Shubert Ho Archives

Muse/News: Fall Art, By the Numbers, and Painting Obamas

Rachel Eggers on Sep 20 2022

SAM News

Pumpkin spice everything and fall arts previews: It’s the best time of the year! The Seattle Times and Crosscut both highlighted Dawoud Bey & Carrie Mae Weems: In Dialogue, a touring exhibition that opens at SAM on November 17! Get excited about exploring the work and friendship of these two powerhouse photo-based artists.

“…explores their overlapping efforts to reflect the experience of Black people and issues around systems of power.”

“What connects their work, besides a friendship and a medium, is a shared timeframe and understanding of the power of photography as a way to explore — and celebrate — the experiences of Black people.”

And there’s lots on view right now! Seattle Met includes SAM exhibition Indigenous Matrix: Northwest Women Printmakers on their “things to do” list, and Crosscut’s Brangien Davis shouts-out Ryan Molenkamp’s show Ascendant, which “emphasize[s] the beauty of geologic strata and tectonic action” and is on view at SAM Gallery through October 2.

Puget Sound Business Journal is out with their “40 Under 40” list, and Chef Shubert Ho is on it! His Feedme Hospitality & Restaurant Group includes MARKET Seattle at SAM, bringing lobster rolls and other seafood offerings that can only be described as high art. Congrats, Shubert!

Local News

Grace Gorenflo and photographer Daniel Kim of the Seattle Times were there to document the recent opening of Arté Noir, a nonprofit focused on uplifting Black arts and culture founded by Vivian Phillips and directed by Jazmyn Scott.

As part of their fall arts preview, Crosscut’s Margo Vansynghel profiled “four rising Seattle artists to watch”: Moses Sun, Angelique Poteat, Ana María Campoy and Luther Hughes.

Vansynghel also conducted a survey of local arts and culture venues to find out whether attendance is recovering since the pandemic shutdowns. SAM contributed our stats and reflections on the complicated issues——and opportunities—for cultural organizations.

“We are still working to recover from the effects of the closures and attendance numbers alone don’t tell the whole story,” said Seattle Art Museum director and CEO Amada Cruz. “The bigger question we are asking is: Who is being served by, represented in and engaged with the museum and its mission? And who is not?”

Inter/National News

The New York Times recently delivered its fall arts preview, including a feature by Jason Farago on blockbusters and Will Heinrich’s list of exhibitions to see across the country.

Artnet’s Caroline Goldstein reports on the recent unveiling of the official portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama by Robert McCurdy and Sharon Sprung, respectively.

And Will Heinrich of the New York Times interviewed Sprung to learn about her experience and goals when painting Michelle Obama.

“Asked why she was chosen, Ms. Sprung replied, ‘I didn’t ask! I didn’t want to put any shred of doubt in their mind that they picked the right person.’”

And Finally

“Quick, I wanna see a Rothko before Sean poops.”

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Harlem Street, 1976–77, Carrie Mae Weems, American, born 1953, gelatin silver print, 5 5/16 x 8 15/16 in., Carrie Mae Weems, courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

Muse/News: Kusama Memories, Glass in Tacoma, and Giacometti’s Secrets

Rachel Eggers on Apr 4 2022

SAM News

Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water ripples at SAM! Seattle Met includes the exhibition on their list of things to do in Seattle right now.

Seattle Met’s Zoe Sayler rounds up “10 Mother’s Day Gifts for Your Mom Friends,” including the SAM Shop exclusive “NO” tote by artist Tariqa Waters.

Via Eater Seattle: Shubert Ho’s restaurants—including MARKET Seattle at SAM—are donating 10% of sales on select days to World Central Kitchen, an organization “that’s helping provide hot meals to Ukrainians suffering from the Russian invasion of their country.”

And here’s Artnet’s Eileen Kinsella on the many complexities of Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms; Catharina Manchanda, SAM’s Jon & Mary Shirley Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art, was among the art world voices sharing their experiences showing these works–including before the blockbuster editions.

“Like some great works of art, the Infinity Rooms were not immediately and universally appreciated. Manchanda recalled visiting one at the Whitney Museum (which also owns one) as part of a biennial more than two decades ago, while she was a student in New York. ‘The biennials were always crowded, but I was the only person in line wanting to see it. There was no interest whatsoever.’”

