In the group exhibit Home Revealed, which features seven artists who resided at one time or another in the ID, there are some pretty photos and lovely drawings (especially by Amy Nikaitani) that celebrate the Asian American experience in Seattle. But its the trash art of Meng Huang thats the oddest and most memorable. The late Chinese immigrant (1924-2001) patrolled the neighborhood for castoffs that he reshaped, origami-like, into fanciful masks and dragons. A classic self-taught outsider artist, he employed coat hangers, plastic jugs, Styrofoam take-out containers, broken chairs, milk cartons, and cigarette packs to fold into animals, demons, and toys. Theres an element of recycling in his workscavenging for low-cost materialsand also a suggestion of the lonely old urban hoarder, the hermit filling his apartment with junk (as Huang in fact did). But theres also something cheerful about each surprising reuse of detrituslike those Transformer robots suddenly taking shape. Behold this mighty dragon made of hubcaps and plastic forks! Though one of Huangs creations is purely practical and, today, poignant: A metal crutch, rigged to a bicycle brake, that he used to pick art supplies out of the gutter. BRIAN MILLER
Tuesdays-Sundays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Starts: Oct. 15. Continues through April 17, 2010