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Vilhelm Hammershøi at Frye Art Museum - July 2016

7/22/2016

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The power of restraint: Denmark’s anti-Impressionist, Vilhelm Hammershøi - Published in Seattle Times, July 19, 2016
Hammershøi’s works — dazzling in their own right — reflect his focus on solitude, silence and a universe reduced to shades of gray.
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In  Hammershøi’s interiors, most people, like “Woman Seen from the Back” (1888), are turned away or preoccupied.
During my recent preview stroll through the Vilhelm Hammershøi painting exhibition at the Frye Museum, the staff seemed a bit concerned about potential attendance — understandably so.

Besides the fact that the 19th-century Danish artist Hammershøi is an unfamiliar name to most people, his work does not present the immediate dazzle and charm of his exact contemporaries, the Impressionists, whose crowd-pleasing celebrations of color, urban energy and pleasure are the opposite of Hammershøi’s focus on solitude, silence and a universe reduced to shades of gray.

Once one overcomes, however, the initial shock of encountering such a restrained and understated vision, the subtle and sophisticated pleasures of this very eccentric artist’s work start to become apparent.

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Ellen Zeigler at Vermillion Gallery + Bar - June 2016

6/21/2016

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'Vermillion/Vermillion' open to interpretation - Published in Seattle Times, June 21, 2016.
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The names of Ellen Ziegler’s creations won’t give you a clue as to what the picture might be about. This is “Vermilion Series II, #2.”
The energetic shapes in the abstract exhibit at Vermillion Art Gallery and Bar are untethered to reality.
The voluptuous pink paintings of Ellen Ziegler, now on view at Vermillion on Capitol Hill, depict roly-poly floating objects that are unmoored from everyday reality. Like other artists who practice dimensional abstraction, Ziegler skillfully uses the tools of realism, like shading and perspective, to make her creations look solid and convincing, but they aren’t depictions of anything in particular. What they lack in familiarity, however, they make up with their highly kinetic visual energy.

​Ziegler’s creatures billow like clouds, writhe like eels, sprout appendages and spray out excretions; they suggest, among other things, various life forms, both large and microscopic. Everything is painted in the same shade of red, and part of the show is devoted to an illustrated discussion of the type of red in question — vermilion — and its long and rich history. ​Ziegler also posts a short homage to Vermillion the venue, the bar/gallery that is hosting the current show and ended up with this exhibit partly because of the coincidence of names.

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Portraits at Traver Gallery - May 2016

5/18/2016

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Glass eyes: two portrait shows that combine paint with shards - Published in Seattle Times, May 16, 2016
At Traver Gallery, Gregory Grenon and Mary Josephson draw on ancient techniques — like Coptic mosaics — to create portraits of women who are strong and enigmatic.
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Portland artist Mary Josephson’s “Hero of Love” (embroidery on felt) is on display at the Traver Gallery. (REBEKAH-JOHNSON-PHOTOGRAPHY-20111) 
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Portland artist Gregory Grenon’s “Woman Received” (oil on glass) is a part of an exhibit that concentrates on close-ups of women. (REBEKAH-JOHNSON-PHOTOGRAPHY-2011) 

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Public Art in Seattle's new LINK Stations - April 2016

4/22/2016

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New light-rail stations show off energetic public art - Published in Seattle Times, April 22, 2016
The public art in Seattle’s new Link light-rail stations — by the likes of Leo Saul Berk, Ellen Forney and Mike Ross — is playful, colossal and sometimes subtly subversive.
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Leo Saul Berk’s “Subterranium” dominates the UW’s Link light-rail station as riders descend into the guts of the new rail system. (Alan Berner/The Seattle Times)

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Norman Lundin at Greg Kucera Gallery - March 2016

3/15/2016

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The magician explains his trick: These paintings by Norman Lundin are not what they seem - Published in Seattle Times, March 15, 2016
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At first glance, the gray and moody paintings of Norman Lundin, now hanging at Greg Kucera Gallery, might seem realist — but if you look closer, their wit and self-awareness pop off the canvas.

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San Juan Islands Museum of Art | SJIMA - February 2016

2/11/2016

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Serious art in a tourist town: Friday Harbor's small museum makes big impression - Published in Seattle Times, February 11, 2016
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A little museum with big aspirations: The new San Juan Islands Museum of Art, built in a former emergency medical center, brings exhibitions of Goya and Ai Weiwei to Friday Harbor.
Three Puget Sound communities with high aspirations and energetic patrons have recently opened art museums close to their respective waterfronts: Winslow, Edmonds and Friday Harbor. Can a boat-to-the-art tour be far behind?

