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Lectures and Events

Artist Lecture: Yunhee Min The L.A.–based artist, whose abstract stripe paintings investigate the ways in which color affects our perception of space, talks about her work. 6:30-7:30 p.m. Fri. May 6. Microsoft Campus, Building 33 Conference Center, Redmond, free, 425-722-3100.

Artist Talk: Alice Wheeler An early observer of Seattle’s exploding music scene in the early ’90s, Alice Wheeler took gritty, pungent photos of Kurt Cobain that deftly captured the manic energy of the grunge scene before it flamed out. Wheeler will talk about this early work (now on exhibit at the Henry) in conversation with EMP curator Ann Powers. 7 p.m. Thurs. May 5. Henry Art Gallery, UW campus, free, 206-543-2280.

Curator Talk: Robin Held on NSK The Frye’s chief curator talks about negative utopias and the Slovenian avant-garde movement NSK. 7 p.m. Thurs. May 5. Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave., free, 206-622-9250.

Festival of Light Fremont’s monthly art walk becomes a veritable fiesta of light—lanterns, “illumined dance” and all sorts of other goofy madness. Magic mushrooms aren’t provided, but maybe they should be. 7:30 p.m. Fri. May 6. 619 N. 36th St., free, 206-547-7440.

Lecture: Looking at Goya’s Prints Francisco Goya’s prints were groundbreaking and angry—and an essential foundation of modern European art. Andrew Schulz, an associate professor at Seattle University, examines how Goya’s prints were seen in his day and how our perception of them has changed over time. 11 a.m. Fri. May 6. Seattle Art Museum, 100 University St., free with admission, 206-654-3100.

Madison Valley Art Walk Local painters, ceramic artists, and photographers show their wares. Noon-3 p.m. Sat. May 7. Maps available at Baas Fine Art, 2703 E. Madison, free, 206-324-4742.

Panama Hotel “The Spring F.A.M.” show features handmade items by local artisans for all your last-minute Mother’s Day needs. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. May 7. 605 1/2 S. Main St. (International District), free, 206-515-4000.

First Thursday

All City Coffee All City Coffee, the new semi- official social epicenter of the Tashiro-Kaplan art complex, stages Tom E. Hall’s “Anterior Spaces”: scrappy industrial drawings documenting the coffee shop going through its renovation. Reception: 6-10 p.m. 125 Prefontaine Pl. S., 206-652-8331. 6 a.m.-11 p.m. Mon.-Fri.; 7 a.m.-11 p.m. Sat.; 8 a.m.- 9 p.m. Sun.

Cafe Paloma Nearly surreal close-up color photos of flowers and fauna by Daimian Lix. Reception: 6-9 p.m. 93 Yesler Way, 206-405-1920

Capitol Hill Arts Center Laura Wright’s installation “Jars and Jugs” is about false expectations and the solace of drinking establishments. Opens: 8 p.m.-2 a.m. 1621 12th Ave., 206-388-0600. 6-10 p.m. Wed.-Fri.; 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat.

Carolyn Staley Recent acquisitions of ukiyo-e and Mejii-era Japanese prints. 314 Occidental Ave., 206-621-1888. 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Davidson A selection of original prints by some guy named Pablo Picasso. The lusty Spaniard was a prolific experimenter in prints; this show will survey his gestural line etchings from the ’30s to the ’60s. Also on display: woodcuts, lithographs, and etchings by existential Mexican artist Francisco Toledo. Reception: 6-8 p.m. 313 Occidental Ave. S., 206-624-7684. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Gallery 110 This tribute to the late Seattle artist and teacher Maxi Power, who passed away last summer, features Power’s exuberant glass vessels painted with a carnival of characters. Reception: 6-8 p.m. 110 S. Washington St., 206-624-9336. Noon-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat.

Gallery 4 Culture Seattle artist Ellen Ziegler has been experimenting with old sign-painting technology that involves using a copper table and a high-voltage metal stylus to burn holes in paper. The results of these experiments will be on offer in “Electropounce,” a series of hole-riddled, backlit papers. Reception: 6-8 p.m. 506 Second Ave., Suite 200 (Smith Tower), 206-296-7580. 8:30 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri.

Garde Rail New work by brothers Clint and Scott Griffin—Clint creates world “maps” by scraping away at layers of collage, while Scott arc welds mysterious figures onto old metal boxes and other found metal. Reception: 6-8 p.m. 110 Third Ave. S., 206-621-1055. 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Wed.-Fri.; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat.

Grover/Thurston Collage and mixed media works made from intricately cut commercial products, letters, and other found paper by New York’s Lance Letscher. Reception: 6-8 p.m. 309 Occidental St., 206-223-0816. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Howard House Gretchen Bennett’s “Landscape Flair,” experiments in stickers, buttons, and other forms usually associated with “street” art. (See SW This Week). Reception: 5-7 p.m. 604 Second Ave., 206-256-6399. 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Linda Hodges Semi-abstract landscapes by Eastern Washington’s Heidi Oberheide and realist paintings of places like Seattle’s Thornton Creek by local Roger Jones. Reception: 6-8 p.m. 316 First Ave. S., 206-624-3034. 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Lisa Harris Realist landscapes by Northern California painter John McCormick. Reception: 6-8 p.m. 1922 Pike Pl., 206-443-3315. 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Mon.-Sat.; 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sun.

Northwest Craft Center Assorted ceramics, functional sculpture, and drawing by Reid Ozaki, Sandy Lew-Hailer, Larry Halvorsen, and Liza Halvorsen. Reception: 6-8 p.m. 305 Harrison (Seattle Center), 206-728-1555. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tues.-Sun.

Retail Therapy To celebrate two years in business, this Capitol Hill boutique shows Lynn Gwinn’s liquid, rippling paintings of swimmers. Reception: 7 p.m. 905 E. Pike St., 206-324-4092.

Shift Cara Jaye’s solo show, “Dulce,” includes pigmented digital prints and a video housed inside a traditional Mexican street vendor’s cart, all inspired by the artist’s recent residency at the University of Guanjuato. Reception: 5-8 p.m. 306 S. Washington #105, 360-650-3436. Noon-5 p.m. Sat.

SOIL “Perspect” is a new installation from Portland artist Laura Fritz, known for her creepy, laboratorylike settings. Also on display: abstract paintings incorporating symbols from the world’s mystic traditions, as well as geometric Op Art, by Dallas-based artist Noah Simblist. Reception: 6-9:30 p.m. 112 Third Ave. S., 206-264-8061. Noon-5 p.m. Thurs.-Sun.

William Traver Local painter Alan Fulle’s warm-toned stripe and dot paintings, plus Seattle Opera set builder Rick Araluce’s miniature dollhouse assemblages and David Ruth’s massive glass panels that function as 3-D abstract paintings. 110 Union St., second floor, 206-587-6501. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri.; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat.; noon-5 p.m. Sun.

Other Openings

Baas Art In a recent artist statement, Barbara Noah said she has a thing for the “long shot.” That explains the digitally manipulated photos of twisted-balloon dogs orbiting Mars in this solo show, in the tradition of John Baldessari’s slapstick photo manipulation. 5-8 p.m. Wed. May 4. 2703 E. Madison, 206-324-4742. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat.

Ballard/Fetherston New work by Deborah Bell, who does bubbly acrylic abstraction on wood panel. Reception: 5-8 p.m. Fri. May 6. 818 E. Pike St., 206-322-9440. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Bluebottle In “Future Perfect,” illustrator and Web designer Julie West offers up highly stylized pictures of various characters, all influenced by skate-punk graffiti design. Reception: 7-10 p.m. Sat. May 7. 415 E. Pine St., 206-325-1592. 1-7 p.m. Tues.-Fri.; noon-6 p.m. Sat.-Sun.

