Visual Arts – Openings & Events
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Order & Chaos If you’re a Burning Man skeptic, the photographs of one-named Frenchwoman MARTI, though beautiful, may not change your mind; here are the grand and fanciful art projects, the elaborate costuming, the nonchalant undress you’ll see in any visual record of the event. But what I love about her photos, gathered in the exhibit Order & Chaos: A Decade of Burning Man, is that she nearly always shoots the flamboyance in question against a great deal of nothing: the off-white Nevada desert floor, blue sky, maybe a dust cloud, with a palpable sense of vast distance between her subject and anything else that might incidentally be in the frame. The inclusion of all that emptiness emphasizes the improbability, and thus the surrealism, of the images; this isn’t just another Halloween night in Fremont. For me, looking at them feels like what being there feels like-the nothing is just as weird as the something. (Opening reception 6-10 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5. See kirklandartscenter.org for gallery hours.) GAVIN BORCHERT Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033 Free Wednesday, December 31, 2014
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William Mortensen Port Townsend publisher Feral House is known for pushing the boundaries of good taste and the First Amendment. (It even printed the ravings of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.) But what its founder, Adam Parfrey, really loves are the vulgar-sexy-shocking artifacts of olden times: everything that was cheap and weird and popular before the sanitized standards of the postwar era were imposed. Hence two new volumes celebrating the L.A. photographer Mortensen (1897-1965): the biography American Grotesque and Mortensen’s reissued, newly annotated The Command to Look. A small selection of photos, heavily processed in the darkroom by Mortensen, goes on view tonight (along with recent paintings by locals Stacy Rozich and John Brophy). Mortensen was a master of interwar sensationalism: bare-breasted white women threatened by negroid gorillas, religious persecution and torture, suggestions of horror and the occult. Nonetheless-or maybe precisely because of those tendencies-he was an in-demand portrait photographer who brought Rudolph Valentino, Lon Chaney, Fay Wray, Jean Harlow, Clara Bow, and Peter Lorre before his lurid lens. His aesthetic was the opposite of realism, and his photos essentially passed themselves off as paintings. But look at any dime novel, comic book, or movie poster of his day and you’ll see his influence. (Opening reception 6-9 p.m. Thurs., Dec. 4. See roqlarue.com for gallery hours.) BRIAN MILLER Roq La Rue Gallery, 532 First Ave. S., Seattle, WA, 98104 Free Wednesday, December 31, 2014
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First Thursday Art Walk Beginning around 5 p.m. and often lasting to 9 p.m., the monthly art celebration includes venues like the Tashiro Kaplan Building, Roq La Rue, James Harris, Greg Kucera, and all the other Pioneer Square galleries. Occidental Park will also be full of artists and vendors. Occidental Park, S. Main St. & Occidental Ave. S. Free Thursday, January 1, 2015
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Order & Chaos If you’re a Burning Man skeptic, the photographs of one-named Frenchwoman MARTI, though beautiful, may not change your mind; here are the grand and fanciful art projects, the elaborate costuming, the nonchalant undress you’ll see in any visual record of the event. But what I love about her photos, gathered in the exhibit Order & Chaos: A Decade of Burning Man, is that she nearly always shoots the flamboyance in question against a great deal of nothing: the off-white Nevada desert floor, blue sky, maybe a dust cloud, with a palpable sense of vast distance between her subject and anything else that might incidentally be in the frame. The inclusion of all that emptiness emphasizes the improbability, and thus the surrealism, of the images; this isn’t just another Halloween night in Fremont. For me, looking at them feels like what being there feels like-the nothing is just as weird as the something. (Opening reception 6-10 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5. See kirklandartscenter.org for gallery hours.) GAVIN BORCHERT Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033 Free Thursday, January 1, 2015
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William Mortensen Port Townsend publisher Feral House is known for pushing the boundaries of good taste and the First Amendment. (It even printed the ravings of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.) But what its founder, Adam Parfrey, really loves are the vulgar-sexy-shocking artifacts of olden times: everything that was cheap and weird and popular before the sanitized standards of the postwar era were imposed. Hence two new volumes celebrating the L.A. photographer Mortensen (1897-1965): the biography American Grotesque and Mortensen’s reissued, newly annotated The Command to Look. A small selection of photos, heavily processed in the darkroom by Mortensen, goes on view tonight (along with recent paintings by locals Stacy Rozich and John Brophy). Mortensen was a master of interwar sensationalism: bare-breasted white women threatened by negroid gorillas, religious persecution and torture, suggestions of horror and the occult. Nonetheless-or maybe precisely because of those tendencies-he was an in-demand portrait photographer who brought Rudolph Valentino, Lon Chaney, Fay Wray, Jean Harlow, Clara Bow, and Peter Lorre before his lurid lens. His aesthetic was the opposite of realism, and his photos essentially passed themselves off as paintings. But look at any dime novel, comic book, or movie poster of his day and you’ll see his influence. (Opening reception 6-9 p.m. Thurs., Dec. 4. See roqlarue.com for gallery hours.) BRIAN MILLER Roq La Rue Gallery, 532 First Ave. S., Seattle, WA, 98104 Free Thursday, January 1, 2015
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Order & Chaos If you’re a Burning Man skeptic, the photographs of one-named Frenchwoman MARTI, though beautiful, may not change your mind; here are the grand and fanciful art projects, the elaborate costuming, the nonchalant undress you’ll see in any visual record of the event. But what I love about her photos, gathered in the exhibit Order & Chaos: A Decade of Burning Man, is that she nearly always shoots the flamboyance in question against a great deal of nothing: the off-white Nevada desert floor, blue sky, maybe a dust cloud, with a palpable sense of vast distance between her subject and anything else that might incidentally be in the frame. The inclusion of all that emptiness emphasizes the improbability, and thus the surrealism, of the images; this isn’t just another Halloween night in Fremont. For me, looking at them feels like what being there feels like-the nothing is just as weird as the something. (Opening reception 6-10 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5. See kirklandartscenter.org for gallery hours.) GAVIN BORCHERT Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033 Free Friday, January 2, 2015
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William Mortensen Port Townsend publisher Feral House is known for pushing the boundaries of good taste and the First Amendment. (It even printed the ravings of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.) But what its founder, Adam Parfrey, really loves are the vulgar-sexy-shocking artifacts of olden times: everything that was cheap and weird and popular before the sanitized standards of the postwar era were imposed. Hence two new volumes celebrating the L.A. photographer Mortensen (1897-1965): the biography American Grotesque and Mortensen’s reissued, newly annotated The Command to Look. A small selection of photos, heavily processed in the darkroom by Mortensen, goes on view tonight (along with recent paintings by locals Stacy Rozich and John Brophy). Mortensen was a master of interwar sensationalism: bare-breasted white women threatened by negroid gorillas, religious persecution and torture, suggestions of horror and the occult. Nonetheless-or maybe precisely because of those tendencies-he was an in-demand portrait photographer who brought Rudolph Valentino, Lon Chaney, Fay Wray, Jean Harlow, Clara Bow, and Peter Lorre before his lurid lens. His aesthetic was the opposite of realism, and his photos essentially passed themselves off as paintings. But look at any dime novel, comic book, or movie poster of his day and you’ll see his influence. (Opening reception 6-9 p.m. Thurs., Dec. 4. See roqlarue.com for gallery hours.) BRIAN MILLER Roq La Rue Gallery, 532 First Ave. S., Seattle, WA, 98104 Free Friday, January 2, 2015
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Order & Chaos If you’re a Burning Man skeptic, the photographs of one-named Frenchwoman MARTI, though beautiful, may not change your mind; here are the grand and fanciful art projects, the elaborate costuming, the nonchalant undress you’ll see in any visual record of the event. But what I love about her photos, gathered in the exhibit Order & Chaos: A Decade of Burning Man, is that she nearly always shoots the flamboyance in question against a great deal of nothing: the off-white Nevada desert floor, blue sky, maybe a dust cloud, with a palpable sense of vast distance between her subject and anything else that might incidentally be in the frame. The inclusion of all that emptiness emphasizes the improbability, and thus the surrealism, of the images; this isn’t just another Halloween night in Fremont. For me, looking at them feels like what being there feels like-the nothing is just as weird as the something. (Opening reception 6-10 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5. See kirklandartscenter.org for gallery hours.) GAVIN BORCHERT Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033 Free Saturday, January 3, 2015
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William Mortensen Port Townsend publisher Feral House is known for pushing the boundaries of good taste and the First Amendment. (It even printed the ravings of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.) But what its founder, Adam Parfrey, really loves are the vulgar-sexy-shocking artifacts of olden times: everything that was cheap and weird and popular before the sanitized standards of the postwar era were imposed. Hence two new volumes celebrating the L.A. photographer Mortensen (1897-1965): the biography American Grotesque and Mortensen’s reissued, newly annotated The Command to Look. A small selection of photos, heavily processed in the darkroom by Mortensen, goes on view tonight (along with recent paintings by locals Stacy Rozich and John Brophy). Mortensen was a master of interwar sensationalism: bare-breasted white women threatened by negroid gorillas, religious persecution and torture, suggestions of horror and the occult. Nonetheless-or maybe precisely because of those tendencies-he was an in-demand portrait photographer who brought Rudolph Valentino, Lon Chaney, Fay Wray, Jean Harlow, Clara Bow, and Peter Lorre before his lurid lens. His aesthetic was the opposite of realism, and his photos essentially passed themselves off as paintings. But look at any dime novel, comic book, or movie poster of his day and you’ll see his influence. (Opening reception 6-9 p.m. Thurs., Dec. 4. See roqlarue.com for gallery hours.) BRIAN MILLER Roq La Rue Gallery, 532 First Ave. S., Seattle, WA, 98104 Free Saturday, January 3, 2015
