#soil gallery

[artnerdseattle-blog]

Dear Diary: Matthew Offenbacher - http://art-nerd.com/seattle/dear-diary-matthew-offenbacher/ via Art Nerd Seattle

[msbiddles]

Museum for an Imagined City - the show I curated and made work for along with 9 brilliant artist pals - is now showing at SOIL in Seattle. There's an opening event on Thursday 8 January - here's what it's about:

Museum for an Imagined City is a collection of impressions and ideas of Seattle by a group of artists who have never been there. Works stem from factual research, personal imagined histories and ideas from popular culture, and explore the city’s culture, weather, people, past and future. The aim of the museum is to see what happens when ideas of the city are confronted by the city itself, and its inhabitants.

The featured artists all have connections to Glasgow, Scotland, and include Claire Biddles (curator), Sighle Bhreathnach-Cashell, Sinéad Bhreathnach-Cashell, Lorraine Hamilton, Kornelia Remø Klokk, Richard Martin, Jen Sykes, Helen Tubridy, Thomas Wells and James Stephen Wright.

[wearesamesame]

Only 10 days left Seattle! C'mon out to SOIL Gallery!

[wearesamesame]

Same Same but Different at SOIL Gallery in Seattle

August 1st - September 1st 2012

112 3rd Ave, Seattle WA

Wednesday - Saturday 12-6

[erinfrostinprogress]

I made a partner piece for A Picture's Worth, part of Text Editor, which opened at SOIL Gallery last night. Here's a link to the photo booth inspired video, 1000 Words.

[erinfrostinprogress]

Detail of a new piece for the upcoming Text Editor exhibit at Soil Gallery. Show opens Thursday May 3rd.

[xoxojessicacore]

coming soon... by bent folk on Flickr.

[x03]

First Thursday July Edition

As many of you are by now aware, I am moving to New York at the end of the month.  I didn't think I'd have time for another First Thursday, but I managed to squeeze it in. And although I'm more than ready to collapse into bed, I thought I'd get down a few thoughts on this, the actual final First Thursday.

But first, some background. One thing you might not know about me is that I was a rock nerd growing up. My mom's brother is a geologist, which might have had something to do with it, but in any case she got me into rocks at an early age. We went to all of the gem and mineral shows that came through the New Orleans area and I loved seeing all of the specimens and sometimes taking one home with me.  It was a magical experience that unfortunately waned as the shows became more and more commercialized; the rocks and fossils steadily giving way to cut stones and jewelry. Eventually we stopped going altogether, but I still have fond memories of being in the thrall of all those precious and glittering stones.

Ahem.  With that in mind, it's no wonder I enjoyed the openings at Soil and Platform today.  Soil featured a trio of artists, Derrick Jefferies, Amanda Manitach and Ellen Garvens, but Jefferies' work was definitely the standout here.  Next door, the work of Debra Baxter was similarly entrancing.  And this is where I have to diverge again to discuss an an interesting point: I'm not sure who said it, but someone remarked earlier in the evening that oftentimes the openings all seem to echo a similar theme. Last month we noticed a lot of glass work, which might have been a coincidence, but this month two galleries showing work based on rocks and minerals was too much to be a coincidence. So was it intentional - a theme spanning galleries? It actually reminds me of the all too common pairings of disaster movies: Volcano and Dante's Peak, Misson to Mars and Red Planet, Armageddon and Deep Impact. I couldn't help but compare them, and compare them I did. As an artist though, I also couldn't help but feel that the viewer's instinctive comparisons do harm. While artists in a group show plan around each other, we seldom plan around the gallery next door.

That said, I did have a favorite (Dante's Peak, Mission to Mars, and I'm not sure I ever saw the other two): Derrick Jefferies sculptural works were it. His "semi-precious knock offs" were a treat to look at, although I thought they would have been much better served by a more traditional display. The haphazard placement around the gallery wasn't convincing enough to read as an installation, instead coming off as mere cleverness. However, that did absolutely nothing to mar the work itself, it just made the viewing a little uneasy. 

Next door, Debra Baxter was working with the real thing. Her sculptures incorporated a fantastic array of natural and man-made materials, but oddly enough, the real minerals left more of an impression of disjointedness than the faux minerals next door.  The artist's hand in the unnatural object felt more natural than nature itself. That said, these two exhibitions evoked strong memories for me and it was amazing to relive them in the context of my life now. The minerals of a world created by our imaginations; how I would have loved to take one of them home with me.

Finally, we spotted this lovely lady and her four counterparts. I didn't get a chance to hear her story, but the photo is too good not to share: