Davidson Galleries Archives

Muse/News: Ali’s Debut, New in Old, and Cornell Gifts

Rachel Eggers on Jan 22 2024

SAM News

Anida Yoeu Ali: Hybrid Skin, Mythical Presence has made its dramatic debut at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Jim Dever of KING5 Evening shares this story: “Tacoma artist Anida Yoeu Ali transforms herself to transform others.” Mike Davis of KUOW includes the show in his “list of new art exhibits challenges and inspires.” The exhibition was recommended in a recent Stranger Suggests and in this fun video by The Ticket. And Craig Sailor reviews the show for The News Tribune and its South Sound readers: “Tacoma artist with reputation as global agitator now has solo show at Seattle Art Museum.”

“‘I’m constantly fluctuating between the insider/outsider perspective at any one point,’ she explained Tuesday during a press preview of the show. ‘I’m never quite the person that people expect me to be, whether that’s a local or a foreigner, an insider to a culture, or an outsider, whether I’m here or there.’”

Conde Nast Traveler includes the Seattle Art Museum on its list of “The 16 Best Things to Do in Seattle,” calling out the “well-curated” exhibitions throughout the space.

Speaking of SAM’s collections galleries: American Art: The Stories We Carry was referenced in Artsy’s feature, “15 Leading Curators Predict the Defining Art Trends of 2024.” Marina Isgro of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden name-checked SAM’s 2022 reinstallation of its American art galleries as a trendsetter for other institutions.

Local News

Charles R. Cross offers this remembrance of a Seattle legend: “Susie Tennant, early champion of Nirvana and other bands, dies at 61.”

Get ready for “10 must-see Seattle art shows in February 2024” recommended by the Seattle Times’ Margo Vansynghel.

Brangien Davis’s recent ArtSEA post highlights creative organizations that creatively repurpose old spaces.

“Alongside the city’s constant expansion, arts venues tend to be in flux, always coming and going. Many take a hermit crab approach, making homes in old buildings that lost their original purpose amid the changing times.”

Inter/National News

“A Fire at a Seattle Gallery Destroys Works By Picasso, Rembrandt, and Goya”: A fire at Davidson Galleries made national news, including this from Artnet’s Adam Schrader.

The Olympic Sculpture Park is nominated for Best Sculpture Park in USA Today 10Best’s annual readers’ choice awards. Public voting takes place now until February 19. Maybe you’d like to make your voice heard?

Via Deborah Solomon of the New York Times: “National Gallery of Art Receives Major Gift of Joseph Cornell Boxes.”

“…Cornell seems perfect for the nation’s capital because his story is so archetypally American. He was obstinate, cranky and consumed with the beauty of common objects; he persisted with his art in the face of enormous loneliness. Living with his mother and his disabled brother, he found his inspiration in the work of other artists and dedicated his boxes to figures ranging from the composer Franz Schubert to the poet Emily Dickinson to the television actress Patty Duke.”

And Finally

Art But Make It Sports never misses.

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Photo: L. Fried.

Muse/News: Gifts on Gifts, Gallerist Retires, and Amy’s America

Rachel Eggers on Apr 17 2023

SAM News

The Art Newspaper’s Carlie Porterfield reports: “Three US museums use prize funds to acquire works from Expo Chicago.” SAM was one of three museums awarded the Northern Trust Purchase Prize, creating the opportunity to select an artwork by an emerging artist. Phahamong III (2023) by South African artist Mohau Modisakeng is now part of SAM’s collection!

“We’re so thankful to be able to acquire a painting by Mohan Modisakeng. It enhances our efforts to collect living artists, especially those from outside the United States. It bridges many areas of our collection and we look forward to seeing it in Seattle,’ said José Carlos Diaz, SAM’s Susan Brotman Deputy Director for Art.”

We’re still beaming from the gift of the Shirley Family Calder Collection, announced earlier in April. For her column, Patti Payne of the Puget Sound Business Journal wrote about the gift that brings a “rebirth” to SAM. The gift was also “raved” about by a Seattle Times reader.

And that’s not all: The White House just announced that Kim Richter Shirley joins a list of art world megastars appointed to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Congratulations, Kim!