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Order & Chaos If you’re a Burning Man skeptic, the photographs of one-named Frenchwoman MARTI, though beautiful, may not change your mind; here are the grand and fanciful art projects, the elaborate costuming, the nonchalant undress you’ll see in any visual record of the event. But what I love about her photos, gathered in the exhibit Order & Chaos: A Decade of Burning Man, is that she nearly always shoots the flamboyance in question against a great deal of nothing: the off-white Nevada desert floor, blue sky, maybe a dust cloud, with a palpable sense of vast distance between her subject and anything else that might incidentally be in the frame. The inclusion of all that emptiness emphasizes the improbability, and thus the surrealism, of the images; this isn’t just another Halloween night in Fremont. For me, looking at them feels like what being there feels like-the nothing is just as weird as the something. (Opening reception 6-10 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5. See kirklandartscenter.org for gallery hours.) GAVIN BORCHERT Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033 Free Sunday, January 4, 2015
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Order & Chaos If you’re a Burning Man skeptic, the photographs of one-named Frenchwoman MARTI, though beautiful, may not change your mind; here are the grand and fanciful art projects, the elaborate costuming, the nonchalant undress you’ll see in any visual record of the event. But what I love about her photos, gathered in the exhibit Order & Chaos: A Decade of Burning Man, is that she nearly always shoots the flamboyance in question against a great deal of nothing: the off-white Nevada desert floor, blue sky, maybe a dust cloud, with a palpable sense of vast distance between her subject and anything else that might incidentally be in the frame. The inclusion of all that emptiness emphasizes the improbability, and thus the surrealism, of the images; this isn’t just another Halloween night in Fremont. For me, looking at them feels like what being there feels like-the nothing is just as weird as the something. (Opening reception 6-10 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5. See kirklandartscenter.org for gallery hours.) GAVIN BORCHERT Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033 Free Monday, January 5, 2015
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Order & Chaos If you’re a Burning Man skeptic, the photographs of one-named Frenchwoman MARTI, though beautiful, may not change your mind; here are the grand and fanciful art projects, the elaborate costuming, the nonchalant undress you’ll see in any visual record of the event. But what I love about her photos, gathered in the exhibit Order & Chaos: A Decade of Burning Man, is that she nearly always shoots the flamboyance in question against a great deal of nothing: the off-white Nevada desert floor, blue sky, maybe a dust cloud, with a palpable sense of vast distance between her subject and anything else that might incidentally be in the frame. The inclusion of all that emptiness emphasizes the improbability, and thus the surrealism, of the images; this isn’t just another Halloween night in Fremont. For me, looking at them feels like what being there feels like-the nothing is just as weird as the something. (Opening reception 6-10 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5. See kirklandartscenter.org for gallery hours.) GAVIN BORCHERT Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033 Free Tuesday, January 6, 2015
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Order & Chaos If you’re a Burning Man skeptic, the photographs of one-named Frenchwoman MARTI, though beautiful, may not change your mind; here are the grand and fanciful art projects, the elaborate costuming, the nonchalant undress you’ll see in any visual record of the event. But what I love about her photos, gathered in the exhibit Order & Chaos: A Decade of Burning Man, is that she nearly always shoots the flamboyance in question against a great deal of nothing: the off-white Nevada desert floor, blue sky, maybe a dust cloud, with a palpable sense of vast distance between her subject and anything else that might incidentally be in the frame. The inclusion of all that emptiness emphasizes the improbability, and thus the surrealism, of the images; this isn’t just another Halloween night in Fremont. For me, looking at them feels like what being there feels like-the nothing is just as weird as the something. (Opening reception 6-10 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5. See kirklandartscenter.org for gallery hours.) GAVIN BORCHERT Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033 Free Wednesday, January 7, 2015
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Order & Chaos If you’re a Burning Man skeptic, the photographs of one-named Frenchwoman MARTI, though beautiful, may not change your mind; here are the grand and fanciful art projects, the elaborate costuming, the nonchalant undress you’ll see in any visual record of the event. But what I love about her photos, gathered in the exhibit Order & Chaos: A Decade of Burning Man, is that she nearly always shoots the flamboyance in question against a great deal of nothing: the off-white Nevada desert floor, blue sky, maybe a dust cloud, with a palpable sense of vast distance between her subject and anything else that might incidentally be in the frame. The inclusion of all that emptiness emphasizes the improbability, and thus the surrealism, of the images; this isn’t just another Halloween night in Fremont. For me, looking at them feels like what being there feels like-the nothing is just as weird as the something. (Opening reception 6-10 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5. See kirklandartscenter.org for gallery hours.) GAVIN BORCHERT Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033 Free Thursday, January 8, 2015