Friday Harbor is a particularly interesting case in point. Long before its current, architecturally striking building opened just a brief walk from the ferry dock, there was an entity called the San Juan Islands Museum of Art (SJIMA), a mostly volunteer group of local art lovers who mounted small, artistically ambitious exhibitions in vacant storefronts, sometimes with long gaps between shows. Seeking more permanent digs, in 2013 the museum purchased an unprepossessing emergency medical center which, after being imaginatively opened out with glass atriums and weathered-steel cladding, officially launched in February 2015 with an exhibition of glass art by Northwest legend William Morris.

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Pivot Gallery Opening - December 2015

12/16/2015

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Perplexing Pivot: Paul Allen’s impressive new gallery and its uncertain future - published in Seattle Times, December 16, 2015
Pivot Art + Culture, Paul Allen’s new gallery, opens with a spectacular show — Willem de Kooning, Chuck Close, Alberto Giacometti, Roy Lichtenstein and more — but its future is unclear.
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“Blood Cinema” by British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor, on display at Pivot Art + Culture.      Photo © Robert Wade

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Andre Petterson at Foster/White Gallery - November 2015

11/12/2015

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Petterson, who has a special fondness for vintage machines, uses photographs, paint and ink to create explosively kinetic artworks that might help you shake off the November blues.
Typewriter tornadoes and bicycle orgies — Andre Petterson’s machine portraits with a twist - published in Seattle Times,  November 12, 2015

Gray skies have you feeling lethargic? Here’s an art exhibition to jolt you back into shape — the hyperactive machine portraits of Vancouver, B.C., artist Andre Petterson, now showing at Foster/White in Pioneer Square. Typewriters explode and multiply; bicycles are buried in ribbons; and energetic streams of paint, ink and pencil pulse through space like waves of sound, or bursts of electricity.

It’s all very eye-catching and kinetic; Petterson’s pictorial dramas are bold, musical and even humorous. Neither the titles (“Riddle 2,” “Whiteout,” “Sling 2”) nor his own artist statements give much away in terms of what the intriguing images might be about, but these are pictures that clearly make visual sense — and it’s up to us to figure out what that might be.

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Veit Stratmann at Suyama Space - October 2015

10/20/2015

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German artist Veit Stratmann installs a rainbow floor in the venerable Suyama Space — and it’s much less interesting than it thinks it is.
A vinyl floor with delusions of grandeur - Published in Seattle Times, October 20, 2015.
 
​There are two narratives that accompany a contemporary work of art. One is our experience of the piece itself. The second is what the artist says about the piece; such statements are a standard component of modern exhibitions. Theoretically, there should be a close relationship between the two, but occasionally there is a major disconnect, when the artist’s own words seem to have little to do with the artwork in front of us.

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Brian Cypher + Emily Gherard at i.e. in Edison - September 2015

9/1/2015

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Brian Cypher
A show of works by Brian Cypher and Emily Gherard at i.e., a new home for art in Edison in Skagit County, is worth a trip.
Tiny Skagit County town nurtures fledgling art scene - Published in Seattle Times, September 15, 2015

Artists and artisans seeking alternatives to the big city have always been drawn to picturesque locations, like tiny Edison (pop. 130) in the Skagit Valley, whose funky storefronts now house bakeries, restaurants, a boutique and two serious (non-tourist) art galleries. The just-opened i.e., run by two expat Seattle painters, has already featured several strong shows, and this month’s two-person exhibition featuring Emily Gherard and Brian Cypher is no exception.

Both Gherard and Cypher create work, which is uncompromisingly personal and gritty, eschewing easily recognizable imagery for abstract or nearly abstract compositions emphasizing materials and process.

Emily’s work is darker, more worked, and highly meditative, purged of all but the most subtle color and playing with the fluid boundaries that separate depth from flatness, objects in the real world from concepts in the artist’s mind.  Her two subjects – walls and rocks – allow her to indulge her love of surface, as both walls and rocks can support any manner of texture or smoothness, achieved here by a long and complicated process of building up, scraping back, layering on, and mixing both wet and dry media.  Both Emily and Bryan’s shows are great examples of work that can only be fully appreciated in person, as the subtle physical qualities of their paintings are lost in reproduction.  ​

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    FAIGIN ART REVIEWS
    ​​A collection of reviews, featuring mostly NW artists, galleries and museums, on KUOW Radio from 2000 to 2012, in the Seattle Times from 2014 to present, and in other publications, as noted, beginning in 1993.

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