Ben Waterman: The Grand Rooms

Opening: Thursday, September 2, 6-8 p.m.
Exhibition running: September 2 – 30, 2010

In September, 4Culture is delighted to present an exhibition of brand new work by Seattle-based artist Ben Waterman. The Grand Rooms consists primarily of sculpture composed of divergent materials: clay (both raw and fired), paint, drywall, and wood. Waterman, still early in his career, has exhibited extensively with projects noteworthy in scale and scope. He recently created Risking to Care for a Place in Occidental Park as part of ArtSparks through 4Culture’s Site Specific Program.  Having spent many years studying wood fire ceramics in Japan and the US, Waterman’s material conscious installations maintain a profound connection to his roots in ceramics.

Check out his website here

Please join us for Ben’s opening on Thursday, September 2nd at 6pm. Make a night of it by checking out dozens of our local neighborhood galleries during Pioneer Square’s First Thursday Art Walk.

Photo: Clay, Blood Orange Peel /Umbria, 2010, Courtesy of the artist

Molly Epstein: We Walk Wounded: Jewelry & Objects About Healing
Opening: Thursday, August 5, 6-8 p.m.
Running: August 6 – 27, 2010

Opening next week at Gallery4Culture – Seattle-based sculptor, Molly Epstein presents an exhibition of jewelry and sculptures inspired by medical environments, research and technologies.

“My work is about healing, both physical and emotional,” Epstein said. “I am on an unending quest to find this balance. Whether it is through making surgical instruments, jewelry, or sculpture, the mission is the same.”

While studying metals at the University Of Washington School Of Art, Epstein began searching for way to create a connection between medical science and her art. That quest led her to later collaborate with doctors at the Seattle Children’s Hospital on a nasal molding device for children with cleft palate deformity.

The artwork Epstein will present at Gallery4Culture bridges the gap between medicine and art as her sculptures and jewelry incorporate medical materials and concepts. “I do not separate my artwork from my work with Seattle Children’s Hospital,” Epstein stated, “They are inextricably linked and inform each other with content, emotion, and drive.”

Visit Gallery4Culture

© Oh (brooch), Sterling Silver, 22k Gold, Stainless Steel, Silicone, 2010 Photo by G. Barker

Eroyn Franklin: Detained
Exhibition Running: July 1- 30, 2010 (4Culture will be closed July 2 – 5 for furlough & holiday)
Opening: First Thursday, July 1, 6 to 8:00 p.m.

Seattle-based cartoonist and visual artist Eroyn Franklin comes to Gallery4Culture this July with an exhibition of large-scale drawings centered on the stories of two individuals held as illegal immigrants in local detention facilities.  Franklin has closely followed the work of a trio of independent journalists from the Common Language Project whose mission is to report under-told stories.

Two of the drawings, panoramic scrolls close to 50 feet long, are a graphic novel under development.  Drawn in pen and ink with alterations in blue pencil, they offer not only compelling narratives, but a unique glimpse into the artist’s thought process.  One panoramic drawing follows the life of a Mexican detainee, Gabriela Cubillos, inside the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma; the other tells the tale of a Cambodian detainee, Many Uch, held in a (now closed) Seattle facility.  Both individuals have since been freed, although Many Uch could be deported at any time. Franklin’s two non-linear drawings concentrate on aspects of the everyday lives of Gabriela Cubillos and Many Uch outside of detention.

Please join us for a special event: Thursday, July 8, 7:00 p.m.
A presentation by artist Eroyn Franklin along with the CLP independent journalists whose reporting provided the content for this show.  Free and open to the public.

eroynfranklin.com

© Detain (detail), pen and ink, color pencil on paper, photo by the artist

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video by Aaron Bourget

And of course, swing by tomorrow during First Thursday artwalk to see them first hand – they are even more impressive in person.

