seattle art museum Archives

Artist Nicholas Galanin Invites You

Rachel Eggers on Apr 7 2025

“I’ve composed a new American national anthem: take a knee and scream until you can’t breathe.” – Nicholas Galanin

An invitation, a provocation, a plea: The startling neon artwork on view in American Art: The Stories We Carry is all of these things. Commissioned by SAM to create a new work for its reimagined American art galleries, Nicholas Galanin (Tlingit/Unangaẋ) responded with the scorching Neon American Anthem (2023), a “participatory performance” installation comprised of text in custom neon and welcome mats that offers visitors a place to engage their voice, body, and mind in a cathartic experience.

The project to dramatically transform the museum’s American art galleries first opened in October 2022. It came together in an inclusive-planning model as part of SAM’s commitment to centering equity at the museum. The effort was led by Theresa Papanikolas, Ann M. Barwick Curator of American Art, in collaboration with Curator of Native American Art Barbara Brotherton, who retired at the end of 2022, along with other SAM staff, artists, and advisors from the Seattle community.

Galanin is one of the three contemporary artists who worked with SAM, and his work debuted in April 2023. Wendy Red Star’s (Apsáalooke,) lightbox installation, Áakiiwilaxpaake (People of the Earth) (2022) and Inye Wokoma’s curated gallery, Reimagining Regionalism, both went on view with the exhibition’s opening. Red Star’s work is now part of SAM’s permanent collection.

Neon American Anthem fills the gallery with white light from a custom neon installation that offers a proclamation and an invitation in all-caps text: “I’ve composed a new American national anthem: take a knee and scream until you can’t breathe.” On the floor lies a grid of “Daisy Doormats,” the iconic AstroTurf welcome mats with plastic daisies in the corners; this symbol of Americana becomes both unsettling and humorously ironic in this setting. Visitors ring out with sounds of protest, mourning, or celebration, their sounds filling the museum’s spaces.

In an artist’s statement, Galanin says, “The neon sign embodies capitalism, its text a pointed reference to the murders of Eric Garner, George Floyd, Tyre Nichols, and all people of color who have been murdered at the hands of police and agents of the American state. Asking participants to take a knee is a position of deference and worship turned refusal. Asking them to scream until they can’t breathe encompasses protest and prayer aimed at tearing down the systems built to enforce Whiteness, White privilege, heteropatriarchy, and capitalist control.”

SAM is proud to have hosted this powerful artwork that takes on American history and seeks to inspire a new future. May the sounds—and ideas—it has inspired echo for years to come.

– Rachel Eggers, Associate Director of Public Relations

Photo: Nicholas Galanin by Alborz Kamalizad.

Stand with Us: A Message from SAM’s Director and CEO

Seattle Art Museum on Apr 1 2025

Usually on April 1, we post something light on social media for April Fools’ Day—a playful faux exhibition announcement or cheeky art joke. But this year, there’s nothing funny about the cultural sector being under attack.

In recent weeks, there have been Executive Orders and actions aimed at the Smithsonian, the Kennedy Center, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and other cultural organizations and universities. The reality is that museums, artists, and cultural institutions across the country are under siege.

These moves are troubling because they are an attempt to diminish the role of the arts, humanities, and higher education. Museums, artists, and the communities we serve are facing increasing scrutiny.

At SAM, our mission and values remain unchanged. We believe museums matter—as spaces of dialogue, community connection, creativity, and activism. We believe in truth. In inclusion. In history. In facts. We believe in public service.

That’s why we’re taking this opportunity to speak out and ask our community to stand with us and support the arts. Because the arts matter and bringing together our community matters, we’re offering everyone 50% off admission all month long to the Seattle Art Museum. This is our way of opening our doors even wider—inviting people in to experience the power of art and stand with us in supporting cultural spaces during a time when they’re being challenged.

It couldn’t be a better time to visit the Seattle Art Museum, too: Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei is now on view. This exhilarating and expansive retrospective explores 40 years of the globally renowned Chinese artist’s life and career as he questions forms of power, disrupts artistic canons, and challenges political authoritarianism. We invite everyone to come see the show, be inspired, and stir up some good trouble.

Because the best way to push back is to show up.

– Scott Stulen, Illsley Ball Nordstrom Director and CEO

Photo credit: Installation view of Study of Perspective—White House, Eiffel Tower, San Marco, Hong Kong, Long Island City, Mona Lisa, Tiananmen Square, Bern (detail), 1995–2011, Ai Weiwei. Eight (8) black-and-white photographs, 19 11/16 x 29 9/16 in. each. Photo: Chloe Collyer.

“From Rooted to Airy”: Middle Fork Makes Way For FriendsWithYou Commission

Rachel Eggers on Feb 4 2025

After eight years on view and countless imaginations inspired, this week John Grade’s Middle Fork is being deinstalled from the Seattle Art Museum’s Brotman Forum. And that means something new will soon be taking residence in the soaring entrance lobby of the museum, which is a community space free to the public to enjoy without a ticket. Margo Vansynghel of The Seattle Times broke the news today that it will be a new commission from FriendsWithYou, the internationally celebrated LA-based duo of Samuel (Sam) Borkson and Arturo (Tury) Sandoval III. Little Cloud Sky (2025) will debut on June 27 and be on view for at least two years.

The new work is curated by José Carlos Diaz, SAM’s Susan Brotman Deputy Director for Art, who told Vansynghel that “the beauty of [FriendsWithYou’s] work is that it creates really uplifting atmospheres.” Little Cloud Sky (2025) is composed of 40 sculptures of the artists’ signature “Little Cloud” character, each custom made of plastic, four feet wide, and suspended from the ceiling of the Brotman Forum. The work is designed to spread positivity and inspire a sense of connection, encouraging museum visitors to reflect on the beauty of togetherness and the power of joy and nature. While versions of this interior skyscape have been displayed in cities around the world, including Las Vegas, Miami, Tokyo, and London, this is a brand-new iteration and the artists’ first long-term museum installation.

“Sam and Tury create Pop-inspired projects across the globe where visual joy takes center stage,” says Diaz. “We cannot wait to see our lofty entrance come to life with FriendsWithYou’s uplifting work that reminds us of the magic in public spaces and the boundless power of collective happiness. As visitors are captivated by the smiling clouds floating above their heads, we hope they will feel the sense of optimism in the atmosphere.”

The “Little Cloud” character serves as a symbol of peace and connectivity and can be found throughout the artists’ work. In August 2024, London’s Covent Garden featured Little Cloud World, an installation with 40 inflatable “Little Cloud” characters. In January 2024, Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park hosted an iteration of Little Cloud Sky, accompanied by a large-scale parade, “The Happy Dancing Rainbow Alliance,” featuring FriendsWithYou’s iconic characters.

FriendsWithYou’s work has been exhibited around the world. Their latest work, The BAND, an interactive performance-based installation featuring five large-scale autonomous robots, is currently on view at the Cleveland Public Library. In Miami Beach, the artists have a permanent public artwork 50-foot-tall sculpture titled Starchild, commissioned by The City of Miami Beach. FriendsWithYou has had recent projects in Covent Gardens in London, MOCA LA, the Telfair Museum in Savannah, the Dallas Contemporary as well as several gallery shows in Japan and Hong Kong.

– Rachel Eggers, SAM’s Associate Director of Public Relations

Photos: Arturo Sandoval III and Samuel Borkson in front of Little Cloud World in Covent Garden, 2024, Courtesy of FriendsWithYou. Rendering of “Little Cloud,” 2024, Courtesy of FriendsWithYou.

The Seat of Knowledge with Joyce J. Scott

Rachel Eggers on Dec 31 2024

Earlier this year, the SAM team had the honor to film in the galleries with artist Joyce J. Scott inside her large-scale installation The Seat of Knowledge (2024), created for her major retrospective that is now on view at SAM. Walk a Mile in My Dreams features over 140 works from the 1970s to the present—including sculpture, bead work, jewelry, textiles, artwear garments, performance compilations, mixed-media installations, and a new large-scale commission. It’s a summative career retrospective that reveals the full breadth of Scott’s utterly unique artistic vision to challenge unequal social roles, confront traumatic histories, and agitate for freedom.

She settled into the magnificent seat, which is a place that brings together lineages, ancestries, birthrights, histories, memories, mentors, friends: the collective experience of Joyce J. Scott. From her perch she spoke as a fluid winding river, making some hilarious diversions now and then, sharing all that she has learned and unlearned and learned again in her travels around the world and back again, dropping gems as quickly as we could capture them with our cameras. Experience her vision of beauty, humor, and fearlessness in life and in art.

– Rachel Eggers, SAM’s Associate Director of Public Relations

Access to Art: Rebuilding School Tours at SAM

Seattle Art Museum on Nov 11 2024

For most school districts, the 2024–25 school year began in September, and after a month of getting settled, school tours began to ramp up across all three SAM locations. Though we offer some type of school tour year round, our most robust offerings take place between late September through the end of June each year. Like many programs at the museum, supporting school tours is a team effort that spans across various departments. Through institutional collaboration, school tours have mostly returned to their pre-pandemic form after a few years of rebuilding from school and museum closures in 2020 and 2021.

Since I started working at SAM six years ago, interacting with students on field trips has always been my favorite part of the job. The students’ excitement at being in a new place and their imaginative responses to the artwork on view always gives me energy, in spite of all the walking and vocal projection needed to lead tours. However, nothing drove home the value of an in-person museum experience more than when I was giving a dozen virtual tours every week during the 2021–22 school year. Though we tried our best to stay connected with schools, it just wasn’t the same to look at a work of art together on a computer screen instead of in the galleries together. For so many students, there is something about a museum visit that sticks with them, even if they don’t remember specific dates or materials used in certain artworks. We often hear from teachers that students still talk about their field trips months later. As we’ve rebuilt school tours at SAM, we’re reflecting on their impact. I wanted to share what they mean for students in our region.

Based on our 2023–24 school tour evaluations, 82% of educators agreed that their students felt welcomed and valued at SAM. This is especially meaningful, considering how many students who come on field trips have never been to an art museum before. It sets a positive tone for a possible lifetime of museum going and engaging with visual art.

Educators can choose to lead the group through the galleries themselves on a self-guided tour, or select a guided tour, which includes a tour led by a volunteer docent and an art workshop led by a teaching artist. Each SAM location has a different tour and art workshop curriculum that aligns with national, state, and district standards across a range of subjects. Those subjects include National Core Arts Standards, Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts/Literacy, Social-Emotional Learning, Social Studies/Ethnic Studies, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math), and more. We work with educator advisors and school district partners throughout the year to make sure this curriculum is relevant and engaging for students.

In the 2023–24 school year, SAM served over 11,000 students across 339 tours total, with over 50% of these students coming from Title I schools. While we are not quite back at pre-COVID numbers, which saw peaks of over 20,000 students during the 2016–17 school year, for example, it is heartening to see the increase from the 2022–23 school year across our different locations. School tour gains can be largely credited to the reintroduction of hands-on art workshops led by teaching artists, which many educators voiced were needed in 2023–24 evaluations.

School tours at SAM are free for all public schools. We offer full or partial bus reimbursement for Title I schools, which means 40% of their students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. These initiatives contribute to SAM’s mission to make arts access more equitable, particularly for historically underrepresented communities. Though the creative economy of Washington makes up almost 10% of overall state GSP, Washington is ranked 45 out of 50 states in providing public funding for the arts, which includes arts education. This disproportionate funding impacts who is able to gain entry to this thriving part of our state’s economy. Creative Advantage Seattle notes that there are “significant barriers facing students in accessing quality arts instruction — especially students of color, those receiving free and reduced lunch, those in special education programs, and multilingual language learners.” Many of our Title I partner schools do not have visual art teachers, or they split one teacher between two schools. They also typically do not have funding through PTAs or district grants for specialized supplies or field trip costs. We are very appreciative that we can offer these learning opportunities free of charge to so many students.

