Henry Art Gallery
University of Washington
15th Ave NE & NE 41st St.
Seattle, WA 98195
www.henryart.org
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Summer Wheat: Full Circle
March 4–September 17, 2017
Summer Wheat: Full Circle features a suite of large-scale abstract-figurative paintings by New York-based artist Summer Wheat (U.S., born 1977) that serve as both portals to imaginary worlds and as mirrors that reflect interior states of being.
In the paintings for this suite—Nightshade, Strawberry Sun, and Valley of Life with Snake—Wheat brings celestial bodies and earthly creatures in a shared pictorial field to consider the relationship between the cosmic realm and human existence. Fragmentary and contorted, adorned and decorated, Wheat’s figural forms and characters conjure the psychological toll and messiness of the mundane experience and search for meaning, and also the beauty and resilience implicit in this process. The title Full Circle alludes to these dualistic qualities as counterpoints constantly encircling us individually and collectively.
Wheat made these paintings by pushing her medium of acrylic paint through window screening, embracing the intuition of felt experience as a way of knowing that rivals conventional forms of reason and logic. The effect creates a textured surface evocative of latch hook rugs and historic forms of wall covering such as woven tapestries to suggest a flattening of hierarchies between the fine and domestic arts and crafts.
A series of intimate drawings, made especially for this exhibition, complement the cosmic allusions of the paintings and picture ordinary household vignettes and everyday tasks. Artist-made jewelry, also conceived for this exhibition, takes inspiration from a personal family myth, and the belief that the snake is an intercessor between the earth and sky.
Summer Wheat: Full Circle is organized by Nina Bozicnik, Associate Curator. The exhibition is generously supported by ArtsFund.
Fun. No Fun. Kraft Duntz featuring Dawn Cerny
March 4–September 10, 2017
Fun. No Fun., a commissioned work by Kraft Duntz, the Seattle-based artist/architect team of David Lipe, Matt Sellars, and Dan Webb, in collaboration with Dawn Cerny, investigates how space and memory mediate experience. This work locates itself somewhere between sculpture and architecture and considers states of togetherness and aloneness, purity and impurity, aspiration and pragmatism.
The title Fun. No Fun. refers not only to the range of positive and negative emotions that are linked to the genesis and execution of any given project, including the many discussions to arrive at a final form, but also to the harder aspects of exhibition making, including navigating institutional limitations and physical and material constraints.
The installation is composed of built forms and voids that together appear to offer options but no apparent resolution—much like the world we live in, where the opportunity for action appears endless but is often thwarted by closed systems and networks.
Fun. No Fun. Kraft Duntz featuring Dawn Cerny is commissioned by Henry Art Gallery and is organized by Luis Croquer, Deputy Director of Exhibitions, Collections, and Programs and Nina Bozicnik, Associate Curator. Project management is provided by Susan Lewandowski, Manager of Exhibitions and Registration. The exhibition is generously supported by ArtsFund. In-kind support is provided by Alison and Glen Milliman and Swenson Say Fagét. Additional support is provided to Dawn Cerny by the Seattle University Visual Artist in Residence Program (SUVAIR supported by the Pigott Family Endowment for the Arts) and the Seattle University McMillen Foundation Artist Assistantship Program.
MOTHA and Chris E. Vargas present: Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects
through June 4, 2017
Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects brings together archival materials and works by contemporary artists to narrate an expansive and critical history of transgender communities. This presentation of 99 Objects is the second iteration in a multi-exhibition, multi-venue project organized by Chris E. Vargas, interdisciplinary artist and Executive Director of the Museum of Transgender Hirstory & Art (MOTHA), and focuses on trans lives and experiences in the Pacific Northwest. Taking an inclusive approach to transgender, gender non-binary, and gender transgressive identities and expressions, the exhibition explores histories of community making and activism, biographies of historical figures, and legacies of violence and resilience. Artists: Ria Brodell, micha cárdenas, Rhys Ernst, Darius X, Lorenzo Triburgo, Jono Vaughan, and Storme Webber.
Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects is organized by Chris E. Vargas, Executive Director of the Museum of Transgender Hirstory & Art, with Nina Bozicnik, Associate Curator at Henry Art Gallery. Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects is a project of Creative Capital and is supported by ArtsFund.
Also on view
Jacob Lawrence: Eight Studies for the Book of Genesis
April 8–October 1, 2017
About the Henry
A museum of contemporary art and ideas, Henry Art Gallery presents exhibitions by a multi-national roster of emerging and mid-career artists. Known for taking risks and for allowing space for uncertain outcome, we anticipate the conversations and opinions that will be important and relevant in the field.
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