Openings & Events
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Chemtrails Did you know that the feds are employing airplanes to spray airborne chemicals on civilians in order to brainwash us/construct a malevolent New World Order/conceal the one and only, totally-not-dead Tupac Shakur from the public eye? Seven painters, illustrators, and photographers take on the world’s most out-there conspiracy theory in this group show, which will likely land you on a government watch list. Opening reception 1-5 p.m. Sat., Sept. 20. Wikstrom Gallery, 5411 Meridian Ave. N., 633-5544, bromwikstrom.com. Noon-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat. Ends Oct. 24.
EAFA Volunteer Show A collection of work from people who volunteer with local arts group Evergreen Association of Fine Arts. Opening reception 5-9 p.m. Thurs., Sept. 18. EAFA Gallery (Seattle Design Center), 5701 Sixth Ave. S., 821-0841, eafa.org. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri. Ends Oct. 31.
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Inflorescence Six stylistically distinct Washington artists present work all stemming from a common theme: the world of plants. Opening reception 6-8 p.m. Fri., Sept. 19. Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., 822-7161, kirklandartscenter.org. 11 a.m.- 6 p.m. Tues.-Sat. Ends Nov. 25.
Marbling with Clay Local art and fashion desinger April Brimer teaches this workshop on marbling techniques with clay, where participants will shape and mold planters and cups. Cairo, 507 E. Mercer St., templeofcairo.com. $125. 2 p.m. Sun., Sept. 21.
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Men’s Rights-A-Palooza 2 This gloriously named feminist festival invites you to “come party against the patriarchy” with a visual arts lineup including Shana Cleveland, Sierra Kohler, Isabel Blue, Amy Traut, MKNZ Porritt, and many more. Accompanied by poetry readings, bands and DJs. 7 p.m. Sat., Sept. 20, 6726 Corson Ave. S., facebook.com/events/340367866121908. Free. 7 p.m. Sat., Sept. 20.
Ongoing
The Art of Gaman The subtitle of this group show reveals its sad starting point: Arts & Crafts From the Japanese-American Internment Camps, 1942–1946. Over 120 objects are on view, many of them humble wood carvings, furniture, even toys made from scrap items at Minidoka or Manzanar. The more polished drawings come from professional artists like Ruth Asawa and Henry Sugimoto. Some of the more touching items—like a samurai figurine made from wood scraps, shells, and bottle caps—come from family collections, not museums. As for the show’s title, gaman roughly translates as “enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity.” BRIAN MILLER Bellevue Arts Museum, 510 Bellevue Way N.E., 425-519-0770, bellevuearts.org, $8-$10, Tues.-Sun., 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Through Oct. 12.
At Your Service Ariel Brice, Gesine Hackenberg, Molly Hatch, Giselle Hicks, Garth Johnson, Niki Johnson, Sue Johnson, Emily Loehle, Caroline Slotte, and Amelia Toelke mess with crockery and other tokens of the domestic table. Bellevue Arts Museum. Ends Sept. 21.
Leonard Baskin
Fierce Humanist collects multimedia work created as an ode to mankind. Davidson Galleries, 313 Occidental Ave. S., 624-7684, davidsongalleries.com. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat. Ends Sept. 27.
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Evan Blackwell The local salvage artists makes hypnotic, spiraling shapes out of cut-up old picture frames, saw blades, and cheap galvanized hardware fittings. Foster/White Gallery, 220 Third Ave. S., 622-2833, fosterwhite.com. 10 a.m.-6 p.m Tues.-Sat. Ends Sept. 27.
Romson Regarde Bustillo In his show Dugay na, the Filipino artist creates brightly colored works on paper, intricately cut and designed with patterns, some of them narrative. The title of the show translates as “no longer new.” Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, 550 Winslow Way E., 842-4451, biartmuseum.org. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Daily through Sept. 24.
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Chen Shaoxiong The contemporary Chinese artist shows new video works and their source drawings in the exhibit Ink. History. Media, which is inspired by historical photos of major events from 1909-2009. Seattle Asian Art Museum, 1400 E. Prospect St. (Volunteer Park), 654-3100, seattleartmuseum.org. $5-$7. Weds.-Sun., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Through Oct. 19.
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Sally Cleveland and Gabriel Fernandez These two artists deal in lonely landscapes and scenes of humble and forgotten places and objects. Fernandez often paints empty chairs and diner booths, like a Hopper setting emptied of people. Linda Hodges Gallery, 316 First Ave. S., 624-3034, lindahodgesgallery.com. 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat. Ends Sept. 27.