Learn more and book a school tour for your students!

– Yaoyao Liu, SAM’s Manager of School Tours

Photo: Graphics: Naomi Chan.

Poke in the Eye Object Spotlight: Susanna and the Elders

Nicole Block on Aug 26 2024

Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture is now on view at SAM! This homegrown exhibition features 87 ceramics, sculptures, paintings, and drawings from SAM’s collection—some of which are being shown for the first time. Throughout the run of the exhibition, we’ll be periodically sharing insight on a few of the eclectic artworks on view.

Please note: The following article includes mentions of nudity, coercion, and sexual assault.

Like many works on view in Poke in the Eye at SAM, this painting’s vibrant colors and figurative style draws the viewer in, then flips expectations upside down.

From a distance, Susanna and the Elders (Novelty Hotel) (1980) looks like a cartoon, but the artist, Robert Colsecott (1925–2009), often used this visually appealing strategy to hook viewers and make them confront the more serious issues of race and gender that are in his works.

This intriguing painting is titled after a story from the Bible that perhaps wouldn’t be so well known if not for the many Renaissance artists who painted it. Although Colescott didn’t cite one particular artwork as inspiration for his work, he was familiar with this subject from historical artists like Tintoretto, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt van Rijn, and many others who depicted the story.

In this tale, found in the Book of Daniel, two men are spying upon Susanna bathing in the garden of her home. They catch each other peeping and unite to coerce Susanna into having sex with them. They threaten to blackmail her, but still she refuses. They have her arrested and publicly accuse her of adultery. These two respected men are judges and elders in their community and Susanna is sentenced to death on their word until the prophet Daniel appears and questions them. He finds major differences in their stories and declares Susanna innocent.

Although a somewhat minor anecdote in the Bible, Susanna’s story became popular partly because it allowed artists to display their talent at depicting nude women. During the Renaissance, artists often portrayed Susanna lounging naked, sometimes unaware of the men watching, or other times, seeming to seduce them. Like the elders watching the oblivious Susanna, the patrons and viewers of these paintings also act as voyeurs of Susanna and lust after her with the excuse that the artwork depicts a biblical story.

Robert Colecott interprets this tale in his own way: a naked blonde woman emerges from behind a shower curtain, much to the glee of three ogling men and one rubber ducky. At the Novelty Hotel (a real hotel that Colescott visited in Paris), a bald white man in a red robe, cigarette hanging out of his mouth, and a Black janitor holding a mop are directly next to this Susanna, physically leaning on one another as they witness this scene. Another Black man peers in through the open window, a self-portrait of Colescott himself with his signature glasses and facial hair. The rubber ducky also seems to be looking up at her eagerly from the tub. None of them are touching Susanna or harming her, but they are intruding on the privacy of her hotel room and her body.

Much like the men in this scene, the viewer is also a voyeur complicit in this visual violation. With its bright colors and cartoonish style, paired with the towering seven-foot-tall canvas on which it sits, Colescott’s painting is unmissable. Visitors passing by can’t help but stop and stare at the intrusive tableau.

Susanna’s eyes appear closed as if she’s unaware of those watching her. Alternatively, Susanna’s facial expression could be interpreted as giving the voyeurs a flirtatious smile over her shoulder, as if performing for them. With all these eyes looking at her, it seems impossible that she wouldn’t notice these men around her, but is she to blame for their actions? By calling her Susanna in the title, she is aligned with the innocent and happens to be the unfortunate subject of this male attention.

Colescott grew up in Oakland, California and attended the University of California, Berkeley where he studied painting. He studied in Paris for a year, working with Fernand Leger. Colescott’s Night and Day, You Are the One (1969), also on display in Poke in the Eye, more closely resembles Leger’s Cubist-inspired, rhythmic style. Colescott visited and lived in Paris throughout his life, but returned to Berkeley for his master’s degree before becoming an art teacher in the Pacific Northwest, at a junior high school in Seattle and Portland State College. He later held other teaching positions in Cairo, Egypt, California, and Arizona.

From the mid-1970s on, Colescott was well-known for creating artworks that spoofed and remixed art history. He was a satirist, taking the serious subjects of the art world and translating them with critique, wit, and humor into offbeat commentaries.

Often, Colescott subverts artistic precedents by changing the racial makeup of the scene, substituting Black figures for the historically White main roles. Another work on display in the galleries of Poke in the Eye, Les Demoiselles d’Alabama: Vestidas (1985) plays on Pablo Picasso’s famous Cubist painting of sex workers, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907). Picasso’s original took direct influence from African masks, at the time regarded as “primitive” in the wake of ongoing colonization of that continent, but Colescott puts actual Black figures in this key moment in art history.

In Susanna and the Elders, the men overcome their racial differences to unite in their ogling of the modern Susanna. They are all complicit in this behavior and caught red-handed. However, Susanna seems to still have the upper hand—she stands tall, powerful, and unbothered.

By the 1980s, thanks to the previous decades’ feminist movement, American and European women received more recognition of their social and political rights and a degree of sexual liberation. Even with these men watching her in the hotel shower, she will not be accused of adultery and sentenced to death as the original Susanna was. These older men don’t pose a mortal threat to her in the same way that the biblical judges did. Colescott instead transforms the story into a comical episode that shifts the power in favor of the female lead.

– Nicole Block, SAM Collections Associate

Photos: Chloe Collyer. Susanna and the Elders (Novelty Hotel), 1980, Robert Colescott, American, 1925-2009, acrylic on canvas, 84 x 72 1/8 in. (213.4 x 183.2 cm), Mary Arrington Small Estate Acquisition Fund, 84.170 © Estate of Robert Colescott/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.

How SAM’s Interpretation Team Brought Poke in the Eye to Life

Seattle Art Museum on Aug 23 2024

Have you ever wondered who creates interactives at SAM? Hi! We’re Emily and Ramzy and we design interpretive experiences at all three of SAM’s locations. We work on SAM’s Interpretation team which creates educational in-gallery experiences designed to spark creativity, connect visitors to the art, and share dynamic storytelling.

We hear from visitors regularly that they are hungry for more opportunities to interact with the exhibitions on view, learn about the art in our galleries, and show off their creativity. We considered Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture to be the perfect opportunity to pull out all the stops and create a cohesive suite of interpretive offerings that further explore the exhibition’s themes. In close collaboration with Carrie Dedon, SAM Associate Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art and the exhibition curator of Poke in the Eye, and Justin Scoltock, SAM Exhibition Designer, we developed four interpretive offerings: a ceramic touch table, a counterculture response wall, a hands-on art activity, and rotary phone audio guides.

Ceramic Touch Table

How many times have you been in an art museum and thought “I wanna touch that”? For the average art museum, encouraging visitors to touch is a rarity. Making museums multi-sensory allows visitors to show up as their whole selves, ensuring museum-going can be more memorable, educational, and welcoming to all.

Since Poke in the Eye focuses so heavily on ceramics, we wanted to ensure that people had the chance to experience all the shiny, globby, sharp, and rough textures that make the ceramic works what they are. This led us to develop the centerpiece of the interpretive gallery space: a giant blob-shaped table we affectionately call the “touch table.” The table features 25 samples covering the various stages of the ceramics process, all with completely different textures, colors, and glazes, that any visitor can walk up and touch.

To guide visitors as they touch, we wrote accessible didactic signage to accompany each type of ceramic. This presented a natural opportunity to try something new for SAM: incorporating braille labels into the galleries. We hope this is one small step of many toward SAM’s progress in making art and interactives more accessible.

So far, it has been clear that people simply love to touch stuff. Visitors respond with visible and often audible joy when they see the words “please touch” in the galleries. There’s also a huge variation in how people engage with this table. Some read every word of the educational signage, some talk out loud with a friend about the different textures they’re touching, and others don’t read any signage and just touch the ceramics. Any of the above is fine by us!

Counterculture Response Wall

We knew the interpretive space wouldn’t be complete without an opportunity for visitors to express themselves and share their ideas. Counterculture is a key throughline of the exhibition, and we wanted to give visitors a chance to understand the concept more concretely by making it personal and related to their own lives, not just as an abstract idea from the 1960s and 70s. After selecting one of four prompt cards about counterculture, visitors can respond however they’d like using colored pencils: with words, with illustration, or most popularly, a mix of both.

An unexpected but welcome outcome of this interactive is how much visitors love reading other visitors’ responses. Any time we pop into the interpretive space, we’re bound to see visitors looking at others’ responses and pointing, smiling, or remarking on the ideas, impressive illustrations, or multiple languages they see on the shelves. We’ve been blown away by the creativity that people are exhibiting in their responses to these prompts.

From Ordinary to Extraordinary Art Activity

Expressing yourself conceptually in response to a prompt is a great way to share your personal connection to the exhibition’s themes, but why stop there? We know that a dose of creativity is powerful for both learning and well-being, so we wanted to provide a more visual opportunity for visitors to create.

Many of the artists featured in Poke in the Eye use mundane, everyday objects as inspiration for forms that they included in their art. These ordinary objects are transformed into new, original, and extraordinary art by the artist. We wanted to give people a glimpse into this perspective and a chance to try out a version of this process themselves, by transforming an illustration of a trailer, a toilet, a teacup, or a rotary phone into something extraordinary.

And wow, “extraordinary” is an understatement! Our visitors have really understood the assignment. As of mid-August, visitors have transformed about 7,000 object cards. It seems that the rotary phone is one of the most popular cards that visitors choose to transform. As designers, we’re thrilled to know that visitors are engaging with both the activities in the interpretive gallery and our final interpretive offering which is sprinkled throughout the exhibition: the rotary phone audio guides.

Rotary Phone Audio Guides

While exploring Poke in the Eye at SAM, you may have noticed a few old-school rotary phones in several of the exhibition’s galleries. Pick one up and you’ll hear exclusive content about some of the artworks on view in the exhibition. These phones are part of the Interpretation team’s latest efforts to break out of the box and put a new spin on a classic museum offering: the audio guide.

To create this retro experience, we tackled two major obstacles: hacking 60 year-old rotary phones to play MP3 files, and developing engaging audio content to connect our visitors with the art. To hack the rotary phones, we called in Sasha Falsberg, SAM Systems Engineer, who took each one apart, studied the mechanics, and reassembled them with a tiny raspberry pi computer. Now when you pick one up, the pins on the phone trigger the Pi and an MP3 plays until you place it back down— it’s magic!

For the audio content development, we had two main goals: 1. Feature the voice of artists and 2. Develop family-friendly content. We interviewed artists Fay Jones, Patti Warashina, and Jeffry Mitchell, who shared their unique perspectives on creativity, process, and the stories behind their artwork. For the family stops, we developed scripts in the form of a thoughtful dialogue between a teeanger and a kid, encouraging close-looking and connection to the art. This kind of scripted, theatrical conversation was a new approach for SAM, so we collaborated closely with educators, parents, and kids to ensure that the content would land with our younger visitors.

Since opening Poke in the Eye in June, we’ve seen the phones spark joy in our visitors, regardless of age. Even though we designed the family stops with kids in mind, it’s been a pleasant surprise to see that adults have been enjoying the rotary phones just as much, if not more, than kids! There’s something about the tactile and playful experience of picking up a vintage phone in the galleries sparks the curiosity of visitors of all ages, leading to meaningful connections with each other and the art.

What’s Next?

Creating interpretive experiences for Poke in the Eye has been an incredibly rewarding experience for our team. From hands-on experiences, to art-making and rotary phones, we’ve had the opportunity to flex our creativity and collaborate across departments throughout the museum. In the last two months, it’s been exciting to see firsthand the impact on the visitors’ experiences at SAM. In the galleries, we see friends showing off the everyday objects they’ve transformed, toddlers using the step stool to reach for the ceramic touch table, and kids leading their parents to the vintage phones in the next gallery. We can’t wait to continue this momentum into our future exhibitions at SAM, designing interpretive experiences that foster creativity, belonging, and connection with the art for all of our visitors.

