Purchasing

September 2010 Exhibitions

Preview: Wednesday September 1, 5-7pm.
First Thursday opening reception: September 2, 6-8pm.
Through October 2

John Grade. Circuit. Glazed ceramic bonded with gypsum polymer to corn-based resin embedded with marine netting, 2010. 9 x 24 x 24 feet

JOHN GRADE
Circuit

Davidson Galleries presents Circuit, Seattle artist John Grade’s newest multi-venue sculpture. This initial version is the first of three iterations. Here Grade’s work overtly engages its surrounding architectural environment. Later, when presented outdoors in its second form, during a year’s stay on the side of a mountain; weather patterns will affect the work, and the exposed surfaces will evolve, disintegrate and morph into something new. The final site has yet to be determined.

Creation of Circuit’s ceramic surface membrane was underwritten by grants which allowed Grade to work closely with Wally Bevins and the the studio potters at Pottery Northwest. Multiple wooden skeletons were covered with plates forming the ceramic skin of a series of larger than life, curvilinear vessels. Alternating exterior and interior views of each vessel module, encourages viewers to experience the whole work from the exterior first, and then from within the sculpture’s interior. The artist selected the glazed ceramic skin (more than two tons of clay, fired tile by tile, backed with gypsum polymer laminated to corn based resin and marine netting) for its organic properties and textural capacities. All of the materials are intended to decompose without negatively affecting the environment.

In Grade’s words, “This project continues my investigation into how sculpture can reflect perceptions about landscape and expand these ideas through change and displacement. Because Circuit will be spread over three sites, a complex portrait of this landscape will be captured and a mixture of subtlety and dramatic change should result. The project will be a success when there is evidence of a compelling balance between what I have anticipated and chance events that affect the work in unexpected ways.”

This major installation will be accompanied by three or four smaller individual sculptures that were conceived almost as three dimensional drawings conceptually connected to future large scale projects.

Artist Talk: Saturday September 18 at Noon

View work by Grade

Ian Boyden. Feather Shed from a Meteorite Bird. Meteorite dust, freshwater pearl, gold leaf and carbon on paper, 2008. 31 x 22 inches.

IAN BOYDEN
Feathers Shed from a Meteor

The paintings in this exhibition, Feathers Shed from a Meteor, present Northwest artist, Ian Boyden’s exploration of the world of meteorites. Boyden delights in using eccentric pigments—from whale ear bones to fossilized shark teeth. In this new body of work, he introduces paints and inks made with hand ground pigments derived from meteorites. Boyden states, “I am fond of microcosms, and, look for ways of translating the voice or spirit of something very large or distant. Our solar system originally coalesced from a giant cloud of dust. I find a distinct pleasure in grinding these meteorites back into dust in preparation for making a painting. In a sense each painting becomes a small reenactment of that original coalescence.” Looking at the works as a whole there appears to be a cosmic dance. In these abstract works, we see the artist contemplating elemental origins, the calligraphic drift of asteroids, the gravity of molecular clouds, the residue of a great fireball, the mysteries opened by stones that have fallen from the sky.

View work by Boyden

Adrienne Sherman. The Hounds of Euphistos. Oil on wood panel, 2008. 10 x 10 inches.

ADRIENNE SHERMAN
New Paintings

California artist Adrienne Sherman’s new work continues to explore the relationship of man to beast. Often there is a contrast between the innocent curiosity of the animal, set against the sophisticated creations of an earlier human civilization. Many of the works derive their inspiration from an historical figure or the character from a book. Most of the works are oil on panel or canvas, meticulously rendered and modest in scale.

View work by Sherman

August 2010 Exhibition

First Thursday opening reception: August 5, 6-8pm.
Through August 28

NATURAL AND URBAN LANDSCAPES

LESLIE CAIN • ELAINE COOMBS • WILLIAM E. ELSTON
DAN GUALDONI • PHILIP KOCH • EMILY LEONARD

Elston. Near the Gare d’Lest. Oil on canvas, 2004. 54 x 72 inches.

The August exhibition at Davidson Galleries is devoted to the ‘outside’ – natural and urban scenes. Works by six artists: Leslie Cain (WA), Elaine Coombs (CA), William E. Elston (WA), Dan Gualdoni (MO), Philip Koch (MD), and Emily Leonard (TN) all approach landscape differently. The works range from descriptive, to impressionistic, to atmospheric, to expressionistic. The scale varies widely from modest to grand.

Cain. Old Friends.

Coombs. Glow Right.

Gualdoni. Coastal Redux 62.

Leonard. The Ground Remembered Her.

Koch. White Light.

Original print and works on paper images of related subjects will fill the gallery under the mezzanine. Some of the artists presented there include: Gordon Mortensen, Jean Gumpper, Robert Patierno, Siemen Dijktra, Art Hansen, Kevin Fletcher, Peter Jogo, Robert Kipniss, Martin Levine, Zha Sai, Rob Connell and Dion Zwirner.

What I See, the group exhibition currently on view at Davidson Galleries, received an excellent review this week in the Seattle Times from arts writer Michael Upchurch:

The four artists in the new group show at Davidson Galleries all do figurative work. But that doesn’t mean they’re offering bland, conservative fare.

Instead, the visions in “What I See” are as unsettling and ambiguous as they are potent. The subjects addressed range from religion to politics to environmental concerns. The artistry, whether it’s in oil paintings, etchings or drawings, is uniformly impressive.

Read the full review here.

July 2010 Exhibitions

First Thursday opening reception: July 1, 6-8pm.
Through July 31

‘What I See’

ALICE LEORA BRIGGS • STEPHANIE FROSTAD
MARTIN LANGFORD • LISA SWEET

Briggs. Spit, 2010. Sgraffito drawing on panel. 25 x 28 inches.