Local News

Via Crosscut’s Brangien Davis: “Remembering Seattle print artist and muralist Kristen Ramirez.”

The Stranger’s Charles Mudede on the “world-class” Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley.

“Ever seen Cheetos made of glass?” The Seattle Times’ Jerald Pierce asking the tough questions–this one about Tacoma Art Museum’s show of glass art by the youth of Hilltop Artists.

“Those who have been through the Hilltop program have seen its ability to teach students invaluable teamwork and leadership skills, with one person taking the lead as a gaffer (who will lift the molten glass) and one or two assistants helping to shape that glass into whatever the gaffer is working on. Keith equated it to a sort of dance, where everyone needs to learn their part and anticipate the moves and needs of others.”

Inter/National News

Art & Object pours out a slideshow of “10 Wineries that Every Art Lover Should Visit.”

Angelica Villa for ARTnews reports: “$30 M. Phillip Guston Painting Could Set Auction Record Amid Long-Awaited Retrospective.” Hot tip: You can see two Guston paintings, made more than 20 years apart, in Frisson: The Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis Collection in SAM’s galleries.

“America may finally be ready for Alberto Giacometti’s uncompromising art”: The Washington Post’s Sebastian Smee on the Giacometti traveling retrospective that just debuted at the Cleveland Museum of Art–and heads to SAM this summer!

“But it’s only when you stand in front of them, or in some way stand with them (from the side or directly behind can be just as effective) and focus in on them that they give up their devastating secret (which is also your secret and mine): that we’re alone, that no one else knows what’s in our heads and that we will cease to exist.”

And Finally

Capturing murmurations.

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Image: Natali Wiseman.

Muse/News: Gramming SAM, Dance Language, and Eco Immersion

Rachel Eggers on Oct 11 2021

SAM News

You love to ’gram it: Lindsay Major reports for Seattle PI that SAM is “one of the most Instagrammed museums in America.”

Seattle Met’s Allecia Vermillion joins the chorus welcoming MARKET Seattle, Chef Shubert Ho’s seafood cafe, to SAM.

And stay tuned for Imogen Cunningham: A Retrospective, SAM’s special exhibition opening November 18. Seattle Met previews the show, which features over 200 genre-spanning examples from the pioneering modernist photographer.

“This show is worth seeing not only for the consensus masterworks, but also for the stunning versatility of Cunningham’s lens, from nudes to street shots to portraiture.”

Local News

Crosscut’s Brangien Davis devotes much of her weekly ArtSEA letter to the new show at the Henry Art Gallery, Packaged Black, a duo show for Derrick Adams and Barbara Earl Thomas, whose cut-paper portraits are also on view at SAM.

“Filastine Spent the Pandemic Sailing an Artsy Rustbucket Across the Pacific.” I don’t know what these words mean, either! Gregory Scruggs for the Stranger is here to elucidate.

Moira Macdonald of the Seattle Times: “UW’s Chamber Dance Company celebrates 30 years of preserving and performing modern dance masterpieces.”

“[Mary Ann Santos] Newhall noted that just as languages can be lost from oral tradition, dances can likewise disappear. ‘It has to be passed on from body to body, or we lose our language.’ she said. ‘What Hannah [C. Wiley] is doing is preserving our language of dance.’”

Inter/National News

The New York Times’ Holland Cotter is “Looking Close at the Fragile Beauty of Chinese Painting,” on the occasion of 60 landscapes going on view at the Met.

Sarah Cascone for Artnet on Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe, now on view at the High Museum of Art, with national touring dates to be announced.

Louise Bury for Art in America on Sun & Sea (Marina), the Lithuanian opera about climate change that recently had its US debut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

“The performance can be understood as artistic consciousness-raising, which has been one of two main historical rationales for eco-oriented art (the other being more direct environmental remediation). Yet it’s a quite particular kind of consciousness-raising, one that offers sensory immersion rather than abstract information.”

And Finally

“The Curious Case of the British Telephone Booth in Madison Park.”

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

Photo: Installation view of Barbara Earl Thomas: The Geography of Innocence at Seattle Art Museum, 2020,© Seattle Art Museum, Nina Dubinsky.