– Emily Gardner, SAM Assistant Manager for Gallery Learning, & Ramzy Lakos, SAM Digital Interpretation Specialist

Photos: Chloe Collyer.

Curator Christian Larsen on Diego Cibelli’s Fiori dei miei Habiti

Seattle Art Museum on Aug 22 2024

Fiori dei miei Habiti (La Montagne Enchantée) is a tour de force of porcelain artistry by Diego Cibelli, the Neapolitan contemporary master of this historically prized and notoriously delicate and technically difficult medium. Cibelli has achieved such extraordinary technical skill in part due to his close relationship with the legendary Royal Porcelain Manufactory at Capodimonte in Naples, Italy. His conceptual approach owes much to his training as both an artist and a designer at the Academy of Fine Arts and University Luigi Vanvitelli in Naples and the Weisensee Kunsthochschule in Berlin, Germany. Evolving from the tradition of 1960s and ’70s Italian radical designers—such as Archizoom, Superstudio, Andrea Branzi, and Ettore Sottsass—Cibelli’s work shares with these spiritual forefathers a belief in objects as powerful agents in our lived-in and natural environments. His training in design was not to gain “a practical functional method of doing,” as Cibelli puts it, but rather “it was a path I took only to be influenced by those thoughts where the object is considered as ‘a living being’ with its own history. This makes objects on a speculative level similar to human beings.”

Cibelli’s research-based approach leads to the production of singular collections, each exploring a specific theme—for example, the relationship between ceramics, ancient and medieval iconography, and early modern print culture. He has even created ceramic representations of the cash tips received in a single day by coffee baristas. The results are worthy of the most extraordinary cabinets of curiosities and Wunderkammer (wonder-room) collections.

The son of a fisherman, Cibelli grew up in the Naples working-class neighborhood of Scampia, a community of low-income housing that has been notoriously represented as the mafia-controlled center of drug dealing in the TV drama Gomorrah. Cibelli is the proud native son of his neighborhood, where his studio occupies the unused second floor of the local elementary school. In his workshop, he has overcome the challenges of his circumstances to grow a staff of assistants and a prolific practice that has made Cibelli a preeminent voice in contemporary porcelain.

Born into anything but royal conditions, Cibelli is the unlikely heir apparent to the long tradition of exquisitely detailed porcelain flowers that became the signature of the Royal Porcelain Manufactory at Capodimonte. Founded in 1743 by King Charles of Bourbon to rival the porcelain produced at Sèvres and Meissen for the French and German courts, respectively, Capodimonte porcelain became prized for its fine quality due to the suppleness of its paste.

The Seattle Art Museum commissioned Cibelli to create Fiori dei miei Habiti as a site-specific work that responds to the crown jewel of the museum’s European galleries: the Porcelain Room. Cibelli has expressed what an honor it is to have been invited to “dance together with so many porcelain masterworks gathered from across time and cultures in the museum’s extraordinary collection.” His work for SAM is a study in choreographies orchestrated between characters caught in complex compositions that create mininarratives and vignettes. This is not the first time Cibelli has engaged in such a dance. For The Art of Dancing Together, his 2021 solo exhibition at the Museum and Royal Wood of Capodimonte, the home of the Farnese Collection, Cibelli was invited to research and respond as a way of engaging in a contemporary dialogue with the museum’s historic masterworks.

Similarly to his work at Capodimonte, Cibelli responds to the context of SAM’s Porcelain Room, with its famed ceiling fresco by Venetian baroque rococo master Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696–1770). Rising upward in the center of the Porcelain Room directly underneath the Tiepolo ceiling, Cibelli’s porcelain mountain landscape provokes a conversation between the histories of sculpture and painting. His three-dimensional allegory responds directly to Tiepolo’s two-dimensional The Triumph of Valor over Time. While the vanity of eternal fame is the driving force behind Tiepolo’s work, Cibelli conveys the transcendence of eternal nature beyond humanity’s vanity. The pairing could not be more fitting. Tiepolo is known as a painter of light, whose ceiling frescoes in Venetian palazzi become illuminated and in turn diffuse light through the whole room by capturing the glimmer of sunlight reflected off the lagoon’s surface.In the purity of its bisque white body, Cibelli’s porcelain captures light into the vitreous translucency of its material, radiating an otherworldly, glowing aura. In terms of style, Cibelli’s baroque forms of abundance and technical virtuosity rival that of the great Italian baroque masters. His Neapolitan culture surely instilled in him the awe-inspiring drama of that city’s intense regional version of baroque. But his lightness of touch and preference for the whimsical arabesques of the floral and natural world place him within the language of rococo.

The work’s title takes on multiple meanings by substituting the word fiori (flowers) for fuori (out) in the expression fuori dei miei habiti, which means “out of my habitat [or habits],” implying a journey into the uncomfortable or unknown, an experience outside of one’s comfort zone. But the play on words could also be interpreted as “flowers of my dress,” drawing attention to the characters’ skin and garments of garlands, foliage, sticks, and flowers.

Cibelli takes his initial inspiration from Filippo Tagliolini’s La Caduta dei Giganti (1785–90), one of the greatest masterpieces of Capodimonte porcelain. In Tagliolini’s work, Zeus straddles the peak of Olympus hurling thunderbolts at the Giants, who are depicted as loin cloth–clad muscle men tumbling in various poses of defeat down the craggy slopes of the mountain. The Giants themselves were said to be hybrid beasts with dragon scales and shaggy hair, as tall as mountains and nearly invincible.

Cibelli reverses Tagliolini’s formula of traditional heroic masculinity in favor of a spectrum of diverse hybrid creatures, not a war of testosterone-fueled men but queer celebrants in states of transformation. Through the magic of metamorphosis, Cibelli conjures the act of becoming through the union of vegetal, human, and animal. His unique crossbreeds aspire toward a holistic and interconnected cosmology. Instead of defeated and falling down the mountain, his enchanted menagerie sets off on a journey full of twists, chains, tumbles, close calls, and glory as the beings spirally ascend the peak heavenward. Their path takes them through challenging encounters with animal-vegetal others as well as their own changes and transcendence.

Cibelli explains that it is in the process of his characters’ transformations that “they express beauty in their own terms.” Cibelli further explains that “beauty in my work comes from ‘the baggage of history.’ I consider time as a resource of ‘whispers’ that offer for each of my productions an overwhelming visual narration.”

To encounter Diego Cibelli is to discover a rare and unique, almost mythological, creature. He is the proverbial unicorn. His physical presence astonishes with his courageous and bold sartorial choices. His body has suffered through the challenges of an eating disorder, which in the food-dominated culture of Italy carries an especially intense resonance. His work is marked by a relationship to abundance and food, with one collection even titled Feed Me with Domestic Stuff. His star has risen and, along with it, he has triumphed over his own personal challenges. A light, joyful, and boundless compassion emanates from his soul. When with Cibelli, he transports us along with him into his fantastical world of imaginative and transcendent beauty.

– Christian Larsen, SAM Guest Curator and Cultural Historian

Photo: Chloe Collyer.

Poke in the Eye Object Spotlight: Double Poke in the Eye II

Nicole Block on Aug 6 2024

Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture is now on view at SAM! This homegrown exhibition features 87 ceramics, sculptures, paintings, and drawings from SAM’s collection—some of which are being shown for the first time. Throughout the run of the exhibition, we’ll be periodically sharing insight on a few of the eclectic artworks on view. Stay tuned for more object spotlights to come.

Did you know that Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture derived its title from one of the artworks on view in the exhibition? It’s true!

Created by artist Bruce Nauman in 1985, Double Poke in the Eye II features two faces made up of bright neon tubing. The figures look at one another while the hands in between them alternate lighting up. There is a slight delay between when the hands light up, but the two figures are always simultaneously poking each other in the eye, both at fault. Their pointed fingers just barely touch one another’s eyes and one face has its mouth open, seemingly arguing.

Nauman began making works in neon in the 1960s, often using wordplay and both text and figurative imagery, to address “pain, life, death, love, hate, pleasure” to quote the title of another neon work by him that puts those words into a never-ending circle. Neon is typically used for commercial advertising, attracting the consumer’s eye to a storefront, but Nauman’s signs twist this commonly recognized aesthetic to question philosophical and artistic ideas.

Nauman was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana and attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison to study mathematics, physics, and art, then the University of California, Davis for his MFA. UC Davis was a hub for artists who rejected abstract and minimalist aesthetics and boundaries of low and high art. William T. Wiley and Robert Arneson were among those who taught Nauman at Davis and are also featured in Poke in the Eye.

Nauman mainly studied sculpture, but after graduating, became known for his performances recorded in his studio space. Nauman captured himself doing repetitive tasks and exercises; for example, Walking in an Exaggerated Manner around the Perimeter of a Square, 1967–68, is ten minutes of Nauman doing just what the title describes. Watching these mundane actions captured on film draws attention to the topics of surveillance and privacy, as well as the human body’s physical limits and abilities, and what qualifies as art. To Nauman, anything an artist does in his studio is art and one of the most accessible materials an artist can use is his own body.

Though Double Poke in the Eye II is not a performance piece, it echoes some of these themes. It mimics an endless, repetitive action as the figures go back and forth poking one another. Due to the way the lights click off and on and make the work change moment to moment, the viewer can get caught up watching this pattern repeat, trying to observe the whole sequence. In the way that viewers watch Nauman’s own body perform these repetitive actions, here we have people performing the same simple poke, again and again. Though the neon colors make this scene cartoonish, this piece illustrates a moment of pain and bodily harm that the viewer is forced to watch.

Yet, a “poke” has less serious connotations than a punch, a jab, or a stab to the eye. A poke is slightly silly. We “poke fun” at things to make light of them. The word choice for the title is significant because Nauman is also interested in the role of language in his art.

The gaps where language is imprecise are part of what Nauman wants to tease out. In 1989, Nauman said:

“When language begins to break down a little bit, it becomes exciting and communicates in nearly the simplest way that it can function: you are forced to be aware of the sounds and the poetic parts of words. If you deal only with what is known, you’ll have redundancy; on the other hand, if you deal only with the unknown, you cannot communicate at all. There is always some combination of the two, and it is how they touch each other that makes communication interesting.”¹

The work isn’t just a poke in the eye but a “double poke” which is a not a common phrase: Is it a double poke because of the two figures poking one another? Or because there are two eyes as possible targets? Or could they be poking twice in a row?

Besides the verb of “poke”, the emphasis on the eye in this work is key—damaging someone’s vision impairs a major way of interacting with the world, limiting the way they can perceive others, art, and everything around them.

Double Poke in the Eye II is open to interpretation and double meanings. When asked about what the title of this particular work means on a SAM questionnaire, the artist simply replied “It is what it is.”

For the exhibition though, this title represents the experimental modes that these artists used to depart from their contemporary artistic movements and seek something new. Many of these artists in Poke in the Eye depicted figures in their work (rather than abstraction); worked with neon, ceramics, and textiles (rather than paint and canvas); and were silly and self-effacing (rather than serious).

Artworks like these are a type of a poke in the eye—they stand out as offbeat and off-kilter from expectations of what art should be.

– Nicole Block, SAM Collections Associate

1 John Yau, “Words and Things: The Prints of Bruce Nauman”, in Bruce Nauman Prints 1970-89, ed. Christopher Cordes (Castelli Graphics: New York, Lorence Monk Gallery: New York, Donald Young Gallery; Chicago, 1989), 10.

Photo: Chloe Collyer.

Muse/News: Meeting Ourselves, New Leader, and Pirate Myths

Rachel Eggers on Aug 5 2024

SAM News

Author and speaker Jodi-Ann Burey writes for ARTE NOIR about spending “an afternoon with Jacob Lawrence” at the Seattle Art Museum. A 13-work exhibition of the modern artist, Jacob Lawrence: American Storyteller, is now on view.

“Why does one painting call us more than others? What parts of ourselves, buried or thriving, known or unknown, does art draw out? What does it mean to stand in front of a Jacob Lawrence painting and think only of my mother? I make a mental note to call her on my way out.”

“An Uproarious Survey in Seattle Brings Together the West Coast’s Artist-Heretics”: Art historian Patricia Failing reviews Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture for ARTnews. You’ve got one month left to see it at SAM!

“Wrapping together art-historical revisionism and kid-friendly displays, the Seattle Art Museum’s new exhibition, “Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture,” flashes back to artistic rebellions of the 1960s and ‘70s associated with the Bay Area Figurative Movement, Funk art, and Northwest studio ceramics.”

Local News

The latest weekly newsletter of Cascade PBS’s Brangien Davis features Actualize AiR, the new endeavor in the Coliseum Theater, and mourns the passing of potter Reid Ozaki. BTW: Did you know that Davis has launched a new video series, Art by Northwest? It broadcasts on Friday nights and streams the following Mondays.

Here’s Jas Keimig for South Seattle Emerald with another helpful “Arts in the South End Roundup” for the month of August.

Big news via Tat Bellamy-Walker of The Seattle Times: “Seattle’s Northwest African American Museum picks Brandon Bird as CEO.”

“Bird doubled down on the need for the museum to be ‘anchored and grounded’ in reflecting its mission to be a family-focused institution that uplifts the experiences of all Black people, particularly those in the Pacific Northwest.”

Inter/National News

Via Brian Boucher for Artnet: “Snoop Dogg Paid an After-Hours Visit to the Louvre. Zaniness Ensued.”

Andrew Russeth for The New York Times on Pacita Abad’s first retrospective, which opened at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis last year and is now on view at MoMA PS1.

Maev Kennedy for The Art Newspaper on the conservation of a rare pirate flag for an upcoming exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in London.

“The exhibition will demolish cherished myths about pirates, including walking the plank and maps of buried treasure. It will also reveal that some kept disappointingly pragmatic rules on board—Bartholomew Roberts, better known as Black Bart, insisted on lights out by 8 pm.”

And Finally

Celebrating James Baldwin’s 100th birthday through his sentences.

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Photo: Chloe Collyer.

Muse/News: Timeless Calder, Trash Art, and Artsy Ceremony

Rachel Eggers on Jul 29 2024

SAM News

For Seattle Magazine, Rachel Gallaher interviewed collector Jon Shirley and curator José Carlos Diaz about iconic artist Alexander Calder and Calder: In Motion, The Shirley Family Collection. By popular demand, the exhibition has been extended through October 20.

“Calder invented an entirely new way to make sculpture,” Shirley adds. “His works of 70 years ago look like they were made yesterday. Not many artists have created a whole new art form, and have created works that seem timeless. To my mind, he is the most accessible artist ever.”

Seattle Refined’s “Artist of the Week” is Jasmine Novak, a coldwater scuba diver who creates evocative photographs from the watery depths. She is also a SAM Gallery artist whose work was recently shown at the gallery’s booth at the Seattle Art Fair.

And Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture at the Seattle Art Museum is on Seattle Met’s list of “Things to Do in Seattle.” So come and see it already!

Local News

Via Seattle Met’s Adam Willems: “The Ultimate List of Local Olympians to Watch in Paris.”

The Seattle Times’ Erik Lacitis wrote a story about a half day driving tour to do with visitors; then he shared a follow-up sharing readers’ thoughts on what he missed (including the wise suggestion of a visit to Volunteer Park and the Seattle Asian Art Museum…).

Also in The Seattle Times: Gayle Clemans on “trash-talking art and other must-see Seattle shows in August 2024.”

“These thought-provoking exhibitions ask us to reconsider art and political history through carefully crafted works of art that elevate often-overlooked stories and materials.”

Inter/National News

Via Artnet’s Jo Lawson-Tancred: “5 of the Most Memorable Artist-Designed Olympics Posters.” (We’re partial to Jacob Lawrence’s Study for the Munich Games Poster (1971), which is now on view in Jacob Lawrence: American Storyteller at the Seattle Art Museum.)

Sarah Belmont for ARTnews on “Nine Must-See Exhibitions in Tune with the 2024 Olympics in France.”

Artnet’s Sarah Cascone name-checks all the references in the “unusually art-filled” Olympics Opening Ceremony in Paris.

“The Mona Lisa escaped from the Louvre to catch the occasion, braving the rain along with an expected 300,000 Parisians and visitors from around the world.”

And Finally

“Snoop Dogg, NBC’s New Voice of the People.”

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Image: Installation view of Calder: In Motion, The Shirley Family Collection, Seattle Art Museum, 2023, © 2024 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, photo: Alborz Kamalizad.

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

Rachel Eggers on Jul 24 2024

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.

TAG Talks: The Power of Water, Color, and Teen Voices in American Art: The Stories We Carry

Seattle Art Museum on Jul 18 2024

SAM’s Teen Arts Group (TAG) is an intensive internship program for high school-aged youth who are eager to learn about themselves and the world through art, and are excited to make SAM a fun and engaging space for teens. TAG members meet weekly from October to May to learn about the behind-the-scenes work of an art museum, lead engaging gallery tours, plan Teen Night Out, and so much more. TAG Talks is an ongoing SAM Blog series on SAM Blog that serves as a space for SAM’s teen leaders to express themselves and their love of art. Keep up with all TAG adventures by following @samteens on Instagram and stay tuned for more TAG Talks to come!

When it was announced that this year’s cohort of Teen Arts Group leaders would be making an audio guide for American Art: The Stories We Carry as our long-term project for the year, I was a bit nervous. I had never written a podcast or script before—and definitely not an audio guide. The idea of something I made being displayed for hundreds (maybe thousands!) of people to access was both intimidating and exciting! I was thrilled to try something new as well as test my creativity skills by developing something that guests at the museum could use to further enjoy the art. After finding out it would be something we work on in pairs, I felt more at ease as I usually work better and more efficiently in pairs than I do by myself.

I was lucky enough to be paired with Lila, another Teen Arts Group leader who had amazing ideas for the entirety of the project! She initiated the plan of having a conversation between us that consisted of analyzing the tones and impacts of the artworks we were assigned to discuss. She also proposed the idea of presenting the conversation as a podcast episode, which greatly contributed to the engaging and enjoyable demeanor of the final audio guide. Other folks that played instrumental roles on the audio guide as editors, recorders, and overall awesome people were Cristina Cano-Calhoun, SAM Museum Educator for Youth Programs, Ramzy, SAM Digital Interpretation Specialist, and Sasha Falsberg, SAM Audio Visual Technician! They greatly helped us make an audio guide that was polished, well-made, and fun to listen to. Each time new edits were made to our script, they always had the most helpful feedback and creative new ideas to add!

One of the most memorable moments I had working on the audio guide was when it came time to record. This was the part that I was especially nervous about, as I was sure I wouldn’t be very good at recording something like this. Lila and I were guided to the recording area where Sasha greeted us and introduced us to some of the equipment we would be using. It was a calm and cozy environment in the recording room; the lights were dimmed and there were soft objects all around, which helped ease my nerves. We introduced ourselves and recited our pre-written statements made for the audio guide that would be played first when listeners first entered SAM’s American art galleries.

Then, we got to recording our own stop: an analysis of 4 different landscape paintings displayed together on a wall to the right of the galleries’ entrance. We discussed the colors and saturation of each work, and how this affected the gallery’s overall tone. We spoke of the paintings’ differing depictions of water, whether it be an ocean, lake, pond, or a fisherman’s hut. All of our pieces showed various relationships between humans and water. Because of this, we wrapped up our stop by asking: “What would these paintings look like if humans did not exist?”

Our hope was that listeners would walk away from our stop with a new perspective on how humans have impacted our planet’s water, how we use it, and how we need it. I hope that those who listened to our stop will now notice the smaller elements of the artworks that may otherwise go unnoticed, such as the relationships between colors and how they impact the feel of the painting. Overall, I hope that listeners enjoy our audio guide, and I highly recommend anyone with—or without—an interest in art to visit the American art galleries at SAM and listen to our TAG Audio Guide!

– Ella Clark (she/her), 16, First-Year Teen Arts Group Leader

Photos: Chloe Collyer.

In the Studio with SAM Gallery Artist Enid Smith Becker

Seattle Art Museum on Jul 3 2024

In the Studio highlights the private workspaces of local artists represented by SAM Gallery. For more than fifty years, SAM Gallery has supported artists from across the Pacific Northwest and provided private and corporate clients with a wide range of services, from purchasing their first work of art to building extensive collections. To browse a featured artist’s entire catalogue of artwork available for rent or purchase, visit SAM Gallery on the lower level of the Seattle Art Museum.

Artist Enid Smith Becker creates semi-abstracted landscape paintings that capture a mood or an emotion. Her cozy, sun-filled studio sits in the middle of a forest on the outskirts of Seattle. When we visit, the unfinished artwork on her easel depicts a beach scene with blue skies. At the bottom, the ocean’s waves are layered atop the primary scene. For Becker, this painting evokes hope. Her works serve as a bridge between viewers and the natural world.

Becker begins each new artwork by searching through her source photographs, selecting a photo, and making a quick sketch. She paints the background landscape first and then incorporates panels or layers that overlap the landscape, offering multiple views of the same subject. Her painting process begins more loose and abstract, but becomes more intricate as details emerge. Some paintings begin with a certain location and change as she paints. For example, when she began a painting from a photograph of the Skykomish River Valley, she decided the mountains in the photograph were too angular, so she softened them. Becker wants the viewer’s eyes to continuously move and explore the space in her paintings. She works to capture the nuance of color as it is seen in the world, most recently blending five colors of green to accurately capture the color of some trees she was painting. As she paints, she steps back or rotates her paintings, to see the sense of movement and balance in the work.

Becker’s creations focus on nature and the environment. She believes that art can remind people of their connection to the natural world and encourage them to protect the beaches and forests they love. See new artworks by Enid Smith Becker online or by visiting SAM Gallery.

Stay up-to-date on all that’s happening at SAM Gallery by following us on Instagram @atSAMGallery.

– Pamela Jaynes, SAM Gallery Specialist

Photos: Alborz Kamalizad.

Poke in the Eye Object Spotlight: American Gothicware

Nicole Block on Jul 2 2024

Howard Kottler’s American Gothicware from 1972 spoofs the well-known painting by Grant Wood, American Gothic, made in 1930. By placing a decal of the image on four plates and adding his own twist to each one, dinnerware becomes Gothicware à la Kottler!

During the start of the Great Depression (1929–1939), Grant Wood painted this now-iconic couple (the models were actually Wood’s dentist and sister) looking somber and proper in front of their farmhouse. Many viewers interpreted Wood’s painting as satire of older generations and outdated traditional values, while others saw it as a reflection of the resilience of farmers like these in the face of tough times. Since then, this painting has been parodied and reproduced in many forms, symbolic of one particular view of what it means to be an American.

Howard Kottler, working 40 years later, was a ceramicist in Seattle who taught at the University of Washington. Kottler was inspired by Pop Artists like Andy Warhol who experimented with reproducing famous images from pop culture and the art world. After World War II when the American economy was booming, artists were fascinated with the way that consumer goods and images could be mass-produced and identically replicated. Along with that, artists were also drawing from earlier movements like Dadaism and the idea of the readymade to challenge hierarchical definitions of art.

Kottler decided to use an everyday material that one could easily overlook, ceramic dishware, to bring politics to the table. American Gothicware conveys Kottler’s subversive attitude toward American life by altering Grant Wood’s painting across four plates: Look Alikes, Personal Possession, American Minstrels, and The Silent White Majority. Each plate offers a visual confrontation of the original painting by Wood and with it mainstream American values.