Cornish College Gallery Based on questions she asked the ancient Chinese I Ching divination system, Judith Kindler’s “The Journal” is a collection of mixed-media paintings and sculptures documenting the artist’s 30-year personal journal of philosophical discovery. Half the proceeds from the show will be donated to Cornish’s endowment fund. Reception: 6-8 p.m. Tues. May 10. 7th Floor, 100 Lenora St., 206-726-5011. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon.-Fri.

Eclectic Gallerie of Fine Art “And you’ll smile, not a haughty smile, but an inspired smile,” says the bizarre press release for this new “gallerie,” which claims to be “neither hoighty nor toighty.” Looks like the focus will be on cheery paintings and travel photographs, including new work by Dominic AZ Bonuccelli. 5-8 p.m. Thur. May 5. 307 73rd St., 206-789-4500. Noon- 6 p.m. Wed.-Fri.; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat.; noon- 4 p.m. Sun.

Fountainhead “New Classical,” a group show of artists studying classic realism at a Seattle Academy of Fine Arts atelier under instructor Juliette Artistedes. Reception: 6-8 p.m. Sat. May 7. 625 W. McGraw St., 206-285-4467. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Thurs.-Fri.; noon- 5 p.m. Sat.-Sun.

Francine Seders With an aesthetic informed by 19th-century natural history, Kathryn Glowen’s “Lunar” features curiosity-cabinet assemblages and collage paintings that make use of found lichen, wasp-nest papers, and scraps of dictionary pages. Also on display: landscapes by Colorado painter Nanci Erskine. Reception: 2-4 p.m. Sun. May 8. 701 Greenwood Ave. N., 206-782-0355. 11 a.m.- 5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.; 1-5 p.m. Sun.

Joe Bar Seattle artist and illustrator Jere Smith’s paintings pay tribute to the comic-book characters who’ve inspired him. Reception: 6-9 p.m. Wed. May 4. 810 E. Roy, 206-324-0407. 7:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri.; 8:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Sat.-Sun.

SCCC M. Rosetta Hunter Art Gallery A collection of painting, photography, digital media, and ceramics by artists in VSA Arts of Washington, a nonprofit providing arts opportunities for people with disabilities. Reception: 7 p.m. Tues. May 10. 801 E. Pine (Seattle Central Community College, near cafeteria), 206-344-4379. 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri. (also 5-7 p.m. Tues.-Wed.).

Viveza Edie Nadelhft’s colorful cow portraits, Michelle Salazar’s erotic cowboys, and Doug Smithenry’s fractured paintings based on images of people lifted from the Internet, including underwear-clad cowboys. Yee haw! Reception: 6-10 p.m. Fri. May 6. 2604 Western Ave., 206-355-0070. Noon-7 p.m. Fri.-Sat.

Winston Wächter New realist landscape and nature paintings by Christopher Reilly and Wade Hoefer. Reception: 6-8 p.m. Wed. May 4. 203 Dexter Ave. N., 206-652-5855. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Last Chance

Henry Art Gallery “Celebrity Skin” offers a juxtaposition of photos of famous 19th-century French people with Alice Wheeler’s stark images of Kurt Cobain and company. UW campus, 206-543-2280. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sun.; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Thurs. Ends Sun. May 8.

Kirkland Arts Center “Release and Capture” is a smart group show featuring spare and restrained works on paper, including Mary Simpson’s little dramas of cutout men and Victorian row houses, Gretchen Bennett’s sly contact-paper compositions, Saul Becker’s weird abstract landscapes crisscrossed with prismatic rainbows, and Marc Dombrosky’s hand-embroidered notes he’s found on the street. 620 Market St., 425-822-7161. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri. Ends Sat. May 7.

