Gallery 110

2008

May 1-31, 2008

Members 2: Returning Gallery Artists

Private preview:
Wednesday, April 30, 6-8 PM
First Thursday reception:
Thursday, May 1, 6-8 PM

Susan Arthur, Sarah Dillon, Mistie Erickson, Joan Kimura, Gordon Nealy, Maylee Noah, Rosemary Powelson, Jason Sobottka, Kate Sweeney, Liz Tran, Paula Whelan, Ellen Wixted, and Tomoko Yoshitake

Left: Tomoko Yoshitake, Love Cup
Right: Liz Tran, Spring Three, Mixed Media on Panel 16 x 16 inches

In the LOFT SPACE: Susan Arthur Photographs

June 5 - 28, 2008

UNNATURAL WORLD
People and the Landscape

Susan Arthur
Michael Brophy
Holly Ives
Jason Sobottka
Ellen Wixted

Change in the landscape is inevitable, and everything we do leaves a mark.

This exhibit brings together works by five contemporary artists whose art is informed by the effects of civilization on the landscape -- a realm of constant change that inspires despair, nostalgia and pride by turns.

As the landscape historian J.B. Jackson observes “we must learn to differentiate among those wounds created by greed and destruction, those which serve to keep us alive, and those [changes] inspired by a love of beauty and order.”

Power, economics, ideals and the will to assert control have everything to do with what happens to the land; that awareness of worldly concerns informs this work as much as our own emotional response to a meadow scraped bare or the scraggly aftermath of a clear cut.

Above: Holly Ives, Factory II, Oil on canvas, 58 x 42 inches

IN THE LOFT

June 5 - 28, 2008

Amy Oates: Cliffs and Crowds

July 3 – 26, 2008

MAIN GALLERY

EVERGREEN STATE OF MIND

Exhibition Preview and Reception: Wednesday, July 2, 2008
First Thursday Reception, July 3, 2008

Life as a resident of the Northwest includes an inherent relationship and familiarity with certain form that we acknowledge subconsciously. Most people are not aware of it until they leave this place.  During a return flight home, an ah ha moment occurs as the plane descends; looking out the window.

Another cooped-up rainy day waiting for the sunshine to break out, Liz Tran counters the weather by dreaming up a whimsical, colorful world of imaginary, sunlit trees unlike anything we’d experience out-of-doors. They seem to give us permission to risk taking a neon path to joy on the grayest of days.

For Maylee Noah, rain or shine, the Northwest draws her outside to walk on mountain trails. In a boundless world of trees and rocks, contrasting light and shadow she discovers a diverse community of Northwest kindred souls.  Her black and white photographs capture a sense of reality about the people and the candid, unspoken homage paid to the Northwest environment by those who live here.

Above Left: Liz Tran, Elm Nine, Mixed media on paper, 6 x 4 inches, 2007, $250

Above right:  Maylee Noah, Julie, black and white photograph, 9 x 13 inches, $350 (framed)

IN THE LOFT

SARAH DILLON: SMALL PAINTINGS

Exhibition Preview and Reception: Wednesday, July 2, 2008
First Thursday Reception:  July 3, 2008

These small mixed media paintings on panel  imply the notion of looking through a window watching events that tell obscure stories hinting at lyrics of folk songs, politics, travel, poetry or personal experiences.

Artist Sarah Dillon finds a pulse between the conceptual relationships of objects, their surroundings, light, pattern and the way they interact with space.  The artist draws our attention to things in daily life that are seemingly unimportant, and she makes them important.

Above: Sarah Dillon, To the Lighthouse, Oil and nautical charts on panel, 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 x3 inches, 2008, $500

August 7- 30, 2008

Artists’ Reception: Wednesday, August 6, 2008, 6-8pm
First Thursday Exhibition Opening, August 7, 2008, 6-8pm

Gallery 110 Hours, Wednesday – Saturday, 12-5pm

MAIN GALLERY:

Internal Landscapes:
Imagined, fantastic, abstracted reflections of nature
Ann Maki
Elissa Voland
Li Turner
Mistie Erickson

IN THE LOFT:

September 4-27, 2008

Artists’ Preview Reception: Wednesday, September 3, 2008, 6-8pm
First Thursday Exhibition Opening: September 4, 2008, 6-8pm
Gallery 110 Hours, Wednesday – Saturday, 12-5pm 

MAIN GALLERY: TOY

Susan Arthur
Sarah Dillon
Alexandra Gjurasic
Kate Sweeney
Grace Weston
Ellen Wixted
Tomoko Yoshitake

Click here to view Seattle Times article re: Toy as 1st pick for this Month's 1st Thursday!

Toys are teaching tools, little cultural manipulators directing us to this role, that paradigm. Toys reflect the culture we live in. Even Barbie has evolved from a Ken-dependent swimsuit model with a demure sideways glance into a career girl with a direct, in-your-face gaze. Toys are for play, for flights of imagination, psychological projection and preparation for adult life. As artistic subject matter, toys act as surrogates, allowing experimentation with the inexpressible and forbidden.

Tomoko Yoshitake, Gumball Machine, Blown glass, 10 x 10 x 20inches, $2000

IN THE LOFT: Holly Ives: Modified Bouquet

Holly Ives' new series of flower portraits explore the new and more traditional forms of flower hybridization. With a focus on GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) or GEO (Genetically Engineered Organisms), the artist asks us to pick a bouquet of what we would like on the table. What lengths will we go to for the "perfect" flower? How far will we/ can we stretch the boundaries of nature with technology?

October 2- October 25, 2008

MAIN GALLERY: Paper Cuts: Works by Kate Sweeney and Molly Norris

Kate Sweeney's new works explore the energy and nature of the earliest moments of the universe. Her piece entitled Study for the Big Bang consists of the artist's signature scientific-inspired imagery on branching, shaped paper pieces.

Molly Norris pays homage to paper—art history's "underdog"—by building paper sculptures. This exhibition includes both 3D wall pieces along with a hanging paper wedding dress tree thingy inspired by the artist's grandmother's Chinese weeping mulberry. Norris' pencil marks, hand cutting and glue trails become part of the process-aesthetic of these permanence-defying riffs that play off of her signature, stylized flower.

Top: Kate Sweeney's Big Bang (detail), mixed media on paper
Bottom: Molly Norris, Black&Decker, 40 x 43 x 5", mixed media

IN THE LOFT: Gordon Nealy: Stations of a Cross

The cross is an emotionally burdensome symbol. Its most obvious reference is in Christianity. However, when altered only a dash it becomes useful in maps, signs, media and other design. Nealy was inspired by the biblical story behind the stations of the cross and Barnett Newman's series - Stations of the Cross. His intended use of this symbol is as a character in the context of color and placement. He endeavored to empower the works with more optimism and confidence while maintaining their connection to the initial inspirations.

November 6–29, 2008

Preview Reception: Wednesday, November 5, 6-8pm First Thursday Opening: November 6, 6-8pm

MAIN GALLERY:

On the Same Side of the Circle: Recent Work by Robin Harlow and Shawn Ferris

Marked with a profound and sweet sadness that is offset by beauty, Robin Harlow’s work combines 19th century Victorian imagery with contemporary surrealism, drawing attention to the illusions that provide our lives with wonder.  When she works, she is unencumbered by social restrictions, allowing herself to paint freely.

In contrast, Shawn Ferris creates a set of rules of constraint inspired by the literary group Oulipo, limiting herself in palate and motif.  Using this as a point of departure, she embraces the idea that structure is liberation, or a trigger for the potential of new ideas and inspiration.
Harlow and Ferris met at the Evergreen State College where Ferris was instructing an intensive foundational art program.  When Harlow completed her education and became a professional artist, she and Ferris remained close friends and colleagues. This exhibition celebrates the similarities and differences between student and teacher.

Images: 
Right:  Shawn Ferris, White Birds, Acrylic, ink in panel, 25 x 22 inches, 2008
Left:  Robin Harlow, Queen Bee, Acrylic on canvas, 34 x 46 inches, 2008

LOFT GALLERY:

Mistie Erickson: New Work

Mistie Erickson reveals her experience of the northwest landscape through mixed media drawings and paintings. The work goes beyond reiteration of experience by observation. Instead, it is the artist's emotional response to the environment; light, shadow, movement and sense of place. The images are presented in multiple panels and emerge sensually through her art making process.

Mistie Erickson, Two of four panels of Early Autumn, acrylic on canvases, 18 x 96 inches, 2008

December 4, 2008 – January 3, 2009

Joan Kimura, Ann Maki, Paula Whelan, Jennifer Kemp, Robert McNown, and Gail Grinnell

LINE DANCE

Working in diverse media, artists Joan Kimura, Ann Maki, Paula Whelan, Jennifer Kemp, Robert McNown, and Gail Grinnell explore the use of line to create rhythms and dynamic visual movement in natural and urban spaces.

Lines play a role of foundation. Lines are the first touch to paper providing the structure of  a piece. Line creates rhythm and accentuates the protrusions and recessions of solid masses, giving way to dynamic visual movement. Line also allows for a richer comprehension of surface and space found both in nature and modern life.

By emphasizing movement and delicacy alongside the rigidity, line has a role in this work to perform a dance, moving around and through and unifying our experience.

Images:
Top: Ann Maki, Slate Waves, Fiber, red on black/gray, 16 3/8 x 21 inches, 23 x 27 inches framed
Middle: Jennifer Kemp, Acrylic on panel, 22 x 31 inches (Six 10 x 10 inch panels)
Bottom: Gail Grinnell, Bog, acrylic, ink on spun polyester, coffee/tea stains, 19 x 17 inches, Courtesy of the Artist and Francine Seders Gallery

TOMOKO YOSHITAKE: SHORT DREAMS

Glass artist/photograph model Tomoko Yoshitake creates a whimsical, dreamlike narrative modeling with her glass sculptures in photography.  Yoshitake designs and creates an imaginative scene. She then blows glass sculptures that act as the centerpiece for the narrative. Finally to complete the project, Yoshitake works with local photographers, directing the style and feel of a desired shot, while also modeling in the photograph with the glass. The presentation includes glass coupled with photography as an installation. Yoshitake's images are often described as "Tokyo pop culture inspired," a throwback to her life growing up in Japan.

Image: Tomoko Yoshitake, Get Milk, glass and photograph installation, 9 x 9 x 6', 2008, photo by Hypnox