Look Alikes duplicates the man’s face and places it on the woman’s body, transforming them into a gay couple of sorts, or identical twins. In Grant’s painting, each character is strongly associated with their gender roles—the woman in her apron with houseplants on the porch behind her indicating her role as caretaker of the home, while the man is in overalls and a coat, holding a pitchfork and aligned with the red barn over his shoulder. While their stern expressions already made these two look alike, Kottler adds ambiguity about gender and the relationship between the characters. Kottler himself was a gay man and often included these questions and hidden meanings in his artworks.

In Personal Possession, a painted landscape seeps into the bodies and faces of the two characters, covering everything except their facial features and hair. Their skin is the color of the sky and their clothes have been replaced by a forest scene with some signs of human development: a bridge in the background and a tunnel to the right. The pioneer settlers who took the land as their own personal possession now wear the land as part of their clothes. It has become part of their identity as farmers who tend the land, but Kottler seems to ask if it was ever theirs to claim, critiquing the history of Manifest Destiny that is often taught in US history.

American Minstrels also delves into more unpleasant parts of American history. This image subtracts color from the skin of the two farmers to make them appear as white as the plate itself, making their whiteness literal. The title implies this could be seen as whiteface, an inverse of blackface minstrel shows wherein white performers would dress up as Black characters and parody their speech and behavior. Black performers would also participate in these minstrel performances, exaggerating their differences from white society. Minstrel shows were popular entertainment throughout the 1800s and perpetuated stereotypes that still linger today. Kottler’s reference to minstrels leaves the work open to more questions—what is being performed here and in the original American Gothic?

The Silent White Majority also critiques whiteness in America, co-opting a phrase that President Richard Nixon coined in 1969 for the American voters who did not vocally join in the counterculture and political discourses surrounding the Vietnam War. Here, the pair’s faces are mask-like with white covering the mouths but leaving their eyes and noses exposed. Their literal whiteness again calls attention to race, but even in their silence, they have power as a majority to influence politics in their favor, maintaining the status quo.

By modifying the recognizable symbol of Grant Wood’s American Gothic, Kottler subverted and questioned prevailing ideas about American identity in terms of gender, sexuality, race, and national history. Alongside these political messages, American Gothicware challenges the medium of art too, transforming the humble ceramic plate into an artwork that offers a visual and conceptual feast

– Nicole Block, SAM Collections Associate

Photos: Alborz Kamalizad.

Muse/News: Weird and Wild, Fan Service, and Double Takes

Rachel Eggers on Jun 24 2024

SAM News

Lights, camera, action! Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture opened last week at the Seattle Art Museum, and Carrie Dedon, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, appeared on KING5 programs New Day NW and Evening to talk about curating an exhibition of offbeat art from SAM’s collection.

“Feeling a little rebellious?” asks Alina Hunter-Grah of SEAtoday. If so, she promises you’ll fit right in at the exhibition.

And here’s Destiny Valencia of 425 Magazine on “Visiting the SAM’s Weird, Wild, and Wacky ‘Poke in the Eye’ Exhibit.”

“How one interprets art is, of course, inescapably subjective. Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture at the Seattle Art Museum makes that implicit truth unusually explicit by prompting visitors to ponder what, exactly, they consider to be fine art.”

Local News

Cascade PBS’s Brangien Davis seeks out “the downtown Seattle art collection hiding in plain sight.”

For Seattle Magazine, Rachel Gallaher profiles dancer and performance artist Lavinia Vago.

Special to The Seattle Times, T.S. Flock writes “Seattle’s MadArt holds its last show, celebrating its legacy.”

“Someone walking into MadArt for the first time may wonder what ties them all together, even if they delight in the objects. Put simply, the show succeeds as a fan-service anthology, in which audiences can relive experiences they’ve had with MadArt’s projects.”

Inter/National News

Stewed eels, rum punch, and a dessert known as “The Convent Serpent”: Artnet’s Andrew Russeth goes inside Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s recipe collection.

Via ARTnews’ Alex Greenberger: “Carrie Mae Weems Returns to ‘Kitchen Table Series,’ This Time with A$AP Rocky, for Bottega Veneta.”

Rowland Bagnall for The Art Newspaper on Teju Cole’s latest photobook, Pharmakon, which features photographs of “unpeopled scenarios” accompanied by short texts.

“Cole frequently presents a pair of images, the same scene photographed from slightly different angles, moments apart, the gesture (literally) of a double take, illustrating, possibly, the two modes they exist in: peaceful, disturbing. Self-consciously oblique, almost withholding, Cole’s photographs invite us to consider not only what but how we see, through whose lens, when, for what, and why.”

And Finally

“Miss Piggy Has a Mother.”

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Photo: L. Fried.

SAM Celebrates Pride: Between Rabbit and Fox

Nicole Block on Jun 21 2024

In honor of Pride Month, SAM Blog features reflections by SAM voices on collection artworks that explore LGBTQIA+ art and artists. Queer lives matter every day of the year, but this month is a particular opportunity to celebrate histories of joy, advocacy, and resistance. Check out more Pride-related content on SAM Blog, including another object spotlight and a list of queer film recommendations curated by SAM’s LGBTQIA+ affinity group.

Jeffrey Gibson (b. 1972) foregrounds his Indigenous, queer identity in his artwork, often with bold colors and materials that make his personal history and intentions undeniable. As Gibson has noted in many of his interviews, he celebrates a state of “in-between-ness”: between cultures, between aesthetics, and between normative gender expectations.¹

Gibson is also in-between in a few places at SAM—Gibson’s 2017 work, Between Rabbit and Fox, is on view on the third floor, in the space between the modern and contemporary galleries and American Art: The Stories We Carry.

This large abstract painting on canvas depicts a kaleidoscope of rainbow colors, refracted in a vibrant pattern. Although at first the painting seems like a smooth solid surface, its raised lines cut through different shapes and shimmery paints in the center to reveal the texture of the canvas. Looking closely, every diagonal is intentional, forming more and more triangles, and they create the effect of overlapping pieces and colors that change as they are layered.

As a painter, Gibson draws upon the major art historical movements of modernism and abstraction that explored minimalism and color theory, including the work of Josef Albers, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Al Held, and Barnett Newman, all of whose works are in SAM’s collection.

Yet abstraction has long been a part of Native American artistic traditions as well, adorning many types of functional and cultural objects, such as Navajo textiles and Osage ribbonwork.² Between Rabbit and Fox also references Gibson’s own earlier abstract paintings on hide, where he directly connected abstraction to Indigenous history by painting upon this culturally significant material. In the same room as Between Rabbit and Fox, you can see contemporary Tlingit/Unangax artist Nicholas Galanin’s work on deer hide, Architecture of return, escape (The British Museum) (2022).

Gibson grew up in Germany and South Korea, among other places with his father’s military assignments, but came back to the US to attend the School of the Art Institute, Chicago, for his BFA, and then the Royal College of Art, London for his MA in painting. While growing up abroad, he felt he was treated as an “American,” but back at home in the US, he was seen only as Native American.³

Gibson is of Choctaw and Cherokee lineage, but didn’t grow up on a reservation. Many Americans he encountered had assumptions about a monolithic Native American culture and artistic aesthetic. Facing these reductive stereotypes, Gibson felt limited by this necessity to explain Native American art and concepts to an unaware audience, but also wanted to make work that reflected his identity. He found there was even less acceptance for a queer Indigenous man and artist.⁴

Instead of trying to avoid representing these identities in his art, Gibson came to a realization that he needed to incorporate them all and create a new path for himself in the art world. Around 2011, Gibson began reaching out to other Native American communities to learn about and collaborate on artworks that involved beadwork and drum making.⁵ He chose to use these techniques and make works on animal hide rather than on canvas, and he incorporated text and pop culture references to make his messages more visible.

Gibson’s work often addresses US history and the government’s failings toward Native Americans as well as queer communities. His other work in SAM’s collection, IF I RULED THE WORLD (2018), is a repurposed punching bag covered with beading, fringe, and metal jingles, and embedded with the title of a song by the rapper Nas. Here, Gibson also uses abstract geometric decoration with bands of primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) interrupted by black triangles.

The punching bag evokes physical action and even a sense of violent masculinity, which is immediately undercut by the delicate and detailed ornamentation that Gibson applies. He questions gender identity by using techniques like beading that are associated with women makers, as well as integrating quotes from queer club and music scenes and performing in gender-bending costumes he designs. Combining popular culture, canonical art influences, and Indigenous art forms and materials, Gibson has forged a new way forward that combines his identities with activism. The Seattle Art Museum exhibited a survey show of Gibson’s work in 2018, LIKE A HAMMER, and this year, Gibson was selected to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale, one of the largest and oldest international art fairs. Gibson’s presentation, the space in which to place me, was the first solo show by a Native American artist at the prestigious event. With this platform, Gibson has brought his queer, Indigenous identity to the forefront, raising issues and history that his communities and all of us have to face in making a more just world.

– Nicole Block, SAM Collections Associate

1 “Innovation and Tradition: Jeffrey Gibson Interviewed by Emily Zimmerman,” Bomb Magazine, May 6, 2019, https://bombmagazine.org/articles/innovation-and-tradition-jeffrey-gibson-interviewed.
2 John P. Lukavic, “What Should Have Been, What Is, and What Will Be,” Jeffrey Gibson: Like a Hammer. Munich, London, New York: Denver Art Museum, with DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2019; p. 29.
3 David Pagel, “Jeffrey Gibson: American. Native American. Gay. An artist’s life outside labels,” Los Angeles Times, October 7, 2017, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-ca-cm-jeffrey-gibson-20171007-htmlstory.html.
4 “Material & Identity Merge in Jeffrey Gibson’s ‘Like A Hammer’ at Seattle Art Museum.” YouTube January 31, 2019. https://youtu.be/-RrqDSZKtLQ?si=1NN66Iigx6HO0685.
5 Anne Ellegood. “Jeffrey Gibson: Critical Exuberance,” Jeffrey Gibson: Like a Hammer. Munich, London, New York: Denver Art Museum, with DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2019; pp. 83-84.

Consider supporting our Community Pass Program partners who serve queer communities:

Celebrate Pride Month in Seattle with these suggested events:

Sat Jun 22
Youth Pride Disco
Break out your disco wear for this LGBTQIA+ Pride party, planned for and organized by LGBTQ+ youth between the ages of 13 and 22! Join us for drag performances, great music, friend-making activities, food and soft drinks, a quiet room, and more.

Through Sun Jun 23
Jinkx Monsoon and Major Scales: Together Again, Again!
Experience the comedy, music, and saucy stylings of two of the Pacific Northwest’s standout drag entertainers, in this wildly hilarious extravaganza set in an apocalyptic future. Check the event calendar for information about performances for teens, ASL interpretation, captions, and masking.

Fri Jun 28
Trans Pride Seattle 2024
Started in 2013, Trans Pride Seattle is an annual event organized by Gender Justice League. Visit the Volunteer Park Amphitheater from 5 to 10 pm for live music, community speakers, performances, and a resource fair all dedicated to increased visibility, connection, and love of the Seattle-area TwoSpirit, Trans, and Gender Diverse (2STGD) community.

Sat Jun 29
PrideFest Capitol Hill
Spanning six blocks of Broadway and Cal Anderson Park, this all-day market features queer local businesses, beer gardens, family and youth programming, and three stages with an unforgettable lineup of live performances.

Sun Jun 30
Seattle Pride Parade
Spend the final day of June by taking part in the 50th annual Pride Parade led by grand marshals Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe. Then, head over to Seattle Center for the can’t-miss performances, hundreds of acts, beer gardens, food vendors, a new family area—and dancing in the iconic International Fountain.

Visit the official Seattle Pride website for even more suggested events.

Photos: Natali Wiseman.

Muse/News: Impressive SAM, Not Static, and Baltimore Queen

Rachel Eggers on Jun 17 2024

SAM News

“Art-loving families should visit the Seattle Art Museum” this summer, says Mark Sissons for Vancouver’s VITA Magazine, thanks to our “impressive” collection galleries and our summer exhibition Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture, which opens this week on Thursday, June 20!