Platform The prosaic table lamp gets its due in Saya Moriyasu’s enchanting installation, which dominates the darkened interior of Platform Gallery. Arranged on a pyramid of tables of Moriyasu’s design, the ceramic figures in “Lamplight Lavish Gathering” comprise a menagerie of characters, all shedding a little light on things. Rough-cut faces of women, cowgirls, and little owls glow in the dim space, like an antique show from a parallel universe. 114 Third Ave. S., 206-323-2808. 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. Ends Sat. May 7.

Galleries

911 Media Arts Rosalind Schneider, an early innovator in the world of video art, installs “Wave Tranformations,” in which near-abstract video of waves and oceanscapes is projected on a large weather balloon. 402 Ninth Ave., 206-682-6552. 3-7 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Bryan Ohno In “Fragile Attachments,” Patricia Hagen’s abstract works take a turn for the minimal. On fields of blank canvas, a menagerie of green leaflets, nubbins of fruit, and droplets of color float by. In other paintings, planetoids hang tentatively in space, like the friendly rock inhabited by the hero of The Little Prince. 155 S. Main St., 206-667-9572. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

CoCA The third annual “Coupling” series pairs working artists with University of Washington art students. (See visual arts spotlight, p. 83.) 410 Dexter Ave. N., 206-728-1980. 2-8 p.m. Tues.-Thurs.; noon-5 p.m. Fri.-Sun.

Cornish College Senior Studios Recent work by graduating Cornish BFA students in art and design. 306 Westlake Ave., 206-622-1951. Noon-7 p.m. daily.

Crawl Space Everyday household objects captured in a three-dimensional hybrid of collage, print, and photography by local artist Isaac Layman. 504 E. Denny Way #1, 206-240-6015. Noon-5 p.m. Sat.-Sun.

G. Gibson “Artificial Nature,” John Divola’s collection of found photos of movie sets from the ’30s to the ’60s serves up a wonderfully fake world. Empty of all people, the images have the feeling of a crime scene or a landscape after a great plague. The only evidence of human activity is the jarring intrusion of a movie slate set up in each shot to identify the scene and remind us it’s only make-believe. Also on display: recent photos by Andrea Modica, including a series documenting a girl with acute diabetes, and another featuring skulls of deceased mental patients. 300 S. Washington St., 206-587-4033. 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Wed.-Fri.; 11 a.m.- 5 p.m. Sat.

Greg Kucera Margie Livingston’s gorgeous abstract canvases are threaded with a delicate, architectural latticework of narrow stripes; they draw inspiration from branches and other natural forms arranged in her studio. California artist and dark jester Reuben Lorch-Miller creates text-based art in the tradition of Ruscha and Nauman. His neon signs, digital prints, and collections of pixilated images pulled from the Internet play with notions of rebellion and artistic authorship. 212 Third Ave., 206- 624-0770. 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat.

Jack Straw New Media Gallery Kristin Tollefson’s installation “Organic Plan” is inspired by the landscape and folk art of Iceland. Central to the exhibit is a large, suspended ringlike sculpture that pays homage to baldrying, a traditional Icelandic embroidery technique. 4261 Roosevelt Way N.E., 206-634-0919. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri.

James Harris Marcelino Goncalves’ deadpan paintings, executed in lush palette of pastels, are inspired by ads for a summer boys camp and seem to pine for the days when boy-to-boy companionship wasn’t so sexually loaded. “Camp” is definitely the operative word here. 309A Third Ave., 206-903-6220. 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat.

Seattle LGBT Community Center Gallery Maternity photographer Jennifer Loomis’ images of gay and lesbian parents with their children. 1115 E. Pike St., 206-323-5428. 10 a.m.- 9 p.m. Mon.-Sat.; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sun.

Western Bridge “19 Rainstorms” takes its title from Neil Goldberg’s video installation, in which he records various storms glimpsed throughout Manhattan from the perspective of a video camera placed inside a randomly swinging plastic bag. It’s not entirely effective, but there are snippets of beauty in the refracted raindrops and watery white noise. Trisha Donnelly’s Canadian Rain is an intense dance-conjuration video, and Tania Kitchell’s text etched on glass describes the arrival of a storm with haikulike simplicity. The masterpiece of this show, however, is Oliver Boberg’s Country Road, a continuously looping 30-minute video of a rural landscape drenched in rain. The scene, with all its sound-stage fakery, plays out like an intricate etching set in motion. With a Zen-like detail, the sounds of windblown water droplets are an invocation to pay attention to the world. Like American Beauty with its floating plastic bag, Boberg’s video finds elegance in the banal. 3412 Fourth Ave. S., 206-838-7444. Noon-6 p.m. Thurs.-Sat.

Wright Exhibition Space “Aboriginal Vision” offers selections of contemporary Australian Aboriginal art from the expansive collection of UW international studies professor Margaret Levi and her husband, Robert Kaplan. 407 Dexter Ave. N., 206-264-8200. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Thurs.-Sat.

Museums

Frye Art Museum “The Retrofuturistic World of NSK” collects 20 years’ worth of painting, prints, and other media by Slovenia’s Neue Slowenische Kunst art movement. Challenging the ideas of authorship, nationality, and avant-garde, the artists in NSK create theater, music, and visual art that appropriate Communist and capitalist kitsch in an effort to subvert authority. Also: Seattle artist Joseph Park gets a solo show, “Moon Beam Caress.” His precise paintings draw upon Japanese animation and film to create an alternative noir world peopled with angst-ridden cartoon creatures. 704 Terry Ave., 206-622-9250. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat.; noon-5 p.m. Sun.; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thurs.

Henry Art Gallery Doug Aitken’s three-screen video installation Interiors is a majestic meditation on the search for meaning amid the stress and alienation of 21st-century urban life. Sprawling throughout an entire gallery, four separate story lines play out on a vast box of screens, allowing you to view three of the videos simultaneously as a sculptural whole from many different angles. The nearly wordless stories arch from contemplative (a young family with a new baby stands in a junkyard as a Brian Eno–like soundtrack throbs underneath) and mysterious (a man sands a helicopter in a sterile factory cleanroom) to frenetic (hip-hop artist André Benjamin gushes a verbal storm while a woman smashes a handball and an Asian businessman twitches in a sweaty convulsion of stress). The collective vignettes pack a surprising emotional wallop, considering the stories are stripped to their most simple visual and sonic elements. Also on display: a collection of minimalist works by locals offer disturbing mixes of childhood simplicity and adult emotional turmoil, including Claire Cowie’s excellent Panorama Drawing. UW campus, 206-543-2280. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sun.; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Thurs.

Museum of Northwest Art “Stewards of the Northwest Vision” offers selections from two private collections, featuring works by Tobey, Graves, Anderson, Michael Spafford, Elizabeth Sandvig, William Cumming, Gerard Tstutakawa, and others. 121 S. First St. (La Conner), 360-466-4446. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sun.

Seattle Art Museum “Africa in America” is a varied and complex exploration of slavery, displacement, and ethnic culture as portrayed in African-American art of the late 20th century, including work by James W. Washington Jr., Kara Walker, Ellen Gallagher, Oliver Jackson, and Marita Dingus. Plus: works from SAM’s collection of 19th-century French artists, including Bouguereau, Monet, and Berthe Morisot. 100 University St., 206-654-3100. 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Tues.-Sun.; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thurs.

Seattle Asian Art Museum “Mountain Dreams” collects contemporary ceramics incised with Buddhist text by Korean artist Yoon Kwang-cho. Volunteer Park, 1400 E. Prospect Ave., 206-625-8900. 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Wed.-Sun.; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thurs.

Wing Luke Asian Museum “Women and Violence” explores issues of domestic violence, sexual abuse, war, trafficking, and problems with the “mail order bride” phenomenon, specifically focusing on the Asian/Pacific Islander community. 407 Seventh Ave. S., 206-623-5124. 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tues.-Fri.; noon-4 p.m. Sat.-Sun.