here are enough exciting art exhibitions starting or continuing at area museums in February that I thought I’d put together a handy resource guide for the month. We really do have some great museums (and galleries and studios and other exhibit spaces) here.
If I could only attend one of these exhibitions, I would go down to Tacoma for their Paul Strand retrospective. No, make that Photographer Unknown at the Henry. Or maybe I’d check out Life After Death: New Leipzig Paintings from the Rubell Family Collection over at the Frye. Lucky for me, I don’t have to choose just one, and you don’t either.
Listings behind the jump:
February at the Henry [site [1]]
- Ending real soon: We Decided To Let Them Say “We Are Convinced” Twice. It Was More Convincing This Way, an exhibit of large-scale photographs by Lebanese artist Wallid Raad of the Israeli Army’s siege of Beirut in 1982. Ends February 4.
- Photographer Unknown: This is the one I’m most looking forward to seeing. The exhibit runs through April 8 and collects a variety of unattributed images from the Joseph and Elaine Monsen photography collection. The curators hope that visitors might be able to identify a maker or subject. Some years back, I went through a box of photographs taken by my late brother: while I could identify most of the places and most of the people, some were complete mysteries to me. It was illuminating to show them to other people and have them say, “Oh, that’s this place” or, “Oh, I know that person.” Some simply remained mysteries and that was all right, too.
- Make Your Own Life which ends April 22, is a look at the alternative art scene in Cologne in the late 1980s and early 1990s and the words of comparative American artists.
- Elusive Signs starts February 10 and ends May 6 and is a survey of the works of Bruce Nauman, noted for his work with lights.
Over at the Seattle Asian Art Museum [site [2]], February brings:
- Of Nature and Friendship: Modern Chinese Paintings from the Khoan and Michael Sullivan Collection, February 15 – July 29
, and,
- Pattern Richness in Modern Japanese Textiles
[PS: SAAM will be free on President's Day, February 19.]
The Seattle Art Museum downtown will not reopen from remodeling until May 5th.
My favorite local art museum (and not just because it’s in my neighborhood and it’s free), is the Frye Art Museum [site [3]], which hosts two rescheduled art lectures on February 1 and February 2, for those of you who hold tickets already. (The rest of you are out of luck: lecture tickets are totally sold out.]
Other February goings on include:
- The continuing Spectatorship & Desire: Love, which ends March 4.
- Video project Pieces of Clothing ends its ongoing run February 18.
- Life After Death: New Leipzig Paintings from the Rubell Family Collection commences February 17 and continues through the end of the school year. This should be an exciting collection of works by artists from the Leipzig school, known for its focus on figure painting. As an accompaniment to this exhibition, the Frye will have a screening of Magic Lantern: In from the Cold: Films of the Iron Curtain and After on Sunday, February 18, at 2 pm.
- Ninth Annual Washington Art Education Association Student Exhibition: My Place begins February 24. “This year’s annual student exhibition, My Place, encouraged students to explore commonly held ideas, beliefs, and assumptions about community, land, home, and national identity.” I love student exhibitions–while their technical ability isn’t always the greatest (and then, sometimes, it’s brilliant), students often have a fresh perspective on expression which is enjoyable to behold. There’s a reception to recognize the students whose artwork is featured in the exhibition on Saturday, March 10, from noon-2 pm, including snacks and soft drinks. Please RSVP by February 19 by calling (206) 622-9250, ext. 270.
Down south in T-town, the Tacoma Art Museum [a href=" http://www.tacomaartmuseum.org"> site] features:
- an exhibit of photography by Paul Strand, one of the more important figure in photography’s history. His works are haunting, dramatic, and inspiring: if you can view his images of the US Southwest–adobe villages, breathtaking landscapes and more–without passion, you may have black hole where your heart should be. (Ongoing through May.)
- February 3 marks the open of TAM’s Frida Kahlo: Images of an Icon, images of the iconic artist by other iconic artists including Lucienne Bloch, Emmy Lou Packard, Florence Arquin, and Manuel Alvarez Bravo. More intimate portraits by friends and lovers are part of the show as well.
The Bellevue Arts Museum [site [4]] has several ongoing exhibitions: