Seattle Twist

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery’s resident curator Larry Reid will speak at the Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Avenue in Seattle. Reid will present a slide lecture on the topic “WEIRDOS: Seattle’s Alternative Comics Culture in the Context of R. Crumb’s Underground.” If you have yet to see the phenomenal Crumb exhibition at the Frye, this represents one of the last opportunities to view this comprehensive collection and explore Crumb’s considerable influence on comics in the Northwest. Admission is free. Reid assures us that you’ll get your money’s worth. More info at 206.622.9250.

Mcleod Residence, the wonderful art space with a lounge formerly open only to members, opens its doors to the public this Friday.

More at http://www.mcleodresidence.com/

For those into art and technology (like me), my friend Joel Kollin has collaborated with Juan Pampin and Ensu Kang to create a sound and sculptural installation that links 911 Media Arts and SOIL. The opening is this Thursday, February 7, 6-9pm at both venues.

Entanglement draws a symbolic acoustic line between two distant locations, SOIL and 911 Media Arts Center in Seattle. A hyper-directional sound beam linearizes the acoustics of the two galleries creating the illusion of a single, infinite line of sound into which both sites get trapped.

…This fragile acoustic construction can be physically disturbed by the participants at each location. Using their body, participants can interfere with the acoustic waveguide, spilling over particles of the linear sound field into the room as they block their transit to the other site. The piece not only provokes the “entanglement” of the participants with their own sonic perception locally but also remotely, as the acoustic shadow of their bodies gets cast onto the other space. In this way, Entanglement explores the concept of “tele-absense” (rather than tele-presence), using a virtual acoustic channel to telematically project the disembodied presence of participants interacting with the acoustic waveguide.

It runs through March 1, and if you miss the opening you should still go–you’ll have some time and space to interact with it. The installation is part of the Ultrasonic Sound Beams in Media Arts research project, supported by the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS), University of Washington.

More info at SOIL.

The GALAXY OF PAIN is a photo exhibit by BLUSH PHOTO that
displays images of Seattle notables such as The Presidents of the
United States of America, El Vez, John in the Morning (KEXP), and Ben
Exworthy (Super Geek League), all facing off in the underground
wrestling ring to benefit an awesome local charity
Home Alive.

Where: At the McLeod Residence in Seattle
Date: January 11th, 2008
Time: 8:00pm-1:00AM
Ticket: $20; all profit goes to Home Alive

Guests can look forward to special musical performances, raffle items, a silent
auction, COSTUME CONTEST, and the chance to see celeb photos by Blush
Photo.

Crazy, Man!

Ken Kelly rocks! If you don’t know him go to this show and get to know him!

604 Second Avenue, Seattle, Washington 98104
http://www.howardhouse.net

(Since you’re in Pioneer Square stop in the Catherine Person Gallery and meet Nola Avienne at the opening of the ‘Black & White Show’).

Seattle-area artist Ries Niemi presents a vision of cell phones as a life form, manipulating humanity for their own purposes. Ries says he purchased, sight unseen, this collection of objects from a mini-storage auction. In this new exhibit, Niemi examines just how exactly that cell phone got into his pocket, and who is really in charge.

Niemi cuts and pastes pop culture in a variety of mediums, including: digital imaging, embroidery, wood, paper, textiles and metal. In his installation, pages from old books, fossils, textiles, metallic objects, even furniture and clothing document the surprising centuries long attempts by cell phones to take over the world.

Ries loves his phone. Ries hates his phone.

Working in a wide range of media, Niemi has shown widely around the country, and works extensively in public art, including a new piece on Pine Street adjacent to the Paramount Theater, “Eat, Drink, and Be Merry.”

Located next to the Paramount Theater on Pine Street, the sculptures are 3 totem poles for the 21’st Century, collaged from images of contemporary culture, food and drink.

Ranging in height from 16 to 18 feet, and 8 feet in diameter, these glittering stainless steel figures are anthrophomorpic but not human. They are made from different textures of forged and fabricated stainless steel.

The site is a small urban park whose reason for existance is the Vent Shaft for the Sound Transit tunnel under Capitol Hill.

Ries’s new show is at Punch Gallery January 3 – February 3, 2008

Opening Reception: 5-8pm
First Thursday, January 3, 2008

Artist will be in attendance the first and final Saturdays of the month.

Seattle artist Tim Marsden opens a show of his paintings in uber-cool Georgetown at Calamity Janes at 5701 Airport Way S.

Artist reception December 15th 2007 (Saturday)  12-4pm (nicely 
placed in the afternoon.

The show will run December 2007 until the end of January, sometime in 2008.

Great show and good food!