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Order & Chaos If you’re a Burning Man skeptic, the photographs of one-named Frenchwoman MARTI, though beautiful, may not change your mind; here are the grand and fanciful art projects, the elaborate costuming, the nonchalant undress you’ll see in any visual record of the event. But what I love about her photos, gathered in the exhibit Order & Chaos: A Decade of Burning Man, is that she nearly always shoots the flamboyance in question against a great deal of nothing: the off-white Nevada desert floor, blue sky, maybe a dust cloud, with a palpable sense of vast distance between her subject and anything else that might incidentally be in the frame. The inclusion of all that emptiness emphasizes the improbability, and thus the surrealism, of the images; this isn’t just another Halloween night in Fremont. For me, looking at them feels like what being there feels like-the nothing is just as weird as the something. (Opening reception 6-10 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5. See kirklandartscenter.org for gallery hours.) GAVIN BORCHERT Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033 Free Friday, January 9, 2015
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Order & Chaos If you’re a Burning Man skeptic, the photographs of one-named Frenchwoman MARTI, though beautiful, may not change your mind; here are the grand and fanciful art projects, the elaborate costuming, the nonchalant undress you’ll see in any visual record of the event. But what I love about her photos, gathered in the exhibit Order & Chaos: A Decade of Burning Man, is that she nearly always shoots the flamboyance in question against a great deal of nothing: the off-white Nevada desert floor, blue sky, maybe a dust cloud, with a palpable sense of vast distance between her subject and anything else that might incidentally be in the frame. The inclusion of all that emptiness emphasizes the improbability, and thus the surrealism, of the images; this isn’t just another Halloween night in Fremont. For me, looking at them feels like what being there feels like-the nothing is just as weird as the something. (Opening reception 6-10 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5. See kirklandartscenter.org for gallery hours.) GAVIN BORCHERT Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033 Free Saturday, January 10, 2015
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Order & Chaos If you’re a Burning Man skeptic, the photographs of one-named Frenchwoman MARTI, though beautiful, may not change your mind; here are the grand and fanciful art projects, the elaborate costuming, the nonchalant undress you’ll see in any visual record of the event. But what I love about her photos, gathered in the exhibit Order & Chaos: A Decade of Burning Man, is that she nearly always shoots the flamboyance in question against a great deal of nothing: the off-white Nevada desert floor, blue sky, maybe a dust cloud, with a palpable sense of vast distance between her subject and anything else that might incidentally be in the frame. The inclusion of all that emptiness emphasizes the improbability, and thus the surrealism, of the images; this isn’t just another Halloween night in Fremont. For me, looking at them feels like what being there feels like-the nothing is just as weird as the something. (Opening reception 6-10 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5. See kirklandartscenter.org for gallery hours.) GAVIN BORCHERT Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033 Free Sunday, January 11, 2015
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Order & Chaos If you’re a Burning Man skeptic, the photographs of one-named Frenchwoman MARTI, though beautiful, may not change your mind; here are the grand and fanciful art projects, the elaborate costuming, the nonchalant undress you’ll see in any visual record of the event. But what I love about her photos, gathered in the exhibit Order & Chaos: A Decade of Burning Man, is that she nearly always shoots the flamboyance in question against a great deal of nothing: the off-white Nevada desert floor, blue sky, maybe a dust cloud, with a palpable sense of vast distance between her subject and anything else that might incidentally be in the frame. The inclusion of all that emptiness emphasizes the improbability, and thus the surrealism, of the images; this isn’t just another Halloween night in Fremont. For me, looking at them feels like what being there feels like-the nothing is just as weird as the something. (Opening reception 6-10 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5. See kirklandartscenter.org for gallery hours.) GAVIN BORCHERT Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033 Free Monday, January 12, 2015
