Hey you fellow Foragers! There are some incredible shows going on right now. Here are just a few of my recommendations for must-see museum and gallery shows this week!
Summer can be a slow time in the art world. Some galleries close altogether, reserving their resources for the busy Fall season, while others show off their best artists for tourists and travelers.
Here are a few shows happening right now, if you’re looking for something artsy to do over the holiday weekend!
One of the things I love most about the art world is the diversity– of people, styles, ages, eras. It’s amazing to not only see the work of new graduates and up & comers, but to look back at the artists who made the way for today’s success. This week’s round up of must-see museum and gallery shows includes work from recent MFA graduates, old-school Abstract Expressionists, modern figurative savants, and some abstract artists who just wanna have some fun.
Oh how I wish I could be in all these places! Someone needs to hurry up with that teleportation device. If you’re in any of these areas and able to see these incredible gallery shows, share your experience on Instagram & tag me @artsyforager with the hashtag #dontmissartsiness!
In this week’s round up of gallery shows and museum exhibitions, I am so bummed that I’m nowhere near any of these spots because each of these shows looks amazing!
Click through the gallery links above for more information about each show. If you check ‘em out, tag me ( @artsyforager ) on Instagram with the hashtag #dontmissartsiness! If you go I’ll be totally jealous!
You guys know I’m always searching for the best artsy finds for you. Well, in this new series of posts, I’ll be sharing the museums & gallery shows you need to see if you possibly can!
And there is a whole lot of yumminess going on in all four corners of the country!
east |The Way & The Wayfarers, group show featuring work by Jay Knapp, Joshua Hogan & Kuzana Ogg** at Westmoreland Museum of Art
Click through the gallery links above for more information about each show. If you check ‘em out, tag me ( @artsyforager ) on Instagram with the hashtag #dontmissartsiness!
**FYI– work by Kuzana Ogg is now available through The Trove! So even if you can’t see her show, you can still check out her gorgeous work and maybe make it your own!
This post contains affiliate links. As a Great.ly Tastemaker and curator of The Trove, I receive a small commission on each piece sold from The Trove boutique gallery.
Every weekend Mr. F and I stay at home ( in other words, no camping or backpacking on the agenda ), we say we’re going to have a relaxing, chill weekend. But lately, our weekends around home have been anything but slow and this weekend was no exception! After a yummy breakfast in Arcata Saturday morning, we attended the Sustainable Living Expo– gotta get some ideas for the artsy dream home we’re saving our pennies for!
I try to take advantage of our weekends in town to do something artsy and lucky for me, this weekend we were able to take in not only a few stops along the North Coast Open Studios tour, but this month’s ArtsAlive in Eureka.
In addition to Peggy Loudon’s studio ( check out her website, stunning ceramics! ), we also took a peek into the studios of Libby George, who was kind enough to give me some pastel tips, and mixed media artist and painter Natalie Craig.
After a little rest, we headed down to Old Town for Eureka’s monthly ArtsAlive event. We were able to hit a few studios and galleries before meeting up with one of Mr. F’s coworkers for a drink.
The work of both these artists intrigued me with their references to ancient cultures– Bhutanese for Goodman, Native American Haida for Skillie. To reference aboriginal culture and customs in modern interpretations give me hope that these old traditions won’t be forgotten. And this busy but artsy weekend won’t be far from my own memory for a long time yet! Next weekend– hoping to get some painting time in!
This week, it would seem, is one to be filled with all sorts of newness! In addition to the new post series started on Tuesday and the introduction of my Great.ly shop, I’m excited to finally launch a new featured series I’ve been pondering for a while now. I’m always on the hunt for new ways to support and promote the artists whose work I love. When we travel, we’re on the lookout for local art shows and happenings. Which led me to think, hey, you guys must be, too!
Each Thursday afternoon, I’ll be posting a round up of interesting gallery or museum shows I think you outta know about– one from each region of the country, North, South, East & West. ( FYI– sometimes North and Northwest will be interchangeable, just because. )
west |Jennifer JL Jones, Invisible Thread at Hunter Kirkland Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM**
Find details about each show by clicking through to the gallery or museum links above. If you check ’em out, tag me ( @artsyforager ) on Instagram with the hashtag #dontmissartsiness!
**Jennifer JL Jones’ show ends June 8th! Get there before it closes.
Image sources via the galleries & museum sites linked above.
As artists, we are pretty obsessed with our materials and mediums. Photographers baby their cameras and lenses, sculptors take precious care of their tools. And painters, well, we love paint– the way it smells, the way it looks, the way it behaves. Seattle artist Margie Livingston, whom we last heard from in October 2012 during her run as Featured Artist, has been continuing her own wild love affair with the properties of paint.
Stretching, pulling, carving, slicing, dicing, Livingston pushes paint to its ever expanding limits. This latest group of work seems to have an elegant electricity about it, in the juxtapositions of graphic black & white against super charged neon purples and pinks. Then she spins that on its head with her gloriously shroud-like draped paint sculptures.
Poured, Sliced, and Draped, a show of Margie Livingston’s latest work, opens at Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle today, with the opening reception taking place during First Thursday on June 5th. If you’re in Seattle, don’t miss her Artist Talk this Saturday, at 11:30am, see the Greg Kucera site for details! Aaaah, some days I really miss Seattle.
You guys, we are loving our new little town so much! Since we arrived, everyone’s been telling me how many artists there are here in Eureka and that we must check out the monthly art walk, ArtsAlive. It was a perfect, beautiful evening and it seemed like everyone in Humboldt County was in downtown Eureka, enjoying the spectacular weather and taking it all in.
I knew there were a few galleries I needed to check out but what I didn’t know was that so there were so many artists with studios downtown and a great many of them were open that night! I do so love a peek inside artists’ studios! After checking out the mesmerizing work of Isabelle Staehle at The Black Faun, we wandered through the studios & Hall Gallery at C Street. Large, high ceilinged, open beam studios with tons of light? Yes, please. Mr. F asked if I would like a studio like one of these.. uh yeah, let’s find a way to make that happen! Lots of people wandering through the halls, and a nice variety of work to be found, from abstract expressionist to folk art inspired to traditional landscapes. Truly a cornucopia of artsiness!
We also wandered through the studios at the Center for Insane Artists. How could we resist checking it out with a name like that? Alas, I’ve been unable to find any info for them online. But a handful of the studios were open, some interesting work to be found there, for sure!
My favorite stop was First Street Gallery, HSU’s non-profit, off campus art gallery. No cameras were allowed, but I HAD to share these shows with you, so I pulled images from their website. Currently, the exhibition space is broken up into two shows, one featuring the work of artist and Stanford University professor Gail Wight, on loan from Patricia Sweetow Gallery. Wight’s work is an elegant combination of beauty and science, her burned vellum drawings inspired by a 1948 pharmacological study of spiders and her composite digital prints, all drew my eye with their intricate simplicity.
The other half of the gallery was taken over by three North Coast artists, Seana Burden, Jeff Jordan, and Jesse Wiedel in their group exhibition, Laughter in Darkness. The works of these three artists combine traditional landscape and dream-like imagery often providing commentary on contemporary culture. I was especially drawn to Burden’s “Boob” paintings in which she creates a fantastical land in which all the subversive messages we are sent each day are much more blatant.
seana burden, jesse wiedel, and jeff jordan
Like most good art walks, we weren’t able to get to everything, but what we did see gave Mr. F and I lots to chat about over a glass of wine ( or 3! ) at the end of the night. I hope you’ll check out the websites of these artists and galleries– so much wonderful talent in this area. I feel so lucky to be here, even if for just a short while.
Gail Wight, Seana Burden, Jesse Wiedel and Jeff Jordan images via HSU website. All other images by Artsy Forager.
One of my favorite things to do in Portland is a little gallery-hopping. There is such a rich creative atmosphere there and this past weekend, I was seriously craving some thought provoking art. And boy, did I get it! Portland’s Pearl District is one of the best spots for art viewing, window shopping, and well, just the perfect place to spend a PDX day.
As we wandered from gallery to gallery, I noticed a definite trend among the current exhibitions– a leaning toward the exploration of the scientific– whether cancer research, technology or psychology, there seemed to be a common thread of art interwined with science running through almost all the gallery shows we saw.
I found the current exhibition at Augen Gallery, Art for Oncologists by Jim Riswold to be incredibly poignant in its honesty and simplicity. The artist has been battling a 13 year fight against leukemia and prostate cancer, but this body of work isn’t just about his own battle. It’s a show of recognition, of thanks, to the crusaders and tireless discoverers of new and better ways to combat this unrelenting enemy. A larger than life candy dish takes center stage, filled with heart shaped sculptures inscribed with the names of chemotherapy drugs. Cancer-fighting is not for the weak of heart or spirit. It takes dogged determination, not to mention learning the names, functions, and side-effects of numerous unpronounceable medications. At some point in each of their lives, cancer touched every one of my grandparents. I know the kind of strength it takes to fight.
Speaking of poignant, we discovered a new gallery on this trip, J. Pepin Art Gallery, a space dedicated to the work of “contemporary artists who are reframing the perception of mental illness.” As I went through the gallery, reading the words of each artist, the story of their struggles and triumphs, it struck me how very powerful art as therapy can be. How we are able to express emotions and situations through visualization in ways that words can never capture.
We “lightened up” a bit when we hit Froelick Gallery and Michael Schultheis’ Universal Couplings of Archimedes.Can I just say how much I love Portland? Where else might you see an exhibition dedicated to an ancient Greek mathematician? PDX doesn’t just celebrate its geekiness, it downright revels in it and I love the city for that.
Our final stop was Butters Gallery, which come to think of it was our final gallery stop the last time we explored The Pearl District, not sure how that keeps happening, but it is always a lovely way to end the afternoon.
The current exhibition at Butters, Proclivities, features the mystical work of Marlana Stoddard-Hayes. In this new series of paintings, the artist moves through the grieving process following the death of her mother by working through the physicality of the creation, application and transference of elements onto the canvas, Stoddard-Hayes was able to liberate herself from the bonds of bereavement. Though created during a time of grief, the paintings retain a sense of wonder and hopefulness. A fitting tribute to a mother’s life.
These galleries, each so different in their approach, offered up stimulating and passionate work, one of the most satisfying afternoons of art-gawking I’ve enjoyed in a long while. The next time you’re in Portland, do yourself a favor and schedule an afternoon in The Pearl District. You won’t be sorry!
Peterson, Schultheis, and Stoddard-Hayes images are via their galleries’ websites, linked above. All other images are by Artsy Forager.
