posts about art, art shows, galleries and other visual arts…
by Christina Butcher for OLY ARTS When Olympia shoppers step from winter cold into the warmth of downtown’s new Papillon Marketplace, they’re met with colorful, Caribbean décor, Haitian music and artisanal goods including jewelry and other wearable items. The marketplace, Papillon Enterprise’s flagship storefront in the United States, sells handcrafted items from vendors in Haiti. …
by Christina Butcher for OLY ARTS Local letterpress artists and authors Chandler O’Leary and Jessica Spring have taken an active role in keeping feminism strong in their new book, Dead Feminists: Historic Heroines in Living Color. O’Leary and Spring will be celebrating their book at “Pressing Matters: Lacey,” an upcoming artist talk, pop-up show and …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Here’s a match made in heaven: Bill Collins and Allsorts Gallery. Olympia native Bill Collins has been painting pictures for 38 years. Allsorts is the living and dining rooms of artist Lynette Charters’ Olympia home, which every few months is turned into an art gallery. Charters says of Collins, …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Olympia’s ever-surprising art gallery Salon Refu is instituting story time for the holiday season. Local poets, writers, storytellers and, as gallery owner Susan Christian puts it, “people of good will and excellent language skills” will read their work every Thursday through Sunday in December. During the month of December …
by Christina Butcher for OLY ARTS Geraldine Ondrizek, artist and professor of art in Portland, Oregon, works in the crossroad between visual art, architecture and medical research. Her ongoing exhibit, Tracing Genetic Inheritance, is a synthesis of three of her most-recent collections (Chromosome Painting Edition II 1-X, Shades of White and mtDNA) and addresses issues …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Two Olympia-area artists have been chosen to show work in the bicoastal exhibitions Coast to Coast West in Seattle and Coast to Coast East in New York beginning in October and sponsored by The National Association of Women Artists and Women Painters of Washington. These artists are Susan Flora …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Gallery Boom, opening Oct. 1 in downtown Olympia, has come a long way. Geographically, it’s moved only four miles from its first home in the Fred Meyer parking lot in Tumwater, where it began two years ago as part of the city’s business incubator program. The big change: The …
VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC) gallery director Nathan Barnes noted that Margaret Noble’s exhibition “Resonating Objects” begs the question, “What is art?” Is it just painting and sculpture? What about sound, movement, light? What are the boundaries between visual art and the performing arts? There …
by Ned Hayes for OLY ARTS Once upon a time, Nikki McClure hung out with Olympia’s own “riot grrrls.” She danced on stage at Nirvana’s early performances and labored alongside K Records founder Calvin Johnson on a light table used for music newsletters. Over time, McClure also became a well-regarded papercut artist and began selling …
VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Salon Refu owner Susan Christion posted this on Facebook: “I have an art gallery, Salon Refu. This evening we finished installing a quiet, enticing, initially mysterious show of works by Shaw Osha, my friend and an important artist. Sometimes I don’t understand what Shaw is doing …