall Framing shows the EMP under construction in 2000. Mark Danielson’s The Supernatural, 2005, depicts a mid-century modern house encapsulated in either a faceted gem or a coffin, asking the question of whether the artist cherishes or repels the structure. 

The artworks are in a variety of media, including paintings, prints, sculpture, photography, drawing and mixed media. City Curator and Collections Manager Deborah Paine selected the artworks from the city’s Portable Works Collection managed by the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs.

“Seattle’s buildings, streets, homes, apartments and condos make up the built environment of our city. Architects, designers and engineers have created it, but artists also use the built environment to stimulate and inform the creations they make,” writes Paine in her curator’s statement.

The exhibition will run through Sept. 30.

Check out the July eNews

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In this issue:

  • Artist Nickolus Meisel’s cloud haiku, a series of cast-bronze pillows arranged along the Seattle Streetcar’s Westlake Avenue and Seventh Avenue stop, will be dedicated 3 to 4 p.m., Friday, July 22.
  • ARTSparks continues in July at Occidental Square, where an amazing array of installations and performances have transformed the urban park into an engaging and experimental art gallery of sorts.

Image: Jennifer Dixon’s FlipBooks is an artwork composed of several sets of signs, each forming an “animated” story along Seattle’s Interurban Trail. We are currently seeking an artist for project along the Burke-Gilman Trail. Photo by Jim Tillman.

Exhibition Animalia on view at Seattle Municipal Tower

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Animalia is a show of animals, sometimes literal and sometimes mythical, and of the imagination. The exhibition, on view at Seattle Municipal Tower Gallery April 5 through July 5, features artworks by 17 artists in a variety of media, including painting, print, tapestry, sculpture, photography, drawing and mixed media.Featured artists include Rick Bartow, Xavier Viramontes and Claudia Cave-Sumner.

“With a sense of humor, Claudia Cave-Sumner’s drawing Pig Lid portrays a woman opening a box decorated with pig imagery, while a stylized pig pops from beneath the lid. Rick Bartow’s pastel and graphite-on-paper drawings are fraught with animal iconography deeply seated in his Native-American culture, where beast is made up of both animal and man,” explains city curator Deborah Paine, who selected the artworks from the city’s Portable Works Collection managed by the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs.

Image: Claudia Cave-Sumner, Pig Lid, 1982, graphite, colored pencil on paper, 24″ x 24″. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Check out our April eNews

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In this Issue:

  • Know an individual or an organization making a difference in Seattle through arts and culture? Nominate them for a 2011 Mayor’s Arts Award.
  • The city is seeking artists to bring temporary site-specific art and performances to Occidental Square.
  • We’re seeking an artist or artist team to create a temporary, site-specific public art project for the new Jackson Street Plaza at King Street Station.
  • Artist Jennifer Dixon will create a public artwork for a fence that is part of the Linden Avenue North corridor along Seattle’s Interurban Trail.
  • The exhibition Animalia will be on view at Seattle Municipal Tower Gallery April 5 through July 5.
  • Seattle Parks and Recreation seeks proposals for curriculum-based visual and performing arts programs at five parks.

Image: John Ackermann in AWESOME’s Savory Onyx Machine performed in a Storefornt Seattle space during a special Arts Crush event presented by Theater Puget Sound. Photo by Mike Hipple.

Check out our February eNews

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In this issue:

Arts commission elects chair, commissioners appointed.

An assortment of textile artworks are on view at Seattle Municipal Tower through April 1,

Don’t miss the application deadline for the Youth Arts program, 11 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 15.

Three recently released reports show the economic impact on arts in the Puget Sound region and around the country.

Check out Seattle Center’s new 2011 Festivals and Events Guide.

From minimalist music to an interview with local art critic Jen Graves, Art Zone with Nancy Guppy spotlights the local arts scene.

You can now have a one-stop resource for all your arts information from the city with the new website my.seattle.gov.