Nick Hilden for The Observer comes to town to discover “Where to See the Best Art in Seattle” and while at SAM finds that “the museum boasts an impressively eclectic range of works.”

Via Nura Ahmed for South Seattle Emerald: “Tacoma Artist Anida Yoeu Ali Demands to Be Seen.”

Local News

Have you been keeping up with this season of Cascade PBS’s Black Arts Legacies? They’ve rolled out eight incredible profiles; earlier we shared the one of Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, but you won’t want to miss the ones of DJ Riz Rollins, painter Moses Sun, glass artist Debra Moore, and more.

Sara Jean Green of The Seattle Times reports on the “long-promised Super Block” coming to the Central District that will feature a public art installation on the neighborhood’s history.

Via Rachel Gallaher for Seattle Magazine: “Tacoma Art Museum’s latest show reconsiders the meaning of Western American art.”

“The four curators are giving space to 17 contemporary artists whose work is often excluded in the context of collections like the Haub. ‘The art of the American West is not static,’ [curator Faith] Brower says. ‘There are many artists creating work that will further our understanding and deepen our connections to this iconic region.’”

Inter/National News

“I can act a fool, I can be delirious, I can give into anger, I can give into joy, into love”: Anthony Hudson AKA Carla Rossi interviews Jeffrey Gibson for BOMB Magazine. While you’re at it, rewatch this video of Carla’s visit to Like a Hammer (it’s our…52nd rewatch? But who’s counting?).

Arun Kakar for Artsy with “The 10 Best Booths at Art Basel 2024,” including works by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith at Garth Greenan Gallery’s booth.

“How an Artist Became the Queen of Baltimore”: Aruna D’Souza of The New York Times spends the day in Baltimore with Joyce J. Scott on the occasion of her career retrospective, which is co-organized by BAM and SAM and travels to Seattle this fall.

“She sees her life as an artist as modeling for others another way of being and living,” said Catharina Manchanda, a curator at the Seattle Art Museum. “She has an incredibly strong conviction that every artwork has a role in bringing people together and offering people an opportunity to learn together, but she also models a whole new way of being an artist within a community. It’s not as much a career for her as a way of life.”

And Finally

“A Photographer Wins a Top Prize in an A.I. Competition for His Non-A.I. Image.”

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Photo: Alborz Kamalizad.

SAM Celebrates Pride: The Talented Mr. Delafosse

Seattle Art Museum on Jun 14 2024

In honor of Pride Month, SAM Blog features reflections by SAM voices on collection artworks that explore LGBTQIA+ art and artists. Queer lives matter every day of the year, but this month is a particular opportunity to celebrate histories of joy, advocacy, and resistance. Stay tuned for more Pride-related content on SAM Blog, including another object spotlight and a list of queer film recommendations curated by SAM’s LGBTQIA+ affinity group.

If you Google “Léon Delafosse,” you’ll get more information on John Singer Sargent’s portrait of the French composer and pianist—part of SAM’s collection since 2001—than on Delafosse’s life story: his early years of poverty, rise as a piano virtuoso and composer, and the eventual destruction of his promising career by powerful men.

Before the arrival of recordings, musicians who were not independently wealthy or well-connected needed patrons and made money by performing in the private salons of rich people. Delafosse made two famous gay friends who propelled his career in Paris: Count Robert de Montesquiou (a social snob and poet-poseur) and writer Marcel Proust. Each of these men acted as unofficial “agents” for Delafosse, promoting his talents to their powerful friends. It’s long been assumed Montesquiou, in addition to being Delafosse’s principal patron, was his lover, too, and that their fraught relationship is immortalized in Proust’s In Search of Lost Time (with the bisexual violinist Charles Morel as Delafosse and the gay Baron de Charlus as Montesquiou).

Gay sex was decriminalized in France in 1791, but men who loved other men emotionally and sexually remained (for the most part) quiet about their private lives. Men who were suspected to be homosexual, who had “feminine” voices or mannerisms, wore colorful and outlandish clothing, engaged in non-traditional (unmanly) careers were described in code words such as “dandy,” “decadent,” “artistic” and “aesthete” (admittedly better than the alternatives of the time:“sodomite,” “invert,” and “pederast”!)

Montesquiou was easily bored and his temper was volcanic. When Delafosse made the inevitable mistake (unknown, but believed to be the fact he was more interested in music than in anything or anyone), their breakup was cataclysmic. Montesquiou and his accomplice, Proust, set out to destroy Delafosse’s reputation and have him barred from important musical salons all over Paris. They succeeded. Delafosse was devastated and hopeless as he became a laughingstock in the capital.

Enter: John Singer Sargent.

Sargent (whose obsession with the male body is evident in his work) took a liking to the handsome Delafosse and in genuine friendship promoted his talents to influential Americans like arts patron Isabella Stewart Gardner. Beginning in 1895, Sargent painted Delafosse (then in his early twenties) and gave him the portrait as a lavish gift. Delafosse kept the painting until the day he died.

Pride Month is a celebration of LGBTQ+ history and a time to ponder the world as it is. Community is fragile, and examining the story of Léon Delafosse presents a warning and a quandary. In Belle Époque France, anyone who did not fit easily into standard society, whose sexual identity or gender expression made them outsiders, had to examine and monitor their appearance, their every move, their every spoken or written word. Such nonstop, intense, and protective self-scrutiny must have been exhausting, infuriating. And seeing “yourself” in another man or woman who was like you must have been frightening and intimidating, and it often led to betrayals, based not just on what was held in common but what was different: money, class, looks, and the power that those things bestow.

When I examine Sargent’s image of Léon Delafosse with contemporary eyes and in the current worldwide political climate, I wonder: is Delafosse emerging from the darkness or receding into it?

– Kevin Stant, SAM Docent

Kevin Stant has been a docent at SAM since 2002. Kevin’s next assignment will be at the Seattle Asian Art Museum; beginning August 31, he’ll give Saturday tours on the exhibition Meot: Korean Art from the Frank Bayley Collection.

Consider supporting our Community Pass Program partners who serve queer communities:

Celebrate Pride Month in Seattle with these suggested events:

Visit the official Seattle Pride website for even more suggested events.

Image: Léon Delafosse, ca. 1895–98, John Singer Sargent, Born Florence, Italy, 1856; Died London, England, 1925, oil on canvas, 39 3/4 x 23 3/8 in. Given in honor of Trevor Fairbrother by Mr. and Mrs. Prentice Bloedel by exchange, and by Robert M. Arnold, Tom and Ann Barwick, Frank Bayley, Jeffrey and Susan Brotman, Contemporary Art Council, Council of American Art, Jane and David R. Davis, Decorative Arts and Paintings Council, Robert B. Dootson, Mr. and Mrs. Barney A. Ebsworth, P. Raaze Garrison, Lyn and Gerald Grinstein, Helen and Max Gurvich, Marshall Hatch, John and Ann Hauberg, Richard and Betty Hedreen, Mary Ann and Henry James, Mrs. Janet W. Ketcham, Allan and Mary Kollar, Greg Kucera and Larry Yocom, Rufus and Pat Lumry, Byron R. Meyer, Ruth J. Nutt, Scotty Ray, Gladys and Sam Rubinstein, Mr. and Mrs. Allen Vance Salsbury, Herman and Faye Sarkowsky, Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Scheumann, Seattle Art Museum Supporters, Jon and Mary Shirley, Joan and Harry Stonecipher, Dean and Mary Thornton, William and Ruth True, Volunteers Association, Ms. Susan Winokur and Mr. Paul Leach, The Virginia Wright Fund, Charlie and Barbara Wright, Howard Wright and Kate Janeway, Merrill Wright, and Mrs. T. Evans Wyckoff, 2001.17. Photo: Elizabeth Mann.

Step Into the Whirlpool of Yirrkala at SAM

Seattle Art Museum on Jun 13 2024

Is paradise lost? Or is there a place on Earth that has been able to avoid climate catastrophes, species loss, homelessness, and menial jobs, and that constantly involves everyone in making art and ceremony? There is. For visions of a culture that has cared for the environment and every living species in it for millennia, and now creates art which invites us to consider alternative ways of navigating life on this planet, let’s turn to Yirrkala.

Yirrkala is a small town on the northeast edge of Australia, which is a central hub for the people who call themselves Yolngu and live on territories from the waters off the Blue Mud Bay in Arnhem Land. Their art gives form to a database of relationships and laws that govern the way humans interact with one another and with natural phenomena. Their signature is seen in intricate designs that arrived with the great culture heroes whose bodies were marked by patterns of water, salt, and foam that dried on their skin. For centuries, Yolngu have painted clan designs on bodies for ceremonies and on sacred objects.

More recently, Yolngu artists have painted on bark, incised metal, and developed media to provide outsiders with hints of how they see their world. Thirty examples of art from Yirrkala were selected from the nearly 100 in the collection formulated during visits to the Top End by Bob Kaplan and Margaret Levi. A cultural keynote of Yolngu culture is the law of sharing and not excluding any people or anything from the group. Kinship extends to all living beings they come in contact with: from birds and insects to snakes and crocodiles. Then there are the ancestral beings who may make their presence known in sparkling water, blazing fire, or the angry eyes of a shark.

Will Stubbs, a Yirrkala resident, has described a difference in what Yolngu art reflects upon. As he has written, “If you think of a time before television, when entertainment was not beamed from remote sources, you would have been grateful for a fully functioning ecosystem… In a fully enriched ecosystem, you cannot separate yourself from the environment: fish will literally fly past your face, snakes slither into your house, and insects crawl into your bed.”_¹ A visit to this gallery will surround you with messages from Yolngu who offer a long, sustained look at their territory and want us to know how extraordinary it is.

Yirrkala: Art From Australia’s Top End is now on view in SAM’s third floor galleries.

– Pam McClusky, SAM Oliver E. and Pamela F. Cobb Curator of African and Oceanic Art

This article first appeared in the February through May 2024 edition of SAM Magazine and has been edited for our online readers. Become a SAM member today to receive our quarterly magazine delivered directly to your mailbox and other exclusive member perks!

Photos: Chloe Collyer.

1 Will Stubs, Larrakitj: Kerry Stokes Collection (Australia: Fremantle Press, 2011), 40.

Muse/News: Essential Summer, Hooked on Clay, and Pointed Playful

Rachel Eggers on Jun 10 2024

SAM News

The Seattle Times staff recommends “8 essential things to do during summer in Seattle,” including a visit to the Olympic Sculpture Park, especially during Summer at SAM. The annual free series of performances, tours, and activities takes place every Thursday night and Saturday morning between July 11 and August 11.

In South Seattle Emerald’s “Arts in the South End: June 2024 Roundup,” Jas Keimig recommends an upcoming show at SAM. Jacob Lawrence: American Storyteller features 13 works on paper by the celebrated modern artist; it opens June 28.

Local News

Via Catalina Gaitán for The Seattle Times: “Seattle now has two of the largest outdoor murals in North America.”

Artists Anida Yoeu Ali and Kamari Bright were announced as the recipients of the 2024 Arts Innovator Award. Both artists will receive $25,000 to continue their practices. You can see Ali’s work at the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Hybrid Skin, Mythical Presence through July 7.

The June issue of University of Washington Magazine has a profile on artist Patti Warashina by writer Hannelore Suderman that reveals the ceramic artist’s original plan for her studies… click to find out just how lucky we are that she discovered clay. You can see examples in Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture, which opens at SAM on Friday, June 21.

“She loved the tactile experience of throwing clay on a wheel and was hooked on creating, pushing the limits of clay and taking inspiration from her classmates.”

Inter/National News

Via Artnet: “A Major Restoration Breathes New Life Into Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s Iconic Seasons.”

Holland Cotter of The New York Times recommends several shows to see in NYC galleries this month, including a solo show for Xenobia Bailey at Venus Over Manhattan. You can see the Seattle-born artist’s Afrofuturist fiber crochet work on view in Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture, beginning Friday, June 21.

