Purchasing

Three Davidson Galleries artists–Ben Beres, Daniel Carrillo and Etsuko Ichikawa–present collaborative works with Seattle artist Troy Gua in the upcoming exhibition Meet Greet Rinse Repeat, Opening April 1, 6-8pm at Monarch Contemporary.

Cave paintings>Cunieform>Hieroglyphics>Kanji characters>The Alphabet>Words>Sentences. Written communication has evolved with mankind over the centuries, and is, with the aid of technology, continuing to do so. Or is it? Some may say the written language is in a state of de-evolution. The advent of online social networking and hand-held devices has forced the modern populace to conform to a new communication rife with abbreviations, acronyms, and ‘emoticons’. The written word is reverting back to a collection of symbols and characters.

With ‘Meet Greet Rinse Repeat’, the artist asks fellow artists to communicate with him in their respective unique visual language. The conversation begins with a hand cut, futuristic and highly graphic character of invented symbolism. The artist then hands it off to a collaborator for a reply, who does with it what he/she will, infusing the character with whatever creative spirit they deem fit. The collaborator then returns the visual response to the artist for the conclusion of the interchange: a resin coating to seal our work together.

This effort results in the creation of a unique dialogue where viewers are invited to decipher graphic oriented sculpture.

The show features work from nearly 50 artists and runs through April 30th. For a complete list of artists and their works, visit troygua.com.

View available works by Ben Beres, Daniel Carrillo and Etsuko Ichikawa.

Contemporary printmaker Jenny Schmid was interviewed in the Philadelphia Citypaper as part of their coverage of Philagraphika2010.

Jenny Schmid. Floating World, 2003. Lithograph. Edition of 25. 22-1/4 x 30-1/4 inches.

The heroines of Jenny Schmid’s works are deceptively childlike, with their cutesy outfits and oversized heads and eyes, but there’s more to these girls than meets the eye. Schmid grew up in Seattle during the reign of the riot grrrl movement and brings that revolutionary spirit to her art. Drawing on the history of printmaking as well as contemporary culture, she creates a playful commentary on gender, politics and identity. Schmid was a part of the “Outlaw Printmakers” exhibit in New York and currently shows off her sense of keen observation to her Web site, Bikini Press International. Her animation piece, which employs Egyptian influences and her trademark bobble-headed heroines, can currently be viewed at the Print Center (1614 Latimer St., 215-735-6090).

City Paper: Who or what moves you?

Jenny Schmid: One of the reasons I became an artist is that I realized it could incorporate all my varied interests. I will just list my most recent influences in no particular order: a recent trip to Egypt, feminist non-fiction, Persian miniatures, Medieval engraving and anyone who is taking a risk by being themselves (despite gender expectations).

Read the full interview at citypaper.net
View available work by Jenny Schmid

Saturday, March 27, 2pm at the Tacoma Art Museum

Journey and Departure, 2010. Oil on canvas. 36 x 60 inches.

Camille Patha is a proto-feminist. She will discuss her relationship to feminism and to contemporary trends throughout her long career as a Northwest painter. Hear about her experiences and learn more about her processes and inspirations during this Women’s History Month-inspired artist lecture.

Cost: $15; $5 for members. Pre-registration is recommended.
Contact education@tacomaartmuseum.org or call 253 722-2455.

April 2010 Exhibitions

First Thursday opening reception: April 1, 6-8pm.
Through May 1

Erik Desmazières

Onze Estampes: Haute Galerie Circulaire.
Etching and aquatint, 1998.
Edition of 60. F.F. 162. 14 x 10 inches.

Erik Desmazières (French, b. 1948), one of France’s best known contemporary printmakers, shares an affinity to neoclassical aesthetics in both the plurality of imagery and the metaphoric use of subjects to convey his artistic idiom. Imaginative depictions of people and places act like ancient ruins in conjuring up ruminative memories of another era and feed the exoticisim and fascination we find in cultures other than our own. Similar to the antiquarianism of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Desmazieres expresses his veneration in classical magnificence through his detailed rendering of architecture, objects, fragments, ornaments, costume and inscriptions. The subtle shading and incredible detail in each image reveals the artist’s mastery of the etching and aquatint processes. Erik Desmazieres’ work is exhibited internationally and also included in the permanent collection of the metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

View work by Desmazières

Philippe Mohlitz

Soulèvement Soudain Et Puissant Des Eaux De Mer.
Engraving, 1971. 8 x 6-1/2 inches.

Philippe Mohlitz’s (French, b. 1941) provocative themes and powerful imagery, rendered by masterful draftsmanship and engraving technique include the fantastic, the archaic, and the macabre. Mohlitz, using extremely fine, fluid engraving lines creates worlds filled with obscure details. Artistic influences include Odilon Redon and Rodolphe Bresdin. Mohlitz’s work can be found in private and public collections in Europe, the U.S. and Japan, including the Biblioteque Nationale de France in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the New York Public Library and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

View work by Mohlitz

Selections from the Estate of Wallace Engstrom (1924-2009)

Engstrom Estate Part I: Selected Contemporary Paintings & Works on Paper

The April exhibition will feature the contemporary paintings and works on paper portion of the Estate.
In May, look for Part II: Antique Paintings and Works on Paper, a catalog and website exhibition.

Beginning in the late 1980s, Wallace Engstrom (1924-2009) made regular visits to a number of Seattle art galleries in the company of the private art dealer Louie Congdon. The collection Mr. Engstrom built was extremely eclectic and ranged from old master woodcuts and engravings to antique maps and views, regionalist prints (Northwest and national), paintings and drawings from the 1930s and 1940s, and contemporary regional painters such as Marion Peck and Susan Bennerstrom.

View the exhibition online

Crispin van de Passe II (Dutch, active in Paris, c. 1597-1670)

Crispin van de Passe II was one of the four children of Dutch patriarch publisher Crispin van de Passe (c. 1564-1637) who worked in the family business. Like his father and siblings, de Passe II specialized in portraits, book illustrations and other commissioned graphic works.  In 1623, while he was working in Paris, de Passe II completed a series of illustrations for Antoine de Pluvinel’s Maneige Royal (later titled Instruction du Roi à l’exercise, a handbook on horsemanship for the king.)  These large illustrations are notable for their unusual combination of print processes: the images consist of engraved plates within an architecturally-inspired woodcut border. In A History of Engraving and Etching, historian Arthur M. Hind calls de Passe II’s illustrations for Maneige Royal “perhaps the best achievement of any member of the family.” (p. 123-124.)

Visit our new Crispin van de Passe II page for available works.

Etchings after Mark Catesby & George Edwards

Birds of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands
In 1749, German publisher Johann Michael Seligmann began to issue a nine-volume compilation of the work of renowned British naturalists Mark Catesby (1683-1749) and George Edwards (1694-1773), using plates that he produced himself specifically for the volume.  Over the next thirty years, the gradual release of these eagerly anticipated volumes brought vivid, charming images of New World birds to continental European audiences and made Seligmann a venerated name in natural history circles.

We’ve just added 34 works from Seligmann’s Sammlung Verschiedener Auslandischer und Seltener Vogel (Collection of Various Foreign and Rare Birds), published  in Nuremburg, 1749-1776. Each plate is engraved with the title in German, Latin and French.

Visit our Catesby/Edwards page to view all 60 in our collection!