Openings & Events
•
Deco Night In conjunction with SAAM’s ongoing Deco Japan show, special lectures and tours are held inside the museum ($5-$7). Outside, popular music from the interwar period will precede Yasujiro Ozu’s 1931 silent comedy The Lady and the Beard, which is accompanied by a live benshi narrator (as was common in the day) and live music from the Aono Jikken Ensemble. Seattle Asian Art Museum, 1400 E. Prospect St. (Volunteer Park), 654-3100, seattleartmuseum.org. Free. 6:30-10:30 p.m. Fri., July 25.
Jeffrey Palladini The Bay Area artist paints crisp summer scenes of bodies lounging in the sun—a little bit comic book, a little bit David Hockney. Lisa Harris Gallery, 1922 Pike Place, 443-3315, lisaharrisgallery.com. Opens July 29. Ends Aug. 30.
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 will be 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, Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani, Chiura Obata, 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. 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.
•
John Buck Wow. A carousel of history comes to Pioneer Square in Buck’s two massive, moving wooden machines (plus woodblock prints and bas relief carvings). The two central installations are Burrowed Time and Cat’s Cradle, both of them enormous, intricate meditations on colonialism, cartography, myth, and the golden age of discovery. This opening was the hit of last week’s First Thursday Art Walk. Bring the kids, take videos, but don’t touch. Greg Kucera Gallery, 212 Third Ave. S., 624-0770, gregkucera.com. 10:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat. Ends Aug. 23.
•
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, $5-$7. Weds.-Sun., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Through Oct. 19.
•
Danish Modern: Design for Living A survey of modern style Danish furniture from 1950-60. Nordic Heritage Museum, 3014 N.W. 67th St., 789-5707, nordicmuseum.org, $8, Tues.-Sun., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Through Aug. 31.
•
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. For an urbane class of pleasure-seekers, necessarily moneyed, these were boom times. The luxe life meant imitating the West to a degree, yet there are also many traces of Japan’s ancient culture within these modern accessories. Seattle Asian Art Museum, ends Oct. 19.
James Lee Hansen & Irene Kubota Hansen shows sculptures in bronze; Kubota exhibits bright paintings that resemble cheerful quilts. Bryan Ohno Gallery, 521 S. Main St., 459-6857, bryanohno.com. Ends Aug. 23.
•
Heaven & Earth VI The Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA) presents its annual outdoor art show, which will surely fall victim to vandals this summer, just like its predecessors. That means you should download the walking map and go early, before any destruction occurs. This year’s theme is “As Above, So Below.” Artists participating are Teresa Burrelsman-Stern, Mary Coss, Elisa Berry Fonseca, Joshua Harker, Michael Todd Harrison, Terra Holcomb, Tom Hughes, Fred Lisaius, Lucy Mae Martin, Deanna Pindell, Ken Turner, and Allyce Wood. Carkeek Park, 950 Carkeek Park Rd., cocaseattle.org. Through Oct. 20.
