Muse/News: Park Life, All’s Fair, and Benin Returns

SAM News

Heaven Quiban, SAM’s Manager of Public Engagement, recently appeared on KING 5’s New Day NW to talk about Summer at SAM at the Olympic Sculpture Park. Watch the segment to hear about this free programming series and enjoy a performance by musician Alie Renee, who plays at the sculpture park with her band, BYLAND, on August 1. 

“Why you should see Seattle Art Museum’s exuberant new show”: Gayle Clemans for The Seattle Times on Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture, now on view at the Seattle Art Museum.

“It’s a show that asks us to look again at SAM’s permanent collection and the nature of art itself, with our sense of humor engaged and our eyes wide open.”

“It looks like neon guts!” That’s 7-year-old art critic Cora on the exhibition for a sparkling “mother-daughter” review from Elizabeth Hunter for Seattle’s Child. In addition to more gems from her kids and their friend, Hunter shared insights from Carrie Dedon, SAM Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, and Ramzy Lakos, SAM Digital Interpretation Specialist, on how the art and in-gallery experiences will appeal to young visitors.

Local News

Seattle author Octavia Butler’s 1993 post-apocalyptic novel Parable of the Sower opens on July 20, 2024. The Stranger’s Charles Mudede thinks you should read it.

The Seattle Times recently published a package called Affordability for Artists, with several features on how the city’s cost of living impacts local artists, including this illustrated guide of 15 ways to support Seattle-area arts and artists.

For The Seattle Times, Gayle Clemans has tips and highlights for navigating the Seattle Art Fair, which takes place this weekend—swing by our booth to see art from SAM Gallery and swag from SAM!

“As usual, SAF will be a gathering place for the city’s creative community as it intersects with visitors from across the world.”

Inter/National News

Via Artnet: “Fiction About the Art World Is Trending. Here Are 8 New Novels to Read This Summer.”

Sopan Deb of The New York Times on how “Keeping the Lights on at the Met Museum Is an Art in Itself.”

Gareth Harris for The Art Newspaper reports on how the Stanley Museum of Art in Iowa has become the first US museum to return looted bronzes to the Oba of Benin.

“Asked if the Stanley Museum of Art is confident that the works returned will be publicly accessible, Lauren Lessing, the director of the Stanley Museum of Art, says: ‘It is not my job to tell people what to do with their own possessions. The two works of art restituted were stolen from the Oba of Benin in 1897, and they belong to him.’”

And Finally

“I Think About Bill Paxton’s Fiancée in Twister a Lot.”

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Photo: Chloe Collyer.

Muse/News: Wrapping up, bobbling macarons, and going to camp

SAM News

That’s a wrap on Jeffrey: Gibson: Like a Hammer. As a farewell, here’s Emily Zimmerman interviewing the artist for BOMB Magazine.

“I needed to let go of whether I was an artist or not, and I needed to pursue the things that I want to see existing in the world that don’t exist. What are the things that would leverage this world that didn’t meet my expectations?”

Celebrated Brazilian artist Regina Silveira has debuted a new site-specific installation at the Olympic Sculpture Park’s PACCAR Pavilion called Octopus Wrap. A glimpse of the installation process was captured by the Seattle Times’ Alan Berner. Seattle Met and Crosscut also previewed the installation, which features a series of tire tracks wrapping around the walls, windows, and floor of the building, looking like the arms of an octopus.

“The startling change to the familiar park building embodies elements of play, but also reminds us of the luxury of presuming our surroundings will always stay the same.”

And Smithsonian Magazine featured the sculpture park on their round-up of the “world’s most spectacular sculpture parks.”

Local News

Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture announced that Christopher Paul Jordan has been selected to create the centerpiece artwork for the planned AIDS Memorial Pathway project on Capitol Hill.

Crosscut’s Agueda Pacheco Flores and South Seattle Emerald’s Jessie McKenna both wrote up Alexis Taylor’s Black Among Other Things, an installation at AURA in the Central District about her experiences as a Black woman.

The art of food: Chef Brady Williams won Best Chef in the Northwest at James Beard Awards; the Seattle Times’ Bethany Jean Clement recently picked up a shift at Canlis to learn about their legendary service.

“By the top of the stairs, the macaron begins to bobble; on the penultimate step, it leaps to its death, in its final act somehow managing to shatter on the soft carpeting. A man seated at one of Canlis’ well-spaced, snowy-white-linened tables regards me with a mixture of pity and horror.”

Inter/National News

But is it CAMP? The Met’s latest exhibition—and attendant over-the-top Gala—has everyone reaching for their undergrad copy of Sontag. Here are some thoughts.

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) announced this week that Mia Locks will be their new senior curator and head of initiatives; interestingly, they don’t have plans to hire a chief curator to replace Helen Molesworth.

Nadja Sayej for the Guardian on Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman, now on view in New York, which traces her work as a “trailblazer of African American arts.”

“She said her legacy is in the work of her students,” notes Ikemoto. “Even when they didn’t have money to buy their own art supplies, she let them use hers. She often said, ‘I know much I was put down and denied, so if I can teach these kids anything, I’m going to teach it to them.’”

And Finally

Can we please do something now?

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Manager of Public Relations

Image: Installation view of “Regina Silveira: Octopus Wrap”, 2019, Seattle Art Museum site-specific installation, photo: Mark Woods.



SAM Stories