Art in America’s Andy Battaglia interviews Joyce J. Scott on the occasion of her retrospective, Walk a Mile in My Dreams, which debuted at the Baltimore Museum of Art and opens at SAM this fall.

“Time and again, Scott’s colorful creations stare down histories of racism, classism, and sexism with steely eyes and an impish grin. She takes a pointed and playful approach to bracing subject matter, the small-mindedness and absurdity of which she exposes as abhorrent and just plain dumb.”

And Finally

“Oh Happy Day” 30 years later.

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Photo: Chloe Collyer.

Calder Smartphone Tour: Yellow Stalk With Stone

Lily Hansen on Jun 8 2024

“Since the beginning of my work in abstract art, and even though it was not obvious at that time, I felt that there was no better model for me to work from than the Universe. Spheres of different sizes, densities, colors and volumes, floating in space, surrounded by vivid clouds and tides, currents of air, viscosities and fragrances—in their utmost variety and disparity.”
– Alexander Calder

Yellow Stalk with Stone is a prime example of Calder’s experimental approach to sculpture, embracing both the transcendent and the ordinary. During the artist’s lifetime, the artwork was exhibited globally with notable stops at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museu de Arte Moderna in Brazil, and the Museo de Bellas Artes in Venezuela.

Despite its global adventures, the standing mobile highlights the important role of found objects in Calder’s oeuvre. Its titular stone—found by the artist on a walking meditation around his property in Roxbury, Connecticut—invites a dialogue between found, manipulated, and artificial materials in art.

Calder: In Motion, The Shirley Family Collection closes Sunday, August 4 at SAM! Don’t miss your chance to see over 45 of the iconic American artist’s renowned works (including Yellow Stalk with Stone) and explore the exhibition’s free smartphone tour from the museum’s galleries. Plus, you can listen to all 16 stops of the tour on your own time via our SoundCloud.

Yellow Stalk with Stone, 1953

NARRATOR: Calder was a truly international artist. During his lifetime, this work was exhibited multiple times, including in Brazil, New York, and Venezuela. But the stone referred to in the title came from close to home; he picked it up near his studio in Roxbury, Connecticut.

The stone creates a dialogue with the man-made elements of the sculpture. Sandy Rower:

ALEXANDER S. C. ROWER: Calder’s process of creation and composition was very intuitive. It was in the moment. It was in the spirit of the moment. It wasn’t something that was planned. He didn’t make diagrammatic plans for creating his sculptures.

NARRATOR: It’s a way of working that resonates with artist Kennedy Yanko.

KENNEDY YANKO: He’s clearly thinking in a way where he needs to explore something, where he needs to understand something in his own way, to his own hand. Maybe he was in the studio, and he just had the stone and just went and placed it on there or he had been thinking about it for a while and then placed it on there, and that moment, that decision is what transforms the piece into what you wanted it to be.

NARRATOR: Found objects have an important role in Calder’s work. José Diaz.

JOSÉ CARLOS DIAZ: I really hope that visitors will walk through this exhibition and see Calder through an ecological lens. He was certainly resourceful—you’ll notice that there’s works that incorporate wood, rocks, bits of material, or discarded objects—but also the fact that Calder could make art from the most ordinary materials and make something so complex, yet so beautiful.

– Lily Hansen, SAM Marketing Content Creator

TAG Talks: Disco, Dancing, and Bringing the Magic of Teen Night Out to Life

Seattle Art Museum on Jun 6 2024

SAM’s Teen Arts Group (TAG) is an intensive internship program for high school-aged youth who are eager to learn about themselves and the world through art, and are excited to make SAM a fun and engaging space for teens. TAG members meet weekly from October to May to learn about the behind-the-scenes work of an art museum, lead engaging gallery tours, plan Tee n Night Out, and so much more. TAG Talks is an ongoing SAM Blog series on SAM Blog that serves as a space for SAM’s teen leaders to express themselves and their love of art. Keep up with all TAG adventures by following @samteens on Instagram and stay tuned for more TAG Talks to come!

It’s a Friday night, and you’re bored out of your mind. The usual hangouts lack the frenzy, and your phone is out of new trends to show you. But wait! You suddenly remembered your friend telling you about the annual Teen Night Out at the Seattle Art Museum.

I joined SAM’s Teen Arts Group (TAG) in October 2023. Walking into my first meeting, it was already known that our adventures at SAM would culminate with Teen Night Out, just like every year. Seeing the excitement and anticipation that consumed last year’s attendees put pressure on us to plan and execute another engaging and fun event for Seattle’s teens. This being my first year in TAG, I wanted Teen Night Out 2024 to be memorable.

When it came to deciding the theme and decorations for the event, it was truly inspiring to hear the ideas of other TAG members. They demonstrated an immense passion for art, and shared their hopes for the museum. Theme ideas ranged from ballgowns, disco, glam rock, and nature. Until, finally, we hit Junkyard Disco. We all had ideas in mind that basically described vintage 70s fashion with a touch of sustainability. With a disco ball too, of course!

Leading up to the day of the event, TAG meetings covered creating decorations for the museum, whilst also leaving time for fun, practicing art with teaching artists. The decorations were my favorite part. Some of the decorations I made ranged from giant cardboard disco balls to a huge “SAM Records” music disk. Oh! And we can’t forget the giant van paper frame that was used as part of the event’s photobooth. During this time of cramming to finish creating decorations and planning, the best part of it all was bonding with other TAG members. Creating new decorations with the help of others while also complimenting and discussing posters made by others was truly the highlight of the process for me.

The minutes leading up to Teen Night Out were full of moving heavy packages of sparkling water and sneaking in some snacks along the way. Every TAG member had amazing, lavish disco outfits that truly matched the theme of the evening. What excited me most, however, was the sheer amount of disco balls, something I could’ve only dreamed of! Mere seconds before the doors opened, I created my own disco ball headband with the support of the tiny disco balls that filled countless buckets along the entrance of the museum. At exactly 7 pm, teens rushed in after the conclusion of the award ceremony of Seattle Public Schools’ Naramore Art Show on the museum’s lower level. I remember teens instantly running to the junkyard area we had in the front of the museum, taking all the tiny and large objects that soon transformed into original breathtaking creations.

Teen Night Out was a blur, but in the best way possible.

I remember creating many headbands and little gadgets that soon found a place on my bedroom bookshelf. In the middle of Teen Night Out, my friends and fellow TAG members Hamda and Samira alerted me to our new TAG audio guide, finally installed in American Art: The Stories We Carry. I remember jumping with joy after seeing our hard work in its full and final form for museum visitors to see and interact with for years to come.

To end off the night, students of the School of Acrobatics & New Circus Arts (SANCA) gave an amazing performance, entirely powered by youth! It was refreshing to see an organization that willingly grants youth the power to form their own decisions, something I admire about SAM as well.

Looking back, Teen Night Out felt like a huge hangout for teens with different backgrounds, but all united through art. Art possesses a healing power that has followed me throughout my life, and it’s truly rewarding to see other teens express themselves through various artistic means. To all teens, Teen Night Out is one night a year, but may very well be the best night of your entire year. You are guaranteed to make friends, have fun, make some great art, and find yourself along the way!

– Ivy Liu (she/her), 15, First-Year Teen Arts Group Leader

Photos: Chloe Collyer & Cristina Cano-Calhoun.

Muse/News: Amiably Weird, Pride Art, and Creative Freedom

Rachel Eggers on Jun 3 2024

SAM News

Alex Greenberger of ARTnews recommends “44 Museum Shows to See This Summer,” including Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture, which opens at the Seattle Art Museum on Friday, June 21. Can you dig it?

On view right now at SAM is Yirrkala: Art from Australia’s Top End, an exhibition of Australian Aboriginal paintings recommended in the May/June 2024 issue of Seattle magazine by Helen Lowenthal.

Artist Anida Yoeu Ali was interviewed for KUOW about “the fabulousness of being a Muslim woman” and her performance work, which is now on view in Hybrid Skin, Mythical Presence at the Seattle Asian Art Museum through July 7.

Local News

For KNKX, two Garfield High students reflect on “what it’s really like to perform at the pinnacle of high school jazz”: the Essentially Ellington competition in New York.

Here’s Brangien Davis of Cascade PBS on the opening of a delightful new brick-and-mortar bookstore in Pioneer Square, Long Bros. Fine & Rare Books.

Gayle Clemans for The Seattle Times on “5 Seattle art shows to see during Pride month 2024.”

“The past, present and future of art is powerfully and inextricably linked with the creative contributions of LGBTQ+ artists who have used art for self-expression, advocacy and social critique.”

Inter/National News

Lance Esplund of the Wall Street Journal reviews the Norton Simon Museum’s exhibition, I Saw It: Francisco de Goya, Printmaker, with prints that include haunting allegorical scenes and brutal images of war.

Artnet’s Katie White interviews Pipilotti Rist at the artist’s “zany, kaleidoscopic, and creatively cluttered” Zurich studio on the occasion of her survey exhibition Doha’s Fire Station.

Via Gameli Hamelo for ARTnews: “When El Anatsui Isn’t Busy Being One of Africa’s Biggest Artists, He’s Collecting Vinyl.”

“Just like Fela, I believe that my career has proven that the audiences will always look to the artist to lead, to expand their experience with new presentations or renewals of old fare. When encountering objects, I think of what they can do and what has not been explored yet, and try to explore it. Freedom has a lot to do with it.”

And Finally

Kabosu, the dog behind the “doge” internet meme, has crossed the Rainbow Bridge.

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Photo: Chloe Collyer.

Calder Smartphone Tour: Animated Coat Hanger

Lily Hansen on Jun 2 2024

A material as humble and mundane as wire proved inspiring for Alexander Calder, who used it to create three-dimensional line drawings. During the late 1920s, he sculpted a range of wire acrobats, performers, animals, and portraits of famed figures of the day, including Fernand Léger, Josephine Baker, and Joan Miró.

These ‘drawings in space’ enthralled the international avant-garde for their projected shadows, captured voids, and challenged perceptions. His radical objects not only upended space through their transparent volumes, but also presented the reality of motion through vibrating wire lines and the inclusion of actual moving parts. As a result of these works, Calder was lauded as Le roi du fil de fer, or the king of wire.

Although intimate in size, Animated Coat Hanger speaks volumes about Calder’s ingenuity and resourcefulness with wire. The work’s title implies that a coat hanger was used to sculpt the profiled subject, but that is not the case. Perhaps the title is a nod to the artists from the Dada movement, who used the choice of selection to create readymades from preexisting common objects, such as hangers.

Tune in to the ninth stop on the free smartphone tour of Calder: In Motion, The Shirley Family Collection to hear SAM Susan Brotman Deputy Director for Art José Carlos Diaz and New York-based artist Kennedy Yanko share their perspectives on this simple yet surprising wire sculpture. Explore all 16 stops of the audio tour now via our SoundCloud or in our galleries by scanning the QR code next to select artworks on view.

Animated Coat Hanger, 1927

NARRATOR: Wire sculpture was Calder’s first great invention. He removed mass from sculpture and introduced transparency as well as gentle movement through vibration.

JOSÉ CARLOS DIAZ: Animated Coat Hanger is really special to this exhibition.

NARRATOR: Curator José Diaz.

JOSÉ CARLOS DIAZ: This particular work is from 1927 which is an example of one of the earliest works in the show. Calder had been so innovative with wire, so much so that we use the term drawing in space.

NARRATOR: Artist Kennedy Yanko:

KENNEDY YANKO: The fact that he would carry pliers in his pocket and just decide to start drawing is such a true thing to me, the idea of choosing a medium to represent drawing.

JOSÉ CARLOS DIAZ: But what’s really beautiful about it is the simplicity. You’ll notice the wooden base, which looks like it could have been a discarded material. You’ll notice the figurative aspect of it, sort of the profile of an individual.

