STEVE CURRIE

In his most recent work, Steve Currie uses wire, wood, pigmented silicone and foam to create objects which utilize a methodical means of developing a form while allowing for some internal improvisation. It is simultaneously systematic and organic – a cross between a grid and a skeletal matrix. These multi-dimensional linear forms reflect the time involved in their making and are both space- and material-oriented. There is a sense of gravity-defying lightness to Currie’s sculpture; the organic shapes of dyed foam seem to be flying outward on a molecular level, or perhaps even on a cosmic, Big Bang dimension. This kineticism is restrained by Currie’s skeletal use of wood or wire to contain/support the colored foam, as if fluids were frozen in time and space.

Steve Currie has work in the collections of numerous public institutions including the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX, the Walker Art Center, MN, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, and the Brooklyn Museum, NY. This is the first Seattle exhibition for the Brooklyn-based artist.

ELLEN GARVENS

Ellen Garvens recent project involves large-scale photographs of ambiguous objects which at first glance appear to be portraits of abstract sculptural forms. Yet there is a vague familiarity to their shapes. They are, in fact, photographs of prosthetics in their early state, still white with plaster and bits of untrimmed fabric or mesh. Their placement – in a traditional still life setting, centered, and with neutral backdrops – take them out of context and add to the disorientation. Rather than focusing on the grim nature of missing body parts or delve into political overtones, these works are more a celebration of form and strength. Garvens writes, “I look at these objects and their settings as a way to initiate more general thoughts about the body including our emotional and technological relationship to it, its boundaries, and its future.”

Garvens has work in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, NY, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, and the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH. She will be included in the upcoming Northwest Biennial at the Tacoma Art Museum, WA.

JOHN GRADE

John Grade’s newest sculpture, Collector, is a work in stages. The first stage is as it will exist at Davidson Contemporary, completed in Grade’s studio. The artist’s attention to detail is immediately evident – Grade has painstakingly carved every rib of two hollow, elongated tusk-like sculptures which protrude from the wall. Stage two of Collector (giving a clearer meaning to its name) will involve imbedding the sculpture in the shallow water of the Puget Sound and allowing oysters to attach and cultivate on and inside the work. Finally, for stage three, Collector will be mounted to Grade’s truck and driven through the dry heat of the Southwest, collecting blowing dust and other airborne materials as it travels. Grade’s work often combines different landscapes – glacial crevasses, slot canyons, burial mounds, bogs –and he has addressed the notion of Northwest/Southwest U.S. in other works. He has also embraced the uncertainty of intruding organisms having their way with his sculpture. What makes this unique in Grade’s oeuvre is the complexity and finish of the “template”; Collector is a completed sculpture which will intentionally evolve much as most living creatures cycle through their own life stages..

In addition to Collector, Grade will exhibit a selection of new drawings which relate to Collector. Grade is a 2005 recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Grant, a Tiffany Foundation Grant, and in 2004 was awarded a Warhol Foundation Grant for his one-person exhibition at the Boise Art Museum. Grade will also exhibit work in February’s Northwest Biennial at the Tacoma Art Museum, WA.

TIMEA TIHANYI

Timea Tihanyi uses everyday materials such as synthetic felt, clay, and rubber that, according to the artist, “lack any personality of their own, yet [are] capable of becoming tactile, sensual objects as a result of a meticulous process of sewing, cutting, carving or sanding. I work on a large scale, making objects that are physical in their appearance but often too fragile to touch; precariously being held together by thousands of little threads, stitches and connections; reminiscent of the complex structures of tissues in the body.” Trained as a medical doctor, Tihanyi maintains a fascination for details and systems, the way that rivers and tree roots or branches mimic the human circulatory system. She appropriates images from various sources: historic documents and prints, medical illustrations, scientific diagrams, and maps. “By dissecting these images and recreating them again as objects,” she states, “my goal is to reconsider their meaning and the way they embody information about the reality of physical existence.”

Timea Tihanyi received her Doctor of Medicine in 1993 at Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary and her MFA in Ceramics from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 2003. She will be included in the prestigious Fiberart International 2007 which will originate at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, PA, and travel to the Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Charlotte, NC.

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