Nicholas Brown:Densely Vegetated
Exhibition Running: June 4 – 25, 2010
Opening: First Thursday, June 3 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Join us in June at Gallery4Culture for a series of large-scale, black and white linoleum cuts by Seattle painter, Nicholas Brown. The prints overflow with a rich lacework of varied organic forms, each capturing in nuance, a defined moment in the constantly changing natural environment.

Brown states, “The imagery I use in my black and white linocut prints comes from organic geometry found in undergrowth landscapes ranging from temperate rainforests to tropical jungles. I define close-up scenes of forest floors with all encompassing detail to pull the viewer into an image that expands perceptions of the scale of nature via the difference in sizes of the smallest lines and shapes and the largest areas of the image. By drawing from photographs, I refine images to their basic black or white defining lines and shapes. I am interested in exploring how these basic shapes define objects and at what point a shape combines with other shapes to become an object.”

This show was made possible in part with Artist Trust GAP funding.

Read more

Nicholas Brown, Underbrush (detail), Linocut, 2010 © Photo by Nicholas Brown

Jennifer Campbell: Point No Point

Exhibition Running: April 2 -30, 2010

Opening: First Thursday, April 1 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Set against the iconic landscape of the Pacific Northwest, this phenomenal video exhibition portrays the artist’s body emulating, inciting or re-imagining different beacons, signals, and forces of nature.  Whether it’s trudging through the ocean to become a human lighthouse, triggering Mt. Rainier to erupt or walking on clouds, the body becomes a medium for experimentation often employing a tragic humor akin to that of commedia dell’ arte grotesque or physical theatre.

Born in Vancouver, BC and educated in Victoria and Montreal, Campbell moved to Seattle in 2008 to serve as director of Crawl Space, a critically acclaimed non-profit exhibition space for early career artists.  Although Crawl Space closed in late 2009, Campbell continues to live and pursue her studio practice in Seattle.  Her photo-based work has been exhibited internationally; Gallery4Culture is proud to have the opportunity to present this new body of work.

more information

Jennifer Campbell, Point No Point, still from video, 2010 © Jennifer Campbell

On February 9, 2010, a selection panel of arts professionals met to review 140 online applications to Gallery4Culture from King County artists working in a wide range of media. With exhibition months to be determined in the near future, the selected artists will be exhibiting between September 2010 and August 2011.

Congrats to the selected artists!

Erin Elyse Burns – New media/video

James Cicatko – Painting/works on paper

Andrew Fallat – Sculpture/performance

Julia Freeman – Works on paper/installation

Paul Komada – Painting/fiber art

Jason Larsen – Woodcut

Ryan Molenkamp – Painting

NKO, NTG, and Dan Hawkins - Street art

Keeara Rhoades – New media/video/installation

Gregory Schaffer – Photography

Ben Waterman – Sculpture

And sincere thanks are owed to this year’s selection panelists: Zack Bent, Susie Lee, and Robert Yoder for their work; thanks also to 4Culture Board member Kevin Carl who served as an advisor in the process.

The next Gallery4Culture Call to Artists goes out in December 2010 with a January 10, 2011 deadline. This exhibition opportunity is open to King County artists not represented by a commercial gallery at the time of application.

Paul Komada, Boogie Woogie Homage, 2008, Wool yarn, 48 x 48 inches, image courtesy of the artist

Alicia Basinger’s  installation of ceramic sculpture takes its inspiration from various objects (tschotskes, antiques, and the garden).  Her predilection ranges from everyday kitsch to the figurines and over-the-top curiosities of the Rococo and Art Nouveau movements.  Creating structures in clay and orchestrating material transformations with a range of processes, Basinger creates a personal, fantastical world of objects, lanterns, and symmetrical, wall-mounted reliefs.  Her work alludes to concepts of growth, metamorphosis, phenomenon, deterioration, and our universal relationship to nature.