Image: Mandy Greer, Mater Matrix Mother and Medium: Topography (detail), 2009, wool and synthetic yarn, plastic, fabric, glass and plastic beads, 36″ x 68″. Photo by Blake Haygood.

Check out our November eNews

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In this issue:

This week, the Office announced $200,000 in awards to 44 individual artists working in the performing arts.

Join in a discussion with about arts education at the sixth annual Arts in Education Forum, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., Monday, Nov. 8.

The city of Seattle is seeking a director to lead the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs.

Artist Catherine Wagner will create permanent artwork for the Mercer Street underpass at Aurora Avenue.

Artist John Fleming will create an artwork design to inlay at new sidewalk locations.

The Office will celebrate eight artists’ works installed on the fence surrounding the Civic Square construction site in downtown Seattle.

Artists from the 2009 Artist Trust EDGE Professional Development Program in visual arts share new work since completing the program in Postscripts from the EDGE at Seattle City Hall.

Sit in on a free webinar for public artists produced by Americans for the Arts, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 3.

Persian music and zydeco rhythms warm up City Hall this month.

Discover local music on Seattle OnHold.

Visual art to rock musicals on Seattle Channel’s Art Zone this month.

Image: Joy Hagen, Logging Roads I (detail of triptych), 2010, encaustic mixed media on wood panel, 32″ x 56″. Photo by Larey McDaniel. Featured in Postscripts from the EDGE, an exhibition on view Nov. 3 to Jan. 4, 2011, at Seattle City Hall.

Check out our August eNews

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In this issue:

Message from the Director: “Will the last person leaving Seattle turn out the lights?”

We’re seeking:

…an artist to develop a site-specific art project for Fire Station 30 in Seattle’s Mount Baker neighborhood.

…an artist to develop and fabricate a single artwork design to inlay at 10 to 15 new sidewalk locations.

…an artist to develop site-specific artwork for the Mercer West street improvement project.

The Office will celebrate Salon, a new public artwork by artist team SuttonBeresCuller, Aug. 21.

Eight local emerging artists will provide images of original artwork for temporary panels for the fence surrounding the Civic Square construction site in downtown Seattle.

Kick it this summer with free concerts at City Hall’s outdoor plaza, Thursdays from noon to 1:30 p.m.

Bumbershoot visual artists and designers dish about their work.

See 28 rarely seen artworks from the city of Seattle’s portable works collection.

The latest Seattle OnHold mix is available by podcast.

Take advantage of the warm nights with free outdoor movies and concerts.

Image: John Fleming, 17 Year Old Eyes (detail), 2009, recycled stencils, chipboard, and plywood, 25″ x 50″. Artwork will be photographed and produced on a temporary panel surrounding the Civic Square construction site. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Rarely seen artworks from Seattle’s portable works collection at Seattle Municipal Tower Gallery

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Visit the Seattle Municipal Tower Gallery and see the exhibition “Evocative: Artworks that Invite Conversation,” July 8 to Oct. 1. “Evocative” features 28 rarely seen artworks from the city of Seattle’s portable works collection.

“This exhibition is intended to evoke conversation and features artwork that attracts the curious eye. The viewer will want to figure out the mechanisms and wonder at their implications,” explains city Curator Deborah Paine with the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs.

The artworks are by 21 national artists working in a variety of media, including sculpture, painting, ceramics, photography and mixed media. Included in the exhibition is James Pridgeon’s “Technology Leads the People,” 1992, a reconfigured, non-functioning pinball machine that substitutes small trees and miniature plastic people in place of the game’s gates and bumpers. Melissa Goldstein’s “Still Life,” 1993, features three backlit artworks that reference the necessities of human existence—food, clothing and shelter—sitting atop a beautifully constructed table.

The city’s portable works collection is exhibited throughout city offices, engaging both employees and the public and creating an interesting and diverse work environment. The collection is managed by the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs. Artwork purchases for the collection are made possible with city 1% for Art funds.

Image: Melissa Goldstein; “Still Life”; 1993; walnut table with 3 duratran boxes portraying clothes, apples, house; 44.5” x 64” x 12.5”.