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Order & Chaos If you’re a Burning Man skeptic, the photographs of one-named Frenchwoman MARTI, though beautiful, may not change your mind; here are the grand and fanciful art projects, the elaborate costuming, the nonchalant undress you’ll see in any visual record of the event. But what I love about her photos, gathered in the exhibit Order & Chaos: A Decade of Burning Man, is that she nearly always shoots the flamboyance in question against a great deal of nothing: the off-white Nevada desert floor, blue sky, maybe a dust cloud, with a palpable sense of vast distance between her subject and anything else that might incidentally be in the frame. The inclusion of all that emptiness emphasizes the improbability, and thus the surrealism, of the images; this isn’t just another Halloween night in Fremont. For me, looking at them feels like what being there feels like-the nothing is just as weird as the something. (Opening reception 6-10 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5. See kirklandartscenter.org for gallery hours.) GAVIN BORCHERT Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033 Free Tuesday, January 13, 2015
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Order & Chaos If you’re a Burning Man skeptic, the photographs of one-named Frenchwoman MARTI, though beautiful, may not change your mind; here are the grand and fanciful art projects, the elaborate costuming, the nonchalant undress you’ll see in any visual record of the event. But what I love about her photos, gathered in the exhibit Order & Chaos: A Decade of Burning Man, is that she nearly always shoots the flamboyance in question against a great deal of nothing: the off-white Nevada desert floor, blue sky, maybe a dust cloud, with a palpable sense of vast distance between her subject and anything else that might incidentally be in the frame. The inclusion of all that emptiness emphasizes the improbability, and thus the surrealism, of the images; this isn’t just another Halloween night in Fremont. For me, looking at them feels like what being there feels like-the nothing is just as weird as the something. (Opening reception 6-10 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5. See kirklandartscenter.org for gallery hours.) GAVIN BORCHERT Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033 Free Wednesday, January 14, 2015
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Order & Chaos If you’re a Burning Man skeptic, the photographs of one-named Frenchwoman MARTI, though beautiful, may not change your mind; here are the grand and fanciful art projects, the elaborate costuming, the nonchalant undress you’ll see in any visual record of the event. But what I love about her photos, gathered in the exhibit Order & Chaos: A Decade of Burning Man, is that she nearly always shoots the flamboyance in question against a great deal of nothing: the off-white Nevada desert floor, blue sky, maybe a dust cloud, with a palpable sense of vast distance between her subject and anything else that might incidentally be in the frame. The inclusion of all that emptiness emphasizes the improbability, and thus the surrealism, of the images; this isn’t just another Halloween night in Fremont. For me, looking at them feels like what being there feels like-the nothing is just as weird as the something. (Opening reception 6-10 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5. See kirklandartscenter.org for gallery hours.) GAVIN BORCHERT Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033 Free Thursday, January 15, 2015
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Order & Chaos If you’re a Burning Man skeptic, the photographs of one-named Frenchwoman MARTI, though beautiful, may not change your mind; here are the grand and fanciful art projects, the elaborate costuming, the nonchalant undress you’ll see in any visual record of the event. But what I love about her photos, gathered in the exhibit Order & Chaos: A Decade of Burning Man, is that she nearly always shoots the flamboyance in question against a great deal of nothing: the off-white Nevada desert floor, blue sky, maybe a dust cloud, with a palpable sense of vast distance between her subject and anything else that might incidentally be in the frame. The inclusion of all that emptiness emphasizes the improbability, and thus the surrealism, of the images; this isn’t just another Halloween night in Fremont. For me, looking at them feels like what being there feels like-the nothing is just as weird as the something. (Opening reception 6-10 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5. See kirklandartscenter.org for gallery hours.) GAVIN BORCHERT Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033 Free Friday, January 16, 2015
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Order & Chaos If you’re a Burning Man skeptic, the photographs of one-named Frenchwoman MARTI, though beautiful, may not change your mind; here are the grand and fanciful art projects, the elaborate costuming, the nonchalant undress you’ll see in any visual record of the event. But what I love about her photos, gathered in the exhibit Order & Chaos: A Decade of Burning Man, is that she nearly always shoots the flamboyance in question against a great deal of nothing: the off-white Nevada desert floor, blue sky, maybe a dust cloud, with a palpable sense of vast distance between her subject and anything else that might incidentally be in the frame. The inclusion of all that emptiness emphasizes the improbability, and thus the surrealism, of the images; this isn’t just another Halloween night in Fremont. For me, looking at them feels like what being there feels like-the nothing is just as weird as the something. (Opening reception 6-10 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5. See kirklandartscenter.org for gallery hours.) GAVIN BORCHERT Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033 Free Saturday, January 17, 2015