More

Alicia Basinger, Fan (detail), Porcelain, 5″ x 5.5″ x 4″, 2010 ©  Photo courtesy of the artist

Sol Hashemi: Object History Awareness
Exhibition: February 5 – 26, 2010
Artist Reception: First Thursday, February 4, 2010, 6 – 8pm

Tonight, stop by Gallery4Culture during First Thursday artwalk to check out Object History Awareness, a solo exhibition of photographs and ready mades by recent UW graduate Sol Hashemi.    His photographs are an ambiguous mixture of straight documentation interspersed with altered elements, resulting in works that are playful, idiosyncratic and even  humorous.

Read more about Hashemi and Gallery4Culture

Sol Hashemi, Detail of Floods, Archival Inkjet Print © 2010

White Lines (don’t do it)
reception January 7, 2010, 6 to 8pm
exhibit January 8 – 29, 2010

In a series of stunning black and white digital prints, DeLira documents sweeping, graceful lines of chalk glyphs laid onto soulful urban surfaces.  In a process that begins as a sort of “conceptual graffiti”, DeLira selects asphalt and concrete sites that engage him for their texture, light, or residue; surfaces that serve as ideal receptors for ephemeral marks made from chalk. Read more here or come see it for yourself and join us for the opening this Thursday evening.

*Plus* Immediately following the opening this First Thursday, we’re thrilled to present a special reading by poets from Floating Bridge Review #2, at Gallery4Culture from 8 – 9 pm. Floating Bridge Press is a nonprofit literary arts organization founded in 1994 and run by an all-volunteer editorial board. Its mission is to recognize and promote the work of Washington State poets through an annual poetry chapbook award; the production of archival-quality books; and community poetry readings. Reading will be Larry Crist, Joannie Kervan Stangeland and other poets featured in the Floating Bridge Review #2.

Straight Line, Digital Photography,  20″ x  18″, 2009 © Jesse DeLira

Two artist opportunities have deadlines in January. Artist applications for Gallery 4Culture’s 2010 – 2011 season are due January 11. Artists living within the county and who currently do not have gallery representation are invited to apply. The gallery encourages both emerging and established artists to apply.

aLIVe – a Low Impact Vehicle exploration, invites artists to submit ideas that will inspire and engage the broader community in a conversation about transportation. Produced in collaboration with artist Cheryl dos Remedios and Great City, the project seeks artists’ thinking in solving energy, transportation and livability issues facing us all. The deadline for application is January 25th.

Download Call

Evan Blackwell, Lost in Space, Gallery4Culture, November 2009 © Evan Blackwell

Click here to view the embedded video.

video courtesy of the artist

The exhibit runs through December 31. Mon – Fri, 9am – 5pm. (Closed on government holidays.)

Bigfoot is Probably Real.

Stop by 4Culture this First Thursday for the opening of a solo exhibit by Eugene Parnell, the West Coast’s foremost cryptozoological reconstruction artist. Parnell creates installations and interactive works that navigate the mental geographies of childhood and the politics of Natural History displays. The exhibition expands on Parnell’s foray into the Bigfoot/Sasquatch mystery begun in a recent Kirkland Arts Center group show, False Proof.

Bigfoot is Probably Real. is an interactive installation where visitors can: don large wooden strap-on feet to recreate hoax Bigfoot tracks; read a sampling from countless eyewitness accounts of Bigfoot sightings; and hear the audio from a genuine 911 emergency call made by an eyewitness. Parnell also offers visitors the memorable experience an actual Bigfoot encounter – his one-of-a-kind, 8 foot taxidermied specimen. Read more

Taxidermied Bigfoot (detail), Urethane foam, steel, epoxy resin, glass, bigfoot hide, pigment, 2009 © Eugene Parnell

Deadline January 11, 2010
Exhibition Season runs September 2010 – August 2011

Gallery4Culture is currently accepting exhibition proposals for the 2010-2011 season. Dedicated to presenting solo, small group, and curated exhibitions by studio artists living in King County, WA, Gallery4Culture offers exhibiting artists with curatorial direction and an exhibition space of approximately 1200 sq. ft. The gallery is located in the Tashiro Building in historic Pioneer Square (Seattle). Exhibitions open on the First Thursday of each month.

Artists working in all media and genres are encouraged to apply, including those whose media and method of work is under-represented in commercial galleries. Curators interested in applying may submit proposals for group exhibitions. This opportunity is only available to artists not currently represented by a commercial gallery.

This year’s application process is online. The deadline is 5:00 P.M. Monday, January 11. A panel comprised of prominent regional arts professionals and artists will review applications; selections will be announced in early March.

This is an annual Call occurring in December/January of each year, with panel composition changing each year. Contact: Esther Luttikhuizen at 206 296.8674.

From Sara Osebold’s performance Wool Glacier at Gallery4Culture, 2009. Photo by Joe Mabel

Recently, Nancy Guppy and the team from Seattle Channel’s Artzone spent a day at 4Culture filming a quick segment about what 4Culture is (and does). They’ve posted it on their website, take a look!

Lost In Space
reception November 5, 2009, 6 to 8pm
exhibit November 5 – 27, 2009

Itching to get your eyes on some emerging, local, contemporary art? Join us this coming “First Thursday” at Gallery4Culture to check out a new exhibit by Evan Blackwell.

Blackwell’s background in craft and his current studio practice meld together resulting in a show that utilizes such things as old doors, picture frames, mirrored balls, metal studs, coat hangers, shoes, vinyl and Plexi-glass, Blackwell’s artistic sensibility and search for meaning alter each into something entirely different. In the words of the artist, “I am in the process of constructing forms, compositions, structures, and spaces that serve as lens to see both the materials from which they were constructed and world we live in with fresh perspective.”

Central to the exhibit is a 6-foot icosahedron, a 20-sided polyhedron made of equilateral triangles constructed from metal studs. A structural system with endless metaphorical possibilities, Blackwell’s icosahedron contains an unexpected interior element, plastic drinking straws.

Read More

Evan Blackwell, Untitled, Picture frames, wood & plaster, 2009 © Evan Blackwell

Application Available: December
Deadline: Monday, January 11, 2010

THINK AHEAD, Gallery4Culture’s annual Call to Artists coming out in December. Solo, two-person, and curated group exhibitions in all media will be considered.

Who is Eligible?
– artists (and curators) must reside in King County
– artists may not be represented by a commercial gallery at the time of application

For past exhibitions, visit our website.
For questions, contact: Esther Luttikhuizen at 206 296.8674.

Chauney Peck, Makeshift Monuments, Gallery4Culture, 2008 © Chauney Peck

Former Best Friends Forever
reception October 1, 2009, 6 to 8pm
exhibit October 1 – 30, 2009

Join us this coming First Thursday at Gallery4Culture as we open an exhibition of intriguing new media works by Peter Bonde Becker Nelson. Former Best Friends Forever consists of five video and installation works, each with accompanying audio dialogue, from five different guys who were at one point the artist’s “best friend.” The video and installation elements create dynamic visual and experiential cues to help place the viewer in the world of the audio experience and, in doing so, evoke their own memories of similar friendships.

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Photo by the artist

Read more about the exhibit and how to visit Gallery4Culture

Click here to view the embedded video.

© 2009 Video by Aaron Bourget

A new season of Gallery4Culture exhibitions launches September 3rd with Melt, a two-person show of environmentally conscious work. Sara Osebold and Vaughn Bell, both of Seattle, approach the common theme of nature from separate directions with very different media, inviting the viewer to contemplate the implications of a melting world.

A reception will be held on September 3, 2009, the first Thursday of the month, during the Downtown Artwalk, from 6 – 8 pm. The public is encouraged to attend.

UPDATE 9/2/09, 1pm:
During the First Thursday open house, artist Sara Osebold will perform Wool Glacier in the exhibit. The performance is planned for 7pm and will last approximately 15 minutes.)

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Sara Osebold, Wool Glacier (detail), 134 x 72 x 17″, 2009 © Sara Osebold