Local News

Crosscut’s Alexa Peters spoke with legendary jazz artist Wynton Marsalis, who has joined in the fight against planned cuts to local music programs in Seattle public schools.

Meet The Stranger’s Artist of the Week: Josie Morway (whoa, those feathers!).

The Seattle Times’ Jerald Pierce speaks with Sam Davidson of Davidson Galleries, as he prepares to retire after 50 years and looks to sell.

“‘It’s just an incredibly rewarding business in the sense that it brings you into contact with wonderful artists and interesting collectors,’ Davidson said. ‘It’s been rewarding to see those perspectives from all these different artists from all these different countries and how it’s influenced by their cultures.’”

Inter/National News

“Searching for Lost Time in the World’s Most Beautiful Calendar”: You’ve gotta see this New York Times interactive with narrative by Jason Farago.

Amy Taubin for Artforum reviews Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up, in which Michelle Williams plays a Portland ceramicist.

Artnet has announced a brand-new season of Art21’s flagship series, “Art in the Twenty-First Century.” The first episode takes you inside the studio with artist Amy Sherald.

“‘I consider myself an American Realist,’ Sherald said in the exclusive interview. ‘For me, it means recognizing my Americanness first, and wanting the work to join a greater ongoing conversation.’”

And Finally

Respect: “Our food critic ate 500 tacos to pick his top 30 in Western WA.”

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Image: Phahamong III, 2023, Mohau Modisakeng, oil on canvas, 55.1 x 41.7 in. Photo courtesy Martin Art Projects.

Muse/News: New Angles, South End Energies, and Pantone’s 2021

Rachel Eggers on Dec 14 2020

SAM News

All SAM locations are currently closed until further notice, but you can still take a walk outside. Here’s Colleen Stinchcombe for the Seattle Times recommending a visit to Western Washington’s many outdoor spaces with sculptures, including SAM’s Olympic Sculpture Park.

“If you’ve walked through before, challenge yourself to find new angles on the statues: underneath, behind, up close. How does the park look on a rainy day, or if we manage to get a dusting of snow this year?”

The renovation and expansion of SAM’s Asian Art Museum by LMN Architects makes architecture site Dezeen’s list of top 10 US architecture projects of 2020. We are working towards reopening (again!) the reimagined museum in early spring 2021.

Local News

The Stranger’s Jasmyne Keimig takes a virtual tour of once-delayed-now-open exhibition Artemisia at the National Gallery in London; she says it’s worth the price of admission, although “when her Judith and Holofernes painting came through Seattle last year at the Seattle Art Museum, sidling up to the gruesome work felt holy.”

Crosscut’s Margo Vansynghel on Yakima-based artist and teacher Christie Tirado, whose recent series at Davidson Galleries, America’s Essential Workers, features “linoleum block relief prints [that] honor the people who harvest the produce many of us buy without much thought as to its origins.”

Beverly Aarons for the South Seattle Emerald on the effort to establish a state-certified “creative district” for Seattle’s South End, led by Afua Kouyate, executive director of ADEFUA Cultural Education Workshop.

“It’s about breathing energies into South Seattle,” Kouyate said. “I had so much dialogue with people [who were] like, ‘Oh, well we already have a business district in South Seattle. Oh, we already have our merchants association. We already—’ Yeah, but everybody is comfortably segregated. Nobody’s really doing things together.”

Inter/National News

Artnet has the sad headline: “A Single US Republican Senator Has Blocked the Approval of New Museums Dedicated to Women’s History and the American Latino.”

Alexandra M. Thomas of Hyperallergic has a play-by-play of a recent online teach-in organized by La Tanya S. Autry that addresses “the limits and possibilities of the arts to address anti-Blackness.” Catch up and find out what’s next for Autry’s Black Liberation Center.

The New York Times’ style writer Vanessa Friedman on Pantone’s announcement of the color of the year. Spoiler alert: for the second time, two colors have been named.

“News of the coronavirus vaccine has reinforced Pantone’s selection. Even in the gray sameness of our current days, the future does look a whole lot brighter. Illuminated, even.”

And Finally

ICYMI: Reflect on what the water holds.

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Photo: Benjamin Benschneider