The July exhibition at Davidson Galleries, ‘What I See’, will feature the work of four artists: Alice Leora Briggs, Stephanie Frostad, Martin Langford and Lisa Sweet. These four were selected for the clarity of their focus on a specific message. The subjects sometimes, as with Lisa Sweet, reflect religious associations while for others the seed is social or political. Frostad’s work often uses a specific gesture carrying multiple associations, or fresh insight as in a traditional biblical story such as The Prodigal Son. Briggs often employs a contemporary scene peopled with visual quotes from art works painted centuries earlier for an effective, though jarring juxtaposition. Langford’s images are pure social commentary responding to the human impact on his earthly environment.

Frostad

Sweet

Langford

June 2010 Exhibitions

First Thursday opening reception: June 3, 6-8pm.
Through June 26

Robertson. Light Gray #6., 2010. Pigment print and acrylic on BFK paper. 19 x 25 inches.

BARBARA ROBERTSON
Gray Shift: Works on Paper, Projection & Animation

Artist Talk: Friday, June 11, 6pm

Northwest artist Barbara Robertsonʼs new body of work challenges the boundaries between still and time based media, expanding her imagery into dynamic combinations of still and moving images. The foundation of the exhibition, the Gray Series, is a group of two-dimensional, mixed media works on paper that explore concepts of space, motion and light. Always seeking to explore new print and digital related media, in two of the works Robertson used an animation program to create moving images projected onto still images. These moving elements are constantly interacting with the still parts to form continuously changing combinations of imagery. Two other works are solely animations displayed on screens.

Barbara Robertson received partial funding for this animation project from a 2009 4Culture Grant. Robertson has received numerous other grants and awards including the Neddy Artist Fellowship Award and a Fellowship in Digital and Traditional Print from Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, CA. Her work can be found in many public collections such as the Tacoma Art Museum, King County 4 Culture Portable Works, and the City of Seattle, Portable Works Collection.

• View previous work by Robertson

INTRODUCTIONS

ELLEN HECK • CARRIE LINGSCHEIT • MATT REBHOLZ

The Contemporary Print and Drawing Center is pleased to introduce the work of three new young print artists working with the etching process to create visual narratives: Ellen Heck (California), Carrie Lingscheit (Ohio) and Matt Rebolz (Austin, Texas).

Lingscheit. Memento No. 2368 (guise), 2010. Etching. 12 x 16 inches.

Carrie Lingscheit, a recent MFA graduate from Ohio University, Athens, using various intaglio processes, creates images through a process of editing, erasure and exaggeration that allude to the intractable nature of remembrance, creating open-ended and implied narratives.

Heck. Backyard; Midland, Texas; 1989., 2009. Woodcut and drypoint. Ed. 6. 21 x 11 1/2 inches.

Ellen Heck earned her printmaking degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2008. Her work is influenced by and often references the compositions and techniques of the color etchings by Impressionist artist Mary Cassatt.

Rebholz. Underground Experimental Cavern, 2009. Intaglio and chine colle. Edition of 5. 12 x 24 inches.

Adjunct Lecturer at Southwestern University, Matt Rebholz is rooted in a figurative tradition that explores a narrative sensibility laden with a combination of violence, mordant humor, and social consciousness.

May 2010 Exhibitions

First Thursday opening reception: May 6, 6-8pm.
Through May 29

Bui. 3rd Ave. Oil on panel, 2010. 24 x 36 inches.

Tram Bui’s exhibition of new oil paintings on panel extends her interest in dichromatic silhouettes of buildings under construction.  The colors are vivid and the drawing precise, but the surfaces are more meticulously rendered.  Unlike her previous shows, this body is conceived as a whole, systematically exploring basic color theory through a succession of two-color pairings, alternating the descriptions of the sky and the building.  All but one of the images draw on various views of the same building rather than different buildings.  The changing color pairings provide the dominant effect as the colors advance and recede through the contrasting combinations defining the architecture.

• View previous work by Bui

Dowell. Interim, Reykjavik. Acrylic on canvas, 2010. 40 x 60.

Sharon Dowell is a painter, curator, teacher and gallery director from North Carolina.  This is Dowell’s first Northwest exhibition of her architecturally inspired acrylic paintings. “I am interested in the documentation of memory and place and I strive to find beauty in often overlooked structures and spaces.”  The framework of the building facades provide rhythm and order to her loose, spatial layering and bold color planes.  Navigating a seeming contradiction, the artist achieves both structure and freedom with her painterly handling.

Mora. Baile de mineros (Dance of Miners). Linocut, 1947. 4-1/8 x 5-1/2 inches.

Francisco Mora (1922-2002)
Linocuts and Lithographs

The son of a weaver and a musician, Mexican artist Francisco Mora was born and educated in the southwestern state of Michoacán.  In 1941, he relocated to Mexico City where he began exhibiting with the Taller de Gráfica Popular, a graphics workshop that built on Mexico’s rich tradition of printmaking in order to further a variety of revolutionary political and social causes.  In 1947, he married renowned African-American artist Elizabeth Catlett, with whom he exhibited widely.  During the 1950s, Mora received a number of commissions for public mural projects.  Accomplished as both a painter and printmaker, Francisco Mora is best known for his gritty, poignant graphic works depicting the daily lives of miners and other laborers in Mexico’s working class.  His prints are in a number of museum collections worldwide including the Museum of Modern Art, NY, the National Institute of Fine Arts, Mexico City, and the British Museum.