KENNEDY YANKO: It’s surprising, and it’s intriguing, and somehow it’s barely there, but when you take a closer look at it, the sensibility, the delicacy, the gesture, the breasts, the face, how can a line have so much effect and so much life within it? So, I think that it’s just a gesture to like how powerful the way that the eyes can read something, and the way that the mind can fill the rest of the space. And I think with Calder’s work there’s always opportunity for that. He knows that the mind will always fill the blank spaces and always complete what needs to be there.

– Lily Hansen, SAM Marketing Content Creator

Calder Smartphone Tour: Group of Circus-Themed Prints

Lily Hansen on May 25 2024

Throughout the 1920s, Alexander Calder worked as an illustrator for the National Police Gazette. On one assignment, Calder was tasked with visiting Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to sketch circus life. The experience led to a newfound interest for the circus.

A series of seven lithographs on view in Calder: In Motion, The Shirley Family Collection at SAM demonstrate Calder’s lifelong fascination with the circus. Originally drawn in 1931–32, the prints were published in New York in 1964 as part of an unbound portfolio reproducing the artist’s circus scenes. The portfolio, titled Calder’s Circus, includes a signature page by Cleve Gray and a reproduction of a letter from Joan Miró. Notably, the original line drawings were made during a time of transition for the artist: after his performative Cirque Calder (1926–31) and during his exploration of purely abstract forms—as well as voids and volumes—in his mobiles and stabiles.

On the eleventh stop of the free smartphone tour of Calder: In Motion, SAM Susan Brotman Deputy Director for Art José Carlos Diaz explains why Calder considered the circus to be a ‘highly sophisticated form of entertainment’ and shares details of the artist’s famous Cirque Calder. Listen at any time via our SoundCloud or, if you’re in SAM’s galleries, scan the QR codes next to select artworks on view to access the tour.

Group of Circus-Themed Prints, 1931–32, 1964

NARRATOR: These offset lithographs date from 1964; but they’re based on drawings that Calder made as a young man.

During the 1920s, Calder took a job illustrating for the National Police Gazette. They sent him to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to sketch circus scenes. The circus became a lifelong interest for Calder. José Diaz:

JOSÉ CARLOS DIAZ: During Calder’s youth, the circus was a great point of inspiration for him. This was a highly sophisticated form of entertainment. It had a global appeal. It included performative aspects—larger than life theatricality. It included actors, performers, and animals. And he illustrated this. He even went on to make his Cirque Calder, which was his own representation of a performative, sculptural circus that he himself was sort of the ringmaster of.

NARRATOR: The Cirque Calder dates from after Calder’s move to Paris in 1926. It was a complex and unique body of art, and included tiny performers, animals and props such as he’d observed on his sketching trips to the circus. José Diaz:

JOSÉ CARLOS DIAZ: The Cirque Calder was a reenacted performative circus made of small figurines and design sets that mimic the circus. The Cirque Calder was something that was small enough to fit in one suitcase and eventually five, and Calder would perform the Cirque Calder across the Atlantic from Paris to New York.

– Lily Hansen, SAM Marketing Content Creator

World-Renowned Artist Ai Weiwei Comes to SAM in 2025

Rachel Eggers on May 22 2024

Today, SAM made a major announcement: In 2025, the Seattle Art Museum will present the first US retrospective in over a decade of the work of Ai Weiwei. Titled Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei, it will explore over 100 works from across four decades, offering visitors from all over the world a rare opportunity to engage with the celebrated conceptual artist’s wide-ranging body of work. The exhibition will be on view at the Seattle Art Museum in downtown Seattle and is curated by FOONG Ping, SAM Foster Foundation Curator of Chinese Art. This also marks the artist’s first solo exhibition in Seattle.

The news arrived via a co-exclusive by ARTnews and The Seattle Times.

ARTnews highlighted the unique curatorial perspective that FOONG will take: “Unlike many curators who’ve worked with Ai, Foong does not specialize in contemporary art. She mainly works with age-old Chinese works presented by the museum, and she said this moved to her to explore the art history that guides Ai. ‘My intention is to find some language that might describe trends and patterns, the things that have stood the test of time, the things that he thought about in his first decade and are still with him decades on,’ she said.”

And in The Seattle Times, José Carlos Diaz, SAM’s Susan Brotman Deputy Director for Art, called this a “major moment” for the city: “Seattle is due for a major exhibition of his dynamic, large-scale work,” he said. “Ai is a global icon whose work resonates with so many types of audiences; this exhibition will make SAM a destination for locals and visitors alike who will want to engage with his work.”

Exhibitions of Ai Weiwei’s work have brought sold-out crowds around the world, so the museum anticipates high demand and is making preparations for the best visitor experience. To increase access, SAM planned an extended run of six months, beyond its usual exhibition timeframe. Timed ticketing will increase access to the museum and improve flow in the galleries. Ticket release dates will be announced in advance so that visitors can plan ahead. SAM members will have additional opportunities for access, including early access to reserve timeslots, member-only days, and member-exclusive events.

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Photo: Gao Yuan / Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio.

Muse/News: Peaceful Gestures, Art Response, and Ancient Labels

Rachel Eggers on May 20 2024

SAM News

Tune in: Anida Yoeu Ali was interviewed by Gregory Scruggs of Monocle Radio about her performance works now on view in Hybrid Skin, Mythical Presence at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. (Tip: Her segment starts about 31 minutes into the show.) You can see her as The Red Chador alongside her rainbow brigade on Saturday, June 1 across all three SAM sites!

“My gestures are the heart shake…and then sometimes I just bow to them as the Red Chador, just completely humble myself and offer a bow…that is always very well received and it sort of disarms a moment, too, when they see that I’m offering you a moment of reverence and a peaceful gesture.”

Margo Vansynghel of The Seattle Times was inspired by the aurora borealis to find more open-air beauty, including at the Olympic Sculpture Park: “Where to see free, outdoor art in the Seattle area in spring 2024.”

“The installation is a stunning illustration of Serra’s belief that sculpture wasn’t meant to be passively viewed but felt by moving through it. Here, let the undulating steel waves, at once tender and imposing, wash over you.”

Summer season is upon us: For Fodor’s, Sydney Baker has “The Perfect 5-Day Seattle Itinerary”; Baker recommends CityPASS for all your attraction needs, including a downtown day that includes the Seattle Art Museum. And Amanda Teague for The Manual has “4 reasons why Seattle is Kayak’s No. 1 summer travel destination,” including a shout-out for SAM.

Local News

The skies also inspired Cascade PBS’s Brangien Davis, who found “Northwest artists channel Northern lights in galleries from Ballard to Pioneer Square.”

Via Jenn Ngeth for South Seattle Emerald: “Events Bloom All Over Seattle to Celebrate AA&NH/PI Heritage Month 2024.”

Via Nova Berger for Capitol Hill Seattle Blog: “Capitol Hill resident and poet Janée Baugher has received the Dorset Prize.”

“Museums changed that for Baugher. She writes in a literary style known as Ekphrastic poetry: a poetic response to the emotions a piece of art brings. Using language as a tool to bridge the visual and the verbal, allowing the poet to capture their response to the artwork in a way we can all understand.”

Inter/National News

Don’t miss this full celebratory series of the greatest short story writer ever via The New York Times: “Alice Munro, Nobel Laureate and Master of the Short Story, Dies at 92.”

Via Artdaily: “Gagosian opens the gallery’s first exhibition of works by Lauren Halsey.” The artist had her solo show at SAM in 2022 in honor of her 2021 Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Prize.

For the ones who read the labels: Richard Whiddington for Artnet on English archaeologist Leonard Woolley’s excavation of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur and what he found in 1925.

“The clue that indicated that Woolley had uncovered a Neo-Babylonian museum was the presence of artifact labels. Each object corresponded to a small clay cylinder that boasted inscriptions in four languages explaining the object, its context, and its history.”

And Finally

“A Few Words About That Ten-Million Dollar Serial Comma.”

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Photo: Alborz Kamalizad.

Muse/News: Going Mobile, Deep Roots, and Mother Wit

Rachel Eggers on May 13 2024

SAM News

“Hope you like mobiles!!” The Stranger’s Everout names SAM’s first-ever Calder Symposium one of “The Best Things To Do in Seattle This Month: May 2024.” With a talk by renowned Alexander Calder biographer Jed Perl on Friday evening and a day of tours, lectures, and screenings about Calder’s genius all day Saturday, you won’t want to miss it.

And save the date: SAM’s summer exhibition, Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture, opens in just over a month. 425 Magazine mentioned it in their “This Week in A&E” spotlight.

Local News

In her latest ArtSEA post, Cascade PBS’s Brangien Davis sees arts venues “putting on a good face”; some of her recommendations have passed but some are ongoing—don’t miss out!

Via Sarah Stackhouse for Seattle Magazine: “Rebuilding Re-Sole 206.”

“One Reel, former Bumbershoot producer, closing; its art paper survives”: Chase Hutchinson for The Seattle Times with an update on the 52-year-old nonprofit arts organization.

“In an email, Elisheba Johnson, One Reel’s board president, spoke of the organization’s ‘roots that are long and deep in the community. Almost every events/music employee in this region has worked at One Reel at some point of their career,’ Johnson said. ‘One Reel will be remembered as the incredible convener of arts and culture in Seattle for over 50 years.’

Inter/National News

Artnet rounds up the best looks inspired by art history at the Met Gala.

Via Ad Age: “Apple apologized Thursday for a new iPad Pro commercial that was met with fierce criticism from creatives for depicting an array of creative tools and objects—from a piano, to a camera, to cans of paint—being destroyed by an industrial crusher.”

Via Evan Nicole Brown for T: The New York Times Style Magazine: “Betye Saar Remains Guided by the Spirit.”

“Saar, who is 97, decides what to reach for based on something she has referred to over the years as “mother wit”: she feels when a wooden statue, antique doll or rusted dagger is calling to be used. Saar considers this selection process to be a sacred one.”

And Finally

“10 Times Artists Hid Themselves in Their Paintings.”

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Photo: Installation view of Calder: In Motion, The Shirley Family Collection, Seattle Art Museum, 2023, © 2024 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, photo: Alborz Kamalizad.

Muse/News: Complex Stories, Sowing Seeds, and Desk Drawings

Rachel Eggers on May 6 2024

SAM News

On Seattle Met’s list of “Things to Do in Seattle”: the “complex cultural storytelling” of artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, now on view for just five more days at the Seattle Art Museum. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map closes after Sunday, May 12—don’t miss it!

Local News

SIFF is fifty! (Say that fifty times fast.) The Seattle Times has expansive coverage on the film festival taking place May 9–19.

Rachel Gallaher for Seattle Magazine features three local designers—Guillermo Bravo, Prima Dona Studios, and Eighth Generation—who are giving “Seattle fashion” a good name.

Via Jas Keimig of South Seattle Emerald: Native-led arts organization yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective announced the acquisition of a property it will turn into a Native arts center.

“‘By creating an inclusive space where young people, Elders, and all our relatives can create and experience art together, we are sowing the seeds for the vibrant Indigenous futures we want to see bloom for generations to come,’ said Asia Tail (Cherokee), yəhaw̓’s executive director, in a press release about the news.”

Inter/National News

“Went From Bauhaus to Fun House”: Deborah Soloman with an appraisal of Frank Stella, who died this Saturday at the age of 87.

Hyperallergic is already thinking about “14 Art Books to Read This Summer.”

Via Adam Schrader for Artnet: “Kosovar Artist Petrit Halilaj’s Whimsical Met Roof Installation Belies a Dark History.”

“‘These desks were from the ‘70s, years I was not yet born. They have seen the fall of Yugoslavia, all the conflicts of the ‘90s, all the segregation, all the war. They still survived. All those generations of kids were all coexisting in a very beautiful mix with each other,’ he said.”

And Finally

The saga of Sugar the Zebra.

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Photo: Chloe Collyer.