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City Dwellers A dozen contemporary Indian artists are represented in this show organized by SAM and originating entirely from the private local collection of Sanjay Parthasarathy (a Microsoft millionaire) and wife Malini Balakrishnan. Scenes and icons from Mumbai to New Delhi are represented via photography and sculpture, from an all-native perspective. As tourists know, India is ridiculously photogenic, from its colorful idols and deities to the slums and beggars. It all depends on what you want to see. Photographer Dhruv Malhotra, for instance, takes large color images of people sleeping in public places—some because they’re poor, others because they simply feel like taking a nap. Nandini Valli Muthiah opts for more stage-managed scenes, posing a costumed actor as the blue-skinned Hindu god Krishna in contemporary settings; in one shot I love, he sits in a hotel suite, like a tired business traveler awaiting a conference call on Skype. Sculptor Debanjan Roby even dares to appropriate the revered figure of Gandhi, rendering him in bright red fiberglass and listening to a white iPod. Apple never made such an ad, of course, but this impudent figure tweaks both India’s postcolonial history and the relentless consumerism that now links us all, from Seattle to Srinagar. BRIAN MILLER Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave., 654-3121, seattleartmuseum.org. $12–$19. Weds.-Sun.
Ends Feb. 15.
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Chris Crites & Samantha Scherer Crites displays his signature mugshots and crime scenes painted on brown paper bags. Scherer shows her tiny, fine-lined ink drawings in We Are OK Here, lovely and intricate works that have a hard time competing with the room. G. Gibson Gallery, 300 S. Washington St. (Tashiro Kaplan Building), 587-4033, ggibsongallery.com. 11 a.m-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat. Ends Oct. 11.
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Deco Japan This is a somewhat unusual traveling show in that it comes from a single private collection: that of Florida’s Robert and Mary Levenson. The specificity and period (1920–1945) are also unusual. Among the roughly 200 items on view—prints, furniture, jewelry, etc.—we won’t be seeing the usual quaint cherry-blossom references to Japan’s hermetic past. By the ’20s, there was in the big cities a full awareness of Hollywood movies, European fashions, and streamlined design trends. Even if women didn’t vote, they knew about Louise Brooks and her fellow flappers. We may think that, particularly during the ’30s, the country was concerned with militarism and colonial expansion, but these objects reveal the leisure time and sometime frivolity of the period. BRIAN MILLER Seattle Asian Art Museum, ends Oct. 19.
Rein de Lege Based in Spain, the Dutch artist shows his large paintings on linen in a show called Face to Face. Hall Spassov Gallery, 319 Third Ave. S., 223-0816, hallspassov.com. Ends Sept. 30.
Folding Paper: The Infinite Possibilities of Origami An exhibit that examines the evolution of origami as an art form around the globe from its origins all the way up to today. Bellevue Arts Museum, through Sept. 21.
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Justin Gibbens He creates his own zoology and natural history, some influenced by Japanese and Indian art, in the watercolors presented in Avatars and Shapeshifters. Punch Gallery, 119 Prefontaine Pl. S. (Tashiro Kaplan Building), 621-1945, punchgallery.org. Noon-5 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. Ends Sept. 27.
Lauren Grossman
Ghost Variations invokes the spectral nature of the show’s primary medium—glass. Transparent, light, and requiring breath to mold it, the material allows Grossman to draw comparisons between glass and “giving up the ghost,” he says. Platform Gallery (Tashiro Kaplan Building), 114 Third Ave. S., 323-2808, platformgallery.com. Weds.-Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Ends Oct. 11.
Femke Hiemstra & Casey Weldon Hiemstra paints on found objects in Warten am Waldrand. Weldon tweaks nature scenes with bright, artificial colors in Novel Relic. Roq La Rue Gallery, 532 First Ave. S., 374-8977, roqlarue.com. Ends Sept. 27.
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Etsuko Ichikawa and Yukiyo Kawano
One Thousand Questions—From Hiroshima to Hanford is a joint exhibition examining the nuclear history of Japan and Washington State. In conjunction with the show’s opening, the artists will release floating lanterns on Green Lake (6 p.m. Weds, on the northwest side of the lake) to memorialize the A-Bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII. Columbia City Gallery, 4864 Rainier Ave. S., columbiacitygallery.com, 760-9843. Ends Sept. 21.
